The Sons of Destiny (The Reluctant Hero Trilogy Book 3) (10 page)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Magena

Magena saw Daniel walking toward Cranston and was concerned. “Get away from Alan, Daniel, while you can,” Magena told him. “There may be radiation in the air around him.”

“No,” said Daniel. “Cranston needs help.”

Magena didn’t like that answer as she looked at Daniel. “Please trust me.”

“Okay.”

Glancing around the area, Magena knew the Sons of Destiny had turned the tide and got rid of the Hive of Baal. Magena smiled when she realized that these were good men. She would take these stories back to her parents and share them with her family. “I want to thank you guys for your help. Without you, Daniel and I would be dead.”

“That’s right!” Levi said. “God led us to you two.”

“The minions would not have been here long after Dante’s death,” said Judah. “With no fighting skills, how could they possibly hope to defeat a human army and the Sons of Destiny? They went in like lambs to the slaughter!”

“They had no feelings,” said Daniel. “My father invented them.”

“True,” said Magena. “They had to disappear after Dante’s death anyhow.” She sniffed back tears. “How can we end this, Reuben?” Magena asked.

“We will take care of it for you,” said Reuben.

Magena realized that she had bitten off more than she could chew with the odds, so she backed off and watched.

She remembered the Bible stories of Jezebel that she heard in Vacation Bible School. Jezebel was used to not having to fight her own battles. That’s why she was murdered so easily once Ahab had been killed. He always protected her before. His army always protected her. But now she was dead and gone. Dante could not bring her back in the form of Yasmeen.

Magena’s mind flooded with thoughts of Dante DiBenedetto. Once she met him, she saw that he talked a lot. The words that came out of his mouth were not good. She had absorbed a lifetime of information from him in such a short time. How could one man be so ghastly and brilliant at the same time? She could not believe the wicked advances he had made in the modern world. She was now familiar with Dante’s worst possible traits in technology, the internet, and business. Dante’s ego was dangerous. His ability to use people and then throw them away, like garbage, was frightening. He was a monster unlike any other the world had ever known. Yet, he was Daniel’s father.

Considering her own self-preserving tendencies, she could have nothing to do with him. She needed friends who would build her up, not tear her down. If she managed to live through this new experience, she would never leave home again.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Daniel

Daniel had managed to break away from Levi and find his way back to Cranston, who was on his knees, having what appeared to be a complete heart attack. “Alan,” Daniel said, loud enough to jar Cranston back to reality.

“Is that you, Daniel?” Cranston replied, looking as if he had just awakened from a bad dream. He put another aspirin in his mouth and chewed it.

“Yes. Tell me what is going on.”

“This is too much for me. Your dad told me what he was doing to you. I thought he was joking. I never believed… I humored him, thinking that it would be okay in the end. He assured me that no one would get hurt, Daniel, since it was not reality. But people got hurt.”

“You can’t stress about it.”

Cranston looked up at Daniel, as tears flowed easily. “If I had thought for one moment that this was how this was going to turn out, I would never have…” He paused for a brief moment. “How could I prepare for this? I mean, really. I pride myself on my analytical mind.”

“I know.” Daniel stared straight ahead. “But now you’re ill.”

“I used to be able to examine all possible solutions to any problem and come out with a great answer, but this…”

“I know.” Daniel knew in spite of the anger he felt toward Cranston for his betrayal, he had to forgive him.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s tough,” Daniel returned with an expressionless face. “The tough things are what we have to do in the name of the Lord. I’m just learning that.”

Alan grabbed his chest again. “I keep having these pains.”

“We have to get you to a doctor.” He saw his father’s backpack lying to one side. He opened it and looked inside. “Hey, here are some nitroglycerin pills.”

Daniel took a second to look back at where his father’s remains were in open space. He sighed and continued, “I don’t have to tell you what kind of situation we’re in. Dad is gone. The keys to his SUV burned with him in his pocket.”

“I know.” He put a tablet under his tongue. “The nitroglycerin will work.”

“They were Dad’s. He had heart trouble. God rest his soul.”

Magena stepped to Daniel’s side and put her arm around his waist. “It’s not your fault. He’s not the only one who died. You just can’t take the blame.”

“May God have mercy on my father’s soul. I really don’t know if he had any love for anyone in his entire life,” said Daniel. “This is so sad.”

“He was a good businessman,” said Magena. “Remember that.”

“Okay.” Daniel sniffed and nodded his head. “I know he won’t be able to talk God out of the judgment day. I just wish I could have told him that I was in his corner much of the time. Maybe that would have made things better.”

Magena shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. How can you know?”

Daniel looked at Alan. “How are you doing?”

“Better. I think I’m going to be okay.” Alan clasped Daniel’s hand. “You know, Daniel, your father wanted to destroy you. I couldn’t help with that. So I hoped for a chance to help you. I knew that eventually someone would come along and help Dante crack the code, so he could find Jezebel’s treasure chest.”

“The treasure. This was all about her jewels?”

