The Prophet Box-Set: Books 1-4

by David Beers

  “Rhett went to get the woman, the one like me. She’s alive, and Rhett is too. I can still feel him. Have either of you tried contacting him?”

  Christine shook her head and Rebecca sighed. “I haven’t even thought about it, not until just now. I hate myself for it but I haven’t slept in days. I just ….”

  “It’s fine. Something happened when he went to get her, but I don’t know what. She saw me down there on the platform, too, I’m sure of that. That’s our major problem, not the Summoning. If it wasn’t for her, we could start the Union relatively quickly … but she changes everything.”

  Christine stood and walked over to the edge of Rebecca’s couch. “How?”

  “She has to die,” David said. “That’s all I know. I told Rhett to bring her here, because I couldn’t go to her and there was no way he could kill her.” He looked at Rebecca. “I want you to contact him and find out as much as you can.”

  “Now?”

  David nodded.

  It was something he couldn’t do. The nanotech flowing through the two women in the room, as well as Rhett, was absent in his own body. He hadn’t been born inside the True Faith, and when he arrived, he was too old for the procedure. He possessed powers that destroyed entire convoys, yet he couldn’t do the simplest of things others born in this Ministry could.

  Rebecca sat back on the couch and looked forward, already beginning to speak with Rhett—or try at least.

  A few minutes passed, the room silent.

  “He’s says it’s not safe to talk,” Rebecca said, her voice a whisper—as if the conversation in their room could somehow be heard across the world.

  David pushed down his first instinct, which wanted her to press on. He knew this new woman’s importance, even if he kept that pressure from falling on Rebecca’s and Christine’s shoulders. All that mattered right now was getting to her. Rhett—as much as it might hurt to think it—didn’t matter outside of helping David find her.

  He said nothing, though, trusting his sister would do what was needed.

  “He’s with her. Someone else is there, too. Rhett’s frightened of him … or at least doesn’t want us communicating because of him.”

  “Why?” Christine asked.

  Rebecca raised a finger to her. Hold on.

  “He says he’s going to try to kill her, David. And that he thinks they’re heading to the One Path.” Rebecca closed her eyes on the last word. Her lips trembled for a second, and then they drew into a thin line. “He’s gone.”

  “Gone?” Christine asked, almost jumping forward.

  “I mean, he broke the connection. I don’t think he was hurt.”

  Christine sighed, and David looked down to see his hands were clenched into fists. He forced them to relax, pain from holding them that way radiating to his wrists.

  “The One Path?” he asked.

  “That’s what Rhett said. There’s something about the man holding them. Rhett thinks he knows we’re communicating.”

  “What do we do, David?” Christine asked.

  The three of them were the last people in the compound. There had been no other transports arriving, only those the group sent out, emptying all 400 people over the course of a day.

  If anyone from the Ministry arrived now, they would only find three.

  David walked across the room, through the holograph, and to the glass door. He pulled it open and let the cool morning air come in. Yesterday he had stood on that platform and killed hundreds. The grass outside was still blood-soaked, with ragged clothing and body parts scattered. There would be no clean up because David understood that he was done with this place forever.

  “David?” Christine called.

  “Close the door,” Rebecca said. “I can smell the dead.”

  He could too. The air was cool, but the smell of blood was thick. He didn’t shut it, though. He breathed in deep and then let it out slowly.

  “What about the traitor?” Christine asked.

  David gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to deal with that at the moment. The traitor was out there, sent away with the other 400 after trying to bring hell into David’s home.

  He shook his head. “I’ll deal with them later. They’re gone for now, and they’re not close to me. They won’t know my thoughts or my actions. When this is over and the Union is finished, I’ll find them.” He grew silent for a second, real rage inside his chest. Because they had tried to kill him, tried to kill everything he held dear. Everything he’d worked for. Somewhere in the world was someone that had taken his blood, taken an oath, and then forsook it all.

  Enough, he thought. You will find them and you will end them. For now, this woman is who matters.

  “Rebecca and I are going to the One Path,” David said. “Christine, you’re going to stay here and command the Summoning.”

  “What?” Rebecca asked, and David heard her stand up. “The One Path? Just like that?”

  “I …,” Christine started to speak but her voice failed her.

  He turned around, giving his back to the outside world. “There isn’t going to be any argument about this. Not from either of you. There simply isn’t time. The world is changing rapidly, right beneath our feet. We could lose everything if we don’t act now. Do you both understand that? Everything.”

  An edge was in his voice; he couldn’t help it, but he didn’t care either. Always with the arguing, the bitching. Even Rhett, not trusting David’s instincts about going to the Old World. What he needed were soldiers right now, and not these people who thought themselves friends or family, or what-the-fuck-ever.

  “I need you both to say that you understand me,” he whispered, holding in his rage.

  “I understand,” Christine said.

  Rebecca held his eyes, but she nodded. “I do too.”

