by Peter Hartz
“He will do what he must in order to serve the greater good of all. He will pay a price to do so, but will not regret his actions as long as he is true to his oath. Those that he sends beyond the veil to the afterlife will have their chance to reincarnate and make amends in their next life, so all will not be lost for them, but it will still cost Daniel much to do so. He will need his mother most of all, to comfort him and help him bear that burden.
“Which makes your role the most important: you must protect his mother, for that is his one true weakness. I could take her to another plane to protect her, but he needs her here with him as his anchor and fortress of peace and calm. Should something happen to her, he is still very young, and that could threaten his fidelity to his oath, which would be bad for many people.
“The only evil that exists on this plane is in the hearts of mortals, not in some false belief in an evil deity, and Daniel will root out that evil and defend The Good with every ounce of strength and the fullest extent of every ability, magical or physical, that he has. And those abilities are vast.”
“Will you protect his back, and protect his mother? Will you serve Daniel’s oath to the Good for the souls of Mortals?”
By the time Sekur had finished speaking inside his mind, William had been nodding at certain things as Sekur made his points. He also noticed with a corner of his thoughts that Daniel’s mother also appeared to be having her own conversation with the God Sekur. It was not hard to think of Sekur as a God, he realized. The being’s presence was utterly overwhelming, but didn’t threaten his sanity in any way. It simply made him want to look away, like a man who had lived his entire life in the dark suddenly seeing the sun.
“I will, Sekur.” He spoke the words out loud without really having to think about it very much, as the sense of doing the right thing swept over him. Then he realized that Daniel’s mother had also said the same thing out loud at the same time, which brought a brief smile to his face as he glanced at her as the imp of the absurd whispered in his ear, ‘And by the power invested in me by me, I now pronounce you man and wife. Just kidding.’ Or maybe it was Sekur. It certainly sounded like His voice from a few moments ago.
“Good,” Sekur spoke out loud again. “As Daniel has said, here are others that also have these abilities. They must be assisted and supported as well, to help them serve the Good. You will recognize them when you see them, should the need arise. Most likely you will not be called upon to help them, but you never know.” Then he disappeared in another rush of sound.
Daniel nodded as well. Then the three of them, and the table and chairs from the police station, disappeared from the pristine deserted island beach, and reappeared in the interview room where they had been some hours before.
◆◆◆
“Our top story tonight is what some are calling a modern miracle, and what others are calling the hand of God at work. We should warn you that we are about to show some video footage shot earlier today that is quite graphic, and should not be seen by those that would be upset by it, as well as young children. We have blurred parts of the imagery, but it is not possible blur everything and still convey the story to you. So please have them exit the room, or change the channel for a few minutes.
“An organized search for a missing young college woman, Alana Monroe, took place at a state park to the west of Minneapolis, Minnesota. But what happened next was caught on video by the crews from two local television stations there to cover the event for their newscasts, and in some cases, was broadcast shortly after the events as stations all over the world cut into their regular programming to show the incredible footage. Here is the video footage of the events as they unfolded in the park reserve parking lot.”
The scene cut away to show a teenage boy standing in a parking lot several feet in front of two police cars, before he raised his arms and a watery dome going up over him The video camera looked over the shoulder of the reporter who was recording a spoken segment. The camera operator cut away from the reporter in mid-sentence and zoomed in on the boy standing inside the dome, his features only partially obscured by the substance of the dome itself, but not enough to prevent someone from identifying him, however.
Which someone did. “Hey, Darius! Come look at this! Isn’t that the kid that fixed your knee the other day?”
Darius Turraine came running into the living room to look at the huge flat screen TV on the expensive stand, and nodded to his brother Donald. “Yeah, that’s him! He said his name was Daniel, right? Where is that?”
“They said it is up in Minnesota somewhere. Hey…” Donald Turraine’s voice cut off as the events unfolded in front of their very eyes, and all four people in the room stared in awe as Alana Monroe’s body parts flashed into existence. Then the body was whole as Daniel healed her. Darius’s girlfriend let out a shriek as the dead girl woke up and looked up at Daniel.
“Oh sweet Jesus! Did we just see what I think we saw?” The hushed tone of voice came from Darius and Donald’s mother, a devout Christian woman. “Did that girl really just rise from the dead?”
“Shhh!!!” Karen shushed her boyfriend’s mother as the news anchor started speaking again.
“Shortly after that happened, the dome, or whatever it was, came down, and Alana was reunited with her previously grieving family, who were obviously overjoyed to have their missing family member back with them.
“But the young man who performed this feat, whom authorities are not identifying right now because he apparently is a minor, was taken into custody, as you can see here, and rushed away from the scene. Numerous requests for information as to what has happened to the teen boy have been ignored, and no information is available about who he is, or how he did what he did. We will get more information out to you as soon as we have it.
