Christ Clone

by McLeod, David

  Wainright broke the mood. 'I think it's time we got you set up, Alex. Best not keep the Son of God waiting.'

  Inside the barn, Wainwright helped Alex to set up the camera with attention to the best angle and the best lighting. He didn't want the reporter to miss a thing. When he was satisfied, he left Alex to finish his set-up checks while he ducked behind the tarpaulin curtain to prepare the clones for the unveiling.

  The clones were huddled in a small group beside the champagne and glasses and they looked startled when Wainright appeared. Backing away from the table, they formed a line side-by-side, like troops on parade waiting for inspection. They were dressed in long beige robes and leather sandals, and Wainright marvelled at how authentic they looked. One by one, he led each clone to his cross and had him stand on a small platform at its base. First was Stefan. Wainright asked him to stand with his back to the cross. He told him to spread his arms so he could tie his wrists to the wooden frame. Stefan began to cry.

  Immediately, Aloysha and Genesis came to his side. 'It's okay, Stefan,' Aloysha said. 'Be brave, it's just a game. Soon we'll be free of all this.'

  'That's right,' Genesis added. 'Remember what we talked about earlier? We'll all be taken care of, all of us.'

  Wainright wasn't sure what was going on, but it seemed to have a calming effect on Stefan.

  'All right you two, wait your turn please. Now Stefan, this is only going to be for a short time, just for the camera.' Wainright was continuing to tie Stefan's wrists in place. Once he'd finished, he moved a small glass cabinet containing the spear tip into place in front of the clone. He went on to repeat the process with the other two clones, afterwards placing cabinets containing the Shroud of Turin and the ancient piece of the true cross in front of them. He did spend a little extra time fussing over his own clone, Genesis. Then he stood back to admire the tableau.

  ***

  Everyone had gathered in the barn. Travis, Androna, and Probandi were now standing with the European challengers. Wainright and his scientist stood in the middle of the group as the CNN reporter took some still shots. After several pictures were taken under Wainright's artistic direction, the reporter moved back behind his video camera, used his encrypted mobile phone to connect live to the CNN studio, and readied himself for the main event. Still smiling, Wainright went to the huge barn doors and dropped a heavy wooden plank across their steel brackets. No one would be disturbing them.

  Satisfied that everything was in order, Wainright made his way to the makeshift stage to start the proceedings. With the reporter's camera rolling, Wainright looked straight at the lens as he addressed the gathering — and the world. 'To our European associates, a warm welcome: we appreciate your travelling such a long way from your homes, and we ask you to excuse this humble venue. We wanted to make this as authentic as possible, and as Jerusalem, Israel is a little problematic, we thought that Jerusalem, Arkansas would be the next best thing . . . And to all of you viewers on CNN worldwide, welcome.' He paused to let his words settle. 'For those of you who don't know me, my name is Douglas Wainright. I am the CEO of Stemtex. And for those of you who don't know what's happening, I would urge you to stop whatever you're doing and focus your attention on me. This is going to be one of those life-defining moments — like when you heard Elvis was dead, or where you were when the news of 9/11 broke. I take it I now have your attention?' Wainright was enjoying himself. 'Over two thousand years ago, a man called Jesus walked this earth. I know you are probably aware of his life story, and indeed his horrific death. This story has been passed down through the centuries via the Bible, and of course retold daily in sermons, and even in Hollywood re-enactments. Stories, scriptures, films, and plays — all someone else's interpretation of what happened. But I ask you all now to consider: what if you could actually question the man himself? What do you think he would have to say?'

  Wainright let the question hang in the air.

  'Now, where am I going with all of this? Since time travel is currently unavailable — and believe me, I would know — this could be one of those Mohammed to the mountain moments.' A smug grin seeped onto Wainright's face. 'And now, without further ado, I'd like to present the man who assisted me through this whole thing, Mr Simon Travis.'

  A ripple of applause from the small group echoed around the barn. Travis nodded to Wainright and stepped up to the stage.

  'First, I too would like to thank you for coming all this way, and of course, for participating in this unprecedented project. We have all played our part in changing history! A lot of what I am about to say is directed to you worldwide viewers.

  'Behind this curtain are three scientific miracles — three men cloned from biblical artefacts: a piece of the cross on which Christ was crucified, the tip of the spear used to confirm his death, and the Shroud of Turin used to wrap his body. I have been informed that all three clones look physically different, but bearing in mind the relics from which they have been created, I have no doubt that one of them will be Jesus Christ.'

  Travis paused a moment to let his statement sink in, and then continued, 'When this challenge was first offered, there were so many things we had to consider. Aside from all the technical problems, which I'm sure Mr Wainright will be happy to share with you in due course, there were the moral issues. With this challenge, we intended to go beyond the here and now, beyond the human issue, to the spiritual level. In cloning Jesus, were we cloning a man? Or were we cloning a holy spirit in a human shell? To be perfectly honest, we had very little idea as to whether this was going to be possible at all, but if it was ever going to happen, we tried to think of as many ideal outcomes as possible. One of these was the chance that the clones would have past life recall. There had been certain cases — and once again Mr Wainright will be able to give you the supporting data — where clones had somehow managed to retain memories of their past lives stored deep inside them, and even in their new bodies were able to recall these earlier experiences to varying degrees. Knowing this was possible, there were many rules and stipulations that needed to be adhered to. The main one being that none of the clones was to be exposed to any religious material, and I mean absolutely none. Thus any recollections — dreams or otherwise — would be untainted.

