The Marco family made its original fortune on land speculation in Siberia. The land turned out to have large volumes of oil and gas, which were important fuel sources back then. The Leonard family made its original fortune in Finland in early robotics technology. Both families later immigrated to the United States so Robert and Tyco were born here in the late 1990’s. That means both were in their mid-thirties when they started contributing to the religious equalization movement and were in their sixties when they helped change the First Amendment thirty years later. They’re both interesting historical figures, but they’re both long dead. It all looks like a waste of time.
No, keep at it. Something here isn’t right.
The computer indicates it’s finished with the map of Christ’s travels so I switch back to it. It’s extremely detailed, giving known locations and predicted routes of travel based on the topography and likely ancient roads. I tell the computer to mark the day and site of the crucifixion in red and call it “C” and then label all known locations and dates in terms of “C minus”. The day before the crucifixion shows up as C-1, the day before that as C-2, etcetera. There are many known locations where we should be able to find and film Jesus.
Then I notice locations still marked in green. My jaw drops when one stands out as “C+3”. The database recognizes a location for Christ three days after he died on the cross. I save the map to my computer. After decades of denying the deity of Christ, why would government computers still show a location for Jesus after he died?
I jump as there’s a loud knock on my door.
When I open the door I find three hotel employees and a corps agent. The employees have hover carts covered with various gifts from fans and well-wishers. There are edible treats of all kinds, some cameras with requests that I take pictures for them and a number of flower arrangements. On the third cart I see something that nearly makes my heart stop, a vase with a single stem white rose.
Has Four penetrated security? Or is sending a rose all they can manage?
There’s no hidden surveillance here, it’s all out in the open. There are cameras in every corner of the room, each of which can no doubt zoom in on the slightest detail so although I want to rip its petals off and find a message, the white rose will have to wait. I casually look over the gifts and eat one of the pieces of chocolate then go back to the computer and bring up a massive three-hundred year old text about conjugating verbs in Aramaic.
Three hours later I’m continuing my research when again I’m jumped by a loud knock on my door. I expect another load of gifts but when I open it, I’m stunned to find a drunk Jocie standing in a bathrobe.
“Hello Professor.”
“Hello, Jocie. Where’s Thomas? Shouldn’t you two be having a night together about now?”
“If by that you mean having some sex, I tired him out and he’s sleeping. We’re just one floor up, I’m surprised you didn’t hear us.”
She tries to brush past me and into the room but I block her entry.
“What do you want Jocie?”
“Thomas is tired out, but I’m not. I think you deserve a second chance.”
She drops her robe and stands in front of me stark naked. I hear the electronic hum of security cameras all changing positions to focus on her.
“Put your robe back on.” I pick it up and toss it to her. “I refused the first chance and I certainly don’t want the second.”
“How?” she says with a bewildered look on her face.
“How what?”
“How do you resist? I’m Jocie. I don’t have sex. I am sex. You’ll love it. I promise.”
She reaches out and caresses my face but I spring backwards like I’ve been stung by a wasp.
“Don’t touch me. I can still see right through you.” I stare into her eyes. “The most beautiful tree in the forest is a rotten hollow log inside. When a storm comes you’ll blow down and be forgotten.”
She closes her eyes, obviously furious.
“This isn’t how things are supposed to be!”
She turns to leave.
“For once I agree,” I reply with gentleness in my voice that surprises me as much as it does her.
She turns back to face me.
“You don’t act how men are supposed to act.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I act exactly how men are supposed to act. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only man left.”
Her face flushes with renewed anger. She opens her robe again.
“Take a good look professor. For the rest of your life you’ll always be wondering what you missed.”
For the first time she meets my eyes and doesn’t break off the stare.
My eyes stay fixed on her eyes. This is a contest, a battle between the allure of her body and the strength of my will and although there’s a small part of me that wants to carry her off to my bed I refuse to let my eyes waver for even a moment.
The flesh is weak but the will is strong.
The corner of my mouth starts to curl into a smile as the smile simultaneously drains from her face. She sees I won’t be broken.
“Thank you Jocie,”
“For what?” she asks, refusing to break eye contact but bewildered by my change in demeanor.
“For this. For sharing your eyes with me again. I was wrong in Minneapolis, you do have some beauty on the inside. I just hope you can see it in yourself someday.”
She breaks off the staring contest, closes her robe and leaves in silence.
***
The next morning Janet has me up early. The travelers are appearing together in New York this morning. I put on the clothes and jacket that Janet wants me to wear and as I reach the door I look back at the cart filled with gifts. I look over the choices and try to appear like I’ve randomly chosen the single white rose to grace my lapel for the day.
Once we’re all in the private tube car I head for the bathroom and peel back the outer petals. There are two messages spread over the petals: “Ur Com hacked” and “Kisses real.”
My com is hacked? By who? The corps? The Christians? Four?
