THE WHITE BOOK
Copyright 2021 George Shadow
Published by George Shadow
Edition License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to this website or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional and any resemblance to real people still alive today is purely coincidental.
Cover Art by
Jose del Nido.
Story by
George Shadow, a.k.a. Ukachukwu Chidube Ononuju George,
a resident of Imo State, Nigeria.
www.georgeshadow.com
Table of Contents
On the Subject of Shifting Shadows, the Past and the Future…
Chapter 1: THE HOMELESS GIRL
Chapter 2: THE PACKAGE
Chapter 3: THE STRANGE GIRL’S BOOK
Chapter 4: AFGHANISTAN
Chapter 5: SIERRA LEONE
Chapter 6: DAVID’S INFECTION & THE SIENNA OFFENSIVES
Chapter 7: EZRA
Chapter 8: A DEADLY ALLIANCE
Chapter 9: ALEXANDRIA
Chapter 10: AMENHOTEP & THE SONS OF OSIRIS
Chapter 11: NANU & THE DAUGHTERS OF ISIS
Chapter 12: THE LIBRARY OF SCROLLS
Chapter 13: GERMANY
Chapter 14: THE ALSOS MISSION
Chapter 15: PRISONERS OF WAR
Chapter 16: AUNT SHIRA
Chapter 17: CHERNOBYL
Chapter 18: AMNESIA, DEAD BODIES & RADIATION LEVELS
Chapter 19: DESTINATION PRIPYAT
Chapter 20: SHURABI
Chapter 21: NIGERIA
Chapter 22: KPAKOL
Chapter 23: AIDEN
Chapter 24: BRAZIL
Chapter 25: RETRIBUTION
Chapter 26: GREENLAND
Chapter 27: MELTING ICE
Chapter 28: INDIA
Chapter 29: RUBBISH MOUNTAIN
Chapter 30: JAPAN
Chapter 31: SIGN OF THE TIMES
Chapter 32: TWO FACTIONS OF THE SIKAMA COIN
Chapter 33: THE UNDERGROUND CITY
Chapter 34: BENJAMIN HADDAD
Chapter 35: KIDNAPPING A KANNIBAL
Chapter 36: GRUBB
Chapter 37: A NEW RECKONING
Chapter 38: INEVITABILITY
About the Author
Other books by George Shadow
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For
My Beloved Mother
Lady Chinwendu Pearl Ukachukwu
1947 - 2016
On the Subject of Shifting Shadows, the Past and the Future…
NOW, the story was finished, the boy thought as he turned and gaily hopped back to the house, unaware of the invisible forms staring impassively at his receding figure while hovering some distance above him.
One of these hellish entities, the largest amongst them, turned its hollow face upwards and gazed blankly into the future. Those it had sent after the girl would be late for the rendezvous. It just hoped they could retrieve the second book from this human being before setting off for the gathering, because without this other volume, they would never succeed.
And if they failed, heaven and hell would continue to exist. All their efforts would have been in vain, and the one unearthly being standing in their way from the very beginning would proclaim this defeat to the four corners of the universe.
That must never come to pass, the spirit declared, drawing strength from the fact that everything appeared to be turning out perfectly well for its group. The angels-turned-demons now had a schedule to keep…with Yahweh, Himself, and this was an achievement the infernal creature could never have envisaged when they set out on the mission to retrieve the scrolls from Man.
What now remained was to pick up the other manuscript, and the stage would be set for the next step in their onward journey to victory.
The ritual.
The final chapter in the destruction of their most-hated enemy. The culmination of all their efforts. The crowning event in their determined march to freedom and justice. Their sole objective from the very beginning.
Yes, victory was still some way off, but they were this close to achieving it, because those the fallen angel had sent after the girl were more than capable of retrieving the second manuscript from her.
The one its maker called the White Scroll.
Chapter 1: The Homeless Girl
KIMBERLEY stopped her Cherokee and stared at the young individual lying on the frosty road in the full glare of her headlights. She got out of her car and ran over to the shivering little girl, who held on to a book with both hands. The young face looking up from the road harbored wild eyes staring into the night sky as if nothing mattered anymore.
The Portwood police sergeant used her thick squad jacket to cover the poor kid, because the cold had eaten into the child’s body. She carried her new friend to the car since she feared the little girl could no longer walk.
Kimberley could hear the girl’s beating heart as she swung open the front passenger door and placed her human burden on the seat, amply covering this individual with her jacket before slamming the door and running over to the driver’s side to slide in behind the steering wheel.
Luckily, she had left the engine running and now stepped on the gas. She only hoped she could get the kid back to headquarters and EMS before any ominous signs popped up.
“Raccoon 5 to HQ; Raccoon 5 to HQ, over….”
“HQ to R5, how can I help you? Over….”
“Got an emergency here, Kate. Little girl got lost, I think…need EMS standing by…. I repeat; EMS standing by, over….”
