by Leo Mark
‘That´s was the legend says, but I bet anyone at all could open the cylinder,’ retorted Thomas.
George got up, went over to the wall and picked up the house phone.
‘John, could you come in here please?’ John was the senator´s personal guard, and had worked for him for many years.
‘John, you see this cylinder. Here at the end of it there’s a hollow which exactly fits the end of a finger. Please take hold of it and put your finger in the hollow.’
The guard did as he was asked, putting his finger on the spot where the cylinder was supposed to open.
‘Nothing happened, senator. Will that be all?’
‘That’s all, John, many thanks. You can go now,’ said George. ‘Thomas, now I want you to do what he did,’ and he handed the cylinder to his son.
‘Father, perhaps that isn’t the way it opens.’
‘Just do exactly what John did.’
‘OK, but it’s not going to open.’
Thomas put his forefinger on the end of the cylinder and immediately it began to emit a bright green light. Thomas withdrew his finger in fright and threw the cylinder on the table.
‘You see, son, how do you explain the fact that the cylinder reacts to you and not to John? If any one of us puts a finger on the right spot, a light will appear, and all we have to do is turn the finger one way and the cylinder the other for it to open.’
‘Grandpa, this thing looks like an alien artifact. Look at these inscriptions: they´re like hieroglyphics, I’ve never seen anything like them.’
‘OK, Dad, you´ve convinced me that the thing is programmed to open with our family’s DNA. But tell me something: if one of our ancestors cheated on their spouse, would the blood easily be diluted?’
‘Out of the question! Years ago everything was carefully worked out and our family was always very strict. The women couldn´t even look at another man, and they never went out on their own. Today it’d be easier.’
‘I understand, Dad, but why did you say that humanity depends on this cloning? Is it just one of your conspiracy theories?’
‘Son, they´re not just theories. All the stories I told you when you were a child, the best time for the brain to retain them, were true. I´ll summarize those stories, and in time you´ll discover more. I’ve got some documents that you must read later, which will help to explain things.
‘Now listen to this: there was a time when God wanted to destroy the earth, humanity had strayed and no longer believed in him. Jesus was one of those responsible for the creation of man, perhaps the prime mover. He wanted to show his Father that our species goes off the tracks because of what is happening around us, but that our essence is good. He asked God to give him a chance; he said he would go to earth to prove that part of humankind was good. He said too that if we didn´t recover our faith, God could destroy humanity. A deal was proposed and God accepted the deal. Jesus was born on earth in a hybrid body, part human, part divine. Jesus was right: some humans were good, but the great majority had been corrupted. Jesus left a legacy of love which survives till this day. If it wasn´t for the teaching of Jesus at that time, if he hadn’t existed, humanity would have destroyed itself all on its own. What keeps part of humanity going is belief in Jesus; the rest are motivated by self-interest, or rather by fear of going to hell.
‘Many religions have been formed based on the word of Jesus. Most of them lost their way, it’s true, particularly the Catholic Church, which always did terrible things to its fellow humans in the name of Jesus. But the Son of God did prove that man’s essence is good, and that our mistakes are due to the environment in which each of us is brought up. If we are brought up in an atmosphere of hate, we grow up hating. But if we grow up isolated from the world and from any kind of influence, our tendency is to practice good not evil.
‘To change the subject a little: do you remember that the Bible says that Lucifer was cast out of heaven with other angels? Well, Lucifer’s plan was always to take God’s place, in other words he wants to be the king of planet Earth. There is a secret society you are familiar with, called Illuminati. The Illuminati are servants of Lucifer and they control another society called the Bilderberg Club. This Club you´ve never heard of, but it consists of kings, princes, queens, presidents, politicians, billionaires - the lords of the world. Most of the members are people who honestly believe they are doing humanity a favor, intending to set up a single global government, unelected by the people: their principal goal is to rule the earth and do away with hunger, poverty and war in return for power and more power. What they don´t know is that behind them there is a more powerful force manipulating them. And behind that force is Lucifer. When the club succeeds in setting up the New World Order, Lucifer will take over. And the day is very near. The UN, NATO, the G7 and more recently the European Union are all institutions created with the purpose of forming a single cell of power, controlled by the few.’
‘But why doesn’t Lucifer take power now. Why must he wait till the world is run by a single body?’ asked Sarah, looking worried.
‘My dear, this was what I explained to your grandmother early this morning. Suppose that Lucifer became president of the USA, the most powerful nation on earth. If this happened and he began to do what he plans, other countries would go to war with the US, we would have a nuclear war and life on earth would end. If Lucifer waits till there is a New World Order, a single body of power, no one will go to war with him, he will declare himself god of the earth and no one will be able to stop him. That´s the difference. He’s waiting for the right moment, and that moment is coming.’
‘But, father, do you think the clone of Jesus will be able to stop such powerful people?’
