“But the project has been stopped, and all the government people are now gone. Is he now drawing some church members from the chemical factory operating in the old government facility?”
“Oh no, he calls ‘em all vipers, living in Satan’s den. For years he’s tried to get us local folks riled up, but he just drove us away from his church. Most all us locals got rich like he did, and could care less about his Devil. Some of us sold our land or worked for the government. Some sold goods and services to all them folks who began come’n to do the work. The Reverend got into some kind’a trouble with the government a while back and was gone a spell. Some say they sent him to jail, but the past few years he’s been back preaching his same hellfire and damnation.”
“He does seem to have some followers,” said Oliver, referring to the cars and truck parked behind the church and the murmur of men’s voices he had heard.
“I wouldn’t know nothin’ about that,” said the clerk, “there’s no folks around that old ghost town anymore, not even tourists.”
Oliver thanked him for the paper and information and made his way out of the office and toward his room.
Forrest Pierce had seen the stranger pull into the motel, and watched as he went into the office. To get a better look, he moved his car near to where the other had parked in front of his room and waited. As the man left the office, carrying a newspaper, and walked past Pierce on his way to his room, a shock of recognition caused the blood to rush to his face and then rush away, making him feel faint. The man was Professor Saxon, Peter Newbury’s best friend, someone who knew him on sight because Forrest was one of the technical support staff assigned to the fifth floor of Wilson Hall.
Forrest drove away from the motel, north through Waxahachie, and on toward the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, where he had just enough time to catch his return flight to Chicago. As he drove, the panic began to rise within him. How could Dr. Saxon find me, the Reverend Spencer, and the church in such a short time? He must have identified me yesterday at his apartment. I thought I’d killed him with that statue. Now he’s tracked me to the church and to the Reverend. Maybe he found the letter in Dr. Newbury’s documents! Maybe he’s the Devil himself!! Pulling off the road, in a rapidly growing state of panic and paranoia, he struggled with what to do next. I can’t tell the Reverend about the letter or I’ll no longer be allowed to serve our cause, he thought as he called Spencer and related what he had just learned about the visitor to their meeting place.
“I don’t think you should panic, Forrest,” said Spencer. “This man, Professor Saxon, seemed to be sincerely in need of prayer. He was not looking for information about me or the church or our gathering. I suspect he made the trip to the old government site because that high priest of Satan, Peter Newbury, had once been active in trying to re-start the science project and continue the abominable work underground, searching for God in the caverns of hell.”
“Maybe you’re right, Doctor Spencer,” replied Pierce, “but I think that evil is closing in on all of us. I’m going to avoid the lab and hide out until my next strike against Satan.”
“I agree, evil may be closing in on us here in Waxahachie. I’ll contact the others and start the offensives at the remaining two temples of Satan worship; meanwhile you must keep hidden until I contact you. You may well not have been exposed, but you mustn’t take any chances until our final day of victory.”
Oliver sat in his room, the newspaper unopened on the bed, contemplating what he had just learned. Here in North Texas is a charismatic minister, preaching his message of repentance in preparation of the Day of Judgment, seemingly misplaced in time and place, with no obvious crisis to bring in believers to his church. Was the crisis of his own making, based on his belief that particle physics sought to worship false idols and that this is the harbinger of the End of Days?
He picked up the Gideon Bible on the bed-side table, and read the two passages, one from the book of Exodus, and one from the Revelation of Saint John the Divine. The twentieth chapter of Exodus described the commandments of God to the Hebrews at Sinai. Oliver was struck by reading this early version of the Ten Commandments because of its emphasis on severe punishment for idol worship. In the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ commentary on the Law of Moses, He described these same commandments as “love God and love your neighbor as yourself”. Oliver thought again of how such love had bonded together Elizabeth Ward, David Benjamin, and Kahlil Ahmed, even though these three were each devout in their own religions. Love can break the barriers of misunderstanding that repel peoples of different cultures and beliefs and bring them together in this case, for a collaboration to better understand not only each other, but also the universe in which they live.
The twentieth chapter of Revelation described the release of the beast and Satan after their thousand-year bondage and the coming of the End of Days. His attention was drawn to the mention of Gog and Magog, representing the evil forces of the Devil coming from the four corners of the world, to combat the righteous at the End of Days. From his work the previous summer on ISIS recruiting methods, he knew that these peculiar names appear as well in the Torah and the Quran in a similar context.
Suddenly he was thinking back to his off-handed reference to the Father Abraham link between the three world religions. They also share a common eschatology, with similar events, including the rise of false prophets and the sin of idol worship leading to the final Day of Judgment. Could this little church, of no real consequence even in the sparse ranchland south of Waxahachie, have given me the clue needed to begin to unravel the source of last week’s encrypted communication, or was it the actual source?
He decided to call Maxine and give her a report of his findings, as limited as they were, and feel her out about his suspected connections to what could be a radical multi-faith conspiracy.
