Evolution: The Revelation

by Reilly, Jim

  “The Ancient Visitor database does suggest they used a similar energy pulse to trigger the UM. I’m sensing one in use today. Using the Ancient Visitor information and the scanning ability of this time period’s technology, I’ve determined the type of energy used to trigger the UN ingredient.”

  “James, where is the location of this energy? Is it coming from space? Maybe a last communication from the Ancient Visitors’ ship before it was destroyed?”

  “No Cynthia, the energy pulse or communication is coming from here on Earth. It is a faint signal that is originating from the Aeolis region of Turkey about 26 kilometers from the Aegean Sea north of the Bakircay River once known in Latin as the Caicus River.”

  Father Willie quickly turned his attention away from the game, and said, “No, that can’t be.”

  Cynthia asked Father Willie, “What’s the problem?”

  “James is talking about Pergamon, an ancient city mentioned in the Book of Revelations.”

  “What is its relevance?” Cynthia asked.

  “Father Willie, if I may,” James said to answer for the priest. “The author of The Book of Revelations, John of Patmos, possibly angered by the killing of an early Christian Bishop, named Antipas, described the ancient city with temples of Greek gods and a library second only to the Library of Alexandria, as the throne of Satan.”

  Father Willie added, “Legend was that the ancient Altar of Zeus built in Pergamon was actually Satan’s throne.”

  Cynthia thought out loud, “Maybe that’s where we find Satan sitting on his throne.”

  Father Willie continued, “I’m not so sure. The Altar of Zeus is a museum exhibit kept in the German region for hundreds of years until it was released to other museums around the world.”

  James added, as Marcus, Steven and D’Shawn entered the sixth level, “It is now in Old Miami on display. However, the energy pulse is coming from the ruins of Pergamon. My guess is that the Ancient Visitors left something there.”

  “Maybe they left another ship buried in the ground like the one found by James in Ethiopia,” Cynthia figured.

  “I concur,” admitted James. “And if I thought so, it must be right since I am the smartest person in the world. If my father, Patrick Connor could see me now, I bet I’d finally impress him.”

  “Okay then,” Cynthia said. “Maybe that’s a good place to start in order to find Satan. Now tell me James, why we, the Returned, would be targeted. Originally we were supposed to be overlords doing the Ancient Visitor’s bidding. James, why would we be targeted for termination?”

  “If the overlords were not performing as the Ancient Visitors expected, they would be terminated by the population. It was a safeguard added to be triggered when they were disobedient.”

  “We destroyed the Ancient Visitors’ ship before they thought we were rebellious. So they didn’t trigger the fail-safe. Then who did? Satan?”

  “The Signal was turned on years ago, long before Satan arrived with us.”

  “That means there was at least one Ancient Visitor here on Earth while we were gone.”

  “It would seem so,” James replied. “See! I do know everything.”

  “Thank you Father, and of course you too James,” Cynthia expressed before turning to Hailey. “Hailey, anyway we can delete James’ self-appreciation? When he was alive, it was one of his flaws.”

  “It’s a very complicated program, and we could damage vital information,” Hailey informed her.

  “Too bad,” Cynthia thought.

  In the game Marcus, Steven, and D’Shawn easily were marching toward victory as Cynthia and Hailey kept the high UM people from getting anywhere near them. Minister Daley’s insistence with the Council of Nations allowed for a temporary loosening of the health information act. Cynthia had unprecedented access to health information.

  Hailey had been keeping her eye on Steven whom she fancied but kept her mind on helping Cynthia. Then it occurred to her, “We are putting all our efforts into finding these people. We haven’t, though, kept our eye out for Satan. This is a Las Vegas event with record gambling. It would stand to reason he’s lurking in the shadows.”

  Watching the game come to a conclusion, and an almost certain win for D’Shawn’s team, it occurred to Cynthia that Satan, or the Ancient Visitor if he was still here on Earth, could inject the UM into anyone. In this scenario, one could pass through the scanners into the spectator section, then be injected and placed under the influence of the UM ingredient. Even worse, they would easily fall to Satan’s temptations.

  Cynthia turned to James, “Access all information on the players and spectators, and determine if anyone’s actions have deviated from their norms. Since all peoples’ thoughts are intertwined in the Grid, please determine if our people are at risk by someone who’s a bit off.”

  “Accessing the Grid,” said James. After a few moments, he stated, “Cynthia, three individuals walking down the virtual spectator stands have strangely stopped communicating through the Grid.”

  As the AV combat game came to a close, and victory was had by Marcus, Steven, and D’Shawn, Cynthia ordered Hailey, “Put me into the game on the game floor.” Then she looked at James, “Put the three suspects’ images into my mind. Now get me in that game and give me a weapon!”

  Appearing right next to a celebrating Marcus, Steven, and D’Shawn, Cynthia pulled her weapon as the crowd rushed the field in celebration. She then heard James, “The first one is coming straight up to you. He’s the one in the green baseball cap and dark jeans.”

  “He’s not the one, he’s here celebrating with a group of others and doesn’t appear to be in a suggestive trance,” she thought. “Where are the others?”

