Blasphemy

by Douglas Preston

  He recognized the man holding him: the same Pastor Eddy who had started the firefight by shooting down Doerfler. He was splattered with the blood of others.

  “Who are you?” Eddy asked.

  “I’m... I’m just the computer guy.”

  Eddy looked at him, not unkindly. “Are you with us?” he asked quietly. “Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior?”

  Wolf opened his mouth, but only a croak came out.

  “Pastor,” a voice said, “we don’t have a lot of time.”

  “There’s always time to save a soul.” Eddy stared, his eyes dark. “I repeat: Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior? The time has come to choose sides. The Day of Judgment is come.”

  Wolf finally managed to nod.

  “Down on your knees, brother. We’re going to pray.”

  Wolf hardly knew what he was doing. It was like something out of the Middle Ages, a forced conversion. He tried to kneel on shaking legs but wasn’t fast enough and someone pushed him down. He lost his balance and fell to his side, his shirt falling open.

  “Let us pray,” said Eddy, falling to his knees beside Wolf and grasping both his hands in his own, bowing his forehead until it was touching Wolf’s hands, wrapped in his own. “Heavenly Father, do you accept this sinner now in his hour of need? And do you, sinner, accept the Word of Truth that you might be born again?”

  “Do I... what?” Wolf tried to concentrate.

  “I repeat: Do you accept Jesus as your personal savior?”

  Wolf felt sick. “Yes,” he said hastily. “Yes, I do... I do.”

  “Praise God! Let us pray.”

  Wolf bowed his head and closed his eyes tightly. What the hell am I doing?

  Eddy’s voice intruded. “Let us pray out loud,” he said. “Ask Jesus into your heart. If you do it freely and sincerely, you will see the kingdom of heaven. It’s that simple.” He clasped his hands and began to pray loudly.

  Wolf mumbled along with him for a moment and then felt his throat close up.

  “You have to pray with me,” said Eddy.

  “I... no,” said Wolf.

  “But to receive Jesus, you have to pray. You must ask—”

  “No. I won’t.”

  “My friend—my dear friend—this is your last chance. The Judgment is upon us. The Rapture is at hand. I speak to you not as your enemy, but as one who loves you.”

  “We love you,” said voices from the crowd. “We love you.”

  “I suppose you also loved the soldiers you murdered,” Wolf said. He was horrified at what he was doing. Where did this sudden, insane courage come from?

  He felt the barrel of a gun lightly touch his temple. “Your last chance,” came Eddy’s gentle voice. He could feel how steady the barrel was in the man’s hand.

  Wolf closed his eyes and said nothing. He felt the faint tremble as the hand tightened, the finger depressing the trigger. A wrenching boom—and then nothing.

  66

  EVERY SCREEN IN THE SITUATION ROOM was now alive with videoconference attendees, some on split screens. The Joint Chiefs, the heads of DHS, FBI, NSA, the DCI, and DOE. The vice president had joined them in the situation room at three. It was now 3:20 A.M. A lot had happened in the last twenty minutes, when they first got the news of the fire at the Red Mesa airstrip.

  Stanton Lockwood felt like he was trapped in some kind of television show. It was hard to believe that this could be happening in America. It was as if he’d woken up and found himself in a different country.

  “We’ve heard nothing from the Hostage Rescue Team since they blew up the helicopter,” the FBI Director was saying. His face was white and the handkerchief he kept mopping his face with was crumpled in his hand, unnoticed. “They attacked with overwhelming numbers. This is not some mob—they’re organized. They know what they’re doing.”

  “Are they taken hostage?” the president asked.

  “I fear most of them may be incapacitated—or dead.”

  Someone handed him a piece of paper from off screen. He scanned it. “I’ve just gotten a report....” His hand shook every so slightly. “They’ve managed to take down one of the three main powerlines to Isabella. It triggered a grid failure. We’ve got blackouts across northern Arizona and parts of Colorado and New Mexico.”

