Messenger's Dawn

by Lior Akerman

  The camera filmed the white figure approaching the pile of stones that buried the two figures but they managed to emerge from the ruins. When they saw him heading at them, they fled the site. They ran west on the Saint Helena alleyway, heading north on Hanozrim Street. He ran after them in pursuit. The viewers no longer saw this but the police helicopter monitoring the occurrences filmed it and the footage was released during the night.

  The pursuit continued. Samael and Charnbog turning right on to Maalaot A-Thanka Street They crossed the olive press alleyway, east on Via Delarosa. As they ran, they set fire to the stands and carts, trying to block the path of the figure in white. Crossing Hagay Street, they brought down the balconies onto the street, creating an obstacle in his path. They continued on Via Delarosa towards the Lion’s Gate. He was very close to them but then something unexpected happened.

  As he passed the Church of Mary Magdalene, he had to stop. Samael was standing there waiting for him. Before he realized what was happening, he sensed that Charnbog was behind him. He raised his hand and caused two large explosions, bringing down the walls of the church on the right and the fence of the Austrian hostel on the left, on the figure in white. The police in the command center were monitoring the struggle and saw the two black figures disappearing between the Muslim Quarter alleyways in the dark. The police roadblocks did not find them and, a few hours later, they were lifted, and the city was opened. When the rescue forces arrived at the pile of rocks on Via Delarosa, they did not find anything beneath it.

  The pictures were broadcast continuously in a loop, all over the world. The shocked viewers continued to examine what they saw, trying to understand it. The correspondents and analysts of the different networks were saying this was a super-human struggle between forces beyond our comprehension. By now it was clear to everyone that the struggle that began in Manhattan between the black and white figures, continued in Jerusalem and appeared not to be over yet.

  Gallis, the Greek Orthodox priest from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was the first to give him the name that stuck - “the messenger.” In an interview he gave British television he said: “God has sent us an honest and pure messenger who defended the most sacred place to us and to the world.”

  In the interviews given by the Armenian and Franciscan priests, also serving in the church, this word was repeated many times. “The messenger” became a household name used by everyone who heard of the man in white, fighting the black forces and prevailing. Millions of Muslims filled the mosques around the world, thanking Allah for sending the messenger who saved the Dome of the Rock. Millions of Christians around the world thanked Jesus and God for the great miracle they witnessed. The Jews were more concerned and divided in their explanations of the occurrences. There was consensus, however, that some sort of miracle or higher power had intervened to save the holy sites. None of these hundreds of millions of believers received any sign or message that would tell them otherwise, whether it was a victory of human power over evil, a divine power or the power of a simple human, who still did not know how he did it and why him of all people.

  The battle was not over yet. This was clear to everyone. People waited in suspense for what was still to come. The messenger, whose identity was unknown, hid behind the white cape. He, too, knew it was not over. Samael and Charnbog also knew this. According to their plan, they should have been long past removing the obstacle but he was still there, in their way, stronger than expected. They had beaten him in the last struggle but they knew they lost the battle that day. Another one of their destructive plans was stopped and Samael thought that the list of their failures was adding up, towards an inability to carry out their big plan. They were going to have to act against him in a more decisive and crushing manner in order to put an end to his disturbances and continue with their plan.

  24.

  Israel, The Galilee, September 27th

  Mike spent the next few days in northern Israel, in Galilee, in search of answers to the many questions he had. The first place he wanted to be was the place he had sat as a child for many hours, in suspense and expectation. His aunt had taken him to the top of Mt. Arbel, above the Sea of Galilee, to overlook the site where his parents had disappeared. The purpose of the trip he had taken so many years ago, was to part from his parents. He remembered sitting there on the edge of the cliff for a very long time, until he agreed to leave.

  Now he returned to the same cliff, with the lake beneath him, the Golan hills facing him in the east, the town of Migdal beneath him, and north of him was Capernaum, built on the ruins of the house of Saint Peter. To the west was the Batiha Valley and behind him the city of Zfat. He looked around at these sites where Judaism and Christianity were founded. In Jerusalem, he had also encountered the Muslim message. He thought deeply about all of this for hours and realized that what he initially had believed was not true. Despite the quotes from the bible and the new testament, and although the messages he received were sent through religious figures, all the messages he received in writing and orally, pointed in one direction.

  He was not a religious man or a man of faith. The messages he received stressed that he is not the messenger of God or a miracle maker. He is a human being, flesh and blood, intended to fight humanity’s battle against evil. The messages also stated that in the end, all people will become one nation, without religion and without a different God for each nation and country.

