The Force (The Kingdom Chronicles)

by Alexandra Swann

  “Iona is a portrait of beauty—I have never seen her equal anywhere. And yes, the eye color is very dominant in our family; my father and uncle had eyes this hue. Iona and I share this trait, and we have passed it on to our son. Iona says that it is a sign that we are descendants of the goddess Athena—her gray eyes were a distinguishing characteristic often mentioned by Homer. She tells our son that Athena asked Poseidon to send the Labyrinth to our family to rescue us from poverty and give us our current station in life where we can we serve Gaia.

  “So, yes, Iona is a devotee of the ancient immortals, but her devotion, especially to Gaia, is shared by many true adherents of the world environmental movement. Iona brings Gaia a daily offering when she is on the Labyrinth; when she is not, her offering is the time she devotes to environmental causes, population control and sustainable initiatives worldwide. She says that Gaia finds more pleasure in these time offerings than in any gift of fruit or wine. I think she is probably right.”

  Josef smirked, “You cannot really believe in these ancient cults?”

  “I believe in many things,” Demetri met his incredulous stare coolly, “You have spent many years with the Club of Rome; you know many of its members intimately, I am told.” Josef tried not to change expressions, but inwardly he winced. It was true that he had engaged in sexual acts with many of the Guardians, but these liaisons were carefully-protected secrets which had been primarily for the purposes of obtaining blackmail material on the most powerful men in the world should he ever need to use it. Nikolai had given Demetri much too much information—this would have to be dealt with.

  “Do you really believe that the men in that room have any allegiance to Gaia?” Josef responded cynically. “Nikolai is a great admirer of your wife, I know, but Gaia is a symbol of hope for unwashed hippies and tree huggers; her adherents will never number more than a tiny group of misfits. The men in the Club of Rome may pay lip service to Gaia in an invocation, but what they really worship is themselves. They venerate power, money, control—not some ancient superstition. The Guardians know what I know—all religion is mythology, and all mythology is primitive man’s attempt to explain and control the elements. Cults, churches, mosque—all are equally useless except for the power they allow the leaders to wield over the masses.”

  “If you really believe that, then why go to the expense and difficulty to bring the Altar back from Germany? Why not just leave it in the museum where it sits?” Demetri probed. “This ancient Altar is not just a collection of images from old Greek myths. It is the true story of mankind. All beings—gods, giants and mortals—are the children of our mother Earth. Just as the gods of Olympus together with the mortal Hercules battled the giants—the forces of nature—we also strive to control the earth because we, like they, forget that we owe her our very existence. In antiquity this connection to Nature was respected and revered. With the advent of Christianity, the reverence for the earth faded. In mythology Gaia, the Earth, was not created—rather, she emerged from Chaos, the empty void, and when she mated with the heavens she gave birth to the gods. Though the gods could control the elements they could never completely subdue Gaia. Then Christianity began to overtake the ancient religions. Christianity took the Judaic concept of male Creator who had formed the earth and the heavens and all living things and then finally created man in His own image to rule over His creation, and added to it the idea that this God cares so much for men that he would send his Son to die for them. These teachings changed everything. Rather than a pulsating, powerful, passionate goddess, the Earth was reduced to a created object which had been brought into being for the service of man. Men and women were more important than anything else on this planet. By teaching that their God would die for them, Christianity firmly set the individual at the center of the universe, and as it did so it brought subjugation of the earth and the advancement of men as her masters. Soon the respect for Gaia was gone. Some of the respect was returned with the advent of Darwinism as men once again learned that the Earth is our true mother—the primordial element and the source of life. Today we have many on this planet who respect Mother Nature but only a small fraction of those understand that they owe allegiance to Gaia. There are still far too many who have pledged allegiance to Father God—the natural enemy of Gaia. And two thousand years later, they still worship a God who died for them instead of a goddess for whom they must die.

  “That is why you need the Altar, Josef. It is not merely a collection of ancient art dug out of a mountaintop in Turkey. It is the key to unlocking the human psyche and transforming the human race. The Altar can reconfigure the value system of billions of people.”

  “What makes the Altar valuable is what it represents to the world,” Josef contradicted. “You mentioned my speech at the Club of Rome. When I challenged the attendees that I could do in eight years what they have failed to do in nearly fifty, I was not just making an entertaining dinner presentation. I can succeed where they have failed because I can change the conditions that have caused their failures. The greatest single obstacle to the advancement of the global environmental movement and the New World Order is not individual property rights, or individual wealth, or nationalism. The preeminent threat to global environmentalism is Christianity. Because of Christianity people insist that national sovereignties matter and they have individual inalienable rights. Christianity gives people hope in something greater than themselves; it teaches them, as you have indicated, that there is a God who loves them and will help them, and that belief inspires them to fight all attempts at enslavement. It is because of the Christian belief in the Second Coming that no amount of marketing about global warming and the ultimate waste and destruction of the world has had any major impact on behaviors. Adherents to Christianity don’t care if the world is depleting all of its resources; they are staring up at the sky waiting for their God. And they are so certain of His care that they will risk their lives to protect not only their own liberty but that of others.