  “My National Guard troops,” the president said, turning to the Joint Chiefs. “Where the hell are they?”

  “They’re being briefed as we speak, Mr. President. We’re still on schedule for that four forty-five A.M. operation.”

  “They’re still on the ground?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Get them up in the air! Brief them in the air!”

  “With the equipment shortages and now the blackout—”

  “Fly with what you’ve got.”

  “Mr. President, our latest intelligence indicates there are between one and two thousand armed people on Red Mesa. They think this is Armageddon. The Second Coming. As a result, they have no regard for human life, their own or others. We can’t throw underequipped or underbriefed men into that situation. Fires and a large explosion have been reported on the top of Red Mesa. There are still hundreds of people evading our roadblocks and streaming toward the mesa cross-country, many in all-terrain vehicles. The airstrip has been rendered inoperable to fixed-wing aircraft. A Predator drone should be over there taking pictures in... less than twenty minutes. We’ve got to implement a strategic, well-organized assault on the mesa—otherwise we’ll be throwing more lives away.”

  “I understand that. But we’ve also got a forty-billion-dollar machine, eleven FBI agents, and a dozen scientists whose lives are also on the line—”

  “Excuse me, Mr. President?” The Department of Energy Director spoke. “Isabella is still running at full power but is destabilizing. According to our remote monitoring system, the proton–antiproton beams have decollimated and—”

  “Speak English.”

  “If Isabella isn’t shut down, we may have breach of the beam pipe, which would result in an explosion.”

  “How big?”

  A hesitation. “I’m not a physicist, but they tell me if the beams cross beforehand, that convergence could create an instantaneous singularity which will detonate with the yield of a small nuclear device in the half kiloton range.”

  “When?”

  “Any time now.”

  The Chief of Staff spoke. “I hate to throw in a distraction, but we’re getting a tsunami of media coverage. We have to manage it—now.”

  “Clear the airspace within a hundred-mile radius of Red Mesa,” the president barked. “Declare a state of emergency for the Reservation. And martial law. Bar all press. All press.”

  “Consider it done.”

  “In addition to the National Guard troops, I want an overwhelming military backup response. I want the U.S. military to take control of Red Mesa and the surrounding area by first light. I don’t want any excuses about shortages of troops or transportation. I want you to move in forces on the ground, too. Send the soldiers cross-country. It’s open desert. Bring overwhelming power to bear. Is that clear?”

  “Mr. President, I’ve already ordered the mobilization of all military assets in the Southwest.”

  “Is four forty-five A.M. the best you can do?”

  “Yes, Mr. President.”

  “Armed terrorists are seizing U.S. property and murdering U.S. servicemen. Their crimes against the state have nothing to do with religion. These people are terrorists—period, full stop. You understand?”

  “I certainly do, sir.”

  “As a start, I want that televangelist, Spates, perp-walked into federal custody on terrorism charges—shackles, leg irons, the works. I want it done in the most public way possible—to set an example. If there are any other preachers, televangelists, and fundamentalists out there cheering on these people, I want them arrested, too. These people are no different from Al Qaeda and the Taliban.”

  67


  NELSON BEGAY LAY ON HIS BELLY on a bluff above Nakai Valley, Willy Becenti beside him. The highest point on the mesa, its summit gave a 360-degree view of the desert terrain below.

  The mother of traffic jams gridlocked the Dugway road where it topped out on Red Mesa. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of cars had parked willy-nilly in a huge open area just off the Dugway. Many of the vehicles were abandoned with their lights left on and the doors open. People were climbing the Dugway on foot, having left their cars somewhere below the mesa. They flowed down the Isabella project road, bypassing the detour to Nakai Valley, heading for the action at the edge of the mesa.

  His binoculars traveled down the road. The hangars were burning. What was left of the helicopter the soldiers had arrived in was also on fire, the flames leaping a hundred feet or more into the sky. Dead bodies lay scattered around it from the bloody firefight he had watched happen a few minutes before. Most of the mob had left the airstrip after torching the chopper, but a few stayed to help a large backhoe finish ripping trenches across the runway.

