Shrouded Destiny

by Richard William Bates

  * * * *

  SUSAN AND NICOLE lay in their beds as the quiet of the night descended upon them. It had been another hard day of training with Raji, and both welcomed the soft mattresses. Although the training they were undergoing was psychic, and mental in nature, it still left their bodies drained.

  "Susan, are you still awake?” Nicole whispered in the darkness.

  "Yes."

  "We have never really had time to talk much since ... since..."

  "Since the incident in the temple. Yes, I know."

  "Raji has not given us much time to ourselves."

  "I suspect that is by design, Nicole. I've learned Raji does not so much as chew a grain of rice without some higher purpose behind it."

  Nicole giggled lightly. “Oui. He is a very deep man, that is for sure.” They both lay silently in the darkness for a moment. Then she asked, “How did Father Angelino know I was sent to assassinate him?"

  "Father Angelino just knows things. Remember what Raji taught us the other day? Everything which has ever been thought or will ever be thought exists in the Universal Mind. So if a person can learn to tap into that Universal Mind, they can know all that can be known."

  "Susan? Do you ever think all of this is just too big for us? I have always been brought up to believe I was important, that the Council would save the world. Then I found out it was all a lie. Now, I'm told I am a member of a priesthood who will save the world. Sometimes I am not sure any of this is real."

  Susan chuckled in the darkness. “I guess I never really stopped to look at all of this as it must seem to you. I've been too wrapped up in trying to figure things out for myself. This isn't exactly the life I had mapped out for myself."

  "Have you figured out what Angelino has planned for you yet?” Nicole asked.

  "No, and sometimes I just want to take him and shake him,” she said with a smile Nicole could hear even in the darkness. “He can be so damn ... aggravating."

  "Master Raji says we must discover our own purpose ... that no one else can chart our destiny for us."

  "Yeah. That is what Father Angelino always says, too. But if that's the case, why do I always feel like he knows what I'm going to do before I do?"

  "Do you trust Father Angelino?"

  "What an odd question, Nicole."

  "Ah, but you do not answer it."

  Susan remained quiet in the darkness. For some reason, Nicole's question troubled her. Is it possible I don't trust Angelino as much as I believe I do? Have I been dishonest with even myself about that?

  "It's not that I don't trust him,” she began thoughtfully. “But sometimes I'm not sure he knows what's going to happen."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean, sometimes I get the impression he's winging it."

  "Maybe he is. We all sort of wing it through life, don't we? I mean, life doesn't exactly come with an instruction manual."

  Susan chuckled at that. “That's true enough. I have to admit though, since I met Angelino life's been anything but dull."

  "Does it intimidate you, knowing you play an important part in the future of all of mankind?"

  "Yeah, of course it does. Doesn't it intimidate you?"

  "A little. But you must remember I have been bred to think my life was important. All that has changed is the ‘how.’ It is ingrained in me."

  "Nicole, can I ask you something now?"

  "Oui."

  "You asked me how Father Angelino knew you were sent to assassinate him."

  "Oui."

  "Did you know he told me that when you were doing your little performance for us in the hotel lobby?"

  "No? Really?"

  "Yep. I thought he was crazy for allowing you to come with us and yet he knew you would not harm him. I guess at some level I must have known that too, or I'm sure I would have never given in to him, no matter how much he tried to convince me otherwise. But what I want to ask you is, what made you change so completely?"

  Nicole sighed and responded, “I have thought much about that, Susan. It is so hard to explain, even to myself. I think Father Angelino was right, though. It was the love. In all the years with the Council, as committed as we all were to our cause, there was nothing like the love I began to feel in the presence of all of you. It frightened me at first. It was so...” she searched for the word, “...enormous. It seemed to lift me and grab hold of my very spirit as if it had a life of its own. I had never known my soul before. I did not even believe such a thing existed ... I just thought it was a religious fairy tale."

  "But if you felt that way,” Susan interrupted, “why did you threaten Father Angelino in the temple?"

  "I know this will sound like I am rationalizing, Susan, but I can hardly even remember all of that. It was as if I was watching someone else using my body. I only remember feeling deep agony in my heart and feeling as if my true nature was being ripped apart by some black force. It was me acting, and yet it was not me. You must remember I was totally committed to the Agenda. It was in my blood, like a religion. You cannot know what it is like to have thoughts fill your head which are not of your own creation. When the part of me that was awakening confronted those thoughts, they fought back as if they were living things. It was only the love from Father Angelino that rescued me from that battle."

  Susan could hear the emotion in Nicole's voice as she relived what must have been a terrifying experience. It was always easy to empathize with the one attacked. Now, here she was with one who had been the attacker and one whom she had grown to love like a little sister. She could not make the connection between a Nicole who had been cold and even brutal, and the sweet, almost innocent Nicole who had become her constant companion. What must it be like, she wondered, to have to fight such demons as Nicole had? Would I have been able to prevail so completely under those circumstances?