  “This woman, she will stop the Union. I know that now. So we’re going to find her, and then we’re going to kill her. You and me, Rebecca.” He looked to Christine. “You’re going to make sure that the war continues, and you’re going to intensify it. You’re going to make these damned Ministries think the death of their subjects is the real issue. Kill them all if you have to, have blood dripping from the SkyLight, but the war keeps going until we find this woman. Do you get it?”

  Christine nodded, but said nothing.

  David looked at the two of them for another few moments. He had these two to rely on, no others.

  That’s okay, he thought. That’s fine. They’ll be soldiers. Maybe not always, but when it counts.

  “Okay. Rebecca, pack,” he said. “We leave in an hour.”

  The traitor couldn’t think of a worse outcome. They looked at the past day and saw only disaster, death everywhere, pain unimaginable.

  What did you think would happen? they asked themselves. Did you think David would simply go quietly into the night? You told them. You said if they came, they would die.

  But you didn’t tell them what would happen after, did you? That the entire world would melt down.

  No, the traitor hadn’t, but the True Faith should have known. They knew about Veritros. They knew what she’d done.

  All of these arguments repeated through the traitor’s head incessantly over the past 24 hours, but all of it came to the same. The traitor understood that they had simply brought the past to the present. They had done nothing—absolutely nothing—to stop David’s quest.

  How many more people did he have than Veritros did? Ten times as many? Twenty? The multiplier was high, and the only saving grace the traitor found amidst this bloody haze was that David’s hand had been forced. He hadn’t had time to prepare.

  The compound was empty, and now the traitor had choices to make. Give up or finish what they’d set out to do.

  If you give up, that’s it. There’s no one else that is going to do this. You’ve got to stem the tide, because the Unformed grows smarter each time It comes. If you don’t stop David, who will?

  David didn’t know who the traitor was yet,
at least they didn’t think so. The steps they’d taken to mask themselves hadn’t completely worn off, and with everything happening, David simply wasn’t able to focus on finding them. So for the time being, they were safe, and that meant they had to work hard and fast while he was distracted.

  Maybe the world does burn, but that doesn’t mean he has to win, the traitor thought. The world will burn. It is burning, and that’s something you’re just going to have to live with now. If you don’t stop him, though, there will be no more world—nothing to burn at all.

  From the very beginning of the traitor’s mental reckoning, the point had been to kill David Hollowborne. That’s what they had hoped to do when they involved the Prevention Division—even though it ended in failure. So, now, the traitor had to find another way to kill him.

  That was, after all, the only way to stop David.

  Rachel Veritros

  Rachel Veritros went to her faithful with hope in her heart and determination in her mind.

  The world didn’t know of her existence yet, though it soon would.

  The girl who came before Rachel barely had two years to amass her followers. The man who came after took 20. Rachel Veritros took five, and that in itself says a lot about her personality. She could have waited longer; there was no pressure to act. The Ministries, despite their previous brush with the Unformed 2,000 years earlier, had largely forgotten the entity. Rachel Veritros could have waited, creating a larger force. She could have waited until victory was guaranteed.

  She didn’t, though. Her conviction, her possession, compelled her forward.

  Rachel kept her own counsel, rarely discussing thoughts with her direct lieutenants until she’d already made her decision. She didn’t really even rely on the Unformed’s guidance, a trait different from the one before her and the one after. She was independent in that aspect, perhaps her time in the wilderness creating a trust in her own judgment that others lacked.

  For five years, Rachel’s followers increased in number, while she plotted her attack.

  At the end of the fourth year, she decided that the next would be the final one. She’d wait no longer, and neither would the Unformed.

  Rachel brought her lieutenants to her. In her home, she told them to start making their preparations. She had four lieutenants, each assigned to a different Ministry. Their job was to ensure that when the attack began, those with Veritros’s blood running through them would be ready.

  The four asked questions. They planned with Veritros, deciding the first paths they would take to ensure her wishes came to fruition. She listened, offering guidance and overseeing it all.

  At the end of the night, the four people she trusted most left her house, leaving her alone.

  Rachel felt happiness that night. She had chosen the right people beneath her, those that would lead when she couldn’t be there. Her blood had spread far across the four Ministries, perhaps further than she even thought possible when first beginning. The Unformed was with her, and she saw how her plans would unfold. A year before her revolution, Rachel Veritros held unflagging belief in what would come.

  A year later, Rachel Veritros sat alone in the same house, though the wall in front of her displayed one of her lieutenants, Brail Lorner.

  “How do you feel?” she asked.

  “Good.” He paused for a second, looking away from the camera, then nodded and looked back up. “Good.”

  “Okay. Tomorrow, then. I’ll speak to you first thing in the morning,” she said.

  Brail nodded, then opened his mouth for a moment. He glanced off camera again, but remained quiet.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Are you scared?” Brail said.

  Rachel shook her head. “No.”

  “Not at all?”

  “Not at all,” she answered.

  Brail looked back into the camera. “I am, Rachel.”

  Her eyes narrowed as she studied the man in front of her. No doubts ran through her mind about him—the time for questioning promotions had long since passed. Yet, Rachel didn’t want to hear this insecurity the night before their war commenced.

