The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle (77 page)

‘Do you agree that it’s been way too long since we had
any rains here in Jerusalem?’ he asked.

The crowd agreed enthusiastically.

‘Well,’ he said and motioned toward Antonio. ‘Let’s
change that then, shall we?’

The Pope raised his hands into the air again, ‘Oh great
keeper of rain,’ he shouted into the sky. ‘Please hear the command from our
Messiah and shed the rains down upon us as a sign of your approval.’

For a few seconds nothing happened. Then the crowd
spotted the first flickers in the clouds. Within minutes the entire skyline was
coated in purple, and people rejoiced when the first rumble of thunder rolled
along the valley.

‘Give me your camera,’ Victor ordered one of the
cameramen. The man gave up his camera without hesitation. ‘Thank you all for
your presence here today.’

The people watched in bewilderment as Victor walked up
the stairs toward the Temple entrance. At the top of the stairs, Victor turned
and waved at the crowd, then disappeared into the Temple courtyard.

‘President Yoshe,’ a Rabbi greeted Victor. ‘To what do
we owe the honour—?’

‘To me, Rabbi Moshe,’ Victor said without looking at
the Rabbi. ‘You owe the honour to me.’

He walked undeterred toward his destination: the Holy
of Holies.

‘Sir,’ the Rabbi protested. ‘You cannot go in there...’

‘Yeah?’ Victor said and stopped short at the entrance.
‘And who is going to stop me?’

‘HaShem will stop you, sir,’ the Rabbi said. ‘If you
enter in there, you will surely die.’

Victor rolled his eyes and continued walking. The Rabbi
reached out to him in a futile attempt to grab hold of him, but it was too
late.

Victor had already disappeared into the Holy of Holies.

.XI.

So when you see standing
in the Holy Place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through
the prophet Daniel, let the reader understand - then let those who are in Judea
flee to the mountains.

-
Matthew 24:15-16

Malcolm sat up straight in his
chair. He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing live on GMN. So many people
had confronted the prophets before, and all of them had lost their lives. No
one thought that it would be possible to ever get rid of them, and in walked
Victor Yoshe and disposed of them without even putting up a fight. Even Benny
the Fist wanted nothing to do with them after his initial call out. Malcolm
smiled broadly. Simply brilliant!

‘Do you agree that it’s been a while since we had any
rains here in Jerusalem?’ Victor asked the crowd.

Malcolm jumped from his seat and rushed towards the
door.

‘What’s the matter, dear?’ Mary asked as he was about
to leave.

‘Nothing, Love,’ he answered her excitedly and kissed
her on the cheek as he left. ‘Just watch GMN for the next few minutes. I can’t
talk now; I
have
to be there.’

Mary watched as he sped off, and took a seat in front
of the television. She considered changing the channel to watch a soap opera
instead, but decided against it. The handsome face of Victor caught and held
her attention as thunder rumbled softly in the distance.

- - -*  *  *- -
-

‘They’re gone!’ Trevor cheered and
pulled René out of her chair. ‘They’re gone for good!’ The two of them did a
little dance and fell back into the sofa, laughing.

‘I cannot believe it,’ he said while trying to catch
his breath. ‘Yoshe made it appear so easy.’

‘Messiah Yoshe,’ René corrected him with a smile.

‘Oh yeah,’ Trevor chuckled. ‘
Messiah
Yoshe.’

He had been following the agonizing reports about these
two men since they first made their appearance around three and a half years
ago, and was just as annoyed at them and their plagues as the rest of the
world. If the plagues hadn’t spread to South Africa and disrupted the weather
and economic conditions, he might have been more lenient towards them.

‘Did you see the facial expression of that second one
as he took a nose dive?’ René said between giggles.

‘Yeah,’ Trevor said and chuckled. ‘They should air it
on ‘
The World’s most Funniest Deaths,
’ and pause on his face just before
he smacks into the ground.’

The two of them continued to mock and rejoice as Victor
made his way up the Temple steps.

- - -*  *  *- -
-

When Malcolm arrived, most of the
crowd had scattered to get shelter from the coming rain. The wind carried the
moisture of the rain, and instantly filled his nostrils as he got out of his
car.

‘What are we going to do with the bodies?’ one of the
GMN cameramen asked as he pointed to the two lifeless prophets.