  James told her, “The short bald man with blue eyes to your right is going through a gambling addiction program and was not supposed to be at a gambling event. To your left is a middle aged woman in a blue sundress who recently lost her husband and is grieving. Both prime candidates for Satan’s temptation.”

  “All right!” she yelled. “So which one of you has gone over to the dark side?” Standing between Marcus, Steven, and D’Shawn, she made a judgment call and turned her back on the woman to confront the gambler. She quickly realized her error; he wasn’t the one because he was just celebrating winning his bet. But as she started to turn back to the woman, she heard a weapon fire. She looked around. Marcus, Steven, and D’Shawn didn’t look like they were hit. Cynthia’s lower extremities went numb and she fell to the ground.

  On the way down, Cynthia heard through the woman, “You didn’t think you could stop me, did you? I can easily out think anyone, even the Ruler of the Realm.”

  After disarming the woman and pushing her away from Cynthia, D’Shawn bent down and grabbed his old friend and held her in his arms as life was leaving her body. He heard her utter, “Pergamon. Go to Pergamon.”

  As her friends stood there helpless, the medical personnel Hailey ordered arrived, and the onetime ballet dancer took her last breath.

  The man in the white robe, Kaiden, arrived at the gates of the old Jerusalem with a sense he was coming home. He witnessed the street vendors negotiating with their customers just as vigorously as it had been done for thousands of years. Though now quite modern with floating drone assistants following their masters and holographic advertisements on every street corner, the city itself appeared unchanged. Kaiden, along with the multitude of religious pilgrims, traveled through the streets.

  It was a city of religious importance to the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Muslim, and Christianity. Though a city destroyed and rebuilt many times, its history was rich. Many old and historic synagogues, churches, and mosques populated the city. The pilgrims visiting were from all walks of life strolling from one significant religious site to another, each in awe.

  Kaiden, although wanting to enjoy the city and its magnificent sights, could not do so because he had something he needed to do. Though the flow of pilgrims was like an overflowing river, Kaide
n made his way through the streets heading for his destination. When he reached it, he put down his traveling bag and felt an embrace as one would feel when embraced by a long lost friend. Its warmth and familiarity was welcomed by Kaiden as he stood on the Temple Mount.

  For a few moments he looked around to gaze upon its beauty, but understanding he must do what he came here to do, he climbed on the nearest bench, and proclaimed, “The hour has come for humanity to make a stand against evil. You will face tribulations of a magnitude never before seen in history. Satan is among us and needs to be dealt with for humanity to overcome and walk in the Kingdom of God.”

  Some of the people in the crowd touring Jerusalem who had been to Nirvana, recognized Kaiden and began communicating what they were witnessing, as Kaiden continued, “I call out to you, servants of the Almighty, to tell you your time has come.”

  In a soup kitchen for the poor in a small town in Siberia, a man named Gabriel was washing dishes at the old sink in the back of the ancient and rundown building catering to enhanced and non-enhanced. It was something he did for years and was dedicated to doing what it took to help as many people as he could. This particular day as he cleaned up from breakfast, he got a feeling of needing to be somewhere important. Immediately, he put down the dishes in his hand and turned off the water used to rinse them. He looked around and smiled at the people then said his goodbyes. He packed his belongings, and when asked where he was going, he said, “The time has come, and I am needed elsewhere.”

  Michael was working at a small factory outside of Mexico City making dolls sold at church gatherings for charity. The money collected was used to help raise young abandoned children at orphanages throughout Central America. The small revenue provided food and clothing as well as education to these disadvantaged children. Michael, like Gabriel, quickly finished his task and proceeded to leave. When asked where he was going, he told them, “Jerusalem.”

  Later that day on a transport heading to Jerusalem, Uriel met up with Raphael and approached him, “My brother, the time has come for the final battle. The Kingdom of God is finally before us and soon we will be in the Lord’s presence. There will be an opening of the Heavens, for God the Father is at hand to battle evil in this existence.”

  “Uriel my brother, the time is here as you say, but part of me wonders the cost of battle. I have walked upon this Earth for a long time. I’ve seen battles and the devastation they cause. The injured and dead are left in its wake. Those injured will need my help.”

  “Raphael, you, always the healer, looking to help those hurt, have been a blessing on humanity. You are, though, needed to heal more than wounds of the flesh in this battle. The pain and suffering will be more than the people in this existence can endure. I fear it will spill over into the Kingdom of God.”

  “Uriel, always the intellectual, has helped guide man through tribulations, how do you feel mankind will do in this last one? You, Michael, Gabriel, and I have always protected mankind from the beginning of their existence.”

  “Only He knows the outcome Raphael. For the rest of us, we must bear the consequences of free will. I can’t tell you the outcome, I can only say that He gave His people every opportunity to be good, yet mankind didn’t always follow that path. Satan is strong and persuasive on the weak. If only they kept their faith in God, I’d have more confidence in the outcome.”

