“I see.” she wasn’t amused.
“After several failed attempts to hack into MGE’s server, we stumbled across an existing ‘back door’ that had been established during the software’s initial development. Once we discovered this back door, it was then that we learned that the NSA still existed but had gone into hiding.”
“The NSA has been notorious for discreet surveillance.” Brittany lowered her voice to nearly a whisper, “Are you sure your apartment isn’t bugged?”
“My Faraday cage blocks out any form of outside communication.” he spoke confidently as he pointed to the ceiling, “So tell me about this anomaly you encountered on the LET machine.”
“Well, I ran a blood sample from a crime scene.” she explained, “At first the results displayed the profile for a Lillian Thatcher…”
“Woah, hang on.” he interrupted, “The Lillian Thatcher, as in MGE’s developer of the LET machine?”
“Yes, that’s what the profile indicated originally.” she acknowledged, “But then the machine had a glitch, and after several more tries her profile had changed to a Jamie Davenport from Tallahassee Florida.”
“They’re relocating her…” he muttered to himself.
“Excuse me?”
“Sorry,” he clarified, “Lillian is an undercover NSA Agent. We’ve been tracking her for months ever since we established our back door into the MGE server.”
“She’s NSA?” Brittany shook her head in confusion, “But she’s Allan’s girlfriend!”
“Allan...” he paused as he connected the dots, “Wait are you referring to Allan Young?”
“Yes, he’s our primary murder suspect.”
“Murder?” he looked confused, “I highly doubt he’s capable of such a heinous act. I’ve read his files. The NSA has been watching him closely for years.”
“Why have they been watching him?” she asked, “Does he have a criminal background that I’m not aware of?”
“Nothing like that, actually.” he clarified, “They’ve been watching him because there’s something unique about his blood chemistry which causes their GFID Nano-chips to malfunction. So far they haven’t determined a logical explanation as to why it keeps happening. It seems to only happen early in the mornings.”
“So...” she scrunched her eyebrows, “Tell me more about this Lillian Thatcher. At least, that was her name until it changed. Now she doesn’t seem to exist.”
“The NSA must be relocating her.” he looked disturbed, “I hope they haven’t caught on to us.”
“So you think it was the NSA who changed her profile?”
“I have no doubt.” he nodded, “The real question is why. That’s what we need to get to the bottom of.”
“How do you know she’s with the NSA?” Brittany queried.
“Lillian was the operative who developed the NSA’s back door in the MGE server.”
“Are you sure she’s not the one who killed Jason Bridger?” she countered, “She had plenty of access to change her own profile from inside MGE, regardless of the NSA’s back door.”
“Wait…” he stammered, “Jason’s dead?”
“Yes, he was killed a few days ago.” she responded, “And Allan is our primary suspect.”
“No, no…” he suddenly stood and started pacing, “This isn’t good.”
“How do you know Jason?”
“Jason was our primary contact inside the NSA.” he explained remorsefully, “This is very bad news. Do you know why he was killed?”
“We are still trying to determine Allan’s motive...” she paused, “But to be entirely honest, I think he’s innocent.”
“And you think it was Lillian who killed him?” he continued to pace, “I guess that’s possible. After all, if she got wind that Jason had gone rogue and joined the Cyber Police, she may have been assigned to dispose of him.”
Brittany nodded in agreement.
“I need to warn the others.” he spoke frantically as he rushed over to his desk and grabbed his laptop, “We’ve been able to successfully hack into their personnel files, but we are only days away from completing a viable algorithm to hack into their mainframe. We still don’t know how many people they are monitoring with these GFID Nano-chips, nor do we know why they are doing it. If the NSA knows we’re on to them, we’re in big trouble!”