‘Leave them out to rot!’ someone from within the crowd
yelled.

‘Yeah,’ someone else confirmed. ‘Let them be an example
to those who think that they can defy the Empire!’

Malcolm made his way through the crowd and knelt down
beside the two bodies, making sure that they were dead indeed. There was no
doubt in his mind when he saw their physical appearances. He stood up and
addressed the crowd: ‘It is decided,’ he said with as much authority as he
could manage, ‘that they will rot here in the streets as a warning to those who
would dare defy the Empire.’

The enthusiastic crowd eagerly agreed.

‘Where’s President Yoshe?’ Malcolm asked a Rabbi
running down the Temple steps.

‘Approaching the Holy of Holies,’ the Rabbi answered
and pointed toward a television screen that one of the GMN crew members brought
from the van.

‘He cannot do that!’ Malcolm said in a frantic state of
panic. ‘Holy men have been killed by just walking into that place!’

The Rabbi just shrugged.

‘I hope he knows what he’s doing,’ Malcolm said as the
live feed showed Victor entering the Holy of Holies, ‘for his sake,
and
for the Empire.’

- - -*  *  *- -
-

Victor positioned the live
recording camera on top of the Ark of the Covenant. He had to break off one of
the golden Cherubim on the lid to make space for the camera. He took three
steps back and cleared his throat as he stared into the depths of the camera.

‘Citizens of the Empire,’ he began. ‘Citizens of United
Earth; I have decided to put things into perspective for you.’

He waited before continuing: ‘For those who do not have
access to televisions or radios, you will receive this message in the same
telepathic manner you have on the day that the aliens attacked.’

He waited again, allowing most people across the world
to bring their vehicles to a standstill or get comfortable. ‘As most of you
know by now,’ he began, ‘the two men in Jerusalem known as ‘The Two Prophets,’
have just been slain on live television. I urge this as a warning to anyone who
thinks that they can disrupt the peace that I have established over the past
three years.

‘One cannot allow anarchy to run amok on one hand,
while trying to maintain
Peace and Safety
on the other. It is also the
general consensus of everyone here that these men’s bodies rot in the streets
as an example of those who wish to continue the works of evil that these two
had started.

‘For long have I worked behind the scenes to ensure
peace.
I
was the one who created the European Empire.
I
was
there, guiding international forces in the war against Aliens little more than
three years ago.
I alone
managed to ensure peace between the Jew and the
Muslim.
I
have proven worthy of being the Christian, Muslim,
and
Jewish Messiah.
I am
Victor Yoshe;
I am
Victor Christ.

‘There is
no
other beside me. All historical
leaders were merely foreshadows of the one to come; all of them only a
glimmer...of
me
. Many have tried to establish peace in the Middle East,
and all have failed miserably. Many have tried to rebuild the Third Jewish
Temple, and failed in that also. World leaders could not accomplish in two
hundred years what I have done in only two. Am I gifted? Perhaps. But my real
power and strength does not lie in the fact that I am merely gifted; the
real
power lies in the fact that I am more than just a mere man. I have elevated
myself to the position of king, ruling over many kings in the empire. I am the
King of kings. The hierarchy of the European Empire is divided into kings and
Lords. I am the Lord of lords. I am the one who holds everything together. Many
call me President; some call me Christ; but I am so much more. I’m not just a
President; not just an Emperor. I am not just the Christ. I am in all. All is
in me.

‘
I—AM—GOD
!’

- - -*  *  *- -
-

There was a ghostly silence among
the crowd standing outside the Temple. Everyone stared at the monitor in
disbelief, no one dared to make a sound louder than that of breath being
inhaled or exhaled.

Malcolm was speechless. He didn’t know what to think,
and for a second, thought that he was dreaming.

A violent wind suddenly came up from nowhere and ripped
through the crowd, howling and crying as it passed through the people gathered
in front of the Temple. It shattered all the windows of each car, truck, and
van, and some of the people shrieked while others ran for cover.

Malcolm’s mind was racing with thoughts and questions
as he kept his eyes locked on the television set. For the first time since he
had seen Victor, did he see him properly. It was as though a veil had been
lifted from his eyes, and sudden fear gripped his heart and squeezed it until
Malcolm thought his heart would explode.

The television screen exploded, sending up sparks,
sizzles, and crackles. More people ran and screamed as the howling of the wind
just kept intensifying, growing louder and louder.

