Rise of the Beast (44 page)

By now, Serena also had tears in her eyes. “I know it sounds, fantastic, but she spoke to us, too, twice. No, we believe you.”

It was time for Chris and Serena to share information they’d shared with no one beyond the Pope in Rome. All present were only too keenly aware that the Spirit of God was on the move. These incredible visions had bolstered everyone’s faith. No, God hadn’t abandoned them.

“There was one last thing,” said Julio. “No, two, really.”

“Grandma Claire said that we should help you in any way we could. We intend to. I earned my associate’s degree in criminal justice last semester. I’d like to earn my bachelors, but I don’t think I have time. I don’t think this world has that much time. Anyway, there are more important things to do. If there is any way, we’d like to help you in your ministry.”

“We need to,” confirmed Karina. “There are things we know; we could help.”

“That is a very kind offer,” said Chris, looking over at his wife.

A pause followed. It was Pastor Smith who broke the silence. He looked toward Julio. “There was something else, wasn’t there?”

Julio looked back toward the pastor. “Yes, there was.” He turned toward Serena. “There was something else that Grandma Claire told us, both of us. It’s about you, Serena, and her grandson, Leland. I told you about him before. Leland is Lusan’s chief financial officer. He and his wife, Krissie, were his first converts. Grandma said that you need to walk into the lion’s den and bring him out. Those were her exact words. You need to give Leland the email she sent him the night she died. You need to tell him what and who he’s dealing with.
You need to go in there alone.”

“Now wait a minute,” objected Chris. “She’s not going in there alone. That’s way too dangerous. Anyway, what makes you think that he is going to listen to her? For all we know, he might be possessed just like you were.”

“He’s not possessed,” said Karina. “There are a lot of people in that place that are, but he isn’t one of them.”

“From what you’ve told me, Leland is totally dedicated to Lusan,” noted Serena. “I doubt that he is going to listen to me.”

“He will,” replied Karina. “The Holy Spirit is going to make a way. I just know it.”

Through the testimony of Julio and Karina, Chris and Serena gained new insight into the workings of Lusan and his organization. It was positively diabolical. It was all a lie, and as Serena had suspected, it was Satan casting out Satan. There were no real miracles playing out here.

The revival was, as Chris and Serena had suspected, a blessing to them as much as it was a blessing to the congregation of this great church. It had been a long time since they had seen people so full of God’s Spirit. In their midst, Serena’s gift of healing, both physical and spiritual, returned, much to the wonderment of the congregation. And she wasn’t alone. There were members of the congregation who displayed marvelous manifestations of the Holy Spirit ranging from prophecy to healing.

After the meetings, late in the evening, Chris and Serena scanned the contents of the drive that Julio had handed them. It filled them with both shock and wonder. It reminded them of the ancient document that the Pope had shared with them. God had not abandoned them. In fact, their ministry was about to enter into a new phase; they were about to face Lusan, and they were ready.

By the end of that glorious weekend, Serena was uplifted. She was ready to step into that lion’s den with total confidence.

It was a cold and snowy Monday morning as Serena stepped from Pastor Smith’s car across from Manhattan’s Davidson Building—Lusan’s headquarters. Serena was dressed for success, like a professional businesswoman. “I’ll
call you on the cell phone when I’m ready for you to pick me up,” said Serena to the pastor.

“I wish you’d let me go with you,” said Chris, who sat with Julio and Karina in the back seat.

Serena smiled. “We’ve been all over this before, dear. I have to go in there alone. I don’t know how long I’ll be, so don’t worry, OK? Daniel stepped from the lion’s den unharmed, and so will I.”

She gripped Chris’s hand through the partially open window for but a second, and then she was on her way through the inch or so of snow down the sidewalk. There was nothing more to say. Pastor Smith pulled out and headed for a nearby parking garage. Serena was on her own. Serena crossed the street and entered the Davidson building.

The lobby of the Davidson building was indeed grand. It was accented by its 20-foot-high ceilings and grand décor. She headed through the metal detector and then toward the directory that was displayed on the wall. Never had she seen one so large. It took up a full 30 feet of the cultured marble wall. Amazingly, it didn’t take long for her to locate Leland James.

“Thirty-first floor,” she said, heading toward a hallway with four elevators on either side. She joined the growing crowd awaiting the next one.

As she entered the elevator, she noticed that access to the 32nd floor was by key only. She smiled. That wasn’t surprising.

The elevator made seven stops before arriving at the 31st floor. She stepped out to come face to face with a security station with two rather large security guards manning it. There was something about these men that she sensed immediately, something wrong. Their eyes seemed so cold, so distant. If the eye was a window unto the soul, no one was home. She didn’t have to ponder why. She was already deep in enemy territory. She stepped boldly forward.

“How may I help you today?” asked one of the guards.

Serena didn’t hesitate. “I am here to see Mr. Leland James.”

“Do you have an appointment?” asked the guard, who was now eying her suspiciously.

“No, I don’t,” replied Serena. “I was, however, a friend of his grandmother.” She held up a manila envelope. “These are some documents that she wanted him
to have, personal documents.”

“I will need to inspect them,” announced the guard.

“As I said, they are personal documents,” replied Serena.

“I can’t let you see him,” said the guard, “Mr. James is a very busy man.”

“Contact him, tell him about the documents,” replied Serena. She paused. “Tell him that Serena Davis is here to see him. He will want to see me.”