She answered almost immediately and said, “Oliver, I was just reaching for the phone to call you. I could probably lose my job and be charged with a felony for giving you this information, but I know how much you care for the people involved. As you know, a team of special agents has been assigned to Peter’s case and have been present in the background at Fermilab and the coroner’s office in Chicago this week. The agent at the coroner’s office is highly trained in CSI and has been carrying out a search, not so much for internal signs of poisoning, but for any external signs of foul play, to include tissue under fingernails due to a struggle.
“This morning he discovered the cause of death. On the fleshy pad of Peter’s right thumb, he found a small puncture and excised a small hollow pellet containing traces of ricin. Oliver, your suspicions were right. Peter was murdered. In addition, the injection was made by a specially rigged ball-point pen which left an imprint around the puncture of two sixes with a line between, masking the central small wound. The imprint was left as some intentional message, because it was made in white engraving ink carefully placed on the piston of the pen.”
Oliver found himself in shock again. Even though he had suspected foul play, this news came as a complete surprise. “Max, I had called you to give you some rather sketchy information about our Texas project and am completely overwhelmed by this news. If Peter’s been murdered, then others may be in danger too!”
“You’re right, Oliver; I&A has thrown a cloak of security around those closest to this murder, and in fact that cloak includes you. If you haven’t heard from him yet, you’ll be receiving a call from the director asking that you return as soon as possible. You’ll be met at the airport by an agent who will take you to a secured hotel away from the lab. You can give the inspectors any information you have relating to the murder.
I must warn you, however, that the pen, containing traces of ricin, as well as the flash-drive used to sabotage Peter’s laptop, were both discovered hidden in the bottom drawer of David Benjamin’s desk in his office next door to Peter’s. You must not let anyone know I’ve told you all this or I’ll be in serious trouble!”
Oliver’s
shock at this news was still clouding his mind as he began packing for his drive back through Waxahachie and north to DFW. Without thinking he packed the Gideon Bible he had been examining along with his clothes. He checked out of the motel and drove north through town toward the airport. He had attempted to make a reservation for a flight home to Chicago. The next flight out had been booked by a large group of baseball fans on their way to a Rangers – Cubs game. He would have to stand-by for a later one that afternoon.
5
St. Nicholas’ Staircase
The way of the wicked is as darkness:
They know not at what they stumble.
-Proverbs 4:19
After his phone conversation with Forrest, who was obviously in a state of panic, Benton called his other two local followers, Milford and Barry Smith, to tell them their final campaign against the forces of evil had begun. “Both of you need to burn anything you have in your apartment that could be found by Satan or his agents. We must prevent them from trying to stop our holy mission. Pack your small carry-on bags with enough clothes and personal items for a week’s stay away from home. I’ll pick you up at 5:00 tomorrow morning. Don’t tell anyone we are leaving.”
Next Spencer drove to the church and parked his car on the hard, broken pavement of the remains of Main Street. Carrying cleaning supplies to the front door, he began the careful process of removing all traces of their activities there, to include a complete wipe-down of door handles, tables, and chairs in the church annex where he had held his meetings for the last five years. Moving to the sanctuary he repeated the careful wipe down, cleaning the floor, the altar, the door handles, and finally the church pews. He double checked his careful cleaning and paused at the front steps as he was returning the cleaning supplies and assorted papers to his car. He studied the marquee; it had contained the same theme and two Bible verses for more than a decade, as he had waged his war against those who had released the beast. Now they would pay for their sins.
Setting the supplies down on the steps, he returned to the church store room and gathered up an assortment of letters. Returning to the marquee, he removed the letters, including the two Bible references. After some thoughtful moments, standing with his hand on his chin and studying the empty marquee, he inserted a new set of letters.
Once he had secured the church and stored his cleaning supplies in the trunk of his car, he removed a drag made of a piece of carpet attached to an old garage push broom and walked to the rear of the church. There, where the automobiles had been parked, he swept away all traces of foot prints and tire tracks. When he had finished no evidence remained of his activities in this ghost town. With a few gusts of dusty wind and a couple of rain showers, common this time of year, it would return to its long-abandoned state.
Returning home he removed the forged passports for himself and the Smith brothers from his safe, realizing the one for Forrest would not now be needed. Forrest will have to remain in hiding, and avoid capture. He is now a liability. Spencer disposed of this last passport and other financial records and notes relating to his activities of the past four or five years in a burn-barrel behind his house.
Among these records were his notes concerning Colonel Joshua Cohen’s court martial and the possible tunneling into Temple Mount. He had spent almost a full year scanning news articles looking for the ideal partners to bring into his sacred mission, knowing that each partner must share his concept of the End of Days. This Haredi soldier was ideal, and might just provide the access he needed to the Foundation Stone when the time came.
