God's Lions - The Dark Ruin (45 page)

Approaching Acerbi from behind, the dark-suited man bent over and whispered into his ear. Adrian’s head quickly snapped backward as he switched off his phone and twirled around in an effort to greet Leo with a big smile. Leo was shocked by his appearance. According to Eduardo, his son Adrian had been a slightly-built teenager whose main hobby in life had been playing computer games in his room, but Leo could tell right away that the man he was now looking at was much older. His hair was black and streaked with gray, and even though he was sitting, the Cardinal estimated that he was at least six feet tall and probably weighed in excess of two hundred pounds. But it was his eyes that really set him apart. They were black, and they seemed to look right through those who caught his attention with a gaze that was frightening in its intensity.

“Ah, Cardinal.” Adrian jumped from the barber’s chair and extended his hand. “It is so good to finally meet you. I know you and my father were close.”

Leo remained rigid in his stance. As a Jesuit warrior and a Prince of the Church, he was well aware that he was assaulted on a daily basis by evil influences. They circled around him like vultures drifting on warm currents above an odiferous carcass, and Leo was now standing in the presence of one of the most evil and ruthless vultures Satan had ever unleashed against the world.

“You know about your father’s death?” Leo asked.

Adrian’s black eyes narrowed slightly. “Of course ... very sad, but not totally unexpected ... considering his age. I understand he’ll be buried in Foix.”

“Yes. We had his body transported there yesterday, but I’m sure you’re already aware of that as well.” Leo kept his eyes locked on Adrian. “What do you want from me, Mr. Acerbi?”

“I would think the answer to that would be obvious to an intelligent man like yourself, Cardinal.” Adrian’s eyes blinked twice when he used Leo’s’s title. He seemed sure of himself, yet guarded at the same time as he tried to put on his biggest smile. “We have much to discuss but very little time before I must address the assembly outside. Frankly, Cardinal, I need your help.”

“Help? Why in God’s name would I help you?” Leo kept his hands folded together in case Adrian tried to shake his hand. “Let’s not play games, Mr. Acerbi. You and I both know what you are.”

The black eyes flashed with anger but the smile remained. “And just what would that be, Cardinal? A businessman perhaps? Or am I just a man with a vision ... someone who wants only to do what’s best for the world? What is it you see that others do not?”

“I see the black soul of the devil!”

The buzz of voices in the room suddenly stopped. “Is that what you see, Cardinal ... the devil?” Adrian slapped his knee and laughed out loud as he stood. “I can assure you I am no devil, Cardinal, but I can see that convincing you of that fact will take much longer than the few minutes we have before I must go. Please, allow me to be brief. I need the Catholic Church on my side. As you know, the Church is much more than just a church. It is also a sovereign state, and as such it falls under the plan I’m about to present to the assembly. I would like to see you remain in your present position as the Vatican’s Secretary of State. Together we can do great things for mankind. Why don’t you reserve your judgment of me until after you hear my speech? Then maybe we can talk again.”

Leo’s Jesuit eyes flashed in anger. “It is not up to you to decide matters involving the Church. My position is decided through the hand of God and dictated by the pope, and I can promise you that dealing with him will be a lot tougher than dealing with me.”

Adrian leaned close, his smile twisting into a barely perceptible snarl. “Did God speak to you himself when he handed you those red robes, Your Eminence? Is it God’s hand you see at work, or is it just a man who decides your fate. No one lives forever, and that includes the pope. It would be better for your flock if you align yourself with me, for without you they will be much worse off. Of that I can assure you.”

By now Leo was visibly shaking with anger. “The pope will be the judge of what is and what isn’t good for our flock. As for you, your arrival may have been prophesized, but so too has your end. Others may not see you for what you are, but the pope and I know exactly what you represent to mankind. Your reign will be a mere speck in the history of the world, but the Church will live on forever.”

Adrian shrank back from Leo’s gaze as though he had seen something that had frightened him. “Have it your way, Cardinal. Maybe your Cathar friends will welcome you into their fold after you’ve been replaced.”

