The Gentile Witness, Enoch Book 1: Enoch

by Samuel David

  I picked up the phone and dialed Rogers’s cell phone.

  Chapter 119

  9:35 AM CST Day four of 1260 Kansas City, Missouri - City Center Meeting Room, 2nd Floor

  The meeting was progressing and they had discussed logistics regarding the use of Arrowhead, Royals Stadium, and the Sprint Center. Then we covered the Jumbotrons and there placement, and general information regarding how to accommodate five million people. I had noticed that the Colonel said little and continued to stare at me. I looked him over myself and what I saw was a career military man close to my age maybe a bit older than me. He had a long face and short military style gray hair. He had gray eyes and was not really that tall, maybe 5’10”, or so. He had a scar running down the left side of his face, which I assumed was from injuries caused by combat. He was dressed in Army fatigues and boots and sat ramrod straight. There was something about him though that bothered me and I was not sure what it was, but I knew he did interest me.

  Madeline, the Mayor, was in her late 50’s, attractive and very intelligent. I thought to myself that the people from the Pendergast machine, from the 20’s, would be all rolling over in their graves if they knew Kansas City elected a woman mayor. She was all business and seemed to know her stuff. She was also pleasant and easy to talk too. You could tell she was firm. She had a knack of making sure she got her point across without being overwhelming. Good choice I thought, I would have probably voted for her if I still lived here.

  The door opened and our insurance man, Roger entered.

  “I hope I am not interrupting anything,” he said.

  Madeline turned to him and said, “No, we were just going over some details. Did you make your call?” she asked.

  “Yes ma’am I did,” as he went over to his seat and sat down.

  “And?”

  “I spoke with the chairman of the Board of our holding company. He has instructed me to accept the additional premium of a million dollars in lieu of the other amount that was, suggested. Therefore, I wanted to pass this on to you and see if I could get it now. Then I will be on my way and you can continue your business.”

  “Good Roger, and yes we can take care of that I assume,” as she looked at me.

  Hmm, I thought, she was ready to write out a check for 25 million a few minutes ago, and leave me with the other 75. Now, she wanted me to pay the million.

  “Not a problem,” I said to Roger. “But I don’t keep checks with me. If you like,” as I pulled out my wallet, “you can charge it to my Bank Card and it will clear, and I can get some more miles on my card.”

  “A million dollars on a card?” he said.

  “It’s either that or give my attorney Mark here an invoice and he will fax it to the office today. They can either wire the money or send a check, whichever you would prefer.”

  “I can write an invoice,” he said as he opened his briefcase, pulled out a form, and started filling it out.

  Madeline then said, “It’s a good time for a break if everyone else is in agreement. Let’s say we meet back here around 10:15 or so.”

  We all agreed and the participants started drifting out the door. I looked over at Veronica and asked, “Is it okay, do you think, if I go down to the restaurant. I would like to and get some fresh coffee or something, or am I still a prisoner?” I then pulled a pair of big sunglasses out of my pocket, and put them on and said, “I got a real good disguise.”

  The remaining people, even including Roger, the insurance man, laughed. Veronica smiling, said, “We will go with you Jack,” and off we went.

  Chapter 120

  9:45 AM CST Day four of 1260 Kansas City, Missouri - City Center, Lobby Coffee Shop

  We left Mark to deal with the insurance person. Luke, John, Thomas, Veronica, and I went to the elevator. I started talking and Veronica held her finger up to her mouth and said, “Shh.” We then got on the elevator and no one said anything. We only had one floor to go down so the elevator popped open almost it seemed as soon as we got on it. As we walked off the elevator Veronica said, “The reason I asked you to not say anything, is that the room we are in and the hallway are bugged big time. They must have done it in a hurry for it was obvious to anyone with a trained eye.”

  “Well you know your business. You proved that in Israel with our jet.”

  We moved over to what appeared as a coffee shop to the right of the check in desk. As were walking, I took notice of my surroundings. There was a military and police presence everywhere. Only one of the front doors was, being, used. The, others were locked. There was both a metal detector and one of those luggage machines that are, used in airports. There was even a chemical detector. Off to the right of that was a curtained off area, which I assumed may be for strip-searching. The military walked around with M16s in firing position, which means they were in their hands not strapped to their shoulders. It looked like a third world country to me, and that was scary.

  I looked over to Veronica and said, “All this security for me?”

  “No Jack. It is for all the dignitaries coming here and the President. In addition, many of the people coming for The Waldger Group’s meeting are already here and will be attending your Sermon tonight. It’s to keep them safe, not you.”

  “Hmm,” I said, “and here I thought it was just for me.” I felt left out.

  “You’re on a roll today,” Veronica said.

  We walked up to the host, at the restaurant and Veronica took charge. “Table for six please,” she said to the hostess, “and I want the one over there against the wall if that’s okay?”

  “Yes ma’am,” the hostess said, as she grabbed six menus, and said, “Follow me please.”

  As we sat down, and were looking at the menus, I could feel the stares all around the restaurant. I guess the sunglass trick was not working. I looked over at Veronica and said, “Where did Gabriel go?”

