Three (17 page)

“It is done,” he said, as the
download ended.  Turning off the computer, he proceeded with some difficulty in
placing the flash where no security guard would ever want to look.  Pausing for
a moment while he looked around the room he said, “If we are caught what will be
our excuse for entering this room?  We should each take something of value from
here.” He then reached for a personal IPad left on the table by one of the
technicians.   He handed his companion a cell phone that had been carefully
placed next to the IPad.

As the two left the control
room and were making their way to the stairs leading up to the lobby of
Building 40, they heard someone down the hallway yell, “Hey!  What are you two
doing here in this section of the accelerator; this is a restricted area.” 

Their choice was to run or to
play dumb, acting like they had taken a wrong turn somewhere.  Wisely, they
chose the latter, shrugging their shoulders and apologizing.  The person who
had yelled was in fact a security guard who took his responsibility in this
critical part of the accelerator very seriously and knew each authorized
individual by sight.  “You must come with me,” he said and led them back
upstairs to the main security office.

It took little effort on the
part of the CERN security to recognize the false security badges, find the
stolen items, and place these two intruders under arrest with the Swiss police
for petty burglary.  They were jailed for a short period, fined, and escorted
out of the country on a secure bus into Austria where their false passports
indicated they held citizenship.

 They immediately informed
Ibrahim of their successful work at CERN to include their capture, but
subsequent release.  He responded, “You did well, my friends.  I am sure that Satanic
Mosque will soon be a pile of rubble, as the ground beneath it explodes and
collapses.”

At his apartment Ibrahim
contacted Cohen and Spencer in a secure conference call and indicated that he
had initiated the attack on CERN and had successfully smuggled the components
for their final project out of Iran in a load of Pistachios.  He also revealed
that he had now separated the components into three packages.  He arranged to
meet them in Beirut during the first week in June to transfer the packages and
lay out plans for the attack.  He would bring suitcases containing parts of the
device to the top of Saint Nicholas’ Staircase in Beirut at specified times for
the transfer.

Subtle is the Lord, malicious He is not.

-
Albert Einstein

Six weeks later, on Saturday
afternoon of the first week in June, Ibrahim was listening to Benton Spencer. 
They were sitting together at an outside café of the ABC Mall in eastern
Beirut, sipping sweetened tea and talking quietly.   Barry and Milford at a
nearby table enjoyed ice cream.  

Spencer was emphatic.  “Our
plan of attack at CERN must move forward immediately! Your virus is capable of
causing the critical CERN facility to be destroyed, but that control console
will be monitored during the test.  Unless the person monitoring the current
levels in the magnets is distracted or detained in some way he will override
the computer.”

“I am sorry,” protested
Ibrahim, “there is no way I can get my followers back into the CERN facility. 
They would be suspected.  They could not get past the security guards a second
time.” 

“I shall not be driven from
the call of Allah to bring war against this temple of evil and idol worship. 
Since there are many American scientists at CERN, I believe that my two
followers, dressed as security guards, can enter the critical section of the
facility and distract or disable the individual at the monitoring station.  If
your men return to Switzerland to obtain the appropriate uniforms for them,
they will be able to complete the task.  I will immediately prepare them for
this mission, knowing our third strong arm of this fight against this great
idolatry has begun his attack on the final and most vulnerable temple of evil
at the South Pole.

“My men have transferred to
me the package they received from you here in Beirut.  I now have my third of
our final weapon against Masia ad Dajjal, the great Satan.”  Leaning close to
Ibrahim and holding him with his intense gaze, Benton Spencer whispered, “We
three shall meet in Jerusalem on the fourteenth for our final victory over
evil, where Jesus will return and stand on the rock beside Muhammad to fill the
world with justice.”

Ibrahim was swept up in the
fervor of Spencer’s words
.  Surely he knows of the return of the prophet we
have sought for centuries now.  I believe the Muhammad will soon stand among us
at the final day and that idolatry and corruption will be vanquished.
 

Before Ibrahim had been
removed from his position with the Iranian nuclear program, and humiliated in
front of his fellow scientists and engineers, he had extracted the virus from
the control computer following the cyber-attack. It was believed that this
sabotage had been carried out either by the United States or Israel
.
 
The irony was not lost on Ibrahim that he was now joining an American and an
Israeli in a plot to use this same computer virus to attack the international
particle physics facility at CERN.  With Colonel Cohen’s men in place at the
supply depot for the Dark Sector Lab, the attacks against the places of idol worship
were now underway without opposition.

