“Why did you wait so long after I was an adult? I was forty before you, or rather Garrett, approached me?”
“Ah, you see there is a condition on my ability to uh, use a human body. It must be at least forty before I can access it. Your grandfather was forty-eight but I could wait no longer this time, for you saw how worn my last body was. A life span is seventy-five these days and your grandfather was Eighty-eight.”
Jacks insides squirmed with wanting to choke the life out of the man as he talked so casually about what was to Jacks the only family he may have had.
“What is going to happen to me when this….whatever it is, takes over my life?”
“Oh, you will still be in there somewhere just like Garrett tries to surface every once in a while, just like Abe did when he defied me. You will enjoy every enjoyment there is but more so as a passenger instead of the driver.” With this Asa chuckled again. “Why do you think Garrett was so eager to have me join him in this measly body of his? It was because he knew the power that would come with me.”
Jacks was silent for a while thinking on the things Asa said. Then he asked another question. “When will we do this thing?”
“As soon as the next crossing of the planets that I once ruled, that will be three nights from tonight.”
“And where are we going now?”
Bragging was one of Asa’s favorite things to do, so he elaborated on the place where Honey and Sheila were with detail so vivid, that Jacks could picture the city within the mountains of the Sierra’s as if he were already there. He was skeptical of all the things Asa described as the future of the world until the aircraft came to a standstill in mid air and seemed to float down to the rock platform in its descent.
As they stepped off the plane, Jacks was as amazed as Honey and Sheila were when they first saw the magnitude of the place. As the wall closed them in, Asa led Jacks to the front room where people were engineering the high tech equipment.
Unlike the women, Jacks’ was curious enough to ask questions and acting impressed, he listened to the answers. When Asa saw that he was interested in all his glorious surroundings, he proceeded to show him more. Jacks was trying to take it all in for knowledge would be useful later.
He lingered at the huge monitors. There were at least fifty and all were showing something different. He stopped at one where a huge round aircraft was settled in a dessert looking terrain. It resembled UFO’s Jacks remembered seeing pictures of and not unlike something from Star Trek. He marveled at it as Asa preened with pride as he enjoyed showing off his handiwork.
“Whatever do you use something like this for?” Jacks wanted to know.
“I have many similar to that one just waiting.” He could not help but show off. “I have a purpose believe me. It will be the largest recruiting tool ever used and will bring masses of people to me. You see Jacks, I plan on winning in the end and you will do well to be in my good graces. I will make you a king and you will be immortal.”
“I still do not understand how you will do this with such vehicles. People are afraid of UFO’s and not likely to come aboard one on their own.”
“Ah, but they will. Your kind is really vulnerable and you will understand in time the plans that will be consummated very soon.”
“Sounds rather like sheep being led to a slaughter to me.”
Asa looked displeased at the remark but it was important to him that Jacks be convinced he was dealing with power that exceeded anything he could imagine, so he moved on to another monitor. This one showed a foreign country where there was a group of people sitting at a large table. The discussion was intense and Jacks watched as the man who seemed to be the leader dominate the rest, until they all were in agreement with him. The language was one not familiar to him so he asked Asa what they were talking about.
Again Asa’s pride came to the forefront as he explained that the leader was bringing together several of the most powerful people of the region to push the New World Order into action.
“It is what will save the human race.” He moved on.
“Stop!” Jacks insisted as they passed a screen showing the oil rig that had blown a few months earlier in the Gulf coast. He watched for a minute and looked at Asa who nodded his head in answer to Jacks silent question. Damn! So that spill was no accident after all!
There were other settings such as that and other images of aircrafts that Jacks thought were limited to sci-fi and peoples imagination. These were however, real space ships and from what he gathered would be used to deceive many people.
He gave Asa the impression that the things he was seeing greatly impressed him. He complimented him on his ingenuity, which pleased the man Jacks was coming to know as a creature of pure evil. He knew he had to convince him that he was beginning to believe all he was saying. It was the only way to save Honey and Sheila and keep his own life as he knew it. The newfound faith he had was only a seed and his knowledge of this type good and evil very sketchy at best. He was thinking that it could not be too different than his work with abused children….it was a simple thing of good versus evil.
“Your power is great Asa. Why would you want someone like me? I am an attorney, just an average man. I don’t understand why it is so important to you to have me as you said, a right hand man.”
Asa was confident in what he thought was Jacks wavering. Putting on his most beguiling nature, he confided.
“Most people do not know this, especially Christians, but there was an Earth age before this one and all people existed here at one time. Oh, it was so different then. We were happy, blissfully happy, but the entity you call God, destroyed it all.” His face became flushed with remembrances. You and I were actually friends then but of course you cannot remember as I do.”
“And that is why you want me on your side?”
