He could go against their wishes if he wanted to, but most likely, that would not be a healthy choice. To do so would invite certain death or something similar. Somehow, a slip up would occur in his protective detail, then that would be it.
How he let himself get into this position, he would never know. He guessed that the cliché ‘power is absolute’ and corruption was a reality. This he knew made him as corrupt as the next man. He had sold out a long time ago for the power and the prestige. However, in his heart he wished he had managed his life differently.
For the first time ever, he was not only concerned for the security of his wife, son, and himself, but was also afraid for the country. The reality of it all was that they lived day-to-day based on credit from other countries. All of which was controlled by the Waldger Group. If they said, no more, then the U.S. could not even be able to buy enough oil to fuel the Air Force, let alone the Army. Additionally, there were the people themselves to consider, who would be unable to sustain the standard of living the US had enjoyed over the years especially since World War II.
Tomorrow was going to be a difficult day, filled with difficult decisions. He had no answers. He and his country were at the mercy of the Waldger Group and the two Witnesses from God.
He had known of Waldger’s plan long before it happened this week, but never understood it or really believed it. Even when he became President and was briefed on how the system worked by the people who really controlled the world, he had figured not on his watch. Well that did not work out.
They had explained to him that they were looking for someone similar to Enoch and or Elijah to show up someday who would rage a war against the governments of the earth. He did not believe it then and really thought it was just stories to control others. Now the past few days had been a wakeup call.
Here were men who could control the climate, the winds, the rains, and even the movements of the ground.
When he became President, he had been given information that was not available to the public. This information, as he found out, was only known to a select few. This concerned UFO’s and other strange comings and goings. They had unsuccessfully attempted, on several occasions, to intercept these craft, but to no avail. They were too fast and could disappear whenever they wanted. Their best aircraft would be right beside one of these and then, poof, it would disappear.
Like his predecessors, he had also been given plans of action in the event of an invasion. On paper, there was a standing agreement that the U.S. would join the rest of the world to fight against threats from above. He laughed to himself, as he mouthed ‘alien invasions’ under his breath.
These concerns, however far in left field they were, came with the job. From conversations he had had with other leaders, these plans were considered only to be the paranoia of the leaders involved in the Waldger Group, especially Waldger himself. No one really thought any of this would ever occur. But then, they did have tracking evidence of many unknown aircraft for the past seventy-five years and there was no explanation for that either.
Now these Witnesses were here claiming to be the forerunners of the Jewish Messiah, and the Christians’, Jesus Christ, as described in the Bible. Therefore, that meant that maybe Elijah, and possibly Enoch, were from another world. It was all too hard to comprehend and he had no answers. It just did not seem possible.
He looked up and directed his gaze towards Jamal, who had been quiet since the broadcast had ended.
“Jamal, what is your take on this?” Stevenson asked.
“Well Mr. President, I have to tell you, I really don’t know. It seems like a movie where some screenwriter has gone off the deep end. I find all of this difficult to digest or believe. I suppose we will find out more at the meeting tomorrow.”
“I guess you are right, Jamal. Maybe we will find out more tomorrow.”
There was a knock at the door and Jamal got up to see who was there. When he opened the door, a secret service agent handed him a communiqué. Jamal said, “Thanks,” and bought it over to the President.
Stevenson unfolded the pages and started reading. When he had finished, he said to Jamal, “They are protesting all over the Middle East, in spite of the rains. I guess Iran’s leaders have publicly announced that if one stone is touched at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, they will use weapons of mass destruction and destroy Israel.” Stevenson continued reading the communiqué aloud. “Israel has placed its military on high alert in anticipation of military action. It also appears that the Russians are backing Iran. They have stated that neither Israel nor anyone else should remove or damage the Dome of the Rock. Do you have any suggestions or thoughts, Jamal?”
“No, Mr. President, there is nothing we can do right now. Let us wait until tomorrow. It is very late and we are both tired. As we know, many of these countries may just be gesturing. Let us wait and see how the rest of the world reacts and hold off any decisions until then.”
“I am tired too, Jamal. Nevertheless, we need to get hold of the Secretary of State and have him keep the Israelis calm. Have him try to contain any hasty action by Israel until we know more about what is really occurring in the world and with these Witnesses. Also Jamal, have you heard from any of our Cabinet members and their plans for their families since we are temporarily closing Washington?”
“Most have relocated their families to their home states unless they are to be affected by the hurricanes. The others have arranged accommodations with other family in non-affected areas. Most are en-route to Cheyenne.”
“Ok, I just want to make sure that everyone is safe, and of course their families. As you know, after the meeting here with Waldger we will be meeting up with them there, along with a contingent from Congress and the Justice Department. Do you think we are overreacting on this one, Jamal? I mean closing down D.C.?”