“But in the meantime, we have asked two people to come in and give their interpretation of what has happened in Minnesota today, if such a thing is possible. First, we have Cardinal Melvin Anderson, of the Catholic Arch Diocese of Denver. Thank you for joining us, Your Eminence.”
“Thank you for having me, Robert.” The voice of an experienced public speaker came from the formally dressed member of the clergy as the older man smiled gently and nodded once towards the speaker.
“You’re welcome. And we also have Doctor Erik Gulden, department chair of Philosophy at the University of Colorado on the Denver Campus. Thank you for joining us, Doctor.”
“It’s a pleasure to be here, Robert.”
“We’ll start with you Your Eminence. What exactly have we seen here? What happened? What do we know?”
“Well, Robert, I want to state from the onset that I am not really sure what we have seen here. It appears to be a miraculous event. Ms. Monroe was missing for over a month, and presumed deceased, as was evident by the state of her physical form when it appeared inside that… dome, I guess it is being called. Her body was healed, and she was resurrected by that flash of bright red light we saw. From a secular standpoint, it appears to be an incredible, unexplainable event.
“But from the perspective of a religious point of view, it appears that God performed a miracle, first by bringing Ms. Monroe’s body back from where it had been buried or hidden, healing her, then bringing her back to life.” The Archbishop leaned back slightly, his eyes metaphorically glowing with the light of a believer seeing proof of his faith, and his face was transfixed with a look of near euphoria. “I think it is clear. God performed miracles in Minnesota today.”
“I see. And Doctor Gulden? What is your opinion of this happening?”
“Well, it is difficult for me to form a firm opinion. First, I would like to say that if you watch the footage in slow motion, as I have had the opportunity to do in your news room, everything seems to be caused by the young man, whose gestures seemed to trigger each specific event. And before the body of Ms. Monroe appears, you can clearly see the young man do something that shakes the ground and makes some noise, apparently to gain everyone’s attention before
the main event, so to speak. He wanted everyone to be watching him when he did what he did. I don’t have a positive reason why, but if I were to speculate, it would be because what he was about to do he wanted or needed to be observed.
“As the events unfolded, it becomes completely obvious that he is the one performing the acts you see, and achieving the results of those acts, not God. While I consider myself a devout Christian man, and religiously, no pun intended, go to church every Sunday, I don’t see the hand of God working directly here.” The archbishop started to interrupt, but Gulden held up his hand to forestall any interruption on the part of the high-ranking clergyman next to him, and continued on.
“I believe that God may have worked through this young man, giving him extraordinary abilities that enabled him to do what he did. At the point just before Ms. Monroe was brought back to life, you can see his lips moving. Since others reported that no sound was getting in or out of his ‘dome’, I conclude that he must have been praying to a higher power, in order to help him with what he did next. But I am convinced that God did not play the primary role in what happened. This young man did, with the assistance of the Higher Power that he believes in: his God.”
The archbishop sat back, momentarily at a loss as to what to say, and Donald turned to Darius, his eyes still showing his shock at what he had seen. “Man, Darius! You have been touched by something amazing! We knew that somewhat before, but now… Man! I can’t believe it! What are you going to do about it?”
“I am not sure. What happened to me was certainly a miracle, but only a minor one, compared to what Daniel did today for that girl. Did you see that?” He was silent for a moment, before speaking up again.
“I’m meeting with the team tomorrow morning. I think that since we saw what happened on TV, I can certainly tell them the truth about what happened, and see how they want to handle it. According to the doctor, there is absolutely nothing in my health that will prevent me from playing right away. I mean, I am in the best condition I have ever been in, including all the way back to when I first started playing football. I will talk to Coach tomorrow and see what he wants to do.” The four of them turned back to the TV just in time to see an argument begin to boil between the philosopher and the clergyman.
“I don’t believe that God could or would have taken a secondary role in such momentous events. He was the primary being in the situation today,” the Archbishop was saying stubbornly, refuting Dr. Gulden’s position. “The only real question I have is why these events are happening now. I have been on the phone with His Holiness in The Vatican, and he has said he has seen the footage. I agree with him that this is a miracle of the highest order. He stated that he will discuss it with a special Conclave of Cardinals, and they will pray about what has happened. I personally believe, however that His Holiness will issue a statement confirming the miracle that has occurred, and will have more to say about the event himself in a few days.”
“Hey, Donald, you notice that the priest –” Darius started to say, when he was interrupted by his mother.
“Archbishop!”
He continued to speak after a look at his mother, “You notice that the Archbishop seems intent on taking the credit away from Daniel and giving it to God? I wonder why that is? It is obvious to anyone with eyes and more than a single brain cell that Daniel did everything himself. He most likely had help, but he did it. Just like when he healed me.”
Donald nodded his head. “Yeah, I see that. I wonder why that is?”
Karen spoke up. “I wonder what will happen if a lot more of these things occur. Will the Catholic Church try to define them based on church doctrine and fit them into a larger agenda based on what they believe or want to happen, regardless of what others can see for themselves? It seems like the Archbishop has gotten instructions on how to portray this. What’s going to happen if their agenda doesn’t mesh with public perception?”