  “He had to leave,” she said. “He just wanted to make sure you knew he was around.”

  Luke, John, and Thomas, almost at the same time said, “I didn’t see anyone called Gabriel in the meeting. What are you talking about?”

  “The messengers, remember I talked about them in my interview in New York, on TV?” I said.

  “So what you are telling us Jack,” Thomas said. “Is you can see him and we cannot?”

  “That’s right Thomas. You are correct.”

  “That’s spooky,” Luke said.

  I smiled and said, “Maybe someday soon you too will see him Luke, for I am sure you will. So where are we with the planning and how much longer is this meeting going to last with the city?”

  “Shouldn’t be much longer Jack,” John said. “They are just going over details; this is a first for them. A lot of what needed to be covered, Luke, the Reverend, and I had already discussed with them earlier in the week. I think you are in there only because they are curious about you. After the insurance thing, I think they want to hire you.”

  This was great, same old story, feast, or famine. A few weeks ago, I could not find a job. Now everyone wants to hire me, I thought. I said, “Glad the meeting is almost over. I really dislike long meetings.”

  We all looked up and saw Mark coming over to the table. He took his seat; we all exchanged our pleasantries, as the server came over. You could see she was very nervous and I knew she wanted to say something. I saw her nametag and said, “Hi Debbie, let me introduce myself. I am Jack South and these are my friends.”

  I held out my hand to her and she blushed, shook my hand, and said, “Nice to meet you Mr. South,” then followed up with, “May I take your orders?”

  We all ordered some rolls, coffee, and various juices. Then Mark said, “How was Israel Jack?”

  “It is a beautiful country, if you like desert, rocks, caves, and the local hospitality.”

  “I know. I had to track down the President to get him to intervene. I guess the Attorney General had a hard on for you. Uh, excuse me Veronica, he said blushing.”

  “It’
s okay Mark. I have heard a whole lot worse. It doesn’t bother me.”

  “So are you ready for tonight?” Thomas asked.

  “I suppose I should ask you if you are ready. You are the one handling the logistics of everything. All I am doing is talking.”

  “I meant for your sermon,” Thomas said.”

  “Yes it is Thomas, very ready. And later today I would like to meet with you personally to go over it and get your opinion.”

  “Sure, I’d be happy to Jack.”

  The server came back over with the coffee and drinks. She was smiling and still blushing all at the same time. I am sure after she left here today she would tell the story repeatedly of how I talked to her and shook her hand. This is one soul we, will get, I thought to myself smiling.

  “Jack,” John said. “I wanted to let you know that we are ready with everything as we discussed, including the slow motion cameras. I still don’t know what they are for.”

  “Just keep the cameras on me John. You will eventually know what they were for. And let me add, I won’t say anything more about it.”

  “Okay,” John said, “Also the graphics you sent down, we have scanned in and I have one of my engineers that will split the screen when you talk about them.”

  “Thanks John. Did you figure out what they were?”

  “No I did not. Looks like Mayan carvings of some sort.”

  “They are the handwriting of God. They are what the Israelis wanted from me. They knew I had them and they kept the originals. We just have copies.”

  “Can you read them?”

  “I did not know I could until they were shown to me under unusual circumstances. Then my brain clicked in and yes I could read them.”

  “What are they Jack?” Thomas asked.

  “They were part of my sermon tonight, but I’m still not sure. I may not use them until my next sermon. It’s still up in the air.”

  John then said, “Luke has set up the internet feed in over one-hundred languages for broadcast. We will stream directly to their servers and the delay should only be about fifteen to twenty seconds. This way people who do not have access to TV in their area, for some countries are trying to block it, will be able to participate. We also will have the broadcast available afterwards for people to see. We will keep it up there for a week or so, or keep it up until there are no more hits. They can also log in from mobile Smartphone’s and get the stream from Bearnewsupdate.com. So I think we have it pretty well covered.” He paused, and continued speaking, “As I said before, once you start Jack, there will be no commercials. There may be commentary at times, sort of like a golf match.”

  John took a sip of juice then continued. “Just so you all know, I am using my co-anchors, Mary Ann Sinclair and Geraldo Vasquez for this one. They came in this afternoon and we will be having a rehearsal in about an hour or so. Anything I need to know in particular Jack that you may be doing, like blowing something up, making fire come from the sky, or anything like that?”

  “No John,” I said, “but to tell you the truth, I really don’t know what is going to happen.” Even though I knew, that Gabriel said someone was going to try to assassinate me tonight. It seemed strange, but it did not bother me, for it should. Was my faith growing?

  Chapter 121

  10:20 AM CST Day four of 1260 Kansas City, Missouri - City Center, 2nd Floor Meeting Room

  “Oh there you are.” Madeline said as we returned from the restaurant. “We were wondering when you would make it back. You are just in time. We are going over the system we designed to get the dignitaries and you, Jack, from the hotel to the stage area or altar.”

  “Stage,” I said, “not altar. I do not know how to build an altar or design one. Hasn’t been, done for thousands of years.”

