by Orson B Wolf
The host raised his hand hesitantly. “A few more questions, if I may.”
“Now we’ll say goodbye for the time being,” the metallic voice sounded. “I will be back soon.”
The host let his hand drop to the table and said nothing.
***
Rachel sat in the ambulance next to David. She finished typing and looked at him.
“That’s it?” Her eyes sparkled with wonder.
“That’s it,” David whispered. He looked exhausted. “There’s a disconnect button there, press it.”
She did as he had asked, and the broadcast ended. The image of the prophet disappeared, and the screen turned dark again.
David coughed and muttered something.
“What did you say?” Rachel drew closer to him.
“A prophecy,” he whispered again, let his head fall back and closed his eyes. “A self-fulfilling prophecy.”
***
Paul sat in the patrol car and hoped he wasn’t dreaming. He looked at Gabriel and Megan. They seemed to be thinking the same.
The screen boasted the dramatic title: “The prophet assured everyone, no attack coming!”
There was a lot of excitement in the studio. The host looked rejuvenated; the color was back in his cheeks. He touched the earpiece and spoke with urgency. “Our sources confirm that this was indeed the prophet. If we can show this on the screen. Yes, here it comes.”
The prophet’s website appeared on the screen. The words the prophet had just relayed appeared one by one.
“We now have an official confirmation that this was indeed the prophet we’ve all seen and heard.”
The screen now showed a blonde reporter standing with the White House lawns behind her. The host’s voice sounded again: “We now go live to our team at the White House. Donna what can you tell us about—”
Gabriel muted the sound and shook his head. He stared at Paul. “Well, I’ll be. You mean to tell me that David…?”
Paul hushed his friend sharply. “I don’t mean to tell you anything.” He straightened his eyes at his friend. “And neither do you.” The policeman nodded quietly. They both looked at Megan. The nurse was sprawled on the backseat and looked exhausted. She raised a tear-washed face at them and smiled.
Paul left the patrol car, slamming the door behind him. What exactly happened here? He sighed, feeling that he still had some thinking to do about it all. With a quick step, he hurried to the ambulance.
His cell phone buzzed, and he took it out of his pocket. It was a message from Matthew.
Matthew: The prophet has a personal message for you: ‘Good job!’
He sighed with relief and prepared to return the phone to his pocket, but another message came in. This time from Kate.
Kate: They said on the news that the Russians have disarmed their missiles. Is this real?
He typed a quick reply.
Paul: As real as it can get. Kisses to the girls. Miss you.
Paul took a deep breath, allowing the cold, fresh air to rejuvenate him. It was five in the morning and he was exhausted as the light of a new morning broke through the darkened horizon. The city lights could be seen far ahead. He asked himself whether there was a single person in Green Pines, or the whole world for that matter, who wasn’t awake right now.
He noticed something else: the distant, uneasy hum of rioting had gone and was replaced with other sounds. Were those cries of joy and happiness he was now hearing? He raised his eyes at the clearing sky.
For the first time in a long while, he felt hope.
70
A Disturbing Message
Jackie stood on a low concrete wall. Staring at the road, he saw the flickering lights of emergency vehicles. He didn’t like that at all. He had hurried there, his feet sinking in the deep mud.
Just as he had received a message from Morse his battery had died. He cursed and tried to understand the meaning of Morse’s disturbing message.
Morse: They said on the news that the prophet is about to go live. What the hell?
He looked up at the building where he had left David and tried to decide whether the vehicles parked on the road had anything to do with his prisoner. They weren’t parked by the building itself, but about three-hundred feet away, in a disarray that suggested they had abruptly stopped. No vehicles were parked next to its door.
“Maybe the cops are here because of the Order of the Prophet,” he muttered while straining his eyes to discern the details.
One of the vehicles was larger in size. An ambulance? Jackie wasn’t sure, but he reached a decision. He jumped down from the wall and resumed his walk toward the darkened building.
He coughed for a long moment, took out a cigarette, and shoved it between his lips. He rummaged his pockets for a lighter. “You have to be there,” he uttered. “You have to.”
He lit the cigarette, took a long puff, and renewed his steps.
71
Cold Mud
Paul stood next to the ambulance where David and Rachel were.
A minute earlier he had received a new instruction from Matthew: he must urgently find Raphael Greene and give him a message.
The content of the message would be given to Paul only once he located and met with Mr. Greene. He sighed. This new assignment was the last thing he needed right now, when all he wanted to do was go back home and put his arms around Kate and the girls. He sighed again, reminding himself that he had a job to do.
He looked at the ambulance. Before he went to meet Raphael Greene, he had to make sure David was safe.
He reached the ambulance and opened its back doors wide. Rachel and David looked up at him. The boy sat straight and seemed invigorated, stronger. Rachel sat next to him with the laptop in front of her. Max and Buffy were crouched next to them and looked at Paul as well.
