Conquest: Rise of the Fifth Horseman (The Fifth Horseman Series Book 1)

by Richard M. Mulder

  As she stepped out into the glow, she was shocked to see at least a hundred people dressed in Hindu attire staring at her in awe. They had all been kneeling in prayer inside a large room that was adorned with gold and jewels everywhere. Tiamat’s neck and head protruded from the opening, and she lay unconscious upon what appeared to be a throne with a stone statue sitting in it. The head of the statue had broken off and had fallen to the floor among the bricks and dust.

  Considering their dramatic entrance, she half expected everyone to be screaming in terror. Instead, they all bowed in reverence and began chanting in unison. They all chanted in multiple languages, but yet she was able to recognize bits and pieces of Bengali. As she listened, she realized in horror that they all seemed to think that she was the ancient goddess Shiva returning to Earth in a pillar of light accompanied by the resurrected Vritra, the dragon of drought.

  She quickly placed her hand on Tiamat’s head.

  “Wake up. We have to get out of here.” she whispered urgently while trying to shake Tiamat’s massive head, “These people think we are Hindu gods.”

  Tiamat snorted in reply and slowly opened her eyes. As she raised her head and stumbled to her full stature, several more bricks crumbled to the ground. The people in the room continued to gawk at them as Tiamat forced herself through the narrow opening. Behind them the blue vortex swirled brilliantly.

  A new chant began as they all bowed again in reverence. Lily quickly mounted the dusty saddle, and was able to make out from the brief chants from the man speaking Bengali that they were now worshipping the portal as the fiery column of light from which the half-woman god Shiva had long ago appeared.

  “Let me guess.” Lily whispered, “One of the Seraphim was named Shiva.”

  Verily, ‘tis true. Yea, I hath been told that he was a very beautiful man, for he was often confused as a woman.

  “Great.” she rolled her eyes, “Now I’m a Hindu goddess. Let’s get out of here.”

  The people made a pathway as Tiamat walked toward the open archway on the far wall. Lily turned and cringed as she looked at the crumpled throne and statue. She recognized the throne from her college studies. They were inside the Somnath Temple, one of the oldest and most sacred of Hindu temples.

  As they followed through the main hall, many more bowed in reverence as they passed. Lily was grateful when they finally reached the exterior of the building. Tiamat kicked off into the air as an ocean wave slapped against the containment wall and sprayed saltwater onto Lily’s face.

  As they flew high in to the early morning sky, she felt a little disoriented. It had been approaching nightfall by the time they had cleared the entrance to the Tower of Babel, and now dawn was breaking on the other side of the portal.

  She turned her head and looked down at the Somnath Temple shrinking in the distance. She remembered reading that the temple had been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times, and nobody knew when it had been originally built. But now she knew. Clearly, these were the remains of the missing half of the Tower of Babel.

  Where shall we go, my child?

  “We need to get to Chicago.” Lily determined, “And unfortunately, that’s on the other side of the Earth. It will probably take us a few days to get there. We need to discreetly find food and supplies somewhere. I’m famished.”

  I shall take thee to fulfill thine destiny, young Oracle.

  Chapter Forty Two: Confession

  And God said unto the Malakhim: Bind the Watchers by their hands and feet, and throw them into the darkness. Yea, split open the desert, which is in Dudael, and throw them into the depths of the Earth…

  – Methuselah 11:1 –

  Brittany fidgeted nervously as she sat in the foyer on the 44th floor of Motif Global Encryption. It had been just an hour ago that she had refused to participate with Doug in frying herself with the busted microwave. He turned into a maniac, insisting that she go through with the procedure if she wanted to live. She retaliated by countering that she’d rather not live out the rest of her life as a mutant growing extra appendages all over her body that were infected with cancer.

  They went their separate ways, and after the incident with the ricocheted bullet she knew she would have little time to expose the NSA’s intentions before she would be killed. She first attempted to go to the press. After the reporter patiently listened to her theories that Doug had described to her back at his apartment two days ago, she was quickly shooed out and told that her story would have a better chance in the local gossip magazine.

  Frustrated that she couldn’t turn to the police, she decided to turn to the only other source that would have a vested interest in making sure the NSA goes down: Mr. Timur Demyan.

  “Mr. Demyan will see you now.” the female secretary announced.

  “Brittany stood and straightened her t-shirt. She felt highly underdressed for such a classy establishment, but she knew she couldn’t go back to her apartment to change clothes. She had felt terrified to go back into the heart of the city, but knew she had little choice. Hopefully Mr. Demyan would lend a listening ear.

  The secretary flipped her hair away from her face as she opened the door to his office. Brittany stepped in, and Mr. Demyan stood to greet her. He was dressed in a classy business suit, and she could almost smell his power and prestige.

  “Come, take a seat.” he gestured.

  She sat across from his desk, and he carefully sat back down using his cane for support.

  “You actually caught me at a good time.” he smiled, “I just got back from a long trip.”

  “Thank you for being willing to hear me out.” she straightened her shoulders, “Nobody wants to listen to me.”

  “I’m all ears. How can I help you?”

  “Does the name Allan Young mean anything to you?” she watched him carefully.