  He followed the streaming crowds farther, until his view reached the fenced off area at the edge of the mesa. It was swarming with people; Begay estimated at least a thousand. A mass of them were climbing one of the huge powerline towers and had gotten about three quarters of the way to the top. Others had erected a crude cross on top of a tall building at the edge of the mesa and were busy chopping down a cluster of communication towers that rose from its roof.

  Begay slowly lowered his binoculars.

  “You got any idea what the hell’s going on?” Becenti asked.

  Begay shook his head.

  “Some kind of Klan meeting? Aryan Nations?”

  “There are blacks and Hispanics in the crowd. Even some Indians.”

  “Lemme see.”

  While Becenti stared at the eastern end of the mesa, Begay digested what he had seen. Initially he thought it must be some kind of crazy revival meeting—a common sight on the Rez—but when they blew up the chopper he realized it was something else altogether. Maybe something connected with that television preacher he’d heard people talking about, the one who’d delivered a sermon against the Isabella project.

  Becenti grunted, still staring. “Look at how many people they killed at the airstrip.”

  “Yeah,” said Begay. “And you can bet there’s going to be a reaction. The feds aren’t going to sit around and let this shit happen. We don’t want to be caught up here when the fireworks begin.”

  “We could stay a little while, see what happens. It isn’t every day you get front-row seats watching the Bilagaana blow themselves up. We always knew the white people were going to do it someday, right? Remember that prophecy?”

  “Willy, knock it off. We’ve got to get everyone together and get the hell off this mesa.”

  They rose and headed down into the valley.

  RANDY DOKE STOOD ON THE HOOD of the Humvee above the fray, his brawny arms folded. The vantage point gave him a better view of the people climbing the high-tension tower. The uppermost ones were just reaching the top. The power lines buzzed and crackled.

  Doke felt energized as never before in his life. Once he had been lost in heroin, cocaine, and alcohol. At his lowest point—while wallowing drunk and shit-stained in an irrigation ditch outside Belén, New Mexico, a childhood prayer from deep in his memory had come unbidden, a prayer which his mother had taught him before the drunken old bastard she lived with had shot her and then himself. The singsong verses reverberated in his head, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.... And right then and there, in that foul ditch in Belén, Jesus had reached down and saved his worthless ass. And now he owed the Man—he owed the Man. He would do anything for Jesus.

  He raised a pair of binoculars. A climber had reached a point just below the insulators. Doke watched as the man braced himself on the ladder, wrapping his legs around a strut. When he steadied himself, he unslung a pump shotgun, racked a shell into the chamber, and shouldered the gun.

  This is going to be good.

  He watched the climber take careful aim. The people climbing up from below paused to watch. There was a flash of light, and a moment later the boom of the shotgun reached Doke’s ears. A shower of sparks cascaded down from the power line, the wire shivering. A cheer went up.

  The man steadied himself and racked the slide of the shotgun. There was a second flash-boom. The wire detonated thousands of sparks and the line recoiled, like a spitting rattler hit with rocksalt. Another roar of approval.

  A third blast. This time a massive spray of fire spewed across the darkness. The line parted with a deep thrumming twang that seemed to vibrate the air, the cut end falling like a slow-motion whip, dribbling fire, coiling down into the crowds below. It struck with a series of booms and flashes of light and smoke, throwing people violently aside, setting off a screaming stampede.

  Awesome.

  Doke redirected his attention back to the tower. The man was pumping and aiming again. But now people on the tower were yelling—what? For him to stop? No, Doke thought. Go for it.

  Another boom from the shotgun. A piece of insulator came tumbling down amid a fireworks display, and a second line snapped and recoiled into the tower itself. It was as if some invisible giant had jarred the tower; people just peeled off the ladder, bodies falling and striking the lower struts, bouncing and spinning off, hitting the ground with a series of dull thuds.

