Let the Fire Fall

by Kate Wilhelm

  “Now, as soon as a man, any man, comes along with a full-blown idea of what God is and what His purpose is, other men start to pick it to pieces. They find the inevitable contradictions and errors and point them out in a reasonable manner. They become the enemy of that particular religion. Every religion ever born has its enemies. Every last one. By the very nature of the subject matter there is no room for more than one religion in any given area. If the God of the Catholic Church is the real God, then the others are false, see? And those who worship false gods are a menace. If Buddha is God, then the other gods are false gods. And so on. Historically the gods have been warlike. but not in more recent years. Through the spread of Christianity the gods became loving and forgiving and although a few people have raised the cry of Anti-Christ from time to time during war, there hasn’t been a truly religious war for almost a thousand years. But one is brewing.

  “Obie Cox is going to start such a war within the next five years, if he isn’t stopped soon; You can stop him.”

  Johnny hadn’t seen Obie Cox since his weekend visit three years ago or more. He had promised to call him from time to time, but hadn’t done so. There was always trouble locating him when Johnny thought of it, or someone came to see Johnny, or something happened to postpone the call. Johnny had no idea that Obie claimed him as the inventor of the revolutionary products that were being offered to believers through the Church. He had found Obie interesting, but he found everyone from outside interesting. He couldn’t remember what they had talked about. It didn’t surprise him to hear that he was the only one who could stop a war brewing on Earth. As the months went on, his power would come to be realized more and more by Earthmen, and they would turn to him often for help and advice. He said, “How could addressing the United Nations General Assembly stop this one man and his ideas?”

  Lenny hesitated only a fraction of a second, coming to the tricky part now, not really knowing exactly how aware Johnny was of what was happening in the world beyond the walls of the estate. He suspected that the answer was nothing, except for what his occasional visitor told him, and that was carefully monitored at all times. He didn’t appear to pause at all. “Obie Cox has made certain claims about you. He says that you have appealed to him as your savior, that you have pleaded with him to rescue you from the U.N. personnel who torture you daily. Things like that. He also has claimed that your people are wicked and plan to conquer Earth when they return, and that you are in communication with them and plan to aid them in their endeavor. He will make war with them too, if they return.”

  He stopped, not knowing if he had gone too far or not. johnny’s face changed subtly during this recitation of Obie’s claims, he had become more distant, more thoughtful. Well,it was done. Now he would wait for the reaction. Johnny was thinking about Obie. He hadn’t appeared very brilliant, so how had he guessed about Johnny and his almost daily communication with his people? Why did he think Johnny’s people would want to conquer Earth? And didn’t he realize, if he knew that much, that johnny was the one pre-selected to lead the attack. destined to reign forever? Johnny felt the beginnings of a headache and there was a stir of excitement that he always felt when it was time for the shining man to come to him and tell him what to do. He stood up.

  “I’ll think about it,” he said, starting toward the door.

  “There’s nothing to think about,” Lenny started, but when Johnny turned to him, his eyes were glassy-looking, and his face as composed as a sleepwalker’s. Lenny had seen Johnny fall asleep on his feet before, and it always made him queasy. He said hurriedly, “Yes, think about it, Johnny. I’ll talk to you later.”

  In his room Johnny let himself open to the inner vision and he listened intently to the voices that instructed him daily.

  Afterward he knew that he would help Obie Cox in his war all that he could. If that would halve the population, when his people returned it would be simple to finish the rest of the job, the other half. Johnny never had seen more than fifty or sixty people at one time in his life. To him the idea of four billion people was incomprehensible; that was somewhat over five thousand, but how much over he had no concept. So he could consider reducing that by half with ease since it was meaningless to him to begin with.

  He would let Lenny’s speech writers prepare whatever they wanted him to say, and meanwhile he would be writing the speech that he actually would make. The shining man would tell him what to say in it.

