Kristin (13 page)

She had wasted her precious
time on the virtuous, fat human, far too much time. Her masterplan for humanity
was faltering. She’d lost her focus:
She must find her quarry. She must find the Christ.
She must kill the Christ.

Immobilized, crippled from
the neck-stem down, she glanced at the obese leader through a red veil of
lifeblood. ‘So, thou hast looked deep into Hades and survived?’ she groaned.

‘
Survived
?’ he
wept. ‘Do you call
this
survival?’

She picked up the scent of
the Christ and dematerialized, sensing that when she reassembled the fibres of
her physical body, it would be as new.

‘
Thom ... where are you
?’ breathed a
desperate, insignificant voice, as the obese leader witnessed her complete
disappearance from his shattered life.

Seventeen

‘The sixth thousand and twenty-third session
of the council is called to order,’ said United Nations Security Council
President, James Bathurst, lifting his gavel and bringing it down briskly. ‘Mr
Wise?’

Council member Robert Wise
sifted through the paperwork before him. He tidied the sheets, pushed his
glasses back up the bridge of his nose and addressed the meeting he’d requested
twelve hours earlier.

‘Mr President, Mr Secretary
General, distinguished colleagues. It is with grave concern that I have requested
this meeting. You will no doubt be aware that the psychosis that originated in
the United Kingdom and then spread across mainland Europe is now affecting
North America and shows signs of becoming a global affliction.

‘I believe that those of us
in a position of power, here within this council, have a responsibility to act
now to prevent the worsening of this unaccountable situation whilst we still
retain our sanity. I can reveal that information supplied by the Secretariat
indicates that the Islamic terrorist group in northern Afghanistan would seem
to have successfully engineered the prevailing situation with mind-bending,
psychological warfare.’

‘Excuse me, Mr Wise,’
interrupted the British president, ‘to what ends?’

‘I will let the Secretary
General explain, Mr President.’

Xavier Mendez tapped the
tip of his stem microphone. ‘We believe, Mr President, that the attack
pre-empts the attempted takeover of Western society.’

‘
Takeover
?’

‘The enforced conversion of
Christianity to Islam ... the creation of a worldwide state of Islam.’

Bathurst stared at him. ‘
... And you think this would explain the backlash against Christianity we’re
witnessing — the destruction of places of worship, the perversion, the
murder and mayhem?’

‘Yes, but it still doesn’t
explain everything. Christianity, and its values, are at the core of the
majority of Western cultures, but a similar pattern of behaviour is also
emerging from the Middle East. What we’re seeing is the termination of
human
values,
the breaking of the
human
spirit.’

‘Could it be a naturally
occurring disease, something humanity hasn’t encountered before?’

‘We’ve discounted that
possibility, Sir.’

‘If we’re talking about a
drug, such a thing is unknown to modern science,’ Ibrahim Arzanah, temporary
represent-ative of the United Arab Emirates, said. ‘And in any case, it could
never have been deployed widely enough to have caused such a universal effect.
Its formulation and use would conflict with the ethics of Islamic teaching.’

‘I don’t think we are
talking about a drug, Mr Arzanah,’ Bathurst answered. ‘I think we’re talking
about the siren ... the flash of light.’

Mendez nodded.

‘That is also impossible,’
Arzanah frowned.

‘Mr President, Mr Secretary
General, my distinguished colleagues,’ Brazilian representative Paulo Di Faria
began. ‘You will, I’m sure, be aware of the status quo in my country, of events
in Rio de Janeiro — the bastardization of our most sacred monument, the
Cristo Redentor?’

‘Yes, we’re aware of it
— the transformation, but it was surely just visual trickery?’ Bathurst
responded.