“On the double, Kim…. Hope she’s okay? Over….”
“She’s still alive, though…just shivering and muttering to herself.”
“ETA?”
“Approximately five minutes. I’m driving past David’s shop right now. Over and out.”
As the patrol Jeep hurtled down the street en route to Portwood Police Station, Kimberley’s attention went to the book her young companion desperately held on to. The female officer decided to inspect the leather-bound volume later since its owner needed saving first.
The snow made driving a bit difficult at the speed Kimberley maintained, but she knew she had to get to the hospital before things got worse for her young friend. At present, the kid was going through incredible bouts of shaking while staring blankly at the windshield.
“They…are…coming…”
“What did you say?”
“They…are…coming…,” the little girl whispered again, coughing afterwards. “They…will…never…stop…until…until…”
“Until what?” Kimberley had her eyes on the road before this. “Take it easy, dear; they’ll never get you now…whoever ‘they’ are…. We just need to get you to the hospital.”
“No…” The shivering victim sounded alarmed. “T–They won’t stop…ever…”
“Just quiet down already…please?” Kimberley felt she was losing control of the situation. Ironically, she was trying to remain composed, herself. She thought she was not doing so well in this department, and wondered what else to do in order to calm herself down, as well as her young, jittery friend. “By the way, what’s your – OH, SHIT!!”
A lone figure stood in the middle of the road. The Cherokee swerved wildly, blowing up snow dust and missing this strang
er by inches. It veered off the road, its left wheels spinning in the air. For a moment, it was as if it would definitely hit a lamppost, but then it spun round before sliding noisily on its roof, missing the structure by a foot.
Kimberley blacked out when the Cherokee hit a tree.
The little girl was shouting…
* * *
She woke up amidst noise. Medics, officers and patrol cars were all around her. She lay on a stretcher near the accident scene, but as far as she could tell, the little girl she had tried to save was nowhere near the area.
“You all right, Kim?” It was her boyfriend.
“Yeah, Jim. I’m fine.”
“Boy, was I worried about you!” He sounded relieved. “Waited for you a long time after you called in. Had to come out here with every help I could get down at HQ. What happened?”
“Dunno.… Someone was standing on the road…”
“A man?”
“No…yes…don’t know really…we sped off the road…and I-I just blacked out.” Her left hand shot up to her head. She had a headache. “Where’s the girl, Jim?”
“She wasn’t here when we got here,” he told her. “Must have wandered off before we arrived.”
“We need to find her.” Kimberley gingerly sat up.
“No need for that, honey,” Jim protested. “You need to rest.”
His girlfriend frowned. “I’m fine,” she said aloud for everyone’s benefit, including the confused paramedics. Her whole body ached painfully. “Trust me, really. I am fine. I just need some painkillers.” A paramedic nodded and turned to enter the ambulance. “We need to find that girl, Jim.”
“Already sent out word,” he allayed. “Unless she’s pulled some disappearing trick, we’ll find her pretty soon, promise.”
“She–She was saying something about some people coming for her and…and then she was shouting some funny word when we lost control.”
“Really?”
“Where’s my car?”
“Over there,” he pointed out. “Think we can fix it?”
The Cherokee was a mess.
Kimberley got up and walked over to the Jeep. A team was trying to turn it the right way up, but had so far made little progress. The front bumper was bashed in, and its front wheels faced funny angles. The roof appeared beyond repair and the windshield was completely shattered. Kimberley wondered how she had come out of it needing just pain pills.
The pain capsules.
She remembered she still ached all over. Perfect. Wasn’t this a bad dream? A boring day gets a crazy ending, really.
As soon as her car’s rescuers had completed another unsuccessful attempt to pull it up, she bent down and yanked her driver’s door open. Rummaging through a dashboard compartment, she collected her personal items and shut the door before the salvage team could decide to try again.
Why was that idiot standing in the middle of the road at that ungodly hour?
“Have sent out word for him as well,” Jim said behind her when he saw her staring at the motorway. Skid marks were on the ground before them.
“Can remember everywhere getting cold pretty fast after we swerved away from him,” Kimberley said, shivering. “Gave me the chills.”
“You just need to relax, Kim. Let me handle this,” Jim soothed, drawing close to her just as she looked up. She was feeling better already. Trust him to take charge, she thought with a smile.
“Thanks, dear…just worried about the girl, that’s all,” she said, smiling broadly as she stared into her boyfriend’s eyes. What would she do in this crazy world without him?
“Tell me you will rest when we get back to the station?” he pleaded, his eyes steadily holding hers.
“I promise,” she agreed, the smile still playing on her lips. Her headache was getting worse. “And I promise to take my pills now…”
“Gosh, the aspirin!” he remembered, placing one hand on her forehead. “Trust you to forget that as well,” he fondly accused her. “Not when you’re in the middle of an investigation despite the fact that you just had an accident.”