I replace the red rose on my lapel with the white one. I hope Martha will somehow see me wearing it and read it as a sign that even though I’m being torn apart, I’m thinking about her. When I return to the main room the only one there is Janet. I assume Thomas and Jocie are in a room together.
“We dug deeper on the three girls from your class,” Janet says. “There were girls born under those names but they all died as children. Your students seem to have stolen the identities of dead girls, which shouldn’t be possible.”
“I’m just glad their mission wasn’t to kill me, or I’d be dead. Is it possible they were there to protect me from the Christians?”
“Henry asked the same question but we may never know the answer.”
“Thanks for access to the corps computers, I read some interesting things yesterday.”
“I know. I saw you started your hunt for Martha McLeod. I tried to plow through the rest of it but the verb conjugation stuff put me to sleep. You hit a range of topics from the ancient to the modern. Why study the 2000’s when you’re going back to year zero?”
I start to smile.
“What?” Janet asks.
“You said ‘year zero’. Sometimes I just find it funny that our society has gone to such great lengths to wipe out religion and yet we still define the years in relation to the life of Christ. We call this year 2202 A.D. The “A.D.” translates from Latin as roughly “the year of our lord”. It’s just funny you would send us to “year zero” in order to prove the designation zero is meaningless.”
“I suppose it has a certain irony.”
“Oh, and you can call it ‘year zero’ if you like, but the most likely date of the crucifixion is in A.D. 33.”
“Whatever you say Professor. Year zero is what the project scientists call it, so that’s what I’m sticking with.”
Thomas and Jocie rejoin us looki
ng somewhat disheveled. Apparently she’s been consoling herself with his company after our encounter last night. Thomas sits next to me.
“You should’ve done her at least once,” Thomas says to me. “She’s amazing.”
When he speaks he leans towards me so I can see the enhancement on his neck.
“Be careful, if she gets lipstick in that port on your neck it may fry your enhancing.”
Thomas pulls up his shirt to cover the port.
“There’s no point in covering it now that I’ve seen it. What is it anyway?”
“It does a lot of things,” Thomas replies. “My heart is probably ten times stronger than yours, I have increased sight and hearing--”
“And an amazing sense of touch,” Jocie says then smirks at me.
“And improved stamina,” Thomas whispers to me, not knowing I’m sure that Jocie tried to visit me after tiring him out last night.
“We’ll be in New York in just a few minutes,” Janet says. “You’re all used to the drill by now, any questions?”
“Can I ask Jocie questions about her faith?” I ask.
Janet doesn’t bother to respond.
***
The show hosts are Buffy and Binky, highly enhanced identical twin women who are most likely in their forties but trying to look like they’re still teens. Today is going to be a fluff show if I’ve ever seen one. Jocie is intentionally seated between me and Thomas to play up the “love triangle” that the press is eating up. Jocie has chosen to drape herself on Thomas and turn her back to me.
“Jocie, you and Dr. Thomas seem to be quite friendly,” Buffy says to lead off the interview. “How is it that a devout Christian can be so interested in the world’s leading religious abolitionist?”
“We’re trying to convert each other,” Jocie replies, “And that takes a lot of close contact.”
“Are either of you coming around?” Buffy asks. “I mean, to the other’s way of thinking?”
“Not yet,” Thomas says. “But I’m looking forward to more close contact.”
“Professor Paulson,” Binky says. “How are you doing with all this?”
“I’m looking forward to the mission. Going back in time is every historian’s dream.”
“I meant how are you doing with Thomas and Jocie being together? Any regrets?”
“Regrets? None in the slightest. I guess my cult hunter instincts were subconsciously telling me to avoid Jocie, then lo and behold she turns out to be a Christian. In fact, I tip my hat to Jocie in doing such a remarkable job of hiding her faith. Jocie, I think it would be fascinating to hear the story of how you became a Christian.”
“Yes Jocie, that would be interesting to hear,” Buffy says.
Let’s see how Jocie’s acting skills handle that little challenge.
“Well, it started when I was filming a new movie. I’d rather not say which one because I don’t want to implicate any of the other actors who were there. One of the actors invited some of us over for a party and it turned out to be one of their cult meetings.”
“So the Christian faith spoke to your heart?” I ask.
Jocie gives me a look of pure hatred but manages to stay in character.
“Not at first. There was some stuff that scared me.”
“Like sacrificing live animals?” Binky asks.
“Well, not the first time. Look, this is getting a little uncomfortable for me. Discussing private matters of being a Christian isn’t easy after spending so many years in secrecy.”
“Of course, of course,” Buffy says with a look of grave understanding.
“I’ve been working with Jocie to show her that such belief systems carry an inherent danger,” Thomas says.
Trying to be the knight riding to her rescue, Thomas? Here’s a lance for you to dodge.
“I was just thinking about that this morning, Thomas,” I say. “Have you ever thought about the fact that your lack of a belief system could be considered a belief system in and of itself?”
“I don’t believe in any God.”
“But isn’t that still a belief system?” I ask.