During this year of intense searching Spencer had also become aware of the fact that ISIS fighters were inspired and recruited, in large part by prophetic narration, to come to Dabiq, in Northern Syria and join in the final battle with the crusader armies before the End of Days. He was not sure he wanted to bring this radical and chaotic movement into his own fight, but he knew he could find a Sunni with the right background to go against CERN, motivated in part by these prophesies. From the news items about the sabotaged centrifuges in Iran, he had eventually identified his third partner: Ibrahim Gilani, a disgraced Iranian nuclear scientist who had once worked at CERN.
In the past four or five years Benton Spencer had cultivated both of these men to join in the final battle and had succeeded in winning their confidence and support. Earlier that day Spencer had contacted these two and set his plans in motion to carry out the final fight against the forces of evil.
As he stood, stirring the remaining ashes, and watching the photograph page of Forrest’s passport darken, curl and turn into ashes, he thought to himself, I hope Forrest can avoid capture and arrest. He’s been showing signs of instability since his mother’s death, and if he’s interrogated he could destroy my holy mission.
Returning to the house Benton turned on his laptop and using the false passports, booked flights leaving the next day for himself and the Smiths from George Bush Intercontinental through Paris, to Beirut, Lebanon. Next he packed the things he would need for the final days of his holy war against the temples of Satan worship and his resurrection of the New Jerusalem.
Early the next morning he drove to their apartment and helped Barry and Milford load their luggage into the trunk of his car. It was still dark as they drove southeast along the 285 to Ennis and turned south on I-45 to Houston.
As they drove into the early morning twilight, Barry asked, “Where are we going, Reverend?”
“We are going to the Holy Land, where we will meet others who have joined in our fight against evil.”
“Who are they?” asked Milford.
“They are important men who are faithful to our cause. They have hidden their identities from the forces of evil. Each of us must not know their names to keep Satan guessing as to our identities and plans.”
“Will we see them?”
“Perhaps, but you must never tell anyone who you see or what you hear as we discuss our holy work.”
“OK,” both brothers said, as if repeating a familiar litany.
Spencer had proselytized these two brothers, not because they had money, as did Forrest, but because they were rather simple-minded and could take instructions without asking too many questions. He had been careful not to divulge any of the details of his plans, but rather led them along by power of his charismatic speaking.
Arriving at George Bush Intercontinental, they left Spencer’s car at a small, out-of-the-way park-and-ride and rode the shuttle to the terminal. Watching the two brothers as the three of them walked through the terminal, Benton realized these two had never ridden a commercial jet and had probably never been out of Ellis County. He knew it would be a challenge to keep Barry and Milford focused on the tasks at hand, especially after they had arrived in Beirut.
As they walked through the lobby the brothers noticed a replica of an astronaut in a complete space suit holding a Texas flag. The two brothers approached the figure and exchanged brief comments as they examined each part of the spacesuit. It was obvious to Spencer that the brothers had learned little about NASA’s man in space program and the role Houston had played. They were beginning to attract funny looks from passing travelers. Fearing any more unwanted attention, he quietly reminded them that their flight had just been called and they needed to go straight to their departure gate.
The three eventually entered the aircraft and found their seats. It became apparent to Benton that the brothers were again experiencing something new. They exhibited the same mix of apprehension and excitement seen in children taking their first flight.
Benton decided to engage them in conversation to make all three of them less conspicuous. “We’ll first fly to Paris, France, where we will change airplanes for a second flight to Lebanon. When we reach Beirut, we’ll visit a beautiful section of the city on a hill that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. It was established many years ago by faithful Greek Orthodox Christians. Some of their old churches can still be seen. Here are some pictures of that part of the city,” he sai
d as he handed Barry and Milford some pamphlets. The two brothers occupied themselves by looking at photographs while the aircraft filled with passengers.
“How long will it take for us to get to the Holy Land?” asked Milford.
“About eight hours. You can sleep during the flight, and we will be given something to eat before we arrive.”
After some obvious tension during takeoff, the brothers settled into their seats and were soon asleep. The early morning trip to Houston had cut into their normal sleep period, one that usually extended almost to lunch-time. They slept through the first round of drinks and snacks, but eventually awoke, earnestly, but quietly discussing with each other whether either could make it to the Holy Land without a potty break.
“I really gotta pee!” Barry whispered to Milford.
“Me too,” replied Milford looking as distressed as his brother.
Amused, Benton let this conversation go on for a time before he pointed to the illuminated sign at the front of the cabin and said, “There is a toilet in the front and some more in the rear. If the red x is not lit, you may use one.”
The two then took turns visiting the toilet, returning with amused expressions having experienced these “flying Porto-potties” for the first time.
When Milford finally returned to his seat he asked Barry, “Did you see that tiny kitchen. Those ladies are fixing dinner right there in the front of the cabin!”
“I thought I smelt food, but I couldn’t see no stove up there,” replied Barry. “Do you think we’ll get some vittles?”
“It is approaching supper time,” said Benton. “We will each have a hot meal when the flight attendants bring them down the center aisle on a cart.”
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