Chapter Thirty Five: Shattered Pangaea
And the time didst come when God spoke unto Enoch and commanded him to activate the great machine; and Enoch didst gather his people together whilst a great battle waged against them in the surrounding lands…
– Methuselah 11:10 –
The first sun had set several hours ago and the air began to turn chilly as they flew high above the vast northern ocean. In the distance Lily could see what appeared to be a large iceberg ahead. In the brief second she saw the iceberg however, her eyes blurred and instead she saw a lush green landscape. As they flew closer, she couldn’t comprehend its size. It expanded the entire northern horizon as far as she could see in either direction.
“Where are we?” Lily asked Tiamat.
These are the Northern Lands.
“Why did you bring me here?”
Thine destiny doth await thee. Thou must meet with the tribal chiefs for thine ordination.
“My ordination?” she stammered, “For what?”
Thou art the Last Oracle. By thine Awakening the commission of thy predecessor hath expired and his body hath returned unto dust.
Lily’s mind reeled as her brain struggled to process the exchange of thoughts and information flowing freely through her mind. She looked down at the lush landscape below, and could see what appeared to be an army marching southward toward the ocean. She turned her head to see however that the ocean was now missing and the lush landscape just continued onward. She could see a row of several towers with strange orbs that floated above them.
“But didn’t we just…” she shook her head in confusion, “Weren’t we just flying over a vast ocean?!”
Tiamat was silent for a moment as she read Lily’s thoughts.
Verily, the legends of old hath indicated that all of the lands upon Earth were once combined in a single mass.
“You mean Pangaea?”
Tiamat studied her thoughts for a few more minutes.
Yea, it appears that thy scholars hath given the mass a name. Thine maps however are incomplete, for thy scholars hath omitted this northern land and the Land of Enoch. ‘twas located in the south-eastern corner of this ‘Pangaea’.
Tiamat set down on a bank of snow. Lily dismounted, and was surprised when the green grass she saw suddenly gave way to a pile of snow. She found herself knee-deep in the snow, and the landscape around her was white as far as she could see. The vast ocean was visible again to the south of them, and she began shivering violently from the cold.
“Where did everyone go?”
Tiamat’s voice was no longer inside her head. She reached out her hand and touched Tiamat’s side.
The moment they made contact, the snow and the ocean disappeared again. They were standing on the top of a hill overlooking an army of warriors as they came to a halt at the edge of the strange towers. On the other side of the towers another army had amassed and they began battle.
“How am I seeing this?!”
An Oracle can see past, present, and the potential future.
“What do you mean by potential future?”
Thou wilt see possible realities that shall be dictated by the choices and actions of those that art in thine stewardship.
“Is this the potential future then?”
No. Thou art seeing events that hath transpired more than five thousand years ago.
She watched in awe at the battle in the valley below. The vision was so vivid, she felt as though she were living it. The northern army was attacking viciously while the southern army defended themselves and struggled to protect the strange towers.
Yea, this was the final battle between the
armies of Enoch against the kingdoms of Seth and Cain.
Lily watched as the northern army gained headway. One of the towers was under heavy siege, and the southern army was having difficulty defending it. It wasn’t long before the northern army prevailed in the siege, and the tower toppled.
Moments later the orbs on top of the other towers began to glow. A beam of blue light hit each tower, and the beams bounced back to its origin in a constant stream of light. The armies stopped battling and stared up at the glowing orbs in awe. In a sudden flash of light, the land to the south and all of the towers disappeared leaving a massive crater behind.
A cliff dropped off the edge to what appeared to be a bottomless pit. A wide sliver of land remained intact which extended from where the tower had been torn down. All of the warriors reacted in different ways. Some screamed in terror, others fainted, and the brave ones ventured out onto the strip of land that had been left behind.
“That strip of land...” she thought for a moment, “That’s Madagascar, isn’t it?”
Tiamat studied Lily’s thoughts for a moment.
Verily, thou art correct.
Suddenly a roar could be heard in the distance. It was faint at first, but then the sound got louder and louder. Then she saw the wall of water heading their direction.
“It’s a tidal wave!” Lily shrieked and let go of Tiamat.
