Driver, T. C. (44 page)

We stared out over the sound booth wall still not moving from our knees, people were in a state of panic everywhere. It was dark inside and out, but plain to see in the moonlight that the great Ark had been attacked. The ship had thick black smoke pouring out of a hole in its starboard side (the side facing us in the ballroom). All of the windows and doors, in the ball room facing the ocean and some parts of the walls were now gone giving us an unobstructed view of the Great Ark burning against the clear moonlit sky.
  

People at the “Becka” show were steadily pouring out onto the brick patio and beach. Many were trying to stop the bleeding from big and small cuts. Blood ran “tomato topping thick” forming a glass and ceiling tile pizza that covered the floor. “Crying, loud hysterical” people and also “still frozen quietly dying” or statue people as I called them were both everywhere to be found in abundance. About four hundred were dead quickly, four hundred more would die before help came, slightly less than nine-hundred would die in total. Two thousand people were treated, the rest of us were unhurt. Two ladies from “purchasing” lay headless in the doorway. I told police their names and title, I could tell them apart from their smell. One of them had smoked cigarettes, and one smoked those cheap little cigars. Their bodies lay for some time because emergency personnel worked on the living first. Joe Coe paced back and forth in the edge of the beach sand, his ship phone glued to his ear but going unanswered. Joe,
 
 
by being off of his ship as it burned close by in front of him was fast going crazy or mad. About fifteen hundred of his students and crew had come to shore with him most were also in the sand watching her burn. Out of a hole in the side of the Ark pumped a huge black plume of smoke reaching skyward as of a volcano. EMT and hotel medical staff started arriving about twenty minutes after the blast the first ones on the scene were doctors and nurses from Patels palace next door. I had met them before in India. The Gospel Café band was rushed away by security. In all this confusion I almost forgot my appointment with Jediah Patel.
    

I walked across the sand toward the other resort or Jediah’s Bermuda home next door and was soon knocked down to the ground with my face in the sand by security personnel wearing military body armor and holding M16 rifles. No Business suites here in the sand (ha-ha).
 
My face was in the sand before I could raise my hands and that grinding boot on my neck was not fooling around. I stated my appointment and I still had a Patel employee ID card in my wallet. Even so they still scanned my face, waved me with a wand and patted me down. One led the way while one held me at gunpoint with my hands on top of my head.
 

On a large porch, just before the next security check point were two more guards were waiting inside. A voice from the dark patio to my right said,

“Hello Joe” It was Connie that sweet Vietnamese lady from India! Glancing right I could see the glow of her cigarette brighten. She waved the guards and I sat down at her table. The guards left us alone. We talked about twenty minutes. I thought about taking up smoking again. Her cigarette smelled very good, like “back in the day.”
 
These were real cigarettes, not “fire-safety” cigarettes like all those made in America today.

“America used to make the best cigarette, the best car, the best music and the best rockets in the world” said Connie. “Your government had a better idea and well not so much now, Joe. In fact you guys really suck, do you remember that idiot black guy back at Super Bowl Forty six! Every year there is another low class rapper with another how low can you go stunt, or a nipple ring. The whole world is laughing at Ghetto America, don’t you have any pride left at all, letting the lowest scum you can find define your image on TV world wide. My daddy was American, and also part black and I’m ashamed to speak of America now days. How could people so proud fall so low so quickly? You should be ashamed Cornelius! (You sound racist Connie I said)
                   
                        

Those same two big guys from Patels palace in India came downstairs and ended my conversation with Connie by walking me up to see Jediah. Both of these men were in expensive business suits. One waited outside the office with me and one went through the huge wooden double doors. Being inside a Patel home always makes a man feel small, the steps, the doors, hallways, ceiling, and railings are built to a massive scale. Starring eye to eye with door knobs is creepy. While waiting outside the door I thought about Jediah’s new house being built in India, right next door to another just like here in Bermuda. Could his daddy be of normal size and his sons be large I contemplated.
  