“Nice work, David.” Paul smiled at the two and added, “You too, Rachel. Nice work.”
The girl blushed.
Suddenly, Max turned toward Paul. The large dog stretched up his ears and sniffed the air. A moment later he jumped up, rushed past Paul, leaped outside and vanished.
David said something quietly. Paul couldn’t hear his words and Rachel, seeing his questioning gaze, explained, “He says it’s all right, that Max must have a good reason for—”
A loud scream was heard from far away before she could finish her words.
Paul immediately turned back and began to hobble quickly toward the source of the noise.
Gabriel emerged from the patrol car and joined him. The two hurried toward the sound.
Gabriel was the first to reach Max. The dog stood over a figure sprawled in the mud, growling and baring his teeth menacingly.
Paul came next, limping and gasping for breath. “What did you find?” He looked at the figure lying in the mud. When he recognized him, a surprised smile rose to his lips.
“Look who decided to pay us a visit, Mr. Jackie Richmond himself.”
Jackie was lying on his back, eyes popped wide open, staring up at the large dog towering over him. Gabriel crossed his hands and smiled as well. “We really need to stop meeting like this.” He couldn’t help but laugh.
“Get this ugly dog off of me!” Jackie shivered with horror. Max’s bared teeth were closer to his face than ever.
“What’s the problem? Didn’t you say you liked dogs?” Gabriel ridiculed him.
“Get him off me! I’m not kidding. I’ll get you both fired!” The boy trembled with anger.
Paul and Gabriel looked at each other with bewilderment. “Teenagers today are just so misbehaved, don’t you think?” Paul clucked his tongue with mock disappointment. He sighed and turned his head to Gabriel. “What are we going to do with him?”
The rattling of an engine sounded as the ambulance approached them. It slowly drove past them, stopped, and bega
n to reverse.
“Stop here!” Rachel’s loud voice exclaimed, and the vehicle braked a few feet away from them. The girl opened the ambulance doors and her jaw dropped open when she saw Jackie.
David was sitting behind her, nibbling an energy bar. He examined the scene in front of him. With a blank expression, he looked at the teenager wallowing in the mud beneath him.
Jackie looked at David and screamed, “I’m warning you!” His face contorted with rage. “Tell your damn dog to let me go! There are witnesses here!” He tried to stand, but the dog placed a heavy paw on his chest.
Jackie fell back down and mud spattered on his mouth. He spat angrily and Max growled a threat. The oversized teen’s head dropped back onto the mud. “You’ll pay for this,” he groaned and went silent.
Paul spoke next. “David, is there something you’d like to say to Jackie before we take him to the station?”
He set his eyes on David, as did Rachel, Paul, and Gabriel.
David pondered that thought for a moment. “No. But I do have something I’d like to say to Max.”
All four gave David a questioning look.
The boy tried to stifle a smile as he quietly spoke to his dog.
“Go.”
Max, obediently, raised his hind leg.
72
A Bright Hat
The television screen was muted.
A mighty griflet walked along the shore of a blue lake with its weapon drawn. An armor-clad human warrior suddenly burst out of the water and stormed it.
The image froze with the warrior raising his sword. A title appeared, declaring a special offer for new subscribers at Dreams Planet.
“Time to take your temperature!” David detached his eyes from the screen and looked at his mother. The glass thermometer glinted in her hand as she stepped into the living room.
David allowed her to shove the cold tip of the thermometer under his tongue, and he imagined that he heard a bemused chuckle somewhere to his right.
He looked aside suspiciously. The redheaded Eric sat beside him, cheeks puffing to hold back his laughter. Kiki, his sister, sat beside her brother with a smile on her face. She looked revived, healthy. David smiled back at her as his mother placed her hand on his forehead.
“How do you feel?”
He looked at his dad and rolled his eyes impatiently. Benjamin understood the hint and rushed to his son’s aid.
“Emily, how exactly is he supposed to answer you? He’s got a thermometer in his mouth.” He winked at his son.
A loud cry suddenly filled the room. “What are you doing, you naughty canines?” Grandma Edna emerged from the kitchen holding a plate of cookies. “I had no idea dogs like cookies. I saved these at the very last moment.” She went to the table with Max and Buffy on her trail, licking their chops.
“Buffy, no! You know you’re not allowed.” Rachel scolded her dog. She whispered softly, “I apologize.” She sat next to David and gave him a shy smile.
“It’s all right, I managed to salvage the cookies in time.” Edna placed the plate on the table. “But I caught them scheming red-pawed.” She sat on the sofa with a sigh and stroked Buffy. “Will you look at that, he’s even smaller than my cats.”
“Buffy’s a she,” Rachel corrected her.
The commercial break ended, and the news anchor straightened his tie and gazed directly into the camera.
“Who’s got the remote? I want to hear this!” Emily cried and sat beside her mother.
Benjamin found the remote between the sofa cushions and they all looked at the screen.
