by Robert Ryan
In the control room of the boat above, Zeke sat enthralled as he stared at the monitor.
Mordecai fanned away the last patch of silt to fully reveal the two ancient corpses.
Aghast, he stared at the scene before him.
If these remains were between three and four thousand years old, he was looking at human beings in the best state of preservation from that era ever discovered. Unlike the sometimes difficult process of determining sex from only skeletal remains, here there was still enough flesh intact to make that determination instantly.
They were both adult males.
The thrill of such an unprecedented discovery was superseded by an urge to turn away from a scene never meant to be witnessed. And yet Mordecai could not stop staring at the rawest of human moments, frozen for all time, revealed by those last few swipes of his hand.
He realized why the hands of the first man appeared to be outstretched. Although now lying on their sides, the two men had originally been upright and on their knees. Rather than warding something off, the one in front had been merely supporting his weight.
The man in back, withered and puckered skin still visible on his penis, was having intercourse with the man in front. A portion of his male organ was still inside the anal cavity of the other and hidden from view.
Several thoughts fought for dominance in Mordecai’s mind as he continued to evaluate the bizarre tableau. Finally one word rose above the clamor inside his head:
Sodomy.
CHAPTER 44
Kidron Valley
Zeke’s reflection stared back at him. From the reflections of the crucifixes he held in each hand, the eyes of Jesus also bore into him. Zeke was certain the eyes on the crucifixes he’d examined earlier had been closed, but he hadn’t looked at them all. Maybe some were open.
He couldn’t break the moment by going to check. Maybe this was part of what was supposed to happen. He forced himself to focus on his own eyes in the mirror, as Unger had instructed, probing for a connection to his soul. The effort to quiet his mind was made much more difficult by thoughts of what Jesus, if He was in there, might be finding as He stared from the mirror into Zeke’s eyes.
In the absolute stillness of the grotto, Zeke was able to narrow his focus until the crucifixes disappeared, as did an awareness of time. Thoughts of his family, Leah, and Satan continued to churn through his mind, like choppy waves on a pond. The mirror seemed to shimmer, as if reflecting this.
Gradually the thoughts began to subside. His head had been tilting downward as his chin was pulled toward his chest, where it now rested. He envisioned his purified spiritual energy flowing up and dispersing throughout his memory pond, until it was utterly smooth.
The mirror had stopped shimmering. The candles burned more steadily, so that their flickering was no longer a distraction. The stillness inside Zeke now matched the stillness of the chamber. He became one with the mirror.
As he continued to stare at his reflection, flickering in the mirror caught his attention. He glanced quickly at the candles to see if they had begun fluttering again, but their flames were steady. Looking back into the mirror, he was able to pinpoint the source of the light.
It was coming from the crucifixes he held. It was the same light he had noticed pulsating through them earlier. He focused on it.
Gradually a glow began to rise up from somewhere beneath the crucifixes. Dim at first, but gaining strength and clearly different. Reddish orange and more intense. Finally the source of the glow became visible.
Flames. Growing stronger. They engulfed Zeke’s hands in the mirror, but despite the burning sensation he held fast to the crucifixes. The flames continued to rise until they were licking the faces of Jesus. Zeke felt an instinctive urge to pull the crucifixes away, but forced himself to let the scene follow its own course. Movement in the mirror near his face caught his attention.
Another face had materialized in the mirror beside his own. The face of Jesus from the mural in the Shrine. Scary Jesus.
Beneath the face His body began to appear. As it became more solid, Zeke’s reflection waned and was pulled into the image of Christ. Zeke experienced an epiphany, at last understanding the name by which Jesus had called both Himself and the prophet Ezekiel.
Son of Man. Jesus and Ezekiel were in some sense one. The Savior, and the human He had chosen for his message of Salvation.
The flames at the bottom of the mirror died out. The burning sensation in Zeke’s hands stopped.
The jagged scratch in the mirror ran from the top to the bottom along Jesus’s left side, dividing the mirror in two. Another image came into view on the other half.
Hands. Being washed over a large golden bowl. A man’s hands.
The image dissolved and was replaced by another.
Jesus on the cross. He hung dying on a rocky hillside, beneath a stormy sky. Golgotha. Zeke felt His agony while his own eyes remained riveted on the scene in the mirror.
Two fiery red dots appeared behind Jesus’s left shoulder. Eyes.
A face slowly materialized around the eyes. A familiar face. The demonic face from the television. A reptilian body took shape beneath it, standing on two muscular legs. The demon floated upward, drifting closer to the cross until its shadow began to eclipse Jesus. Taloned fingers opened, as if preparing to clamp onto his throat. Jesus ripped one of his impaled hands free and pushed the Devil all the way back to the distant edge of Golgotha. For the first time since he had been alone in the room, Zeke noticed sound.
The voice of Jesus.
“Get thee behind me, Satan.”