  He had been to the church at Capernaum the day before, where he met Priest Andrew who took care of the place on his own. Andrew was pleased to have a visit from such a friendly and curious man and he discussed the history of the site in great detail with him. He told Mike about the small and unique bookcase in the church basement, in the place where Saint Peter’s house stood. As he was about to leave, Priest Andrew asked him to wait. He went downstairs and returned two minutes later holding two old copies of the New Testament. These copies had the text in Latin and in Hebrew.

  Sitting on Mt. Arbel, in the last sunlight of the day, he read the bible he had with him and the new testaments that Andrew had given him. He looked through the books until he found Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians. He recalled something Father Mathew had said to him on the roof the night he saw him and Rabbi Yochanan Aharon Hacohen for the last time. It had not been clear to him until that moment. He had said:

  “Remember what Paul said to the Galatians and what Isaiah said to his people in his prophecy.”

  Paul was one of the apostles and there was a reason that Mike ended up at the church at Capernaum. It was the place where Peter, the follower and the first apostle of Jesus had set out from. He was seen to be very important in Christianity. Mike read the passage.

  “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one.”

  He continued with the second book and started turning the pages until he reached Isaiah’s prophecy. He was already familiar with this text. The book was given to him by Rabbi Yaacov Hacohen when he visited him in Zfat, before his visit to Capernaum. He met with the rabbi for hours, trying to understand the message he had been given from his brother Rabbi Yochanan who had disappeared. Rabbi Yaacov had no explanation for his disappearance or for his appearances before Mike several times, but he was able to help Mike understand the quotes his brother gave him. Yaacov told him the story of Armageddon.

  “The truth is that there are many details we do not know, Moshe,” he said. “This war is supposed to be a catastrophic general world war, also between different religions. It will mark the end of the world as we know it and the beginning of the next world. According to this belief, the messiah from the ancestry of King David will rise from amongst the ruins and redeem the Jewish people and the entire world. Evil will vanish and there no longer will be different religions and faith. There are extensive discussions in the Talmud on this proces
s and no one knows what exactly will happen and how. The messages you have received in the past months and the direction they have pointed you in, seem that someone has been guiding everything all along. The war that is going on all over the world is terrifying and is similar to these prophecies,” Rabbi Yaacov concluded.

  He was silent for a while and then continued:

  “Suddenly there is the terrible destruction that the figures in black are bringing and the unexplainable appearance of the figure called “the messenger”, who is fighting them and prevailing.”

  Rabbi Yaacov looked down and seemed to be struggling with himself over something, as if he was expecting an answer from himself. He put his hand over Mike’s, looked into his eyes and said:

  “I do not know who this messenger is and what his task is. I do not know why my brother turned to you and how it all adds up but it seems that the messenger has a clear task. He is not a prophet or a messiah. I believe he will bring to the end of the war and the victory of man over evil. I hope you understand what Yochanan meant.”

  Yaacov took his hand off Mike’s and leaned back in his chair.

  Mike read the verses from Isaiah, suddenly noticing the part he was familiar with:

  “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.”

  He suddenly realized what Father Mathew had meant in the words he had said to him on the roof. He was informing him of the end of religions. There no longer would be Jews, Christians, Muslims and people of other religions, no more religious wars and differences based on race and gender, strong and weak. This was also aligned with what Rabbi Yaacov Hacohen had said.

  It was now all up to him, Moshe Yehoshua from Jerusalem, the son of Miriam from Nazareth and Amram from Jerusalem. He was the descendant of King David and the Levites that served in the Temple. It was all depending on him. Without prophets or apocalypse prophecies. Without religions and beliefs. He was the last force existing that could face evil.

  Mike knew that this struggle was not over yet, it may have only begun. He was the messenger and it was his mission to protect humanity.

  25.

  New York, September 26th

  The cold night of the last week of September found Captain Allen Jacobs working on resolving his many different cases. He spent most nights in his office and when he was not there, he was usually at his regular café down the street, De-Marco. It was outside his office but close enough. These were the two places where he was able to concentrate best.

  The crime level in the city had dropped to zero in the last few months. The few civilians that remained in the city were busy trying to survive without work and with most stores closed. The only two cases that were of real interest to him were that of Moshe-Mike Yehoshua Messenger, who had vanished and the case of the messenger. Maybe it was the same case? That was the gut feeling he had but he could not prove it. That evening, he sat at “his” café, thinking of the live footage from Jerusalem he had seen the previous day. He had no doubt that the figures in black and white that appeared there were the same figures that were here in his city the week before. He was amused to think that he was actually investigating a natural phenomenon, not local or international crime.

  The phone in his pocket rang and he answered.

  “Captain Jacobs?” a woman asked on the line.

  “Speaking.”

  “This is sergeant Chavez, of the NYPD technological inspection unit. You asked us to notify you if there were any unusual occurrences involving Alice Christy. I wanted to notify you that yesterday she received a call from Jerusalem, Israel, from a number registered in the name of a relative of Moshe Messenger. There was no dialog in the call. The caller hung up after a few seconds.”