The following morning Oliver
awoke rested and relaxed in his own bed in Chicago.  He was tempted to turn on
the morning talk shows and just chill out for a change in order to recover from
last week’s taxing events.  He had other plans, however.  He arose and
showered.  Then he dressed in his suit and tie and drove from his apartment to
the church where the day before he had taken part in a funeral Mass for his
best friend, Peter Newbury. 

The sanctuary was just
filling with worshippers in the early service.  He crossed himself with holy
water and lit a candle for Peter before finding a pew to enter and sit. 
Although he had grown up in a Methodist church, he felt comfortable and welcome
here in Father Pat’s church.  Unlike the Latin funeral rite the afternoon
before, this service was in English. 

Oliver was impressed by the
gentle delivery of Father Ryan as he presented his homily.  The theme was the
power of faith.  He gave many examples of how the simple faith in God, through
Jesus Christ, would guide one through the most difficult times, and emphasized
that too often man relied on himself for help rather than on God. The biblical
passage that Father Pat gently delivered was from Proverbs: “Trust in the Lord
with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding.”

Following the service and
after the parishioners had left the sanctuary, Oliver found Father Pat in his
study, still in his vestments. 

“Father Pat, thank you.”

The priest smiled broadly and,
clasping his hands together in front of his belly, replied, “I’m glad you’re
again seeking God through your faith and not your mind. Understanding does not
provide the healing that is found in prayer.  You know so much about religion,
now is the time to begin actually practicing it.  You may be surprised how
powerful it can be in vanquishing fear and evil.” 

Oliver pulled an envelope from
his suit pocket and handed it to the priest. “This is a gift to the church in
honor of Peter.  I consider myself a member of his family.” 

“This is not necessary,
Oliver,” replied Father Ryan, as he glanced at the rather large sum on the check,
“but you bless the church, Peter’s name, and especially yourself with this
gesture.  I look forward to seeing you heading into my church or even that
Methodist church down the block that you frequented a few times in the past
years.” 

“You can count on it, Father
Pat,” said Oliver as he shook the priest’s hand and left his office.

Oliver returned to his
apartment and changed into slacks and a sport shirt.  He went to the kitchen
and prepared a late breakfast of bacon and eggs.  The coffee had finished
brewing while he was in church and he sipped at a cup while his breakfast
cooked.  

After breakfast Oliver entered
his study and sat at his desk.  He sorted through the notebooks he had used on
his trip to Texas, and began transferring his notes into his computer.   He
included all of his observations and then added his thoughts on the possible
meanings and interrelations between each of these events.  Finishing, he sent it
all in an encoded fax to Max, knowing it was now noon and that she was probably
not going to see it until tomorrow.  To his surprise, while the encoded link
was still active, he received a return fax from her that had been on hold until
he established the link.  He knew this information was highly classified or she
would have called him on the somewhat less secure cell phone link. 

Her message read, “Oliver, I
have just received this information from the Intel. Office.  Benton Spencer had
other followers: the brothers Milford and Barry Smith, and Forrest’s mother. 
Apparently Mrs. Pierce was not a part of their meetings at the church in the
few months before her death, but had continued to donate money to Spencer through
Forrest.  We know that Benton Spencer and the two Smith brothers boarded a
flight from George Bush Intercontinental to Paris yesterday.

“We also know they
transferred to a second flight to Beirut, but their trail was lost after they
landed. Milford and Barry Smith left Beirut this morning, Sunday, June 8, for
some unknown destination in Central Europe.  Spencer is still somewhere in
Lebanon.  As yet we have no leads on other conspirators but believe that if there
is a Father Abraham conspiracy, the other members may also be somewhere in
Beirut.  A team of agents has been dispatched there to try to locate Spencer
and perhaps identify the others. 

“Also, Swift’s team in Texas
made a thorough search of the old SSC excavation sites around Spencer’s church
and discovered a large, armed, explosive charge hidden in the accelerator
tunnel at the bottom of a nearby access shaft.  Its timer was set do detonate
and collapse that section of the tunnel next week.  This information must be
considered top secret and may not be divulged to anyone who does not have the
correct compartmentalized clearance.  For now that means you, me, and Director
Clark.”

