The other tourists laughed. Todd smiled politely, took hold of Maria’s arm, and gently ushered her toward the hotel lobby. Father Jenkins and Dr. Donahue sat waiting at a secluded table when the couple walked around the corner. Jim stood and pulled a chair out for Maria next to his own. Todd frowned and took a chair across from them.
Maria leaned towards Jim. “What happened? Wasn’t your room in there? We didn’t hear a thing.”
“Uh, yes—yes it was.” He reached for Maria’s hand. “So, you’re gonna be the child’s mother?”
“Yes, isn’t it wild?”
“What did you say happened last night?” Todd said a little too loudly.
Jim looked over his shoulder at the silent town car driver sitting nearby in the lobby. He turned and looked back at Todd. “Let’s go for a ride.”
~~~
Downtown Nashville slowly rolled past the port side windows of the town car as it silently rolled eastward on Interstate 40.
“Blaze watched the driver’s sectional window go up before turning back to the others. We can talk openly now,” he said, speaking from a seat across from Todd. “Maria told me you knew of the cloning project. Has she told you everything yet?”
“Yes” Todd said.
“No.”
Todd looked at Maria. “What do you mean no?”
“You don’t know everything yet.”
Todd glanced at Blaze and back at Maria. “Okay—so tell me everything.”
“Before we tell you what happened last night,” Blaze said, “it’s important that you understand who this child will be.”
“You mean who the donor is?”
“Exactly. You understand Dr. Donahue’s specialty, don’t you?”
Todd glanced at Jim. “Know of it, be lyin’ if I said I understood it.”
Jim leaned back in the seat and tugged at his jacket sleeves. “I’ve developed a process that reanimates inert DNA.”
“And how do you do that exactly?”
“Well,” Jim said, looking around the limo, “to put it simply, I’ve discovered that all DNA bases, no matter how badly compromised, leave a chemical trace. I use altered viruses to introduce an enzyme designed to use the trace as a pattern, replacing the nonviable, missing, and degenerated bases—basically rebuilding the strand from scratch.”
“Hmm, that really is amazing,” Todd said. He glanced at Maria before returning his attention to Jim. “Whose DNA are you rebuilding for Maria?”
“Jesus,” Maria said, grinning.
Todd turned and stared at Maria. “Jesus—like in… the Christ Jesus?”
Blaze nodded.
Todd laughed, looked at the floor and readjusted his Oakland ball cap. “Are you people out of your minds?” he said, looking up. “Where ya gonna find Jesus’ DNA?”
“We have two verified samples,” Blaze said.
“Two samples of Jesus’ DNA?”
“That’s right.”
“What kind of samples?”
“Blood.”
“Why haven’t we heard of this?”
“You have,” Blaze said. “One sample is from the shroud of Turin and the other is from the Holy Blood Altar in Rothenberg, Germany.”
Todd sat back in his seat staring at Blaze. “And those two samples match?”
“Perfectly,” Jim said.
Todd frowned and he readjusted his cap. “Okay, okay, how ‘bout this? There’s this guy, he’s a big gun in the early church. He’s packin’ the Shroud of Turin and the Holy…Blood…thing around with him altogether in a— covered wagon or—whatever. All of a sudden, he gets a bloody nose—taints everything.”
“I understand your skepticism,” Jim said. “That’s exactly how I reacted, but something very important happened last night that changed my mind.”
Maria leaned forward.
Jim, seeing he had the floor, hesitated before speaking. “Last night,” he began softly, “I was sleeping, dreaming. Well, I was having a nightmare. Someone beating on my door woke me out of a sound sleep. I got up and looked out the peephole, but no one was there. While I was looking out into the hall, the damn thing banged again and I’m telling you, no one was in that hall.” He paused and continued. “I opened the door and…this is gonna sound crazy, but, well, I think—no, I’m sure—God came into the room.”
“What?” Todd said. “This whole damn thing is a joke isn’t it?”
Jim glared at Todd. “Yeah kid, this is a joke. That devastated hall back at the hotel—don’t you think it’s funny?”