“I have had enough talking for now. You are free to explore as you wish. You are only forbidden to speak with your two friends. Until I say, anyway. Unfortunately Garrett was not the healthiest of human specimen and requires more rest than you do. I will give it the time it needs. I shall see you at dinner.” He motioned a woman over to them. “When Jacks is ready, show him to his quarters.” Turning to Jacks he added, “I think you will be happy to know that you will have anything you could want there. And I do mean anything, Jacks.”
Jacks nodded and stood watching as he left him. Because he was sure that he was being monitored himself, he casually sauntered around looking at the amazing array of pictures that were on the monitors. The spacecrafts were what interested him the most and he kept looking, searching for something that would tell him more than Asa had. He was sure that Asa was too smart to divulge any of his top secret affairs and his mind kept wandering back to Honey and Sheila. He would have to exercise patience and that was something he was short on.
Having enough of watching the various screens and watching the dozens of people act like robots, he found the woman who was to show him his room.
She promptly responded by taking him in the same direction Asa had gone, when he left. While they were walking, he tried to draw her into conversation but she answered his questions with clipped and generic answers. When they reached their destination, she opened the door and walked into the room ahead of him.
It was what Jacks would normally describe as a five stars plus room and he was slightly surprised to find it to be warm and inviting. He looked around at the things he would have personally chosen for himself. The larger than life television monopolized one wall and the furniture was exactly what he liked. Even the art work was in his taste.
The woman walked over to a bedside table and picked up a fancy looking remote.
“You will find this to have everything you may need. It works the television and though the programs are recorded should provide adequate entertainment for you. It also controls the stereo equipment as well as the windows.” She pushed a button and a wall of windows opened up to the most beautiful garden Jacks had ever seen. He could not help b
ut to be drawn to the opening and walked out into another world. With the rock of mountains surrounding them he was blown away by the growth of flowering vines and trees. He felt as if he were in a tropical paradise. The woman followed him and handed him the remote.
“There is a button on this for anything you may wish for.” With this she left him on his own. He looked at the thing she put into his hands and seeing a button marked pool, he touched it. Magically, a pool appeared at the edge of the garden and he walked over not believing that it was real, so put his hand into the water. It looked real and it felt real. He laughed and looked at the different buttons. There was one that said food, another said music and then there was one that was labeled girls. Surely not…..he pushed the button and saw nothing but was startled when someone touched his shoulder from behind. Whirling around, he sucked in his breath as he looked into the face of Honey. Honey?
“How did you get here?”
“You summoned me.”
“I did?” He looked at the remote, as the girl rubbed her hands over his shoulders and stepped around and slid them up his chest and around his neck. She was scantily dressed in a bikini and she looked incredibly like Honey. “What the hell are you doing? He took both of her hands into his own and held them still. The face was Honey’s but Jacks knew something was not right. What had Asa done?
“Answer me! How did you get here and where is Sheila?”
“I am here at your request and for your pleasure, my lord.”
“I am not your anything and you are not her, are you?”
The girl tried to free her hands and reached her face up to his with kisses. He shoved her back away from him and picked the remote up from where it had fallen when he grabbed her hands. Finding the girl button, he pushed it again and before his eyes, the girl disappeared. Breathing a breath of relief, he reentered the room and looking around again thought, Asa, has given me everything he thinks is the desires of my heart, even a look-a-like Honey. Why? He already knew the answer. He swallowed hard. As a man, it was hard not to fantasize about being with the woman of his dreams and Asa had given him this world of fantasy, which included a fake Honey. What Asa did not know was that he hated fake anything and he had no intentions of falling for this temptation.
“I wonder if that bed is real.” He laughed as he went over to it and sat down. It was very comfortable and he laid back and relaxed. Oh well, this was something he could indulge in, even if it weren’t real.
He lay there thinking, God, this is where you come in. You are going to have to help me stay in the real world and not get sucked in by this man’s incredible deception.
He awoke with a start when there was a knocking at his door. He had not meant to fall asleep and jumped up.
“I am coming! Hold on a minute, will you?” He called out as he headed for the door. Opening it to a young man this time, he asked, “What do you want?”
“It is the master’s wish that you join him for dinner.” The man looked at Jacks in the same fashion that Jacks had noticed in the woman who escorted him earlier and in the one of the woman who looked incredibly like Honey.
“So where is your….master?”
“I will show you the way, sir.”
“I am sure you will. Well, come on, let’s not keep him waiting.”
Jacks looked at the man or what was more of a boy and wondered if he too was a fake. “Whatever. The food here probably was going to be too.”
The young man looked at him curiously and Jacks saw a flutter of something in his eyes, but it quickly disappeared.
Jacks shut the door behind them and followed the boy, surprised when he spoke again. He continued walking as he said, “My name is William and you are the friend of Miss Honey and Miss Sheila. Do not speak, but listen to me. Our time is short outside the sight of the cameras. I am also their friend. They have been waiting for you….”
