Rise of the Beast (64 page)

The first detonated with a flash so bright as to be seen from Earth. It left a huge crater in the small comet and a cloud of expanding vapor. The comet hadn’t fragmented as many had feared, but it had slowed down on the order of several dozen feet per second.

The team was ecstatic. It had worked nearly twice as well as they had dared to hope. The second mole might just be enough to allow Earth to escape disaster.

Again the comet brightened as the nuclear bomb reduced the terrain around it to super hot vapor. For over an hour the small comet was shrouded in a veil of dense mist.

As the mist cleared, they were dismayed to discover that the comet had indeed fragmented. Instead of a single object, they were now looking at six large objects and a myriad of smaller ones. Still the news was not all bad. After another day of tracking, it was determined that only two of the six larger fragments were still on a collision course with Earth. The rest would miss by a narrow margin. They had two targets and two nukes.

The Herschel Spacecraft used its dwindling fuel supply to maneuver into position to deliver its last two stings. It was within a thousand miles of its larger target when all telemetry was lost.

“No, not now,” lamented Sam. “We almost have it.”

But it was over. The signal did not return. Apparently, the spacecraft had been hit by some icy fragment of the comet. They had realized that this was a possibility. They had been playing a risky game. They had lost. Now their last best hope would be a sea-based missile barrage. It would be launched just hours before impact. The objective would be to pulverize the remaining two cometary fragments to dust. Still, it was a daunting job. Both fragments were large, one over half a mile across, the other closer to a mile. As soon as they were able to refine the orbits of the two remaining fragments, they would make final plans.

On Katafanga, Les and Nabuko followed the progress of the comet mission. Neither one of them had an extensive background in astronomy, yet they realized the gravity of the situation. As the days passed, reports of the most likely impact points of the two remaining fragments were steadily refined.

One impact point would be in the Mid Pacific, about 500 miles south of Midway Island, the other was far closer to home, about 600 miles to their northwest.

“We have just over five weeks until impact,” observed Les. “If that fragment isn’t destroyed, we could be looking at a tsunami wave that would sweep everything on this island away. We wouldn’t even be safe up here in the heights.”

“So why aren’t we evacuating?” objected Nabuko. “If we started now, we could salvage almost all of the equipment, even the fusion generator. A year from now we could be set up in New Zealand or Europe.”

“That’s not the way Lusan has it figured,” replied Les. “He is confident that this comet fragment can be stopped.”

“If worse came to worse, we might escape through the ring,” suggested Nabuko.

“Maybe,” said Les. “But we still need to form a stable wormhole between here and New Zealand.”

“We might have that as early as next week,” said Nabuko. “I’ve heard Lusan’s engineering team is even building a ring just outside of Paris. We might become world travelers before you know it.”

“I hope so,” said Les. “Still, New Zealand is almost 50 times further away than any link we’ve tried to establish so far. Europe, that’s several hundred times further. We may be stretching our luck on that one.”

“But if we do succeed, I wonder what then?” posed Nabuko. “Will Lusan give us a still greater challenge, or will we have outlived our usefulness?”

“I’m not sure,” admitted Les. “But I think it’s about time we came up with an escape plan. I think that ring is our ticket out. I believe New Zealand is our best bet. The ring there is not so well guarded. We could take the whole team through, at least anyone who would come with us. I haven’t worked out all of the details yet, but I will.”

Nabuko nodded. At this point she was really afraid. She was becoming convinced that being drowned by a tsunami might not be the greatest of their worries.

C
HAPTER
25

Chris and Serena were involved in a citywide revival at the Minneapolis Convention Center when word of the loss of the Herschel Spacecraft reached them. Sam Florence filled them in on all of the details, details they wouldn’t have heard on the news. As Sam saw it, they were looking at a near apocalyptic event any way you sliced it.

Yes, the nukes might stop the comet fragments from hitting the Earth, but the resulting nuclear fallout might make it a dubious victory. And there was more. The breakup of the comet had left them with literally thousands of fragments. Perhaps many would simply sublimate to nothing in the vacuum of space during the five weeks until impact, leaving little more than a puff of ash to hit the upper atmosphere. But some would make it through. It would be impossible to stop them all.

An incident like this had no precedent. It was virtually impossible to predict the ecological consequences of this event. And there was more. The comet was still venting material that was altering its course. Sam could not discount the possibility of the main cometary body hitting the near side of the moon. Such an impact might rain down lunar material on the Earth as well, with as yet unknown consequences.

As Serena hung up the phone, she realized that their mission here on Earth was almost at an end. They would need to double their efforts during the days that they had left. They would be here another three days, and then they would
be on to Madison, Wisconsin, then Chicago. Leland James would be joining them in Chicago, and from there, traveling on with them to Shelbyville and St. Louis. That would take them right up to the day of impact, assuming there was an impact.

It would be most ironic to have the financial architect of Lusan’s spiritual empire with them on this revival. Leland would be giving his testimony as part of their next four revival meetings. They were unsure as to just how much information about Lusan he would reveal, but they had already agreed not to hinder him. If the Holy Spirit led him to reveal all, that was fine.

It was just before Lusan’s regular morning meeting at his conference room in Paris that he heard the news. The science team on Katafanga had formed a stable wormhole between the island and New Zealand on the very first try. Already, members of the science team had made several trips through the wormhole to the new ring in their research facility just outside of Christchurch. The next step would be to make the journey from the island directly to the ring in the basement of this very compound.

Finally, they would attempt to establish a link between the ring on Katafanga and the one in his audience chamber in Hell. At that point, the science team would have outlived their usefulness. Perhaps he would send them through to his audience chamber, grant them a journey into the final frontier.

But that would be an experiment unto itself, wouldn’t it? Would the passage into his kingdom profoundly alter their physical structure? Would they become immortal beings, just another group of damned souls within his dark realm? He wasn’t sure. He would send them through just before the impact of this comet thing. He would promise them escape from the impending cataclysm. He chuckled. He could hardly wait to see the expressions upon their faces when they discovered where it was that they had escaped to.

His minions were filing into the conference room; their meeting was about to begin. The first order of business would be Serena. At last he was ready for her. With the group assembled, the minion Dolgrin, one of those who had fled with him through the ring of the Great Hall of Angels, rose to his feet.

“My lord,” said Dolgrin, “we have carefully followed the movements of Serena and her husband these past weeks. We have studied her schedule and have
found our golden opportunity to strike. Only five days before the impact of the comet, they will be traveling to an out-of-the-way church in the town of Shelbyville, Illinois. It was a revival they had set up many months ago, before they became so popular. They will be away from the crowds on a country road. That is where we shall strike. In addition, that traitorous Leland James will be with them. It will be our opportunity to take them all at once, in a single operation.”

Lusan sat back in his chair. He liked the sound of this. “Tell me of this operation.”

And Dolgrin did. He and his associates had been working on this intricate plan for months. And the more Lusan heard of the details, the more he liked it. It would be almost poetic in its execution. The presence of Leland James would only sweeten his long awaited victory.

In all of his existence, few humans had raised his ire more than Serena Davis. Within Hell’s broiling Sea of Fire, he had afflicted her with horror and agony on the grandest of scales. He had done it for months. No human on Earth knew the meaning of pain as she did. But this was not enough. His thirst for revenge was still not quenched. He would partake of it once more.

Chris and Serena met Leland at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. They were encouraged to learn what the team back in New York had accomplished over the past month. They had been working with the FBI and the attorney general’s office to build a case against Lusan. At this point, their case was strong indeed. Racketeering, money laundering, murder, conspiracy, and kidnapping were but a few of the criminal activities that Lusan had dabbled in while he was living in the United States.