The Lost Apostles

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Authors: Brian Herbert

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Table of Contents

THE LOST APOSTLES

Book 2 of the Stolen Gospels Series

Brian Herbert

Copyright 2011 DreamStar, Inc

Digital Edition 2011

WordFire Press

www.wordfire.com

eISBN: 9781614750321

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the copyright holder, except where permitted by law. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously.

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Book Description

Long ago, the ancient gospels of Jesus’s female apostles were stolen by powerful churchmen and relegated to the rubbish heaps of history. But those apostles have been reborn as female children, and are dictating new gospels that will be incorporated into a radical new religious text, the
Holy Women’s Bible
.

At a hidden women’s fortress in Greece, the teenager Lori Vale develops a paranormal relationship with one of the reincarnated children, and soon begins to suspect that she may have been connected to the female apostles of Jesus in ancient times, when the Son of God walked the earth and preached to the people of the Holy Land.

While information about Lori’s past is unfolding, she finds herself caught in a violent religious conflict that has immense historical repercussions. Powerful, brutal men want to suppress the emerging gospels of the she-apostles, men who are hell-bent on destroying the radical women and their heretical texts. The women race to get their material completed and published before they are annihilated, but they have another big problem: the twelfth she-apostle—Martha of Galilee—has not been found yet, and the other female apostles say she holds a dark secret that could do enormous damage to the cause of women, and to the entire planet. . . .

Dedication

For my talented, special daughters, Julie, Kim, and Margaux. As women, you are the members of a very select group—and you are far more complex and interesting than men.

Acknowledgements

Over the years there have been numerous advisers and editors on this project, and the suggestions of Jan Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Robert Gottlieb, Matt Bialer, Martin H. Greenberg, John Silbersack, Mary Alice Kier, and Anna Cottle have all been greatly appreciated. I am also grateful to Rebecca Moesta-Anderson, for her work on the e-book edition of this novel.

Introduction

The Lost Apostles

(Sequel to
The Stolen Gospels
)

This novel is the second half of an epic story that my wife Jan and I originally conceived in the mid-1990s, a tale that became so large in the writing process that it eventually had to be divided into two novels—
The Stolen Gospels
and
The Lost Apostles
.

As I have said in the introduction to
The Stolen Gospels
, this project has a long and checkered history, and the story has never before been published in traditional form. In part, this has to do with the story’s radical nature—both from a feminist and religious standpoint—and the fact that most of the submissions my literary agents made involved publishing it as one huge book. In addition, it spanned several literary genres—containing elements of a religious thriller, combined with science fiction and fantasy. Most publishers prefer to stay within one genre or another.

Eventually a publisher did offer me a contract—a contract that was never signed. So, this epic story was never published. Until now.

At long last, sixteen years after Jan and I began brainstorming this far-reaching, heroic story, I am pleased to finally make both novels available in e-book form.

Brian Herbert

September 10, 2011

Brief summary of the events in
The Stolen Gospels

Teenager Lori Vale and her mother attend a goddess circle meeting in a Seattle suburb, unaware of a bitter rivalry between the event organizers (United Women of the World) and their archenemies the male-supremacy Bureau of Ideology. During the meeting, the BOI launches a violent commando attack against the group, hoping to kill the UWW’s second in command (Dixie Lou Jackson), who is making a guest appearance. In an attempt to save Lori’s seriously injured mother, Dixie Lou connects her to a life support system on an escape aircraft, taking Lori along as well. Lori’s mother dies. Dixie Lou—sensing that she has known Lori Vale before, and that it is important—takes her into custody and flies her to the UWW headquarters in Greece, effectively kidnapping her.

At the secret headquarters, a heavily guarded fortress in an ancient Greek monastery, a group of radical women is creating an earthshaking religious text, the
Holy Women’s Bible.
The new sacred book will include the
Old Testament
and the
New Testament
, edited to alter gospels that are detrimental to the interests of women, such as passages asserting that they should obey their husbands, remain silent in churches, and suffer the burden of Eve’s sins.

The teenager learns that a third section of the
Holy Women’s Bible
is even more of a bombshell, the
Testament of the She-Apostles
. It asserts that Jesus Christ had 24

apostles, not 12, and that half of them were women called “she-apostles.” Eleven she-apostles have been reincarnated in modern times as female children, and are revealing new female-oriented gospels about the life of Jesus, stories that were omitted from the
Bible
by male church authorities who decided what to include in the
Bible
and what to leave out of it, in order to assert the power and dominance of men over women. According to evidence in the hands of the radical women, the ancient gospels of the she-apostles were stolen by such men and relegated to the rubbish heaps of history.

