Getting a cue from his producer, John then turned to the camera and said, “We need to break for some news updates from around the world and station identification. When we return we will also have on the spot reporters doing interviews in the crowds at the stadiums and on the streets here in Kansas City. After that, we will have more coverage of the self-proclaimed Witnesses. That will be followed by a one-on-one interview with Jack South or Enoch, as he is now called by Elijah.”
Chapter 2
8:55 PM Thursday Kansas City, Missouri - Center City, Enoch’s Hotel Suite
After leaving the stage, Enoch returned to the hotel. He laid the staff down carefully on the bed and removed the vestments. He immediately knelt down by the bed to pray and thank God for saving his life and allowing him to be able to complete tonight’s sermon as His servant.
After his prayers, he retrieved a Gatorade from the refrigerator and drank it almost completely down in one gulp. Preaching made him thirsty. As he was finishing off the drink, he thought about the interview he had agreed to do here in less than half an hour. He wished he had not agreed to do it for he was exhausted. However, he knew there would be many questions that needed to be answered or clarified. His only fear was that certain questions they might ask he just did not know the answers to. Elijah, it appeared, had his own agenda and Enoch had no knowledge regarding the statements he had made during the sermon tonight, especially about Israel. Well, as he had learned so far in this ministry, he would just have to trust God to guide him and give him the answers he needed.
While still deep in thought, Enoch looked out the window and could see that the stage area was still lit up and that there was still a sea of people in the area. It appeared that no one had moved at all. They were all still there. He assumed that they were waiting for his interview with John before they left. They might also still be in shock or awe or even fear after the display of God’s power as called upon by Elijah and himself.
He realized that while on the stage he had no fear at all. It was as if it was not him but someone else. He thought about Elijah and walking in mid-air over the cliff; it was just mind boggling. Suspended in mid-air with no support under his feet but air was amazing! What powers God had over the universe, he thought. He did not really know these answers but the experience was incredible.
He also thought of when Elijah told him that he was really Enoch. How could this possibly be correct? He distinctly remembered growing up as a child to parents right there in Kansas City. He was Jack Enoch South, not the biblical Enoch.
As he held this thought, his mind wandered to some of the dreams he had been having lately. They were always similar. He was somewhere else from a long time ago. He let his mind wander for a few moments on this. As he was thinking about his questions, he glanced at the clock on the table and then his thoughts came back to the commitments he had agreed to. He had to leave soon for the interview with John Roddenburg. He just hoped that he could answer their questions correctly.
The telephone in the suite rang and interrupted his thoughts. He walked over to the desk and answered it.
“Hello?”
“Jack uh, sorry, Enoch, this is Don, John Roddenburg’s Producer. I think we met the other day.”
“Yes, I remember.”
“Well we just wanted to confirm if we are still on for the interview with John?"
“Yes, I was just getting ready to leave here in a few minutes. I assumed I was to go to the anchor desk at the stage area. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that would be great. We are going to do some on the street interviews and some news updates, so would about 30 to 45 minutes work for you?”
“That will be fine Don. I will be there.”
“Thanks Enoch, I will see you soon.”
He hung up the phone. He was trying to decide if he should wear the vestment again or his more common polo shirt and slacks. He heard a knock at the door. His security guard opened the door and stuck his head in through the crack and said “Enoch, you have some visitors.” Then Veronica, Mark, and Elijah walked into the suite.
Chapter 3
9:05 PM Thursday Kansas City, Missouri - Center City, Aafre Waldger’s Suite
“That was not the right thing for the Bishop to have done,” Aafre said to Cardinal Richital. I was led to believe by the two of you that the staff you brought from the Vatican was the one from Moses that had been discovered by the crusaders. It obviously was not. What you had was the Egyptian Magician’s staff from the Pharaoh’s court. I would have never allowed this to occur if I had known that your staff was from them. You had no chance and in front of the whole world, Praterus was put to shame.”
“I understand,” the Cardinal said. “I really do understand and I agree that we made an error. Nevertheless, it is only a temporary setback. The game is only four days old. We have many more days, months and years ahead.”
The Cardinal paused, knowing that arguing with Aafre over this was useless. He changed the direction of the conversation by saying “We need to get the media machine going immediately and make a big deal of the displays by Jack, Enoch or whatever his name is and Elijah as being nothing but tricks. People believe in science, technology, and trickery or what is called magic, as the illusionists say. Also they do not remember things for very long; and soon they will no longer remember this.”
“What about them walking in the air, Cardinal? That was quite a feat.”
“Simple thing, Aafre. We can overcome that too, for walking in thin air is an old magician’s trick. We will be issuing a statement from the Vatican once Praterus is in position, that both Elijah and Jack, or Enoch, as he now calls himself, used tricks to make this all happen. It was all an illusion and people will soon start to question their God’s grandstanding.”
“Will the current Pope agree to this Cardinal?”
“No, but as we discussed before, Praterus will. The current Pontiff is quite ill and if he makes it past the next day or two, we would be surprised. When he is gone, then the power of the church will be in Praterus’ hands, and we will then move forward.”
