14

One of those Seekers was being interviewed, so she turned the volume up to listen.

“...you expecting from this ‘Eschaton’?”

“We are hoping it will give us the chance to start again. There’s too many things wrong with the system at the moment to try to fix them.”

“Isn’t that a bit drastic?”

“Well, think of the world as a chair. If one leg breaks, you might be fine by taping or nailing that leg back, but after a while, when all of the legs have failed and the whole integrity of the chair is collapsing, you would throw outside the chair and get a new, better one.”

“According to that metaphor, many would buy the same chair model, if it served well and was a good value purchase.”

“That’s the thing, it wasn’t. Our current capitalist system was built on the blood of thousands of labourers during the Industrial Revolution, and the creation of an oppressed middle class. Our laws are based in a model that was over four thousand years old and promoted slavery. There’s too many things wrong with the chair.”

“The End of the World is a scary term for many. You claim it will be an age of enlightenment and opportunity, however other would claim that it means an end to all life, which is clearly not a desirable outcome. How are you so sure about this End being only Change?”

“See, I’m glad you’re asking me that. The funny thing about the event was that that was a mistranslation issue. You’ve seen how people in China claim that the clip is in Chinese?”

“Yes.”

“That’s the first example in a long time of something the Bible used to talk about, the Gift of Tongues. People would hear the words and understand their meaning in regards to their own language and cultural frame of reference. Like an universal translator. While most people heard him talk about the world ending, we Seekers heard something else, something beautiful. We know change is coming, and we want to embrace it and become better humans thanks to it.”

“You mentioned the Bible, are you Catholic?” Avril hated it when interviewers did that, changing the topic to focus on some menial detail of what the interviewee had said. However, the Seeker was calm and answered straight away.

“I am an agnostic. I don’t think any God has much influence in our destiny, however. Maybe in our creation and development, but that’s quite likely as far as it gets. If there is a God, I don’t think he’s behind this.”

“Then who or what do you think is behind it?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care. If I see a pregnant woman who has fallen to the railway tracks and someone who jumps to save her, what matters to me first is that the woman is safe. I’ll care about her savior later. If the man is a hero he will stay a hero for a while.”

“Ok, thanks for your time, we appreciate...”

Avril turned off the TV. The Seeker had upset her. She hadn’t thought about them for ages, and she had been happier. Now she couldn’t shake off the memory of her parents, and that made her uncomfortable. She decided she would take a second bath.

***

Father Lucas stood in the pulpit, looking over the people who were congregating. He smiled slightly and felt proud. He had been expecting this, but there were even more people that he had hoped. He knew what he had to do, his faith was strong, he finally had no doubts. People were still flooding in, expecting to see the man who had performed the miracle. He smiled when thinking about the bishop. Time would put everyone in his place, he knew it. People knew he was the voice of God, and he planned to speak to them and perform His will.

There was some sound from the back, but it was all hushed. It hadn't been so for a long time and he was happy to find out that people were expecting his talk. There was still some time, so he went to the room at the back. There were some journalist inside the crowd, and they were more cameras and vans outside, however they were not permitted inside of the church.

He mentally counted how many journalist were in the room, and how many people he could count on. There was going to be a great deal of curiosity towards him, and he needed to take advantage of it. He was hatching a plan. Arthur had felt nervous, scared... but he would end up seeing thing his way. Everyone would, cause he knew he was right.

After all, wasn’t him the voice of God?

***

The Man In Black smiled at the screen. The face on the other side looked just like an older version of him.

“So it’s confirmed you have the man?”

“It is. He’s sleeping at the moment, even though we already sedated him on the plane. He had a full dinner. He should be awake for your speech.”

“We need everything in place, or else we won’t have our element of surprise.”

“I know, it is ready,” he never lost his smile.

“I hope it is so,” said the face at the other side, right before shutting the conversation down. The Man In Black relaxed in his chair, but didn’t change his smile at all. With a flick of his finger, three screens appeared on the wall, one showing Avril, having a bath, another showed a restless Chris tossing and turning in a bed, and the third showed an empty room. He tossed away the empty room, and the bathing girl with a flick of the finger, and made the one showing Chris much bigger.

“Dictation,” he said, and a new window appeared with a blank document in a word processor.

“Dear Mia, dearest, dearest Mia. I am extremely sorry, but I won’t be able to make it for dinner, or for lunch tomorrow.”

