by Len du Randt
No comment.
The Commander looked over his shoulder to ensure that he was properly covered. He knew where the snipers were, but couldn’t see them through the camouflage. Once he felt secure, he turned back to face the two men. ‘Come now, gents,’ he said, trying his best to keep his voice calm. He wasn’t used to people outright ignoring his polite attempts at intimidation. ‘What are you two really doing here?’
‘We have come to reunite son with father, father with his God,’ one of the men finally answered.
‘How did you kill that man earlier today?’
Elijah raised his hands toward the skies, and the Commander instinctively reached for his sidearm. ‘Our Father in Heaven,’ Elijah said. ‘Hear the cries of your servants, and judge those who judge us. Bless those who hear our words and act upon them, for the time is at hand.’
The skies rumbled, and the Commander began to shift his weight uncomfortably. He decided that it would be best to get these men off the streets and into custody as quickly as possible. ‘How did you kill that man earlier today?’ he repeated and pulled his GLOCK .17 from its holster. ‘I am not going to ask you gentlemen again,’ he said, again trying to sound as intimidating as he could. He rubbed his index finger gently over the trigger of the 9mm. Just in case.
‘The wrath of the Lord falls upon you if you try to harm us,’ Elijah’s older companion said. His eyes had changed to a glazy blue, and it appeared as if he could see right through the Commander, looking into the very soul of the man to gauge the nature of his heart. The glint of black in his eyes reflected what he saw.
‘All right,’ the Commander said and raised his weapon and aimed it deadlock at Elijah’s head. He slowly brought the radio to his mouth and pressed the button. ‘Snipers, take aim.’
‘Mother has target A in sight,’ the radio squawked back at the Commander. ‘Awaiting command.’ A few seconds later the second sniper confirmed, ‘Father has target B in sights. Good to go.’ The Commander nodded, and then faced the two men again. ‘There are men up there,’ he said and waved his radio in the general direction of the nearby buildings, ‘who have high-powered rifles aimed right at your heads. Do not resist arrest, or these men will not hesitate to kill you.’ He nodded at the two soldiers next to him, and they cautiously advanced toward the two men, cuffs held ready to snap around the men’s wrists.
‘Do not come any closer!’ Elijah shouted so loudly and unexpectedly that both approaching soldiers jumped back. They looked at their Commander, unsure of how to proceed.
‘Don’t just stand there,’ the Commander yelled at his officers. ‘Cuff them!’ The shouting just added pressure to the already confused soldiers. They hesitated, and then looked back at their Commander to see if he would change his mind.
He didn’t.
The officers reluctantly moved toward the men. They were within an arm’s reach of the men when Elijah threw up his arms so violently that one of the men let out a little cry as he shrank back.
‘You have been warned!’ he shouted. ‘If you come any closer, you will be judged!’
‘They’re gonna shoot!’ one of the soldiers yelled back at his Commander.
The Commander couldn’t see any weapons on the two men, but he wasn’t one for taking chances either. ‘Fire!’ he shouted into the radio and squeezed the trigger. The snipers reacted instinctively, and the shots of their high-calibre weapons exploded through the streets of Jerusalem. The twelve ground soldiers also saw this as their green light, and unleashed all they had on their targets. The shootout lasted only seconds, and then an eerie silence settled over Jerusalem.
The silence was broken only by the faint whapping sound of helicopter blades.
- - -* * *- - -
From a safe distance inside a parked car, the gunshots reminded Malcolm of New Years Eve fireworks. He closed his eyes as the soldiers crackled their ammunition at their targets, and only once the noise subsided, did he look up again.
- - -* * *- - -
‘What the Hell…?’ Mother asked and took the scope away from his eye. ‘I had them right in my sights.’
‘Affirmative,’ Father confirmed. ‘So did I’
Mother looked through the scope again and studied the targets as they just stood there, blinking at the Commander as if nothing had happened at all. He thought that he noticed the semblance of a grin on the face of one of the men. ‘Father, what’s going on?’ he breathed softly into the microphone.
‘I have no idea, sir,’ a confused reply came back through the tiny earpiece.
‘Did we miss?’ Mother asked, rechecking the settings on his rifle.
‘Negative, sir,’ Father replied. ‘It’s impossible for us both to have missed. Commander Alpha shot at them from point-blank range. Something else is going on.’
Something else, Mother thought. But what?
‘Who are these guys, sir?’ Father asked.
‘I don’t know, Jim,’ Mother replied and realigned his scope. ‘I don’t know.’
- - -* * *- - -
Malcolm felt sick to his stomach. He didn’t want it to end this way. Not after what had happened in his house during the Seder. He still had so many questions to ask the man that he wanted to believe was Elijah. Now there would be no way of ever knowing for sure. He let his eyes go over the buildings in the distance, and his stomach contracted when he saw the two men, still standing.
Impossible! He narrowed his eyes to make sure that they were not betraying him. They...they’re supposed to be dead! No one could have survived that!
