The Glooming (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 1) (28 page)

“We’ve lost our overseas allies, we’re under siege by an unknown enemy or enemies, and we don’t have a clue as to what’s going on,” the Secretary of Defense said. “Gentlemen, unless we do something, then we are about to lose America.”

Now the murmurings around the table were getting louder. An Air Force general began to openly pray while another Army general started shouting and cursing to no one in particular. Major Cochran looked down on the carpeted floor, then walked back to the chair by the side of the wall and glumly sat down. John Smalley got up, walked over until he was behind the president and began to whisper something in his ear. Paul was still going over his notes when he felt a tap on his arm from Captain Niven, who indicated that he needed to get ready. The president pounded on the table with his fists and the commotion rapidly subsided as John Smalley walked back to his chair and sat down.

“Alright, enough of that!” the president said. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. I’ve been given word that we have an additional briefing from someone who might have first-hand knowledge of what exactly is going on. John, can you introduce this man to us?”

“Thank you, Mr. President,” John Smalley said as he looked at Paul. “Professor Dane, could you please go up, front and center, and brief us as to what you’ve experienced?”

Paul bit his lip, got up and walked up to the front of the video monitor. “Mr. President, gentlemen, and ladies,” he said while briefly glancing at Captain Niven, who maintained her rock-like composure. “My name is Paul Dane, I’m a professor of anthropology at Harvard.”

“A mythology professor, what in the hell?” the Air Force general who was previously praying said.

“Pipe down and let him talk, goddamnit!” Admiral Zimmerman hissed.

Paul cleared his throat. “Most of you, if not all of you, will probably find what I am about to say hard to believe, but from everything that has happened, it seems that the unthinkable has come true. I just came back from London a few days ago where I witnessed an attack on a modern day city by an army of mythical creatures. I’ve interviewed over two dozen survivors, both civilian and military, from attacks that have occurred here in the United States, and I have seen countless video footage of some very different creatures in the area, but they were also thought to be mythical in nature.”

“So what are these things?” the president said.

“They are mythological gods and creatures of ancient civilizations that once inhabited the earth,” Paul said. “It seems that the myths that have been handed down to us were not imaginary at all, these ancient legends were in fact, real and the gods and demons depicted in these stories are actually in existence.”

The entire room was silent. One could hear a pin drop if not for the low static noise emanating from the video monitor and the slight hum of the ventilation system.

“Wait, are you talking about the old Norse gods like Thor, and Odin, and the Greek gods like Zeus?” Admiral Zimmerman said.

“Although we have no confirmation that any of the deities from the Norse or Greek pantheons have been sighted yet, a number of gods from other parts of the world have revealed themselves,” Paul said. “I saw with my own eyes the Fomorians, which are demonic creatures from Celtic mythology, devastate London. I barely got out of there with my life and a number of people died getting me back here.”

“So what kind of gods are we dealing with in Mexico then?” the president said.

“It seems highly likely that we are encountering gods and demons from Aztec myths and they are coming up north,” Paul said. “The Aztecs worship some very malevolent gods, from Huitzilopochtli, Tezcatlipoca and Tlaloc, these gods we would consider highly evil and destructive in our modern day views of morality due to the fact that they demanded human sacrifices in order to be satiated.”

An Army general began chuckling in disbelief. “Wait, are you expecting us to perform human sacrifice in order to prevent them from invading the United States?”

“No,” Paul said brusquely. “What I am saying is that we have to find a way to send them back to whatever other dimension or afterlife that they came from. There must be a reason why they appeared just now, we need to find what that reason is.”

“What about the monster birds that took down Air Force One, are those things Aztec as well?” the president said.

“They are from Native American mythology and are called thunderbirds. We had thought that these creatures were dreamt up by Native Americans as an explanation as to where the sound of thunder came from,” Paul said.

“Okay then, how do we kill it?” the Secretary of Defense said. “We’ve sent in our Raptor, Viper, and Eagle squadrons against those things and we’ve lost all of our aircraft and most of our pilots. Heck, our drone fleet is pretty much useless. What about nukes?”

