The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle (66 page)

Malcolm was cut short as something nudged his shoe. He
looked down and saw a frog sitting on it. He kicked his foot out and the frog
leapt off.

‘What do you think about...?’

He stopped in midsentence again when he noticed another
frog sitting on the Rabbi’s shoulder.

‘What do I think about what?’

‘There’s a frog on your shoulder,’ Malcolm said and
glanced around the room. He noticed that there were
many
frogs in the
room. They were coming in through the door and the windows. Both men shrugged
and walked to the next room, carefully watching where they stepped so that they
wouldn’t squish any of the frogs in the process.

‘What is going on here?’ Rabbi Morris asked when they
entered the next room. Hundreds of frogs were leaping about as even more
entered through the windows.

‘I...I don’t know...’

The croaking had begun softly at first, but as the
frogs started croaking together, it grew so loud that both men had to cover
their ears.

‘Do something!’ Rabbi Morris yelled.

‘You’re the Rabbi.
You
do something!’

‘Like what?’

The two men ran from the house, but were stopped in
their tracks. The streets were filled with frogs as far as the eye could see.

‘Make them go away!’ Malcolm shouted. He held his head
as if it was about to explode.

Rabbi Morris fell to his knees. ‘I...I can’t...’

A realization suddenly dawned on Malcolm. ‘It’s
those...those two...aliens!’

‘
What?
’ Morris asked. He couldn’t hear anything
anymore, but Malcolm didn’t bother repeating himself. He sprinted toward his
car it took him a few minutes to get rid of the ones that clogged up the
exhaust. A minute later his car sputtered to life, and he stepped down hard on
the gas pedal. The car stood motionless for what felt like forever as it
skidded, not able to get a grip on the slimy toad-paved road, but eventually it
jerked forward.

‘Where are they?’ he asked through clenched teeth as he
carefully tried to manoeuvre the car through the slippery streets of Jerusalem.

.VI.

 
‘We shall have World
Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World
Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.’

-
James Paul Warburg before the United States Senate

Febuary
7, 1950

Traversing the road was extremely treacherous
because of the frogs, and Malcolm had to bring his car to a near standstill to
turn certain corners. His legs ached as he worked the gas and clutch, and the
vehicle slipped once, almost slamming into the side of a building.

‘Where are you?’ he asked as he searched for the two
men he thought were responsible for the sudden frog plague. He spotted them
standing in the shade of a building. ‘There you are!’ he called out and swerved
the car in their direction. In his sudden burst of anger he had forgotten about
the frogs, and the car skidded violently out of control. He yanked on the
steering wheel, but his efforts only made the car slip and spin in three full
circles before coming to a complete halt not too far from the two men.

Malcolm sat still for a minute, looking at the white
around his knuckles.
That was stupid!
He waited until his breathing
returned to normal and finally managed to open the door with his unsteady
hands.

‘You two!’ he yelled as he climbed out of the car;
squashing a frog as he stepped on the ground. The sickening sensation deterred
him only for a moment, and then he walked to the men, scraping his shoe on the
sand as he went. The two men looked at his antics expressionlessly, neither
smiling nor frowning.

‘Are you the cause of this?’ Malcolm shouted at them
from what he thought would be a safe distance. He waved his hands violently in
all directions so that there would be no misunderstanding of what he was
talking about.

The man that Malcolm had dubbed as ‘Elijah’ looked at
him sternly. ‘We warned the people of Israel to repent. We warned them that we
would strike this land with the plagues of Egypt if the hearts of the sons and
fathers were not reunited. They did not listen; they did not heed our warning.’

‘What business of yours is it whether men and their
sons are reunited or not?’ Malcolm asked.

‘It is not our business,’ Elijah said. ‘We are merely
messengers.’

‘Then whose business is it? Whose messengers are you?’

‘We are messengers of the Most High. It is His
business.’

‘The Most High; as in HaShem?’

The men ignored the question as if it hadn’t been
asked, but in his gut, Malcolm knew the answer. He ignored this knowledge and
asked again, ‘Most High, as in HaShem?’

The men still ignored the question, and Malcolm
clenched his fists tightly. He looked around him at the thousands of frogs that
plagued the streets. They were
everywhere
. Everywhere except around the
two men. He took a deep breath and asked as calmly as he could manage, ‘Could
you make this stop?’

‘The men of Israel should learn to fear the Lord,’
Elijah’s companion said.