Her sinuses were suddenly aware of the cold again as the frozen tundra enveloped her vision. Not wanting to get frostbite, she climbed up onto Tiamat’s back. The lush green landscape returned to her vision and the roaring got louder as they kicked off into the air. The men below were screaming in terror as the wall of water slammed against the side of the newly formed cliff. Ocean water sprayed up into the air upon impact, and the tidal wave continued to roar beyond the new shoreline.
As they soared into the sky, Lily couldn’t help but instinctively gasp for air and close her eyes as the tidal wave came crashing down on them. When she opened her eyes her brain registered panic when she realized they were fully engulfed in water, and she began to hyperventilate uncontrollably.
Fear not, child. Thou cannot drown in a vision.
Lily closed her eyes again and forced herself to resume normal breathing. After a few deep breaths, she opened her eyes again just as they were ascending out of the water. It was a curious sensation to watch as they breached the water without making a ripple or a splash as if they were ghosts.
She watched intently as the waves washed over the hills and valleys below.
“Were there any survivors?”
Not in the lands round about, no. However, their families in the kingdoms of Seth and Cain did. Verily, they didst live on to spread rumors that “Zion hath fled!” and “The great City of Atlantis hath sunk!” Only a select few didst know the truth however, including the king of the land of Seth. He was very wroth, and had learnt about the technology and the rare mineral known on Earth as Uranium from his many spies. Over many years he didst gather intelligence and his scholars had attempted on multiple occasions to construct small-scale replicas of the machine, but each attempt didst result in a failure. Yea, not many years had transpired thereafter when the king of the land of Seth didst pass away whilst trying to use one of his small-scale replicas. In tribute to him, all of the blueprints and the small-scale replicas were buried with him in his tomb. Alas, his tomb didst remain undisturbed for almost seven hundred years.
The vision began to fade as she looked down on the valley below. Her eyes blurred again as the scene shifted back to snowcapped mountains and valleys. She was unaware how long she had been shivering, but now the cold began to feel unbearable. Tiamat seemed to sense how cold she was suddenly feeling.
We shall arrive shortly in the tribal village of Reuben. They art the eldest tribe, and they shall clothe thee in more proper attire for this climate.
“Wait...” Lily’s eyebrows furrowed in disbelief, “People actually live up here?”
Yea, to remain hidden. In this land resides ten of the twelve tribes of Israel.
“Wait, the Lost Ten Tribes?” she stammered, “As in the Biblical tribes that were taken captive by Assyria?!”
Verily, ‘tis thine destiny to return these lands and their inhabitants to Earth in preparation for the End of Days.
“Hold on…” Lily stammered, “I need to prepare who for what?”
In the End of Days there shall be wars and rumors of wars in diverse locations on both Earth and Zion. Two Seraphim shall rise up in these last days and shall wage war one with another.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t follow.” she scrunched her face, “What are Seraphim?”
Alas, these art the guardians of both worlds who art divinely appointed, similar as thou art. One shall be called Abbadon, or in another tongue, Apollyon. He shall cause death in both worlds, and hell shall follow after him. The other shall be called Elias, or in another tongue, Elijah. He shall be commissioned to take up arms against Abbadon in preparation for the return of Zion and the return of these Ten Tribes of Israel unto the House of Jacob. One Seraph shall fall by sword in preparation for the Great and Terrible Days of Ragnarok when the curse of Wormwood shall destroy one third of the population of Earth.
“Woah! Information overload.” Lily shook her head in confusion, “I didn’t understand any of that. How about you just get to the point. Where do I fit into the scheme of all these things?”
Verily, thou art the Last Oracle. ‘tis thine destiny to repair the great machine and return these people and their lands back to Earth.