He moved another finger, a high pitched sound appeared throught the PA. Chris started turning more violently and faster.

“I believe this project might be more involved than I thought. I will write later today to see if I have any update on when I will be able to leave, but for now, please don’t expect me unless I say so.”

When Chris stopped moving, and started to raise, the Man In Black moved his finger again until the noise disappeared.

“Please give a kiss to the kids for me. I love you all. End dictation, send to Mia.”

He watched as Chris woke up, and washed his face. He needed him awake, and he needed him to watch the press conference with Avril. He expected him to leave his room and visit her with no further incentive, but he was ready to make his stay in the room subliminally unpleasant. The lights, the sound, even the smell of the room were all at his disposal, to lead them like rats in a labyrinth. However, he was convinced that the cheese they were laying for them would be enough. A sudden short *ding* distracted him from his screens. The reply to his mail had arrived.

“Read,” he said. The message opened, with one word written on it. “OK.”

He smiled again, and returned his attention to the things he considered important, which at this moment were only Chris and Avril.

***

Chris crossed the hall slowly. He was quite nervous about knocking on the door, but he was scared of being alone. He knew he couldn’t trust any of the people in this installation. The man in the suit had insisted they were working for his benefit, protecting him; and yet he couldn’t help but feel threatened. They had the power and the strength to kidnap him, they had resources as he never seen, and he didn’t understand why the interest in him. He was convinced that the man in TV had been wrong. He could be talking about another Chris Barnett, he was sure there must be several more around the world. He had even seen a couple of their profiles on facebook before, due to a morbid interest. Maybe they were all going through a similar process. After all, what could he do that would destroy the world? He felt lost. Dianne had always made all the difficult decisions, when they had been dating. It had been her who convinced him to start working in another town. Now he wondered if maybe she was just trying to get rid of him, but somehow that made his head spin. She still needed to believe in the kindness of her heart to make sense of the world he was living in.

He reached the door, but wasn’t ready to knock. The girls had seemed different to the man, but maybe it was all part of their plan, some sort of elaborate ‘good cop / bad cop’ situation. His need to talk to someone was great, but so was his paranoia. Suddenly, he thought of what would happen if everything was true. What if he had to die so that everybody else, including Dianne, could live? The thought made him shiver. He turned away from the door and walked two steps, but turned again and knocked. He needed company, he couldn’t deal being alone now.

Avril opened the door wearing a black silk robe, and mismatched socks. Chris was surprised to realize that he found her extremely attractive. She remembered seeing her in her biker clothes outside of his home. He had always felt a lustful attraction to girls like her, but had stayed with girls like Dianne. He liked the idea of a rebel, someone with attitude, and one of those lives that get turned into movies, but the thought had always scared him. Too much freedom was the same as anarchism, so he preferred to date women who he could understand, and feel comfortable with. He suddenly remembered the dream he had had in the helicopter and felt a pang of nausea.

“Oh, hi,” said Avril.

“Hi,” said Chris. “Uhm,” he continued, and stopped. He had no idea what to say next. He wanted to talk to her, but she was intimidating, even though she was a full head shorter. She stood in the door frame, waiting for an answer.

“I have been sleeping for a while,” said Chris finally, and stopped again. She smiled, most likely noting his nervousness.

“Do you want to come in?” she asked.

“Yes, please,” said Chris, joining his hands together. She moved into the room. Chris could smell perfume and a scented air that made him remember Dianne’s house. He had never understood perfume the way women did. The most he had managed was having his home not smelling of beer, and that had been a struggle. He sat on the bed, as he could not see any more chairs, but he saw her walking towards a wall, tapping it for a moment, and then a chair appearing from the wall. She sat down.

“Do you want some wine? Beer?”

“I would love a coffee, I just woke up.”

She smiled, and returned to the tapping on the wall, Chris could barely make out the buttons she was pushing. “So you said.”

“Uh?” asked Chris. She turned and looked him in the eyes.

“You said you had been sleeping before.”

“Oh, right, sorry, I’m just slightly overwhelmed.”

“I understand,” she said. “I feel the same way.”

“You look really comfortable.”

“I have no other option, really.” There was a ding, and a hot cup and a glass full of red wine appeared from a secret panel on the wall. She gave him the coffee and kept the wine. Chris started drinking his cup, and was surprised to see that he quite enjoyed the taste, then he cursed himself silently for being surprised. It was obvious that whoever had built this place had done so thinking about what people liked, and the attention to detail had been evident from the beginning.