Jacks could not help but to ask, “Are they all right?”
“They are, but you must know that the people here are under a spell….hypnosis is what Miss Honey says. She has been successful in reversing it on me and others, but we must not show this, so we still pretend to be as we were. The way you will recognize us is that when you meet one that has been deprogrammed, that one will blink three times before he or she speaks. Do you understand? Quickly…. for we are almost to him!”
“Yes! I understand. Yes!” Jacks’ was overcome with excitement. It looked as if his girl was working hard. “Thank you William, you are a brave man!”
“No sir, I just want to go home.”
He turned a corner and went through a set of doors, standing aside to allow Jacks to enter another elaborate setting. This one was as amazing as his own private garden, only it was indoors. There were larger than life flowering plants and hanging vines surrounding a table covered with white linen and place settings for two. He looked back to where he had left William, He saw that he was gone but Asa was coming through the doors.
“You found your accommodations to your liking?” He mistook Jacks look of excitement for one of pleasure.
Jacks smiled and told him, “I just hope the food is as good.”
“Ah, it is even better. Come and let us make ourselves comfortable and you will see for yourself.”
Jacks joined him at the table just as two servants appeared. One carried a bottle of wine and the other pushed in a cart full of food. Wine was poured into the oversized goblets and the food was placed in front of them.
There was music playing somewhere in the background. Just as Jacks was thinking it was as perfect a setting as one could imagine, there appeared three exotic dancers, floating around the room. Each was pure temptation for most men and the old Jacks would have enjoyed their dance immensely. He pretended to enjoy everything anyway, for the only way to get what he wanted was to be as deceptive and as manipulative as he could be. He knew he had to be good to deceive a master deceiver.
THIRTY-FOUR
Dwight was overwrought with worry about Honey, Sheila and now Jacks too, since he had not heard from him. In the midst of that worry, was the repercussions from a terrible oil spill on the gulf coast. It was causing Mississippi and its neighboring states many problems, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. Jobs were lost, businesses were closing down and volunteers helping with the cleanup were getting ill from the chemicals used on the spill. At the same time, multiple other problems were attacking Christians in the entire USA. Teachers lost jobs because they had prayer in the class rooms. Republicans and Democrats were fighting over border issues and the military was sending home sons and daughters to be buried from the wars being fought overseas.
Never had Dwight witnessed such widespread disaster and evil happenings. He thought the days he spent in New York were bad but now it seemed only the beginning of the evil that descended upon all of God’s children.
Faith Chapel members were fasting and praying like never before, as were many other Christian people everywhere.
Jacks had not called since he left the hospital but Dwight finally got word from one of the detectives. They had received orders from their superiors, to quit working on the case. Purcell told him that Jacks also had disappeared and from the recorder they found in his hotel room, it was evident he was now with the person or persons behind Honey and Sheila’s disappearance. When Dwight asked why they were pulled off the case, Purcell admitted it was because he had believed Jacks story. He had apologized to Dwight saying, “I am sorry I cannot give you better news but I want you to understand that I plan to unofficially keep searching for the stone house. I believe we will get our answers there.”
“If there is anything I can do to help, I am willing to come back up there. Just let me know. Meanwhile, I will be praying.”
“You do that, I have a feeling they all three could use a lot of it.”
“Thank you for keeping me updated. Please, if you find out anything more let me know.”
“I will. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
/> It was all Dwight needed to be convinced that he had no choice but to try and find his fiancé and friends himself. He made arrangements for an assistant to take over his duties with the church and Gem to be cared for by Jean while he was gone.
He made the trip to New York and settled in at the same hotel as before because it was the one familiar place he knew. He had no idea where he would start but getting in touch with Purcell seemed the best way to begin. He was shocked to find that the detective had been murdered in his own home.
The news was devastating to him, as he knew not where to turn now. He tried to remember everything he had heard concerning the people who was on the roof the night Jacks was stabbed.
The stone house was uppermost in his mind and he decided to find it. Jacks felt sure it was close to the ocean going north, so he took his rental car and started up the main highway leading up the coast. He drove for the hour Jacks thought it took and began looking for roads to the left, as Jacks had seemed positive they took a left off the main road. He turned on every one he came to, driving even longer than Jacks had indicated.
Darkness came and caused him to give up the search but he was determined to try again the next day. He went back to the hotel and looked closer at an area map he had purchased, studying the entire thing before he went to bed and tried to get some sleep.
The next morning he was up before daylight and this time he went further before he started checking the various roads that were to the left. At noon he was disheartened and hungry so finding a small roadside tavern he pulled in hoping to find something to eat. He was in luck for it was also a grill and offered a variety of quick meals. Ordering a sandwich and chips, he pulled out his map and looked at it thinking, God, I have been down every road there is and have no idea where else to go.
Wings of Deception Page 23