Turn or Burn (28 page)

“Your own little asylum.”

He gave a fake laugh. “You have no idea why we’re here, do you?”

“Let’s see…from what I’ve gathered so far…you people are scared of cell phones. You kidnap and abuse prostitutes. You brand people. And you think your son is going to be Jesus Christ. That about sum it up?”

He soaked that in for a moment. “That’s a jaded way of looking at it. We are not scared of cell phones. In fact, we do use cell phones. We are not scared of technology. We fear God and that is all. I know that we, as a race, are on the wrong track. Technology is a dangerous game. Up to now, we’ve used it to enhance our lives in a more sterile fashion, in an organic way. Cell phones make it easier to communicate. Anesthesiologists make the pain go away. Computers make communication easier. But there has come a time now where technology has become the end and not the means.” He turned to me. “So you wonder why we are here?”

“Enlighten me.”

The scripture started coming out of his mouth and his voice changed. “
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was nothing but evil
. We are here to work our way to heaven. Technology is now getting in the way of that. Our imagination is dredging up the devil. There are biologists finding ways to alter our chromosomes in order to stop degenerating. Changing the way God made us…trying to keep us from dying.

“Scientists, like Sebastian and Kramer, are trying to unite man and machine, encouraging some sort of radical evolution that I can assure you will end with the Lord’s abandonment. Engineers are attempting to create nanobots that can multiply on their own.
Multiply on their own!
We are just asking for machines to take over. To kill us off.”

He fiddled with a stick that he picked up off the ground as he continued. “We are not Neo-Luddites. We are conservative bio-ethicists. We are the ones who will make sure other humans don’t cross the boundaries, that they won’t worship false idols. Christ will come again, by my seed, and He will come soon, and we will beg God for this honor and will plead for His mercy and ask that He forgive us for who we have become.”

“Good talk,” I said. “I strongly advise you get on some medication. Never before have I met someone more screwed up than me. Until now. Where is Francesca?”

“Close by.”

“Is she okay?”

“She’s being treated with the utmost respect.”

“You need to let her go. She has nothing to do with all this.”

“She has everything to do with all this!”

“You are out of your goddamned mind.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Out in the field, we came upon an outdoor church of sorts, lit up in great splendor with torches standing free in the ground. A wooden cross—the same one Abner had been working on earlier—stood on an altar amongst hundreds of multi-colored flowers. Two women in white stood next to it.

The benches were full. It must have been everyone in the camp, maybe one-hundred-and-fifty strong. They all rose and turned as we drew near. A woman came up and helped Abner slip a white pulpit robe over his head. Then she handed him a silver stole that he took and placed around his neck. He looked at me and smiled. “See you in a little while, my new friend.”

Jameson appeared and took me by the arm. He led me back behind the benches, and we stayed standing, watching the scene. Everyone’s eyes followed Abner as he approached the altar. He motioned for them to sit. I hadn’t paid attention to the two women in white until that moment. They were standing together on a diagonal, facing the people. Two men stood directly behind them, and it was clear the women were not there of their own accord. They held bouquets of white lilies in their hands and more lilies in their hair—those same Madonna lilies—and it looked like their hands were tied in front of them.

The one closest to me was Francesca. The uneven and sporadic light of the torch made it hard to read her face but I could see her fear. Luan Sebastian, the doctor’s wife, stood next to her, sharing a similar look, both looking into the night with glassy eyes. What was Luan doing there?

“They look beautiful, don’t they?” Jameson asked.

I knew Francesca wouldn’t have been so cooperative had she not been fully convinced that there was no other way. We had to play the game for a moment. Surely, at some point, we would find a window of escape. She had to have the same thought. The opportunity would come sooner rather than later if we showed them that we were easy to control. We would build trust with our captors, and then they would let down their guard—if only for just a second. I would be there to take advantage. So for now, I had to comply quietly and observe this disturbing horror without interfering.

A man pinned a microphone to Abner’s silver stole and then went back to his seat in the front row, where he put on headphones and picked up a professional video camera, resting it on his shoulder. It was the kind of camera you might see during the filming of a movie. Much larger than anything for personal use. He and Abner communicated for a moment, testing the mic, and then Abner turned his back to us.

What was I about to witness?

The people stood.

He led them in a hymn I’d never heard before. Jameson, standing next to me, joined in with his low, gravelly voice. He was surprisingly on pitch. Though I have pretty strong pipes, I didn’t know the words. They sang, “
Lo! He comes with clouds descending, 
once for favored sinners slain. 
Thousand thousand saints attending,
 swell the triumph of His train. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
 God appears on earth to reign
.” You get the idea.

Francesca couldn’t see me, as there was no light where we stood. I wondered what they’d done to her. It was out of some dark nightmare, what I was looking at, and I knew she felt the same way.

As they finished singing, Abner turned and motioned for his flock to take their seats. They obeyed.

He clasped his hands together. “
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion
,” he began, “
and sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble. For the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.”

He spoke with all the power and grace of similar preachers I’d seen on television. He’d clearly found his calling, so to speak, and I could see very quickly how he’d captured these people’s hearts. He’d turned them all crazy, and I kept thinking about David Koresh and Waco, Texas, and all his wives and children, and Jim Jones and the Jonestown he created in Guyana, South America, where almost one thousand people committed suicide. Those were the kind of people I’d dealt with all my life, but most of my enemies had been of other religions. The extremists I’d been fighting had been Muslims, but they were no different than Christian radical extremists.
Misled
is the word that comes to mind first.