“No, I…”
Something caught her eye in the snow.
It was a book.
The leather-bound volume the little girl had been guarding.
Chapter 2: The Package
AIDEN tapped his right foot to the rhythm of an unseen drum on the subway floor. He’d been waiting for an hour now and was feeling so lonely and insecure in that cold, dark place that he started having second thoughts about waiting for the man.
The man.
The mere thought of this person made him shiver uncomfortably and he wondered why he had agreed to take the job in the first place.
The dude must have killed many times in his life and Aiden shook with fear at the thought of seeing this man again. Maybe the fellow was even killing someone at that very moment, hence the delay.
This idea convinced the boy to spin around and walk away. He would have to call the man later and claim an accident as excuse. The meeting would have to be rescheduled.
Aiden wondered what the criminal would do if he did not believe this lie. This killer might even conclude that he was trying to play a fast one and start looking for him in order to gun him down!
No, the boy thought, stopping cold in his tracks. He did not want to die that way. He would have to deliver the parcel as planned.
He heard footsteps down the dark alley. Thinking that his contact was the one, he braced himself, his heart beating loudly in his ears. The girl’s sudden appearance from the darkness startled as well as baffled him, and he kept staring at her until she stopped a few feet from him. Now his thumping heart slowed down.
She had on a police jacket atop a mucky green dress, and like Aiden, her face was very dirty. Aiden looked her over for a while and looked down at his own dirty clothes in realization. She was just as homeless as he was.
“I am Aiden,” he introduced. “Who are you?”
No reply. She’d been looking around her all this time, fidgeting and coughing now and then. Now she hugged her bosom in a nervous manner. Aiden wondered who she was and why she was there at that point in time.
“Who are you?” he repeated, still puzzled. Why was she feeling so cold despite the thick jacket with inner fur lining? He wished he were the one wearing it in that terribly cold subway.
“I…need…you…to take me to the…station…”
“What?”
“I…need…you…to take me to the…police station…right now, please?”
This bold appeal startled Aiden. It was as if she was scared of someone.
Something.
“Look,” he began, “you shouldn’t even be here right now, really – trust me. Now, go away quickly before he…”
“Before he does what?” a new voice demanded and the boy turned to see the man he’d been waiting for standing at the foot of the subway stairs.
The sweaty shabbily dressed fellow had a stoic appearance complete with deep brows and a cold stare. Indeed, he looked the part of a very bad man through and through. His overbearing presence was quite intimidating and Aiden took a few steps backward.
The boy became scared when he noticed the smoking gun in the man’s right hand. This guy must have killed someone before coming down for his parcel!
“Hey! What are you doing?” The girl had suddenly snatched the small package from Aiden and was quickly bounding up the steps nearest to the road. Aiden hesitated for just three seconds, turning to say something to his emotionless contact and thinking better of this before scampering after the young thief.
“Hey, stop! Come back here, boy!” the man shouted. “Where’s my stuff?” He went after them.
Out on the roadside, a police officer standing near his patrol car had stopped the girl.
The boy had equally stopped in his tracks, but upon seeing his contact’s head pop out of the subway, he joined the duo a few feet away.
Alarmed, the man stopped to observe what was happen
ing halfway up the steps. Now it looked like the girl was giving something to the cop. Was it the package? Better not be, he thought, else he would smother both kids with his bare hands when this was over.
The little girl pointed his way! He saw the cop heading towards the subway before ducking and going back down the steps. He cocked his gun and disappeared into the darkness, just as the law enforcement officer started down the steps.
Aiden glared at the girl now and then as they both stood near the squad car. His visible anger stemmed from the obviously awkward turn of events. Now, he could never disappear for fear of being caught by this new nemesis currently hiding in the subway, and he couldn’t steal the parcel in the patrol vehicle and take it back either, because the cops would start looking for him. He could only remain where he stood since the police would protect him from the Gang just as they had done the last time. If they took him back to the station, the least they could do would be to label him a homeless antisocial child and take him back to social services or, worse still, put him in juvenile prison as a juvenile delinquent for some juvenile number of years.
“Why did you do that?” he burst out, glaring at the empty road to his left. “You could have gotten us both killed, you know?” The girl could not have heard him, because she kept staring at the squad car as if it was the solution to all her problems. “Hey,” he snapped, grabbing her right arm as well as her attention. “Why do you act so strange, huh?”
“C-Can you drive?”
“What?”
Gunshot preceded a shout of pain and both kids turned to the subway in consternation. Who fired and who got shot?
Another gunshot caused them to visibly jerk in fright, and then…silence.
Nothing.
Someone had obviously died…but who?
The man stepping out of the subway wore ordinary clothes.
“Get in the car!” Aiden shouted, running over to the driver’s side. The girl was already doing this. Car doors were thankfully open. The rare windshield shattered.
“He is shooting at us!”
Aiden stepped on the gas and the cop car sped off.
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