“Yes, Lord. You know I love you.”
I find myself saying the words along with Simon Peter.
“Then feed my lambs.”
“Simon son of John, do you love me?” Jesus repeats the question.
“Yes, Lord. You know I love you.”
Simon Peter and I reply a second time.
“Then take care of my sheep.”
“Simon son of John, do you love me?” Jesus asks a third time.
Simon Peter is distressed that the question has been asked again.
“Lord, you know everything. You know I love you.”
Simon Peter’s head is bowed down.
Jesus looks up from Simon Peter and looks me straight in the eyes.
“Then feed my sheep.”
Jesus places his hand on Simon Peter’s shoulder then bids him to stand and they walk further along the shore.
I sit there for a long time taking in the enormity of the message I just received.
I never see Jesus leave, but it doesn’t matter. I pack my few things onto the horse and say goodbye to the disciples.
“Where are you going?” asks one who I now know is named Nathanael.
“I’m leaving. There are many hungry sheep waiting for me to come home.”
***
I make the horse trot as much as walk back to Jericho but her leg holds up well. When I get there I go to the man who sold her to me and ask if he knows Esther, which he does. Somehow I know that Esther and her boys won’t be at the camp near my cave so I ask him if he’ll ride the horse to Esther and give it to her as a gift from Cephas. He agrees to do it for some silver.
I walk the rest of the way in high spirits and make it to my cave looking forward to the trip back to my own time. When I get inside though there’s a note from Henry that breaks my good mood.
Cephas, we’re checking for you and messages every hour. You must come back as soon as you get this. People are disappearing worldwide and we don’t know why. Our assumption is that the Four’s are involved. Whatever they’re planning, it’s begun.
I set to work to bury the cave entrance. I don’t bother using the case to transport dirt back to the mouth, I just pull the rock over the entrance and begin packing dirt until the final two meters of the tunnel is blocked off. In two thousand years a nuclear bomb will vaporize that two meters and then some, but until then the cave must stay sealed off to the outside world.
I throw a note into the arena that reads “pull me back ten minutes after you get this note” and then set to work collecting everything from my century. There isn’t much left, a few pieces of gold and silver, a handful of dead light sticks and some scraps of paper. The note leaves with the usual bright flash so I gather everything up into the arena and wait for transport.
In my time frame people know what time it is to the second because they seem to be constantly looking for what to do to entertain themselves next. Few people seem to stop and think about who they are and where their lives are going. I’ve now become accustomed to not having a way other than the sun to mark the passage of time. Waiting in the arena for ten minutes will be no big deal to me.
This time there’s plenty of room in the arena, which makes me think of Thomas and Jocie. What would they be thinking right now? I like to think Thomas would have become a fervent believer, having received the proof he so adamantly required. I like to think Jocie would be making plans to become famous as the world’s first openly Christian movie star and she would live her new faith rather than just use it for fame.
Beside me I still have the staff Eli gave me and the Roman both stole and returned to me. I shouldn’t use the world’s energy to transport it, but I want it as a keepsake. I run my hands over its smooth surface and notice it has markings lightly carved into it just below the leather grip so I snap my last light stick to see what it is.
In the dim light I read XXIX LVIII XXXI XXXI VIII XVI.
Was Eli counting the sheep? Or was the Roman who stole the staff counting something?
I don’t see the flash but I’m immediately aware I’m in transport. Like last time, transport feels like it takes years to accomplish rather than a moment. Last time I was able to hear Thomas and Jocie’s thoughts during transport even though I had no physical awareness of them. Without them, this transport is the very definition of loneliness.
You’re stuck between two ticks of a clock. You’re in neither the present second nor in the next one. The scientists accounted for transporting the molecules that make up your physical body. But they had no way of calculating what it takes to transport your soul.
Through the void my brain wanders to a simple but familiar tune, the “Cult Hunter” song we sang as a kid. I try to impose the words I learned at school:
Where are you hiding, you children of the night?
Will you come out and see the sun and trade the truth for lies?
We’ll find you, we’ll find you, you cannot win this fight,
Stop hiding in the darkness now and we’ll teach you what’s right.
Those words somehow don’t feel right anymore. I focus instead on my mother. She would hum the tune when I was five but when I was younger she would sing it to me. The memory and her voice come rushing back:
Why are you hiding, you children of the light?
Will you come out and praise the Son now he has heard your cries?
He’ll find you, He’ll find you, once your heart is right,
Come hear His truth and read His word and seek his perfect light.
Chapter Thirty
Through blurred eyes I become aware of bright camera lights and cheering. People are touching me, lifting me out of the arena. Someone instructs me to wave, which I do. I hear Janet’s voice saying “Professor Paulson must undergo a routine medical examination, he’ll address the world in three hours.”
I manage to get my feet under me but continue to stumble as I’m pushed through a human alley of flashing cameras.
What persona do I portray? No. I’m done with all that.