No one had an answer to that question as they watched the argument build slowly on the TV in front of them.
Chapter 37
David smiled to himself as he remembered the end and aftermath of the ‘Honorable’ Senator Del Monico’s “interview”. A thoroughly-terrified U.S. senator is not a pretty sight, but the pathetic little shit had had it coming after what he pulled.
Michelle had been, shall we say, less than sufficiently happy with the good Senator. In fact, she had to be restrained from beating the ever loving crap out of the worm of a man. As it was, two broken arms, two black eyes, a broken jaw, a partially torn ear, and a lot of bruises and bloody contusions had shown how she felt about being targeted for assassination, before Giltreas had pulled her off him. He had swept in behind her, his grip pinning her arms to her body as he nearly threw her to David, who had struggled to contain his screaming, cursing, flailing sister. Michelle had surrendered entirely to the violence, even turning on him for a few rounds before she had collapsed against him, the fury giving way to tears. Giltreas had healed the senator, and used a mend spell on his clothing to clean up the damage and the blood. He had also healed David; Michelle had been quite effective in conveying her opinion of The Honorable Senator Del Monico when her brother had stood between her and the elected idiot.
Now, as David sat in the Congresswoman’s outer office, he wondered if they would have gotten away with the same snatch and grab as they had with the Senator. Arnold, the Congresswoman’s head of her personal security detail, had been less than thrilled to return to the employ of his former boss, but had instead provided David and his team with everything he knew about the powerful senior politician and her dealings.
Arnold had been shocked to learn about what had happened to Michelle, having never been told about what Senator Del Monico had been put up to by Rose Smithson’s manipulations and urgings. Apparently she had, wisely as it turns out, kept him out of the loop. If he had known what was really going on in Congresswoman Smithson’s office, he would have been the first one to the FBI to blow her figuratively out of office and straight into prison. David found that he liked and admired Arnold. He was intensely honorable, and had served in the U.S. Navy SEALS with distinction, climbing to Master Chief in twenty-two years of military service, before retiring to civilian life.
Arnold had almost demanded to go to the FBI and light up the entire conspiracy, and only the fact that he was not actually on Earth when he made his demand had slowed him down. Some. He was not going to be held off forever, though. But David was able to get a promise from him not to alert Smithson to what was going on. Together they had concocted a story about David getting out of the office before his team had been in place to intercept him, which also had been constructed to cover the disappearance of the Senator from his office for about two hours. Arnold also agreed to not talk about the actions they took after the Senator was spirited out of his office, needing no urging to look the other way. He was disgusted by the acts committed by the elected official.
The Senator had been easier to deal with. Thoroughly terrified out of his mind by the discovery that A) he was no longer on Earth, B) Michelle was not only alive, but transformed and restored to her youth and beauty, and C) he was not really important in one bit in the grand scheme of the universe, he had agreed to do whatever David, Michelle, and Allison asked of him, including lie to the powerful Congresswoman from Ohio. He realized that the recorded confession of him ordering the attack on Michelle using assets of the federal government, knowing full well that she was to be killed, along with David and Allison, and eventually Steven and probably his wife, was the end of everything he had ever worked for, if they decided to use it against him. They had him completely under control, and he knew it.
Steven’s wife had been aghast at what she discovered her husband had been swept up in. According to the guards who reported back to Delara, her voice could be heard alternating between very loudly berating her husband and crying uncontrollably. The small room that they had been assigned to in the main building of the Queen’s residence had guar
ds stationed outside of it around the clock, in a form of house arrest. Neither protested very much about it, given that there was no place for them to go.
Allison and Michelle had taken to having long conversations with Cora, on topics that ranged widely from what had happened to Michelle, to Allison’s background in the military and her volunteering, to the magic skills and spells Allison was learning now.
David’s thoughts returned to his present situation. In some ways, it was better than the way Smithson had used Senator Del Monico, but in others it was far, far worse. Smithson had only manipulated him with threats about his reelection, along with the usual liberal dose of verbal abuse employed by bullies the world over, and promises of political power to wield in the Senate as her allies promoted him to better committees, including the chairmanship of a committee yet to be decided. He had gone along with the Congresswoman, because it was easier than crossing her, and he was drawn to the promises like a lion to raw meat.
This new situation, though, would put the Senator in prison for the rest of his life if what he had done ever came to light. Del Monico was somewhat certain that he would not be executed, but that didn’t make it any better.
David frowned as he thought about Giltreas. By his own statements, he had been the tool of Anubis, the Mid-God they had met in Delara’s throne room, for nearly two hundred and sixty years. David didn’t ask him what he had done for Anubis, but it had been fairly obvious, based on what had been said. Anubis had been using Giltreas as an assassin, forced to kill whomever Anubis was upset enough with to go after.