Three (6 page)

The first agent approached
Oliver and led him to a chair in the kitchenette.  “I’m Albert Peterson, a
certified medic.  Please sit while I examine your injury.  Agent Baker will
interview you and then examine your apartment.”  Peterson first examined the
pupils of Oliver’s eyes and then looked closely at the lump on the back of his
head.  “Looks like you suffered a mild concussion.  Have you felt any nausea or
experienced double vision?”

“Only some confusion right
after he hit me.”

“How do you know it was a
man?”

“I smelled his after-shave. 
I’m not sure which brand, but I could later identify it by smell if you need
that information.”

“You may have some headaches,
but otherwise you will be fine to continue your normal activities.  Try using
an ice pack for the rest of the afternoon.”

Baker then asked, “Was
anything stolen or damaged?”

Oliver had made note of the
open drawer containing his correspondence.  “He may have been looking through
my letters and university memos; that drawer has been opened.”

“Let’s go through those
papers one-by-one to see if anything’s missing.”

The three men moved from the
kitchen to Oliver’s study and slowly went through the letters and memos.  They
had obviously been examined by the intruder because they were removed from
their folders and hastily dropped back into the drawer, probably when Oliver
opened his front door. 

“I don’t think he took
anything,” said Oliver after the inventory.

“Well, call us if you find
anything that might help us identify the intruder,” said Baker as he handed
Oliver his card.  The two then examined Oliver’s front door frame and verified
that it could still be secured by the dead-bolt lock.  

“You’re lucky he didn’t hit you
with this pry-bar he used to force your front door,” said Peterson as he
retrieved it from the bushes and placed it in a plastic sleeve.  “We’ll let you
know if we find anything, but this looks like an attempted burglary.  You
apparently interrupted it before anything was stolen.  We plan to check local
police records concerning similar break-ins in this area.  We’ll tell Clark
what we have found.  You should be ok to continue your assignment with him.”

Oliver thanked the two agents
as he walked with them to their car.  Returning to his apartment, he began
preparing for his flight to Texas.  He collected the notes he would need for
the trip and repacked his small carry-on case for his short stay in Waxahachie. 
Then he set himself to the task of carefully securing his apartment for his
time away.  He closed and locked the windows in his bedroom and study. 

After finishing, he stood
examining his study, again wondering what the intruder was looking for in his
letters.  Looking up from the letter drawer he saw the two pictures he had left
lying on his desk, among the notes and paper.  They had not been touched, but
again he felt the surge of emotion, knowing that Alice was his only remaining
family.  How could he protect her?  He had just been attacked; would she also
be in danger?  The FBI agents had assured him that she would immediately be
placed under their protection, but he still felt responsible for her safety. 

He turned on his laptop and
studied Peter’s words, “You must find the three”.  Below these words he wrote
“The Father Abraham conspiracy” followed by a question mark in bold lettering. 
Looking at what he had written, Oliver said to the laptop and the empty study, “I
promise you, Peter, I will find the three.”

And the plenty shall not be known in the land

By reason of that famine following;

For it shall be very grievous.

-
Genesis 41:31

Four months earlier, in mid-February,
Joshua Cohen had left Jerusalem with his two companions, Enoch and Joel, enroute
to Australia.  The three were former members of a special-forces unit of the
Israeli army, formed of Haredi soldiers.  The Haredi sect of Judaism followed
the Torah strictly and had been exempt from military service for many years,
but had been allowed to serve in a special division called the Nahal Haredi. 
This division eventually became one of the best trained fighting units of the
Israeli Army.  However, some years earlier Joshua’s unit came under
investigation by a military tribunal.  Some members had been accused of
attempting to open tunnels under Temple Mount in order to gain access to the
original Holy of Holies at the center of Solomon’s second temple.  Since this
location is now the Foundation Stone of the Dome of the Rock, one of the most
sacred places in Islam, such tunneling is taken very seriously, and considered
a crime in Israel. 

At the military trial, Enoch,
Joel, and a third member of Joshua’s unit, each of whom had been found with
excavation tools, were questioned.  The actual tunnel that had been discovered
led twenty feet into Temple Mount.  In fact this twenty-foot tunnel was a
diversion constructed to hide the major work that had been going on for more
than a year and was still in progress.  The three admitted having carried out
the digging, driven by their zeal to gain access to the central part of the old
temple.  Their excuse for having disobeyed the law was their desire to get
close to the temple of Solomon. 

The three senior officers
hearing the trial then excused the young soldiers and called Colonel Joshua
Cohen to stand before them.  “Colonel Cohen, you realize the seriousness of the
charges against these young soldiers of your unit.  Such tunneling is
prohibited by Israel and Jordan and can easily lead to more violence and loss
of life here in Jerusalem.  We are a city of three major religions and must not
allow lawlessness, no matter how innocent, to create a state of warfare. 

“As the senior officer of
these young men, you are ultimately responsible for their actions.  We
therefore find you guilty of illegal excavation.  We shall dissolve your
special-forces unit and strip you of your rank.” 