“Jim,” Blaze said, “Todd is only—”
“Yeah, I know what he’s doing!” Jim barked, glancing at Maria. “Do you want to hear this or not?”
“Yeah—sorry,” Todd said, surprised at Dr. Donahue’s sudden rage.
The limo fell silent. Jim glanced at Todd, readjusted himself in the seat, and continued. “Okay, in the interest of the project, I’m gonna tell you what happened. What you choose to believe is entirely up to you.”
Todd and Maria exchanged glances.
“The devastation you saw in that hall,” Jim continued slowly, “was caused by monstrous, supernatural sound waves…or something.”
Todd’s eyes narrowed. “Sound waves? What sort of sound waves?”
Jim glanced at Todd before looking back at Maria. “It was a…voice.”
“A voice?” Maria said.
“No, not a voice,” Jim said stammering, “the voice—God’s voice.”
Todd stared, expecting Jim and Blaze to erupt with laughter at any moment.
“What did God say?” Maria said, wide eyed.
Her childlike naivety brought smiles to their faces. Even Jim managed to smile.
“What?” she asked.
Jim laughed and shook his head. “I can’t believe this is me saying this. God told me, these were His exact words: ‘Thou shalt not hinder my son.’” Everyone sat silent for a moment, then Jim continued. “After that, He smashed down my walls and blew the furniture out the window. I took it as a sign He was serious.”
“So you’re getting behind this thing?” Todd said.
“Not only am I getting behind it, my boy, but I intend to see to it that it happens, on schedule. Frankly,” he glanced at Blaze, “I’m afraid to do otherwise.”
Maria’s face brightened. “Sweet, what do we do now?”
“First off,” Blaze said, “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you the importance of discretion. Maria and Todd, you can go on about your business for now. The Vinces will contact each of you the moment you are needed. The only delay I see at this point is replacing Dr. Perez. I’m confident the Vinces have a contingency. Jim, we need you now. We have the necessary DNA. All that is left is to prepare it for transfer into one of Maria’s cells.”
Maria leaned forward. “When will we do this?”
“When the details are worked out,” Blaze said, “we’ll bring you here to Vanderbilt where we’ll process and then transfer the zygote into your uterus.”
“Sounds easy,” Maria said.
Blaze and Jim smiled.
“It might sound easy,” Jim said, his face a little too close to Maria’s. “But let me assure you, it’s anything but.”
~~~
Barney threw himself at the Jesus guy. As quickly as he had launched his attack, he stiffened. His ragged scream was cut off as if he’d received a blow to the stomach.
The Jesus guy calmly stepped aside as Barney stumbled past him and fell to the ground. He lay in the dirt heaving, his legs and upper torso wracked by involuntary spasms.
“Barney is lying to you, Pete,” the Jesus guy said. “You were the one who stayed and took it like a man while Barney here scattered like a cockroach.”
The Jesus guy smiled, reached down, and took hold of Barney’s shoulder. At that moment, the all-consuming agony was gone. Barney lay there feeling his strength return. He tried to wipe vomit from his face as the Jesus guy helped him to his feet.
Barney yanked his elbow out of
the Jesus guy’s hand. Again, he went down. The same agony enveloped him as he lay writhing on the ground and just as before, the pain subsided as quickly as it had appeared.
“You can’t resist me, Barney,” the Jesus guy said in a soft voice. “You’re mine now. The Father has given you to me. You too, Pete. You two are the first of many.”
“N-n-no, I don’t th-think so,” Pete said, struggling to stand. “I was j-just headed to the m-m-mission to get something t-to eat.” Pete had just reached his feet when he too fell to the ground retching.
“There will be plenty to eat, my brothers,” the Jesus guy said, kneeling beside Pete. “Food is no longer our concern.”
Pete groaned and sat up.
“I want to show you something,” the Jesus guy said as he pulled a bag from under his coat. Making sure no one was around, he reached and pulled out a fistful of hundred dollar bills, made sure both transients got a good look, and pushed it all back into the bag.