“I wanted to ask you a few questions,” he told Avril.

“There’s not much that I know, this is probably as new to me as it is for you.”

“You knew the man in the helicopter.”

“I had met him that morning. Five minutes before he blew up your door.”

“I actually saw that, you seemed to be expecting him.”

“I got a call this morning. They offered me a job I wanted, and they made a good offer. I had no idea who they were before.”

“What job was it?”

“I want to tell the world your story,” she said. When he gave her a confused look she added: “I’m a journalist.”

“Oh,” said Chris. “So why my story?”

“Well, you’ve became national news. There’s a lot of people that want you dead, so the world doesn’t end, and there’s a lot of people that want you to live, so the can see this new world that you’re supposed to bring.”

“I’m sure that must be someone else. I’m just a regular guy.”

“And yet you’re not. You were the closest Chris Barnett to the event. You have the interest of GD behind you. And there’s also the experiment.”

“What experiment?”

“Oh, they showed it on TV right before you came in. They showed a group of fifty people who hadn’t yet seen you a bunch of photos, like one hundred each, and asked them to identify you, just because of your name and the event. The fifty of them chose you.”

“Well, maybe there’s another Chris...”

“The hundred of photos were all of your namesakes, they were all called Chris Barnett, and yet the people choose you. You are the one, Chris.”

“But why?”

“I haven’t got a clue yet. I think it’s a General Dynamics marketing ploy, but it might be true after all.”

Chris didn’t say a thing, so Avril continued.

“I was there when it happened. I worked in that show, and I had been talking with Father Lucas before he went on stage. I hate to say this, but I believe in what he said.”

“The end of the world thing?”

“I... I heard something different.”

“What did you hear?”

“That’s not important, the fact is that you might be the most interesting story there’s been in centuries, and I want to be the one who tells it to the world. I promise I will share everything with you, and I will make sure that what people hear about you is the truth, and not just whatever GD wants people to know, but you need to trust me.”

“I don’t think I can do that just yet.”

“Then at least be honest with me.”

“I’m always honest, I couldn’t lie to save my life.”

“Why did Dianne break with you?”

“How do you know about Dianne?”

“I am a journalist. As soon as I started looking around most of your life simply floated to the surface. Welcome to the Google era.”

“And how do you know we broke up? Nobody knows that yet.”

“I spoke with her before meeting you.”

Chris suddenly grew concerned.

“Is she OK? Oh, my God, people must be harassing her right now.”

“She’s OK, she’ll be OK.”

“We need to bring her here.”

“I don’t think that would be a great idea, Chris, you don’t know what GD wants from us.”

“And you do?”

“No, but I know that if they wanted Dianne here, she would already be here.”

Chris looked at the floor.

“You didn’t answer my question, Chris,” she said when a few seconds had passed.

“I don’t know.”

“Did you do something to upset her?”

“No, there’s no... I would never do anything like that.”

Avril looked concerned.

Suddenly, a beeping sound broke the silence. An alarm on the wall told them that the press conference by the General Dynamics CEO was on in just five, so Avril pressed the buttons she need to turn on the TV.

“This is going to be good,” she said.

“I’m sure I’m not going to like it,” replied Chris.

***

Arthur was shaken. The sermon had been brutal, the people had been shocked. Father Lucas had gone insane, or at least he felt it that way. It had been a call to arms. A plea to keep faith through the hard times, and a declaration of war. He meant to kill the stranger named Chris Barnett, and he meant to have people following him when he did so. Something had been perverted in him. Arthur was sure now that the event hadn’t been any sort of divine intervention. This had to be the Devil’s work. Father Lucas had always been kind, calm and good, and now he was leading a witch hunt to slay an innocent.

He had left the church halfway through the sermon and now lied on his bed in his chamber, shaking and on the verge of snapping.

He wondered if he should call the bishop, but he had no idea how to contact him, and he couldn’t ask Father Lucas. He was scared and felt powerless.

He turned on the TV. He needed to know what the reaction had been to his master’s sermon, but all channels were instead focusing on the press conference that was about to start.

A man of around fifty took the stage. He looked strong, and wore a black suit, with a black shirt and black tie. The only stroke of white was the hair on his temples, and even that served only to make his face looked more stern and menacing. He shivered, thinking that the man might say something similar to the things he had just heard.

