―Arthur Conan Doyle
Nobody told me there'd be days like this
All governments are shadowy.
We usually reserve the word to apply to sinister groups like the cabal but the truth is governments think alike in getting and maintaining power and can be easily seduced by a clever conspiracy promising them what they clearly want.
The key to the cabal's success was using Otto Baumann's research on solar flares to shore up their view of the world-wide emergency. The cartel knew the pattern of solar storms would produce environmental impacts resembling plagues predicted in Revelations and they'd use this 'evidence' to prove they alone could manage the effects and avoid a catastrophe.
Mankind was headed toward a one-world government to respond to the apparent 'unpredictable' eruptions on the sun.
Nothing like an external threat to draw nations into a great deception masterminded no doubt by the Beast himself.
But even a being as powerful as the Dragon needed a human face to lead the enterprise―a false prophet yet to be revealed who would bring about a final great battle that would not liberate, but totally destroy the human race.
The more Brooke, Angelica and I delved into Tom Faraday's extensive notes on the cabal, we began to see the clear outlines of a foul plot aimed at nothing less than world domination.
I was hampered by the fact I was not a believer and was actually a confirmed skeptic when it came to matters involving the supernatural.
The idea of an army of demons led by the prince of Darkness was as ludicrous to me as the Gray Alien Theory and to my mind at least, the latter possibility seemed in comparison more plausible.
Angelica was exasperated by what she perceived to be my hard-headed obstinacy. "I don't understand why you can't perceive the spiritual aspect of this blinding that's causing the nations of the world to be deceived."
"You believe in the mystical," I argued, "I don't."
"But I warned you from the beginning about what I saw in my visions―isn't that proof enough for you―not to mention your own terrifying encounters with the Beast."
"Look, Angelica, I respect you but there's a reason why Ben Church, my assignment editor, chose me to do an investigative article about you. He knew I was a skeptic and didn't believe in clairvoyance."
"But surely you believe the evidence of your own experience, Zach―or are you so afraid you can't admit the truth?"
"You're asking me to believe in my night terrors as proof that Satan really exists and to believe that these so called 'signs in the heavens and earth' are proof of Christ's imminent return. Fact is, even if there is such a thing as the Rapture or the Second Coming, I don't believe events will unfold literally in the exact way they're described in the Bible. You're implying I can just open a Bible and find a scheduled order of events."
"No Zach, I'm not trying to convert you to a set of religious beliefs, I'm just reminding you that my intuition has been consistently more accurate than your rational deductions. We're in grave danger and it's coming at us from both the physical and spiritual dimensions."
I knew Angelica was sincere, but I also believed she was sincerely wrong. I accepted Tom Faraday's spiritual explanation as a hypothesis that explained the motives of the cabal but I didn't have to wholeheartedly embrace them.
Come to think of it, maybe Art Tucker, my friend and Jungian therapist, was right when he said my night terrors concerning the Beast were simply attributable to a combination of nightmares and sleep paralysis that made me feel so powerless.
The simplest solution is almost always right and so, for me, the sleep paralysis theory works and cuts through all the foggy give and take about angels and demons.
Using my reason I can explain everything that's happening without invoking the mystical and frankly, if we're going to survive this crisis, I need to keep my wits even if everyone around me is losing theirs and blaming it on me.