The Armageddon Conspiracy (4 page)

Maybe it wasn’t so odd that the
supernatural was being taken seriously.
Right from New Year’s Day,
newspapers were reminding their readers that the Mayans long ago
predicted that the world would end on 21 December 2012.
It started
as a bit of a joke, one of the ‘things to look out for this year’,
but no one was laughing now.
On top of that, the only notable thing
that happened immediately before the chaos descended was the series
of spectacular thefts that had grabbed worldwide attention,
seemingly taking place at precisely that three a.m.
moment when the
whole planet shivered.

The Treasury
in Axum was just one of seven high-profile
locations raided by expert thieves.
It soon became obvious they
were looking for very particular, highly prized artefacts, all of a
religious nature.
Religious leaders were openly saying that these
thefts were the cause of the natural catastrophes.
They were the
ultimate insult to God, they claimed, forcing him to decide that
humanity must be purged, just as in the original End Days of Noah’s
Flood.

Hysterical nonsense, Vernon thought,
but always there lurked that one flicker of doubt.
After all, not
only had the thieves apparently stolen the Ark of the Covenant,
they were also said to have found perhaps the most elusive treasure
of them all.

The Holy
Grail
.

4

V
ernon wasn’t
sure what he’d been expecting when he arrived in the detention
area, but it wasn’t this.
These cells hadn’t been used in anger for
years; prisoners nowadays were taken to the high-security police
facility at Paddington Green.

Soldiers in camouflage uniforms were
everywhere.
There was an odd atmosphere: the soldiers silent and
visibly agitated.
Normally, soldiers could be relied on for their
black humour.
Not these ones.
Whoever the mystery prisoner was, his
presence had spooked them.

Vernon was starting to feel the same
way.
He guessed that a terrorist had been apprehended, someone who
needed to be interrogated immediately.
His boss probably wanted him
to provide detailed background intelligence on the prisoner, to try
to work out his movements over the last twenty-four hours, discover
who was helping him and so forth.
Maybe the terrorist had tried to
take advantage of the current chaos to stage a ‘spectacular’.

When he reached the battleship-grey
block that contained the detention cells and interview rooms, a
soldier inspected his ID badge.

‘
Commander Harrington
is waiting for you in Room One,’ the soldier said.
He was jumpy,
his eyes darting around.

‘
Why all the extra
security?’
Vernon asked.

‘
You’ll soon find out.’
The soldier knocked on the iron door.
A second soldier looked
through a viewing slit then opened the door.

Vernon stepped into the main detention
block with its austere walls and worn-out black and white floor
tiles, his unease accelerating fast.
He loosened his tie.

The soldier who greeted him was nervous
and on edge.
He escorted Vernon to the main interview room,
knocked, then punched in a security code to open the door.

The first thing Vernon noticed as he
entered the room was the polished black table in the centre, at
which two men were sitting.
One was his pin-stripe-suited,
fifty-year-old boss Charles Harrington; the other a black man
wearing the uniform of a colonel in the U.S.
Marine Corps, and with
a typically severe military crew cut.

The American stood up and held out his
hand.
‘I’m Colonel Brad Gresnick of the Defence Intelligence
Agency.
I’ve just flown in from the Pentagon.’

Vernon peered at him.
A clean-cut type,
probably in his early thirties, the colonel was over six feet tall
and about 190 pounds, with a muscular build.
Vernon didn’t like to
acknowledge it, but Gresnick was a dead ringer for Hollywood’s top
black heart-throb actor Jez Easton.
Immediately, he felt a desire
to put Gresnick down.
A by-the-numbers soldier, he decided, a yes
man who’d do anything to climb the greasy pole.

Vernon was no fan of the DIA, having
worked with them a couple of times before.
They were the military
counterparts of the CIA, responsible for gathering foreign military
intelligence, analysing military threats to America, making sure
the American armed services were ready for any eventuality.
They
provided the Secretary of Defence and Joint Chiefs of Staff with
all the information they needed to make decisions.
Vernon found
them pedantic, lacking the flair of the CIA.
What was one of their
men doing over here at a time like this?

‘
I thought all flights
were suspended because of the birds,’ Vernon said.

‘
Military flights have
special equipment for dispersing them.’
Gresnick resumed his
seat.

‘
Sit down, Mr Vernon,’
Commander Harrington said.
‘We have a lot to get
through.’

Putting down his coffee, Vernon took a
seat opposite the others.
Numerous documents were laid out on the
table, all bearing ‘Classified: Eyes Only’ stamps.
Next to the
paperwork, sitting on a black cloth, was a translucent globe,
emerald green in colour, the size of a tennis ball.
A paperweight
of some kind, Vernon thought.
Finally, there was a small
microphone.

‘
Why don’t you bring Mr
Vernon up to speed, colonel?’
Harrington said.

Gresnick nodded.
‘Four
days ago, the thirty men of our top Delta Force unit went awol from
their base at Fort Bragg.
Within twenty-four hours, one of our
analysts discovered an extraordinary and hitherto unknown
connection between all of them.
Without exception, they were
grandchildren of members of
Section
5
, a military intelligence unit from World
War Two.
In April and May of 1945, Section 5 interrogated Nazi
officials responsible for part of the vast treasure hoard the Nazis
looted from all over Europe.
The treasures these particular Nazis
looked after were of an esoteric, religious nature, and were stored
in deep bunkers beneath Nuremberg Castle.’

‘
That’s quite a story.’
Vernon realised he was going to have trouble avoiding the Nazis
today.

‘
All these Delta Force
guys were single and childless,’ Gresnick said.
‘Before they
deserted, they sold their homes and withdrew all of their money
from their bank accounts.’