‘Son, you haven’t understood. My theory is that this clone’s purpose is to facilitate Jesus’ return - he will be reincarnated in the clone and show the world that he’s back, and then he’ll fight against the New World Order being established; after all, he’s the Son of God, he must have some powers. A man who could cure crowds, raise the dead and rise from the dead himself must be pretty powerful; and if the angel said he should be born again at a time like this one, then I think it must be precisely to fight against these lords of the world. Now do you understand the importance of all this?’
Sarah got up with her hand over her eyes, walked into the living room and threw herself down on the sofa. The others followed her, concerned at how she was reacting.
‘What is it, darling?’ asked Jane, worried about her granddaughter.
‘Nothing, grandma. I´m just trying to digest all this, trying to believe. Reason tells me not to believe in this sort of stuff, but my heart is telling me the opposite. My brain’s at war.’
‘Yes, Dad,’ said Thomas, ‘I need to digest all this too and think it through. Can I take this blood to my lab to analyze it?’
‘Of course you can, but not today. I want you both to sleep here and go home tomorrow morning early. Your mother and I are going upstairs and we’ll leave you on your own to talk this over. It’s very important you don´t discuss this with anyone else, especially not with your mother, Sarah. Good night to you both.’
CHAPTER 7
Washington DC, 22nd February 1991
At the senator´s house it was morning. By eight a.m. they had all come downstairs for breakfast. George was the last to descend, bringing two CDs with him. He had spent the night recording and encrypting the CDs with old family files, and details of the family tree, proof of everything he had told his son and granddaughter.
‘Thomas and Sarah, these CDs are for you. They are encrypted with a 2048-bit key, impossible to break without the password. The password is at the back of the family portrait I gave you last Christmas.’
The senator had given each of them an oil painting of the whole family in a group. It had been painted from a photo which had been taken the previous Christmas, when practically the whole Griffin clan was present. That was the only time it was possible to get everybody together.
‘Don´t worry, Dad.’
The Griffins finished breakfast and said their goodbyes. Thomas and Sarah took the highway back to New York. As they drove they talked over what had happened, about all the revelations George had made. Both of them were intrigued and pleased to have a part to play in events of such importance.
‘Daddy, I couldn´t sleep last night, thinking about all that grandpa said, and I came to a decision: I want you to make this clone and I want to give birth to it,’ said Sarah with absolute certainty.
‘But daughter, it´s very dangerous. If something went wrong I´d never forgive myself,’ answered Thomas in a worried voice, stroking his daughter´s hair.
‘Daddy, I trust you and, if the worst came to the worst, what could go wrong? You do inseminations every day at your clinic.’
Thomas was a scientist and university lecturer, as well as a consultant to businesses. And he ran a fertilization clinic where he treated women who couldn´t conceive, and carried out artificial insemination procedures.
‘Cloning is a lot more complex. I will have to take an egg of yours, or another egg, and strip the genetic material from it; then I will take a cell from the donor (which will be cloned) and join it to the egg by a process of electro fusion. In this way the embryo will be formed. However the egg may reject the donor´s genetic material and, even if there is no rejection, the child that is born will have nothing of yours, he won’t really be your son, you will merely be providing the womb. And the child could be born dead or deformed. Are you prepared to take such risks?’
‘Daddy, he’ll be my son. Bringing up a child is to be its mother just as much as giving birth to it is.’
Thomas knew he wasn’t going to be able to get this idea out of his daughter’s head; after all, she always got what she wanted. Since she was a little girl she had been very spoilt by her mother and especially by her grandparents.
‘I’ll analyze this blood. If everything´s alright with it I’ll think about what you’ve said.’
Thomas left Sarah at work and went straight to the laboratory at his clinic, which was nearby. When he got there he hurried into the building, anxious to get the analysis done, and he barely greeted the staff and patients. He locked himself in the laboratory and gave instructions not to be disturbed. He put on his white coat and his mask, and took the cylinder out of the parcel his father had made. He looked around to make sure nobody was in the lab, and then he put his finger over the crack at the top of the cylinder, which immediately lit up. With one hand holding the base, and the other the top of the object, he twisted them in opposite directions and with a little click the cylinder opened. Very carefully he tried to pour a drop of blood on to a slide, but the blood would not pour. In fact it wasn’t possible to see the blood inside the cylinder, as the duct inside it was very narrow.
He carefully inserted some cotton wool on a very thin stick into the recipient, and when he withdrew it the tip was dark red, confirming that there really was blood inside. He wiped the cotton wool on the slide – the blood was thick and dark but, amazingly, it had been conserved in that cylinder for nearly two thousand years. Since his father had told him the story, Thomas was almost sure that there was no longer any blood in the tube, since after so many centuries it could have dried out, and in this case it wouldn’t be possible to collect genetic material.