‘I think they’ve received the message,’ Malcolm replied
with a sarcastic bite in his voice.

‘Some have,’ the companion said. ‘And some still will.
Tell the people to repent and return to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
or more serious plagues
will
overcome this land.’

‘I’ll tell them,’ Malcolm shouted impatiently. ‘Now,
please
,
make it stop!’

‘Very well,’ Elijah said and raised his hand. ‘
Cease!
’

The sudden silence was overwhelming. Malcolm looked
around and noticed dead frogs for as far as he could see. They just lay there
in heaps. The echo of the croaking started softly at first, but soon rang out
loudly in his ears. He knew that it would be a while before the sound would be
completely filtered from his mind.

‘Great!’ Malcolm said as he surveyed the hopeless
scene. ‘Who’s going to clean up this mess?’ When he received no reply from the
two men behind him, he asked again, ‘Who is going to—?’ He cut himself off and
stood still, moving only his eyes to look around. The two men were gone.

- - -*  *  *- -
-

It was Monday morning at last. Both
Trevor and Ren
é were excited to return to work; not because
they actually
wanted
to work, but because they wanted to do some damage
assessment. Trevor also wanted to surf the Internet for any additional
information about the alien attacks and this stranger called Victor Yoshe.

‘What are you thinking?’ René asked as she turned down
the volume of her car stereo.

‘Not much,’ Trevor lied. ‘Just thinking about the
attacks.’

René looked at the skid marks burned into the road, and
wondered how violent some of the accidents must have been. Trevor had told her
of his own experience on the highway, and she was grateful that she had already
been at work when it all started. Although most of the debris had been removed
from the roads, there were still smouldering wreckages along the road at
certain points.
Huge metallic skeletons
, she thought,
the perfect
testament to the injustice of the industrial movement.
They didn’t speak
for the remainder of the trip. Both of them were wrapped in their own thoughts
on the uncertainties that the future had in store.

They arrived at the office and were surprised at the
number of people that showed up. Their team leaders and product managers were
all there, all congratulating one another for surviving the ‘terrible ordeal.’

‘The Eckard brothers are missing,’ René said when she
joined Trevor at his cubicle. ‘They’re not sure yet, but it appears that both
might have been victims.’

Trevor looked at the two empty cubicles where the
Eckard brothers used to sit. They worked hard and were generally nice people,
but their extravagant marketing campaign for their religion had become a
serious thorn in his side. It started with the unsolicited ‘daily bread’ email
that they sent to everyone in the company. Then there were the daily ‘Jesus
Saves’ tracts on their desks in the morning, strategically placed in such a way
that no one could miss it. Eventually the two brothers had half the company’s staff
gathered in prayer meetings during lunch time. It almost became a circus.

‘I feel conflicted,’ Trevor said as he flipped through
a tract. ‘It’s almost as if I’m relieved and yet sad at the same time.’

‘You too?’ René asked. ‘I feel the same. Just didn’t
want to say anything. I’m sad for their loss of life, but also relieved that it
was them who got killed instead of us.’

‘That’s true,’ Trevor said and dropped the little
booklet into the waste bin.

René looked at his monitor and noticed that there were
a string of emails coming in. ‘I’ll let you attend to those while I get some
info from management about the proceedings here.’

‘Thanks,’ Trevor said. ‘I will join you for coffee in
about half an hour.’

Once she was gone, he filtered through his mail,
deleting hundreds of SPAM messages. He hated SPAM and despised those who sent
the junk emails. One mail did catch his attention. It read:

GMN Update Report: The Attacks,
the Devastation, and the Rebuilding

He didn’t delete this mail.
Instead, he dragged it to his ‘Attention’ folder for later printing and
reading. He was about to go unavailable when his phone rang.

‘Tech Support, you’re speaking to Trevor, how may I
help you?’

‘Hi there, who am I speaking to?’

Trevor sighed. ‘You’re speaking to Trevor.’

‘Oh,’ the client on the other end of the line said. ‘Hi
Travis. I was wondering if you could help me.’

It was going to be one of
those
calls. ‘I can
try,’ Trevor said. ‘What seems to be the problem?’

‘Uh, yes,’ the client began. ‘I can’t connect to the
Internet. Is there something wrong on your side?’

The entire world’s infrastructure just collapsed and
you want to know why you can’t connect?
‘There is nothing wrong on this
side that I’m aware of,’ Trevor said as he tried to keep his voice as composed
as possible. ‘What does it tell you when you try to connect?’