“No, Mr. President, we are not overreacting; for if Waldger felt it was necessary to bring everyone here to Kansas City for an emergency meeting and also see this witness perform, then it is serious, very serious. I do not think that either Enoch or this Elijah is anyway through with America or the world. In addition, as we know the hurricanes predicted are on their way. From the last updates on the hurricane that will be hitting Houston on Monday, this will be the largest hurricane ever to hit us, not counting what is right behind it. No, Mr. President, we are not making the wrong decisions; for I can tell you, we cannot even begin to protect the East Coast and the Gulf from the destruction that is going to occur. This is what they call biblical.”
“I still cannot fathom what has happened this week. It is supernatural, Jamal, quite supernatural.”
Chapter 20
7:00 AM Friday, New York - The Network Studios
The announcer began, “Welcome to the Network Morning Show, the number one network news program in the world, with your host, Brad Williams, and his co-hosts Catherine Kwan and Nancy Arms. Now, here is Brad Williams with the day’s headlines.”
Brad turned towards the camera, “As we all know, last night in Kansas City, these so called Witnesses from God put on quite a remarkable show. It was, for all intents and purposes, one of the best acts I have ever seen, even in New York and Las Vegas.”
“Let’s get serious here,” Brad looked at the camera with his trademark expression of ‘you have to be kidding me.’
“Walking sticks turning into snakes and one devouring the other; lightning that was like fireworks in the sky; and then Jack’s levitation act, who by the way, is now calling himself after the biblical name, Enoch. This ridiculous show was just too much to comprehend. So we gathered in some experts last night on how they were able to do this and make it look real enough to dupe the entire world.”
“Please note that our regular news format will begin soon after this special segment featuring these so called Witnesses. After this display of arrogance and trickery on the Bear News Network last night, we have changed our format for today so that you can see, firsthand how
each of you has been fooled by these Witnesses. Therefore, with the urgency of giving you the right information, we are introducing our guests earlier in the show. All other news will follow and there is a lot of it that you need to hear and see.”
“We have as our first guest today, Mr. Tony Aquila, who is a world renowned magician and who is currently headlining in Las Vegas. He has the inside track as to how these Witnesses performed their so-called miracles; how they did it and tricked the entire world.” Brad turned towards the monitor behind him then said, “Tony.”
“Yes, good morning Brad. Like everyone else, I was quite amazed at what Elijah and Enoch were able to do on such a wide scale. But if you have ever seen one of my shows, you would see that we can do almost the same things with the use of what we call tricks of the trade, which as you well know, are nothing but illusions.”
“My staff and I have to apologize, Brad, but we didn’t have time to re-create the walking sticks to snakes trick they performed last night, but I assure you this trick I could do right here on this stage. However, I promise you we will. By tonight, we will have worked it into our evening show here in Las Vegas if anyone wants to see it again. Therefore, if you are in the Vegas area, please come to our show this evening. There are two evening shows; one at eight PM and another at eleven PM.”
“Really, Tony? That would really be great. I would like to see that.”
Smiling as the good showman he was, Tony said, “We can do that, Brad. We will tape the show then send it to you for tomorrow’s broadcast. Just so you know, over the next week, we are going to do our entire show on these Witnesses. It will feature the snake trick, the standing in midair trick, and maybe even the thunder and lightning trick; but we have to be careful with pyrotechnics because the show is done inside, here.”
“Speaking of the storm clouds appearing from nowhere, in your opinion, how did they do the clouds gathering then darkening and the trick with the thunder and lightning, Tony?”
“That, Brad, was really not such a great trick, for most likely, the lightning and thunder were just special fireworks that were probably shot from planes, not from the ground. That gave the illusion of coming from heaven. It would have been a combination of smoke, special fireworks and a variety of other things most professional pyrotechnic persons know how to do.”
“What about the walking in thin air Tony? That was pretty impressive.”
“That, Brad, was simple. They had a translucent platform placed out there that they could walk on. Our guess is the platform installation occurred when they set up the stage. Now, with good lighting techniques as we use, you would never see it. We have done that before and it is an old trick, not a new one. But here, let me show you and your viewers how it is done.”
Tony walked across his stage to where there were a metal set of steps that went about 15 feet into the air with the cameras following him, he then said, “We took the liberty of bringing in one of our props last night after you called. We have done a variation of this trick before. So now I will show you and the world how easily you were deceived last night.”
Tony walked up the steps, and then said, “We set this up earlier on and as you can see there is nothing past these steps.”
Tony then stepped into what seemed to be thin air and said, “See, I am walking and now standing in thin air, or so it appears. As you can see, Brad, it looks as if I have no support. Now we will change the lighting to allow you to see the translucent platform I am standing on.”
The lights were changed and the platform became visible.
Tony said, “So, as I said, like last night, it is just another magician’s trick of illusion, Brad.” He tapped on the platform, which gave the impression of walking unsupported in thin air.