He rubbed his eyes, and then looked again. The men still stood defiantly. It wasn’t until one of the men raised his hands into the air that Malcolm noticed a familiar pattern in the clouds; a swirling pattern of dirty clouds forming above the men. He raised his hand to his mouth and instinctively fell back against his seat, trying his best to hold in the scream that was trying to force its way out. He fumbled with the keys as he saw the commander and his two officers looking up at the clouds.
Come on, his mind screamed as the engine huffed. Start, you damned car!
The air was the same dark orange now as it had been the previous time, and in the instant that Malcolm looked up at the Commander and his men, the engine of his car growled to life. It was in that same instant that a flash of fire shot from the clouds. His legs felt like rubber as he tried to work the pedals of the vehicle, trying furiously to get away; but he just managed to stall the car in the process. The air cleared and the clouds returned to their normal puffy state, but in the place of the Commander and his men, only charred corpses remained. Smoke bellowed from the burning wreckage of the helicopter, and Malcolm instinctively knew that there were no survivors. He started his car again, and this time he did manage to work the pedals as he sped off.
.V.
The Covenant
He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven’
- Daniel 9:27, NIV
‘They did what?’
‘They...they’re not normal,’ Malcolm said and fiddled with his fingers. ‘They’re aliens!’ His eyes darted nervously about, and his stomach was swirling. Swirling like those clouds. Ready to devour me!
‘Calm down, Malcolm,’ Rabbi Morris said, trying to disguise the fear in his own voice. ‘There must be a rational explanation for all of this.’
Malcolm looked up and their eyes locked. ‘Twenty two dead,’ he said. ‘These two men took about three hundred rounds each. There’s nothing rational about what happened.’
‘I’ll have The Order look into it,’ Morris assured his friend. ‘But for now, isn’t there a meeting that you should be attending?’
Malcolm sat upright. ‘Oh no,’ he said as he stood up. ‘Secretary General Yoshe’s meeting!’
‘You had best be off then,’ Morris said. ‘It would not make a good impression if one of the most important men in Israel didn’t show up on schedule.’ His face went from a friendly smile to deadly stern. ‘Don’t approach them,’ he said. ‘The t
wo men. Don’t do anything until we’ve heard from The Order. Understood?’
Malcolm nodded and walked to his car. He had almost forgotten about the conference that Victor Yoshe had called. All the prominent Israeli leaders were to attend; two hundred and fifty in total and not one of them knew what it was about. He had received his invitation as a personal phone call from Victor himself. They all did. Malcolm was impressed with Victor and wondered what this gifted man wanted to share with them. He was about to find out.
- - -* * *- - -
At first, there was only silence as the crowd of five hundred gathered in the massive auditorium. Half were Muslims, the other half Jews. The silence was broken by a few confused whispers. The whispers turned to buzzing, and soon, the air was vibrant and alive as people talked, murmured and even shouted to one another. Everyone hushed in unison as a man stepped onto the stage and walked up to the podium. He tapped the microphone twice, and then announced in a loud voice, ‘Mr. Speaker, Secretary General of the European Union, Victor Yoshe!’
Malcolm strained his neck to see if he could catch a glimpse of Victor, and a round of applause erupted from the floor as he entered the room. Malcolm shivered as a light electrical charge surged through him, and he wondered if the others had experienced the same feeling. The applause grew louder as Victor stepped onto the stage and walked toward the podium. The people stood up and cheered, and the applause continued.
It’s him! Malcolm thought. He noticed that Victor walked with perfect stride, neither too fast, nor too slow. His centre of balance was flawless as he made his way to the microphone, and he didn’t appear to be fazed by the hundreds of important people that he was about to address. When Victor reached the podium, he stood there for a while, allowing the people their enthusiastic greeting. He appeared to soak up as much of the attention as possible, and only after a minute did the applause die down and the people take their seats again.
Victor scanned his eyes across the crowd, a smile forming on his lips as he leaned toward the microphone.
‘Thank you for your warm welcome, friends,’ he said. ‘I would like to thank you all for attending on such short notice.’
A few nods.
‘I am sure that you will agree that we have all had an emotionally and physically tiresome period during our battle with the aliens.’
More nods.
‘We have been dealt a terrible blow, my friends. Many of us have lost family members, friends, and colleagues.’
Malcolm choked as he thought about Angie. Tears welled in his eyes, and he glanced around to see that most of the others also shared his pain.
‘We have won the battle,’ Victor said, and for a moment, his eyes locked with Malcolm’s. ‘But the war is far from over.’ He shifted his eyes from Malcolm’s and then swept over the rest of the audience again. ‘We have learnt a powerful and important lesson and we would be unwise to allow this lesson to be lost on us.’
Nods of agreement.
‘We have learned that we do not realize what we have, until we do not have it anymore. We have learned that it is not by looking into the past that one expands, but by sharing a vision of the future.’ Victor’s voice built up momentum and passion as he spoke. ‘We learned that by holding hands and standing together as a unity, that we are unstoppable.’
Victor took his time and readjusted the cuff of his jacket.
‘I was merely the one that brought you together. You did the work. You beat the aliens. You saved the world!’
The response was overwhelming, and Victor had to raise his hand to restore the calm again.
