by John Lyman
Ben slammed his fist into his open palm. “I knew we should have flown them out after they had been spotted.”
“They were following operational procedure, Ben,” Alon said. “They were protecting the security of the mission.”
“Well, security is shot now, and I get to write letters of condolence to the families of those men. I should have ordered them to blow the truck and sent in an extraction team to fly them out. Now Acerbi’s men know some major players are in the area.”
Leo sat on the edge of a worn couch and looked around the room. So much for the element of surprise.
Ed Wilson reached into his backpack and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels. Uncapping it, he took a long swig and slammed the bottle down on the table. “I say we nuke the ranch and be done with it. I’m asking my boss to call the President. If he gives the go-ahead, Acerbi’s hacienda will be nothing but a smoking, glowing, radioactive hole in the ground a few hours from now.”
“I’m beginning to agree,” Lev said. He eyed the black label on the whiskey bottle and poured some of the golden liquid into his coffee.
“Go easy on that stuff, Professor,” Wilson said. “It’s not some of that kosher wine you guys drink.”
Lev took a sip and looked him right in the eye. “And I’m not a Jew anymore, but even when I was I could hold my liquor.”
Wilson clapped him on the back as the door to the trailer opened and Jack Beck poked his head in. “I just heard what happened to your boys. Sounds like payback time, but first I think you guys need to turn on the TV.”
Alon was the first to find the remote and switched it on. It felt like the air had been sucked through the door when they all gasped. Sitting at a glass-topped table with a swimming pool in the background, Rene Acerbi was peering into the camera, and despite the pleasant ambiance of the setting, he wasn’t smiling.
CHAPTER 56
Acerbi’s dark eyes seemed to reach beyond the camera and look right into the room. A red banner scrolled across the bottom of the screen announcing that local programming had been interrupted for a special news bulletin. The entire scene was eerie. Against a vacation-like background, the expression on Rene’s face had a chilling effect on those in the trailer, for they were aware that they were looking into the eyes of a mass murderer, and whatever he was about to say would be either a threat or a lie.
Good Evening. My name is Rene Acerbi. Many of you probably recognize my name because of the much publicized fact that I happen to be one of the wealthiest men in the world, but there is much about me that you don’t know. Let me begin by saying that great wealth comes with its own special obligations, especially to those less fortunate, and I have always considered it my greatest obligation to use my wealth to make the world a better place for future generations. Tonight, with the help of a dedicated group of individuals, I am addressing you from a secure location because the world is in danger, and if we don’t take action soon, our time as a species on this planet will soon come to an end.
Acerbi paused to let his words sink in before he continued.
Several days ago, scientists employed by the Acerbi Pharmaceutical Corporation, working in a secret location, discovered a vaccine for the new and deadly virus that is now spreading throughout the world. Without it, millions will die. My goal is, and always has been, the welfare of those who have been struck down by this horrible disease. However, because of circumstances beyond my control, I have been stopped from producing this vaccine or distributing it to you and your family.
In the last twenty-four hours, we have uncovered a sinister plot hatched by a group of powerful individuals who want to increase their fortunes by taking over the governments of the world. To this end, they want to eliminate at least half the people on the planet to make it easier to control those who remain. These evil men and women are responsible for developing the virulent pathogen that has been released into the world, and they plan to hold its deadly power as a weapon over your heads if you do not comply with their wishes.
The vaccine I possess is the only thing that stands between you and a viral Armageddon, so I now beseech you to rise up and come to my aid. The governments who do not support me are under the control of the group who is spreading the virus. They must be eliminated. We are with you, and as soon as we are able, we will begin disseminating the vaccine around the world to save as many of you as we can. It is time for the people of the world to join with me and come together so that we can stop these evil people and abolish the corrupt governments they control.
Together, we will defeat them, and I will stand with you at the forefront of a new beginning. I will begin by releasing a list of names of those who belong to this group to the press so that they will be exposed for what they are. Once we have succeeded in eliminating them, a new dawn will rise over a global community led by fair and wise leaders. I only hope that we are not too late, so I remind you that time is of the essence if the human race is to be saved.
Without so much as a “good night” from Acerbi, the screen faded to black before control of the satellite signal was passed back to the TV network. Acerbi was now gone, replaced instead with the shocked expression on the face of the television anchorman. Within seconds, the producer’s voice in his earpiece cued him to the fact that he was back on live TV.
“Uh … you’ll have to excuse me folks. I … I don’t really know what to say at this point except that our network appears to have been hijacked somehow for that broadcast. We here in the newsroom cannot verify its authenticity or where it came from, so until we learn more, please stay tuned and we’ll try to get to the bottom of this.”
“What the hell?” Wilson said.
Lev drained his cup while he stared at the screen. “It appears as if our friend is preparing to release the dogs of war on some of his fellow conspirators.”
“It’s brilliant,” Evita said, shaking her head. “He’s getting ready to give up some of his so-called friends in order to divert suspicion away from himself, and I think it’s safe to say that his list will contain only the names of people he’s already decided to eliminate for one reason or another. By revealing his own plan, he’s just discarded some unwanted baggage while making himself look like the savior of the world. Now, if any of his buddies try to expose him for what he really is, everyone will think they’re just trying to save their own hides. This guy is home free, while some of his friends are no doubt running for their private jets to escape the mobs that will soon be coming after them.”
