Demonic Designs (To Absolve the Fallen) (12 page)

“Jesus....
 
God sent you to talk to Christ?”

“Yes,” Jeremiah verified as he flipped his turn signal.
 
“I was going to train the Son of God in a mindset that seemed to be dead.
 
I was told where to find him and when.
 
Then, it all became clear to me.
 
I knew that prophets foretold a person who would arrive to lead Israel to righteousness, but the revelations spoke of a warrior.

“The prophecies indicated one who would conquer the areas surrounding Israel, but obviously Jesus was not that person.
 
However, there were some parts of all the prophecies that were accurate.
 
I think, at the time, I would have been more comfortable if he had been a warrior; that was really more of my area of expertise.
 
But I didn’t delay.
 
When I got to Earth, the child had just been born, and apparently the people in the area had
already
been visited by an angel.
 
Gabriel heralded the message to the mother and some others, and you know how word spreads.”
 

Jeremiah pulled the car into a truck stop, and he was getting ready to get out of the car.
 
“I’ve got to get some gas.
 
Feel free to go inside and get yourself something to eat or a soda or something.
 
We’ve still got a couple hours ahead of us, and I don’t plan to stop again until we reach our destination.”

Alex scowled when he noticed the gas station had an attached car wash.

“Don’t worry,” Jeremiah said, laughing.
 
“My car shouldn’t need to be cleaned for a while.
 
And when it does, I’ll have a professional do it.”

***

“Sir, I think I’ve spotted something.”

Matt swiveled his chair from the window to the door where his guard was addressing him.
 
The look on the man’s face was enough to make the prophet think there was something to his concern.

“What?”

The man shifted nervously, which still made the young prophet uncomfortable.
 
These guys who worked for him were all ten to fifteen years older than he was.
 
Matt was only the boss because Jeremiah had the money and the power to make it so.
 
It was true that Matt could easily hold his own against any of the retired SEALs whom he had working security, but it amazed him that they rarely seemed to get too stuck on his age.

The guard looked at the floor for a moment, and then he returned Matt’s gaze.

“There are at least two white, four-door cars that have been circling the block for a half hour,” he explained, and quickly added, “sir.”

Matt cocked one of his eyebrows.
 
“Really?
 
Have you told Liz about this, yet?”

“No, sir.
 
We thought it best to come to you first.”

“Okay.
 
I’ll tell her.
 
The next time you see one of these cars go by, tail it.
 
Anything else?”
 
Matt pulled his .45 out from under his armpit and checked the clip.

“No, sir,” the nervous man replied.
 
“Well, except that Jiminez hasn’t checked back.
 
He’s only five minutes overdue, but I thought you should know about it.”

Matt looked up at him and shook his head in disbelief.
 
“Lock down the area.
 
You can try to find your man if you want, but I’ll bet he’s dead.
 
Dismissed.”

The man nodded and left the room.
 
Matt had played this game long enough to know that the mercenaries were never late.
 
Part of the reason it was so nice to have them around was because they were so reliable.
 
And now, one of them was missing.
 
Great.
 
This whole situation was starting to stink.
 

Where was Jeremiah, anyway?
 
Matt didn’t feel comfortable trying to protect this renovated warehouse by himself.
 
He just wanted to get back to Vegas.
 
He hadn’t been concerned before, when they had the element of secrecy.
 
No one knew where they were; they didn’t arouse suspicion.
 
They lived in a veritable fortress he and Jeremiah had designed.
 
Hence, he didn’t have to worry about demon influence...until Jeremiah returned to give them orders, that is.
 
In the last week, he and Liz had moved to five different locations to keep their whereabouts secret.
 
But it seemed like the competition had finally caught up to them.

“Shit,” Matt said to himself.
 
He got up and walked briskly to Liz’s room.
 
Once there, he knocked on the door

“Yes,” he heard from inside between the rapid clicks of a keyboard.

“We have a problem,” he replied shortly.

In a second, the door was open, and she was looking out at him.
 
“What problem?”

He grabbed her by the arm.
 
“They’ve found us.
 
We have to go...now.”

“But I’m working on something.”

His eyes widened in exasperation.
 
“Well, you aren’t anymore.”

“But,” she stammered, “it’s not even saved.”

“What good is it going to do you if you’re dead?
 
Now, come on!”

She knew better than to resist him in times like this.
 
She’d only seen him this tense on two other occasions.
 
In both instances they had very nearly lost their lives.
 
And now, things had become desperate.
 
This always seemed to happen right when she was in the middle of something important.
 
She was creating the forum that Jeremiah told her to make, but it was only half completed.
 