Malcolm was no believer in Christian theology, but he
had debated with enough Christian missionaries to know that there would one day
be a man who posed as the Jewish Messiah who would be known in the Christian
circles as Antichrist. Malcolm had never believed the stories, but now
somehow—in his heart—he knew it to be true.

‘Here he comes,’ someone within the crowd shouted and
pointed to the top of the stairs. Victor stood there for a second, looking down
at the confused crowd below; his jacket whipping in the wind like a cape. He
started his descent down the stairs, and an overwhelming sense of fear and evil
gripped Malcolm. He decided to follow his instinct and, like a few others, ran
for his car. He sped off without daring to look back.

- - -*  *  *- -
-

Both Trevor and René jerked when
the sudden gust of wind slammed some of the windows shut, shattering one which
rained down thousands of little shards of glass on the sidewalk below. More
windows at other apartments slammed and shattered.

‘Get the windows in the bathroom!’ Trevor shouted over
his shoulder while he struggled to close the slamming windows in the living
room, careful that he didn’t get yanked out of the building.

A few minutes later a badly shaken up Trevor and René
joined each other to follow the proceedings in Jerusalem. Victor had made his
way down the Temple steps and was standing in front of the little crowd that
remained.

‘Behold,’ Antonio said and pointed toward Victor. ‘Your
God!’

Everyone fell down on their knees and started
worshipping and praying to Victor, who closed his eyes and lifted his head
skyward. Lightning flashed in the skies above, and he inhaled deeply; then
looked right into the live GMN camera: ‘I am God,’ he said, ‘and besides me,
there is
no
other!’

.XII.

 
‘One of the heads of the
beast seemed to have had a fatal wound’

-
Revelation 13:3,
NIV

‘Andrew?’

‘Yeah?’

‘What the Hell just happened?’

‘I’m not sure, Trev,’ Andrew said truthfully. ‘But I
have my hunches.’

‘Like?’

‘It’s not something I’d talk about over the telephone.
Let’s meet for coffee on Saturday, and then I’ll tell you all about it.’

‘Why don’t you just give me the basic run down?’

‘I’d rather not. It would just confuse you, and that
wouldn’t help either of us.’

Trevor paused. ‘Saturday then?’

‘Yeah. I’ll call you closer to the day to make
arrangements.’

‘Right. See you then.’

Andrew hung up and shot a prayer request to the Lord,
asking Him to open Trevor’s eyes and heart. If this was what Andrew thought it
was; things were going to get very bad, very soon.

- - -*  *  *- -
-

‘We have to go,’ Malcolm said
frantically. ‘
Now!
’ he packed some clothes into a few light suitcases.

‘But where will we go?’ Mary asked.

‘I don’t know, my love, but we cannot stay here a
minute longer.’

‘I wish...’ Mary said and emotion welled in her voice.
‘I wish that Timothy could be here with us now.’

Malcolm stopped packing and took his wife into his arms
and swallowed hard. ‘Me too,’ he said softly. ‘Me too.’

The hug was short-lived as Malcolm continued packing.
‘Get us some canned food, and something to open the cans with; also cutlery,
especially sharp knives.’

Mary hurried to the kitchen and filled two boxes with
long-life foods and milk. She filled some containers with water and left the
boxes on the counter for her husband to collect.

‘All right,’ he said. ‘Are we ready?’

‘No,’ she sobbed. ‘I cannot leave...’

‘We
must,
’ Malcolm urged. ‘We have no other
choice.’

‘Maybe we interpreted it wrong?’ Mary asked, grasping
at straws. ‘Maybe it’s not as bad as we think it is.’

‘I wish it were true,’ Malcolm said, ‘but it’s not. We
have the knowledge, we have the conviction. It would be suicide to stay.’

‘If only we had listened to Tim,’ Mary said as she
helped Malcolm load the car. ‘But how could we have known?’

‘We couldn’t,’ Malcolm said. ‘Not even when Angie tried
to warn us.’

‘I...I’m worried.’

Malcolm was worried too, but he had to appear strong
for his wife’s sake. He didn’t say anything, but took her in his arms.

They embraced, and then after one last quick scan
through the house, got into the car and drove off, leaving behind the fruits of
their labour, toward an unforeseen and
very
dark future.