‘Rio is finished, sir, its
populace are deranged, mothers have burned their infants alive, children have
hacked their parents to pieces, cannibalism is rife, scores have thrown
themselves from the roofs of skyscrapers in the business district, tens of
thousands have flocked to the new idol of death where they have been ritually
butchered by no apparent means. I have seen it with my own eyes, it is no
illusion but hell on Earth.
The girl is to blame.
’

Bathurst sipped some water,
ashen-faced. Breaking the rules, he reached into his inside breast pocket,
pulled out a crumpled pack of cigarettes and slipped one between dry lips,
lighting it with a trembling hand. He glanced at Mendez, Wise, around the
circle of representatives. ‘This administration cannot accept the theory that a
human being, however potent, however possessed, could be the cause of this
apocalyptic situation … ’

‘Mr President,’ Monique
Lombard, the French representative interjected. ‘May I ask if you can name any
force on Earth capable of replacing millions of gallons of freshwater with
sulphuric acid in the blinking of an eye? This is what happened at Lourdes.
Humanity has been beset by something wholly unnatural, something with power
outside our realm of understanding.’

The president inhaled
deeply and let the smoke out slowly through his open mouth. He leaned forward.
‘Mr Secretary General, Mr Wise, you will agree that these two cases —
countless others, can’t be explained by control of the human mind, nor understood
by any stretch of human logic?’

‘No, they can’t,’ Mendez
agreed. ‘Unless they haven’t happened.’

Bathurst fixed his eyes on
him. ‘ ... Are you suggesting that everything we’ve seen and experienced could
be part of the brainwashing process, that it’s all been an illusion, a global
deception?’

‘Maybe there
is
no girl,
no madness, no killing. Perhaps it is all in our heads?’

‘But if we’re all deluded,
how will we ever know?’ the president replied, frowning deeply. ‘How can we
separate fact from fiction, how can we reach a resolution?’

‘The terrorists don’t
expect us to reach a resolution, that’s their plan,’ Mendez continued. ‘They
expect we’ll wrestle what little collective conscience we still possess, delay
until our minds resemble porridge. Then they’ll be wiped clean like school
blackboards and
seeded
with new beliefs, new ethics: re-educated according to the teachings of the
Koran, probably through a second siren.’

‘This
is
insanity!’ Arzanah yelled, launching
his papers through the air towards the Secretary General. ‘Islam does not
advocate indoctrination!’

‘It will catapult the West
back into the dark ages, Mr President.’

Bathurst turned to the
Mexican. ‘Will
our
minds degenerate, Mr Mendez? Will we eventually lose our mastery of them?’

‘It’s impossible to
predict. We’ve got this far. We seem to have escaped the effects of the siren,
and the flash of light. Some repel the madness, others succumb and cannot
recover. Your own government in the United Kingdom is a case in question. You
know what your prime Prime Minis-

ter did to his family?’

Bathurst didn’t wish to be
reminded. His head spun with confusion and pain. But in his heart he felt glad
his friend, Anthony Glenister, had taken his own life three days after the
tragedy and he prayed that his soul was now at peace, although he doubted it
was.

‘Are there any other steps
we can take, Mr Mendez, any alternative options open to us? Do we have any
license with regards to time?’

Mendez shook his head. ‘The
governments of Afghan-istan and North Korea have each rejected three demands
to
 
permit UN disarmament teams to
enter their territory. The Islamic terrorists have refused to negotiate
further, and have released a statement through Saudi television denying the
existence of brainwashing weapons, describing the suggestion of their creation
and deployment as “
Having its basis in the neurosis of a decadent, immoral society that
knows its day of reckoning is approaching
”. There is no more time, Mr
President. We must act.’

Bathurst finished his cigarette
and stubbed it out on the heel of his shoe. ‘I’m sorry for smoking, ladies and
gentlemen,’ he smiled. ‘It’s a habit I thought I’d kicked into touch a long
time ago. Does anybody have anything else they would like to say?’ The silence
prickled his flesh.

‘ … In that case I suggest
a recess of one hour. We shall reconvene at twelve noon. Please do not be late,
we have an important decision to make.’

At eleven fifty-seven the five permanent,
and ten temporary members of the United Nations Security Council took their
seats. Bathurst was the last to settle, and cut a gaunt figure as he shuffled
sheets of documentation endlessly, reluctant to commence proceedings.
Eventually he took a
 
sip of water,
blew out his cheeks and began.