Matt was leading her by the arm, and, in his other hand, he had a gun.
 

“Are we already under attack?
 
Why didn’t I know?”

“You
do
know.
 
That’s what this is for,” Matt replied coolly.
 
“Here,” he said as he released her arm, satisfied that she was going to follow.
 
He pulled another gun from a holster on his right hip and handed it to her.
 
“Now, your target practice is going to come in handy.”

“How am I going to know who to shoot at?
 
They’re all going to look the same.”

Matt looked at her and shrugged.
 
“Shoot at anyone who shoots at you.
 
I gave you a description of Patheus.
 
If he pops in, kill him—if he even
can
be killed by a gun.”

***

Alex returned from the gas station with one hand full of candy, and the other held a soda.
 
He plopped into the passenger’s seat, shut the door, twisted the cap off his soda (and checked to see if he’d won anything), and looked at the demon intently—as if expecting a show.
 
Jeremiah smirked at the scene.

“What?” Alex demanded.
 
“They didn’t have a lot of choices.”

“So did you get a chance to stretch your legs?”

“Yeah.
 
Keep going about Jesus.”

“Okay,” Jeremiah agreed, “but you know you aren’t getting a bathroom break until Amarillo.”

“Right, right.
 
I know,” Alex assured him.

Jeremiah shrugged his shoulders.
 
“Have you heard the story about Herod and his intent to kill all the male children around Christ’s birth?”

Alex nodded and tore the paper off his candy bar.

“That’s more than mere legend.
 
Prophets, who knew something incredible was going to happen, came from all around to witness the birth.
 
It wasn’t just three wise men.
 
There were hundreds.
 
It was no wonder that Herod found out that something was going to happen.
 
I fought off more than one demon from among the ranks of Herod’s soldiers, too.
 
Apparently, Lucifer also recognized the significance of this occasion.

“Jesus had a hard go of it, even from the beginning.
 
We had to relocate his family in order to protect them from men, but I never fully rid Jesus of demonic influence.
 
There were too many, and I had no way of keeping track of them all.
 
In fact, one demon lured me off once, and when I had returned, Jesus had been persuaded by another to go to temple.
 
Jesus was young at the time, and he didn’t know how to discern the tricks of demons.
 

“It seemed innocent enough; Jesus had no way of knowing how the Pharisees would react to the questions of a child.
 
They were preparing to beat him then and there when I arrived.
 
They never saw me, and I wiped from their minds the memory that Jesus had ever been there.
 
It was then that I decided Jesus would have to go away for a while until he could learn how to harness his power.
 
I took him away from Mary and Joseph.
 
It was probably the most difficult thing I’d ever had to do to a human, but even that would change.
 

“We left Jerusalem and went into the desert.
 
There, I taught him to use his mind and heart simultaneously.
 
I told him that he would have to match wits with the best.
 
At the same time, he’d have to love them, though they would surely hate him.
 
I taught him about God and the angels.
 
I also told him about demons and their role in the universe.
 

“Then, I imparted the message that God had given me.
 
I feared it would kill him.
 
He convulsed for about thirty seconds.
 
After that, he went completely still.
 
I could sense that he was alive, but only barely.
 
I reached down to save him, and something stopped me.
 
I received a very simple message from God.
 
He told me ‘no.’

“After another five minutes or so, Jesus came back, but he didn’t come back as the happy little boy he had been.
 
I rarely saw a smile on his face after that day.
 

“If I could, I would go back in time and kill myself before I could have ever talked to him, but that is, after all, the past.
 
In fact, it would seem that the past
is
destined to repeat itself.”

Alex was enthralled by the sincerity in Jeremiah’s description.
 
“Was God talking to Jesus when he was unconscious?”

Jeremiah smiled.
 
“You’re becoming more perceptive.
 
God did, indeed, speak to Jesus.
 
Though I never learned what was said, I would say that I have a pretty good idea now.
 
I imagine God told Jesus that he was going to die, very painfully, even if for a very good reason.
 
Can you conceptualize how you would have taken that news at twelve years old?
 
Well, I think Jesus handled it better than anyone else could have, and I suppose that’s why God chose him.

“In the twenty-plus years that followed, we traveled all around the Middle East, Europe and the Far East.
 
I taught Jesus about different cultures and their histories.
 
Then, I told him what really happened.
 
Every culture has a true history and an accepted history.
 
The accepted history is important for communicating with the locals and appreciating their ideal qualities.
 
The true history is for understanding the nature of humanity.
 
Most people are weak; some are strong but evil, and some are truly enlightened.
 
Jesus would need to know how to speak to all of them at the same time.