- - -*  *  *- -
-

Benny the Fist knew from the
television feed earlier the day that something bad was going down. He checked
the magazines of his pistols to confirm that they were all fully loaded, and
that the pistols were set to safety. He had about fifteen guns at his disposal,
and enough ammunition to run a small-scale war.

On his way out he stopped at his bookshelf, his eyes
frantically searching for one specific book. He found it sandwiched between the
Koran and a thick book written by a cult leader in China. He took the Bible and
flipped through it before stuffing it into the side pocket of one of his carry
bags.

Once everything was packed, he sloshed containers of
petrol over everything in the house. He soaked his expensive curtains, dining
room table set, sofas, beds, and carpets. A few minutes later, he was standing
with a lit match between his fingers, and exhaled deeply before throwing it on
the soaked carpet. The carpet instantly lit with a loud
whoosh
behind
Benny as he hurried towards his car.

That ought to keep N-Force busy for a few days
, he thought and sped off
without looking back.

- - -*  *  *- -
-

‘Where are all these people going?’
Mary asked as Malcolm brought the car to a halt on the highway. All the cars
have caused a huge pileup on the various highways heading out of Jerusalem and
a few other Israeli cities.

‘They have all been chosen,’ Malcolm said as he scanned
the road ahead. It didn’t look like the cars in front were going to move any
time soon, and he wondered how long it would take N-Force to catch on before
they closed the borders. He checked his watch. At this pace, it could be hours
before they would reach the border. He figured that they had about two hours
before N-Force would be upon them.

Mary stared out of the window, looking at the families
in the cars next to them. She wondered how many of them also came to the
sudden—and unmistakably divine—realization that Victor Yoshe was pure evil, and
most importantly of all, that Jesus was in fact the Christ.

‘I miss Angie,’ she said eventually. ‘And I miss our
son too.’

Malcolm didn’t know what to say. He had banished
Timothy for the very thing that he now believed with his whole heart to be
true.

‘Why didn’t HaShem reveal this to us sooner?’ Mary
asked. ‘What about all the Jews that have died from the time of Abraham to now?
And what about the Jews that He didn’t reveal Himself to today? Are they going
to be okay? Are they going to eventually realize who He is?’

Malcolm’s throat was dry. He didn’t know the answers to
any of her questions. He instead prayed silently that Adonai would lead them
and protect them from Victor’s coming wrath. He believed in his heart that he
and Mary were two of the hundred-forty-four thousand chosen ones, but he still
didn’t know what God wanted of them, or
why
they had been chosen.

‘In time, all will be revealed,’ he said with a coarse
voice.

Time crawled by, and so did the traffic. A little more
than an hour later, Malcolm stopped at the N-Force border patrol.

‘Where are you heading?’ The officer asked Malcolm as
he scanned his smart card for his details.

‘We’re going to visit some family in Jordan,’ Malcolm
answered. He wondered if lying would implicate him in the eyes of the Lord. He
prayed that it wouldn’t.

‘Which city?’ The officer asked as he scanned the
inside of the car.

‘Erm...Irbid,’ Malcolm said, praying furiously in his
mind that the border guard would let them pass.
Please Jesus,
he pleaded
in his mind,
make this man unaware of what’s been happening, and let us
pass. We are your sealed ones.

‘Any idea why thousands of Jews would suddenly want to
up n’ go all at once?’ The guard asked, seemingly unaffected by Malcolm’s
prayers.

‘Really?’ Malcolm said with a coy expression on his
face and stuck his head out of his window to look at the cars queued behind
him. ‘I didn’t really notice, you know. Maybe they
all
have families in
Jordan?’

The guard just stared at Malcolm. He then looked at
Mary, who just smiled back at him sheepishly. After a long moment of silence,
he finally spoke again: ‘Step out of your vehicle, please,’ he said.

Oh Adonai
, Malcolm prayed. His legs became temporarily paralysed
and eventually he forced himself from the car.
Please help me, Jesus!

‘Open the trunk.’

Malcolm reluctantly opened the trunk and took a step
back.

The border guard stared at the boxes and suitcases for
what felt like hours. He eventually closed the trunk and handed Malcolm his
smart card.

‘Drive safe, sir,’ he said as he turned toward the next
car in the queue.

‘Y—yes. I will. Thanks.’

He got into the car; his hand shaking as he turned the
key in the ignition.