The reptilian body slowly disappeared until only the red eyes remained, blazing more intensely than before. Scary Jesus became larger until He blotted out the scene on Golgotha. His arms extended from the mirror until his hands were only inches from Zeke’s face. Turning his palms outward to show the wounds from the Crucifixion, He held them there for a very long moment, giving Zeke ample time to be sure of what he was seeing. Finally He pulled the hands back into the mirror. Zeke’s eyes followed until he was looking into the face of Jesus. He spoke again, his words penetrating to the core of Zeke’s soul.
“Help me, Ezekiel. Pave the way and I shall not forsake you. As you must not forsake me. This is my hour of need. When yours comes, I will be there for you. Together we can defeat him. Man alone, even the Creator—my Creator—cannot. The strength Lucifer has gained from the millions of souls he possesses has made him too strong. You are an army of one. The Righteous against the Wicked.”
In a flash of white light the intense face erupted from the mirror and came to within a foot of Zeke’s.
“I will leave you now. Choose wisely, Son of Man. And be ever vigilant. Lucifer will seek to destroy you at every turn. Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.
“Put your trust in the Lord.”
His image gradually disappeared until only the face was left, the face of Scary Jesus. Just before that, too, disappeared, Zeke thought he saw the scowl soften into a smiling, loving expression.
The candles went out, leaving only the faint illumination that made its way in from the main chamber. Zeke sat unable to move until his senses brought him back from his hesychastic state. Even then he remained still a long time, thinking about all he had seen.
Could he accept Unger’s provenance of the relics at face value, or did he need further analysis?
I’d have to take his word for everything he showed me. Except the crucifixes. There had definitely been lightning inside the crucifixes.
Could they have been rigged? Could the mirror?
No. With a twinge of annoyance he banished the questions that would always arise about relics associated with Jesus: no amount of analysis could ever prove their authenticity. Much of what passed as scientific knowledge was based on premises that could never be proven beyond all doubt. The very existence of the universe was based on a theory—the Big Bang—that was constantly being revised. It always came down to the same thing: faith.<
br />
Did he believe?
Yes. The mirror had clinched it.
Jesus Himself had enlisted his help. And had promised to be there when the time came.
Put your trust in the Lord.
That would have to be enough.
Zeke walked toward the vault door with purposeful strides, his confidence level growing with every step. His fate was in God’s hands now.
CHAPTER 45
Unger had positioned two chairs in the center of his sanctuary. He and Zeke sat a few feet apart, facing each other.
“Did you see?” Unger said.
“I saw.”
“Tell me what you saw.”
“Jesus spoke to me from the mirror. He asked for my help, for me to pave the way.”
Jesus had chosen Ezekiel over him. Unger hid his disappointment well, but in his head a voice shouted that after all his years of dedication, it wasn’t fair. It was the voice of his former self, Anthony Unger, the covetous sinner he’d never been completely able to extinguish.
“Then it has been decided,” he said. “You are the one.”
“‘Put your trust in the Lord,’ He said to me.”
“And so we shall.”
“You seem okay with it.”
Unger forced a smile. “I bow to the will of the Lord. I am his to use in whatever way He sees fit.”
“We’re on the same page there,” Zeke said. “We need to talk about the relics, then.” He nodded toward the vault door. “Are you willing to let me use them?”
“I’m sure you can understand my insistence on not allowing them out of my sight. Still, some arrangement might be worked out. First I would need to know exactly where you are at in your search for Satan, and how these precious relics would be used.” He saw hesitation, reluctance. “It is time to take our trust to a whole new level.” Unger watched him thinking it over.
“You’re right,” Zeke finally said. “Trust goes both ways.”
Unger listened intently as a man named Ezekiel told of his dig for Hell at the Dead Sea. “As for how the relics would be used,” he said, “I haven’t figured that out yet. Initially I would simply want them at our dig to—hopefully—ward off any Satanic presence. Beyond that, if we do find Hell, I’m thinking I might take as many as I can carry—probably in a backpack, something like that—hoping that their divine power will protect me. Jesus has said as much.”
“I can accept that. There can be no greater use for these sacred objects than to summon their divine power in the final showdown with Satan. I could let you borrow them, but on two conditions.”
“What are they?”
“These are the most sought-after items on earth. I would need your assurance that they would be housed in a secure location. At least as secure as my vault. Anything easily broken into would simply not do.”
“I agree,” Zeke said. “I can hire a security expert to convert a space in our headquarters into something vaultlike. What’s the other condition?”
“I come with them—for several reasons. I have spent my life preparing for exactly what you are seeking, Ezekiel: the final confrontation. I cannot have blazed the trail this far and stop. Communing with these relics daily is an indispensable part of my hesychastic ritual. There is also the matter of antiquities thieves. They are relentless, and they have a way of sniffing out any unusual movements. However secure a room you create, I could not sleep without being able to keep a close watch on my collection. On a more practical level, I can give the perspective of a trained eschatologist on a moment I’ve spent my whole life studying and preparing for. Armageddon.”