“Brothers and sisters,” Abner said as he lowered his hands, “the day of the Lord is coming, and we have been chosen to be the soldiers of His return. I can think of no greater honor and I accept with all my heart. I believe we all do.”

A round of Amen’s ran around his congregation.

He lowered his voice. “As many of you have heard me say before, I am not a Neo-Luddite. I don’t have a problem with technology, but there has to be a line. Right now, there is not one.”

He paused and the people nodded.

“We must draw a line because there is a point of no return—an
event horizon
as these Singularists call it—and we are
not far from it
. We are toying with forces that we will not be able to control. We are eating from the Tree of Knowledge. We are trying to become God!” He backed off. “I’ll tell you right now that I don’t want to know what’s on the other side. It’s not God’s Kingdom. I know that. It’s the end of our race. It’s the end of our chances of ever walking along beside Him in Heaven and seeing our loved ones again. Jesus said,
But he that denies me before men shall be denied before the angels of God
.”

Abner went quiet for a moment and looked around at his people, who were captivated by his words. Even the young children were wrapped up in them.

“I believe in the good in people, and I believe that we can get through to—” he pointed at the camera, “many of
you
, who have no idea what is going on. You don’t know about the Singularity. Some of you don’t know what the future might bring if we don’t pull back the reins of technology. Well, I am here to warn you. Tomorrow will be a wake-up call. Many will suffer, but it will save so many more. We do this for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as it is our duty.” He whispered, “Amen.”

They came back with a quiet, “Amen,” and I wondered what the hell he was talking about. What was going to happen tomorrow?

He looked directly at the camera. “I’m hoping some of you who see this video find this as terrifying as I do. I’m hoping you do your homework and figure out that I’m telling you the truth. They want to take what makes you 
you
and find a way to upload it into hardware. Then from there they can load you into some kind of virtual world where you can live in a video game, or you can be installed into a non-biological substrate or carrier and have a robotic body that will never age. They want to find a way we can live longer. A way we sinners can sidestep the pain and suffering that is our responsibility to endure. We’re here to
learn lessons
, brothers and sisters, not to find shortcuts. Some of you will think I’m crazy, but these are facts.”

I thought he was crazy, whether they were facts or not.

He shook his finger and raised the pitch of his voice. “Go look into what DARPA is doing. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Go find out what they’re up to. They’re the ones funding Dr. Sebastian and Dr. Kramer’s work in combining man and machine. And guess where that money comes from. From
you
! From the taxpayers! If there is a promise of building a stronger soldier, a promise of winning the next war, then our government will find a way to fund it. Even if that means reconstructing a soldier’s DNA, playing with forces that are undoubtedly evil. They are counting on the fact that you didn’t know that. You didn’t know that we as a race are trying to play God. Well, wake up!”

Abner kept talking and I was growing weary of it. I looked around. Someone was looking at me from the congregation. I squinted my eyes and made out the face of Elvin. He saw that I had noticed him and quickly turned back around.

“The Lord has come to me recently. He has affirmed these things that I pass on to you. Jesus Christ is coming back.” Abner thrust his arms into the air. “He’s coming to take us home!” The people cheered.

“God has chosen me to give you your savior. To offer the seed of the Christ child. This doesn’t make me any more special than any one of you.” He looked through the crowd. “Like you, I’m simply part of the plan.” He turned to Francesca and Luan. “As are these women here, who God has chosen for my wives. One of these two will carry the child. We can’t know which one, and it doesn’t matter. All that we can hope is that God sees it fit to allow this baby to live and flourish and thrive and soon become our leader. He must know that we’re down here fighting for Him. Can I get one final, everlasting, eternal
Amen
? Let’s let Him know we’re down here waiting.”

“Amen!” they shouted, like Roman soldiers following their Caesar.

“I can’t hear you!”

“
Amen
!” The word echoed through the camp and out into the night.

Abner led them in another hymn, which everyone knew by heart.

This marriage was done in a more quiet fashion, much less of a show. The cameraman had set down the camera. I couldn’t make out what was being said, but I could fill in the blanks. Abner said his vows and put rings on the women’s fingers one at a time, kissing them both on the mouth. They weren’t fighting back, and I knew Francesca was still waiting for an opportunity. She’d been through a lot worse than getting kissed by some maniac in the woods. She was a big girl, a warrior, and I had to keep telling myself that.

After they were done, Abner looked back at his people. “It all begins now, brothers and sisters. Let us go forth to love and serve the Lord!”

The people stood and clapped and cheered. Men escorted the women away, and Abner disappeared behind them.

Jameson took my arm. “Let’s go,” he said. “Show’s over.”

He jerked me away and I lost sight of Francesca. Holding a flashlight, Jameson led me in the opposite direction of the crowd. Two men followed. I recognized one of them as the Canadian, and when he turned toward me, I could see the bandage on his neck from Francesca’s bullet.

“Where’s he taking the women?” I asked.

“To plant the seed of the Christ Child.”

“You don’t really believe this nonsense, do you?”

“With all my heart.”

I couldn’t hold back any longer. I went for Jameson’s throat. My cuffed hands came up fast and jabbed him hard underneath his chin. I didn’t get very far. The other two men had me on the ground in seconds. I heaved for breath as I tried to fight off the two men. The Canadian hit me in the jaw with a punch that I think he’d been thinking about for days. I ate the dirt. They jerked me back up by the arms.

Jameson was rubbing his throat as he said, “For that, I’ll make sure she is first in line.”