  INTERLUDE ELEVEN

  (From Diane MacLeish’s notes)

  Special to the New York Times, Oct. 3

  Today the Works of Man Museum unveiled its newest acquisition amidst a stormy protest of the nation’s most eminent art critics, who revile the statue with one voice. Palizzo’s nude, entitled, St. Diane, they say is pornographic, vile, hideous, has no redeeming merits, is crassly commercial, a return to the stultifying conformism the early Catholic Church demanded of artists over a thousand years ago. The statue is that of a nude woman straddling a relief map of the United States. One of her hands clutches her genital area, the other is pressed against her breast, and while improbably long hair obscures both hands, the rapture on her face and the pose in general ore suggestive….

  Oct. 30

  An uneasy silence lies aver the Works of Man Museum tonight following the worst riots witnessed in New York City in over a decade. Slowly the pieces are starting to fall into places as the laborious task of sorting rumor from fact continues. Dr. Wilford Depuy, Director of the Bureau for Maintaining Serenity and Peaceful Coexistence among the. inhabitants of the city, states that the cause of the riots now appears to be rooted in the effect of the “miracle” that three women claimed to have witnessed at the “shrine” of St. Diane. The women claim that they were visited by St. Diane in the spirit as they neared the statue, after waiting in line for over six hours. The visitation afflicted them with hysterical catatonia. As with most hysterical manifestations, this was contagious, and people started to collapse in the museum, then in the street as they waited to gain entrance. The rumor spread rapidly then that the MSPC forces were using riot gas on the people without cause, and there was panic that spread throughout the night and into the following day….

  Oct. 31

  Replicas of St. Diane are being offered throughout the city, throughout the nation in all sizes, for all prices. Some of them are gold-plated, others cast in the crudest plaster, but all are selling. Again and again “miracles” are being reported by the owners of the statuettes, and in churches where large copies have been installed, doctors are on round-the-clock duty to minister to the stricken….

  Rome, UPI, Dec. 17

  Italian longshoremen continue to picket the docks here and violence mounts as the nine-day-old strike spreads. Leaving their jobs today were the public transportation unions, the telephone company employees, and the garbage collectors. It is an open secret in Rome that the strikers are being encouraged by the Vatican, and nightly long lines form at various churches and cathedrals where the workers are fed, and receive allotments of food to take home to their families. It is rumored that martial law will be declared within two days if the workers refuse to return to their jobs. The dock area is already a malodorous health hazard, officials report, and with the garbage collection halted, and the worsening conditions brought on by the prolonged drought and summer heat, all Rome will be endangered by disease and fire.

  The strike originated when it was learned that aboard the U.S.S. Conover there were fifteen million replicas of the infamous Palizzo, St. Diane….

  Chapter Eighteen

  “HERE they come,” Merton said, watching the parade on a screen no bigger than a postage stamp. The usual cloud cover hung over the city, dirty cumulus clouds forming in the midst of the blanket of smog that never dispersed, so that there were columns of deeper yellow-gray than the background, as if a mad architect had decided to hold up the smog ceiling with these whirling unstable materials.

  The parade was being watched by millions in the city,
and hundreds of millions on the entire planet. Many of the viewers didn’t believe in the Star Child at all. It was a myth that the U.N. had created for its own reasons. Others believed exactly what Obie had said about the Star Child: originally damned, he had been converted and was the agent through which Earth could be saved. Most of them had no opinion, but were curious, or watching the 3D sets because that was what one did.

  The parade was long, with each nation represented in national costumes, with national bands and marching corps. Overhead the sky was filled with U.N. ships of every description, taking the extraordinary precautions that had been deemed necessary for this event.

  Lenny had been horrified when he learned that Johnny was to address the assembly in person. From the start they had agreed that he would remain in his hideaway to make the worldwide telecast, but arguments had arisen. He could be a ringer. Anyone could be put before the cameras and the world wouldn’t know the difference. He had to appear in person.

