“Okay, sir, but he told security he used to work for Omega Group,” Gemma added smoothly.
“Interesting. Okay, have security bring him up. I will give Mr. Barnes the chance to persuade me not to put him in jail,” Draven muttered irritably. A few minutes later, John Barnes was escorted into Draven’s office by two large U.E. security officers.
“Good morning, Mr. Barnes. I understand you have a dire need to meet with me. So I hope, for your sake, that this interruption to my time is worth your efforts,” Draven said sharply, staring coldly at John Barnes.
“Mr. Secretary-General, by the end of our discussion, you will hire me. I think you should ask your security to leave the room. The information I have is sensitive,” John Barnes stated confidently.
“Bold statement, Mr. Barnes. Just know that if you fail to deliver or if you attempt any malfeasance here today, your error will cost you your life. Leave us,” Draven ordered the security officers.
John Barnes turned and watched as the two security guards closed the glass doors of Draven’s office behind them, drawing high-powered handguns as they stood watching the meeting.
“I have something for you.” Barnes opened his suit jacket and looked down to retrieve the item from an inside pocket. His hand froze when he heard a stern warning from the man he’d come to see.
“Easy, Mr. Barnes. I may seem like a harmless politician, but if you wish to live to see tomorrow, slowly retrieve whatever you’re looking for in that pocket,” Draven commanded.
As Barnes raised his head, he was surprised to see Draven holding a gun, and shocked to see the red laser dot dead center on his shirtfront as he glanced down where the gun was pointing.
“I can assure you sure, sir, I am no threat to you, and that gun is not necessary,” Barnes replied cooly, slowly pulling a small USB flash drive from his suit jacket and holding it up in one hand.
“What’s on the drive, Mr. Barnes?”
“In my hand, I hold the operational plans for President Rodgers’s military strike against the U.E., including the locations of several undeclared nuclear weapons on a remote base in Alaska.”
“My, my. That would be worth an offer of employment. How did you come by this information?”
“I recently quit Omega Group after seeing the writing on the wall for the American military and the devaluing the nation held for soldiers like me. But before I left the group, I discovered these plans and downloaded them from a classified database in the Omega Group office.”
“Ah, you were fired. I am guessing for being a bit of a rogue as well as brash. And now you’re selling state secrets to who you assume will be the highest bidder. A risky maneuver, Mr. Barnes, coming to me first. Your assumption that I will not have you killed for being a traitor may have been premature,” Draven answered, racking back the slide on the handgun.
“Sir, please, I am telling you the truth,” Barnes pleaded, raising both hands.
“Gemma, dear, please bring your laptop into my office,” Draven said into his intercom, the handgun still pointed at Barnes.
“Oh my God, sir,” Gemma exclaimed as she entered Draven’s office to find John Barnes, shaking hands raised, with a bright red laser dot on his chest.
“Calm yourself, my dear. I am just in the middle of an intense employment interview with Mr. Barnes here. Please take the flash drive from Mr. Barnes, pull up a chair next to me, and open the flash drive. If what Mr. Barnes described to me is located on the device, he has a job. If it is not… Well, my dear, Mr. Barnes will hate my employment rejection process,” Draven said, smiling.
Gemma was shaking like a leaf in the wind as she walked over to John Barnes and took the flash drive from him. She pulled up a chair from the conference table in Draven’s office and plugged the flash drive into a USB port. “Sir, what should I be looking for on here?” Her voice wasn’t quite steady when she spoke.
“Mr. Barnes, please tell Gemma the name of the operation,” Draven instructed.
Barnes said, “The only folder on the drive is named Operation Eagle Storm.”
“Eagle Storm…that is a ghastly and sophomoric name,” Draven said, laughing. “Gemma, is that the name of the file you see?” His hand was unwavering as he held the gun on Barnes.
“Yes, sir, it is,” Gemma confirmed.
“Great. Open it, then leave the office and send in the U.E. security officers,” Draven ordered.