  “As long as Christianity exists, the world’s people will never fully embrace the environmental movement; they will never voluntarily reduce the world’s population; they will never fully subjugate themselves to the New World Order. Christianity destroyed ancient Rome; it had weakened Germany so much that Hitler could never mold the Germans into the force for change that he needed them to be. To bring massive change in behaviors you need to give mankind a new symbol—a new visual. For two thousand years that symbol of hope has been a cross; now it will be the Pergamon Altar. The Altar symbolizes the defeat of Christianity; the death of the faithful roasted alive in a bronze bull with their glistening bones afterwards used as ornaments. It is a symbol of the subjugation of all religions to the New World Order. By bringing back the Altar and making it a symbol of a new religion—a religion that centers on respect for the earth, we can control the behaviors and values of the world’s population. We can inspire those who love the earth, and we can intimidate the skeptics into silence and submission. By showcasing the Altar’s bloody history and its victory over the ancient Christians who opposed it, we can inspire fear in our opponents. It will be a symbol to the whole world that a new time has come.”

  “In other words, you plan to use it as a theatrical prop?” Demetri’s remark angered Josef, and the Greek watched the disgust spread across his guest’s face before he spoke again, “Do not be offended. I heard about the mind games you played at your induction as secretary-general of the Club of Rome. Most of the guests were very impressed, some were truly frightened, and others were concerned about turning over so much power to a man they believe can read minds. But you and I both know that your crystal prisms cannot reveal the future. So now, what? You want a bigger, more impressive visual?”

  “Sokol must have told you this. He is wrong, Demetri; the crystals are not props. I was able to show the Guardians of Mankind the past, the present, and the future—in one moment.”

  “I would like to see a demonstration,” Demetri was clearly baiting
him. “Do you have a crystal with you now?”

  Josef thought for a moment. He still had the crystal Afshin had cursed. It rested in its black velvet bag where it had lain since his encounter with the strange old man. He had it in his luggage, but after the dire warning Afshin had given him about the crystal showing him his own future when he was ready to face it, he had not opened the velvet bag to examine it. At any rate, his trick would not work unless he could dose Demetri with Labyrinth, and Josef did not have any with him.

  “I left it my other coat, so, unfortunately, I will not be able to oblige you. But I can assure you that the experience that the Guardians had was completely authentic.”

  “Did you know that crystals have souls?” Demetri leaned back in his chair and studied Josef. “I know that as a man of science you don’t believe in human souls. Sokol has told me all about you—you believe only in science and its power to correct the ‘mistakes’ of nature. But Nature makes no mistakes—even the harsh events of the universe—the tornadoes, the tsunamis, the earthquakes—those are her way of communicating with us to tell us that we cannot continue to ignore her. We are all connected to her life-force—men, plants, animals, and minerals. On the surface a crystal is like a beautiful woman—sparkling with nuances of color and personality, yet seemingly cold and aloof. But if you examine the crystal under a microscope you will see in the mineral composition its soul—exploding with light and fire and passion. This is the reason that those who respect the ancients reverence crystals—in the soul of a crystal it is possible to see the reflection of your own soul. If you want true insight into yourself and the universe, take a long look into one of your own crystals and see what you find there.”

  This conversation was oddly reminiscent of Josef’s encounter with Afshin. Demetri was now talking in confidential, hushed tones—as though he was trying to frighten Josef, but Josef was not frightened; he was incredulous.

  “You are correct; I do not believe in souls—for men, plants, animals or crystals,” Josef answered curtly. “I believe in science and the power of the mind. I believe in authority and symbols of authority. I believe in a New World Order where those with intelligence and cunning make the decisions for the masses too stupid to properly order the world. If I could create such a world without a symbol of superstition, I would do so. I do not need additional insight—I understand everything about myself, the universe and nature that I will ever need to know. Consequently, I know that in order to control humankind we must substitute the prevailing superstition with a new one that meets our needs. Religion, of whatever sort, is the opiate of the masses. Find the right opiate, and they will drug themselves into insensibility.”

  “If this is really what you believe, then you are in grave danger. I warn you, Josef, for your own sake, you are about to embark on a quest you do not understand. You cannot master the Altar—the Altar has only one master, and he will not submit to you. You do not choose the Altar; the Altar must choose you.”

  “Do you really believe that the spirit of Zeus inhabits the Altar and waits for a time to be set free again to rule the earth? Why would an ancient Greek god conceal himself in an old piece of marble?” Josef smiled cynically.

  “Zeus is one name, but he is known all over the world and called by many names. The Romans called him Jupiter, the Scandinavians called him Thor; the Egyptians called him Ammon. The Hebrews called him Abaddon. Every culture knows him by the name they choose for him. His name is not important; he is the Force that controls the minds and desires of all men and women on this earth. He is at work everywhere, every day, in every corner of the world. It is his voice that whispers to a commander of an army outpost that the men in his regiment should rape the women in a village to humiliate and subjugate the people, and then it is his voice that whispers to the enraged husbands that they should kill the regiment in revenge.