  Since the incident in the temple, Nicole had embraced her newfound role as a Knight of the Ascension with total devotion. How often that happened, she reflected. The sinner transformed into the saint. Perhaps those who had teetered on the rim of the abyss of evil were the only ones who could fully appreciate the power of good. Most people—the vast majority—existed in a realm of moral ambiguity, as capable of committing atrocities as noble deeds. So much depended upon relative circumstances for most people. The result had been a societal decline into an ethic of moral relativism. Nazi Germany of the thirties and forties had been the darkest point into which that moral relativism had taken mankind. Susan had always been horrified and angered, as many were, in having learned a Nazi officer could slaughter a thousand Jewish prisoners without so much as a grimace, pause for lunch, and slaughter a thousand more. Then at the end of the day, return to his home and family where he might roll on the floor laughing and wrestling with his young children, who were still unpolluted by the brutality of the world which existed outside their protected cocoon. Who could doubt the love of this man for his family, or that he wished only the best for them? And yet, this same man was capable of a level of barbarism that defied comprehension.

  To a lesser degree, most people had more in common with this type of behavior than they did with behavior at the extremes of pure good or pure evil. Was it any wonder they lived in a world of moral ambivalence? It was so easy to blame the world for the evil that existed within it. What was harder to accept was the evil that existed in their own hearts.

  Raji was teaching them both the world they saw was the world that existed within them. Man was the creator of all he surveyed. So if evil existed in the world of his purview, it was the outer manifestation of that which existed within him. Likewise, if beauty existed in that same world, that, too, was the manifestation of the beauty within. One needed only observe the world around him in order to know his own heart.

  That was a revolutionary concept to Susan, one that her first instincts had resisted. Who in their right mind could believe they alone were solely responsible for the creation of an entire world, an entire universe, in fact? Common sense so
clearly refuted the notion. How could she be responsible for the atrocities in Vietnam? How could a small child be responsible for the poverty and starvation into which it was born? By the same token, by what arrogance was an individual to take credit for the beauty of a sunset or the grandeur of the rain forests of South America?

  Raji had explained there was a collective consciousness as well as an individual consciousness. Both were fueled by the most fundamental of all dynamics of creation—belief. The individual's beliefs were what allowed him to attain greatness or descend into helplessness. Likewise, the collective beliefs of a family, a village, a city, a state, a region, a country, and the entire world, would determine the conditions existing at each level of that matrix of inter-related consciousness. As one's individual beliefs changed, that person would find himself navigating within the larger contexts of collective beliefs. Thus, a person inculcated with a belief in his own limitations and poverty could change those beliefs and move into a world in which he enjoyed prosperity and power. Likewise, one born into wealth and privilege could just as easily alter his beliefs and descend into a world of poverty and despair. But always, at the central point of power, lay belief.

  The greater the belief of the individual, the more it could influence the collective consciousness. Occasionally, an individual of deep and powerful beliefs could move an entire nation, or even an entire world, into a new collective belief system. In this way Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the original Jesus, and Hitler changed the entire world. The fundamental power to create had its root in the power of belief itself.

  So beliefs did, in fact, create the poverty of the child and the wonders of nature all around them. Susan came to realize her resistance to this truth was an innate resistance to responsibility. If the truth was that she had created her own world, then she was responsible for the results. It was so much more comforting to point to circumstances, other people, events “beyond her control,” as the source of her difficulties than to face the responsibility it was she who was their author. What that attitude overlooked, however, was the equal realization that the joy, happiness, success, and prosperity she had enjoyed was also of her own creation.

  As difficult as that had been to accept, gradually she came to accept that it was the secret of life, if such a secret indeed existed. Each person is the author of his own destiny, for good or for ill. That was the key to true power. Yes, we each are equally capable of creating a heaven or a hell for ourselves, and the ability to create either is entirely within our grasp and control. Having been created in the image of the great Creator, Man himself is a creator, not only of his circumstances, but the state of his soul as well.

  How fruitless it was to seek comfort in the world of manifestation when the inner belief system that created it went unexamined and unchallenged. This was the reason so many felt trapped on a treadmill of hopelessness. Rather than attack the cause of their own pain—their thoughts and beliefs—they would rail against the manifestation of those very same thoughts and beliefs. How could such a strategy ever effect a real and lasting change?

  As Susan's thoughts returned from this, she became aware of Nicole's steady deep breathing. With a smile and inner warmth of love for the sweet young woman, soon she drifted off into her own sleep filled with pleasant dreams.

  * * * *

  CROWLEY STOOD TO begin the meeting. “I have expanded this meeting into a full cabinet meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in attendance. I don't want it being said by anyone I left them out of the loop on this. We are undoubtedly going to be confronted with some grave decisions and I want all of you to sign off on them. I will not allow myself to be hung out to dry politically over this situation."

  This was rather blunt talk to begin a cabinet meeting. Harvey Thatcher realized that Crowley must have been feeling some heat.

  "I will get right to the point,” the President said. “Subsequent satellite imaging has confirmed our earlier discovery of Israeli troop buildups along her northern and northeastern borders. In response to this, Jordan and Lebanon have both dispatched their forces to neutralize this threat. And then, there is this...” He tossed the copy of the London Times on the long conference table. “You all have copies of the text of the lead story in tomorrow's London Times. One of the questions we have to answer today is: What is the United States’ response to all of this?"