  The parade was on Fifth Avenue when the clouds began to descend. Leading off had been the Amsterdam dancers, then the Angola band, followed by the Australian aborigines in native costume, and in the middle was the bubble that shielded Johnny from the crowds, but exposed him to view. He looked frightened, as he was by the claustrophobic effect of the buildings and the millions on millions of people. Such numbers had never been real before, but here they were, all touching, packed together in a mass that was a blur of flesh colors and gaudy plastics. He should have refused. He wouldn’t be able to say a word. He felt like crying then, or fainting. A heart attack. He could manage a heart attack and be taken back to the quiet of the estate. He could make his debut more slowly, not like this, not with millions all at once…. Lightning suddenly sparkled, crackling and snapping, between the towers and peaks of the buildings, and there was a roll of thunder that shook the bubble in which he rode. He shivered. He was very pale, but managed to lose more color.

  Lightning streaked again, and in the U.S. Meteorology Building a weatherman frowned and pressed his communicator button: Thirty seconds later he was talking with his chief forecaster, who was reading information as it came from the computer.

  The meteorologist then put through a priority call to the chief of security in charge of the parade and informed him that the storm that was then turning day into night was artificial.

  The cloud that was sinking hovered over the bubble, casting it into deep shadows. More lightning, and then the cloud swooped and when it rose again, there was no bubble to be seen. The cloud began to rise fast. Hovercraft darted at it and fell to the ground, creating panic among the people. A voice was in the air then, Obie’s voice, everywhere.

  “I am the Voice, the Power, the Strength of God. I am the Voice that God has chosen to use. You who believe in God’s power, fall to your knees so that God will not strike you down.” There was a moment of almost complete silence before the bedlam was raised again. People were trying to run away, but they couldn’t move. The parade had come to a halt with the lowering of the cloud and the attack of the hovercraft on it. Throughout the world people were watching the scene on 3D or conventional, outmoded televisions, and there was stunned disbelief everywhere. Fighters were scrambled, and they too fell back to the ground. Then the windows started to break. Everywhere in the area of the parade windows exploded with cracks of noise, or bangs, or soft popping tinkles. Half the people were on their knees protecting their heads. and those left standing were being knocked down, or pulled down by others. The UNEF were hemmed in so tightly that they couldn’t move, and they hacked their way through the bodies as if they were a dense jungle.

  The cloud continued to ascend straight up into the sky, now carrying its cargo of the bubble ground effect car as well as its passenger. At fifteen thousand feet it turned west, and it was tracked on radar all the way to Mount Laurel where it was lost from sight as it landed gently.

  Obie had had his miracle. Few on Earth now doubted that he had been in touch with the Star Child, as he had claimed, and few of the people who had seen the miraculous cloud sent by God to do Obie’s bidding doubted that he was in truth the Voice of God.

  Chapter Nineteen

  THE Star Child made no actual personal appearances, although they had been promised. The Star Child had gone around the bend.

  Winifred was the only person he recognized, and only sporadically. When he did know her, he was a child again, back in New York, looking to her for protection. Obie swore for twenty-four hours at this development, blaming it all on Winifred and Robbie Mueller, but occasionally letting some of the abuse boil over to include Merton.

  “You and that goddamned cloud!’” he said over and over, gradually tapering off so that he said it no more than five or six times a day after the initial shock.

  Winifred said, after her first interview with Johnny, “He has had a hallucination at one time or another. It isn’t at all clear. In the vision a man descended from heaven and lifted him up and took him away with him. He thought that was happening when the cloud was lowered….”

  And Johnny? Miserable, sniffling, spied up, put upon, mistreated, captive? He blossomed.

  Johnny was happy finally. The tall silver man was as kind as he had known he would be. The world that he now lived in was heaven with music always in the air, and perfumed breezes, and food that was the nectar that the books had hinted at. Sometimes he talked for hours at a stretch with the silver man, who was his father, and it was how he had dreamed it would be. There was love and warmth and humor and respect for him. His father listened to him intently when he talked. Sometimes he could hear others clamoring at the doors, but his father refused to allow them to enter, so they didn’t intrude. Only Dr. Harvey was admitted once in a while. Not often. Even she was an intruder now.