“Replaced! Replaced by who ... Acone?”

Adrian looked dazed. He hadn’t expected that. “Acone? Why yes, I suppose he would make an excellent Secretary of State. May I ask why you mentioned that particular name?”

“You can ask. It’s nice to see you still don’t know everything. God gives those who work in his name a shield against the kind of evil you represent. Good luck with your speech, Mr. Acerbi. I’m sure you’ll be a resounding hit with the crowd, but remember this—there will always be those who don’t follow the crowd.” With that, Leo swirled around and walked from the room, his red robes flowing out behind him.

Watching Leo walk out the door, Adrian shook with a hidden rage covered by a smile—the most dangerous kind of rage. Looking around the room at all the silent faces, he fought to regain control, and with a grand gesture, he spread his arms and announced to his nervous cronies that the time was at hand. He was ready to address the leaders of the world.

Returning to his seat in the auditorium, Leo watched the lights dim dramatically as all eyes focused down on the softly lit lectern. Against the background of a green marble wall, Adrian adjusted the microphone and ran his hands through his thick, gray-streaked hair before smiling out over the audience.

“Good Afternoon. For those who don’t know who I am, my name is Adrian Acerbi. My late father was Eduardo Acerbi, and my brother was Rene Acerbi, the man who murdered thousands of innocent people in a twisted attempt to take over the world. That is one of the reasons I am here, but there are other, more compelling reasons why I have asked you all to come here and share your time with me.”

Adrian took a sip of water and cleared his throat before continuing. “For many of you, or I should say most of you, what I am about to say will be shocking, but please bear with me, for the fate of the countries you represent will depend on the decisions you will make here today in the name of your people.”

A loud murmur arose in the crowded space as some of the most powerful people on the planet exchanged nervous glances.

“My presence here today signals a new era in the history of mankind, or to be more politically correct, in the history of all humanity.” Adrian smiled proudly at his inclusive rhetoric. “Since the dawn of civilization, men of good intentions preached the importance of unity and the virtues of compromise, but I ask you, where has that gotten us? Despite the fact that we have evolved into a modern, technologically-savvy and forward-thinking world ... a world that has conquered many of the ills that have plagued humanity for centuries, we are still nothing more than a grouping of tribes scattered across the globe. We are all members of tribes that have their own separate agendas ... tribes that continue to have ongoing squabbles that, no matter how petty they may seem, threaten to escalate into a global conflict of unimaginable horror when those squabbles can no longer be mediated through reasoned discussion.

“Now I ask you, is that any way for a modern and seemingly sophisticated civilization to conduct its affairs going into the next millennium? Are we to continue to deal with one another in the same mindset as primitive tribesmen when it comes to working out our differences, especially when we now possess nuclear weapons and other means of mass destruction?”

In the seats around him, Leo saw that several people were already nodding their heads in agreement.

“Let me be even more clear,” Adrian continued. “The events of the past few weeks have been a wake-up call for most of you. You saw with your own eyes what can happen to a society robbed of the necessities of life for only a short period of time. I think we can all agree that we witnessed some very primitive behavior, which brings me to my point. We can no longer exist on a planet that is this interconnected and still conduct ourselves as if we are still warring tribes running around in a primitive jungle. The tribal glue that bound us together in individual groups to protect us from the tribe that lived over the next hill is the same kind of glue that created civilized societies ... societies that invented art and culture and built great cities, but it is also the cause behind some of the most egregious behavior in the history of the world. We have arrived at a crossroads in human history, where tribal thinking is now obsolete, so now, when I speak of tribes, I am talking about individual governments.”

The auditorium erupted in angry shouts and murmurs of protestation. Adrian stood silently and watched their reaction as he took another sip of water and smiled out at the audience. “This is the shocking part I was referring to earlier. While I was sitting backstage waiting to come out here, I was thinking of my brother Rene. I never actually met him, but I think we can all agree that he was totally insane and was responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people in a twisted effort to take over the world. His sole motive was power over others, and he would have been successful had it not been for the courageous actions of one man ... my father.