Leo stood and reached for Wilson’s bottle. After pouring two fingers in a short glass, he downed it all in one gulp.
“You have to hand it to the man for his ability to stay two steps ahead of everyone else. I’d be willing to bet that every government that doesn’t disappear within the next forty-eight hours is already under his control. There’s no telling how many countries have accepted his terms and now look to him as their de-facto leader. Rene Acerbi has just become the twenty-first century version of Napoleon Bonaparte. He’s going to rule the world, and he’s done it without firing a single shot.”
“I can’t believe this is happening,” John said. Everyone looked behind them to see that he and Ariella had just entered the trailer. “We can’t let this guy get away with this. He still has the capability to take out the entire human race, and we’ll be the only ones left to stop him if the rest of the world buys his story.”
Lev pulled a cigar from his shirt pocket and ran it under his nose. “Evita just made an interesting observation. She said that Acerbi just revealed his own plan. I think she hit the nail right on the head. This whole thing is coming directly from him. It’s like he has a giant blueprint in his head of how all the pieces will come together, and that’s what makes it so tough to pin him down. It’s probably a fair assumption that even his closest allies don’t have a true picture of what he’s really up too. The only way we’re going to stop him is to find out what his real plan is. His true plan is his Achilles heel and …”
&
nbsp; Lev stopped in mid-sentence to answer his ringing cell phone. His face remained stone-like as he listened to the caller. He mumbled a quick “thank you” before he clicked off and turned to face the others.
“That was Eduardo Acerbi. He wanted us to know that Rene knows who and where we are and that he’s laid a trap for us in Mexico. He thinks we should pack up and fly back to Israel as quickly as possible.” Lev paused to light his cigar. “Anyone want to put it to a vote?”
“Wasn’t it Eduardo who sent us here in the first place?” Leo said. “Now he’s telling us we should leave. To be honest, I’m starting to have some doubts about him. I mean, as far as we know, he’s the only one outside our circle who knows where we are.”
“You’re forgetting Acerbi’s connections,” Lev said. “Plus the fact that he intercepted two of our people and had a chance to examine the truck they were in. That vehicle was full of evidence that linked those men to us.”
The others in the room nodded as Ben Zamir stood against a wall, clinching his fists and gritting his teeth. “We don’t need to take a vote. This is non-negotiable. As long as two of my men have their heads impaled on spikes in front of Acerbi’s ranch, my team is staying. He’s a dead man.”
Lev looked over at Colonel Wilson. “Did you make the call?”
“Yes. The President won’t authorize the use of nukes.”
“Why not?”
“Mainly, he’s against using them for any reason, but right now people all over the world think Acerbi is a hero.” Wilson bent his tall frame forward. “I’m afraid I have more bad news. We’ve just been ordered to pull out, and the Pentagon wants you guys out of here tonight.”
“What?” Ben practically screamed. “Never … we’re going in … with you or without you!”
Wilson cast a sympathetic look at the seething young warrior. “I’m sorry, Ben. My men were itching to go after this guy. We were ready to give him some serious payback for what he did to your people, but I’m career military, and orders are orders.”
“We can’t do it without your choppers, Colonel,” Lev said. “If you leave, it will make our job even harder, if not impossible, and this is the best chance we’ve had so far to get this guy before he takes out half the world.”
Wilson winked. “I suppose I could leave a few choppers behind for mechanical reasons, but that’s about the extent of what I can do at this point unless you guys want to visit me in Leavenworth Prison for the next twenty years.”
“Unbelievable!” Ben smashed his fist against a wall and walked outside.
“We’ll take the choppers, Colonel,” Lev said quietly. “Thank you.”
“I wish I could do more.”
Leo leaned back in his chair and stared out the window just as the red light on the satellite phone began to flash. It was a call from the villa in Israel. “Now what?”
Lev reached for the phone and hit the on button.
“Hello … Professor?”
“Daniel?”
“I meant to call sooner, but I fell asleep in front of my computer again … sorry. We’ve just decoded some new phrases in the Bible.”
Lev felt the hair on his arms begin to rise. “And?”
“I’m sending everything now by secure fax.”
“Good. There’s a lot going on here now, and it’s not looking good. How’s Sarah?”
“She’s fine. I think I have some good news for a change.”
“The pathogen?”
“Yes. There may be a reason why she didn’t die from the virus.”
“Are you saying she had some sort of immunity?”
“It’s possible we all do. Just read the fax, and call me back if you have any questions.” Daniel hung up and hit the send button on the fax machine.
Lev grabbed the first page as the others crowded around and began to read over his shoulder. Right away they could tell that it was a page from Genesis written in Hebrew. Across the top, they saw the first of several phrases circled in red. The name, Eduardo Acerbi was crossed diagonally by a second phrase-Father of the Evil One. Below that, they saw the one word they all hoped they would never see again-Antichrist. Everyone stopped reading. There it was. Eduardo Acerbi was the father of the Antichrist, and that could only mean one person-Rene Acerbi.