Gemma clicked open the file and quickly made her way out of the office, flushed and sweating, waving the security detail into the office without speaking.
“Gentlemen, I want you to kill Mr. Barnes if I give the word,” Draven said starkly. He then turned his attention to Gemma’s laptop and the open Operation Eagle Storm folder. He quickly pored over President Rodgers’s directives to dispatch and secure several nuclear weapons on a remote base in Alaska. The files even contained a Presidental Security Memo to his coconspirators, namely, the Nigeran president and former U.N. secretary-general Aguilar, who both had been named future ambassadors by Draven earlier in the week. Anger exploded in Draven’s chest, and he swore out loud.
“Well, here is what I am prepared to offer you, Mr. Barnes, for your efforts to ensure global peace and prosperity,” Draven Cross said when he calmed himself enough. “Effective immediately, you will be named the U.E. Special Activities Unit Commander. I will empower you to only one end, which will be the rooting out and elimination of threats to the U.E., myself, or my interests. I will plan a meeting with you later today along with my head of intelligence, Dr. Gabriella Costa, whom I am sure you know.”
“Thank you, sir,” Barnes replied. “However, I don’t know if it would be wise to bring in Dr. Costa. I don’t know if she was even aware of the operation against the U.E., but she may tip off President Rodgers.”
“Mr. Barnes, you’re alive only due to your penchant for having a weak moral consistency that serves my needs, not to be a critical thinker on my staff,” Cross replied disdainfully. “Get out of my office, and coordinate with Gemma for the details of our meeting later today.”
“Yes, sir,” Barnes said before departing with the security guards.
Once the office doors closed, Draven sought the counsel of his spiritual mentor. He shouted, “Prince of this World, what should I do with this information? I feel I should kill President Rodgers and his henchmen where they stand right now!”
“No, this will serve my purposes. You will play along with their ruse until my appointed time. Remember to trust and serve only me,” came the message from the Prince to Draven’s thoughts.
“Fine,” Draven shouted, “but they will pay for their disrespect toward me.”
Gabriella was heading to Draven’s office to provide some information he’d requested ahead of his meeting with President Rodgers when she saw John Barnes heading toward the elevators. The sly wink he sent her way as he boarded the elevator made her blood run cold. She hurried over to Gemma’s desk to figure out why John Barnes, a former Omega Group soldier, was in the U.E. HQ.
“Gemma, why was John Barnes here today?” Dr. Costa asked, working hard to sound only mildly curious.
“He met with Draven earlier saying he had American secrets to share,” Gemma answered.
Gabriella was unable to form an immediate response, her mind instantly jumping to the worst case scenario: that Barnes had somehow discovered she was a spy for Rodgers.
Gemma’s intercom buzzed, and she heard Draven’s voice on the other end.
“Find Gabriella. Tell her I am ready for her report,” Draven directed.
“I will send her in momentarily, sir,” Gemma replied. After she disconnected from the intercom speaker, she turned to Dr. Costa and, appearing genuinely frightened, whispered,” Draven was going to kill Mr. Barnes if he had been lying, so I am guessing Barnes told him something of value. The man is starting to scare me, Gabriella.”
“Yeah, we should get together some time after work and discuss our interesting work environment. In the meantime,
just be strong and try to stay on Draven’s good side. Speaking of which, I’d better get in there before you get in trouble.”
“Thanks, and be careful,” Gemma cautioned.
You have no idea how careful I am trying to be, Gemma, Gabriella thought as she entered Draven Cross’s office.
* * *
Jimbo was a little worried and voiced as much as he drove Jackson and Christopher to the helipad for their flight to Anchorage and then Israel. “Guys, I know you can’t tell me all the details, but it seems risky to be working against the most powerful man in the world. You could be walking into an ambush,” he warned.
“I know, Jimbo, but right now we all still work for the president of the United States, and he is trying to figure out just what Draven Cross is up to,” Christopher replied.
“I already know what he’s up to,” Jackson said assertively. “Nothing good.”