The big doors swung open “Hello Cornelius, we have much to discuss,” roared my old friend. “This has been quite a night so far. I love the excitement! It is good for ones digestion just like your red wine (ha-ha). His voice was low and powerful even when he laughed, not much like a young boy anymore. As we talked one of his Asian girls poured my glass, then he nodded and she retired into another room.
   

“Personal things first, Cornelius,” said Jediah. “We must speak of personal things first.” Jediah slowed his speech. “Every man has his castle. Cornelius, you were completely safe in my palace even when hunted by my uncle. We, the house of Patel including my uncle, did our best. Cornelius please know this, we both did our best. You are counted as a friend so I wanted to tell you about all this in person. In Virginia your own people lay in wait for you with papers. My uncle has old agreements with your commonwealth. We must honor them. Your life is not in danger and it is a small and old matter concerning a woman. Your own family claims that you have shamed them. You may be jailed, or fined or both! The Prince of your Province seeks you! Some advice Cornelius! Do not ask for rights from your Philadelphia constitution jury! This Prince will crush you in anger! Beware the courts in your Province of Virginia are his to do with as he wishes! This has been true since your man Woodrow Wilson sold Virginia years ago. Cornelius your charges come from a woman thirty-five years ago, she said you did not have sex with her but shamed her. This woman’s sister knows a citizen who has the ear of a board member, who is the Prince of Virginia. I’m sorry Cornelius you could run of course. You know you are always welcome back in India at any time.”
    

“Thank you, Jediah, but I won’t run, and I’ve always suspected that the governor was not in charge back home!”

Jediah then took a phone call but he had no phone. He gestured me out to the balcony, and I obeyed. I walked out onto his third floor balcony into the night. I could see the Ark plainly leaning to its port side or out to sea. The hole in her starboard side was plainly visible in the star light. Smoke was of very much less volume as it poured out of the hole, I guessed less than ten percent of what it had been. After some minutes Jediah then joined me on the balcony, still talking to more than one person on a phone. I could not hear or see.
 

“Yes, I do see her. She’s in plain sight, so Friday says he can save her. Ok! If I think she’s worth it. Ok, then, Friday! Good job, do continue for now and give an update to my man Winston every twelve hours on your progress. You are in Charge Friday, be on time. Yes, I will be talking to Joe Coe, don’t worry just do your job.”

Friday had evidently saved the ship. That is if he could get her to New Port News leaning as she was. The ships lean was almost twelve degrees to port. Many things on board ship were being dumped into the sea. The nose biting smells of petroleum jet fuel being dumped off the Ark burned our noses on shore. The smell was very strong on Jediah’s balcony. Joe’s Chief of staff First mate Friday had acted very quickly and had shut off the bulk head doors and purposely started flooding the Port side of the ship even as the missile was about to hit the ship. Shutting those doors and starting those powerful pumps condemned six hundred and sixty six men to death without a chance to get out, but lifted the damaged side out of the water far enough to save the ship. A rocket, a very fast skim the surface torpedo had been fired from near the middle of the harbor. This unprotected side was easy prey. Our protection was down.
 
This was the same type of rocket that just missed us in the “big attack” off of Gumbo Station.
  

“Joe would have saved those people Jediah” I said softly as we stared out to sea together in silence. “I think Joe would have evacuated every one on ship to Bermuda and then run her aground to try to save the ship”.

“Joe is not in the clear yet, neither are you, Cornelius. Those crewmen died to save the ship. They had to die for the greater good,” said Patel, “not really believing it himself.”

“Whenever some don’t count, whenever some are flushed as worthless, God is not glorified, God is not honored. God is no respecter of persons Jediah”
  

“I hear your wise counsel old friend but do not push
  
your holiness on me this night, because you are still on trial and I have much more to say to you, much more.”

“He can only carry one, Cornelius,” said Jediah.

“He…. Who, one
,
 
and
what?” I stammered?