Chapter Thirty Six: Summit Attack
And Enoch obeyed the command of the Lord, and didst activate the great machine. The followers of Enoch and their lands about were taken up into the bosom of the Lord in a glorious pillar of light…
– Methuselah 11:11 –
Allan awoke to a rustling sound in the distance. Startled, he slowly raised to a crouch. Looking around in the light of the early dawn, he realized in horror that John was missing.
“John?” he called out in a low voice.
His sleep had been restless because when night had arrived they were engulfed in pitch darkness. The lack of moonlight throughout the night had been unnerving, and Allan had laid awake in the foliage for several hours as the sounds of the night disturbed him relentlessly.
“Where are you?” he muttered under his breath.
He saw movement in the distance. A bush trembled, its occupant likely poising for attack. In his mind’s eye, he imagined a bear or a tiger waiting for the kill. Allan panicked as he searched his mind for what he should do, knowing fully that he had no weapons to defend himself. As his anxiety mounted his eyes began to glow. A silver aura began to encircle him, when suddenly the creature reared from its hiding place. An inhuman screech erupted from Allan’s lips as the aura erupted in a blast that stretched a radius of several hundred feet.
Allan fell on his face, and lay in the charred dirt for several minutes. The surge of power had knocked the wind out of him. After a few minutes he regained his strength, and with a groan he rolled over onto his side.
“What just happened?” he whispered in shock as he raised his head and saw the carnage.
A large circle of charred earth surrounded him. The bushes in the distance had been incinerated, and the predator lay in a heap. As he struggled to stand, his arms and legs were trembling. He stumbled forward and gazed at the creature’s lifeless body. As he approached however, his brain suddenly triggered recognition. It wasn’t a predator after all.
John!
Allan burst into a sprint. When he reached him, he dropped to the ground. John’s beard was mostly singed, and his clothing was in burnt tatters. In his open palm a handful of berries spilled out onto the charred earth. His breathing was shallow, but he was alive!
“John?!” he yelled as he shook him, “Wake up!”
His pulse was weak. His lifeless body refused to rouse. Allan began to shake him violently.
“Come on!
” he moaned, “Please, just wake up!”
“Ah-tsoad!” a foreign voice suddenly yelled behind him.
Allan whipped around to face the voice. Several men in green hoods were approaching him with their bows armed. Their mouths and noses were covered with masks, so that their only distinguishing features were their eyes. Allan raised his arms in surrender as they continued to yell at him in a foreign tongue.
“I don’t understand you!” Allan barked.
The men abruptly stopped their advance, and exchanged perplexed looks with each other.
“You… kill?” one of the men asked in broken English, gesturing the arrow of his bow at John’s body.
“No!” Allan insisted, “He’s alive!”
“You… devil?” he swept his arm to indicate the charred earth.
“No…” he paused, unsure what to say, “Seraph!”
Allan suddenly realized he had used a poor choice of words. They all exchanged alarmed looks, and then rushed at him. Allan was tackled to the ground as he tried to flee. He tried to fight them off, but was quickly bound and gagged.
Allan was forcefully marched up the mountainside, while one of the three foreign men carried John’s lifeless body. They travelled for nearly thirty minutes, trudging through a thin layer of snow until they reached the summit of the mountain. Allan shivered from the cold as two of the men rolled away a moss-covered boulder to reveal the entrance to a cave.
“Go… down.” one of the men had instructed.
A tunnel had opened before him, lit by the fire of several torches. Several passageways opened up to the right and to the left. Allan was quickly marched to the end of the main tunnel, where it steeply declined to a dark staircase that was carved into the rock. The man leading the way grabbed two torches off the walls and proceeded down the dark staircase.
Allan’s mind raced as he tried to decipher what had just happened. Who were these men, and why were they taking him prisoner? The staircase was steep, and from the light of the torch the tunnel didn’t seem to have an end. Allan wasn’t sure how deep they had travelled into the heart of the mountain, but knew how tired he felt from the long journey.
Conquest: Rise of the Fifth Horseman (The Fifth Horseman Series Book 1) Page 15