  Thatcher noted with amusement that questions which all parties present have had plenty of time to mull over and most assuredly had anticipated before entering the room always elicited momentary silence, as if all were just that moment formulating their views on the spot. Apparently, a view could only be considered rooted in wisdom if the one espousing it appeared to be thinking it up off the top of his head.

  General Musgrave was the first to break the silence. “While it is true our public policy is to oppose acts of aggression, I think perhaps Israel may be doing us all a favor here."

  Murmurs erupted around the conference table in the cabinet room, some clearly in agreement, others clearly not.

  Musgrave continued, undeterred. “Look, I know nobody in this room wants to see the Mideast heat up again, myself included. But that just might not be within our control to stop. So if war is going to erupt, I think we should take advantage of the opportunity."

  "And what opportunity might that be?” Treasury Secretary Matt Boyd sneered, showing his contempt for Musgrave's bellicose stance.

  Musgrave threw the Treasury Secretary a hard gaze. “The opportunity to gain total control of the region once and for all. Dammit, people, if war comes we can end the nonsense that has been hanging over our heads for the past fifty years like some goddamn sword of Damocles.

  "Why is it you soldiers always want to shoot first and ask questions later?” Boyd asked angrily.

  Jesus stepped in. “Maybe the General is right, gentlemen, and ladies,” he said, with a nod to Health and Human Resources Secretary Madeline Johnstone and Secretary of State Janine Madison. “But maybe Israel isn't the horse we should be backing."

  A collective gasp arose from around the table. Not back Israel? Was Jesus suggesting America back Israel's enemies instead?

  Secretary Madison regained her composure and was the first to speak. “Jesus, you can't be seriously suggesting we take up arms against Israel?"

  "Why not?” Jesus asked. “Where is it written that Israel is always in the right? Aren't they the aggressors this time? I assume you've read this.” He waved the newspaper at them. “This is not just aggression, but clear proof of a secret agenda of genocide. Doesn't America have troops deployed all over the world in direct response to actions identical to what Israel has mapped out?” He paused to give them a moment to consider. Then he continued, his voice hardening, “Or is it because you are afraid to take a stand against Israel because it is a nation of Jews?"

  "What are you suggesting?” Janine Madison flared indignantly.

  Jesus struck a commanding pose. “Let us be frank, ladies and gentlemen. Only a blind fool could fail to see how America looks the other way as the nation of Israel systematically commits its own brand of genocide and ethnic cleansing throughout the Mid East. Millions of Palestinians have been displaced into the desert so Israel might have its own nation. Does America speak out against these crimes against humanity? No. She votes increased funding for military aid to Israel. Would America be so generous if the nation she were supporting were a nation of Muslims, or Buddhists, or Hindus? No. America would be before the United Nations pounding the podium, exhorting the community of nations to end this barbaric policy of genocidal brutality. If that didn't work, you'd be bombing the offending nation into submission by nightfall. But because Israel is the Jewish nation, you have bent over backwards in order to not appear anti-Semitic. You do the same to accommodate certain minorities in your own country for the same reason—to show everyone how caring and compassionate you are. Now we have undisputed proof Israel's actions have always been part of a larger design of systematic genocide and what
do you do? You cower.” He sneered those last words.

  Thatcher exchanged looks with President Crowley. What was Jesus trying to do? The others at the table squirmed uncomfortably, no one daring to be the first to confront Jesus. Jesus stood tall, his eyes moving from person to person, filled with penetrating coldness.

  Finally, Crowley spoke up. “Your words are harsh, Jesus."

  "Indeed,” Jesus said with a cold smile. “Truth is often harsh."

  "Our support of Israel has not been entirely because of its ethnic origins, but neither can I say that was not a component of our policy toward them,” Crowley said. The cabinet members all looked at him with shock at this admission. He glanced over to them and said, “We might as well be frank about these things.” Then he returned his attention to Jesus and continued. “For what possible reason would you wish us to attack Israel? What justification would you have us use?"

  "The evidence of your eyes, Mr. President,” Jesus countered, pointing to the stack of satellite reconnaissance photos lying on the table and the copy of The London Times. “Israel is the clear aggressor here. Her true plans are finally revealed for all to see—to take over the oil reserves of her neighboring states."

  General Musgrave scowled.

  "General, you wish to say something?” Jesus challenged.

  Musgrave shifted in his chair slightly. “I merely repeat what I said earlier. If Israel wants the oil, let her take it. We have been dealing with goddamn Muslims for decades and the American people are sick and tired of being jacked around by those ragheads who think they can yank our chain by manipulating the flow of oil. We have been vulnerable to their whims for far too long. I say it's time to end that. If Israel happens to be conveniently exercising plans of her own which benefit us, I say we let her. We can assist them covertly, for that matter. No one need ever know."

  Several at the table nodded their agreement with Musgrave's reasoning. The Arab control of oil had been a source of hostility and anger among the population for decades. It would be a simple matter to appeal to that frustration and enlist the support of the people. Some of them even thought the people would clamor for open support of Israel and no covert assistance would be necessary.