"I don't know," Dowd answered. "Let us hope that it is enough, because if it's not, I fear that even worse plagues will follow."
"That's a horrible thought," Suzanne Wright replied.
"Which is why we must give our total support to Christopher and the Security Council. I'm not a soldier, but as I understand it, in time of war it is the responsibility of the troops to support their commanding officer. The more desperate the situation, the more important it is that his orders are followed to the letter. As Christopher has pointed out, we are at war. Yahweh has declared war against the planet earth and, like it or not, we are the soldiers. Even if we disagree on how some things are being handled by the U.K., we should acknowledge that those making the decisions are more aware of the overall situation than any of us are. Unless we know different, we should wholeheartedly support the decisions of Christopher and the Security Council."
"Do you think that the decision to use capital punishment against the leaders of the fundamentalists was influenced by the recent discoveries concerning reincarnation; that is, that no one ever really dies — that after a time they are born again?"
Rev. Dowd nodded thoughtfully. "Absolutely," he said. "Let me give you an analogy, Suzanne, that might make their decision more clear. When a woman terminates a pregnancy, the fundamentalists say that's wrong. But, of course, we know that's ridiculous. How could it be wrong? All she is doing is controlling her own body, her own life. She makes the decision for the good of herself, for the good of her family, and for the good of society. For many women, carrying the pregnancy to term would prevent them from advancing themselves in life and would keep them in poverty — if not financial poverty, then emotional and spiritual poverty — because they would never discover their true selves: they'd be too busy taking care of the children to do anything else. And quite often, perhaps more often than not, the unwanted child would become a burden not only for the mother and family but for society. How many thieves and murderers were unwanted children? Psychologists say many. It would have been better for those people and their victims if they had never been bom. Love — self love — is the greatest and most important love. That is the foundation upon which the New Age is built. A child cannot learn to love himself if he is not loved and wanted by the one who bore him. It is better for those children that their spirits return to the 'collective unconscious' — to use Carl Jung's terminology — before they are even born. The elimination of regressive people groups is really the same thing. Their inability to achieve self love is evidenced by the fact that they rely on someone else, in this case Yahweh, to give their life meaning. They place a burden on society so great that their very existence prevents Humankind from advancing to the next stage in its evolution. Like the unwanted pregnancy, the regressives must be removed so that the rest of Humankind may advance. And just as the termination of an unwanted pregnancy is best for all concerned, so it is for the best of everyone that radical fundamentalism be erased.
"Of course, this should be accomplished in the most humane manner possible. Certainly the desire to limit the suffering of the condemned prisoner must be taken into account and — I would think — that is why the Security Council chose the method of execution that it did."
"I was wondering about that. It seems rather . . . well, gruesome to me," Wright said with an uncomfortable look on her face.
"As I understand it," Dowd replied, "despite appearances, doctors consider decapitation to be both painless and quick. And I think when it comes to a choice between what is least upsetting to us and what is least painful and quickest for the condemned, we are obliged to think first of those who must die. Despite the suffering they have caused Humankind, we must not lower ourselves to their level; there is no reason to cause them to suffer.
"But there is another factor that should not be overlooked in our evaluation of the method, and that is that because beheading does appear brutal, hopefully it will deter other fundamentalists and help them realize the foolishness and futility of their intolerance."
Suzanne Wright nodded in agreement, though it was obvious that the thought of it still made her squeamish.
"But I think all of us and, in fact, even those who are to be executed should take consolation in the knowledge that death is temporary."
"We're almost out of time," Wright said, "but can you tell us very briefly what it will be like for those who die?"
"Well, not from personal experience," he answered dryly. "Our reliable data is limited to information gathered from people who have undergone detailed analysis of their past life experiences. What I can say is that there is strong evidence that when we die we do not remain dea^' long. Many are born again within just a very few years; for some, it's just a few days. Seldom do we find anyone who went more than twenty years between lifetimes. And, of course, when a person dies and is reborn, they almost never remember events of their past lives without undergoing past life therapy. What that means — and I'm thinking now primarily of those who are executed, though in truth this applies to those who have died in the plagues as well — is that those who die leave behind all the regressive tendencies they have learned in their former life. They return, stripped of the vestiges of the old paradigm, to a world in which the New Age is not just beginning, but is in full bloom. When they return, they will be able to accept the truth because the lies of Yahweh will be so obvious to them."
"So there is hope, even for the most fanatical of the fundamentalists?" Suzanne Wright asked, making no attempt to hide the wonder in her voice.
"There is hope," Rev. Dowd concluded with certainty.
"Our guest today has been Reverend Timothy Dowd," Suzanne Wright concluded with an optimistic smile for her audience. "We'll be back after this."
