The Last Day (61 page)

“In the writings of the Bible and in all ancient scriptures, the symbol of woman suffers from the biased pen of man. Over the ages, these false meanings have been used to sanctify the enslavement and abuse of woman. Throughout the millennia, man has denied woman access to her true spirituality and religious authority, holding her in spiritless submission out of arrogance and stubbornness and jealousy and insecurity.

“Look about you in your midst,” she called out, arcing a reproachful finger over the crowd. “See among you the many women still bound by doctrine to conceal themselves behind long veils, their value discounted, their presence and importance diminished.”

There was an uneasy stirring in the crowd as the reclusive female subjects of Jeza's observations were made conspicuous.

“Look to the hypocrisies of the Western religions,” she continued. “And look to the successor of the Apostle Peter of the Roman Church who refuses woman control of her body in propagation; restrains her status within her house of worship; denies her blessed fulfillment in the performance of the sacraments.

“Be it known that, through me, God shall deliver woman from her spiritual bonds. For now, through me, does God give to man a new law. A separate, new Commandment by which all men shall live.

“I say unto you, sons of Adam, hear and obey the Will of God:

“‘Thou shall honor woman as thy equal; and thou shall cherish her in unity with thy fellow man. (Apotheosis 25:15)

“Thus be the new Law of God to man in keeping with the others by which you are already bound.

“Therefore shall you return to the scriptures to right the inequities. Wherein you discover passages of abasement, do as I direct you: where you find male, write female; and where you find female, write male. And read again the Word in this New Way, woman learning confidence and man selflessness, in even measure.

“I command you, woman, throw off the spiritual shackles that encumber you. Put aside your veils and your false shame and rise up—not against man, but next to man, in balance.

“Yet I admonish you, woman, do not harbor in your heart bitterness nor resentment toward your counterpart. For these are empty passions that will divide you further. But rather, accept your partner and understand the forces of the ages within him, as he must strive to understand you. Together, work toward resolution and harmony whereby you and all your children may ascend toward godliness and the exaltation.”

As if exhaustion had overcome her, the Messiah seemed to wilt slightly, dropping her chin to her chest, placing her right fist against her heart, and lapsing into silence.

The masses took this opportunity to wonder and conjecture among themselves. Noting the absence of any referrals to an imminent call to Judgment, many of the faithful began to take heart in what they had just heard, hoping Jeza's message might conclude without incident.

But the prophetess was not quite through. Gathering her resolve once more, Jeza squared her shoulders, lifted her face, which appeared even paler than before, inhaled and began anew.

“Now I speak to you of the larger separation of God and man,” she cried out, jolting everyone to rapt attention once more. “I speak to you of the last and greatest separation which distances man from himself.”

Her small hands gripped the edge of the lectern and her brow knitted with the effort of her convictions. “In the Book of Genesis, chapter four,” she continued, “is this separation revealed. Yet again has the figurative been corrupted to the particular, and the rightful meaning lost.

“This passage of scripture is the telling of Cain and Abel, an allegory in which is hidden the larger meaning of man's most damning secession. It is the story of the self-betrayal. Of man turning against his fellow man; violating his own humanity; denying his brother sanctity and life in an act of ultimate disloyalty.

“So abhorrent is this sin that God marked Cain and his kind with a sign so that all might know and reject them. Yet have you also corrupted this meaning. You look to find the mark of Cain in the physical dissimilarities of those who differ from you.

“But you are mistaken. The mark by which you shall know Cain is not a physical sign. It is not in the color of his skin, nor in the features of his face, nor in a brand upon his body. The mark is in his actions. By his words and deeds shall you know him.
Enmity
is the mark of Cain. Hatred of fellow man. A mark that is to be found evident among all peoples, in all places. It is the enduring trait of evil that divides you most from yourselves. Until you remove this mark from you, you shall not achieve the unity to know God.

“For two millennia, have you had this clear and certain message from the prophets who preceded me. Yet still you continue to use your differences as justification for inflicting sorrow, suffering and death upon your brother. Still you divide yourselves by race, by creed, by color, by age, by station, by wealth, by possessions, by every and all differences you can distinguish among one another.”