“That’s amazing, Tony; and you have done this on such short notice. So I suppose that what you are telling our viewers is that you could, given time, reproduce every trick that the Witnesses did last night while deceiving the world.”
“Yes, we could. We just need to work it out. I make a living entertaining people using the magicians’ tricks of the trade. All magic is an illusion to fool you. Given time and the right script, we can make anything happen.”
“Amazing, Tony, and we do appreciate your hard work on such short notice to show our viewers how they were fooled last night by these so called Witnesses. Thanks.”
“Our pleasure, Brad, and to be honest, if this witness thing doesn’t work out for them, I would love to use them in my show. The pay is great!” He laughed aloud and then winked at the camera.
“If you have any additional questions, let us know, and look for the tape tomorrow.”
“We will, and once again, thank you, Tony.”
Brad then turned back towards the camera and said, “There you are, America. It is apparent that what you saw last night was just an illusion. They even had me going for a while until our investigators started checking on how the walking in the air trick may have been accomplished. Simply put, this was no divine act of God; just very slick operators who have set out an agenda, for whatever reason, to deceive us. I would suppose that their intent was to cause chaos in the world, which is exactly what they have done.”
“In other news related to these Witnesses, the two men have caused total havoc in the Middle East by their trickery. There are people protesting and rioting in the streets of Iran, Egypt, and other Muslim countries, in spite of the rain. Rioting like this has not occurred since the overthrow of the governments in several countries in 2012 and 2013. The difference now is that they are rioting against what they call ‘Zionist Imperialism’ and that Elijah was just one of their agents.”
“Israel itself, however, has not commented on any of the statements made by the magicians” he paused, and then said, “Sorry, I meant the Witnesses, as to the status of the Dome of the Rock.”
“With all of this in mind, we are sure there are still questions about who these men are. Are they for real or are they really fakes? We decided to look into the power of these Witnesses, who claim to be able to control the earth’s tectonic plates and weather patterns.”
Brad paused then, looking at the camera again with his trademark look. Finally, he said, “To make sure that you are properly informed, we have been looking first at Jack South or Enoch, as he is now called, and his predictions regarding the earthquake and the oncoming hurricanes.”
“In order to get the proper scientific explanation we contacted Yale University. Today we have with us Doctor David C. Barnes from the Department of Geology at Yale University. He has also been studying these predictions made by Enoch, and the meteorological patterns occurring now as well as previous occurrences of similar activity from ancient records.”
Brad again turned towards the monitor, “Doctor.”
“Good morning, Brad,” Doctor Barnes said. “First off, I want to thank you for having me on your show today to help dispel the fraud being passed around by these so called Witnesses.”
Doctor Barnes then walked from a desk towards a whiteboard, where he had drawn some graphs and figures in what appeared to be a classroom setting. He then said, “What we have found, Brad, is that it seems that somehow Jack, now Enoch, has stumbled across a pattern that has occurred several times before in the world.”
He pointed to the board using a pointer and said, “In this column you can see where earthquakes that are equal to or larger than the one in California have been recorded.”
He flipped the board over. Looking into the camera he said, “Recently we had a well-known researcher prove that there is a way to predict major earthquakes. As he pointed out in his book, earthquakes generally occur during a full or new moon and within three hours of dawn or dusk. As is the case with these quakes listed on the board worldwide supports theses scientific findings. You will also note that the current California quake also followed this principal. If anyone had paid heed to this scientist’s work, they would have been able to predict this quake.”
He turned from the board and stood in front of it, smiling and holding his pointer in both hands said, “Most likely this Enoch somehow calculated the right timing using this information and took a chance that he was right, and of course he was. The reality is we could have done the same but we quit predicting earthquakes for it caused too much panic.”
“That’s an interesting theory, doctor,” Brad replied, “so what you are telling us is that we do have the ability to predict earthquakes, at least to a certain degree of accuracy?”
“Yes, Brad, that is what we are saying. Of course we have a lot of experimental formulas to project probabilities and they are so far almost ninety percent accurate.”
“What about the rains and the on-coming hurricanes that Enoch has taken credit for, doctor?”
“Brad, this strange weather pattern may not have happened recently, but it has happened before; so the rains that have begun in Northern Africa and the hurricanes will naturally become fiercer. This is common knowledge. If you research it, you can figure it out. It seems Enoch had done just that and therefore came up with his prediction.”
“So really, his prediction was nothing more than an educated guess and he happened to be right.”
“That’s right, Brad, and the same is probably true for the other predictions. He surely had someone help him figure this out, for science rules the universe, not some aliens, or gods, as many call them.”
“Thanks for your input, doctor. We appreciate your very hard work to bring us up to date. Please stand by and we will let you explain more in detail to our audience about your findings.”
“That will be fine, Brad. We will work with the Network to dispel any and all of these profound predictions the Witnesses have made.”