  His face turned rigid, “Yes, he was my lawyer until I recently fired him. Why?”

  “I’m a detective.” she stopped and corrected herself, “That is, I was until I was released from duty earlier this week.”

  “My condolences.” he spoke flatly, “Why are you asking me about Allan?”

  He’s on a first name basis with his lawyer? That’s odd.

  “Well, he’s the primary suspect for the murder of the late Jason Bridger.”

  She deciphered a slight smirk on his face.

  “He was in our custody until yesterday, when he used an explosive device of some sort to escape.” she continued.

  “So you’re asking me if I’ve seen him?”

  “No,” she clarified, “I believe he’s innocent.”

  His eyes narrowed, “Then why are you here?”

  “How well do you know Lily Thatcher?” she ignored his question.

  “Considering she’s my Vice President, I’d say I know her pretty well.”

  “I think she’s the one who killed Jason.” she stammered.

  “Oh.” his muscles suddenly relaxed, “I see…”

  Brittany glanced over at the Master Terminal in the corner, “Can you do me a favor and look up her profile?”

  His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “What purpose would that serve?”

  “Please, just humor me for a moment.”

  He shrugged and rolled his chair over to the terminal. After a few minutes he turned back with a perturbed look on his face.

  “I… I can’t find it.”

  Brittany held up a microscope slide in a plastic baggie, “Try this blood sample instead.”

  He walked over with a disturbed look on his face and took the sample. Returning to the terminal, he scanned the blood sample. Seconds later he took a sudden intake of breath.

  “That’s impossible!” he stammered, “How did this happen?”

  “She’s NSA.” she stated matter-of-factly.

  “WHAT?!”

  “I understand that Lily was the primary developer of your LET machines, is that correct?”

  “Yes, it’s true.” his eyes were wide in horror.
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  “She not only developed the software, but she purposely created a back door in the program to allow the NSA unrestricted access to everything on your servers.”

  “But the NSA no longer exists!” he stammered uneasily.

  “On the contrary, that’s what they want everyone to believe.” she smiled.

  Excellent. He believes me.

  “It gets worse.” she continued, “Years ago the NSA developed a new technology consisting of microscopic Gamma-Frequency Identification Nano-chips similar to the Radio-Frequency Identification tags used for pets. They infiltrated the Centers for Disease and Control, and added these Nano-chips to thousands of vaccines. Today they use these Nano-chips to track and monitor everyone on the planet.”

  He shook his head in shock, “This is bad. This is very, very bad.”

  “Agreed.” she nodded, “But the good news is an underground group of hackers called the Cyber Police have successfully hacked into the NSA’s mainframe and are working on a way to deactivate all of the Nano-chips.”

  “Oh…” he stammered, and Brittany deciphered a disturbed look on his face.

  “But I have to ask you something. Do you have any idea why the NSA is especially interested in monitoring you and Allan?”

  His face looked alarmed, “What do you mean?”

  “It seems they have attempted to inject the two of you on multiple occasions, but something about your blood chemistry keeps causing the Nano-chips to fry.”

  He stared at her blankly for several minutes and then opened the drawer of his desk. He extracted a pistol and aimed it at her.

  “Thank you for bringing all of this to my attention.” he cocked the hammer with a click, “I will take care of it.”

  “What…” she stammered and jumped to her feet.

  “And by the way, you’ve got it all wrong.” a wry grin formed on his lips just before pulling the trigger, “I’m the one who killed Jason.”

  Those were the last words she heard before the gunshot rang out and her whole world blacked out.

  Chapter Forty Three: Rise to Arms

  And throw the Watchers on jagged and sharp stones, and cover them with darkness. And let them stay there forever. And cover their faces so that they may not see the light. And so that, on the Great Day of Judgment, they may be hurled into the fire…

  – Methuselah 12:3 –

  Two days had passed, and the dark voice was becoming more and more difficult to silence. It wasn’t until the morning after his surprise coronation that he realized he had somehow lost his Amulet. After wasting a day avoiding John while he searched everywhere for it, late last night he finally admitted that he had misplaced it.

  John went into an absolute panic, and dispatched soldiers to search the tunnels throughout the night. At the break of dawn, he sent more search parties to scour the mountainside. It was approaching noon, and the search had come up fruitless.

  “Look at me.” John insisted as they traveled together down the path.

  Allan raised his sagging head. John’s eyes bore into his, but the expression on John’s face was not comforting.

  “The Leviathan has clouded your mind.” he sighed heavily, “I cannot read your memories.”

  “I can’t bear this pain. It’s too much!”

  “You’re using your Amulet as a crutch.” John spoke in pity, “You have to learn how to silence your mind without it.”

  Allan raised his eyes suspiciously, “Is this one of your stupid tests? Are you hiding it from me?!”

  “That’s the Leviathan talking. He’s making you paranoid.” John drilled him, “Tell me again where you last saw it.”

  Allan shook his head in pain, “I don’t remember.”

  John grabbed him by his shoulders and shook them, “Try harder!”

  “I can’t!” Allan and roared and shoved him away.