What immediately caught Oliver’s
attention was the departure of the two Smith brothers.  Could they have been
sent to CERN for the next act of terror against the God Particle?  He knew
Khalil was there at CERN working on a critical test.  The accelerator had been
shut down after the Higgs Boson discovery in order that it be upgraded and
prepared for its next particle search in 2015.  According to Khalil, it would
be undergoing tests of its superconducting magnets, bringing them up to the
higher powers necessary for next year’s run.  He called Khalil’s number at
Fermilab, hoping David or Elizabeth was there on a Sunday.  To his surprise
Elizabeth eventually answered the phone, indicating that Kahlil was not in. 

“Elizabeth, what are you
doing in the lab on a Sunday?” 

“Oliver, why’d you think no one
would be working here today?  We scientists actually work on weekends.” 

“Elizabeth, try to get in
touch with Khalil at CERN and warn him.  I’ve a strong hunch, based on what we
learned in Mary Pierce’s letter, two brothers who were part of Forrest Pierce’s
conspiracy in Texas are now trying to carry out some kind of attack at CERN.  I
can’t give you any more detail to pass on to Khalil, but he needs to be on
alert for his own safety and that of his colleagues.  The CERN security office
is being sent descriptions of these two, and hopefully they’ll be caught soon.” 

Oliver called Clark and
warned him as well. The director thanked him and said he would ask that a
security force from the local Swiss Police be added to the CERN security as
soon as possible.

Oliver reviewed his notes and
the additional information just given him in the fax from Washington.
Well,
my Sunday’s not shaping up to be a day of rest at all. Is Spencer’s revenge
against Peter and Fermilab now being inflicted on CERN?  Could he be planning
another attack on the scientists themselves?  I hope Khalil takes my warning
seriously.
  Oliver was now beginning to fear his Father Abraham conspiracy
was in fact a real international plot against the scientific community. 
The
three conspirators that Peter had warned about are at large and may be planning
other attacks.
 

While Oliver struggled with
how he would be able to find the three in Beirut or somewhere else in the
Middle East, Enoch was flying from Christchurch to McMurdo as a part of the
final shipment of medical supplies. This would be the last shipment of any kind
to McMurdo until the following spring.  The sabotaged food crates had been
shipped by Sno-Cat from McMurdo to the Amundsen-Scott Station three months earlier. 
They had been stored at The Dark Sector Lab for the upcoming winter and would
soon be opened; the lack of food would then be discovered, requiring the immediate
services of the LC-130 at McMurdo. 

After his flight landed, Enoch
entered the supply hangar.  He made his way through the unloaded pallets,
keeping out of sight, until he had reached the one LC-130 available for an
emergency flight to the South Pole.  Moving a maintenance ladder to the outer
port-side engine, he climbed up under the propeller, reached into the intake,
and placed a pair of samarium-cobalt magnets on either side of the first compressor
blade near its center.  The strong magnets would hold in place until the
engines were revved to maximum power prior to take-off, at which time they
would fly into the inner turbine and disable the engine.  Shifting the ladder,
he repeated the same sabotage on the inner port engine. 

With both port engines
disabled, the aircraft would be unable to make the rescue run to save the
starving scientists at the South Pole.  This phase of his mission completed, he
would now return to Christchurch where he would join Joel and continue to
monitor the supply dispatches in order to confirm the mission had been
successful.  The two Haredi fighters would also carry out an attack on the one
remaining South Pole LC-130 stationed there at Christchurch if it were called
into service to attempt a second rescue of the idol worshippers at the South
Pole, Dark Sector Lab.

The attacks at the Dark
Sector Lab and at CERN were now in their final stages.  Benton Spencer had
prepared the Smith brothers for this final part of the attack at CERN by making
them each struggle with one another as if one of them was the person monitoring
the control computer for the superconducting magnets. 

Handing Barry a few zip-ties
he said, “Pretend Milford is the controller that you must overcome.  Grab him
and tie his hands and feet with these ties.  Milford, pretend you are the
controller and do everything to resist Barry.”  The two struggled with one
another until Barry finally gave up his attack, giggling.  “This is deadly
serious.” roared Spencer, handing each brother a large lock-back knife, “If you
fail to restrain the person at the computer, you will have to kill him with one
of these.” 

The two brothers now looked
at Spencer furtively as they again attempted to restrain one another, their
playfulness now replaced with fear.  Eventually it was decided that Milford, the
slightly larger of the two, would enter the control room to restrain the person
there.

After these exercises Spencer
prepared the Smith brothers for their trip to Switzerland.  “When you arrive in
Geneva you will be met by two new participants in the fight against Satan.  As
I explained to you before, the names of all these fellow soldiers are hidden,
but I can attest to their eagerness to help in this noble and sacred fight
against evil.”