Barney’s first impulse was to knock the kid down and take the money, but it didn’t take him long to return to his senses. Clearly something extraordinary had happened to the retard, and Barney had no interest in challenging him again. Besides, he knew where the money was, and there was plenty of time.
He glanced at Pete who seemed to be taking it in as just another bizarre event in an extraordinarily bizarre day.
“Today we’ll begin.” the Jesus guy said. He took a moment to inspect Pete and Barney. “What we need now is respectable clothing.”
Barney glanced at Pete before looking back at the Jesus guy. “You gonna buy us clothes?”
“No, Barney,” the Jesus guy said. He thoughtfully repeated the name Barney. “I don’t like the name Barney. From here out, I’ll call you Barnabas.”
Barney decided to play the game for the time being.
“Barnabas,” the Jesus guy continued. “You will go out and acquire a medium-sized suit, complete with shirt and tie.”
“Huh?” Barney said. “Me?”
“Yes you!”
“Why don’t we just buy ‘em?”
“Let’s think about that, Barnabas. Is that a good idea? What do you think, Pete?”
Pete glanced up as if to say something but the Jesus guy interrupted him.
“Let’s give Barney’s idea some thought. He suggested that we…” he turned and gestured towards Barney and Pete “…bums walk into a department store and buy three new suits with the tattered, crumbling money I keep tucked up under my coat. I think they’ll be suspicious, but maybe that’s just me.”
Barney and Pete stood motionless, staring at their new leader.
“Peter.” the Jesus guy said, breaking the awkward silence. “I’ll call you Peter. And while Barnabas is finding me some clothes to wear you and I will be liberating a tool belt from that van right over there.” He turned and pointed in the direction of a van parked deep in an alley behind a magazine store. An old sign painted on the side of the van read ‘Music City Electric.’
“N-no I can’t. M-my parole officer s-said if I get caught one m-more time I—”
“Shut up, Peter!” the Jesus guy screamed, his face contorted with rage. He quickly calmed himself. “All things are new, Peter. You must learn to trust me. In a very short time we’ll leave this place and start a new life in the service of the Father.” He moved forward and put his arm around Pete’s shoulder. “It’s like this, Peter, I belong to the Father, and you belong to me. No one can ever take you away from me, you’ll see. Now, go on Barnabas and do as I ask.”
Barney stood a moment staring at the Jesus guy who pointed back towards Music Row. “If I were you, I’d start looking for a medium sized black suit, shirt and tie just around the corner to your left.”
Barney shook his head slowly, turned and began walking away.
~~~
“Peter,” the Jesus guy said, pointing at the half hidden panel van, “you and I will go get the tools.”
The Jesus guy moved off toward the van. Pete held back momentarily before following from a short distance.
The two were brazenly making their way to the side of the van when Pete heard a screechy back door swing open. His heart bucked in his chest. He instinctively ducked for cover but to his horror, there was none. They were both standing within touching distance of the van when the bulky man, wearing a tool belt full of electrician’s tools, rounded the corner. The three men found themselves standing face to face.
~~~
Barney had made his way back to Music Row, turned onto Broadway, and immediately spotted several new suits hanging in a storefront window. He moved towards the door and abruptly stopped. What am I doing?
He turned away and proceeded north on Broadway. He’d go back to the hut and forget this weird day ever happened. As he moved away, nausea overtook him. “No,” he groaned. He turned and moved back toward the storefront. The nausea subsided.
After taking a moment to try and calm himself he moved into the store and casually looked around. The place seemed to be empty. He moved to the back and peaked through a door left slightly ajar. No one was there. He slowly began making his way back toward the suits pausing occasionally to finger an article of clothing. As he approached the suit, he made a quick check for cameras and looked around the store one more time.
This is too weird, he thought.
He stared at one of the suits, his heart coursing. Finally, he snagged it off the display, bolted out the door and ran south on Demonbreun, trying desperately to push the bulky suit under his shirt.
~~~
The big electrician seemed genuinely enraged to find two derelicts standing just outside his work van but to Pete’s amazement he softened.
“My name is Brother Michael,” the Jesus guy said. “This is my friend Peter. He insists you give us those tools you’re wearing.”