Alan removed a coin from his pocket. “This coin is only a teaser to what’s out there. Your father and I saw it when you two found the treasure underground. Although, I must admit that helping Dante create a
Jezebel
wasn’t easy.”

“That coin. It was on the chain around Yasmeen’s neck.” Daniel looked at it and nodded. “How did you get it, Alan?”

“It’s not the same one. We found more.”

“Really?” While Daniel was trying to think how that could be, Magena was talking about Dante. She said that she thought they should burn some candles for Dante before burying him. “That would be a nice gesture.”

Shaking his head, Daniel stood and frowned. “I don’t want to. But maybe I should.” He looked at the older man. “What do you think, Alan?”

“Sure.” Alan shrugged his shoulders.

Daniel said, “More than ever, I have a feeling I’ve just begun to learn about life.”

He then scanned the horizon and saw that all was quiet. The Sons of Destiny brought a measure of peace as they patrolled the area. The last of the minions either fell during the scrimmage or ran away. Dante’s men were gone.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Magena

All of the Sons of Destiny looked to each other for the consensus. Levi asked, “Do you want to burn candles?”

“I should do something before we put him in the ground.” Magena was quite serious.

Each of the Sons of Destiny nodded in agreement to let her pay her respects to the fallen. Levi said there were candles in the van.

All eyes were on her as she knelt down by Dante’s lifeless body, which was unrecognizable. “I am so sorry for what has happened. You were a lousy father to Daniel. Rest in the knowledge that your sacrifice will not have been in vain. You have a good son.”

Right as she was about to light the candles, Daniel inched his way closer so that he could be part of what was going on. Daniel turned his attention toward Cranston He stopped breathing altogether, with a pained expression on his face.

Daniel looked for another nitroglycerin in the bag. He was too late, Cranston’s face turned red as he fell down dead. “Daniel! Get away from there! Now!” Magena felt fear. “I think Alan is toxic.”

Daniel stumbled as he ran away. His heart raced and he didn’t look back. When he arrived by the tree, Reuben told him that the Sons of Destiny would dig three graves for Dante, Alan and Yasmeen.

Daniel closed his eyes and waited. He tried to contemplate the sacrifice that Cranston now made by trying to stop him from being contaminated by Dante’s ashes. He would have never thought that he was capable of a noble act, considering what he did to Daniel and Magena earlier.

After the three were buried, Magena put a burning candle on each grave. She asked God to have mercy on their souls. Daniel helped her up. They walked over to the Sons of Destiny and thanked them.

“What about Yasmeen? Was she ever real?” Judah asked.

“No,” said Daniel.

Reuben appeared to be shocked. “If she was just a balloon, what gave her the power?”

“Demons,” said Magena. “Now that Yasmeen is gone, I hope the evil ones are too.”

“It is over,” said Levi.

“What about your organization?” asked Daniel. “I had never heard of you before.”

“We sure don’t get our power from the devil!”

Daniel laughed. “I didn’t mean that. I just wondered who you are.”

“We’re Messianic Israelis.”

“So you don’t call yourselves Jews.”

Magena said, “They can’t.”

“We’re not all Jews,” said Levi. “Only the descendants of Judah are real Jews.”

“How did that happen?”

“You have to go way back to when King Solomon disobeyed God and collected wives and horses. So God divided the nation. The northern ten tribes became Israel. The southern two tribes became Judah. Thus, the nickname of Jews.”

“That is interesting. But all Israelis call themselves Jews now.”

“I guess that is true. They just got used to it.”

“We became one nation again in 1947 when the world recognized us. God has been blessing us ever since.”

Magena did not get involved but watched Daniel interact with the young men. Magena looked up to the sky with tears moistening her eyes. “I know that somewhere in all of this is your will, Lord. Somewhere, but I’m not sure where. I hope you have mercy on the souls of Alan Cranston and Dante and everyone else who died since we last talked. I don’t know if I can take any more of this. I’m not cut out for this kind of thing, dear God. I’m really not. I just want my old, boring life back. I also want to make sure that Daniel makes it through this diversion okay. I think I may be falling in love with him.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Daniel

Standing again under the tree, Daniel thought about Magena. He spoke out loud. “I wonder if this ordeal scarred Magena. I just don’t know.”

“Then maybe you should ask her if she’s okay.”

The voice came from behind him, as he saw a figure with hands on her hips. He knew who it was as soon as he heard her voice.

“Magena!” he called out in a high-pitched voice, as he ran toward her. They locked in a tight embrace and didn’t let go for several moments. And then he kissed her. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. Daniel! I thank God this is over!” Magena pulled away as tears of happiness covered her cheeks.

He gulped and wiped his eyes dry. “Yeah! I’m glad we’re both alive, too! What about the Sons of Destiny? Are we going back with them? What do you want to do?”

“Whoa, there!” she replied while chuckling. “I’ll tell you everything; just give me time.”

He inhaled with deep breaths, as he waited. “Okay.”

“Yes, we’re going back to the complex with them,” she said, with relief. “After all of the fireworks, it was all part of your father’s imagination and his scientific genius.”

“He was a strange man!” he exclaimed, with frustration and anger.