At the monastery, Lori develops a paranormal relationship with one of the reincarnated children (eliciting a valuable scriptural story from the child)—and Lori soon begins to suspect that she may have been connected to the female apostles of Jesus in ancient times, when the Son of God walked the earth and preached to the people of the Holy Land.

While information about Lori’s past is unfolding, she finds herself caught in a BOI-UWW war, a violent conflict that has immense historical repercussions. Powerful, brutal men want to suppress the emerging gospels of the she-apostles, men who are hell-bent on destroying United Women of the World and their heretical texts. The women race to get their material completed and published before they are annihilated, but they have another big problem: the twelfth she-apostle—Martha of Galilee—has not been found yet, and the other she-apostles say she holds a dark secret that could do enormous damage to the cause of women, and to the entire planet.

Lori is given some freedom to move around the monastery, but not to leave. She finds herself falling in love with Alex Jackson (the son of Dixie Lou), a young man who dislikes his own mother. Alex brings Lori into a conspiracy to rescue the she-apostles, who are being abused by the UWW in their obsession to extract new gospels from them. The rescue attempt fails, and the two of them (along with their co-conspirators) are imprisoned. Before their capture, Lori and Alex witness a murder committed by Dixie Lou.

Soon afterward, the monastery is attacked by the Bureau of Ideology. Lori, Alex, Dixie Lou, the eleven she-apostles, and a handful of others escape in four small aircraft, and fly north across the Mediterranean Sea. . . .

Part One

WILDERNESS

Chapter 1

The unknown is a double-edged sword, concealing both the sublime and the terrible.

—Amy Angkor-Billings, before her capture and crucifixion by the Bureau of Ideology

March 2, 2034 . . .

Satellites were of no use in the powerful storm, as thick, raging clouds prevented electronic eyes from observing the battlefield in the mountains of Greece. At his Bureau of Ideology office across the world in Washington state, a large, blond-haired man hung onto hope, but he felt extreme frustration. Styx Tertullian needed to see, needed immediate information—but the communication systems had gone offline, including the Internet, the radio, and phone services. For all he knew, the enemy headquarters at Monte Konos had already been completely destroyed, along with the heretical women and their blasphemous
Holy Women’s Bible
. He prayed it was so.

Or his archenemy might have pulled off something startling, turning the tables on his attack forces and annihilating them. The vile United Women of the World were resourceful enough, and God knew they could very well accomplish something like that, especially under the cover of bad weather. They might even show up here at BOI headquarters for a surprise onslaught.

Despite all of the intelligence reports he had received, the Bureau of Ideology leader harbored a nagging worry that the UWW headquarters in Greece was just a decoy, a diabolical facade designed to divert BOI attention and conceal the women’s true military intentions. The thought chilled him to the core. His defensive forces were on full alert here, but were they enough?

It was one of the problems he’d experienced with his former boss, Minister Culpepper, a father figure to him, but a man who had been foolishly incapable of grasping the terrible extent of the danger from these women—leaving Styx no option except to stab the old man to death and get him out of the way.

During his tenure, Culpepper had treated the UWW as little more than an annoyance, like insects to be swatted occasionally. He had procrastinated, fumbled, and made bad decisions. Styx, on the other hand, had a better way of dealing with those women, using decisive, deadly force. Pursue them to the ends of the earth; leave them no place to hide, nowhere to breathe. Exterminate them.

My attack squadron should be reporting something to me by now . . . unless there’s no one to do it . . . unless they’re all dead.

It was a preposterous thought, he tried to convince himself. He was worrying too much. In his position, a leader shouldn’t panic; he had to remain composed at all times—not only in the outward face he revealed to others, but internally, in the face he showed God.

The thought of God’s presence always comforted Styx Tertullian, calming him immeasurably. He tried to tell himself the Lord Almighty would not allow anything to go wrong now, at this critical point in time. God would not allow heretics to destroy the sacred Bureau.

Agonizing minutes passed, and finally Styx received a phone signal over the secure line. Nervously, he held the receiver in his hand, and heard the deep voice of the unit commander, Major Allion Smithee. “Monte Konos destroyed, sir. We blew the top off the bloody mountain!”

“Fantastic! And the women?”

“They must be dead, sir. Except for those aboard four small aircraft that escaped and disappeared into the storm.”

“Escaped, you say? Disappeared?” Styx wanted to strangle the man for his incompetence and stupidity.

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