“Alright Cardinal, I will leave it in your hands, but let me ask you another question. Elijah has told the Muslims to leave Jerusalem, so can I assume that means he wants the Temple rebuilt?”
“Yes that is what he said.”
“That’s what I thought too; and we will help them accomplish that. The Master will want to enter it once the Temple is completed.”
“Who is it Aafre? Can you tell me?”
“No Cardinal. Not at this time.”
Annoyed by the answer he received Cardinal Richital said, “Well, maybe soon you will be able to let me know, Aafre. It would make things easier for us at the Vatican so that we can be prepared to endorse him on a worldwide basis.”
“In Time Cardinal Richital, in time,” Aafre said, getting angry with the Cardinal and seeing that the conversation was going nowhere. Aafre changed the subject himself and said as pleasantly as he could, “By the way Cardinal Richital, watch The Network in the morning, sometimes our minds do work in the same way and I think the broadcast will amuse you.”
“I will Aafre, I will; and we will be much more careful in the future.”
“Thank you Cardinal. I know you will.”
Chapter 4
9:15 PM Thursday Kansas City, Missouri - Center City, Enoch’s Suite
Enoch stepped back from the doorway as they entered his room. He was quite surprised to see Elijah for he thought he had left. Veronica, as she walked in, said, “You did well Enoch. You did very well tonight. I am sure your Creator is pleased with you and so are we.”
“Thanks Veronica; but Elijah coming to my aid sure helped a lot.”
“You are a team, Enoch. Remember that there are two of you and the team is what makes the difference.”
Elijah and Mark moved forward and sat on the couch, as there was another knock on the door. The security guard opened it again and said, “You have some mor
e guests, Enoch,” before Gabriel and Ariel entered the room. They sat down in the chairs by the table. Enoch moved toward the table as well and sat down facing the couch.
Then Gabriel, not really addressing anyone in particular but looking at Elijah, said, “That was good gentlemen; but now the problems start. The nations will slowly start to stand up to the two of you and it will be a battle of who gets their message across, you or them. As you well know, they will do whatever it takes to discredit anything you do and say. They will also attempt to assassinate you both but it will fail. But, be always aware that their goal for now is to discourage you, hamper you, and of course, eventually, to destroy you.”
Then Gabriel turned towards Enoch and said, “Enoch, tonight you are being interviewed again in a few minutes. We are sure that John and his co-anchors will question you about Elijah and his statements. Those statements he made are literal. God wants the lost tribes in Israel; the descendants of Ishmael and his sons out of Israel, and the Temple rebuilt.”
“I understand, Gabriel,” Enoch replied. “But you know that means the Muslims worldwide will stand up to claim their holy place, the Dome of the Rock, and will not take this sitting down. Also the Palestinians and Hamas are going to revolt and probably Iran!”
“We know that, Enoch. Their threats will force the Israeli government to make choices, which is part of the plan of God.”
“What about the rest of the world, Gabriel? This may well cause a major problem in the Middle East, maybe even result in a major attack on Israel.”
“There will be no war with Israel,” said Elijah, looking down at the floor. “I will take care of their enemies’ war machines in the next few days. To wage war, you need men to fight and their men will not be able to fight.”
“How are you to accomplish this?” Enoch asked.
Elijah lifted his head then turned towards Enoch and said, “I will go to the interview with you and will tell the world what will happen to any country that attacks or threatens to attack Israel. You, like the rest of the world, will know how God’s power will stop the descendants of Ishmael in their tracks. These first three and a half years of the time of sorrows are Gods’ time. The time to salvage as many souls as we can and show the world there is but one God and one Jesus Christ. Satan will have his time afterwards. But now it is God’s time.”
Chapter 5
10:39 AM Friday Beijing, China - Premier’s Office
Liang Enlai, Premier of the Government of the People’s Republic of China, Yuan Kwan, Minister of National Defense, and Wan Gangchuan, Minister of Finance were meeting in the office of the Premier. They, like the rest of the world, had watched the broadcast with Jack South, now Enoch, and the other witness, Elijah, with great interest. Thanks to technology, the broadcast was live with subtitles.
Liang asked Wan, “Do you think that if the American markets reopen on Monday we should start to remove our investments in the United States treasury department and put them into a more stable market like that of the Brits or the Europeans. Our investments currently exceed 1.6 trillion American dollars plus our billions in their businesses. With the expected destruction currently on the way, as this witness describes, they will never be able to repay us. Also, our currency, which we do not float on the open market, leaves us quite vulnerable.”
“We don’t let our currency float on the markets,” Wan said quite tersely, his anger showing. “The Yuan is our control over western economies. Let the Westerners float their currencies. In the end, we will win that battle. After the next few days, the almighty dollar, as they call it, will be worth nothing; and then our currency, if not openly traded, will be sought after even more than the dollar or the Euro, for that matter.”