  A few seconds passed and then she said, “Why?”

  “We could lose.”

  Rachel nodded, letting silence fall between them. The man held no tears in his eyes, nor did he tremble. Any fear he possessed, he was holding it in, and Rachel needed that more than anything else. She needed everyone under him to see only resolve, not even a glimmer of doubt.

  “We won’t lose, Brail. If we were to lose, then we wouldn’t be here at all. This is fate. We serve something greater than any of us, greater than anything on Earth or in this universe.”

  “I know,” he said, nodding.

  “Then why are you frightened all of a sudden? You’ve never said anything like this before.”

  “I … I don’t know. I guess because it’s actually here.”

  “There’s nothing to fear, Brail. There’s nothing to be afraid of at all. Tomorrow, we’ll free the world. Tomorrow, we’ll bring God home.” She watched him nod, knowing that she wasn’t done. The next few weeks, perhaps months, would be difficult. “I need you ready for what’s coming, Brail. I need you to push all these doubts out of your head.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you, though? The people who follow you, they’ll sense it. Any doubt, any cracks, and we will lose. We’re facing the entire world and we only have a skeleton crew. Your faith has to be absolute.”

  “It is, Rachel. It is.”

  She stared at him for a few more moments, then said, “We’ll win, Brail. There’s no question about it, none at all. I want you to call me when you wake up tomorrow, okay?”

  “No, I’m fine. I don’t need to—”

  “It’s not a request, Brail. Call me by 3:00.”

  He swallowed and nodded again, probably regretting that he’d said anything at all. No other lieutenants would call, not until midday. Rachel didn’t care. Tomorrow morning, any doubts had better be wiped completely from his mind.

  “I’ll talk to you then,” she said.

  “Okay.”

  The hologram on the wall in front of her faded away, leaving her alone in her apartment.

  Rachel sighed but didn’t stand from her couch. That was something she hadn’t needed to hear, not at this late hour. She didn’t really understand why he’d told her at all. Perhaps he was looking for support. Rachel didn’t know. She wasn’t good at understanding the needs of others, and at this point, she truly didn’t care. They all had a job to do and it was now upon them. All of that … it should have been sorted out before now.

  Fear.

  It was something that didn’t compute, not in her mind.

  She stood from her couch and walked across the small apartment into the kitchen. The lights were off, and she left them that way. She wasn’t hungry, nor looking for anything to drink, she simply didn’t want to sit with those thoughts anymore.

  Fear.

  That’s what her lieutenant had said, that he was afraid. And how long had he been so? Had she missed it? Had her refusal to take in people’s feelings hidden that from her?

  Yes. Maybe so.

  Rachel leaned against the kitchen counter, looking at the faucet in front of her.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said.

  Her eyes sparked to life and water flowed from the faucet a second later. It split as it fell, one side turning right, and the other left, then stretched back up into the air. It created a loop ten feet above the faucet before falling back down, the two sides meeting again.

  The water splashed into the basin.

  Rachel’s eyes burned gray in the darkness.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said again. And she knew that was true. It didn’t matter if she had missed Brail’s fear, or if doing so meant she was a poor leader. It wouldn’t matter tomorrow if his fear was still pouring from his mouth like the water from this faucet. She served something greater, and her faith would not falter. Not
during her time in the wilderness, and certainly not the night before her war began.

  Every one of her followers could die, and Rachel would continue on. If they all died, she knew that she wouldn’t so much as look back once at their fallen bodies. Her fate was forward, with the Unformed’s, and the next few weeks or months would be painful. For everyone. But in the end, nothing else mattered except Its claim on Earth. On this universe.

  Rachel closed her eyes and when she opened them again, the water poured in a straight line from the faucet, her eyes calm.

  Rachel looked at Brail the next morning, the sun long below the horizon.

  He looked better. He hadn’t looked bad last evening, but seeing him now, Rachel understood his fear had been real. It seemed less so now.

  “How are you?” she asked.

  “Good. Better. I’m …,” he paused but didn’t look away. “I’m sorry about last night. The magnitude finally caught up to me, I think.”

  Rachel was silent as she’d been last night, taking her lieutenant in completely. How serious was he? How much of this was the truth, versus what he wanted her to hear?

  Be here, now, she thought. Nowhere else. See him clearly and make your decision. Is he solid enough to help lead this war?

  Perhaps Brail knew he was being judged, but he said nothing, both of them looking at each other without words passing between.

  He’ll doubt again, before this is over, Rachel thought. Because it’s going to get worse, much worse, before it improves. How far are you willing to entertain his doubts? How much can those beneath him handle?

  Replacing Brail wouldn’t be easy, and she knew it. The man had talents that in many ways surpassed her other lieutenants. Removing him now would be a serious blow to everything coming; Rachel couldn’t deny it, even if she wanted to.

  “Are you okay?” Brail asked.

  Rachel nodded, but still said nothing.

  You picked him long ago, and if this is the first time you’re seeing his faults, so be it. The Unformed gave no indication It disapproved. You’ve made your choices, now live with them.