“We have to let him go, Daniel! There’s more.” She smiled. “The Sons of Destiny are part of a future army of God. They have sworn to follow Jesus to the ends of the earth. They have made it their A-1 priority. All of their resources are being put into doing just that.”

He looked at her suspiciously. “You sure.”

“They told me to tell you that we need to let this experience go, Daniel. We need to distance ourselves as far away from Dante’s army as we can, and forget everything to do with the virtual world. Jezebel’s treasures are real and are being placed in a vault for future study. Reuben said that if even one piece was found by… well… anyone, it could be disastrous. He said gold found in the virtual world would cripple the gold market. We are to let it all go.”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Do you think it’s that easy? I mean, my dad was up to his eyeballs in that virtual thing! Yasmeen would have killed me if it wasn’t for Alan jumping in and helping me!”

“It’s over now,” she replied, almost in a whisper. “I saw something going on from where I was, but I had no idea what was real and what wasn’t.”

Daniel nodded nervously. “Yeah, the dead are buried. It’s the living I’m worried about right now.”

“That is a good idea.” Magena turned to Reuben. “I have an unsolved problem in my mind. Maybe you can help.”

“I’ll sure try.”

“The real Shroud of Turin: Did we ever have it?”

He clasped her hand and shook his head. “No, dear lady, you two were never close to it. It is in safekeeping in Rome.”

Daniel said, “May I ask you a question as well, Reuben?”

“Of course.”

“I want to know about the Sons of Destiny. What do you guys do?”

“We help people—all kinds of people. For example, Antisemitism is thriving in Europe right now. It is no surprise to hear of trouble there. Indeed, the issue raises an extremely troubling question. More than 70 years after the Holocaust, Europe hasn’t really changed.”

“So what will your team do?”

“A couple of us will go to Europe and rescue some Jews. Bring them to Israel.”

“That is great.” Daniel was puzzled. “But why do they pick on Jews?”

“Here is an example: Israel grows bumper crops of produce. The products sent to Europe are set aside and labeled that they are Jewish goods from Judea, Samaria—the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. Europe labels products purchased from Israel to keep people from buying them. But they do not label products as made in Chinese-occupied Tibet or Turkish-occupied Cyprus.” He sighed. “The Palestinian Authority has twice rejected statehood in Gaza and East Jerusalem, when it is promoted by Israel. We just try to get the world to see that Israelis are good people.”

“Magena seems to be proud of you for rescuing us.”

“We do rescue work a lot.” He shuffled his feet. Right now, we help Kurdish authorities rescue misled girls from Sweden who travel to Syria and Mosul to become young brides for radicals.”

“Ouch!”

“Swedish authorities asked us to work with the Kurds to rescue the girls before they are trapped in a marriage that they can’t get out of. The Kurdistan region keeps them until we can escort them to Swedish authorities to return them to their homes.”

“Can the Kurds be trusted?”

“Oh yes. The Kurds are a Middle Eastern ethnic group that is kind. Primarily, they occupy an area that encompasses parts of Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Some members of the group have long sought to establish a Kurdish state in the region, but it hasn’t happened yet.”

“Then they could rescue more little girls, huh?”

“That’s right.”

Magena was standing by, restlessly listening. “I need to change the subject.” She forced a smile. “Daniel, you need to check to see what you’re entitled to now that your father…”

He smirked. “I’m entitled to a lot. I was never any good about handling stuff like that. Figures and investing and… blah!”

“Did you just say,
blah
?” She laughed. She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “If you let me, I can help you. I know of a few reservations that would be happy to give asylum to an amazing young man who saved one of their own.”

“I don’t recall ever saving your life,” he returned. “I think I put your life in danger more than anything. It was you who figured out a bunch of stuff.”

She waved her free hand in the air. “It’s all in the details, my friend. I know several people who can help with the investing and such. With the money and resources that you have access to now, there isn’t anything you can’t do. You can go anywhere to put this as far behind you as possible.”

“You mean
us?
”
he said with a Cheshire grin.

She laughed again. “Thank you! If what you said is true about me then you can’t spend one waking moment without my natural born leadership, guidance, and overall charming demeanor.”

“You forgot to mention good looks,” he said while blushing.

She turned a little red herself. “Uh… wow! Do you really think…? I mean, do you look at me that way? Oh, that was stupid! I’m sorry. I just…”

He put one finger to her lips and quietly shushed her. “Look, Mags. I know this has all happened so fast that we didn’t even have…”

He stopped short with a blank look on his face. “Wait!”

“What?” she barked, eagerly.

“How are we getting out of here?”

“
Don’t worry about that
,
Dans.
The Sons of Destiny are waiting for us.” She pointed to the vans lined up nearby. “You were saying?”

He had a relaxed smile. “I really like you. Through all of this, you were my rock. Along with God, I mean. He is solid, and you
rock and roll
. I want you by my side for as long as you’ll have me. It’s time we got to know more about each other. One thing, though. I don’t want you to start calling me Dans. Don’t start that.”

“We’ll see,
Dans
,” she said, as they walked toward the waiting van, hand in hand.