The Harvest

by John David Krygelski

  “I thought you said…oh, that’s right. The souls who watch us, those who remain peripherally involved in our lives, are those who have not yet joined You in Heaven.”

  “This is true, and it can be no other way.”

  “It just seems, I don’t know, cold for them to turn their backs on us.”

  “Those who live in Heaven are anything but cold. Remember, Reese, the dilation of time. Once you arrive and spend a brief period acclimating to your new surroundings, creating your new environment, and settling in, more than a hundred years have passed on Earth. After but a single day in Heaven, there is no one you have ever met remaining alive on Earth. Please do not misunderstand me. It is not that those who live with me in Heaven do not care. They simply trust in me. That trust is a massive element of the heavy weight I now feel.”

  Reese’s mind raced through several other objections to Elohim’s request, dismissing each of them unspoken. Finally, he said, “This is the true reason You have kept me with You through this visit.”

  “It is. I have agonized over the need to be deceitful….”

  “No need. You told me at the time, during our first meeting, that there were some issues, some things which could not be explained until I was ready.”

  “Thank you for recalling those comments. Do I have your answer? Do I have your help?”

  “You are asking me to assume enormous responsibilities, to play God.”

  “No. I am not asking for you to perform my function. I am asking you to advise me. I am asking that you show me an option, as of yet not conceived by me. My own emotions have blinded me, preventing me from seeing the solution. My hope is that your eyes will see it. The decision and the responsibility will be solely mine.”

  “I must leave if I am to do this. I need to be with Claire. May I share this with her?”

  “I recognize your need to do so. She has become a welcome part of your thought processes. Of course you may share all of our words.”

  The decision made, Reese felt a calmness overtake him. True to the pattern of his whole life, he did not become anxious, did not panic when under pressure. “Before I go, I have one more question.”

  “Yes?”

  “If Lucifer thrives upon the sensual input of people, why is he plotting to kill so many?”

  “Individual life means nothing to him. Less than nothing. Mankind is allowed access to a place where he is forbidden to go, a place which he craves to occupy. And so he resents, even hates, each and every person on Earth. With every soul he blackens, with every person he turns away from the path, he reaps the satisfaction of not only hurting me and foiling my plan, but also quenching his anger and hatred. You must recall that the relationship between the spirit and man is a two-way street. The spirit within a man changes him. The man, through which the spirit lives, alters the soul as well. Lucifer has never found the righteous to be a welcoming host for him. The only doors he may open are within those who are, at best, morally and ethically ambivalent or, at worst, evil. So he has immersed himself in the darkest of those among you throughout history. This has continued to amplify his evil tendencies.”

  “A nasty feedback loop.”

  “That is an apt description and is a part of the problem I, we, face today. The feedback loop, the vicious cycle, continues to intensify with each iteration, compounded by my removal of the best among you twice before.”

  “It’s approaching a critical mass.”

  “Another appropriate metaphor. So, the answer to your question is that we are dealing with madness, an evil madness and a clever madness, yet madness nonetheless. It is a madness fed by contempt for me and for mankind. Very little of what Lucifer does will be logical, yet it will all be consistent, consistent with his hatred. Pain, death, misery, and despair…they all please him. Do not forget, each person he hurts…hurts me. He cannot inflict pain upon me directly, only through you.”

  “We are God’s army, aren’t we?”

  “Quite literally, I’m afraid.”

  Reese started to rise, then paused and asked, “One more question. Where is he? Where is Lucifer hiding? Is he within one man or woman?”

  Leaning back into his chair, Elohim answered, “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know? How can that be?”

  “The information I receive, all of it, comes from each person. Lucifer learned, ages ago, how to co-opt this information from the one within whom he resides. Nothing escapes. No thoughts, no emotions, nothing.”

  “I know it’s still a little hard for me to visualize the information with which You are bombarded, but don’t You notice when someone’s transmission to You suddenly falls off the radar, so to speak?”

  “I do. When Lucifer has possessed others in the past, the cessation of the messages from each poor soul told me quickly where he was. There were times I intervened. There were times holy men stepped in, bringing the problem to my attention.”

  “Exorcisms.”

  “Yes. Lucifer learned. He realized that he must be more circumspect, more subtle, more discreet. He also learned that to avoid gaining my attention, he must occupy someone from the inception. He must take over that person before he or she can produce the very first message to me, the message which triggers my dispatching a new soul for that child. If he walks the Earth today, he does so within a man or a woman I have never met, physically or in any other way, someone who has been invisible to me.”

  “Great!”

  “It is a frustrating situation for me, as well.”

  “I have no doubt about that.” Standing up, Reese said, “I’ll be going now. We don’t have a lot of time.”

  Elohim stood. “Reese, thank you. I realize that by confessing my need, I have diminished myself in your eyes.”