“The one you missed. The one you left in the desert. His mothers home really. It has been in the family from before this season. We have owned that land for over five thousand years Cornelius, one day I will see under that sand! One RU118 Russian now Persian skim torpedo missile, a Chinese diesel submarine, one missile is all she can carry.

“So you know him,” this man in the submarine?”

“Yes, Cornelius, I know him well. He is my older brother. His name is Phinehas Emin Patel. He uses a non English older spelling of Pudahuel, for our name. He’s the one who killed our father. Phinehas seeks my life too Cornelius, one of us will have to die. The blood of our father Phinehas took to save us both. I do owe him that much, but after my scripture reading and lessons are over, it will be game on between us. Our Father knew not of us for many years, when he found our mother out, he was ashamed of us both. He had known and given seed to a woman of Adam, Yes, he had been tricked. You are not the only son who has shamed family my friend. I am one that is between seasons Cornelius. My father has brought shame, I do not belong here Cornelius pray your holiness prayers for me.
    

Phinehas is the king of Africa. We and my uncle also, are of the “sons of Oman” He calls himself the “King of the South, Cornelius.

“The King of the South, Oh my God,” I whispered as a cold chill hit the room.

 
“Listen, Cornelius, my brother is three years older than me, some say he’s ten feet tall but I know better he’s only about nine foot six, and weights about five hundred and fifty pounds. It’s him or me in the end Cornelius. I will have to kill him. It’s him or me. Our lives are on a collision course to death. I play him every day on the computer. I can beat him now at least part of the time thanks to your help Cornelius. I’ll be ready one day, ready to face him, yes I will! “My big brother has a friend, who helps him, a missionary named Tommy Mute.”

“Oh Lord,” I groaned!

“Yes, your friend gets around. I asked you once before, are you on a rouge mission Cornelius? Your friend, Tommy Mute came here to Bermuda with my brother Phinehas. They evidently laid in wait before the Ark arrived! You also have another rebel friend, another trader Cornelius!” Patel turned toward the sea and pointed. One guard turned on a powerful spot light that shown down on the sand below us straight out from our balcony. Two men had Lou Goodliar hands bound behind his back, on his knees praying in the sand.
  

My heart leaped, “No, Jediah” I shouted!”

One guard put a revolver to my head also, and one grabbed my arms from behind. With a nod from Jediah my friend Lou Goodliar was shot once point blank range in the right temple as he prayed. His limp body falling face down in the sand! Jediah then took my ship phone away from me. “Pray that your phone does not get a call from Tommy Mute, also my friend!”

Jediah then held up his palm as if taking an oath, and turned and spoke directly to my face. “Cornelius Captain Coe and all of his senior officers, including yourself, and all who are on this island will board my private yacht and go with me in the morning. You are all under house arrest. We will follow the Ark to Newport News. Friday is in charge of the Ark. I will find out who is a trader, and who is not. You will be all kept in basic comfort as befitting a gentleman. That will be all. I will see you in the morning. These men will show you to your quarters! “Send in Joe Coe” shouted Jediah. “No not you Cornelius, the guards. My phone is in my teeth. It will be on the market when the time is right.”
  

As the guards led me out I met Captain Joe Coe coming in. He was not happy to see me or to be second in line. Joe had his ship phone turned up on loud speaker; some of the crew Friday had locked in the Port side dungeon were still alive and still begging for rescue from Captain Coe. The desperate men and women’s loud screaming for help filled Jediah’s large fancy office. I slowed even as the guards pushed me out the door. I could hear two young Kishia’s from my table crying out to Joe for help.
 
They begged for mercy not to Jesus, but to Joe Coe, their trusted head master who had failed them. Men will always fail you in the end, God will not. I wish I had taught them better, and had taught them to trust in King Jesus, not in earthly Kings, Captains, or Presidents. Today they were on the
list,
today they were the ones who did not count! Sometimes you do know, and you are just powerless. You are too little, too late, to the fight.