  'I am told that all three of the clones we are about to reveal have had dreams and recall experiences related to a time two thousand years ago. Now, for many people this would be enough to convince them they had found the Son of God. However, it wasn't sufficient for me. I could have developed no end of tests and examinations to try to ascertain which of the three is the true Son of God, and still not have been sure.

  'So, with that in mind, I would like to introduce a very special guest. This man was originally born over two thousand years ago, and with the help of Dr Androna and his team, he is with us today to bear witness to an event that happened during his previous life. Please allow me to introduce Probandi.'

  As another small ripple of applause petered out, Wainright ducked behind the tarpaulin and returned immediately with a tray of champagne-filled glasses which he passed around among the small group. With this final chore completed, he celebrated by lighting a fat cigar.

  Probandi took a bow, and Travis continued.

  'As I said, Probandi was there on the fateful day when Jesus was crucified at Golgotha. It is a memory so strongly imprinted on his mind he will be able to tell us without a shadow of doubt whether we have been successful in creating a clone of the true Son of God. Gentlemen, I ask all of you to raise your glasses as I propose a toast to Probandi.'

  The reporter took a quick drink and turned the camera on Probandi in anticipation of a speech. But as Probandi took a sip of his champagne, his hand flew up his throat. He seemed to be fighting for breath. His other hand joined the fight and his glass dropped, smashing on the cement floor of the barn. The initial smashing noise was followed quickly by another; then another. Gargled screams were heard, followed by choking sounds, and panic ensued. The champagne appeared to have ha
d a different effect on Douglas Wainright. Having taken a very large gulp of the wine, his face pulled and contorted. He looked like a man in dire need of bowel relief. Then he simply stiffened and fell heavily to the ground, his big smouldering cigar falling from his mouth and rolling a short distance before coming to rest against a bale of hay. Within a matter of minutes, the barn was ablaze.

  On the platform, having only taken a tiny sip of the champagne, Travis turned to run but tripped over the fallen Probandi. He landed badly, his left leg taking the brunt of the fall; it snapped like a twig, leaving him immobilized on the stage beside Probandi's body. Travis grabbed at the tarpaulin in an effort to pull himself up but his weight tore the curtain from its mounting. As it dropped to the stage it unveiled the shocking tableau behind. Travis managed to prop himself up so he could take in the whole picture. To his right, bedlam — fire was already beginning to engulf the side of the barn and a beam had dropped from the roof to land on the bodies below. To his left, the scene was utterly different. The clones were calm; bound to their crosses, they seemed to have their heads bowed in prayer. He could hear the soft sound of a voice, a gentle murmur that could only be described as captivating. He wondered where it was coming from. He thought he saw the clone on the left moving his mouth. But with the flames casting their rapidly shifting shadows, he couldn't be sure.

  Desperate to hear their prayers, Travis dragged himself to the base of the nearest cross. Tilting his head upward, he closed his eyes to focus his attention. Like a radio aerial scanning to find a signal, he managed to catch a few words here and there before clearly hearing one of the voices declare to the other two: 'I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.'

  At that moment the ground beneath Travis began to shake; his world was filled with a near-deafening roar that far outgunned the greedy crackling of the fire. Travis' eyes sprang open and his hands went to his ears. The air turned stale as though the oxygen was being sucked out of it, and the flames and smoke were now leaping as high as the roof.

  With an almighty crash, the barn's roof was ripped off and Travis watched it spiral in slow motion up a long, black tunnel. He tried to grab at the base of a cross, intending to hold firm as things around him were sucked upwards, but the vacuum was all-consuming and the three men ascending on their crosses were the last things he saw as the barn and all it contained were lifted skyward and blown into oblivion.

  55

  LOS ANGELES

  Malone knelt beside his wife's headstone to tell her about Travis and the cloning experiment. He then went on to tell her how very strangely it had all ended.

  'In the chopper, as we approached the little town of Jerusalem, Arkansas, the weather turned strange. The sky had gone dark, almost green in colour, and a wall of cloud appeared; we spotted smoke from a barn that was on fire and were about to head towards it when suddenly the pilot yelled at us to hold on, we needed to make an immediate emergency landing. We had no idea what was happening. We landed heavily, but safely. We were shaken, and we all started to talk at once, all except the pilot. He just stared at the burning barn — then we were all staring. A tornado was heading straight for the barn. We saw it hit, and in seconds it wiped out the barn. Obliteration! It was just, quite simply, gone. Then the tornado itself disappeared.

  'I've heard tornadoes called the finger of God, and that's what it looked like; a big finger coming from the sky and picking up the barn. Luckily for us, we had an experienced local pilot who'd listened to earlier weather reports, and he recognized the signs. He also told us he'd heard the tornado begin to roar, but none of us had noticed it over the noise of the chopper.

  'The farm owner confirmed who'd been there at the barn that day, but no bodies were found.' Malone paused for a moment, recalling the awesome sight and marvelling again at the power that had been displayed.

  He also told her about the meeting he'd had with Robert Richins, and how Richins had confessed to the murder of their daughter. Finally, he told her of his newfound interest in Taylor, and he asked for her blessing, hoping she would understand. He told her about how courageous Daniel had been, trying to rescue Taylor, and how he now considered him to be an adopted son.

  Malone knew it was time at last he said goodbye to Barbara; it was time to move on with his life. He bowed his head. As he prayed, a gentle breeze caressed his hair.

  ITALY

  In a locked cabinet in a vault in the Vatican lies a rusty nail wrapped in a sweat-stained cloth. The cloth once mopped the brow of a man carrying a cross up a hill outside Jerusalem; the nail was used to crucify him. They are the only remaining relics of an event that took place over two thousand years ago.