Conquest: Rise of the Fifth Horseman (The Fifth Horseman Series Book 1) (9 page)

Chapter Fifteen: Interrogation

And
it came to pass that these Watchers began to tempt man insomuch that man might
also yield up their souls as fodder for the Leviathan; but when the sons of men
had increased, in those days there were born unto them fair and beautiful
daughters…

–
Methuselah 9:1 –

As the door slammed
shut, Allan could hear the bolt turn. His stomach growled again as he stared at
the empty plate lying on the table he was handcuffed to. In the past twenty-four
hours he had only eaten a measly sandwich for lunch. He sat alone and stared
across at the two-way mirror where he knew his every move was being monitored
from the other side. The female officer who had just left the room had been his
third interrogator since he had been booked last night. Though he had repeated
his story again to her, she too didn’t seem to believe him.

Resting his head on his
arm, he replayed last night’s events in his mind. After he had approached the
officer back at Buckingham Fountain, there was a sudden flurry of panic as the
officer abruptly grabbed his radio and issued a set of orders. Within seconds,
a crew of paramedics rushed over to Allan and forced him down upon a stretcher.
One of them tore open his shirt and several buttons ripped off. She scrambled
to feel around the dried blood to find his wound. After a few seconds, she
stepped back in consternation. She slowly stepped backward in confusion as
another paramedic reached down and attempted to find his wound, assuming his
colleague had suddenly felt lightheaded. After he too felt around and found
nothing, he suddenly instructed the other two to hold Allan down as he
struggled to break free. The man then rushed over to where his colleague was
sharing a heated discussion with the officer who Allan had originally
approached.

By this point, John had
made himself scarce. Before Allan could blink, he was being handcuffed by a
pair of officers despite his protests of innocence and dragged to a squad car.
As one of them placed his hand on Allan’s head and roughly forced him into a
sitting position in the back seat, Allan caught a glimpse of John’s silhouette
hiding behind a bush near the street. He screamed out in rage at the coward,
but his screams fell upon deaf ears.

After booking, he sat
in a cell for over an hour despite his multiple demands to speak with an
attorney from his law firm. He was then brought into the same interrogation
room where he now sat. With his left ankle cuffed to the metal chair, his lower
back and buttocks had become very sore over the past several hours. Though an
accusation had not been expressed, it was implied by all three of his
interrogators that Allan was the murderer of an unknown entity. Though
frustrated, he was certain that during his most recent interrogation he had
finally gained some ground. The female officer had agreed to take a blood
sample from Allan and compare them to the samples collected from both the crime
scene and Allan’s shirt.

He snapped his head up
as he heard the familiar click of the deadbolt. In strode a heavyset woman
dressed in scrubs carrying a small bag of medical supplies. He smiled at the
woman, who seemed to be a bit uneasy.

“Mr. Young, My name is
Patricia. I’m a Medical Assistant, and I will be drawing some of your blood
today.”

“No need to be so
formal.” Allan smiled, “It would be nice to have a normal conversation today
without having to worry about being harassed about every word that comes out of
my mouth.”

“I wish I could be more
casual, sir.” she responded kindly, “But you must remember that everything you
say in here is being recorded and can be used against you in a court of law.”

“Of course.” he sighed
as she donned a pair of gloves.

As she tied a
tourniquet on his left bicep, his thoughts turned to Lily. By now she had to be
panicking. By the time he was offered the opportunity to make a phone call, it
was already outside the allowed calling hours. Being forced to wait until
morning, he was disturbed that so far Lily didn’t seem to have gotten his
message. Knowing her, she would have dropped everything and come running to the
precinct.

Unless she doesn’t care
about me anymore…

“That just about does
it.” Patricia announced as she loosened the tourniquet.

He looked down to see
the last bit of the syringe filling with blood. He had been so preoccupied that
he hadn’t felt the needle prick.

“I’ll take this up to
forensics immediately.” she spoke as she packed up her gear, “We should get the
lab results shortly.”

“Thank you.”

With that, she turned
and left the room. The door closed and bolted once again with an audible click.