  “Oh Madeline,” said, “I see. Okay then, the stage. If all of you can come closer, we have it laid out here on the table on this street grid.”

  We gathered around, and the Chief of Police, Michael Poploski started describing the intricate system that had been, designed. “What we have here are concrete barriers that are stacked one on top of the other, compliments of the Highway Department. It is about nine feet high. It travels from the hotels side entrance you see here,” as he pointed to the drawing, “and crosses Grand Avenue then Main Street. It then curves to the Memorial itself on to the north building adjacent to where the stage is. The top of the barrier is steel panels, the same ones used on road repairs. It would take a good size explosive to penetrate it. The total distance is about two and a half blocks.”

  Wow, I thought. They did this in less than three days.

  He continued, “At the beginning of the tunnel there will be a combination of Secret Service, FBI, and military personnel under the Colonel’s direction. The checkpoints are the same at the other end of the tunnel. In the middle of the tunnel you again will be stopped for identification before being allowed to continue, as well as at the beginning and the end.”

  “At the termination of the Rally, the process will be reversed. This means Jack, you will be going first we assume, and then the dignitaries will follow.”

  “Also,” he said pointing to the stage on the drawing, “This will be surrounded by military personnel, and plain clothes-federal types, which include the FBI and Secret Service. They will be there two hours before the seating, which starts at 6:00 p.m. and one hour afterwards. We also have bomb sniffing dogs that will check the area every ten minutes prior to you and the dignitaries coming to the stage and during the program.”

  “Any questions?”

  Veronica asked, “Where are the dignitaries sitting?”

  He brought out a folder under the drawing. He had photographs of the south and north sides of the raised stage built into the Memorial. “The news media seats are here on the north side and the camera crews are located also along with John Roddenberg’s group and his anchor desk. You may have seen it on his broadcasts the past couple of days. Also, city personnel and others will be seated in this area, including you folks.”

  “On the other side is seating for the President and several other dignitaries from all across the globe. Many are the same people who will be here for the meeting on Friday with The Waldger Group. There are one-hundred and forty-five seats there stacked up like sports field seating. Oh and by the way, both sides of the seating here are encased in clear bullet proof glass extending about four feet above the highest tier of the seating, or about thirty feet.”

  “The choirs and entertainment will be seated in this corner over here, so they do not block the view of the people on stage and the park. The Philharmonic will be in the opposite corner.”

  “Jack,” as he looked at me said, “The stage drops off to a forty-foot fall overlooking Union Station. So be careful there. I understand you said to do it this way so that the people in Union Station area and the people in the Park can see you unobstructed. Am I correct?”

  “Yes, that is right chief, I will be careful.”

  “Well any other questions?” Madeline asked.

  “No,” Veronica said. “We have no more questions.

  Well,” Madeline said, “Most of you I will see around 6:30 or so, on the stage.”

  Chapter 122

  10:50 AM CST Day four of 1260 Kansas City, Missouri - City Center, Hallway 2nd Floor

  As were leaving the conference room, I motioned for Veronica to come over to me. When she approached, close enough to hear me I said, “Do you think my room is bugged?”

  “No Jack, it’s not. We took them out before you checked in. They were there, but we removed them and your room was, checked again this morning while we were in the meeting. They checked it after the house cleaners cleaned up. Also, I have a private security guard outside your door, just in case someone decides to get clever.”

  “Thanks. So you know I have Thomas stopping by to talk about the sermon. I need a professional opinion about something I read in God’s word.”

  John came up to us about the same time
and said, “I have a lot to do. We still have the evening news, and then the program itself will start at 6:00, an hour and a half before you start Jack. We need to be ready for that. I have a news briefing in about an hour or so, I need to attend. Lots, of news today. By the way Jack, are we still on for the interview after the sermon?”

  “Yes, I will be ready for you, but no panels. I am not up to it.”

  “Okay Jack, no problem. Oh by the way, I may have already told you, but the feed is being, translated into over one-hundred languages worldwide. We even have Middle Eastern networks broadcasting you live, which surprised me when the request came in. We have two sign language people, and of course subtitles. I do not know if you know it or not. For the time you are on TV tonight, not any one event nor one person has ever had this many people watching. I find that amazing.”

  “So do I John. So do I.”

  “Well, gotta go,” he said as he left.

  Luke, Mark, and Thomas were still in the hall. Veronica and I walked over to them. I said to Mark, “Well you got to come anyway. That is great. I am glad you are here. In addition, Luke, you people are doing a great job out there for me, considering you have only had three and a half days. We have achieved our goals. I want to thank you so much.”

  “After listening to you the past few days Jack, I have to tell you, me and my firm are proud to be a part of your ministry. We look forward to the continuation of our agreement. I have read a lot of prophecy, I have a lot of faith, and I believe you are who you say you are. So if you need anything at all, even if you’re broke, I will be there for you.”

  I held out my hand and said, “Friends Luke.”

  He shook it and said, “Friends. Listen, I have to go. I will catch you all later.”