‘What just happened?’ Mary asked as the car spurted to
life.

‘Timothy was just proved right once again,’ he said as
he drove their car into Jordan.

- - -*  *  *- -
-

‘Do you have anything to declare?’
The border guard asked Benny.

‘Nothing that I can think of,’ Benny answered, as he
pretended to be thinking hard.

‘Would you mind stepping out of the vehicle?’ The guard
asked and stepped away from Benny’s door.

‘No problem at all, sir,’ Benny said and got out.

If the guard discovered his weapons and ammunition,
they would shoot him on the spot. No one but N-Force were allowed to possess
firearms, and he had enough in his trunk to fortify a small city.

‘Please open your trunk, sir,’ the N-Force guard said
in a stern voice.

‘Are you sure this is at all necessary?’ Benny asked as
he walked to the back of his car.

‘Keep moving, and keep quiet,’ the guard warned him.
‘Now open it.’

Benny unlocked the trunk and took a step back, taking
the hilt of his hidden dagger in his hand;
just in case
. Should the
guard discover the guns, he would have no qualms about silencing him before he
could make a scene. But he would prefer to avoid that scenario.

The guard lifted the blanket that covered the guns, and
stared at the weapons. He gently rubbed his fingers over the barrels, and then
opened a bag filled with ammunition.

Oh Lord,
Benny prayed.
This is it! I have to act now! Please
forgive me...

Benny was about to pull out his dagger and slit the
guard’s throat, when the man suddenly closed the bag and shut the trunk.

‘Drive safe, you hear?’ the guard said, and Benny had
to repeat the words in his mind to make sure that he had heard right. He
released his grip on the dagger and gave a nod before moving to the front of
the car. Not once did he take his eyes off the guard, who had already started
toward the next car.

I don’t know what You did and how You did it,
he prayed as he sped off
into Jordan,
but thank You!

- - -*  *  *- -
-

‘Understood, sir!’ One of the
N-Force border patrol guards yelled into his two-way radio.

‘I am sorry,’ he told the driver that wanted to cross
the border into Jordan, ‘but we have just received orders to not let anyone
pass the border anymore.’

‘Why not?’ the driver asked.

‘You are not entitled to ask questions,’ the guard
replied sternly. ‘You will turn your vehicle back, and report to the nearest
N-Force station, is that understood?’

‘But I...’

‘
Understood?
’

‘Yes.’

The man reluctantly turned his car around, but instead
of heading to the nearest N-Force station, headed toward Tel Aviv International
airport instead.

- - -*  *  *- -
-

Malcolm was still dazed about
crossing the border without incident. He didn’t know where he was going, but
knew in his heart that the Lord would guide him to where he was supposed to be.

‘What happened back there?’ Mary asked, still visibly
shook up.

‘I don’t know,’ Malcolm answered truthfully. ‘But what
I do know is that we’re here because HaShem made us pass. There was no way that
we were supposed to get through that.’

‘And where are all these people going?’

‘I don’t know, my love,’ Malcolm said. ‘But I feel that
we’re all guided by the same force.’

Night fell, and Malcolm pulled over to where small
encampments of cars were gathered.

‘We’ll camp here for the night,’ he said. ‘And when
morning comes, we can make an educated decision of where we want to go.’

Mary agreed to this, and as Malcolm set up their tent,
she baked them some beans over a camp fire.

- - -*  *  *- -
-

‘Did you see the news?’ René
shouted to Trevor from her cubicle.

‘Nope,’ he said as he finished an email. ‘What’s up?’

‘Thousands of Jews have left Israel in a big hurry. It
took N-Force some time to figure out that there was something behind this
sudden exodus.’

‘Why? What’s going on?’

‘They’re not sure yet, but they think that the Jews are
planning on nuking Israel, and want to get to a safe distance before doing so.’

‘It doesn’t make sense,’ Trevor said. ‘Why would they
flee from a country that they have struggled so hard to get, and then just bomb
it?’

‘I’m not sure,’ René said, ‘but
something
got
the Jews running.’

Trevor wondered what could have caused the Jews to
suddenly flee, and wondered if it had something to do with Victor’s claims. One
didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that they were fleeing, and not
just running for cover. He wondered what ‘end time’ connection Andrew would
link to this. He logged onto the GMN website and read the article himself.