The anchor spoke with a dramatic tone. “As promised before the break, we will now bring you some news about the Order of the Prophet’s front man, Moses Morse, who has simply vanished since his public appearance last night.”
The screen depicted a bony, middle-aged woman hurrying down a muddy road with several field reporters rushing after her, shooting off questions. She made her way to a large trailer and disappeared inside. The title at the bottom of the screen read: “Morse’s personal assistant. ‘Leave us alone.’”
The anchor returned to speak. “But before that, let’s take a look at this evening’s major headline.” He cleared his throat and straightened his eyes at the camera. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is indeed an event of historical proportions. As promised, we will now reveal, for the first time, the prophet’s true identity.”
Bumpy video footage was shown next, shot from afar. A group of people quickly paced on a spacious grass lawn, a mixture of suited civilians and uniformed army officers. They crossed the lawn and disappeared into a large building.
“Pay attention now,” the anchor emphasized as the brief footage was screened again, in slow motion this time. The image froze and a red circle was traced around one of the figures: a man in a dark suit wearing a bright fedora hat. “This, then, is the prophet. The man who has been influencing all our lives for the past four years.”
David’s father rose to his feet and walked closer to the screen, causing the others sitting in the living room to shift their heads.
“Meet Raphael Greene, a forty-year-old mathematician and programmer, married, and father of one child. Currently residing in Green Pines, California.”
“I can’t believe it, he lives right here,” Emily stated.
“What did I tell you?” Benjamin declared. “Magic my ass… he’s just a computer programmer.”
“Mind your language!” demanded Grandma Edna. “We can’t hear the TV.”
The anchor was on the screen again, visibly unable to conceal his excitement. The reduced image of Greene was projected above his left shoulder, surrounded by that red circle.
“We will soon go live to DC for an interview with Mr. Greene. He will answer all the questions, but this news has already been officially confirmed.”
The host frowned with self-importance. “The prophet’s website has already published the image you now see above. This is the man behind the largest mystery of our era.”
Rachel leaned toward David. “I don’t understand. Who is this guy?” She lowered her voice to a whisper, but Benjamin still overheard her and stretched up. “What are you asking him for?”
He waved his hand dismissively. “Our son takes no interest in politics, news, and stuff like that. All he cares about are his dog and his computer.” He noticed his wife’s reproachful look and quickly added in a hushed tone, “But it’s true, what did I say?”
David shrugged and avoided Rachel’s questioning eyes. There were many things he himself still didn’t understand.
Everyone stared at the screen when a uniformed man appeared on it. “I know him!” Eric cried with excitement. “He’s been hanging around in our school!”
The one-armed officer sat erect while the microphone was attached to the lapel of his shirt. “We now say good evening to Major Lincoln,” the anchor solemnly addressed the major. “I understand that you are the man behind exposing the prophet’s identity.”
“Good evening, Ted.” The officer seemed extremely content. “After a long and strenuous investigation, we were able to discover the man who was behind the prophet figure. From now on, we will be working with Mr. Greene in full cooperation.”
David watched the screen, then shifted his eyes to his family members and friends following the officer’s every word with fascination. He removed the thermometer from his mouth and handed it to his mother. “Your fever is finally down, I’m so happy,” she declared.
David got to his feet.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I… to the bathroom,” he mumbled and stepped toward the staircase.
73
A Guiding Hand
David quickly went up the stairs to his room, locked the door, and sat in front of the computer.
Numerous questions raced through his min
d. Who had actually rescued his grandma and him? Who had sent Paul to stop the ambulance, thus helping him prevent a missile attack?
He guessed the answer. It filled his heart with fear, but he had to know. He couldn’t continue to suffer this disturbing doubt even for a single moment more. He turned on the computer and logged into the software.
“Enter password.”
He stared at the blinking cursor.
Someone had manipulated him and his grandma into carrying tracking devices without their knowledge. Grandma’s hairpin, Max’s collar—the preparation of these two objects required an intimate knowledge of David and his grandmother, as well as an exceptional ability to operate many people.
He frowned as he tried to recall all the clues he had come across over the past few months. He tried to picture it in his mind, complete the missing pieces of the puzzle.
Images flickered in front of his eyes one after another: a factory manager in northwestern China receiving an email with precise instructions regarding the manufacturing of an unusual hairpin. A messenger arriving at his grandma’s house with an envelope bearing the words, “To dear grandma.” A pet shop owner receiving an order for a unique collar. Grandma coming to the pet shop to pick up a personal present for Max.
There was only one who could have carried out such a complicated series of tasks; who could have broken into the secured flight simulator system and talked to David; who could have sent instructions to the security forces in the prophet’s name.
David gasped. He had felt that presence for several months now, a kind of guiding hand. It had felt like a series of malfunctions, little glitches in the software. Sometimes it seemed to him that the mouse cursor would move on the screen by itself, before David had the opportunity to do it, that the words appeared on the screen a fraction of a second before he would type them.