  The recoiling line whipped around and came toward him, singing like feedback from a giant electric guitar. Doke leapt off the Humvee as the sizzling cable whipped across it, lashing up a fountain of sparks. He barrelled into the panicked crowd and clawed his way over fallen people in an effort to get away. The Humvee burst into flames, and a moment later he felt the heat of the exploding gas tank, the shockwave, the sudden glow.

  Picking himself up, he viewed the damage.

  The line had been dragged halfway across the fenced area, leaving a trail of fire. The elevator building was in flames along with half a dozen piñon trees. Dead and horribly burned people littered an area around the burning vehicle.

  More souls in heaven, thought Doke. More souls at the right hand of the Lord.

  68

  ON HIS FLAT PANEL, KEN DOLBY saw the power surge spike, and then plummet and gyrate wildly.

  “Isabella!” He punched in the shutdown codes again. The screen spat back:

  CODE BYPASS ERROR

  “Shit!”

  A siren went off, a banshee wail cutting across the Bridge, and a red ceiling light flashed.

  “Emergency overload!” St. Vincent yelled.

  A dull boom shook the room and the Visualizer screen exploded into glass fragments, which dropped like hail to the floor.

  “Isabella!” Dolby cried, clutching the workstation with both hands.

  Don’t lose it, Isabella.

  St. Vincent struggled with the console, slamming breaker circuits down. “Power’s been cut on Number One! How could it happen? Impossible!”

  “The beam!” Kate cried, seizing a terminal. “It’s decollimating! I’m getting... a kink!”

  Hazelius let out a cry. “Chen! That last message! I didn’t read it all! Did you get it?”

  “I can’t find it!” Chen said. “I might have lost it—lost everything.”

  “Capture the output to hard copy!” Hazelius roared.

  Dolby forced the surrounding chaos out of his consciousness. Isabella wasn’t responding to any of his keyboard inputs. Something had happened—the p5s must have crashed. He turned to Edelstein. “Boot up the main computer. Ignore the startup procedures and testing sequences. Just turn the son of a bitch on.”

  An electrical arc seared across the shattered remnants of the screen. A dull, shuddering explosion sounded deep in the cavern, and another. The sound of Isabella gyrated wildly, throbbing, humming, wobbling. The room filled with smoke.

  “We’re creating a mini black hole,” Kate said softly.

 
“This is unbelievable!” Wardlaw screamed. “You know why you lost power on One? Those bastards out there just shot down the line... There’s a mob outside the door to Isabella.... Oh Christ, I’m losing the security cams—they route through the elevator....”

  The hiss of computer snow, then a row of screens went black.

  “Oh no.”

  More hissing and popping. The entire security station went dead, the warning lights winking out. Isabella moaned and wobbled.

  “Are you printing it out?” Hazelius screamed at Chen.

  “I’ve got it, now I’m trying to find a working printer!” She hammered on the keyboard, sweat pouring down her face.

  “Oh my God... Don’t lose it, Rae.”

  “Got it,” Chen yelled. “Printing!” She jumped up and raced across the room to a printer dump. She grabbed the paper as it spooled out, ripped it off. Hazelius grabbed it from her, folded it up and stuffed it in his back pocket. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  The room shook with another muffled boom, throwing Dolby to the floor. The lights wavered, electrical arcs sizzled along the consoles. Isabella groaned deeply, as if in agony. Dolby pulled himself up and went back to his machine.

  Ford grabbed his arm. “Ken! We’ve got to get out of here!”

  Dolby shook him off and tried the code again.

  CODE BYPASS ERROR

  The main computer began to boot up its startup routines. Dolby yelled, “Alan! I told you to shut down the p5s!”

  “Ken, forget it! We’re leaving!” It was Ford again.

  Stay with me, Isabella.

  He continued working. He had to get through to Isabella. One way or another. He had to shut her down safely. The bad magnet was decohering. The two beams were wobbling offcenter in the pipe, kinking. If they touched the edge, or grazed each other...