“Certainly not. There’s no God, just man. I believe that man controls his own life.”
“Then that’s a belief system. You’re the head priest in the church of man.”
If Janet had the ability to send an electric shock through a com I’d be fried by now but I don’t care, they brought this on themselves and I’m finally having fun.
“You’re twisting my words,” Thomas says. “You’re just jealous because I have Jocie and you don’t.”
“Yes, and I’m the best,” Jocie adds.
“This should be one very interesting expedition,” Binky says. “And we’ll be right back.”
When the cameras go off Janet hits the stage and heads straight for me.
“Play nice,” she says to me. “I guarantee this isn’t going to spin well for you.”
The twins must have been told to move away from the love triangle issue because when we come back from the break they unexpectedly shift their focus to me.
“Professor Paulson, when you get back in time what do you expect the greatest challenges to be?”
“I’m glad you asked Buffy. As I’m sure you realize, it’s imperative we don’t do anything to change history while we’re there so the biggest challenge will be fitting in and remaining anonymous among the people we meet. I expect we’ll be taller than everyone else due to better nutrition and in comparison we’ll have perfect teeth and perfect skin since we haven’t suffered the same diseases that were common in that time.”
“Then how will you manage to fit in?”
“I should think the plan will be to pretend to be foreign travelers, which I guess we are. “Since I speak the language I’ll be the guide. Frankly it seems like I’ll lead the expedition and Jocie will need to rely on her inherent acting skills to play the part. Maybe we’ll pretend Thomas is our slave.”
“Or I could be a foreign king and you could be my local servant and guide,” Thomas replies.
“As Binky said, this should be an interesting expedition,” I say.
Chapter Eighteen
“I told you it wouldn’t spin well,” Janet says as she and I travel back to the tube station in a separate hover bus from Jocie and Thomas. “The media is ignoring that you rejected Jocie and is eating up the love triangle thing. I’m splitting you off from them so you can’t cause more trouble. You now go straight to Michigan for training. They’ve been given strict instructions to play up your integrity for the remainder of the tour. Jocie has already declared victory so she shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Thanks. I’d rather be alone than touring with those two.”
“You’re still thinking of Martha McLeod, aren’t you?”
Thinking of her, picturing her, hearing her voice.
“Yes.”
“That’s why you intend to hunt her yourself isn’t it? You actually think you’re in love with her and you want to know if any of it was real. Take it from someone who’s been working under deep cover for years, you can’t believe anything she said.”
“Maybe not, but I still need to hear it from her lips.”
“Nobody can hide in the shadows forever. We’ll find her someday and you can ask her. Just don’t get your hopes up about her answer.”
***
In the shadows.
I’m thinking over Janet’s advice and that Martha said “we won’t stay in the shadows” before she ran from my house. Before the corps made me The Cult Hunter I was a creature of the shadows too. It was an entire war of shadows fighting shadows.
Time to shine a light.
“Computer restore all the research I conducted in my room in D.C. and then bring up copies of all the citations listed.”
That’ll be hundreds of references, enough to keep anyone watching my activities busy for months.
“Now, create a list of all known living relatives of Robert Marco and Ty
co Leonard including non-blood descendants as far as fifth cousins.”
There are hundreds of them, living all over the world.
“List them alphabetically.”
I read through the list, there are very few that still carry the name Marco or Leonard. The list is tedious so I play a hunch.
“Now list all who currently work for the United States government.”
Many names come up, most of which sit in positions of power in places like the Department of Energy. There’s one name I know personally, Henry Portman, Director of the F.B.I.
Does this family tree bear bad fruit?
“Computer, compile a list of the companies controlled by Robert Marco and Tyco Leonard during their lifetimes.”
The list is substantial. Tyco Leonard even owned a publishing company that was well-known for producing Bibles, the Torah and the Koran.
“So how do two extremely rich guys go about getting rid of all religion worldwide?” I ask myself. “You buy them off,” I say, imitating Oscar from my class. That gives me another idea.
“Computer, list contributions made to the Sunspot Initiative by the relatives of Marco and Leonard and the companies they controlled.”
The number is in the billions of dollars.
“Now list contributions made to the Travelers Initiative from those same sources.”
The number is in the billions again.
“These people have hated religion for generations,” I say to myself. “They were there for Equalization, for changing the First Amendment, for Sunspot and now for Travelers. The only thing they didn’t do was start the Final Holy War”.
I get a sinking feeling in my chest as I think it and remember how Janet said “This time”.
“Computer, of the companies listed as under the control of Marco and Leonard, did any of them make components for nuclear or biological weapons?”
Four companies come up. Marco controlled a company that made nuclear triggers and another that made advanced guidance systems. Leonard controlled a company that made advanced components to evade launch detection and missile defense systems and a large genetics research company that had a division working on biological warheads.
If you put those together all you need is someone angry enough to push the button.
I save all of these materials directly to the hard drive of my computer.