Moments later I’m in some sort of craft with Janet next to me.
“Bath time for you stinky boy. If you don’t snap out of it, I’ll handle the job personally.”
“I think I can take care of it myself.”
My senses may be slow in returning but I haven’t lost them completely.
“I’ll have clothes laid out for you.”
“No. Have the toga and tunic cleaned. I’d like to wear them.”
“Great idea. You might even start a new fashion trend.”
You’d think my first hot shower in weeks would feel better than it does. Either I’ve gotten used to being dirty or washing off the dirt is helping to solidify in my brain that the journey is over.
I put on a thick bath robe and walk out into the small changing room that’s been assigned to me. There’s no sign of my toga and tunic but the wooden staff has been placed in the room.
“Hold on everyone,” a voice instructs over the intercom just as Janet bursts into the room with my cleaned ancient clothes.
“That’s good advice.” Janet grabs the door handle and I grab a closet door just in time as I go weightless.
“What’s going on?”
“The only way we can have you in D.C. in three hours is to go through space. Have fun, we’ll be weightless for about fifteen minutes.”
I take the toga and change in the shower stall with drops of water floating all around me. All things considered, it’s easy to get dressed in zero gravity but there’s no way to keep the toga from floating up and exposing me.
“I think I’m going to like this new fashion,” Janet says with a smirk as I float back into the room.
“Did you happen to bring some modern underwear?”
“Of course.”
She hands them to me.
“You couldn’t give them to me earlier?”
“Now what fun would that have been?”
Life in my own time fram
e disgusts me.
I notice the room has a seat that’s folded up against the wall which includes a lap belt. I sit and belt myself and my toga down. Janet floats in the doorway but says nothing.
“I thought you’d have dozens of questions for me.”
“I do. But Henry says he talks to you first. No exceptions.”
My brain is starting to click at full speed again.
“I see my staff but where’s my backpack?”
“The decontamination team is going through it. Everyone is most interested in the bloody bandage you labeled as collecting near the tomb.”
Oh no. I forgot to get rid of it. They think it’s evidence proving the disciples stole the body.
Once we’re back in earth’s gravity I say “I need to stretch my legs. Can I walk around the plane, rocket, whatever this thing is?”
Whatever it is, it’s no bigger on the inside than the bureau’s private tube car. When I reach the back I see the usual room full of electronic gadgetry. The guy manning the equipment looks up at me and smiles but says nothing. There’s a small screen that lists everyone who’s aboard, but I’m not on the list.
I used to come up in blue on the security screens. What’s changed?
I reach up and touch the spot on my neck where the enhancements exploded.
***
The closest place where the space plane can land is in North Carolina so there’s a private tube car waiting to speed us to D.C. Janet and I step into the private elevator and it starts to take us down even though only Janet is listed on the screen.
“Oh, here’s your com,” she says when she notices the screen. I put it into my ear and my name comes up in red as an authorized occupant. It also tells me I have thousands of messages.
“Is that a special bureau com you’re wearing?”
Without warning I reach up and pluck it from her ear. As I do so, her name switches from red to blue on the screen when it deactivates.
“Yes.”
She snatches it back and when she puts it into her ear her name switches back to red.
“I have thousands of messages. I don’t want to think about it.”
I remove my com and watch my name disappear from the screen. Janet gives me a penetrating look, she knows I’m playing around with their tracking system.
Everyone knows that coms are tracking devices but enhancements are trackers too. The entire population is filled with them. Everyone except me.
I smile when I realize my thought isn’t accurate.
Everyone except me and Martha…and possibly all of Four.
“Give me your com,” Janet says. “I’ll have someone weed the messages and restrict incoming calls. You can give me a list later of people you still want to hear from.”
Henry is in the tube car waiting for me.
“Cephas! That’s quite the fashion statement.”
He appears to be very drunk.
“It was way, way back in my closet.”
He laughs like only drunk people do.
Take advantage of his drunkenness. Tell him what he wants to hear.
“This is going to be like no debriefing you’ve ever received before. I just wish the price to see it all hadn’t been so high.”
He frowns for a moment like he has no clue to what I’m referring.
“Oh. You’re talking about losing Jocie and Thomas. Forget about it. Tonight you’ll have any woman you want and if you must have one that looks like Jocie I’ll have one built for you.”
He’s thrown her away. To Henry she wasn’t a soul. She was just another asset to be used up.
“Are you ready for my report?”
He orders everyone, including Janet to clear the car and motions for me to sit. Before he can begin I cut him off.
“Galilee was a good choice. I caught up with the disciples. I saw Christ’s body.”
That isn’t technically a lie.
“I knew it. It’ll finally be over.”
“What about the Four movement?” I ask. “What did you mean when you said people are disappearing? Are you talking kidnappings? Murders?”
“Maybe both, maybe neither. All we know is a lot people are no longer making traceable electronic footprints like they were. But today isn’t the day to worry about the Four’s. Today is a day to celebrate. A day that took generations of work to accomplish.”
