“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
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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 my Father.” 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; 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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Chapter Fifteen
Ron Scrimgeour pulled down the zip at the back of the bubbly blond girl’s dress, and she giggled as it fell to the ground. She then stepped out of the garment and led Ron toward a bed with silk sheets.
“Ron,” said the girl as they were writhing away, “where and when is the next meeting of the Inner Sanctum?”
“Oh!” shouted Ron as he spurted, “Faraday Room, Tuesday at five pm!”
He looked up into the girl’s red eyes and then woke up screaming.
“What is it Ron?” asked his wife.
“Just a nightmare dear,” he answered as he felt the wet patch on the groin area of his pyjamas.
The room was darkened with lights illuminating a table where ten figures sat as Thomson appeared, like a ghost, through a wall. Two guards in uniform pulled out their guns and pointed them at the intruder, but the guns had other ideas and rammed up their owners bottoms.
“Goodnight gentlemen,” said Thomson as he waved a hand and the guards pulled the triggers.
Also in the room were black-suited agents who took their hands away from the guns inside their jackets after witnessing the event.
“What the fuck!” Ron Scrimgeour shouted as he jumped up looking at the man next to him, who was pulling him back into his seat and shaking his head while staring at him with knowing eyes.
“So this is where you’ve been running my world from in my absence,” said Thomson as he circled the table.
“So glad to see you again my lord,” said a blond-haired man whose eyes flickered red.
“The Lamb is here so there isn’t much time, gentlemen–I need an update!”
“The Lamb is indeed here and we suspect that he has the Book with Seven Seals,” said the blond-haired man.
“We’re certain he is on his way here to Washington,” said a man in a generals uniform.
“Good news!” Thomson said.
“He’s with two men: Matthew Wilson and David de Longford,” continued the military man.
“Not so good news,” said Thomson as he looked at the palm of his right hand.
“Who are they?” Ron Scrimgeour asked.
“They’re part demon part human. Wilson’s an annoying little shit. And de Longford… de Longford’s an old adversary of mine, he’s dangerous!”
Matthew pulled off the freeway and parked in the lot of a coffee house as a dark storm cloud rumbled its way across the distant mountains.
“Anyone for coffee and a muffin?”
“Yeah, I’ll go for that,” said David pulling on his hat.
“I won’t,” said Joshua. “I’ll stay in the car and meditate.”
After Matthew and David had left the vehicle Joshua prayed and placed himself in a deep meditative state. Suddenly there was a sharp knock on the window beside him. When he opened his eyes Joshua was shocked to see the head of a screaming man close to the glass. He was unshaven, had unkempt hair and blazing red eyes.
Joshua opened the door, pushing the stranger back, and stepped out of the car. “Calm yourself, sir.” he said as the man lurched toward him.
“I know who you are!” the man yelled.
The Lamb put his hand on the strangers forehead and said: “Hold thy peace and come out of him!”
The man slumped to the ground and Joshua pulled him up and took him over to rest in a seat in front of the coffee house.
David and Matthew came running out.
“What happened?” Matthew asked.
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Joshua looked up at them, “This man had an unclean spirit and I cleansed it. Can you bring him a drink please?”
Matthew fetched a cup of water from the cafe.
“There you are sir,” he said handing over the drink.
“Thank you son,” said the man.
“Gentlemen, I think we should now continue our journey,” said Joshua turning toward the car.
Soon they were driving along the freeway in cruise control. David turned around on hearing rustling from the rear seat. “What’s wrong?”
Joshua searched around the seat and the floor. “It’s my holdall–I can’t find it!”
“Not the holdall with the laptop in!” said Matthew.
“Yes I’m afraid so,” answered Joshua.
“Back to the coffee house Mattie–quickly!” said David.
“It couldn’t have been the man with the unclean spirit. I was with him all the time, and he was never in the car.” Joshua said as he looked underneath the front seats. “Must have been an opportunist thief.”
“Or the man you cleansed had an accomplice,” countered David.
Matthew left the freeway at the first junction and then raced back along the opposite side toward the café.
“He’s gone,” said David pointing toward the seat at the front of the coffee house as the car bounced into the parking lot.
The three men searched in the café and the area round about, but there was no trace of the cleansed man.
“I have a feeling Grondin’s involved here.” Matthew said to David as the two men walked back to the car followed by Joshua.
“Yes, so do I. After all, his destruction is assured when the file with the seals is opened.”
“Only I can open the seals,” said Joshua as he caught up with the two men.
“What now then? Did God make a back-up!” asked Matthew as they opened the car doors.
“That’s blasphemy I think, but no–he didn’t make a back-up. Nor did I,” said Joshua.
David turned to Joshua, “What happens if someone other than yourself opens the seals?”
“They would be burned alive!”
“How about Satan?”
Joshua watched the illuminated Best Western sign bounce around in the night as the car entered the parking lot of the motel in Alexandria.
“Wakey Wakey lads,” said Matthew reversing the car into a space.
Opening the rear door, Joshua stepped out and stretched as he watched the other two men walk toward the well-lit reception. Suddenly the darkness reached out and grabbed him. A bitter chemical entered his lungs, and the darkness invaded his mind.
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Part Three
Holy Orders
Chapter Sixteen
Monsignor Michael Manzi sat in the back of a taxi and gazed at the passing Virginian mixture of residential and commercial properties. He had flown in to Dulles International from Rome and was now speeding toward Washington DC.
Manzi, an exorcist for the catholic church, was on a different mission this time. Authorised by His Eminence-the Pope himself-he had to find Christ.
He had read the reports of some guy claiming to be the Second Coming, but had dismissed it as nonsense. Cardinal Canale, the man who gave him his orders, had asked him to check it out.
One thing he couldn’t figure out was why the Vatican knew the exact place to send him. He had been told that the so called Christ was on his way to the capital. How did they know?
He yawned. Once he had exposed the charlatan, he would visit his family in Baltimore and have some time off, thought Michael. The past few months had been hectic, he had never been involved in so many exorcisms.
“You here for some convention Father?” The cab driver asked as the towers of down-town Washington raced toward them.
“Nah, I’m here for something else.”
“You’re from the States then?”
“Yes, I’m from Baltimore.”
“Do you follow the Ravens?”
“Oh yes, that’s my team. I keep up with the scores.”
They crossed the Potomac and pulled up in front of the Days Inn Hotel on Connecticut Avenue. A rare privilege, thought Michael, who normally stayed in priest houses or rectory’s.
He checked-in and then took the elevator to his room on the third floor. His mobile phone rang as he pushed the door open; so he dropped his suitcase and flopped into a seat by the window. He pulled out the phone and gazing at the picture of Cardinal Canale he pressed the accept button.
“I take it you’re settled into your hotel room Michael?” Canale asked in his Italian accented English.
“Yes, Thank you. I‘m just in.”
“Michael, I have news that will help you on your quest.”
“Okay,Your Eminence.”
“While you were flying over the Atlantic the person who was claiming to be Christ disappeared. The two men he was travelling with are staying at the Best Western motel