Jeza pulled back and angled her head away slightly, biting her lower lip and glowering off to her side in building rage. Then she turned once more to her audience, unleashing her pent-up fury. “And now do you dare mock God's Word and debase His messenger by abusing and destroying each other
in my name!”

Through his binoculars, Feldman could readily perceive tears filling her eyes. This was the same tortured face, the same unbridled passion Feldman recalled so indelibly from the Millennium Eve video of Jeza atop the ancient temple steps.

“Why do you not listen?” she cried, looked down, shook her head in dejection. “In this I give you no new Commandment. For one who came before me has already given it to you. It is the Perfect Law: I say unto you, ‘Love your neighbor as you do yourself; and unto others do as you would have them do unto you.’ In this law, therefore, are contained all the other Commandments governing man's conduct toward man. In this law is the Word to guide you back to the unity you have lost.”

She paused again to stare deeply, intently into the crowd. And even at this distance, Feldman thought he could detect a glimmer of hope restoring some of the resplendency to her anguished face.

“I look into your individual souls,” she spoke in a virtual whisper, “and I see the remnants of the sweet innocence bequeathed each of you by God at your birth; a most perfect and precious treasure that now lies lost and forgotten, concealed beneath the sediments of injury and suspicion. Where once you looked with wonder and excitement upon the world about you and filled your hearts with hopefulness and elation, now you withdraw to build walls about you and gird your defenses, distancing yourselves from your neighbors, removing yourselves from contact and understanding and commitment.

“But I say to you, you must reclaim the vision of your youth. You must each see again through the eyes of a child so that you may recognize in the face of your enemy the child that also lies beneath. You must learn again to see all men as God sees them. Even your enemy must you love and safeguard as if he were your cherished flesh and blood, for surely he is that to the Father.

“Do this in your own way, of your own free will. Do this with utter faith and trust, and with absolute love. Do this without resentment or regard for sacrifice or cost. Abandon your concerns to the Father and know that the Father, in turn, will nurture your souls and release unto you the bounties of heaven that He has long promised to bestow. This you can and must do, for even as you evolve in body, so also must you evolve in mind and soul to attain the balance that is unity.

“I say again, the great separation of man from God is the greater separation of man from himself. Therefore, you shall not be worthy of unity with God until you achieve the unity of your own spirit. Thus is the way by which you may lift yourselves up. Through God, you can yourselves become as God—the ultimate expression of your evolution. And only in this way shall you come to know God and achieve His final perfection:
the Apotheosis!”

She paused again and the raging, roiling sky hesitated with her, holding its gusty winds in abeyance momentarily as she raised a warning finger.

“Heed my words, O Children of Israel!” she cried, her face assuming a more solemn countenance. “For God's displeasure with you is great and His anger just. Even now the Great Trial is upon you, and none can halt what is to be:
the Tribulation comes, and the dark hour of your Dissolution is at hand!”

“Dammit!” Feldman heard Hunter curse through his headset.

Feldman, who'd taken a seat atop an air vent out of Hunter's camera range, lowered his field glasses and glanced back over his shoulder at his partner.

Hunter was pointing out in the direction of the stage, irate. “There's some late-arriving ass setting up his video equipment right in my line of sight! Look!”

Sure enough, about four buildings up, directly in their visual path, a cameraman was belatedly, hurriedly piecing together a tripod and video camera. Feldman trained his field glasses on him.

“Hell!” he called up to Hunter. “He's one of ours! Look at his jacket!”

On the back of the interloper's coat was a bold WNN emblem.

“Can't you shoot over him?” Feldman suggested, hopefully.

“Barely. I can get a shot, but he's definitely in the foreground. I'm calling Bollinger to see if they can shut him down. Sullivan must've gotten additional clearance, but a hell of a lot of good it does us now.”