  Reese stared at Elohim for some time before saying, “In fact, no. I haven’t sorted it all out yet, and I’m concerned it may be my own ego speaking, but it actually has made me feel better. I just hope I can come up with something that will help.”

  “You will. Have no doubt of that.”

  Reese did not turn immediately, and Elohim stepped forward, encircling Reese with his arms. The powerful, coursing feeling of joy again filled Reese, and he realized at that moment how much he had been craving another contact. When they parted, he asked, “What is that phenomenon, exactly? I mean, it’s different for each of us. What are You doing when You touch us?”

  Smiling for the first time in a while, Elohim answered, “My touch is but a mirror of what you are and what you have given to me. The joy you feel is my returning to you the joy you have given to me.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Kaval slowly shifted his stare from one man seated at the table to the next. “A single explosion, when we planned seven, is not a success. It is a failure! Failure can not be tolerated!”

  The nine around the table squirmed uncomfortably. Each of them knew, or suspected, that the reason for the dismal results of their latest efforts was Kaval himself. The news broadcasts had hinted at the trail followed by the government agents. It had been his sloppiness, his over-confidence, and his arrogance which provided the FBI with too many clues, too many leads to follow. None of them dared to speak what they thought, knowing the consequences of such an act. Instead, they all stared blankly forward, hoping their disgust did not show.

  “We have less than twenty-four hours,” he continued. “The material is in place and the personnel are ready. This time…we must succeed,” he shouted, as he balled his hands into fists and pounded them both on the tabletop for emphasis.

  א

  Thomas Eades, Margo Jackson, Bill Burke, and Ricki Darling were huddled in Burke’s office, joined by Dick Williams and George Collins.

  Burke asked Collins, “Does the CIA have anything on Kaval yet?”

  “We believe he’s in Prague, but that’s it. None of our people have been able to find him in that city so far. We’re not even sure he’s still there.”

  Williams asked, “I’ve got to report so
mething back to the President. Do we have anything from Johnson more specific than the vague comment from Elohim?”

  Margo looked witheringly at the National Security Advisor. “That ‘vague comment’ was relayed to us by one of the brightest people around. And he obtained it from God, who, in case you’ve forgotten, knows what every person on the planet is thinking.”

  The NSA chief immediately became defensive. “I’m not saying that it’s nothing. All I’m asking is whether we’ve gotten anything more concrete yet?”

  Darling, trying to avert a confrontation between the two, jumped in, “There is a lot of chatter right now, but nothing we can hang our hats on.”

  “People, please…. If the perpetrators stay true to pattern, they’ll try to pull something by tomorrow evening before Elohim leaves,” said Burke. “Since their latest plot fizzled, they must be scrambling to put something together quickly. Doing something too fast results in mistakes, sloppiness. We’ve got to be ready to capitalize the first time they tip their hand. George, are we getting any help in Europe?”

  The head spy looked dejected. Sighing heavily, he said, “I’m starting to feel like the only kid on the block out there. With the exception of the UK and Israel, I can’t even get the top guys on the phone. France, Germany, Russia, any of the Scandinavian countries, Eastern Europe, you name it…all I get are number three or number four on the totem pole. As Yogi Berra said, it’s déjà vu all over again.”

  Collins’ comment piqued Bill Burke’s interest. “What do you mean?”

  “The reality of international relations,” he answered, “is like a marriage. Long before the divorce papers are filed, the dumpee starts to notice little things coming from the dumper. He forgets to get her a gift for her birthday. She doesn’t kiss him good night before he falls asleep. Little signs tell them that it’s over, but they’re not quite ready to burn the bridge yet. That’s how it feels with other countries when they’ve made up their minds to switch allegiances but aren’t quite ready to tell you. A few years ago, when I was just Assistant Director, if I called Interpol, the top guy took my call. It didn’t matter if he was in a big meeting, he’d step out and take it. He talked to me because it was the U.S. calling. Now, I’m the Director and the best I can do is his secretary. And she promises to ‘do her best’ to get him to return my call before the week is out.”

  “So we’re being dumped?” asked Margo.

  “I think so.”

  “By whom?”

  “All of them. At least, that’s what it feels like. If I confront them about all the little stuff, I just get babble about how busy they are with urgent matters. They assure me nothing is wrong, everything is fine. Jacque, at the Surité, told me I was being too sensitive, too thin-skinned. But I don’t think, hell, I know I’m not imagining this.”

  Williams, hearing something juicy enough to carry back to the White House, asked, “When you say all of them, are you talking about the European Union?”

  Collins, sharing Margo’s dislike for the President’s staffer, answered without looking in his direction. “Yes. The EU.”

  “They don’t need us anymore,” commented Burke.

  “You’re right; they don’t.”