“Good afternoon,” he started. “It’s been a long time since I created General Dynamics. I started in a garage, with people in whom I trusted and with ideas on how to make this country a better place, because it was never about the world, it was about the country. We loved you, we cared for you, and we wanted to make sure that life here was the best in the whole wide world.”

“We were wrong.”

Arthur was mesmerized by the man’s discourse. He had an undeniable charisma, and he reminded him of the younger Father Lucas, however he couldn’t help but fear that he wasn’t going to like the rest of the discourse.

“We don’t want this country to be happy. We want people to be happy. But we only want the GOOD people, those who care, and those who help. We used to think that the people from this country were like that, but then we were proven wrong time and time again.”

“It’s been long since a big area to the west of where I stand now, has been the property of General Dynamic. We’ve slowly built our Utopia there, during the years, hoping that one day, we would find the right people to make happy. And we’ve done so.”

“We are seceding. From here on, we declare ourselves a sovereign nation.”

“Right now, our people our speaking with the UN. We don’t plan to create any trouble, but we will be accepting citizenship requests in a few days. Our first act as a nation has already been taken. We have reasons to believe that the man known as Chris Barnett wasn’t safe, and we even stopped an assassination ploy against him. He is under our protection now, and we consider him a friend of General Dynamics, and a political refugee.”

“Our offices around the world are being turned into embassies, and we will be declaring our own government in the following days. Any questions to our PR staff will now be considered matters of state. Any legal concerns and cases were involved in will now wait for our government and constitution to be established, and for the UN’s resolution. Our workers have been given our citizenship, as well as several trusted associates.”

“Our main goal is being an open, honest nation, and that’s the reason why all the drafts and official documents from our nation are now being posted online. We welcome everyone to read and comment on how to improve those. We want to build the Utopian country that this nation was supposed, but failed to be.”

“We hope all good men and women will be joining us soon. Peace and love to all of you.”

The reporters were screaming questions, and everything was hectic, but the men in black said no more. Arthur sat hypnotized by the TV. There were so many things going wrong at the moment that he felt overwhelmed.

***

Avril’s jaw was open, and she hadn’t even noticed. Chris seemed as startled at her side, but his mouth was closed.

“They can’t do this, can they?” he asked.

She collected herself. She had no idea what to answer.

“There’s no way... I mean, the United Nations will never allow it to happen.”

“The man seemed very confident that they would.”

Her mind was racing. The man had been to eerily similar to the Man In Black. She was scared that they would actually pull it off. And he had mentioned several trusted associates. Was she one of those? Or was she now a worker? The TV had been turned off when the speech ended, but she had to many unanswered questions. She supposed that they were now in part of what was going to be the General Dynamics nation. She hoped they were going to change that name. She looked at Chris.

“He mentioned you’re a political refugee,” she said.

“He did.”

“That means they plan to protect you, and that must mean an army.”

Chris remained silent, thinking about the implications of what he had just heard. Avril prepared herself another glass of wine and gulped it down in one go.

“This changes everything,” she said. “They should have told me.”

Suddenly, the door opened with no previous warning. On the other side, the Man In Black kept his smile, which she now wanted to punch more than ever.

“I take it you’ve been watching the news,” he said.

“You bastard,” said Avril between her teeth. “Did you know this was going to happen?”

“I did, I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you. But rest assured that things are going to change quite fast. We are opening all our records and plans, so you will be able to read why we did it and how it was done.”

“What if I don’t agree with it?”

“We are offering you a citizenship, if you won’t accept it you will still have a visa, and you will be treated as a favoured guest, but we would eventually ask you to leave, and we wouldn’t support your book.”

“Damn the book.”

“Well, look at it this way, Ms. Smith. We might have gotten you your first Pulitzer.”

She turned around, knowing that she would throw the glass to his head if she had to look at him one second longer.”

“Why did you come here?” asked Chris. She turned slowly to watch her reaction.

“Someone wanted to see you, Mr. Barnett,” he turned away from the door, and Avril saw a tall woman, with blond perfect hair flowing over her shoulder. She was wearing to much makeup for her standards, but she had to admit that she was pretty. Chris’ mouth was open, but she didn’t think that the woman alone was enough to cause that reaction.

“Dianne?” asked Chris.

Fuck, thought Avril.