Vernon had no idea what any of this had
to do with MI5.
Intriguing for sure, but it seemed like an internal
American Army issue, of trivial importance given world events.

‘
You’re probably
wondering what the punchline is,’ Gresnick said.
‘No doubt you’re
aware of the recent thefts of religious artefacts from various
sites around the world.’

Vernon nodded.
Three of the seven sites
were in the British Isles.

‘
The DIA has concluded
that all of the thefts bore the hallmarks of operations by U.S.
Special Forces – unauthorised, I must emphasise.
We’re certain
these deserters were responsible.’

Vernon sat upright.
‘Why would American
Special Forces go renegade and start stealing religious
relics?’

Gresnick slid a folder towards
Vernon.

‘
Finish your coffee and
take a few minutes to read that file.
I think I can safely say it’s
the strangest document you’ll ever read.’

5

Defense Intelligence Agency

Classified: Eyes Only

For circulation amongst Sigma Access
Group only

Alpha Summary – supposed theft of
iconic religious artefacts as hypothetical cause of current global
environmental instability.

Beta
Summary
: On 24 April 2012, at 3 a.m.
GMT,
seven locations said to be associated with three famous religious
relics were raided.
All of the raids were synchronised and took
place under cover of darkness.
Within hours of the raids, reports
came in from across the globe of cataclysmic earthquakes, an
alarming increase in volcanic activity, formation of multiple
category-5 hurricanes, and acute weather conditions in almost every
country.
The colour of the sky across the earth was observed to
start changing to blood red.

Religious leaders declared that the
thefts were a blasphemy and the direct cause of the natural
disasters.
They demanded the safe return of the treasures and
stated that, otherwise, the world would suffer the ‘Wrath of
God.’

All governments agreed that the
severity of the natural disasters posed an unprecedented threat to
the future of life on earth.
The United Nations met in emergency
session to coordinate a global response.
It was decided a
twin-track approach should be adopted.
While scientific solutions
were urgently sought, governments would, at the least, pay lip
service to the possibility of the current crisis having a
supernatural origin.
To prevent possible religious hysteria
breaking out amongst billions of believers, governments of all
major powers agreed to use their intelligence services to apprehend
the thieves and retrieve the stolen artefacts.

At present, scientists have been unable
to account for the pattern of extreme environmental events.
Investigations, analysis and data gathering are ongoing.
Emergency
conferences involving the world’s leading scientific experts have
been organised and will be given the full support of all
governments.
Religious leaders will also be consulted about ways
forward.
For the sake of public morale, it’s critical for
governments to be seen to be taking all possible courses of action
at this time.

****

(His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Lenihan of
the Archdiocese of New York and Rabbi Dr.
Menachem Grien, Professor
of Theology at Columbia University, were consulted in the
preparation of the following.)

The three holy relics said to be
connected with the seven raids are the most famous in Western
religious history:

1. The Ark of the Covenant
   

2. The Holy Grail.
   

3. The Spear of Destiny.
   

The seven locations raided are:

1. Temple Mount, Jerusalem.
   

2. The Church of Saint Mary of Zion, Axum,
   Ethiopia.
   

3. Chalice Well, Glastonbury, England.
   

4. Schatzkammer (Imperial Treasury),
   Hofburg Palace, Vienna, Austria.
   

5. Oak Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.
   

6. Rosslyn Chapel, Edinburgh,
   Scotland.
   

7. Hill of Tara, Republic of Ireland.
   

Brief descriptions of the three
artefacts are provided below:

1) The Ark of the
Covenant

A portable wooden vessel, the size of a
large chest and overlaid inside and out with gold.
According to the
Book of Exodus, God commanded Moses to make the Ark and furnished
him with a precise set of instructions.
The Ark was the container
for the two stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments.
The
Ark was mentioned many times in the Old Testament before abruptly
vanishing.
Many conflicting theories have been proposed concerning
its fate and current whereabouts.

In the present context, it is important
to highlight that the Ark was considered to have many dangerous
properties, including the characteristics of an early Weapon of
Mass Destruction.

The following is a list of powers
attributed to the Ark:

1. Levitation: it could raise itself and
   other nearby objects off the ground.
   

2. It emitted light and sparks.
   

3. It had a flamethrower capability, which
   it allegedly used to kill two sons of Aaron, the Ark’s first High
   Priest.
   

4. It was associated with a fiery cloud
   that materialised above it and from which a voice spoke to Moses
   and Aaron.
   

5. It could induce leprosy and tumours in
   people.
   

6. Those who touched it without permission,
   even accidentally, usually died.
   Ordinary people could not safely
   approach within half a mile of it.
   

7. During battles, it rose into the air,
   emitted a terrifying sound and sped into the heart of the enemy
   army.
   In one battle, it allegedly killed 50,000 enemy soldiers.
   

8. During the siege of Jericho, Jewish
   priests circled the city on seven separate days.
   Some priests blew
   trumpets as they went round the city walls while others carried the
   Ark in procession using special poles so that they did not come
   into direct contact with it.
   It has been speculated that the Ark
   may have amplified and directed the sound waves like a sonic
   cannon, eventually bringing down the walls of Jericho.
   

9. The High Priest had to wear special
   protective clothing whenever he approached the Ark.
   

10. When the Ark killed Hebrews, Moses
    insisted that their bodies be taken far from the Israelites’ camp
    to be buried, contrary to normal religious practice.
    No explanation
    was ever offered as to why Moses took these extraordinary
    precautions.
    

11. The Ark was said to give off a dazzling
    supernatural radiance.