  “I will say this Uriel, God has faith in mankind; I know it. If He didn’t, we wouldn’t be here to help defend them. He wouldn’t have sent His son if He didn’t think it was important and knowing what the Son had to endure for these people.”

  “Well, the Lord will endure even more and I feel the final confrontation is nearing.”

  “I feel it as well. I can also feel our brothers who have fallen from grace approaching and who will be here in a couple of days. They are in three ships. I do not look forward to battling them, for I love them as I do you, Uriel. It is a shame they picked the path they did.”

  “When this is over, there will be much we will be ashamed of. God willing, I hope it’s not disappointing Him. That is my only fear. The thought of losing and being wiped away from all of existence has no bearing on my state of mind.”

  Chapter 8

  21st Century.

  Coming to, Cameron’s eyes began to focus in on the room in which he had been placed. His immediate thought was how everything he looked at was so detailed. Everything, from the light to the colors, was brighter and crisper. Emblems on equipment across the room, which he normally wouldn’t be able to read, were as clear as if they were right in front of him.

  At that moment he realized what had happened to him—he had gone through the enhancement process. This frightened Cameron because he had already been through the procedure as a child, but it was unsuccessful. The problem was that ninety-five percent of the people who go through the procedure a second time ended up with deformities. In some cases, people were severely deformed. The thought of being mutilated scared not only Cameron, but his parents as well who decided not to try a second time. What was worse was that his brother’s and sister’s enhancements were successful. That was a source of embarrassment for most of his life. Eventually, the anger led to his resentment of not only enhancement but also of his family. The good that came out of it was that it motivated him to try harder to compete with the Enhanced at school, in sports, and in any other activity in life he thought the Enhanced had an advantage. This helped him become better all-around in everything he did, for a non-enhanced Homo sapiens that is.

  Feeling stiff, as most people usually do after enhancement, Cameron picked his hands up and looked at them. What he saw were long fingers he didn’t have before. Then he put his hands to his face and felt a change to his facial structure. He knew that he would be changed, but how changed was he? As he lay in the recovery room he wondered if his worst fear were realized and he was deformed.

  The answer to his question would have to wait as he overheard people speaking in the hallway. While he listened in, he was amazed at the clarity and distance he could hear. His heightened hearing helped him identify Will Davis as one of the people in the hall. The other voice he could not identify. He heard Will say, “I’m told he’s already awake, so do we know yet?”

  The unidentified voice was that of a woman, “He hasn’t been asked any questions yet. If he’s like the others, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “This one better work,” Will stated. “He’d be a much needed asset that will help speed the timeframe of our plans. He would get us closer to his parents.”

  “Yes, he would.”

  “Let’s go in and see how we did.”

  Cameron heard their footsteps getting closer to his room and he wondered what questions they had for him. Maybe he should have been thinking of what they did to him. Did they do something that changed more than his physical body? He didn’t feel like he was in a suggestive trance, but who would know if they were? Then he remembered Taylor had been there and she had told him something. He recalled her telling him to be submissive.

  Entering his personal recovery room were Will Davis and Babylon’s Lily Gordon. With Will standing over him, Lily asked, “What do you want to do right know?”

  “I’ll do what you tell me to do,” he told her.

  “If I told you to open that window and jump to your death to the ground fifteen stories down, would you?”

  “I’ll do what you tell me to do,” Cameron repeated.

  “Finally, if we told you to forget your investigation and submit a report that we suggest, would you?”

  “I’ll do what you tell me to do.”

  Without skipping a beat, Will asked him, “Would you do what I tell you to do without questioning me?”

  “Yes,” he said without showing any of the anger he was feeling toward Will.

  “Great then,” Lily told Will. “We’ll send him upstairs to get indoctrinated and in a few hours we’ll have another asset in place at the United Nations Security Group
. Soon, there will be more of us than there will be of them.”

  “The first thing we do is have him tell us all who have been helping him in his investigation and their locations. Then we capture them or, if we have to, eliminate everyone helping him. We’ll find them all; we have people working on it.”

  On the way out of the room, Lily ordered some people to move Cameron. Before long, two people walked in and each took one end of the bed. One was an Enhanced man, who worked the control panel and the other a woman just out of his sight. They guided the bed out of the room heading for the elevator. Almost immediately, the bed started to hover and clamps were fastened to hold him down to the bed. Fearing he was still weak, be bided his time to try to escape as he regained his strength increasingly with each passing second.

  The two Babylon personnel got him into the elevator, closed the doors, and proceeded to tell the elevator the floor they were headed to. As the door closed, Cameron thought this might be his only time to act even if he thought he’d be too weak to take on two Enhanced. However, he didn’t need to for out of the corner of his eye, he saw the woman give the man an injection. The man stumbled for a second then fell lifeless to the ground.

  Cameron heard the woman say, “Leo, I’ve got him. Now have your people redirect the elevator down to the main floor so I can get him out of here.”

  Recognizing Taylor, he asked her the question foremost on his mind, “How do I look?” What did the procedure screw up?”

  “You’re fine,” Taylor told him. “It went better than I expected.”

  “I don’t understand, it didn’t work before. Aren’t I deformed?”