Read 2021 Online

Authors: Martin Wiseman

2021 (9 page)

BOOK: 2021
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Raines now a
gonised over what he should do.

‘I’m not sure about this, Cardinal Greco
, this is a truly heinous crime you are asking me to order’ he now repeated again. ‘How exactly have you come about this information anyway?’ he now asked.

‘It has been known in the Vatican for many years, my friend, we only realised yesterday when Cardinal Moretti and I were showing his new Holiness around
. This man is predicted to wreak havoc upon the world in the year of our Lord 2021’ Cardinal Greco explained.

‘Then Cardinal Moretti knows of this also?’ asked Raines.

‘Yes
he does’ replied Cardinal Greco.

‘My God!’ uttered Raines in shock. ‘Then if this man intends upon doing these evil deeds he must be stopped!’

‘Exactly
!’ nodded Cardinal Greco.

Raines now blew a long sigh.

‘Well we
both know of people who are capable of carrying out such a crime, but I’ll need some money if I am to arrange this’ Raines insisted.

‘How much
do you think?’ Cardinal Greco inquired.

‘Possibly as much as t
en thousand English pounds’ replied Raines.

‘HOW MUCH?’ exploded Cardinal Greco, temporarily fo
rgetting himself. ‘I can’t raise that kind of money’ he immediately added whispering quietly again.

‘How much can you afford then?’
Raines asked.

‘I could wire you two
thousand pounds tonight’ he answered.

‘OK two
thousand it is then, for now’ Raines agreed ‘then three more after the deed is done, I don’t think I can get it done for any less than that’ he explained.

‘OK agreed’ whispered Cardinal Greco.


Tell me though, Cardinal Greco, does His Holiness know about this?’ asked Raines curiously.

‘Of course he doesn’t! He’d
never approve of this. You must understand though, Mr Raines, this
must
be done, do you hear?’ insisted Cardinal Greco ‘as humanely as possible though.’

‘Are you absolutely sure there is no other way, Cardinal Greco?’ queried Raines.

‘Do
not think I am making this decision lightly, Mr Raines. I believe this man to be the Anti-Christ, the evil one who if left alive will wreak death and destruction on us all in the year 2021!’ explained Cardinal Greco.

‘Then c
onsider it done!’ assured Raines.

Then he paused for a moment.

‘W
hen do you want me to arrange it?’ he asked.

‘Straight away
of course’ whispered Cardinal Greco.

‘OK’ replied Raines ‘I’ll let you know as soon as it is done
and you can pay me the balance then, so I can then in turn make the final payment to whoever carries out this task’ and with that he hung up.

Later that night, Cardinal Greco met up with his good fri
end Cardinal Moretti and he confessed to him what he had done.

‘You’ve done
what
?’ stared Cardinal Moretti as he looked at his friend in dismay ‘but you can’t even be sure that this is the right man?’

‘He
is
!’ insisted Cardinal Greco ‘this man has already performed one miracle that we know of, and he fits the description of the man in the painting
exactly
. He
is
the Anti-Christ I tell you and he
must
be stopped before he destroys the entire world!’

Chapter Six

 

 

31
st
December 2020

New Years Eve

The Great Pyramid

Of Giza,

Egypt.

 

F
our Americans taking their gap year before they took up their full time jobs were in the middle of a holiday taking them all around the world.

New Years E
ve in the year 2020 saw them getting drunk on whisky as they raced around the sand dunes of Egypt as they had fun in a rather fast dune buggy.

By around 11.30
in the evening they were all now pretty drunk.

‘I KNOW, LET’S GO AND SEE THE GREAT PYRAMID
!’ shouted one of the men before they raced off towards it, all screaming like banshees.

Finally, pulling up right at the base of the great pyramid one man immediately jumped out and began using the buggies headlights to read from a guide book he took from his back pocket.

‘HEY! LISTEN, GUYS,
LISTEN
!’ he shouted to the others as he tottered all around drunk and almost fell over as the others all laughed at him.

Undeterred he began reading from his Egyptian guidebook.

‘The Great Py
ramid of Giza’ he started as he patted the pyramid’s side ‘right here’ he smiled ‘was the tallest man made structure for some 3,800 years,
hic
!
Belch
!’

‘Yeah, then they ain’t seen the Empire State
Building have they?’ commented one of the others before his friend nudged him in the ribs.

‘Na, tha
t wasn’t built until the 1930’s, stupid!’ he laughed.

‘SHUT UP, YOU LOT!
I’M
THE TOUR GUIDE!’ their friend with the guide book shouted before he continued.


The Great Pyramid of Khufu..’

‘BLESS YOU
!’ another of his friends interjected as they all laughed as their friend with the guide book just paused before continuing again.

‘The Grea
t Pyramid of Khufu or Cheeeeops,
Belch
! Is four hundred and eighty one feet tall’ he explained as he waved his hands all around him in an over animated fashion ‘and its corners at its base coincide exactly to the four cardinal points and, get this, its base is level to within one inch. Oooo! One inch, fancy that!
Hic
!’ he chuckled away as he swayed all around.

‘OH, SHUT UP, HANK, AND
JUST GET BACK INTO THE BUGGY WILL YA!’ shouted one of his friends as another grabbed hold of him and just dragged him back into the buggy again as he still continued to try and read out aloud to them all.

‘Do you
know, it says here that even today they don’t know how the Great Pyramid was built,
hic
!’ he smiled.