‘We have seen our unity in action. We have seen what power we can wield by speaking as one voice. The time has come to show the world that true peace can only be achieved by brotherly love for one another; and brotherly love can only be acquired by being born of the same substance. Today, we must be born again, not physically, but mentally. We must forsake the limited thinking and traditions of our forefathers with their hatred and bickering towards one another. We must share a future by living in the present, the here and now.’
There was no applause; only a stunned silence.
‘I propose a seven-year trial period in which you may test my claims,’ he said. He spoke perfectly, without falter. ‘If at the end of the seven years, you have not seen significant results for the better, you will be more than welcome to go your separate ways and return to your old ways.’
For a long moment he studied the audience. He knew them all by name, and knew more about them then they knew about themselves. ‘If it works, and we are, at the end of the seven years, better off than we are now; better neighbours, better human beings; then the era of peace and safety could be extended indefinitely.’
Malcolm looked through the crowd, searching for a familiar face, and then smiled when he saw that Kassim had done the same and was looking at him. Both smiled warmly, and they both agreed with Victor that they could indeed live as ‘one.’
It was an odd feeling of mutual agreement, and had Victor made claims like this only a week before, he would most probably have been killed in less than an hour after his speech. Under the given circumstances, he was right, and everyone knew it.
‘We have lost the precious Dome of the Rock and the Kabaa at Mecca,’ Victor said and held up his hand to keep the Muslims from an outcry. ‘We can only blame the aliens for what happened. There is nothing good that can come from constantly festering on things that have happened in the past. I will thus allow the Jews to reclaim the ground that the Dome stood on so that they can rebuild their Temple on its proper foundations. It will serve as a visual symbol of our unity and strength.’
This time there was uproar and most of the Muslims stood up and waved their fists in the air. They were visibly upset, and Victor had to calm them down again.
‘The Muslims,’ he said and extended his hand to them, ‘will receive Iraq as their own independent state. With the help of modern architecture and Molecular Nanotechnology combined with more traditional building methods, we will unite together under one banner to build the most advanced super city in the world. All eyes on Earth will gaze upon the achievement of the Muslims and Jews; thinking that if two age-old enemies could stand together and achieve such greatness, that anyone could achieve it. People from all over the world will renew their thinking and stand together, healing the Earth, and sharing wealth, thoughts, ideas, and peace. Let us stand together and embrace our future together, as one.’
There were some applause, but it had been coming mostly from the Jewish side. They were overwhelmed by the prospect of finally being able to rebuild their Temple. The Muslims were still sceptical, but had heeded Victor’s words and were prepared to test his claims. Malcolm took the initiative and stood up.
Kassim did the same, and the two men walked toward each other before the hushed crowd. They stood in front of each other for a moment, looking sternly at one another, and then Malcolm smiled, and so did Kassim. The two shook hands, and Malcolm pulled Kassim closer and embraced him as a father would embrace a son.
The applause erupted again, and everyone stood up and embraced another, not as enemies and not as friends, but as family. The chain of hatred had been broken. The hatred between Ishmael and Isaac had melted, and now there was only a vision of the future, and the greatness that could be achieved together. They finally sat down again, but this time it wasn’t Jews and Muslims in their respected halves: they sat together, mixed for the very first time.
‘This is an exciting day,’ Victor said when he finally spoke again. ‘It is a big step that we have taken; but one that will set a new course for the future of Earth. Under a new banner we shall rise up from the ashes of this terrible war. This banner will proclaim the glue of our unity; it will shout to the nations. This banner will proclaim globally that, together, we will accomplish all that we set out to achieve. This banner will promote everything that every soul on Earth yearns for: Peace and Safety.’
Everyone roared and stood
up. Victor smiled warmly as he waved his hand, then he turned and walked back across the stage. The paperwork would be dealt with later, but everyone knew their respective roles and what was expected of them. They had to convey their messages to their people, and then the healing could begin. Kassim tried to say something to Malcolm, but his voice was drowned by the cheering and clapping of the people. Malcolm just smiled and looked at Victor, who, with one final wave, left the stage.
- - -* * *- - -
The dream was disturbing. Trevor was drenched in sweat and he rolled around violently. Yet, his mind wouldn’t grasp that he was only dreaming. He moaned softly as thunder rumbled in the distance.
Run, Trevor!
It was a voice that he recognized, but he couldn’t quite place where he had heard it before. It was female. He looked around, and discovered that he was standing on a war stricken street. People were running as buildings and vehicles around him exploded. The thunder rumbled on in the distance, and his brain converted it to explosions.
Trevor! The voice yelled. Get away from there! Run!
‘I can’t,’ Trevor shouted back. ‘I...I’m afraid!’
Trevor was a little boy again, confused and frightened. People were being shot around him, and explosions ripped the streets apart.
Trevor! The voice shouted again.
‘Mommy?’ Trevor asked.
Wait, son! He heard a male voice shout. I’m coming to get you!
‘Daddy?’ Trevor looked around, but couldn’t see his father. Flames were now spreading around him, and sudden warmth trickled down his leg. ‘Daddy...’