6:50 p.m. — Allahabad, India
As cameras watched, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims waited anxiously upon the banks of the tongue of land at AttOiabad, where the Yamuna, Sarasvati, and Ganga (Ganges) rivers join. Few had enough strength to stand; many were near death from dehydration; and tens of thousands more had died before making it this far. To this, the site of the "true Prayag" or place of pilgrimage, where annually millions of devout Hindus come to wash away their sins in the sacred river, and where also is held the great festival called the Maghmela, had come the prophet of Babylon, Robert Milner. Wearing the same robes as he had the week before in Tel Aviv, and again waiting until twilight to begin his work, Milner walked barefoot to the point where the rivers unite and where the flow of blood was sufficient to prevent any scabbing over.
This time he bore no crystal spheres. Also, unlike before, he did not stop at land's edge, but continued into the river until the blood washed around him up to his knees. The fabric of his robe reacted like a straw and drew the blood through it up toward his waist. Reaching into a pocket hidden by the robe's many folds, Milner retrieved a large knife, made of ivory and bearing unusual markings. A few in the crowd recognized it as the ceremonial knife of the Khond sacrifice of the Meriah, a ritual not openly practiced in India for at least a hundred and fifty years, where a human sacrifice was put to death by strangulation and his body dismembered and spread over the fields to entreat the gods for a good harvest.
Standing there, Milner raised his eyes to the heavens. His right hand formed a defiant fist and was bent at the wrist so that the mark he bore there faced the skies. In his left hand he held the knife point up, as if ready to stab at the heart of God. Then, as he had in Tel Aviv, again he shouted, "In the name of the Light Bearer, and of his son, Christopher, and in the name of myself and those with me, and all of Humankind, I declare my defiance of Yahweh, the god of sickness and disease and oppression! We will not yield to you! We will not submit to you! We will not bow to you! We declare our freedom from you! We spit upon you and upon your name!"
Then, with his arms still upraised and all the world watching, he held the point of the knife to his right wrist. Placing the blade against his flesh, he pulled down sharply, cutting a deep gash which cleanly
severed the ulnar artery. Immediately blood began spurting from the wound with each heartbeat and ran down his arm.
Those watching nearby and on television gasped in surprise, and though Milner already stood knee-deep in blood, some still turned their heads in revulsion. For a few seconds the cameras focused on Milner, who stood unflinching with blood pouring from his arm, the knife still raised high. Then someone noticed that as his blood mingled with the blood in which he stood, a change began to occur. Then everyone saw it, as the color of the blood in the river lightened and then turned crystal clear, clearer than anyone had ever seen the river flow. With great speed, the reformation spread up and down stream in all three rivers. In three minutes it had spread as far as the Bay of Bengal at the mouth of the Ganges, south of Calcutta. From there the cleansing began to occur in other rivers and springs, traveling around the world just behind the setting sun.
In Allahabad, except from the reporters present, there was no great cheer as there had been in Tel Aviv. Instead, all who had strength to move walked or crawled to the water to drink.
With a sigh drowned out by the rushing waters, Robert Milner dropped his arms and walked back to shore. Walking silently past cameras and reporters who cleared a path, he turned and collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion. There was an initial flurry of concern, but as he lay there still conscious and assuring those around him that he was fine, the cameras revealed an amazing image: his wrist was entirely healed.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Fourth Angel
10:51 a.m., Saturday, June 27, 4 N.A. (2026 A.D.) — Derwood, Maryland
It didn't take a genius to see the pattern. Each of the recent plagues had begun on the Sunday of the past three consecutive weeks. If another plague was coming, it was only logical to assume that the same pattern would be continued. That meant that whatever the next affliction was, it would probably start within the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. There was no way to know exactly when, for though the turning of the salt and fresh water had occurred relatively quickly, the lesions had originally appeared only as dry itchy skin, and had grown worse throughout the day. Perhaps the next plague would also start as something minor and grow worse over a period of a day or two. There was, however, a way to know what the next plague would be.
Decker sat on the couch in his living room and took Elizabeth's Bible from the leather satchel on the coffee table where it had been sitting since he arrived from Israel three weeks before. When Scott Rosen had given it to him in Petra, Decker had thought of it as simply a remembrance of Elizabeth. He had read her handwritten notes and the sections she marked by yellow highlighter only to see into her thoughts during the time he had been held in Lebanon. To read it now, though — after having the dream again . . . after entertaining doubts about Christopher — seemed like collusion with the enemy or tacit admission that there was value in its words. He did not need that additional guilt added to what he felt already. There he was, hiding there like a hermit in a cave while the world suffered around him — hiding, in truth, from Christopher, who except for that damned dream, had never done anything to cause Decker to doubt him. And so the satchel had remained unopened since he left Petra.
Now, however, he told himself that there was a good reason to read it: to understand the adversary. For that same reason a year and a half earlier Decker had read another copy of the Bible and found the verse which gave him the idea to use for the mark to prevent the fundamentalists and the KDT from taking the communion.
On the plane to Jerusalem after his resurrection Christopher had said that the plagues brought on by John and Cohen had occurred exactly as they were predicted in the book of Revelation. But that was before John (the author of Revelation) and Cohen had died. Decker assumed their deaths had put an end to such catastrophic events; the past three weeks offered convincing evidence to the contrary. So, if by reading Elizabeth's Bible he could determine what Yahweh was going to do next, Decker reasoned, it would not be disloyal to Christopher for him to do so; rather it would be insane for him not to. Still, the discomfort did not pass.