Don’t be stupid, everyone knows
that
, it was E.T. of course!’ laughed another of their friends as they set off in their dune buggy once again.

‘All I know is, it ma
kes a great thing to race around!’ laughed the driver of the buggy as he raced off sending a cloud of sand dust shooting high up into the air behind them!

‘WEEEEEE!’ he shouted as they now all struggled to just about hang on.

‘Give me the wheel it’s
my
turn!’ argued the man with the guide book as he just reached over to grab the steering wheel off him.

‘GET OFF, HANK
, OR I’LL END UP CRASHING THE DAMN THING!’ shouted the driver and just as he finished saying the words he lost control of the buggy and it went completely off course and smashed headlong into the Great Pyramid itself!

The dune
buggy was now turned onto its side and all four men were thrown clear, all landing head first into the sand!

Alm
ost immediately arguments broke out as to whose fault the accident was as they all spit the sand out of their mouths and brushed its fine dust from their faces, hair and clothes.

‘OH, CHRIST, FELLAS, WE’VE ONLY GONE AND DAMAGED THE DAMN THIN
G!’ one of them suddenly shouted.

‘Damaged what?’ they all
replied in unison.

‘THE DAMN DUNE
BUGGY OF COURSE!’ the driver shouted angrily as the arguments continued once again as to whose fault it was.

‘This wa
s
your
fault, Hank, you grabbed the steering wheel and now you’ve gone and damaged the dune buggy’ the driver complained.

‘OH, SHUT UP, YOU GUYS!
FORGET THE DAMN DUNE BUGGY!
LOOK
! WE’VE ONLY GONE AND DAMAGED THE GOD DAMNED GREAT PYRAMID ITSELF!’ shouted another man as they suddenly all fell silent.

‘Where exactly?’ asked
one man as he went over to investigate.

‘Are you sure
about this, Jack? Hang on, I’ve got a torch somewhere in my bag’ replied another of the men as he went over to grab it before he came running back again.

‘Christ, Guys, we
’ve only gone and knocked a great junk of rock out of the base of the Great Pyramid!’ now responded the man with the torch as he investigated the damage more closely. This is what comes of you two idiots arguing!’ he complained.

‘Look, let’s not start that again, anyway, help me p
ush the buggy upright again and see if it still works’ suggested the driver as they all did as he asked.

He managed
to fire up the engine and then just nodded his head.


Well, one headlight’s broken, but at least it still goes. Look, we’d better get out of here before anyone notices what we’ve done to their famous ancient monument. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t much fancy spending the rest of my life in an Egyptian jail’ he muttered.

‘No, m
e neither’ uttered another, jumping straight back onto the buggy again.

Then
as the one headlight on the buggy shined onto the base of the pyramid, one of them noticed something.

‘HEY!’ grab the torch someone, I think som
ething is down there’ he announced, as reluctantly they all bundled out of the buggy once again.

‘What it is?’ asked
one of them curiously as the man nearest reached into a crevice they had opened up at the base of the Pyramid.

‘I
thought I saw something metallic, but I can’t quite reach it. Who has the longest arm?’ he asked.

‘Han
k!’ the others respond as they immediately all shoved the tall man forwards.

‘I’ve got the long
est everything,
hic
!’ he smiled as the others all just laughed at him.

‘Yeah, you wish
!’ one of them joked as he just shoved him again.

Doing as he was told, Hank reached down into the crevice they had opened up.

‘Hey, h
e’s right, there
is
something down here!’ he then commented excitedly.

‘What is it then?’ they all asked keenly.

‘It’s
my mummy of course!’ laughed Hank.

‘Oh, just get on with it will you,
you dope! We need to get out of here quickly before someone notices what we’ve done’ complained another of their friends and with that Hank reached down again and pulled out what appeared to be a large metallic cup of some sort.

‘Heck, maybe it’s the Holy Grail
itself?’ puzzled the driver.

‘You’ve got rocks in your head, it’s far too big for
that
’ commented another.

‘I don’t
know you’d get a lot of wine in that, hic!’ joked another of their drunken gang.

‘Heck, Jesus would have had to be an alcoholic to
drink out of something that big’ laughed another.

‘That t
op part though, it looks like a lid, but it’s moving around?’ puzzled another.

Hank just pu
lled at it and eventually something moved.


Hey! Look at
this
, it’s an ancient scroll!’ announced the driver, now sounding very excited as hank now removed it from inside the large metal cup
.

‘OOO!’ laughed
Hank, who happened to be the drunkest member of their group ‘let’s just see if it
burns
!’ he chuckled away, immediately lighting his cigarette lighter right underneath it.

‘PUT THAT DAMN THING OUT
WILL YOU, HANK! WHAT ARE YOU CRAZY?’ shouted one of his friends as he snatched the scroll from his grasp ‘THIS THING COULD BE THOUSANDS OF YEARS OLD FOR ALL WE KNOW’ he insisted as they all now gathered around to study it.

‘Do you think it could be worth something
then?’ one of them asked curiously.

‘I dunno?’ commented
another as they all now studied it.

‘We should get it valued
and this metal cup thing, but before that, we need to get out of here before someone notices the damage we’ve done’ suggested the dune buggy’s driver as he pushed and shoved them all to get back into the buggy again, before they quickly race off again.

‘YEEEHAAA!’ they
then all shouted ‘HAPPY NEW YEAR!’

Chapter Seven
BOOK: 2021
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