‘Mr Secretary General, distinguished
colleagues. I won’t beat about the bush. You’re all aware of the gravity of the
current situation, of the threat mass psychological manip-ulation poses to the
free world. The acquisition of nuclear arms by the Islamic terrorists in
Afghanistan and the development of the North Korean nuclear arms programme was
always likely to culminate in the necessity to make a decision having
far-reaching consequences for the human race, however difficult, however
disturbing that judgement may prove to be.

‘As we heard before the
recess, the Islamic terrorists and the administrations of Afghanistan and North
Korea have rejected all UN overtures to resolve the crisis, whilst their threat
to world peace has remained.

‘After discussion with the
Secretariat, It is with regret that I propose the following resolutions for
your consider-ation. Our understanding of the enigma, Kristin, our
comprehension of her involvement in things, is limited. Maybe we’ll never know
who, or what she is, but what we can
  
see is that she has become a deity to all those
unfortunate enough to have fallen under her control and at the very least she
serves as a figurehead, as their object of worship.
 
I propose that appropriate steps be taken with regards to
her, as a precautionary measure.’

‘
Appropriate steps
?’ Arzanah frowned. ‘Mr
President, are you suggesting ...
assassination
?’

‘ ... Yes,’ he swallowed. ‘
... That’s what I’m suggesting.’

‘ ... But that’s
monstrous!’

‘Mr President, this council
has never advocated viol- ence!’ Lombard protested.

‘No, but it has supported
action when action is justifiable and if we don’t act now it will be too late.
Secondly, I propose that the government of North Korea be given a period not
exceeding seventy two hours to allow a UN team into their country to locate and
disarm their weapons of mass destruction, and that the government of
Afghanistan be given a period not exceeding seventy two hours to allow a UN
team into their country to locate and disarm the weapons of mass destruction
held in its northern territories by the Islamic terrorists, who will be
instructed to reveal the whereabouts of any psychological weaponry in their
possession. All parties will be issued with a final warning that failure to
comply with these demands will be met with action of the utmost severity.’

There was absolute silence.

‘ ... Mr President ...
could you clarify what you mean by
utmost severity?
’ Arzanah asked.

‘ ... I move that
simultaneous nuclear strikes be ... ’

‘THIS
IS MADNESS!’

‘Your minds are
already
lost!’ exclaimed Wu Chong, the Chinese representative.

‘ ... be co-ordinated. The
targets will be Kabul, the location of the missile silo in northern
Afghanistan, Pyongyang, and the missile base in the Kangwon Province on the
eastern seaboard of North Korea.’

‘This council was formed to
protect the world, not to destroy it!’ Lombard exploded.

‘
If
it becomes necessary to execute the
second proposal, it will be for the survival of humanity, to stop those who
would corrupt our minds or kill us all — it will be for the greater
good!’

‘I’m sure a child, his
flesh ripped from his bones, lying next the blackened carcasses of his parents
would agree with you if he were able to.’

‘We in this council know
that decision making is sometimes agonisingly difficult, Mademoiselle Lombard, and
that the consequences of our resolutions may be hard to live with, but we’ve
been charged with the safeguard of society. If we cannot make the right
decision, if we don’t act on that decision, the repercussions could be truly
grave.’

Arzanah, Lombard and Wu
Chong rose to leave.

‘Will you please sit down!’
Bathurst shouted. ‘You are members of this council and your votes are required
... if you don’t agree with the resolutions, then vote against them.’

‘Would the council please
consider its stance on the two proposed resolutions laid down before it? We
shall break for one hour and reassemble at ten past one. Time is of the
essence, so I would ask you to be sure of your vote by
 
that time.’ He cleared his throat as he
gathered his papers together, pushed back his chair and left the room.

Precisely one hour later, hands were raised
or kept down, and the consensus of the council taken.

The first resolution, to
dispose
of
the enigma, Kristin, was passed by twelve votes to three. The second
resolution, to unleash four long-range, three megaton weapons upon the Islamic
terrorists and the people of Afghanistan and North Korea was approved by nine
votes to six — the narrowest margin possible, and the recommendations of
the Security Council handed to the General Assembly for authorization, a
process that was little more than academic.