Thomas collected a little more blood. He decided he would use an electronic microscope powerful enough to see even the DNA chain. The analysis would take a little longer, but the precision would be much greater. The microscope had been donated by a billionaire friend of his father’s and cost something in the region of five million dollars, an unimaginably vast sum for Thomas and his humble clinic. After many minutes of waiting, the result of the analysis of the blood started to show up on the computer screen. While this was happening Thomas had gone out of the laboratory to get a cup of coffee. With one eye on his coffee and the other on the computer screen, which he could see from a distance through the glass, he could see that something was appearing on the screen. He swallowed his coffee in a single gulp, burning his throat as it went down, and ran back to the computer. His main objective was to compare the DNA of the blood with his own. He could see on the screen the structure of the cells, the chromosomes and, in small print, he could read the words:
DNA sequencing complete
Pairs of chromosomes = 24
Thomas was thunderstruck. His mouth grew dry. He couldn´t believe his eyes.
‘Impossible! The machine must be broken or badly adjusted!’
Naturally Thomas knew that monkeys have twenty-four pairs of chromosomes. Humans have 23 pairs. He decided to re-do the test, this time making a comparison with his own blood. He took a hypodermic needle and drew a little blood from his own arm, then placed it under the microscope and waited for the result. Eventually the result appeared:
Sequence 1 - 24 pairs of chromosomes
Sequence 2 - 23 pairs of chromosomes
DNA compatibility = 89.786%
Thomas refused to believe it and entered the result in a database which contained all the known species of animal, to find out what species the blood belonged to. But the result was negative: after hours searching the database the computer could find no species to which that DNA belonged. Everything began to become clear in Thomas’ mind. The blood didn´t belong to any race existing on this planet. The chimpanzee, with twenty-four pairs of chromosomes, exhibits approximately 97% of compatibility with human DNA. The genetic material he was testing wasn´t human, and it couldn´t be from this planet. In fact the blood was really Jesus’, and by all appearances Jesus really existed. That story his father had told was beginning to make sense. But something began to intrigue Thomas: how did Jesus successfully procreate with a human woman? Was Mary Magdalene human or a hybrid - half human and half alien?
Various suppositions and theories began to crowd into Thomas’ head. He started to weep with the strong emotions he was feeling. He was the first scientist in the world to have the chance to analyze the DNA of the greatest and most famous of all beings, Jesus Christ; and to cap it all he was a member of his family! Thomas was beside himself, he couldn´t keep this information to himself, he felt he must share it with someone. He was euphoric; but he realized that the information was too dangerous, nobody must know.
Now everything made sense, the stories about Jesus, the way Mary became pregnant while still a virgin - of course it must have been by artificial insemination: hence the legend of the Virgin Mary. Jesus’ powers were explained. It was clear that he belonged to a race which was mentally very advanced, with total control over his own mind and, thereby, able to perform the “miracles” which everyone talks about.
Without a second thought, Thomas took the samples out of the microscope, recorded on a diskette the results of the blood tests and instructed the computer to delete the research he had done, as someone could come across it. He hurried to the phone, picked up and dialed the number of his father’s house.
‘Hi, at the moment we can´t come to the phone. Please leave a message and we´ll get back to you soon. Thanks,’ said his father’s voice recorded on the answering machine.
‘Dad, you´ve no idea what I´ve found out! I analyzed the blood in the cylinder and I found something sensational. It doesn´t belong to any species known on this planet. As a matter of fact the DNA of this blood has 48 chromosomes, while human blood has 46. Isn´t it fantastic? By the way, I´ve decided to try and create the clone. Call me as soon as you get this message. Bye.’
CHAPTER 8
Brazil, 12th September 2001
Francisco and Maria were saying goodbye to their children and grandchildren. They had just buried their youngest son at the back of the house - he had died the day before in the reservoir which surrounded the couple´s farm. The farm was in the interi
or of the state of São Paulo, in a small town called Assis.
The boy, whose name was Davi and who was only eleven, had gone swimming in the reservoir as he often did, being an excellent swimmer. But on that day, the 11th September 2001, his father found him lifeless, lying on the bank of the reservoir. He had drowned. He usually went swimming alone, late in the afternoon, when dusk was falling. The family was distressed and hadn´t come to terms with the boy´s death.
In that part of Brazil, principally in the country areas, it was usual for the wake and the burial to take place on the family´s land. Some of the poorer families weren´t even aware of the requirement to inform the authorities of the death of a relation and to obtain a death certificate; others, in their despair, simply forgot about it.
After saying their goodbyes to the family members who had come for the wake, the couple took a bath and went to bed.
A few hours later, around two a.m., a car could be heard arriving. Maria woke up thinking that one of her sons had come back. The car stopped in front of the veranda. Two men in black suits got out and started slowly ascending the steps of the veranda. It was 12th September 2001. The men were tall and blond and they knocked at the door of the Giroto family. Maria was already in the living room. Without hesitation she went to the door, thinking it was one of her sons. When she opened the door she felt afraid because the men were so tall, and because they looked nothing like her sons. Maria´s husband, hearing sounds of movement, went to the front door with his rusty shotgun in his hands.
‘Be calm, husband, them be pastors from the church.’ Maria thought this was who they were, and that they had heard of the son’s death and come for the wake.
‘What the hell do they want at this hour?’