Target: Point Zero (44 page)

But the universe could be a funny place as well as a mysterious one. Sometimes it would rely on the Oort Cloud to provide a cosmic joke. One of the comets would stray just enough toward the sun to get caught in its gravitational pull and thus begin a long, perilous journey inward. In Chloe’s dream, she could see exactly that kind of thing happening. A massive comet many times larger than what would be considered normal had been captured by the sun’s attraction and was slowly but surely heading into the solar system. But in her dream, Chloe could see a gigantic hand actually pushing the comet, steering it, controlling its movements as it began to tumble at a velocity rising to 100 miles per second. And behind the gigantic hand came a screech that echoed across the cosmos. It was a rather frightening sound—and an indistinguishable one as well. Was it a man’s voice or a woman’s? It was hard to tell. But in Chloe’s dream, the voice belonged to what she perceived to be the Supreme Being.

God was laughing.

This hand had flicked the gigantic comet not just toward the sun, but right at the planet Earth. It must have happened centuries earlier, for the trip from the Oort Cloud to the inner solar system was a long one, even at a speed of 360,000 miles an hour.

That was the cruel thing about cosmic jokes.

It could take eons before the punchline was delivered.

When Chloe woke up in tears some time later, two monks were standing over her bed.

Though bound to a life of celibacy and denial of earthly pleasures, the pair of holy men could not help but look down at her lovely naked body and begin thinking thoughts they shouldn’t.

She stirred and was surprised that her eyes and cheeks were so wet. The men startled her for a moment—she caught them looking and quickly pulled the lambskin back around her. But she knew them and knew they would not harm her and that the only reason they were here was because they were concerned for her.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked, wiping away the tears.

“We heard you weeping,” one monk said, gathering his saffron robes around him. “And…”

“And?”

“And things are wrong… outside.”

“What disturbed you?” the second monk asked. “Why were you crying in your sleep?”

Chloe thought a moment—then it came flooding back to her. The huge comet. The gigantic hand. The frightening laugh.

She told them everything and began crying again, and the monks did, too. They really didn’t have to hear very much. They knew what she had dreamed, knew what it meant. They sat down on her bed and hugged her. All concern of modesty forgotten, she allowed the lambskin to slip away and hugged them back.

“The stars have begun to fall,” one of the monks whispered. “Just as it was written. Now it is only a matter of time…”

They sat there, the three of them, and cried until morning.

By that time, the wind outside had picked up again and the blowing snow had returned.

Mack Maloney is the author of numerous fiction series, including Wingman, Chopper Ops, Starhawk, and Pirate Hunters, as well as
UFOs in Wartime: What They Didn’t Want You to Know
. A native Bostonian, Maloney received a bachelor of science degree in journalism at Suffolk University and a master of arts degree in film at Emerson College. He is the host of a national radio show,
Mack Maloney’s Military X-Files
.

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Copyright © 1996 by Brian Kelleher

Cover design by Michel Vrana

978-1-4804-0677-3

This edition published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media

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