“I learned a great deal from my father, but the one lesson that has stayed with me through the years is that any man who is gifted with great wealth should share it with the world, and that is exactly what I want to do. Unlike Rene, I am not driven by power or money, but by service to my fellow man. I want to see your children grow up in a world without crime, famine, or war. On the face of things, I realize that a sweeping statement like that sounds a bit utopian ... an impossible dream that can never really be achieved, but I am here today to tell you that it can be done, and I have a plan to do it with your help.”

Adrian paused and looked around at the assembled group of world leaders who were staring back at the podium with plastic smiles usually reserved for adults when they were listening to their child relate some fantastical, imaginary tale.

“I can see by the looks on your faces that many of you believe that what I offer is an impossible dream. Like a drowning man who refuses a lifeline tossed to him just before he sinks below the waves because he doesn’t trust the one who threw it, you are sinking. So, let me be frank when I tell you that, before you all drift out of reach of the lifeline I throw to you, this is your last and only chance to grab on.”

Leo noticed many in the audience begin to shift uneasily in their seats. Although Adrian was trying to come off as a rescuer—the man with the lifeline to some kind of utopian dream, everyone in the audience was well aware that he had been the one who had thrown them into the water to begin with. Somehow he possessed the unimaginable power to control the computers that ran the world, and they all knew that if they failed to heed his words, they faced the very real possibility that they would be left behind while those who cooperated thrived.

Looking down at the front row, Adrian nodded to Blake Simon, the beloved former wheat farmer from Kansas who had been the first independent candidate to be elected President of the United States. “I look down at all of the wonderful people in this room ... people who desire only to serve their countries, and I want them to know that I want the same things they do. Never again can we allow terrorists or rogue nations to monopolize our daily lives. Never again should we go to bed at night and wonder if some event that none of us are responsible for has triggered a potential nuclear war that could extinguish life on the planet. These are the kinds of threats we must eliminate if we are to survive as a species, and the only way to do that is to eliminate the borders between us and come together as a true world community.”

Adrian continued to smile, but he could sense the mood changing in the front row. “Now to the meat of my plan. In order to eliminate the borders that separate us, we will have to undergo some major changes in the way we run the world. Unfortunately, this cannot be accomplished democratically. As well-intentioned as that form of government is, the great experiment in self-rule determined by the masses has failed, and failed miserably. There must be one voice giving the commands, and the power behind that voice cannot be invisible. As I have demonstrated over the past several weeks, it is possible for a single entity to control the world without the use of guns or bombs. We no longer have the luxury of appealing to a sense of unity or the virtues of compromise, for there can be no compromise. The only way we can continue to exist in peace is to let go of our antiquated tribal instincts and let ourselves be governed by an impartial entity, and that entity is the corporation.”

Suddenly Blake Simon stood. “You don’t have to go any further, Acerbi. I know where this is headed. You want to create a one-world government in the name of world peace, when in truth you are no better than the terrorists you claim you want to protect us from. You offer us peace, but it’s an offer that comes at the end of a technological gun. People have tried to rule the world before. People with names like Stalin and Hitler. You’re just another dictator, and the people of the United States will never stand for it.”

Acerbi’s patronizing smile broadened. “You call me a dictator, Mr. President, but do you really believe that? I can sympathize with your anger ... anger that results from fear ... a fear that stems from a feeling that you are about to lose control. But think about it for a moment. In fact, I want all of you to think about what I’m saying for a moment.”

Acerbi leaned forward and adopted his best imitation of a good-ole-boy tone of voice. “To be honest, there aren’t any more true democracies in the world. The existence of your democracies is nothing more than a thinly-veiled façade. The real power lies with the few who possess the vast wealth necessary to pick and choose their leaders through vehicles like Super PACs. In the United States, the democracy you once enjoyed has been slowly eroded over time ... morphed into something that would be totally unrecognizable to the founding fathers who formed your so-called perfect union over two hundred years ago.” Acerbi watched the heads around the auditorium nod.