The eyes of everyone present met with the unspoken knowledge that Rene Acerbi was evil incarnate. His was not the mindless evil of a disease, nor was it the evil of a megalomaniacal villain who wanted to emulate countless others who had sought to rule the world throughout history. This was a biblical kind of evil, an evil revealed to mankind in the Book of Revelation, an evil foretold by God Himself. It was evil that was here now. Ariella gasped as she pointed to another phrase.
At the bottom of the page they saw two words-dark star. These two words were crossed by another puzzling phrase that stumped them all-it will appear in the child’s sixteenth year.
A second fax began printing out. This time it was a page from Leviticus, the third book of the Pentateuch. In the middle of the page, the word virus jumped out at them, and to the left of it, running side by side horizontally down the page, were two phrases-God’s chosen and safe from the plague.
“So that’s what Daniel meant when he said we were all immune to the virus,” Ariella said. “He was talking about us, the Bible Code Team. God’s chosen are safe from the virus.”
No one spoke as Lev looked from his daughter over to Leo. “Cardinal, would you please be so kind as to lead us all in a little prayer?”
CHAPTER 57
Breaking the stillness of the desert night, the large white passenger jet streaked low over Acerbi’s hacienda as it circled above the moonlit sagebrush on its descent to the runway at the base of the hill. After taxiing into position next to the single, darkened hangar, the pilot began shutting down the engines as fifty well-dressed men and women exited the jet and made their way down the aircraft stairs to an empty concrete ramp.
The area seemed deserted. With no vehicles or people in sight, the curious group was left only with the silence of the barren desert to greet them. The eeriness of the scene gave some reason to pause as they stood on the still-warm tarmac and gazed up at the lights coming from Acerbi’s hacienda on the hill.
To the well-heeled arrivals who were used to being catered to, the lack of a welcoming committee was an affront, especially considering the fact that they had all traveled to this desolate piece of Mexican real estate to witness a ceremony that would mark the beginning of a new world order. Their plan had come together perfectly. They had finally done it, and by this time tomorrow, they would be united as the new rulers of a world completely under their control.
Standing on the warm concrete, some shivered with the knowledge that other members of their group hadn’t been so lucky. They had been exposed to the world in a brilliant double-cross that had shifted the blame for the deadly viral outbreak onto them. They had been cast out by their elite peers and left to fend for themselves in a brutal purge orchestrated and justified by Acerbi for the greater good of the organization as a whole. It was a perfect example of the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fittest, a fact not lost on the men and women who now stood exposed and defenseless on an isolated desert runway in the middle of the night.
“This is preposterous!” Alan Thorn said, loosening his tie. In the moonlight, the others could see that the face of the short-tempered oil man was turning red. “He can’t treat us this way. What are we supposed to do … hike through the cactus up to his house?”
Dana Waters looked toward the darkened hangar. “Calm down, Alan. This obviously isn’t a country club.”
The others cast cautious glances in Thorn’s direction as an instinctual primal fear began to spread through the human herd like chaff on the wind. Then, one of them pointed. There, at the edge of the tarmac, they saw the surreal image of Rene Acerbi, emerging all alone from the darkness. His sudden appearance took them all by surprise, for it was well known that Acerbi never went anywhere wit
hout his hand-picked legion of security men. Yet there he was, walking out of a desert wilderness at night without a single guard. Evidently, they thought, he must feel completely secure here in Mexico. If only they felt the same way.
Watching Acerbi come closer, the group saw that he was smiling. Apprehension turned to relief, and relief turned to joy when he walked right into their midst and began shaking hands all around.
“Good evening, my friends. I trust your flight across the Atlantic was comfortable.”
“It’s almost nine o’clock at night, Rene,” Thorn said. “And they didn’t give us anything to eat on the plane.” He sneered as he looked past Rene at the empty desert. “Where’s your usual entourage, Acerbi?”
Acerbi’s dark eyes narrowed as he maintained a tight smile. “We’re completely safe here. No need for guards. As for the crew’s failure to feed you on your flight over, please accept my apologies. They were just following my instructions. I’m sure you are all starving, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise dinner I had prepared in honor of your arrival. Come, please follow me.”
With that, Acerbi turned and began walking toward the darkened hangar. As if on cue, a few lights began switching on, infusing the area with soft light. Outside, those walking toward the hangar could see the outlines of men dressed like waiters lighting candles at a dozen tables spaced out over the concrete floor.
“Dinner in a hangar,” Thorn said. “How special. I would have thought we’d be dining in your new hacienda.”
“The house is being prepped for the ceremony tomorrow,” Acerbi said, keeping his eyes focused straight ahead. “We had to improvise. On a more positive note, you’ll be pleased to know that your rooms are ready and that you’ll all be joining me up at the hacienda later for cocktails.”
Dana Waters smoothed her short blonde hair back out of her face as she walked next to Acerbi. “This is most gracious of you Rene. I’m starved.”