  A silver glow began to emanate from Allan’s eyes as his anxiety mounted.

  “You have to remain calm.” John spoke cautiously, “Your powers are still unstable.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do!” Allan’s silver aura erupted with an incinerating blast of heat.

  John’s own white aura had engulfed him in protection, but he had been knocked to the ground by the force of the blow. A large circle of charred earth surrounded them with a few piles of ash that only moments ago had been fully grown trees.

  John stood and gave him a stern look, “Calm down.”

  Allan nodded with wide eyes in shock, and took several deep breaths.

  “You have to learn how to control you emotions before you’re ever going to be an effective leader of these people.”

  “But I don’t want to be their leader!”

  “Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to for the greater good of those around you.” John chastised, “These people need you.”

  “What about my needs?” Allan huffed, “The whole reason why I agreed to follow you here was so that we could get reinforcements to save Lily!”

  “These people are in no condition to go to war.” John sighed, “Have you seen them? They are a war-torn downtrodden people who have witnessed horrible things in their lifetimes. We cannot expect them to fight your battle.”

  “Then why are we even wasting our time here?”

  “Because these people have been praying for a miracle.” John shook his head in disappointment, “You should have seen the way they looked at me when I woke up from your last emotional episode. They cried tears of joy when I told them about you.”

  “What’s so special about me?”

  “You are the spark of hope that they have been praying for.” John spoke, exasperated.

  An Elder from the colony suddenly approached and bowed before them. He looked confused when he stared at the charred dirt at their feet.

  “Target practice.” John passed it off casually, “How can we help you?”

  “Your Majesties,” he spoke with alarm, “A group of villagers from the north hath arrived. They doth look disheveled and forlorn, and one of their Elders wishes to speak with thee.”

  “Take us to him.”

  They followed the Elder back inside the cavern and into the throne room where it was filled to capacity. It seemed the entire colony had assembled to hear news from the outside world.

  A man then greeted them with a brief bow.

  “I am Adonai. I doth bring word from the Village of Udom.” his voice cracked with despair, “My companions and I hath traveled hither with heavy hearts. Yea, our village wast destroyed and our women and children hath been massacred.”

  Terrified murmurs swept through the room.

  John was shocked, “Who did this?”

  “Yea, ‘twas Tamerlane and his Creed of Nephilim.”

  Allan exchanged looks of alarm with John.

  “I doth come to seek justice.” Adonai spoke indignantly, “My wife and my sons hath been killed in this genocide!”

  “I’m sorry for your loss.” John spoke solemnly, “What can we do to help you?”

  “My daughter wast carried captive to the Great City as tribute to the priests of Tamerlane.” he shook his head with remorse, “Many of our children hath been taken as slaves to serve Tamerlane and his wicked priests.”

  “I’m so sorry...”

  “My daughter is all I hath left.” tears streamed down his cheeks, “I must find her. Whilst thou help me in my quest?”

  Allan had remained silent up to this point. The dark voice screamed in the back of his mind, insisting that this was his chance to rally the troops.

  “Yes, we will help you in your quest.” Allan suddenly spoke up, “Prepare the men for battle. We will depart immediately!”

  Everyone in the room erupted in cheers. Everyone that is, except John.

  Chapter Forty Four: You’re No Jack Kennedy

  Preach ye unto the righteous that they may escape the wrath of God. For verily, the whole earth shall be destroyed. A deluge shall come upon all the earth; and all that is in
it shall be destroyed by way of a great flood…

  – Methuselah 12:4 –

  Commander Arlington reviewed the surveillance data again. Brittany Parker’s GFID signature had abruptly registered high levels of stress just before her heart monitor flat-lined. It wasn’t the first time her GFID signature had registered something odd. Earlier that week her signature had entirely disappeared when she entered a home in south-side Chicago, only for it to re-emerge out the back side of the building several minutes later. Naturally they began tracking her movements more closely as a result, and had activated the bug in her cell phone.

  Later that morning he was horrified to learn from Chief Herbert that she had confessed her knowledge of NSA operations to him. As could be expected, he issued a detail team to dispose of her. Unfortunately however, she narrowly escaped her assassination by jumping into a taxi. His agents reported a male passenger in the car, but when he ran a GFID scan he was disturbed to learn that it only reported Brittany and the taxi driver in the vehicle.

  After running a skip trace using traffic cameras and FBI tracking software, he quickly learned that the passenger was none other than the elusive Doug Carter. They had been searching for him for years since the day he suddenly blipped off their radar, but as of yet they had been unsuccessful in capturing him. Somehow he had figured out how to deactivate the GFID Nano-chips in his bloodstream. Commander Arlington suspected that Doug had also passed this knowledge on to Brittany, as it seemed clear now that she had just figured out how to deactivate hers too.

  What was most disturbing to him however was her location when the GFID Nano-chips registered her ‘heart failure’. A detail team had followed her to the headquarters of Motif Global Encryption, Inc. What this meant, Commander Arlington didn’t know. But the location was suspicious and they no longer had any inside eyes to determine exactly what had happened. Unfortunately, Agent Wilson, a.k.a. Lily Thatcher was their only inside operative and she was still missing in action.