  “He is the one who suggested that the assassin murder the Archduke Ferdinand and thereby start World War I; he inspired Hitler to invade Poland. He is present at the beginning of every war; he walks along every battlefield gloating over the dead and dying. He stands in the interrogation room and whispers to the torturer how to extract the most pain in order to procure the desired information from his hapless victim. He sits at every peace negotiation and breathes the lies into the ears of the world leaders that become the basis for peace treaties that are never honored.

  “He is close at hand watching every child who is ever beaten or violated. He entices a lonely wife to abandon her vows and give herself to her neighbor; he tells her husband about her crime and demands that he kill her to restore his honor.

  “He teaches one man how to make himself rich through cheating, theft, extortion and crime, and then he shows another man the first one’s treasure and suggests a plan for how to kill the owner of this abundance and thereby procure it for himself.

  “He whispers every act of betrayal, murder, cruelty, and lust into the minds of mankind. He allows the man who loves to gamble a few wins just to make certain that he will remain fixed in his habit, and then he sits back and watches him lose all he owns. He shows men how to make themselves rich through narcotics, and then he offers those narcotics to those he knows cannot resist. He sees every heart, every thought, every longing; he knows every weakness and dark desire of every person who ever has or ever will live, and so he knows what will tempt and seduce each one. And because of this, his power is immense and stretches far and wide—across every continent, people group, race, creed and language.

  “He is not imprisoned in the Altar, Josef. He has been with you your whole life—from your infancy. But on certain occasions in history, when he has watched mankind a long time and knows the conditions are right, he suggests to men to move his Altar, which is the center of his power here on earth, so that he can reign openly.”

  “No ancient spirit suggested that I move the Altar, I can assure you,” Josef smirked. “And nothing whispers in my ear.”

  “You are wrong. The Altar alone chooses where it will live; it seeks to be near the Force. The Altar chose to be constructed in Turkey at Pergamon. By demanding the blood of the faithful, the Altar stood against Christianity in Turkey until finally the Force had driven it out. For over a thousand years the Ottoman Empire dominated Europe with Turkey as its base of operations. European Christian children were marched away as slaves to the Ottomans as their parents looked on helplessly—a tribute to the Ottomans and a testimony to the power of the Force. The Force and the Altar made the Ottomans the rulers of much of Europe. But as Europe became stronger, the Altar sought a new base of operations—a place from which it could continue to exert influence for the Force. In the late 1800s, it revealed itself to your German archaeologists for the express purpose of being removed to Germany. From there, the Force ruled over two world wars, the rise of Fascism and Communism, and the reemergence of Islam and terrorism. Now the Force is moving again, and the Altar must move with him—to help him consolidate his power. When he has become ruler over the entire world, he will elevate Gaia to her rightful place in the hearts of men. He is choosing a new home—that is why you are here; the Altar has sent for you.”

  Josef stared at Demetri. He would enjoy murdering this Greek. He had not planned to kill him, but now, after hearing this mystical gibberish about the Force, murder seemed to Josef to be the only logical response. He could teach Demetri a little about real force before he finally extinguished his life. Not here, though. In a few days Josef would be heading back to his Swiss estate and his castle with its dungeon deep in the bowels of the mountains filled with centuries of ancient instruments of torture used by medieval masters to punish those who opposed them. Every barbaric instrument of pain and cruelty ever conceived was represented in this room in one fashion or another, but unlike their original owners, Josef had the added benefit of expanded knowledge of the human form and biology and unlimited access to drugs which allowed him to bring his victims to the brink of death while depriving them of that final escape. He
had lost count of the number of men and women who had begged for death in that room. One man who had particularly angered him had lived for three months in a state of intense suffering, and he died when he did only because he managed to free himself of his bonds and take his own life while Josef was away on business.

  He had not yet decided how long he would keep Demetri alive, but at this moment his fantasies were fixed on the image of a mangled, bleeding form, almost unrecognizable as his handsome arrogant dinner companion, barely able to whisper his entreaties for death. Josef would invite the entire family—families were so interesting to kill together; one could learn so much about the family dynamic. Would Iona and Demetri beg for the life of their son and the lives of each other, or would each attempt to trade the other two in exchange for their own lives? As they witnessed one another’s beauty being destroyed through torture, would they try to help each other? Perhaps he would allow Demetri’s last sight to be that of his wife and child’s perfectly gleaming bones being made into jewelry—just before Josef removed his eyes and shut him up in the brazen bull to roast. The eyes of all three would be permanent souvenirs in his collection to remind him of the agony of their screams and the scent of their roasting flesh.

  As the vision faded, Josef realized that Demetri had been watching him carefully. His expression was oddly familiar, and for a moment Josef imagined that Demetri could actually view his fantasy; yet he did not appear shocked or afraid or angry. He was smiling—not a happy or a pleasant smile or even a conciliatory smile. His smile was strangely mocking. In Kairos’ deep gray eyes was a familiar, taunting expression. Where had Josef recently seen that same gaze looking back at him? Suddenly he remembered—he had seen the same taunting mockery in the sightless eyes of Afshin the beggar.