‘It doesn’t tell me anything,’ the man said.

‘It has to give you
some
sort of error message,
sir,’ Trevor said.

‘How do I see it?’

‘Just after you try to connect, it should pop it up on
your screen.’

‘And then?’

‘Well, that message will tell you more or less what is
causing the connection problem.’

‘I didn’t see any messages on my screen, but maybe if
I—’

The line cut off with an abrupt
click
and
disconnected the client.

Idiot
, Trevor thought as he logged off and went unavailable.
Serves you right for using dated technology.
He picked up his coffee mug
and headed toward the kitchen. On his way he signalled for René to join him.
Some
things will never change,
he thought.
Not even if the world was coming
to an end.

- - -*  *  *- -
-

The atmosphere was electric in the
massive auditorium of the conference centre, and although you could fry an egg
on the hood of a car in the scorching Dubai sun outside, the inside of the
building was refreshingly cool.

Hundreds of the world’s most renowned
religious leaders were gathered in response to a calling from Arch Bishop
Antonio Pascale who only recently took temporary control of the Vatican since
the Pope’s disappearance. No one knew for sure whether the Pope was a casualty
in the alien attacks, or whether he was injured or killed in the ensuing chaos,
but someone needed to keep order in the house, and so Arch Bishop Pascale was
nominated and assigned to the task until a successor could be elected.

Victor had asked Ryan to attend the meeting and to
report all the details of the proceedings back to him. His employer wanted to
be there himself, but had more pressing matters to take care of, so Ryan
attended the event in his place. He took a seat on the second storey of the
auditorium, close to the back, so that he could see everything clearly.

Antonio was running late.

‘Are you excited to be here?’ a man sitting next to
Ryan asked him. The man was dressed in a black suit and wore a purple tie. His
hair was combed neatly backward, and his breath smelled of mint.

‘I guess,’ Ryan replied as unenthusiastically as he
could, hoping that the man would catch the hint.

‘All these people are here to find spiritual
enlightenment after the alien attacks,’ the man said, obviously not catching
the hint.

‘That’s nice,’ Ryan said as he scanned the crowd.

‘What we are to experience today,’ the man said, not
caring whether Ryan wanted conversation or not, ‘is the birth of a new
enlightenment, unlike any the world has ever seen.’

‘Uh-huh,’ Ryan said. ‘New enlightenment. That’s good.’
He wasn’t paying attention. His focus was on the stage, looking out for the man
that most had flown halfway around the world to see.

The crowd hushed as a man made his way up the stage and
approached the podium.
Is it him?
Ryan wondered. A sudden buzz of
excitement filled the air.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ the man announced into the
microphone. ‘Leaders of all religions of Earth; we are proud to present to you:
Arch Bishop Antonio Pascale!’

There were some cheers and a few people clapped, but no
one walked onto the stage.

‘Oh,’ the man next to Ryan said and stood up. ‘That’s
me.’

Oh brother,
Ryan thought and rolled his eyes.

The man then stood up as a spotlight washed over him,
and everyone in the audience turned to look at him. The man lifted his hands
and slowly rose into the air. There were gasps as he leaned forward and glided
over the balcony’s railing.  The people could only stare agape as the man
flew over their heads and descended onto the stage. After a moment of amazed
silence, an explosion of clapping erupted from the crowd, and Antonio smirked
and winked at Ryan before acknowledging the rest of the audience.

That was him?
Ryan thought to himself. He wanted
to kick himself for not realizing it sooner, but knew that it was too late to
do anything about it now.

‘Good day, everyone,’ Antonio shouted into the
microphone.

Random people in the crowd returned his greeting.

‘I hope that we’re all fine today,’ he said and wiped
at his forehead with a handkerchief. ‘It’s pretty hot out here, isn’t it?’

Some nods.

‘Many of you are wondering why I have invited you all
here today. The answer is simple really: to supply you with answers to all the
religious questions being asked; questions asked because of recent events and
revelations.’

More nods.

‘There are scared and confused people out there that
are about to turn to churches and religious leaders for answers, and we need to
be armed and equipped to handle this delicate issue with the utmost
professionalism.

‘As many of you know, most mainstream religions believe
and therefore proclaim that there is no life in the Universe other than that on
Earth. But as we
all
know now, all those religions had been proved
wrong.’