While Hunter attempted unsuccessfully to reach the field crew, Feldman retrained his binoculars on the fiery orator. She looked as if she were drawing to a close now. And the audience was getting increasingly edgy and uncomfortable with this awareness.

The unrest was greatly exacerbated by a steady ingathering of low-hanging, green-black storm clouds undulating tempestuously overhead. Feldman was surprised there'd been only limited lightning so far, but an outburst would appear imminent. This ugly, celestial display was more than ample evidence to all gathered that the fulfillment of the Apocalypse was at hand.

Jeza raised a palm to silence the crowd, and then sweeping her arm across the entire gathering in a giant benediction, she cried out in a loud voice,
“It is finished!”

The Messiah stepped down and away from the podium and held there, her head bowed solemnly, her arms held straight at her sides, her fists clenched as if she were summoning her resolve. After a lengthy pause, she then raised her forlorn eyes and moved out from behind the shield, walking very slowly and deliberately in a direct line toward the front of the platform. As she cleared the shield, the wind, coming at her back, caught her hair and garments, billowing them out around her in a wild display.

As Jeza moved steadily toward the right front side of the stage, Hunter smoothly panned his camera after her. But her path carried her directly behind the newly arrived WNN cameraman, completely obscuring Hunter's view.

His shot ruined, Hunter swore under his breath and focused his camera tightly on the meddler in an attempt to identify him. Instantaneously, Hunter screamed into his microphone. “Holy shit! Feldman! He's got a gun!”

Feldman, his ears throbbing in pain, frowned up at the crazy, flailing figure of his partner silhouetted against the backdrop of angry sky. Hunter was waving frantically at him from atop the roof, jabbering incoherently into Feldman's ringing head. Finally, the sounds coalesced into recognizable words.

“Goddamn, Feldman,
he's got a gun.
The cameraman—
look!
” Hunter pointed with both arms.

Feldman spun and squinted toward the suspect.

“Feldman!” Hunter was fumbling to divest himself of his equipment. “For God's sake,
get him.!”

At last, the message was conveyed. Feldman was off and sprinting across the rooftop in a mad frenzy, hurdling air ventilators and leaping frantically from level to level. Any concerns about decayed roofing were forgotten.

He could still hear Hunter in his headphones, urging him onward, “Hurry Feldman!
Hurry!”

In a matter of only seconds, Feldman had ascended what he thought was the last rooftop, and accelerated instantly to top speed. In his jarring, panicked sight, he spied the sniper looming before him. And suddenly realized, when it was too late, that the gunman was on an entirely different building, separated from Feldman by a yawning chasm of alleyway.

Suicidal though it appeared, Feldman had absolutely no hesitation. Reaching the end of his roof, with an irate surge of power, he launched himself, his hands clawing the air, his legs bicycling. He soared high over the abyss, landing forcefully on top of the gunman with terrific impact. Everything went sprawling and Feldman spun to a dazed stop. Both men briefly lay motionless. Then, dizzily, Feldman raised himself on one elbow, shaking his head, working desperately to clear his vision.

He was aware that the sniper was also stirring, groaning and staggering to his feet in an attempt to escape. Still in a fog, Feldman lunged toward blurred legs tottering by. They were thick, strong legs, but he wrestled them down.

Now the anticipated rash of lightning split the sky in continuing, stunning flashes that whited out the entire panorama. Below the struggling duo, the assembly recoiled and cowered in unbounded fear, their screams nearly as deafening as the ensuing thunder.

His head clearing now, Feldman stared into the glaring dark eyes of a large, powerful man. A mask was drawn over the bottom half of his face, exposing only the fierce, snake-vile eyes of a merciless killer. The man swore at Feldman in what sounded like Italian, drew back and lashed out with a vicious kick to Feldman's shoulder. The newsman's glasses went flying and he fell back, wincing, but managed to roll his legs back under him and regain his feet.

So did his opponent. Feldman had unknowingly come between the sniper and his escape route, an exterior stairway leading down to the alley. The man, arms at the ready, approached menacingly. Unskilled in the martial arts, Feldman mimicked his foe, crouching and clenching his fists.