Authors: Glenn Kleier
The Last Day
T
HE
L
AST
D
AY
IS READERS’ FIRST CHOICE
“Fascinating debut.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer
“Kleier's narrative is exciting.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“A futuristic thriller… an original and engrossing one, packed with action and numerous topical issues.”
—Chattanooga Free Press
“Sizzles with bioengineering, the miraculous, and the deepest mysteries of faith. An action-packed turn on the turn-of-the-century, it starts fast and roars to a spellbinding finish.”
—Peter Hernon, author of
Under the Influence and Earthly Remains
“Intense…entertaining.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Refreshing… Kleier lures us on like a Pied Piper.”
—Dean Ing, author of
The Ransom of Black Stealth One
“So full of hot topics, readers might burn their fingers turning pages. … Doesn't miss a beat… as smooth as silk … a perfect touch…. Will keep readers enthralled until the very end…. Don't expect to find a millennial thriller any better than this.”
—Booklist
“A masterful job…. Kleier's millennial vision is entertaining as well as provocative. … He has dissected the yin and yang of the human psyche confronted by spiritual crisis.”
—Arisona Republic
“Action-filled…. An exciting take on the Second Coming.”
—Macon Telegraph
“A spine-tingling mystery/adventure of the first order … a near-future thriller that challenges the reader's concepts of theology and science and our capacity for good and evil.”
—Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
“A fascinating, almost unbearably suspenseful scientific thriller. THE LAST DAY will hold your attention until the last page—and beyond.”
—Internet Writing Journal
“Provocative … unsettling.”
—Courier Journal (Louisville, KY)
“A fascinating novel … a very important book. Forget that it is a good, quick read, a provocative story, and a sure-fire movie plot; it is also a significant piece of theology. Maybe even a dangerous one.”
—L.E.O. Magazine
“Bound to stir up some controversy…. You're going to be hearing a lot about Glenn Kleier.”
—Herald-Leader
(Lexington, KY)
If you purchase this book without a cover you should be aware that this book may have been stolen property and reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher. In such case neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
WARNER BOOKS EDITION
Copyright © 1997 by Glenn Kleier
All rights reserved.
Warner Vision is a registered trademark of Warner Books, Inc.
Cover design by Tony Greco
Front cover photograph by Herman Estevez
Back cover photograph by John Lair
Warner Books, Inc.
Hachette Book Group,
237 Park Avenue,
New York, NY 10017
Visit our Web site at
www.HachetteBookGroup.com
A Time Warner Company
First eBook Edition: July-1999
ISBN: 978-0-446-93028-4
To all who confront the peculiar
physics of dogma,
piety and self-righteousness.
Contents
The Last Dayis Readers’ First Choice
My heartfelt gratitude to Ms. Jillian Manus of Manus and Associates for the extraordinary level of enthusiasm, expertise and intelligence with which she has so skillfully agented this project. You are a remarkable lady, Jillian. You made the entire process an absolute delight.
Special thanks to vice president and executive editor at Warner Books, Mr. Rick Horgan, and to his superb team of professionals. Rick, your keen insights and thoughtful suggestions were dead-on accurate and fostered many a valuable refinement Senior production editor Bob Castillo and copyeditor Fred Chase, you have unfailing eyes for detail. Working with all of you was a truly rewarding experience.
Ryan and Sean, thank you for your patience over the last several years in putting up with an often distracted dad. While it wasn't always easy typing with one or the other of you climbing into my lap, I wouldn't have had it any other way. I miss those days; they are special memories for me. (But you still have to wait till you're older to read this book!)
There are no words to express the debt of gratitude I feel toward my father and mother, Gene and Mary Rose Kleier. Thanks for putting up with a skinny, hyperactive, lippy little kid; and for planting inside him those core beliefs that have sustained him through all these years. I could not ask for more loving and generous parents man you.
And I save my deepest appreciation for my beloved wife, Pam, who is hot only beautiful and brilliant but infinitely understanding. You remain the most consummate human being it has ever been my privilege to know, and without your unflagging support, patience and assistance, this little allegory would not exist.