Chapter Sixteen: Attempted Divination

And
the Watchers saw these fair and beautiful daughters of Eve and desired them. 
And they said to one another: Come, let us choose for ourselves wives, from the
children of men, and let us beget, for ourselves, children…

–
Methuselah 9:2 –

Late that evening Timur
sat at the Master Terminal in his penthouse. Pulling up his own profile, he
shaved off another five years from his date of birth.

Time for another
facelift.

Every few years he
updated his profile to avoid suspicion. He chuckled to himself knowing that if
anyone learned that his actual birth year was 1336 A.D. they wouldn’t believe
it. It wouldn’t be long before he reached his 700
^th
birthday, though
he didn’t look a year older than thirty.

Prior to Allan’s
Awakening, he was led to the false presumption that he was the last of the Seraphim.
The fact that Allan had recently Awakened was causing him a serious amount of
anxiety. Months prior to his encounter this morning with Allan he could feel
his powers weakening and he couldn’t figure out why.

I have to kill him.

The sun fell below the
horizon as the lights of the city began to illuminate. Timur sat on his porch
and held a seer stone in each palm and stared at them intently. He summoned the
aura from his core and expected some type of reaction or vision. To his dismay
however, no such event occurred.
The stones
still lay there unfazed.

He then tried holding
them up to his eyes and tried to peer through them as if they were a pair of
binoculars. He still didn’t see anything significant.

I wish these things had
come with instructions.

As the night dragged
on, Timur continued to fail every attempt at divination through the so-called ‘seer
stones’ he had obtained. He even went so far as to draw a pentagram on the
ground with chalk and stood in the center of it while holding the stones high
in the air as if he were summoning spirits from the underworld to guide him in
his quest. Despite all of his efforts, he couldn’t help but feel utterly
ridiculous. It seemed as though he were trying to make conversation with a
couple of shiny rocks.

It was approaching
midnight when he finally got impatient and began knocking the stones violently
together as if he were attempting to ignite a spark from flint and steel. And
then, one of the stones unexpectedly shattered. He let out a roar of inhuman
rage, and chucked the remains of the stones off of his penthouse balcony and
into the night air.

In the early hours of
the following morning, Timur took the elevator down to the subterranean parking
garage. While dreaming, he had stumbled across the solution to his problem.
Instead of trying to find Allan’s Amulet, he would make Allan bring it to him.

Having summoned the
Creed of Nephilim, he passed through a shadow to meet them. He was greeted by
nearly fifty hooded men who bowed as he entered the main chamber.

“Your holiness.” they
all chanted in unison.

“Thank you for
assembling on such short notice.” he passed a can of black spray-paint and a
small note to one of the creed members, “Please write this message on the wall.”

The creed member bowed
and obeyed his instructions.

He turned to another, “Bring
in our prisoner.”

A few minutes later,
screams could be heard as several creed members carried Lily’s thrashing body
into the room.

“Silence her.” Timur
commanded.

One of the creed
members took a small slab of wood and throttled her on the back of the head.
Her body fell limp, unconscious.

“Lay her on the altar,
and gather around.”

The creed member who
had been spray-painting the message quickly finished and joined the circle of
brotherhood around the altar. Together they all began chanting in a foreign
tongue. He joined hands with them and summoned the powers from his core. Timur
pulled out his sack of ashes, and slowly poured them on the altar next to Lily’s
body. The sickly green light soared out of his eyes, and with a flash of
brilliant green light they were gone.

Chapter Seventeen: Revelation

And
they took wives for themselves from the sons of man. Wherefore, each of their
wives became heavy with child; insomuch that they travailed much and didst lay
down their lives whilst bearing their children…

–
Methuselah 9:3 –

It was just past
midnight when John was rudely awoken by a sudden punch to the gut. He stirred
wildly, throwing his hands up in the air to fight off his attacker. It wouldn’t
be the first time he was left beaten and bloodied on the side of the street.
His eyes flashed open in confusion as his fists whirled in the empty air above
him. There was not a soul in sight.

He sat up and looked
around.

Did I dream the attack?

His hand rubbed his
sore stomach, and he knew there was no way the pain was imagined. Suddenly, his
eyes fell upon a faintly glowing object off in the corner of the dark alleyway.
He crawled toward it slowly, and then stopped short in shock.

It can’t be.