“I agree,” Jimbo said. “Mr. Cross is my number one candidate for being the biblical Antichrist.”
“Look, before you two both get into the spiritual ramifications of who we’re dealing with, let me just say, remember that you could be wrong. Draven could just be a slick politician who is trying to destroy our country,” Christopher replied reasonably.
“Yeah, and fish might not be wet in the water, but the evidence says they are. The same thing goes for Saint Cross. The evidence says he’s the Antichrist,” Jackson stated forcefully.
Laughing, Christopher responded, “Jackson, I can’t even do the country boy logic thing with you right now. I am just saying let’s focus on what we can control, like getting the requested information back to the president and then getting back here and finishing this job.”
“I will be praying for you guys. And don’t worry. I will keep everything and everybody in order while you’re gone,” Jimbo said as the SUSV pulled up to the Blackhawk helicopter waiting to ferry them to Anchorage.
“Thanks, brother,” Christopher replied. “We’ll let you know when we’re heading back. Take care.”
“Yeah, thanks, man. Keep us in your prayers. The Middle East isn’t exactly a vacation spot,” Jackson said, closing the door to the SUSV and running for the helo.
CHAPTER 15
As Gabriella was completing her update on the U.S. military capabilities that were soon to be under Draven Cross’s authority, he began to smile as if he knew something that she wanted to know but did not have access to.
“Sir, is there something funny I am missing right now?” Gabriella asked.
“Perhaps, but really I have just been savoring the thought of what must be going through your mind right now after seeing John Barnes leave my office.”
“John Barnes was here today? I must have missed him, as I was working in my office all morning,” Gabriella replied, consciously stilling her nerves.
“It’s a shame you missed him. No matter, you will get a chance to catch up later today when he comes back to discuss his first mission as the U.E. Special Activities Unit Commander.”
“The Special Activities Unit? What exactly does this unit do for the U.E.?”
“Oh, the same sort of things you Americans had your Omega Group doing across the globe. The difference here will be John will work to meet my goals, not America’s. Tell me what you know about Operation…” Draven was cut off as his office door was flung open by Evan Mallory, with Gemma close on his heels.
“Sir, I told him you were in a meeting, but he walked in anyway,” Gemma explained.
Gabriella was grateful for the ruckus since it prevented Draven from finishing his likely life-threatening question.
“It’s okay, Gemma. Today seems destined to have me at its mercy,” Draven replied with apparent resignation as Gemma departed, closing the doors behind her.
“Sir…you’ve got to…” Evan Mallory stopped when Draven held up his hand.
“This had better be good. I don’t have time for any of your foolishness, Evan. I am in the midst of preparing for my final future ambassador meeting. President Rodgers is my most critical appointment, and we meet within the hour,” Draven threatened silkily.
“Sir, it’s important.” Evan grabbed the remote from Draven’s desk and turned on the large flat-screen television mounted on the adjacent wall, selecting the all-news network’s coverage of a breaking event. “You see, sir, this is coming out of Israel.”
“Yes, Evan, I can clearly see it’s an event in Israel, but what do you think I need to look at? Why am I watching news coverage of two old men sitting next to the Wailing Wall? I swear you’re daft. Get out of my office.”
Just as Draven finished chiding Evan, the newscaster began describing what had been happening since the appearance of the two men and growing crowd near the Wailing Wall. Evan raised the volume as Draven’s interest was caught by the two men being enhanced on his screen by high-definition broadcasting.
“Ladies and gentlemen, if you’re just joining us, we have a potential terrorist situation or violent protest ongoing right now at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. The situation seems to be in a state of flux. The two men you now see on your screen reportedly appeared at the Wailing Wall around two o’clock in the afternoon local time in Jerusalem. They have yet to speak or move, but several eyewitness accounts credit the men with killing or incapacitating a few dozen security forces who have tried to remove them from the Wailing Wall. Now we take you to Jerusalem to a local field correspondent who is with a tourist who was visiting the Wailing Wall when the two men appeared,” the anchor concluded.