  Jacobs was stunned for a moment.

  “I knew it!” he finally said.

  “Excuse me?”, Sergeant Chavez asked.

  “Nothing sergeant. That is great, thank you.”

  “Can I be of any more assistance, Captain?”, she asked politely.

  “There is no need, sergeant. You have been very helpful,” he said with a smile and hung up.

  Jacobs got up, left the waiter a ten dollar bill and left in a hurry.

  He turned right and headed for his office. He rushed up the stairs to the 5th floor, forgetting the option of taking the elevator. When he reached his office, he went to the corner of his desk and took the file marked “The Messenger.” Then he went to the plastic tray on the other side of the desk, which had his incoming mail, going through the documents until he found what he was looking for. He smiled to himself in irony. He was holding an official document, with the seal of the Israeli Police. It was an unverified police report. According to the testimony of a passersby in Zfat, a man who met the description of Moshe Messenger, wanted by the NYPD and the FBI, had been seen. His picture was published in newspapers and websites all over the world and the man who reported this was a patrol police officer in Zfat who had seen Messenger’s picture in his police station. Until that moment, this report did not interest Jacobs and he did not think it to be credible. But with the new information he received from Sergeant Chavez, the pieces of the puzzle suddenly came together. His disappearance from New York, the call from the home of Moshe Messenger to Alice, the report that he was seen a few days earlier in Zfat, Jacobs was confident he was in Israel and he was definitely the one who called Alice at home and hung up. At the same exact time, the figure in white, “the messenger,” also appeared in Israel.

  Jacobs began to receive support of his theory that Mike Messenger was not the problem, he was the solution. If his theory was correct, the best place to get hold of him would be near Alice. He would surely come to her at some point. Jacobs picked up the phone and dialed an internal number from his office. A bored and tired voice answered him.

  “Yes Captain, what’s up?”

  Jacobs said firmly:

  “Is the surveillance on the house on Alice Road in Portland still on?”

  “Of course, sir, there are cameras 24/7.”

  “Good. I want an undercover vehicle with full surveillance equipment to monitor the house at all times and I want an immediate report of anyone who is not a family member who comes to the house. Is that clear?”

  “Yes Captain, right way.”

  Then Jacobs checked his email and found it to be full of requests to close different cases that had not been resolved. He decided to leave it all for tomorrow but there was one message that caught his eye. It was sent by his commander, the stubborn Inspector Bill Muesli. Muesli was asking him why there was no progress in the Messenger case and he offered to appoint another investigator to help him with the investigation. The Captain had no intention of letting this happen. He pressed ‘reply’ and wrote his answer. He will not be happy with his reply, he smiled to himself but it was all he was going to get. This was his investigation. At midnight, as he was about to leave the office, he received a message on his beeper:

  “The undercover unit is in place outside the house.”

  Now he could end the day and get a few hours of sleep before the coming days that would be even more surprising.

  26.

  North Maine, Portland, October 10th

  The next two weeks passed in surprising or troubling silence, depending on who was asked. The war drums were hardly heard at all. The heads of state reached agreements and understandings that prevented further clashes. The different countries began the long and expensive rehabilitation efforts but everyone was still uneasy. The threat from the figures in black was present and clear, terrifying the civilians and leaders throughout the world. It was just a matter of time before they appeared again. The messenger knew th
is as well but, in the meantime, enjoyed a few days of peace and rest.

  The second week of October brought the start of the fall season. At Central Park, the leaves began falling from the trees and the oak and maple trees throughout New England were magnificent colors. The green trees were turning red, yellow and orange and the nights became chilly. That night, Alice did not have the patience to sit on the cold balcony and watch the sunset. Her parents were very worried about her. They asked her to come inside so she would not catch a cold. She loved sitting outside, seeing the forest change its colors and the treetops rustling in the ocean breeze. She spent the evening watching boring reality shows in her suite on the second floor, until she fell asleep.

  Alice was not sure but she thought she heard a soft knock on her window. She listened more carefully and heard the knocking more clearly. She jumped out of bed and was about to run from the room, fearing it was a burglar but something told her to head towards the window. She stood by the door for a few seconds and then hesitantly went over to the window and opened the curtain.

  She was amazed and then smiled in relief. She had been waiting for him for the last month and a half and had not heard a word from him. Now he was here, right in front of her. She opened the window and let him into her room. They hugged and held each other for a long time. She was overcome with joy, she held on to him, as if she was afraid he would disappear again. Finally, she let go a little, moved her face back and looked at his face, caressing it lovingly.

  “Where were you all this time? I was going out of my mind,” she said.

  He looked at her and touched her face, embracing her again.

  “Everything is ok my love, I am here now,” he answered quietly.