There, amidst a
scattering of garbage and dirt, lay one of the most precious objects ever to
exist. It was the Urim, one of the Seer Stones described in the eighth chapter
of Leviticus. He carefully lifted it in his palm, and stared at it in awe. Long
ago he had held this very stone in his left palm, with its counterpart in the
other. With them, he had obtained the divination of his greatest prophecy. He
looked around at his feet. The Thummim, the Urim’s counterpart, couldn’t be
far. Never in the history of time had the stones been separated from each
other.

He slowly scanned the
ground along the alleyway, seeking its similar faint glow. To his
consternation, no glow could be seen. And then, his eyes fell upon a disturbing
sight. To his horror, he recognized the fragment of the stone laying inches
from his left foot. He reached down and picked it up with trembling fingers.
Tears formed in his eyes as he recognized the shattered fracture of the
Thummim. His eyes took in the alley around him, and saw small glints of glass-like
pieces glittering with the faint reflection of moonlight.

He dropped to his knees
as the tears flowed freely. The sacred objects had been entrusted to him by his
dearest friend. This friend he had loved, adored, and even worshiped. It was
only a few short days before his friend’s untimely death that the stones came
into his possession. He took a sacred vow to return them to the tomb of Elijah
in the other world after he fulfilled his sacred calling. His friend bequeathed
to him many sacred mysteries that day, all of which he vowed to protect with
his life. On that same day his friend laid his hands upon his head, and granted
unto him the most precious gift of all.

“Ye shall never taste
of death.” he spoke, his red robe billowing in the wind, “And I charge thee to
safeguard these precious things until my return.”

He sobbed in despair.
He had sworn to his beloved friend that he would protect the sacred stones with
his life. His mind filled with memories of the days that followed. Judas’
betrayal with a kiss, the soldier’s ear his beloved friend healed before they
arrested him, Peter’s denial three times of affiliation with them... The
memories attacked with a brutal force.

Though it was over two
thousand years ago, it still feels like it happened yesterday.

He reasoned that
obviously Timur had attempted to use the seer stones to his advantage, but must
not have understood that only the truly worthy and humble of God’s servants
have access to its powers of divination. John surely knew this from his own
experience. Almost two whole centuries had passed before he was worthy enough
to use the stones. On the run, he had been hunted by Roman Soldiers on a daily
basis. All of his friends had been tortured and killed long ago, and he
remained the lone survivor. Each time they attempted to kill him, he
miraculously survived. Finally they caught up with him and exiled him on a
lonely island off the coast of Italy.

While exiled upon the
island of Patmos, he finally found peace and solitude. With his bow slung over
his shoulder, it was there that he was able to muster a white aura of light
around him while holding out the two stones in each palm. As pure light
streamed from his eyes, his mind filled with many visions and prophecies about
both worlds. All of the visions were symbolic, and consisted of horsemen and
dragons. Very little did he comprehend, but he remembered the charge he had
received from his beloved friend to make a record of everything he saw and to
publish it for the world.

When he awoke from this
vision he found himself in a strange land. No longer was he on the barren
island, but was surrounded by a lush forest. At his feet was a well-tread
pathway. Overcome with emotion, he felt as though he had finally passed into
the afterlife where he would find his friends. As he explored his surroundings,
he ultimately rounded a corner to behold a vast and glorious city.

He entered the city
gates and saw that it was filled with many people dressed in strange clothing.
As he attempted to listen to their whisperings, he realized they were in a
foreign tongue. When he tried to ask for help in his native Hebrew, he was
looked upon with awe. Many dropped to their knees with their hands pressed
together in the universal symbol of prayer. He tried to stop them, feeling
their actions were sacrilegious.

Maybe I
am
in heaven after
all!

Ultimately he was led
to the center of the city where a glorious cathedral-like building stood out
majestically. He was led up the grand staircase, where several men and women
flanked in beautiful apparel bowed before him. At the top stood a man with a
white beard holding his arms open in a welcoming gesture. Though the man was
very handsome, he was the furthest thing from what he expected to be ‘God’.
What happened next completely threw him off guard.

“Welcome to Atlantis,”
the man cheered in his native Hebrew, “the Holy City of Enoch!”