He paused in deep concentration, and then added, “It does seem though that within 30 days, the U.S. will be bankrupt anyway. Therefore, I am not sure if it matters if we cash out or not. Even more concerning is that losing them as a market will greatly affect our economy. Therefore, in my opinion, as soon as the markets open, we take the loss in their treasury holdings. We will then transfer them to European holdings but hang on to our American business investments. I see no other way. America evidently cannot stand against these Witnesses and the destruction is obviously coming to them as a direct result of the actions of this so-called Enoch. Now this other self-proclaimed witness is rattling the swords on behalf of Israel, which will also then effect the markets worldwide for fear of an all-out war in the Middle East. Therefore, I suggest we purchase as much as we can on the futures market in energy, such as oil, natural gas, and even coal, at any price.”
Liang then asked, “What of our factories that make so many products for the Americans? They will have to shut down and that in itself will hurt our economy and probably cause even more unrest in our provinces. Where else can we create a market like the Americans?”
“I would not worry about that right now, Liang,” replied Wan. “The Europeans will be the next power to come to light. They will control the money in the very near future and we may well want to make additional alliances with them. Premier, that means that we would again be dealing with people who still consider us mongrels. That may be a difficult thing to do initially, if not impossible.”
“Wan we will worry about this issue later. When it comes to riches, race no longer matters. Now, in the meantime, we need to isolate ourselves from the world’s politics other than financial, and appear very neutral. It seems that after tonight, the unrest between the Muslims and the Jews that have been caused by the Witnesses will expand. The destruction they seem to be able to cause not only in America, but also in Northern Africa and Southeast Asia will pre-empt a lot of unrest in the world. This I fear will cause unprecedented world destabilization over the next few weeks and months.”
“I understand your concerns,” Liang said, with a look of genuine concern on his face. “Before Monday and after the meetings in the U.S. with The Waldger Group, we need to have a strategy in place. With America being brought to its knees, opportunities arise. We will not stand by without taking advantage of it either economically or politically. Do you agree Defense Minister Yuan?”
“Yes, I do Premier, and something has come to light that will help us along the way. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea wants to take advantage of America’s current situation and move on South Korea. They want us to turn the other way. They feel the Americans cannot help South Korea or will not. If America backs down they can just cross the DMZ and take over without a shot being fired.”
“Do you think, Yuan, that the Europeans will help South Korea?” Liang asked.
“No, I think they could care less. Currently, they are trying to figure out how to have America’s military power in their own control. With the U.S. being singled out by this witness who is causing havoc, they are in trouble. If America does give the Europeans or NATO control over their military even for a short time there will only be two powers left, The People’s Republic of China, and the Europeans. Of course there are the Russians, but at this time I am not sure where they will stand in all of this.”
“What of this Jack or Enoch as he calls himself?” Yuan asked. “Do you see that he might cause us problems, like the rain in North Africa and the American earthquakes? Also, since this Jack wants to come here to our cities and talk to the masses, he could stir the people into a revolution against us.”
Liang thought this over for a moment then said, “I would say that we do not take that risk and keep him in the West. He does not need to come here, for I am sure if he does, as you said, he would stir up the people. We have our share of dissidents on a normal day, but these Witnesses would possibly give them more credibility among the people,” he paused, then added, “We removed the missionaries from our lands years ago. We only limitedly let them back in recently. In either case, unless these Witnesses comply with our laws and customs, we do not want them here. However, I doubt they would pay much attention to our laws and or customs if they di
d come here. So Yuan, that is a problem we need to address sooner than later.”
“Premier, what if they decide to call upon their God to cause disasters here if we don’t let them in? Then what would you suggest?”
“I am not sure. Right now, you are putting the cart before the horse. We will cross that bridge when it comes to us. In addition, we are not sure from what sources they get there power to do what they are supposedly capable of doing. I like, all of you, do not believe in gods, period; but in the meantime, we will deny either of them entry into our country.”
Liang now leaned back in his chair and put his hand under his chin. The others were familiar with this gesture, so knew not to speak, for he was in deep thought. Liang finally said, “Make sure to tell our representative at the ‘The Waldger Group’ meeting not to appear to disagree or agree to anything. We need to digest what Waldger is actually planning and what the story is on these Witnesses. We may decide not to participate in his group at this time. Our strategy, for now, will be neutral.” Liang thought for a minute again then said, “For now though, I am not sure what we are going to do or what our policy will be.”
No one spoke, seemingly deep in thought, until Liang said, “I think that right after the meeting in Kansas City we should call an emergency meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation’s organizational members. In light of what we are seeing we may need to come up with a plan and possibly add Iran as a permanent member of our group.”
“Do you want me to contact the Russians as well as our other members, Premier Liang?” Yuan asked.
“Definitely Yuan, the sooner the better. With the Americans at least temporarily disabled politically, the world’s powers will be shifting and I have a good idea in what way they are shifting, Yuan. It is important that we keep our place and not allow Waldger or the Europeans to take over the entire world whether economically or politically.”
“There is one other thing that bothers me, Yuan. This reference to the end times that everyone keeps mentioning. So let us involve our academics and see if they can obtain all the information they can from the ancient writings about these so-called Witnesses and their God. We need to know where their power is coming from. Somehow, somewhere, God or not, these Witnesses have a protector who is unseen and is able to keep them from being killed. That bullet that was fired would have gone through 4 inches of concrete. It did not even knock him down. With our technology today, that is impossible. I want to know everything we can.”