The irony of this sentence
was that it was based on the discovery of a false tunnel.  Nothing was ever
found to suggest a major tunneling effort was being carried out.  Joshua had
hoped the naïve dig would not be taken seriously.  Nevertheless, even this small
tunnel was considered a major infraction of the law.  The unit was disbanded in
order to placate the surrounding Muslim and Jewish communities. Its senior officer,
now stripped of his rank, had been asked by his own neighbors and friends to
leave their community for fear that reprisals would be taken against them as
well as him.

The long and distinguished
military career of Colonel Joshua Cohen had ended in disgrace.  His unit had
received numerous commendations as effective fighters, successful in all of the
dangerous missions assigned to them.  But, in one afternoon, based on a minor
infraction, his long and honorable career had become, not a badge of honor, but
a mark of banishment.  He was not even welcome in his own synagogue, and had
become an outcast from his own people.  His bitter resentment had smoldered for
two years until he was approached by an American preacher named Benton
Spencer. 

This Christian holy man had
acknowledged Joshua’s honorable military career and had appealed to his ego to
join in a holy quest.  “Colonel Cohen, I share your passion for the restoration
of the temple in Jerusalem to its Jewish origins, but first we must defeat the
idol worshipers at all their other temples.”  Spencer had cited prophecy which
clearly indicated the restoration and cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem
could not occur until Satan worship around the world was first destroyed.  “As
was prophesied, those who have been chosen by Satan now come to three temples
to declare that God is a particle, an idol to be worshiped by the whole world!” 
Reminding Joshua of the prophesy found in the 12
^th
chapter of the
book of Daniel, he said, “I have come to you Colonel Cohen to bring you the
prophet’s warning of the End of Days.  The desecration is now taking place, and
the end will be upon us in 1,335 days, on June 15, 2014.  We must now take up
the fight to bring about the New Jerusalem, before this time of final judgment.” 

In particular the Reverend Spencer
had identified Fermilab, in the United States, CERN, in Europe, and The Dark
Sector Lab, at the South Pole, as the three temples that had found this idol,
left for them by Satan.  The Reverend assured Joshua that he had the wealth, as
well as the proper knowledge of prophecy, necessary to carry out the ridding of
the earth of satanic idol worshippers, as well as the restoration of the New
Jerusalem.  Spencer convinced Joshua that he would be celebrated if he led an attack
on one of the three places of Idol worship.  Joshua’s own desire to redeem
himself led him to join Reverend Spencer in this fight against evil.

This trip taken by Joshua,
Joel, and Enoch to Australia and then on to New Zealand was the first phase in the
carefully planned attack that Joshua and his team would make on the satanic
temple called The Dark Sector Laboratory, hidden at the South Pole.  The
destruction of this “dark temple” could be carried out only by carefully
following ancient prophecy.  According to Spencer, the actions that Joshua and
his two companions would take in the next few months were pre-ordained by God,
as had been the ancient plagues inflicted on Pharaoh that had led the
Israelites out of their bondage in Egypt.  Having participated in the illegal
tunneling and then being tasked to continue the sacred act of purifying the
temple, Enoch and Joel now believed they were consecrated to this mission, and were
determined to see it through to a successful conclusion.

As their flight made its way
across the Indian Ocean, Joel asked, “Why are we going to the Antarctic to
attack idol worshipers?”

“We must overcome Satan even
here, at the bottom of the world, in order to ensure that our own temple can be
purified.  Our attack on this temple is only one of a series of coordinated
attacks.  Others will be carried out in Europe and the United States later this
year.”

Enoch then asked, “Are we
going to have to carry out our operation at the South Pole?”

“It won’t be necessary for us
actually to travel to the Pole; our mission is simply to guarantee that famine
will bring the judgment of Yahweh upon those idol worshipers.  Once we are
settled into our quarters in New Zealand, I will give you all the details of
our mission.”

After landing in Sydney, Australia,
Joshua, Joel, and Enoch claimed their baggage and worked their way through
customs.  Then they transferred to a second flight to Christchurch, New
Zealand.  Following this second leg of their journey, over the Tasman Sea, they
finally arrived in South New Zealand.  All three had slept during much of the
flights and were well rested upon arrival at the Christchurch Airport.

Now the first part of their
complex attack on the idol worshipers at the South Pole could begin.  Finding a
small apartment to rent within walking distance of the airport, they began
laying out the details of their attack on The Dark Sector Laboratory, at the
Amundsen-Scott Station.

 Joshua, along with Reverend
Spencer, had followed the schedules for the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
supply manifests, having hacked into the email account of the supply clerk
there in Christchurch.  They’d learned that in four days the overland transport
of the food supplies for the winter crew of 40 to 50 researchers at the Pole
would begin.  A team of three workers had been hired and would be sent to
McMurdo, at the nearest shore of the Antarctic, to help with the loading of the
food crates on Sno-Cat trailers for delivery to the Dark Sector Lab.

