Ron Scrimgeour, chief director of the CIA, walked into the office of the White House where Bob Laverty, the Vice-President sat writing behind a large, tidy desk.
“Okay Ron, I’ll be with you in a minute,” said the politician without looking up.
“Sir,” replied Scrimgeour as he gazed out of the large window at the snow shower which was gripping the city.
“Sorry Ron, take a seat.” Laverty said after a while as he raised his head. Then, after putting a folder in a drawer in his desk, he asked: “So what can I do for you?”
Scrimgeour put one leg over the other and leaned back into the velvet-lined chair.
“Sir, we have a problem.”
“Ron, we have a thousand problems!”
The Agency man stroked the side of his face; he needed a cigarette, but that would have to wait.
“Yes sir, but this is big.”
“Okay, what is it?” Laverty asked with a sigh.
“Have you heard about the guy who people are calling the new Messiah?”
“Yeah, I read about it in a newspaper–just some nutcase!”
“No, he’s not.”
“What?”
“We’ve monitored a few of his sermons that have been causing mass interest, and we’ve interviewed people who have witnessed miraculous healing. Sir, this guy’s influence is sweeping across the West Coast and pretty soon it’s going to engulf the whole of the country.”
“So, is it such a problem?” the Vice–President asked shrugging his shoulders. “Send in your Black Op’s team and take him out!”
“Sir,” said Scrimgeour pulling his chair closer to the front of the desk. “We would have a volatile situation on our hands if we did that! He’s become high profile very quickly.”
“I see.”
Scrimgeour stared at the politician. “Sir, I don’t know how much of the Bible you’re familiar with, but it turns out there’s some kind of end-game about to happen! There have been reports of a rise in demonic manifestations, both here and around the world-particularly the UK. Sir, I think you will have to tell the President. I don’t know where we’re going with this one!”
“Right, I’ll have a word with him.”
Laverty turned and gazed out of the window. “This one will go beyond the White House.”
“Sir?”
“Okay Ron. Thanks for the briefing, I’ll be in touch,” the Vice-President said turning back to Scrimgeour.
On the way back to Langley Scrimgeour lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. What the hell’s going on? he thought, some biblical prophecy about to go down. What did Laverty mean about going beyond the White House? Was he aware of the Inner Sanctum?
Matthew walked out of the Days Inn motel on the eastern suburbs of Las Vegas and headed towards the car. He had his hold-all in one hand and a paper cup filled with coffee in the other. The sun shone through a hazy sky and the wind blew dust between the cars which then piled up against the side-walk. He opened the car boot and threw his bag in–spilling coffee onto the parking lot in the process. After slamming the boot, he opened the driver's door and slid in to the seat.
“Okay, where to?” he asked David, who was sitting in the passenger’s seat.
But before his friend could answer the rear passenger-side door opened and Joshua Collins climbed into the back seat.
“What the…?” Matthew spluttered.
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“Gentlemen, I saw you at the sermon last night.”
“It was illuminating,” said David without turning his head.
“Yes, I must spread the word of God, even in such places.”
“Where are you going?” Matthew asked.
“I need to ask you for a kindness. I go to Washington DC, and would ask you for a lift, but if it is an inconvenience, I will travel some other way.”
David looked at Matthew and then said: “That won’t be necessary. We were going to the capital anyhow.”
“Were we?” Matthew asked in astonishment.
“Yes.”
Field after field rolled past the car on a freeway which stretched endless into the distance. They had left the desert states behind and were now driving through the mid-western state of Oklahoma on the second day of their journey.
“Pull in at the next convenience store,” said Joshua
Matthew signalled when he saw the signs for fast-food restaurants and shops standing in the near distance like giant lollipops.
“This do?” he asked.
“Yes,” answered Joshua.
The sun had begun to set, throwing shadows across the land as the black Pontiac pulled into the parking lot of a Nine–Eleven. Joshua opened the passenger–side rear door and rushed into the store.
“You need anything David?” Matthew asked about to open his door.
“He hasn’t gone in there to buy something!” David replied.
“What?”
“Come on.”
The scene that greeted them after entering the shop made Matthew gasp. Joshua was standing next to a young Hispanic man who nervously held a shotgun to the head of the Asian shopkeeper.
“Stay back or I’ll blow his fucking head off!” the youth, dressed in a dirty green sweatshirt and jeans, shouted.
“Look at me.” Joshua ordered, “you don’t want to do this!”
The assailant took his eyes off the shopkeeper and stared at Joshua.
“I know your mother's ill; if you take me to her, I will heal her, and she will return to work, but first I must heal you.”
Tears rolled down the cheeks of the youth as Joshua grabbed the gun and handed it to David. He then put his hand on the kid’s head and said: “Leave this body Satan and allow this child the peace of the Lord.” His eyes flashed red as the youth slumped into his arms.
The shopkeeper fell back into his chair behind the counter and grabbed the receiver of his telephone. He punched in a number while wiping sweat from his brow with his other hand.
“You don’t need to do that,” advised Joshua.
“I need to call the cops,” replied the shopkeeper.
“No, you don’t,” said Joshua in a gentle but firm voice.