  “Can you cure him?” Obie demanded. “I thought you could fix any kind of a breakdown.”

  Mueller nodded. “We can cure him,” he said. “But it takes time. We don’t know about our drugs with the alien chemistry….”

  “He isn’t an alien, yon fool! He’s human. Like you, like me.”

  Mueller looked confused, then disbelieving. “Mr. Cox,” he said, “I can appreciate your impatience, but it won’t do you or him any good to pretend that he is human. I believe that human forces have driven him to this schism, but that he is human…”

  “Get out! Get out!” Obie tore at his beard in distraction and was calmed by Dee Dee’s hand on his arm. “What are we going to do, Dee Dee? He’s gone nuts and we can’t find Blake. My kid… crazy, the other bastard missing…. Why does this have to happen to me? All my plans…”

  “Obie, cut the crap!” Dee Dee said. “stop your bawling. You have to put Winifred in charge of the kid. She can pull him out of it if anyone can….”

  “That bitch!”

  “You bet that bitch. She’s a good doctor, and she knows all about this. All about it, Obie. Maybe even more than you know.”

  Obie calmed down and looked at Dee Dee with new interest. “Why do you say that?”

  “Figure it out, Obie. She was with Matt Daniels from the start, probably knew about the switch from the beginning. She worked her way into the U.N. so she could watch the kid, maybe even protected him. She’s the one who might be able to draw Blake back to us, or Derek. I think we’ll find that the Daniels’ family and Dr. Harvey will end up being our biggest allies in the end.”

  Merton came in then and said, “Obie, this isn’t the time for you to go soft, too. You have speeches lined up for the next six months that will be the most important of your life. Now, damn it, leave this to the doctors, and you take care of that end.”

  “You think it’s safe to go ahead?” Billy asked. He had followed Merton into the room.

  “Sure. There’s a lot of talk and there’s bound to be more, but they aren’t going to do anything. The kid’s here, he’s happy, patents are flowing out, miracles… Who’s going to start anything now? Remember that the people, those great glorious masses of people are
on our side, on the side of the Star Child. They won’t let anyone start anything now.”

  Billy puffed and panted. He looked frightened. “France has mobilized,” he said. “They’ve ordered all our people to report to public buildings by noon tomorrow. They’re locking them up….”

  “So? England has come over to our side. You lose one, you gain one. This country won’t permit that kind of nonsense. No U.S. government is going to move against a religion. Don’t forget that, Billyboy. We’re on the side of the angels.” He turned to Obie and said, “You know all that. You’re disappointed right now. We all are. But we got a plan. The worst thing you could do now is soften up, back down.”

  So Obie made his speeches, or preached his sermons, as you will.

  “And God spake unto me. And God said, ‘I will send down my cloud and remove the stranger from the hands of the non-believers and deliver him to you.’” Obie’s face glowed with the remembered rapture of that moment when the world had witnessed the power of God, Who could order the clouds at will. “And there will be those of evil who will speak with lying tongues and offer up reasons and explanations of this thing that I ill cause to happen. They must be smitten, their lies must be stilled. From Psalm 109: Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise; For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause…. Set Thou a wicked man over him; and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged, let him be condemned; and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of desolate places.” Obie paused there, then went on in a strong whispering voice that sent chills through those in the rows and rows of seats, lighted only by the flickering tapers. “‘The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, He shall fill the places with the dead bodies; He shall wound the heads over many countries.’ He shall wound the heads over many countries!” This was shouted in a voice of thunder. “The leaders shall fall, never to rise again. The heathen shall fall, never to rise again. The house of the Lord shall be put in order. And the Voice spoke to me and said, ‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.’ And I looked and beheld a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. ‘For the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.’ The time is ripe. The harvest waits. Armaggedon is now!”