Another hesitation, but this one lasted only a couple seconds. “You’re right,” Ezekiel said. “With your academic background, I’m sure we could find ways for you to be useful. We have lodging. You could have a floor to yourself and a room next to the relics.”
“Perfect. I would welcome the opportunity to be useful.”
“Then welcome to the dig for Hell.” They clasped hands. “Creating a secure location for the relics might take a little time. That will give you time to pack them up. When all that’s done, I’ll come and get you and your collection.”
“Very well. The problem will be getting the relics loaded onto your vehicle when you come. We cannot do that from here. It might reveal the location of my sanctuary. And we are too far from the road. If anyone saw us carrying them through Kidron Valley, it could arouse suspicion. We must find another way.”
“I could come up at night, when people are least likely to be around. Say three in the morning. You and I could load them up then, when it’s pitch dark.”
Unger shook his head. “It would still be several trips across rough terrain, and wherever you parked your car it might draw attention.”
“The relics have to be gotten from here to my van. However we do it, there’s going to be some risk. We just try to minimize it as much as we can. I could park where the road comes closest to your house. You show me where that is now, and I’ll take some pictures of that spot. I can use the pictures to make some kind of camouflage screen that would blend into the landscape. I’d hide the van behind that. If you have the relics all packed and ready by your front door, the whole transfer could be done in fifteen minutes.”
“You’re right,” Unger said. “There is no perfect way, but your way sounds best.”
“Let’s go then. The sooner we start, the sooner we finish.”
They left Unger’s Sanctum Sanctorum and walked down the stony path in silence.
CHAPTER 46
Dig Headquarters
By the time Zeke made it back to the dig that evening, everyone was wrapping up a long day’s work and getting ready to head up to their rooms. Zeke told the Hell Squad to meet him in the lounge so they could fill each other in on the day’s events.
Darkness had fallen by the time they gathered around a table over beers. Leah, Mordecai, and Hassan listened in rapt attention as Zeke recounted his underground encounter with Anthony Unger.
“He’s kind of a latter-day John the Baptist. That’s how he sees himself. Wear’s a monk’s outfit, the whole bit.” He saw the skeptical looks. “I know. But the but the power of his relics could not be denied.” He told of the lightning inside the silver crucifixes and the visions in Pilate’s mirror. “He has documentation, but we all know the authenticity of these things can never be proven. All I can tell you is that, after what I saw and felt, I’m utterly convinced.”
“Of course it sounds impossible,” Mordecai said. “But nothing surprises me anymore. Science is out the window.”
“We need those relics,” Zeke said. “So I made a deal with him. He agreed to let us use them if he could be part of the dig. By training he’s an eschatologist. Taught it for years at Catholic University.” Assuming archaeologists working in the Holy Land would know about eschatology, Zeke directed his explanation primarily at Leah.
“Eschatology is the branch of theology concerned with the end of the world: Armageddon, the Second Coming, Judgment Day, all of that. Unger made a good point that since that’s exactly what we’re looking at, his expertise could be valuable in interpreting whatever unfolds. Besides, I figured since we’ll have the Satanic perspective when Michael Price gets here, it wouldn’t hurt to have a spokesman for God’s point of view. I could team them up, get kind of a point/counterpoint interpretation of anything paranormal. Call them the Fringe Group, maybe. Something like that. If nothing else it would keep them busy.
“The bottom line is I want us to have those relics. So he’s coming to stay with us. Part of the deal is converting some space here into a secure location for storing the relics. I’m talking like a vault. Mordecai, can you get somebody out here to take care of that?”
“No problem.”
Zeke took a swig from his beer and sat back. “So. Tell me about your day.”
“It was about as exciting as archaeology gets,” Mordecai said. He described the discovery of the two mummified corpses, their remarkable st
ate of preservation, what that might mean for science. “There was one disturbing aspect. They were engaged in anal intercourse.”
“Sodomy,” Zeke said.
“That’s the first word that came into my mind too,” Leah said. “How could it not?”
Hassan responded quietly, as he always did, but with an intensity they had not seen. “The obvious religious interpretation would be that this was Allah’s punishment for engaging in homosexuality. The Koran and the Bible condemn it.”
“The Torah refers to it as ‘an abomination,’” Mordecai said.
“I used to be a devout Muslim,” Hassan said, “and I personally believe that homosexuality is not the natural order of things. Otherwise there would be no human race. But I have met many gay people over the years, and they are no better or worse than anyone else. I decided I could not embrace any teaching that includes killing and hate. It is that kind of extremism that gives us the suicide bombers. That got Norah killed. That is destroying the world. It is why I am here.” He looked at the faces around the table. “I have not been inside a mosque in years. When the killing in the name of Allah stops, I will go back.”
The discussion of the find and its implications went around the table. The conversation reminded Zeke of many he’d had in philosophy classes at Catholic University, endless speculation that went nowhere. Wanting to move along, after everyone had weighed in he said “Amen.”
Leah finished her beer. “Gentlemen, congratulations on a very exciting day, but I need to go to bed.”