Joshua had managed to modify
the list of workers and replace the three names that were to be picked up in
Christchurch with his own as well as those of Joel and Enoch.  He had sent
letters of regret to the three original local men with a forged signature of
the dispatch clerk. 

Joshua downloaded the identification
forms for himself and Joel and Enoch.  “Tomorrow we will take a five-hour
flight to McMurdo, in the Antarctic, where we will join three other workers and
be trained to operate the hydraulic fork-lifts used in the loading process. 

“Who are the other three
workers?”

“They are stationed at
McMurdo.  They have already packed the food supplies in standard wooden crates. 
These crates are now stored in the aircraft hangar at the McMurdo airstrip,
waiting to be loaded onto trailers and transferred to the Pole by a caravan of
Sno-Cats.” 

Joshua studied all the data
he and Spencer had collected about the Antarctic supply depot at McMurdo.  He
saw that this large hangar also sheltered the single LC-130 aircraft used for
summer flights to the Pole; but now as winter approached, all travel to and
from the Pole would stop.  During the southern winter, when the ice road had
been drifted over with snow and made impassible, flights of this large
four-engine turboprop aircraft would be the only way to reach the Pole, but
would only be used in the case of a dire emergency.  However, at the present
time in March, these ice roads were open, providing a safe land route to the
Pole.  Regular transport of men and supplies was done by Sno-Cat.

Reviewing the supply manifests
to McMurdo, Joshua had found, as Reverend Spencer had indicated, that among the
crated supplies in the hangar were crates of mechanical items and a large over-supply
of motor oil and hydraulic fluid.  Joshua’s mission was to switch these crates
of oil and hydraulic fluid for the food crates prior to their loading for
overland shipment to the Pole.

Studying all this information,
including detailed plans of the hangar and surrounding quarters, Joshua said,
“Joel, on the first night in McMurdo, after a day of training on loading
procedures, sneak out of our quarters after everyone’s asleep.  Take up a
hidden position, within the hangar, and make careful notes on the overnight
guard making his patrol of the supply hangar.  At McMurdo we will be in continuous
twilight so you must remain hidden.  The following night you, Enoch, and I must
be able to carry out the exchange of crates without detection by a roving guard.”

“Will I need a weapon,
Colonel?”

“Not on this part of our
mission.  Our weapons must stay here in New Zealand.  There must be no hint of
an attack until these false food crates are opened this coming May or June.”

“What kind of attack would we
have to make then?” asked Enoch.

Joshua then outlined the plan
of action for the following few months. “We must first prepare the false food
crates and make sure they arrive and are stored at Amundsen-Scott Station with
no suspicion as to their true content.  They will be opened sometime in late
May or early June, when winter has set in and has isolated those idolaters at
this dark satanic temple.  You both will remain here in New Zealand until the
completion of our mission, while I return to help carry out the next phase of
our final cleansing of our true temple in Jerusalem. 

“You must disable both the
LC-130 at McMurdo, and later the one here at Christchurch.  By the time it becomes
necessary to disable this last LC-130, our attack will be known and weapons may
be necessary to complete the mission.  The final stage of your mission here in
Christchurch must be considered a combat operation.”

“How can we disable the
McMurdo aircraft so that it looks like an accident?” asked Enoch.

Joshua reached into his
pocket and removed two pairs of samarium-cobalt magnets. “Enoch, you and Joel
will continue to work in McMurdo, with the supply trains.  When the hard winter
begins to set in, the supply team will be recalled back here to Christchurch. 
Prior to leaving, you must place these magnets on either side of a turbine
blade deep within each of two engines on one side of the McMurdo aircraft.  If
the LC-130 is called upon to rescue the worshipers at the Dark Temple, these
magnets will cause the engines to fail prior to take-off.”

“I will carry out this mission
as you have ordered,” responded Enoch, taking the magnets.

“Now, Joel,” asked Joshua, “is
everything in order in Jerusalem?”

“Yes, Colonel.  The work has
been completed, and the tools you requested are in place.”

“Excellent work.  I’m proud
of both of you, and only wish that I could award you the military commendations
you deserve.”

As his commander spoke these
words of praise, Enoch proudly clasped the eagle pin of the Nahal Haredi in his
pocketed right hand, his feeling of pride swelling in his chest.  Although he
would never again be able to wear this coveted unit insignia, he had continued
to carry it, hidden in his pocket.

The following morning the
three helped bring three large Sno-Cats and eight tracked trailers up the ramp
of the large LC-130.  They assisted in securing each item of cargo to the
tie-downs, so that nothing would shift during flight.  Joshua, Joel, and Enoch
then found their seats near the front of the cargo bay and prepared themselves
for the long eight-hour flight to McMurdo airfield.  During the flight Joshua
slept or sat in silent contemplation while Joel and Enoch shared ancient songs
with one another, one brooding over his feelings of revenge while the other two
shared the joy of a holy mission.