“I don’t think you can kill them,” Paul said. “Mythical creatures cannot be fought by ordinary weapons.”

“So you’re saying is then we’re as good as dead?” Admiral Zimmerman said. “We’ve no chance against any of these gods and creatures?”

“No, I’m not saying that,” Paul said. “We need to develop a plan to find their weaknesses and deal with these things.”

“If these gods are real, then where the hell is our god, the Lord Jesus Christ?” the Air Force general said. “Shouldn’t he be coming back to save us from these devils?”

“Either he hasn’t appeared yet or perhaps it was the Abrahamic god that was the imaginary one,” Paul said.

John Smalley sighed. “So you’re saying we’ve been worshipping the wrong god all this time?”

Paul tried his best to keep composure. “There is that possibility, yes.”

The president looked at him closely. “Professor Dane, do you have any suggestions as to what we do now?”

Paul let out a deep breath. “First of all, we need to find out and identify which of the gods and supernatural creatures we know of has appeared and are walking the earth. Since there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of ancient gods and creatures that we know about, then we need to establish a database of what they are and where they are. Then, we will need to know just what is the extent of what their capabilities are, and what their intentions will be for us. Also, we will need a team of scholars and researchers who can find out whether these gods have the exact same power and behavior as they do in these ancient stories.”

The president looked at John Smalley. “John, I want you to give Professor Dane every resource and asset that he needs to get this team up and running as quickly as possible. Also add him and his liaison as part of the National Security Staff, effective immediately.” Then he turned his attention back to Paul. “Make sure you prioritize these Aztec and American Indian gods first on your list, Professor. Now, assuming you’re able to get this done then what is the next step?”

“For every evil god that was depicted, there were also benevolent gods and creatures that helped mankind as well,” Paul said. “We need to find these so-called ‘good gods’ and perhaps make them our allies to help us fight off their evil counterparts. There were also a number of mortal men and women who were able to outwit and sometimes defeat the evil gods and monsters and they were called heroes. Since these mythical gods and monsters apparently exist, then perhaps these so-called heroes might be around as well?”

Beersheba

It was just after lunch when his distant Uncle Ariel called him up and said that he would be dropping by for a visit, so David Zim was able to make a quick trip to the nearby store and bought a box of baklavas. When he got back to the house, he washed the dirty dishes in the sink and placed them in the cupboard before preparing the freshly ground coffee. David’s wife Tzipi had wanted to meet their old uncle, but she had to be back at the university for an emergency staff meeting. So by the time he got there, she just kissed her husband goodbye, and left Ariel a note instead. As he looked at his watch, David knew that the drive from Jerusalem to his place would take about an hour and a half under normal circumstances, but he knew there wasn’t much traffic these days. He still had some time to relax so he sat down on the sofa. The afternoon sun cast yellow shafts of light past the open windows, and into the cream-colored living room.

Almost immediately, he heard a car pull up in the street below. David quickly got up and walked over to the front door and opened it. Peering outside, he saw a white Toyota sedan parked along the side of the street. As he walked down the steps, he saw his Uncle Ariel being helped out by a younger man who was obviously his driver. Short and stocky, with a balding scalp and a silvery beard, dressed in a white short-sleeved shirt and grey slacks, Ariel Weizman was already pushing seventy. But he still had an appetite for good food and pastries, hence the reason why David had made a last minute purchase for some snacks to go with the coffee, since he normally didn’t eat any sweets.

“Uncle Ariel, shalom,” David said as he ran up to the old man and shook his hand.

“Shalom, David,” Ariel said as he closed the car door behind him. “Is your lovely wife here?”

David smiled and gave him the note. “I’m sorry, Uncle Ariel, she had just left because they needed her back at the university.”

“Ah, just as well,” Ariel said as he put the note in his shirt pocket. “It’s you I wanted to talk to anyway. You’re not too busy are you?”