He takes another long drink.
“Agreed, today is the day for the truth to be heard,” I say.
“Truth? What is truth?”
Henry laughs but I don’t laugh with him.
According to the book of John, Pilate said those exact words to Jesus.
“Truth is whatever I choose it to be and I can change the truth in seconds just by ordering all of the records to be changed,” Henry says.
“Of course.” I reply. “That’s why paper Bibles were such a thorn in the early abolitionist’s side. Once they’re printed they can’t be changed.”
“That was my great-grandfather’s mission. He was determined to keep making subtle changes in the Bible. Add some things, take other things away until you’ve made it into what you want, even if it takes generations.”
“Will you do me a favor Henry? When you rewrite the story of the Travelers Initiative will you make me taller and better looking?”
Henry laughs and drinks some more.
“You’re out of luck. The media has been wall to wall with your face for a week and the entire world will be watching your speech. Changing the Bible will be child’s play compared to changing what you say today.”
I’m counting on it.
“That reminds me,” Henry says. “I have your speech ready. You’ll want to customize it and throw in some jokes and anecdotes but everything you need to say is in there.”
“Thanks, I’ll look it over. Do you mind if I lie down for a bit? I’m pretty tired.”
Henry waves me to a room and pours himself another drink as the tube car speeds us closer to D.C.
***
The speech Henry wrote for me is already up on the screen in the room. I read the first couple of paragraphs but as I do so my eyelids begin to droop and my head starts to wobble from exhaustion. I lie on the bed and try to pray but soon find myself in a dream.
I’m back in an ancient blacksmith’s shop but this time I’m alone. The fire is lit in the forge and the piece of metal I selected is in the fire where I put it. I pick it up with tongs and strike it a few times with a hammer and again judge it to be the perfect piece of metal. Then holding it with the tongs I decide to touch the glowing end to my wrist in the spot where I saw the spikes driven into Jesus. The intense pain wakes me and I bolt upright.
I’m staring into the surprised face of Janet. I was asleep and she had just touched me on the wrist to wake me. The spot still feels like it burns.
“It’s show time.”
“How long did I sleep?”
“I could only give you twenty minutes.”
“I fell asleep reading Henry’s speech.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve come to trust your instincts when it comes to handling the public. You’ll be great.”
“As I remember it, my instincts usually take me in the opposite direction of where you intended me to go.”
“And it always worked out great. Here’s your com. I cleared out all of the messages and had them block everyone except me, Henry and your publisher. By the way, while you were gone you owned the three top spots on the best seller’s list.”
I look at my com. It’s active even though it isn’t in my ear. It appears to be rigged so it’ll never turn off. We get into the same old elevator that’ll take us up to a private hover bus bay. When the door opens we step out into a corridor that’s been made by two lines of fully armored kill teams who are holding back throngs of people that are waiting to see me. They roar with delight at the sight of me.
“These are just the people with official passes to be here. The general public is the real
zoo.”
Janet has to yell for me to hear her over the crowd.
As we pass through the human corridor the occasional arm sticks through and tries to touch me. I don’t know what to do so I reach out and brush every hand I can reach. Each time I do my touch is met by squeals. One woman even faints. When we reach the huge hover bus the door snaps shut and dulls the crowd noise somewhat.
“You’re bigger than Jocie!” Janet says.
Although it wasn’t her intention, Janet’s observation is like a punch to the stomach. If I’m bigger than Jocie it’s for all the wrong reasons.
An even larger human corridor has been opened so the bus can pass through the crowd that’s outside the building. We travel just a few blocks and the bus dives into a secured underground bay. Most of D.C. has tunnels underneath it connecting one government building to another.
Janet begins briefing me.
“Your speech is on the steps of the Department of Energy building. They insisted they get you since they provided the world’s power to get you there and back. The President will be introducing you, though you should probably introduce him since you are more recognized worldwide than he is at this point.”
As I suspected, they take me into the Department of Energy through an underground entrance from an adjacent building. I used to make a game of picking the security people out of the crowd but here it would be faster to pick out those who are not part of the security detail. Everyone around me is armed.
When we get to the front doors the President is already speaking. It sounds like he’s spewing a bunch of drivel that Henry wrote for him about the importance of mankind leaving behind its ancient beliefs and leaping into the future. I can see his back through the glass doors but the audience seems to be craning its necks to look for me.
To his right there’s a special box where all the dignitaries are seated. Although I can only see the backs of their heads I recognize Henry Portman and several government department heads. As I scan the end of the front row of the box I do a double take as I recognize a woman’s head that can only be my Aunt Jennifer.
Behind the crowd on an adjacent building is a huge banner that says “The World Thanks You.”
Janet nudges me forward.
“The President is stoned again. He’ll ramble all day, just go.”
I take a step towards the door and realize the glass is a pretty good mirror. I think about my old morning routine and look over my mouth, nose and ears.