  Margo added, “It is like the marriage going sour. Once the husband gets the degree, he dumps the wife who worked to put him through college.”

  “Or, as soon as the wife’s career takes off and she’s making more than the husband, she dumps him,” said Ricki Darling.

  “That’s pretty much it,” confirmed Collins. “When the Soviet Union was around, there was this big, looming threat, hanging like a cloud over Europe. They all knew they couldn’t stand up to the giant alone, so they courted us, needing us to put the teeth into NATO. The Soviet Union collapsed, thanks to Reagan. The Russians certainly aren’t expressing any interest in dominating the world or even Europe, and they couldn’t do it even if that was what they wanted. We’ve become the blue-collar husband after the wife won the lottery. Not only don’t they need us, they see us as an embarrassment, as some unsophisticated oaf.”

  “With the creation of the EU, the economics have also changed,” said Burke.

  “They surely have,” answered Collins. “All of Europe is rapidly becoming a single country. The EU Council frequently trumps the individual governments of the member countries. The widespread use of the euro has allowed the Council essentially to blackmail each of the nations into submission. The only one really putting up a fight is the UK, and that fight is a losing battle for them.”

  “It sounds as though they’re all becoming states…like here,” said Ricki.

  “I think that’s the goal,” Collins concurred.

  “Whose goal?” she asked. “Do all of those Frenchmen, Germans, Spaniards, Danes, and the rest really want to give up their national identities?”

  “It’s like the frog in a pot,” answered Burke.

  “You’re right,” agreed Collins. “That’s it exactly. Drop a frog in boiling water, and it’ll jump out. Put it in cool water and slowly turn up the heat, and you’ve got cooked frog. They all started out believing that joining the EU was like joining Costco. You know, it would increase their buying power, let them compete with us. Then security was added to the pile. Then environmental issues. One by one, these factors turned the heat up. Now the whole political structure is so tied to the EU that unraveling it would be a disaster. Plus, they’ve all been used to being citizens of smaller countries. The feeling of being a part of a superpower is attractive.”

  Williams asked, “What’s the big deal anyway? If they want to get together and make one country, so what?”

  George Collins closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “No big deal, Dick. None at all. As long as they remain our friends.”

  “You’re saying they’re not?”

  “I’m saying I’m not sure. I’m saying it feels as if it’s moving in the wrong direction.”

  “You don’t think it’s just how they feel about our President?” Ricki Darling asked.

  “No. I do think that might be a part of it. He’s too American, if you know what I mean. They’d prefer someone who asks their permission before he sneezes. He’s a little too independent for them, still acting as though we’re the only superpower on Earth.”

  “Aren’t we?” asked Williams.

  “In one sense, we are. Nobody can mess with us militarily. The problem is that we’ve become ashamed of our own might. In the area we dominate, we’ve been neutered. Once you remove that, the rest is population, economics, and world opinion. We aren’t doing well in those categories, compared to the EU and China.”

  Bill Burke, listening carefully to this analysis, asked, “Do you think the events happening now, the attacks, are part of this plan?”

  “The concept today in the modern world of power struggles,” Collins replied, “is to weaken your opponent. You can do that by withholding needed resources. You can do it by manipulating public opinion. You can dilute the national identity, as has happened in France and the UK. And it can be done by disrupting the lifestyle of the citizens. If the people of a country have a plentiful, happy, relatively carefree existence, they’re going to cling to it. If their lives become dominated by fear and uncertainty, they become ripe for a change, especially if they are repeatedly told they are paying for the sins of their government. At that point, a regime change becomes more palatable.”

  Thomas Eades, quiet to this point, spoke up. “After 9/11, there were a lot of people – Americans – who believed that we deserved the attack, that we had brought it upon ourselves by our own actions in the Middle East.”

  “Hell, there were some people who believed we did it ourselves, as an excuse to go into Iraq,” added Margo.

  “When you reach that point, when enough people begin to believe or at least suspect the worst of their own government, it isn’t hard to imagine taking the next step,” Collins said quietly.

  “Which is?” asked Burke.


  “Subjugating your sovereignty to an international authority.”

  “Oh, crap!” blurted Williams. “You’re a one-worlder?”

  “Dick,” Collins snapped back, barely concealing his contempt, “first of all, creating a category of crackpot conspiracy theorists and dumping people into it to discredit them is an old technique. The Soviets used it…mainly Stalin…on anyone who dared to disagree with him. Secondly, nobody’s talking about a ‘one-world’ government. For that to happen, the Communist Chinese would have to be brought into the corral, along with all of Southeast Asia, India, and Africa. And that is not going to happen anytime soon!

  “It’s a simple power struggle, and it’s happening in the same part of the world where power struggles have been going on since man climbed out of the trees. Tell me this, what’s the difference between what the EU is doing and what Hitler wanted to accomplish?”