“Not right now,” David said as he put his hands into the front pockets of his royal blue slacks. “In fact, I’ve been waiting for the call up these last two days, but I’ve heard nothing. All my other colleagues have already been deployed, but I’m still here.”

Ariel winked at him. “That’s partly my doing. I need you to go with me.”

“Oh, do we have time for coffee?” David said to him and looked at the younger man too. “I’ve got a freshly brewed pitcher in the house along with some baklava.”

Ariel chuckled. “Ah, you still know my weakness. Okay, let’s go upstairs,” he said before turning to face the younger man. “Ory, you stay here. You can have your refreshments when we leave in awhile.”

“No problem, sir,” the younger man said as he leaned on the hood of the car while taking out a pack of cigarettes.

David helped him upstairs so Ariel didn’t need to use his walking cane. As the old man sat down on the sofa, David brought out a tray with the promised baklava, then started pouring two cups of steaming black java that had a hint of cardamom. By the time David had sat down, his uncle had already eaten two pieces of pastry and was munching on a third.

David smiled as he began to sip his coffee. “Too much of that will give you diabetes, Uncle.”

Ariel took a break from the baklava and started on the coffee as well. “At my age, diabetes is the least of my worries. Are you still keeping in shape?”

“You know we do, Uncle. My unit requires that even when I’m not on assignment. There’s an apartment block nearby that’s ten stories. I run up and down the stairwell every day,” he said. David was part of the Mossad, Israel’s feared national intelligence agency. After serving in the military, he was recruited as he was taking advanced classes in Ben-Gurion University. It was at the college where he also met his future wife Tzipi. Although they had been trying hard to have children for the past four years, luck was against them so far.

“That is good. With the way things are going we will need everyone in shape.”

David placed his cup down onto the coffee table. “Is it really that bad? What happened in the Knesset today?”

Ariel sighed and leaned back on the couch. He had been a government minister for as long as David knew him. “Oh, you know, the usual infighting and arguing. With all the kvetching we have, it’s a surprise we ever get anything done there these days. The truth is, we won’t have anyone to depend on but ourselves. Israel will always have to fight her own battles, I’ve told them that over and over again.”

“So the Americans won’t help us then?”

“The Americans have their own problems. They have lost most of their overseas troops and they have taken a beating in their homeland as well,” Ariel said. “In fact, they are asking us for help— they have requested that if we come across any American soldier or civilian that we help them to get back to the US, as if we even could. The prime minister has tasked the government to see if we could make an emergency evacuation by sea if our northern border is threatened.”

“I don’t think we have enough naval assets for a seaborne evacuation of all Israeli citizens,” David said. “Even if we did, where would we be going to?”

Ariel shook his head. “That’s what I told them, but they wouldn’t listen. We could be looking at a second exodus, David. We may have to initiate a second Jewish Diaspora as our people will live among gentiles once more. An even worse case scenario is we end up as captives of a resurgent Babylon. I would have never thought this was possible just a few days ago. Now, it feels that the tide of history has once again turned against us. We fought so hard to have a land that is finally ours and now it seems it was all for nothing.”

“Yes, it is bad. The Palestinians are in full revolt. The call up for reserves is almost complete yet I’m still here, waiting for orders. All my other colleagues are either in Jordan or in the West Bank. I want to do something, Uncle.”

Ariel took another piece of baklava from the box. He knew it was bad for him, but he always had a habit of eating more in times of stress. “I was born three years before Yom Ha’atzmaut, our day of independence. That was when the entire Arab world rose up against us. But I was too young to remember the details, other than hiding along with the other children in a special room somewhere in the kibbutz where I was born in when they would attack. During the time of the Six Day War, I was a young man who fought with the paratroopers when we finally recaptured Jerusalem. All that is now a distant memory now when compared to this enormous threat we are facing. Tell me, David, have you heard of the term devil’s advocate?”

“I have heard of the phrase. I know it means adopting a contrarian position.”

“Have you heard of it within intelligence circles at all?”