My love to all of you, always.
Glenn
WNN Television Studios, Times Square, New York 4:38
P.M
., Friday, December 24, 1999
J
esus Christ!” the first man exclaimed.
“More or less,” the second responded.
The two well-dressed TV executives sat alone in a World News Network editing suite as a series of bizarre, silent scenes played out on the huge video wall before them.
Towering on the screen was the face of a grinning, feverish-eyed, middle-aged man with a scruffy beard. He was dressed in a tattered robe. His long stringy hair was matted with blood that trickled from a laurel wreath of rusted barbed wire on his head. As the camera pulled back, a heavy wooden cross became visible across his shoulder. Behind him, a street sign read “Via Dolorosa.” A title font on the screen identified the man as “Douglas Bandy, former stockbroker from San Jose, CA.”
The first executive nodded appreciatively.
Emerging next on the large screen was a young family of five, also shabbily dressed, seated on the worn cobble-stones of what appeared to be an ancient market bazaar. The family extended their upturned palms to every passerby, and ultimately, to the camera taking the video. The font read: “The Étien Dubois family, formerly of Orléans, France.”
The video then cut to a wide scene of a highway choked with cars, buses, bicycles and animal-driven vehicles. Beyond, the contorted skyline of Jerusalem loomed in the distance.
“Here's where we come in with the historical material,” the second executive explained in a genteel English accent.
Obligingly, the video screen presented sweeping footage of a beautiful, elaborately embroidered wall tapestry. As the camera moved in to slowly migrate down the full length of the mural, an epic story unfolded.
“The Catastrophic Millennium Pilgrimages of
A.D.
999,” the title font described it. The sequence began with wealthy, medieval European families giving away their belongings to the poor and setting off for the Holy Land. On their journey, the travelers soon fell victim to terrible hardships. The tapestry depicted graphic scenes of marauders waylaying, pillaging, raping, enslaving and murdering the pilgrims. Those fortunate enough to survive the trek were then shown arriving, destitute, in the forbidden Jerusalem of the Muslims, left to starve in frustrated desolation.
“We'll add the voice-overs next week,” the Englishman commented, “and that will finish it.”
“An outstanding piece,” his cohort acknowledged, an expression of admiration spreading across his face. “It looks like your Millennium Eve special will be a huge success. Airtime's selling well all over the globe.”
“Was there ever any doubt?” the Englishman said, feigning surprise.
His associate emitted a short, snorting laugh. “I'll tell you what, Nigel, when you first proposed this whole idea, a lot of us here in the States thought you were crazy. I mean, forming special news teams, sending them all over the world at such expense to chase after a bunch of religious fanatics! I honestly thought corporate was going to take a bath on this one. But once again, you've shown your knack for creating news. You developed this millenarian craze into a major international story. Hell, if things go as well as we anticipate, maybe we'll run it again next year for the
real
turn of the millennium!”
“To be quite honest,” Nigel confessed, “it falls short of my expectations.”
“What do you mean?” the fellow executive protested. “The setup couldn't be more perfect! Your coverage of the millenarian movement over the last six months—the growing insanity in the Holy Land, Rome, Salt Lake City. All the crazy speculation about what's going to happen when the world odometer ticks over to the year 2000. The TV audience can't get enough of it! You were light-years ahead of the other networks, Nigel. You had the foresight.”
The Englishman remained unconvinced, wagging his head slowly. “The story lacks substance. These zealots may be entertaining, but they have no true credibility with our audience. They're a sideshow. A curiosity. I was hoping we'd eventually find something with a harder edge.”
“Like what?” his associate wondered.
“If only we'd been successful in getting one of the heavyweight religions aboard. A choice, ominous statement from the pope would have been nice. Or perhaps the discovery of some foreboding new Dead Sea Scroll. What our report needs is a jolt of drama. Something to give the evening a little more… impact.”