“Yes, I am here with a gentleman on vacation from the United States of America. He was within fifty feet of the Wailing Wall when the two men appeared, and the subsequent attacks occurred. Sir, could you describe to us what you saw here today?” the field correspondent requested.
“Sure, well, I and my wife Jean were about to head back to our tour bus after visiting the Wailing Wall when all of a sudden we heard screams and saw people running everywhere. Well, Jean yells at me to get down because she thought it was one of them terrorist attacks or something, but I just stood there videoing everything with my phone.”
“So can you describe how the two men attacked the security forces?” the field correspondent queried.
“Well, they’re two older fellas, but they seem young and strong at the same time. I mean you guys can probably see their beards and them having no shoes, but their clothes and eyes were the weirdest things to me. I think they’re wearing like potato sacks or burlap or something, and it looks like they’re covered in ashes. Those eyes though made me feel like a child again—you know, like when your mom knows you did something wrong and you can’t stand to look her in the eye. Those guys were looking right down to my bones,” the tourist said.
“What about the attack, sir, what type of weapons did they have?” the field correspondent asked.
“I can’t say I saw a weapon. The security folks ran toward them, and those old men didn’t move a limb. They just opened their mouths and didn’t say anything, but the security folks just dropped where they stood. It was the craziest thing I ever saw.” The man’s shock was evident in his tone.
“Well, there you have it, one man’s perspective on an idyllic day turned tragic. I am sending the story back you in New York,” the field correspondent concluded.
Evan turned off the TV and looked at Draven as if expecting some sort of praise for informing him of the events in Israel. Gabriella felt awestruck as she reviewed in her mind the tourist’s accounting and the camera images of the fallen security forces and the two unwavering men. Draven, however, was enraged.
“Get out of my office, both of you. Now!” Draven Cross shouted.
Evan and Gabriella quickly moved out of Draven’s office, leaving him to his angry thoughts.
Draven swore aloud and slammed his fist on his desk. “What is going on today? I don’t need a detractor ahead of the historic peace accord with Israel in a few days. Give me something to work with here,” he said into the void of his
office.
“Those men are enemies who will be dealt with in due time. I am working all things to my glory. You need only trust me and follow my instructions. We will deal with the American president and these two interlopers when my timing is right,” the Prince of This World replied into Draven’s mind.
Cross calmed himself and regained his composure, comforting himself with the words of his spiritual master. “I will obey, my lord. I will trust you,” he promised.
“Sir, President Rodgers is here,” said Gemma’s voice over Draven’s intercom. “Should I send him in now?”
“Yes, send him in. And set up a meeting with John Barnes, Gabriella, and Evan for immediately following,” Cross ordered.
* * *
The C-39XER was just as comfortable and fast as Christopher remembered from his recent trip to Afghanistan. He and Jackson covered the nearly 6,000 miles from Anchorage to Tel Aviv in less than nine hours. As the nimble jet taxied into a private hangar at Ben Gurion International Airport, Christopher noticed the familiar face of the retired general who was now the Minister of Defense, Benjamin Havid. The major hoped this trip would be uneventful and pleasant, but conducting a military operation in the Middle East was always fraught with uncertainty.
“Shalom, my dear Christopher,” Havid greeted, kissing both of the major’s cheeks.
“Shalom, Minister Havid. I would like to introduce you to my team sergeant, Sergeant Major Jackson Williams,” Christopher replied.
“Shalom, Sergeant Major. But, Christopher, where is Rev? I had hoped to see him.”
“Sir, we lost Rev almost two months ago now during a mission.”
“I am sorry, my friend. But as you know, not many in our line of work reach the point of a peaceful retirement. Come, let us depart. You are staying at my home, and we shall feast and talk tonight, yes?” Minister Havid was smiling from ear to ear as the brisk winter wind whipped through his salt-and-pepper hair.
Rapture Advent of the Last Days Page 24