Pete prepared himself for the pummeling of a lifetime.
“Well,” the electrician said thoughtfully, “okay, sure, if you really need them.”
“Yes, we do,” Brother Michael said, “and we will never bring them back.”
The electrician reached into his bags and pulled out a tool used for cutting new threads. “Can’t let you have this, but the rest you can take.”
“That’ll do,” Michael said cheerfully.
The electrician pulled the tool bags off and handed them over.
“Oh, and the shirt?” Michael said, pointing.
“Yeah…here, let me take it off. I have a t-shirt on underneath.”
Pete watched in astonishment as the burly electrician pulled his shirt off and handed it over to Brother Michael.
Michael turned and began walking away with his bounty.
~~~
Barney, running west on 16th Avenue, reached the point where he’d left the Jesus guy and skidded to a stop. From where he was standing, he could see that Pete and the Jesus guy had been caught trying to rob the van. A large man was confronting them. Knowing the cops would be on their way, he slipped in behind a fenced dumpster, lifted a flap in the fence and peered out. He was amazed to see Pete and the big guy standing there watching the Jesus guy walk away with a bag of tools.
~~~
Pete stood, staring at the electrician who was watching Brother Michael disappear around the corner.
Without warning the huge man turned on Pete. “What are you doing here? Get the hell out of here!”
“Uh, I-I was j-j-just...okay.” He spun and ran in Brother Michael’s direction.
“Stay the hell away from my van!” the big man yelled as Pete sprinted away around the corner.
It took Pete a few minutes to locate and catch up with Brother Michael. “W-what, how how’d you do th-that?”
Brother Michael turned and smiled as he approached. “Who do you say that I am, Peter?”
“Huh?” Pete said, crinkling his brows.
“Who am I?”
“You’re the, uh…Jesus guy?”
“And who do you say that I am, Barnabas?” br />
Pete stared back at Brother Michael, wondering if he was supposed to respond, when Barney slowly appeared from his hiding place between the fence and the dumpster.
“Uh, I guess you must be…Jesus,” Barney answered, clearly shaken.
“Oh, that’ll do nicely,” Brother Michael said spotting the suit haphazardly pushed under Barney’s shirt. Barney stared at him a moment before obediently handing the suit over. Brother Michael, still holding the tool bag and shirt, passed them over to Pete and reached for the suit.
~~~
Barney slowly handed the suit over and stood pondering this new version of the Jesus guy. One thing was perfectly clear, this little retard had become something strange and was somehow dragging him and Pete in a direction he wasn’t sure he wanted to travel.
“Walk with me,” Brother Michael said.
The three derelicts picked up their bounty and began making their way toward West End Avenue. As the trio approached Vanderbilt University, Brother Michael stopped and sat on the curb directly across from a high rise hotel. Barney and Pete followed suit and sat down beside him.
They both jumped when Brother Michael asked Barney, “Who do you say that I am?”
Barney sat silent for a time listening to the traffic. “Jesus,” he said finally. “Like you said before, I guess you’re Jesus.”
To Barney’s surprise, Brother Michael laughed and asked Pete, “Who do you say that I am?”
“W-well like B-Barney said, I guess you’re J-Jesus.”
“You will both call me Brother Michael.”
Pete sat pondering for a time and finally spoke. “S-So, when you say who do you s-say that I am, we gotta say, B-B-Brother Michael?”
Michael threw his head back laughing and dropped his arm over Pete’s shoulder.
Without warning Brother Michael jumped to his feet. He pointed a shaky finger across the street towards a cab that was picking up a young man and woman from the hotel lobby. Barney, alarmed by Brother Michael’s strange behavior, jumped to his feet and was quickly joined by Pete. They stood looking in the direction Michael was pointing.
“Look!” Brother Michael groaned, overcome with emotion, “the mother of my lord!”
Barney and Pete glanced around wildly, trying to see what it was Brother Michael was ranting about, but all they saw was a beautiful, raven-haired girl staring back from the rear seat of a cab as it pulled away from the hotel.