“You’re right, I don’t,” said the man as he replaced the receiver.
“God will bless you a thousand times.” Joshua said as he carried the youth toward the door.
Matthew followed David out of the store feeling the power of the Christ.
The Mendez’s lived in a rundown house at the end of a dusty lane off the freeway. There were two rusting hulks in the yard which were once pickup trucks. A trailer lay on its side along by a fence which held back a field of crops.
Two dogs ran between the trucks toward the Pontiac as it drove into the yard and pulled up in front of the veranda where a large man in a pair of denim dungaree’s rose from a wooden seat.
“Papa, I have brought a man who can heal Mama!” the young Hispanic shouted excitedly as he ran from the open rear door of the car.
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“Oh!” grunted the big Mexican as he eyed the three men approaching the house. “Are they doctors Johnny?”
“No papa they are holy men.”
Jose Mendez grabbed the cross which hung from a chain around his neck, and said: “They don’t look like holy men!”
Inside, Johnny led them through a lounge where an old three-piece suite gazed at a large television set which nattered incessantly in one corner. He then led them into a neat bedroom where a big bed projected from a wall and faced a small window. A bronze figure of Christ on a wooden cross looked down upon Maria Mendez, who lay on her back with a white medical collar around her neck. Her deep, brown eyes lit up when Joshua approached the bed.
“Mama this man has come to heal you,” said Johnny, who stood at the foot of the bed.
Maria tried to speak as Joshua put a hand on her forehead and said: “Stay calm Maria, and may God be with you.”
“What happened to her?” Matthew asked Jose in the lounge where he and David had remained with the husband.
“She was working, when a client of hers grabbed her and threw her across the motel room they were in. She landed awkwardly paralysing her from the neck down!”
“Did you seek vengeance?” David asked.
Jose looked at the demon and said: “You betcha! But I couldn’t find him. Maria told me that the guy had wild red eyes. The whole thing makes me feel so… useless!”
“Well, you don’t have to feel useless any more my dear Jose,” said Maria, who was standing in the bedroom door frame supported by Joshua.
“Maria! What?” Jose said.
“Light the oven Jose we have an extra three for dinner!”
“I don’t understand?”
“You don’t need to understand. Just praise this man–our Lord and God,” said Maria crossing herself.
After a meal of chilli con carne Maria carried dishes through to the kitchen and then returned with a basin of water and placed it by the feet of Joshua, and said: “Lord, I feel I must do this. I am a sinner for the work I do.”
She then removed his shoes and socks and washed his feet with the warm water.
“Maria, thank you, and bless you.” Joshua said after the ritual as he put his socks and shoes back on. “Now my friends we must leave,” he continued.
A cool wind swept around the flood–lit yard as the three men left the veranda and headed toward the car. The last of the day's sunlight was a thin red strip on the western horizon.
“How can we ever repay you?” Jose asked as he watched the three men climb into the car.
Joshua turned towards him and said: “By praying Jose. Pray, and work will find you–I can guarantee it!”
The three members of the Mendez family then watched the dust rise into the air behind the car as it disappeared into the gloom.
“I think things will be better from now on Jose,” said Maria as tears welled up in her eyes.
Matthew yawned as a Lucky Seven Motel sign appeared out of the dark of the roadside. He glanced in the rear-view mirror at Joshua then at David next to him. “Gentlemen, I’m bushed. What do you say to a night in this motel?”
“Okay, pull in,” grunted David.
Joshua looked at Matthew in the mirror and said: “There is something we must discuss.”
Two rooms were taken: one for Matthew and David, and one for Joshua.
“We’d better go and see what he wants to discuss,” said David after they had settled in.
“Sit down, please,” said Joshua when the two men had entered his room.
David pulled out the chair which fitted under the desk in front of the window, and Matthew 32
slumped onto the bed at the opposite end from Joshua. The drapes were partially open allowing red neon light to spill into the room from the courtyard and clash with the light from the bedside lamp.
“Despite what you think I am not here this time to gather sin and teach people about God.”
Joshua announced.
Matthew glanced at David, who raised his eyes from staring at the carpet to look at Joshua, and asked, “then why are you here?”
“I’m here, as the Lamb, to warn man that their ways must change. They must walk with the Heavenly Father!”
“What do you mean by their ways?” Matthew asked.
“Humans must cleanse their lives and the Earth They must release desire, lust and the pursuit of Mammon. They will need to pray for salvation to achieve spiritual growth. This will not be easy because money culture has created the illusion of civilisation aided by the unseen ones who feed off the light produced by the illusion.
David nodded his head, and said: “You mean Satan and his hordes?”
“Yes, they are happy to supply easy lives for those who are weak.
“I don’t understand. What will happen if we don’t amend our ways?” Matthew asked.
Joshua gazed at the ceiling. “You have read the Book of Revelation in The New Testament?”
“Yes–some, answered Matthew.
“Well, it has already begun!”
Joshua pulled a laptop from his holdall.
“This gentlemen, is the end of the world for Satan and his associates.”
David stared at the slim black object. “A computer!”
“Yes, a computer which has the Book with Seven Seals emblazoned on the hard drive.”
Matthew stared at David wondering about God being a computer expert.
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