The guard, who had shown no emotional response up to this point, looked at Serena with a look of incredulity. No, it was more than that, it was recognition.”

“Serena Davis?” he said.

“The very same,” confirmed Serena.

There was a moment of hesitation, then the guard picked up the phone. He stepped away as if wishing not to be heard. A moment later he sat the phone down. He pointed to a busy hallway to his right. “It’s number 3141 at the end of the hall. You are expected; go directly there.”

“Thank you,” said Serena, who immediately made her way into the corridor.

“So far, so good,” she said under her breath.

This place had the look of any large business. There was nothing about it that might have given the average person any sense of what was really going on here, yet Serena was anything but average. She could sense the coming and going of the spirits in this place, and there were many.

It took about a minute for her to reach 3141. The door was open. She walked in to find an office with two secretaries. One of them looked up and smiled. “You must be Serena,” she said. “Mr. James is looking forward to meeting you. Please go right on in.”

Serena looked toward the door on the far side of the room. She took a deep breath and walked on in. Leland James rose from his desk the very minute she entered.

“Mrs. Davis,” he said pleasantly. “I thought I recognized your name. I just took the liberty to look you up on the Internet. You are quite an accomplished
writer. I remember my grandmother mentioning you some years ago. I didn’t realize that the two of you had stayed in touch.”

“Yes, we had, Mr. James,” confirmed Serena. “Your Grandma Claire was a wonderful woman and a good friend to both me and my husband, Chris.”

Leland quickly pulled up a chair across from his. “Please, sit down, Mrs. Davis. I’m very curious about what brought you here. It was a personal matter, or so said Officer Crawley.”

Serena and Leland sat across the table from one another. Serena pulled out the manila folder and produced three pages. “I have an email here,” she began. “Your grandmother sent it to you the night she died. I get the feeling that you never got it.”

A look of pure astonishment swept over Leland’s face. “No, I got an email, but it was blank. I never got to read it. You have the email, the one she sent me?”

“The exact same one,” confirmed Serena. “Claire had concerns that something might happen so she entrusted a copy of it to several others as well. She really wanted you to read it.”

“Oh heavens,” said Leland, taking the three pages from Serena’s hand. His own hand was shaking. “God bless you, Mrs. Davis. You can’t imagine just how much I wanted to read this, how much I’ve thought about it since my grandmother’s death.”

“I’m just happy to give it to you,” confirmed Serena. “Your grandmother told me that if you hadn’t gotten it that I was to give it to no one else, I was to place it directly into your hand. Oh, and please, call me Serena.”

“And I’m Leland. Please, you don’t mind if I read it right here, right now?”

“I was hoping you would,” confirmed Serena.

Leland put his reading glasses on and began with the document. He read it very slowly, very deliberately. Several times, tears welled up in his eyes, though he did his best to control his emotions. When he was finished, he once more looked to Serena.

“Serena, have you read this email?”

“Yes, many times.”

“This is incredible,” said Leland. “Lusan tried to have her killed? But I saw her at the wedding with Julio and Karina. They seemed like they were so close.”

“Of course,” said Serena. “Your grandmother drove out the demons that had possessed them. It was the demon within them that wanted to kill her, not Julio or Karina. It was Julio’s fight with the demon within him that gave your grandmother the time to cast the demon out and free him.”

“Yes, it says that here,” confirmed Leland. “It also says that Lusan isn’t an angel at all, not in the sense that you or I would …” Leland stopped in mid-sentence.

“It’s OK,” said Serena, placing her hand on his. “I know the whole story.”

“But it says in the email that Lusan is Satan, the Devil,” continued Leland. He paused as if to collect his thoughts. “You know my grandmother didn’t approve of Lusan. She had issues with my working with him.”

“Yes, I know,” said Serena.

Again Leland paused. “But no, that can’t be true. He’s done so much good. I’ve seen him heal people right in front of my eyes. The Devil doesn’t do that. Didn’t Jesus say something about Satan not casting out Satan?”

“Well, yes, that’s in the Bible,” said Serena, “Jesus essentially said it would be counterproductive for Satan to do that. But time is running out. Satan needs converts. He’s casting out demons from one person and sending them just as quickly into someone else, to give the illusion that he can heal. He needs to lead as many people astray as he can. He is doomed, and he knows it. He wants to pull as many people down with him as possible. He’ll pull you down, if he can. Your grandmother doesn’t want that.”

Leland shook his head. “No, I just can’t accept this. I know you mean well, Serena. I appreciate you’re coming here to see me, really I do. But toward the end, my grandmother was getting some pretty strange ideas. I think this was one of them.”

Serena reached into the envelope and pulled from it a small jump drive. “This is information that was on her computer’s hard drive. A friend of hers pulled it from the computer to keep Lusan from getting a hold of it.”

“Julio?” asked Leland.

“I’m really not at liberty to say,” replied Serena. “But there is evidence here. I hope that it will make you a believer in what I’m telling you.”

Leland took it in his hand. For a moment he just stared at it. In that moment, Serena gave Leland her card.

“I don’t wish to overstay my welcome,” said Serena, rising to her feet. “Feel free to call me.”

“Yes,” said Leland, “have a nice day.”

As Serena left the office, she looked back. Leland hadn’t even moved. She wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or bad.

It was in the hallway that Serena was met by three very large and angry looking security guards. Without so much as a word, she was whisked down the hall to the elevator. She was surprised when one of the guards inserted his key into the panel. They were on their way to the 32nd floor.