Finally Decker opened it and turned to the back to the book of Revelation. He quickly found what he was looking for: there was the plague of sores, and the seas turning to blood, and the fresh water turning to blood. And there was the description of the next plague, which would be the fourth in the recent series:
The fourth angel poured out his bawl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat.. ,
How hot would it get? How much heat was 'great heat?' More importantly, Decker wondered, how could he prepare for it? Presumably, it would be significantly hotter than the normal summer heat. How would his air conditioner handle it? The subject of air conditioning had been a major concern when plans for housing were being made for Babylon, where temperatures can reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit. He remembered hearing that standard air conditioners were able to cool a house only about 15 degrees to 20 degrees below the outside temperature. The air conditioner at his house in Derwood was as old as the house itself, which meant it would not be nearly as efficient as the newer models and, thus, would not cool nearly as well. There was not enough time to do anything about that, though. Nor did he have time to better insulate the house. Whatever preparations he could make had to be made in the next twelve to twenty-four hours.
After some consideration, Decker decided his best course of action was to limit his efforts to a single room. The house didn't have a basement, which would be naturally cooled by the earth around it, so the obvious choice was the laundry room. It was on the ground floor and the concrete slab had never been covered, and thus it was the coolest room in the house. It had water and a floor drain down which he could flush wastes. It was also small enough that he could quickly add insulation to the walls and ceiling.
Decker prepared a list of materials and got on the phone to Bert Tolinson, the caretaker. So far Tolinson had been willing to get Decker whatever he asked for, never realizing that by making such purchases he was in violation of United Nations law and could have been jailed. He just assumed Decker had the mark, and drew the money for the purchases directly out of the account that had been established for upkeep of the house. Although the account was well funded in case of emergency, Decker's shopping list did raise some questions.
Decker had tried to get by without running the air conditioner in order to keep anyone from realizing the house was occupied. Now the neighbor, George Rollins, and his son knew and it didn't matter anymore. So even though it was a pleasant day, Decker closed all the windows and turned the air conditioner on full blast to cool the house in preparation for what was coming. If it got too cold, he would put on a coat. Next, he found his hand tools — a handsaw, a drill, a hammer and a pair of pliers — and then moved everything he could out of the laundry room. He would turn off the gas to the hot water heater after he had finished his preparations and showered.
When Bert Tolinson arrived with the items that Decker had said he needed 'right away,' Decker was ready, all bandaged up, including his right hand. Tolinson might well think he was crazy because of the shopping list, but he would certainly not leave thinking that Decker did not have the mark.
It took Tolinson fifteen minutes to get everything into the house. Looking over the items which, except for some groceries, Decker had him leave in the foyer and living room, Tolinson removed the Washington Senators baseball cap he always wore, wiped the sweat from his brow, and scratched the back of his head where he still had hair. "If you don't mind me asking," Tolinson said, "what in the hell is all this stuff for?"
Decker looked at the items stacked and displayed before them — ten rolls of fiberglass insulation, a staple gun, twelve rolls of duct tape, two battery-powered lamps, two flashlights, two dozen assorted long-life batteries, a large plastic tub, two boxes of twelve penny nails, eight large picnic coolers filled with twenty-two bags of ice (all that Tolinson could get because of the recent water prob
lems), six eight-foot two-by-fours, three window air conditioners, and three heavy-duty 100-foot electrical extension cords.
Decker wanted to answer Tolinson's question. If he could help it, there was no reason to let Tolinson and his family suffer through what was to come. But how could he explain how he knew that the next plague would be heat? He sure couldn't say he read it in the Bible. Not that the Bible was outlawed or restricted or anything, but nobody but the fundamentalists actually read it or believed what it had to say. Then an idea occurred to him.
"There's going to be another plague," he said. "Starting tomorrow, I think. It's going to get terribly hot."
"How do you know?" Tolinson asked, his voice registering his concern. "Did Secretary Goodman tell you?"
That was an explanation Decker hadn't considered and he paused for a second, thinking it might be a better answer than the one he had planned. Ultimately, though, he saw the flaw and rejected it. If Bert Tolinson warned anyone else, he would have to explain how he knew and even though he was pretty good at keeping a secret, it might come out that he had gotten the information from Decker. That, of course, would draw attention to the fact that Decker was in Derwood. He needed to give an answer that was of a source common enough that if Tolinson repeated it, no one would question its origins.
"No," Decker answered. "A psychic I know warned me about it."
Somehow, the explanation had seemed far more believable to Decker before he actually said it. Now he wondered if there was any chance that Bert Tolinson would buy it. Perhaps it would have been better if he had said nothing. To Decker's surprise, Tolinson accepted his answer without question.
"So what do you plan to do?" Tolinson asked anxiously.
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