Glenn Kleier - The Last Day

“In their search for these meteorite fragments,” the reporter continued, “the team of astronomers also came across what they believe to be the only person to survive the disaster. A young female in her early twenties, short in height, slight build, dark hair, suffering from multiple injuries and possibly in a state of shock. She was last seen early yesterday morning near the explosion site, in the care of a Bedouin couple.”

Cursing loudly, Goene smashed the remote control to his desk and grabbed for the phone. “Get me Lazzlo!” he shouted into the receiver, staring at the next news story without seeing it.

A minute later, the voice of Intelligence Commander David Lazzlo came over the speakerphone.

Goene disregarded Lazzlo's greeting. “I presume you caught the TV broadcast?” the general fumed. “They've gotten on to your meteor bullshit, and now they're talking about a survivor. A shell-shocked woman. God knows what information she'll spill! Where are we on a body count? If there is a survivor, I want to know who the hell she is and I want her found. Now, Goddammit!”

WNN news bureau, Jerusalem, Israel 9:17 A.M., Monday, December 27,1999

You struck a nerve, guys!” Bollinger congratulated Hunter and Feldman at the staff meeting. “The IDF is all hot over your meteorite story! And the survivor thing? Denying it so hard it's gotta be true!”

They'd never seen the bureau chief this enthused.

“We just got an official cable from the defense minister, Shaul Tamin himself,” Bollinger gloated, “personally demanding an immediate retraction. Tamin's releasing official government figures showing that the odds of a celestial object striking their facility are over six billion to one. He's threatening reprisals against Jordan. And Jordan's accusing the Israelis of self-sabotage as a ploy to derail the peace talks.”

“Is there any word from U.S. intelligence on the cause of the explosion?” Cissy asked.

“Nothing,” Bollinger replied. “So far, the allies can't come up with a better explanation than the meteorite. No one's claimed responsibility. Even the Hezbollah and Hamas plead innocent, for once.”

“I thought you might like to know”-Feldman offered up another tidbit-”I got a fax from Dr. Omato and his colleagues complaining that the IDF is attempting to revoke their visas.”

“I'll call our contacts in the Knesset and see what I can do,” Bollinger offered, frowning. “But the good news is,” and the bureau chief resumed his beaming, “WNN viewership is soaring. Our ratings are through the roof and we're getting additional funds and personnel to expand our investigations.”

While gratified by the turn of events, Feldman nevertheless couldn't overlook the global effects the meteorite story was having. Increasingly, predictions of a Second Coming were receiving worldwide attention and, for many people, a significant credibility boost. Millennial fervor was intensifying.

But there was yet another, more subtle change occurring in the collective millenarian psyche. The carefree attitudes once commonly held for the corning New Year had transmuted into a more sobering realization. Suddenly, the promise/curse of the new millennium was more tangible. And now, each night in Jerusalem, there were more and larger rallies, lasting later around blazing bonfires, stoked by equally fiery sermons. For the millenarians, the Last Day was rapidly approaching. And the world was watching.

National Ministry of the Universal Kingdom, Dallas, Texas 10:30 P.M. Wednesday, December 29,1999

The Right Reverend Solomon T. Brady, D.D., a short, thick-set, red-faced man with a perfect white pompadour, was furious at WNN. He loathed the sensationalistic media attention freely bestowed on the ludicrous millenarians while his legitimate ministry had to pay thousands of dollars per minute for its vital broadcast time.

More to the point, he was peeved at the increasing allure the millennialists were exerting on his own flock. Brady fully recognized that his evangelistic followers were vulnerable to this type of apocalyptic appeal. But, while his own message may have traded somewhat on the fears of a Second Coming, he wasn't so opportunistic or obvious as to exploit the issue simply because the millennium was at hand.

Nor so shortsighted. While these millennialists might be having their day in the sun now, nightfall was rapidly approaching. Reverend Brady's lost sheep would quickly return to the fold come New Year's Day, more loyal and giving than ever. Finally, they'd comprehend what he'd been insistently preaching all along: that the Cataclysm would occur at a time no mortal man could foretell. Just as Christ had stated.

Meanwhile, however, the Right Reverend had to endure the most difficult period of his ministry. His congregation, which had once numbered just shy of eight hundred thousand, had contracted substantially of late. Today's news was worse. Reverend Brady knew this in advance, looking up from his broad mahogany desk to find his chief accounting officer standing before him, shifting annoyingly from one foot to the other. The accountant had arrived in Brady's office as inconspicuously as an undertaker, to reluctantly present a report of the Universal Kingdom's latest contribution figures.

Reverend Brady impatiently flipped to the last pages to discover that receipts were off yet another seven percent from last week's depressing five-point decline. He angrily rejected the document back across his desk, sending a twenty-nine-dollar 1998 Universal Kingdom commemorative ashtray to its ruin on the marble floor. Without a word, Brady turned to scowl out his window at the bustling campus far below.

Mount of the Ascension, Jerusalem, Israel 5:30 P.M., Friday, December 31,1999

The Mount of the Ascension was the highest elevation in Jerusalem, its summit rising about four hundred meters above the city. Also known as Mount of Olives, at its base lay the sacred Garden of Gethsemane, where Christ last meditated prior to His arrest and Crucifixion. Between Gethsemane and the Golden Gate of the city was the deep and narrow Cedron Valley, a large Jewish cemetery.

Jewish tradition had it that when the Messiah came to Jerusalem on Judgment Day, He'd pass over the Mount of the Ascension/Olives, gather the dead buried in the Valley of Cedron and enter the Old City of Jerusalem through the Golden Gate. In defiance of such notions, however, the Arabs had sealed up the gate with stone many years ago.

This was the afternoon of the Day. Hunter, Feldman, Cissy and a full WNN crew had set up their equipment in a second-story apartment near the top of the mount. They were fortunate to have acquired these headquarters, as there were few residential areas and commercial structures here. The majority of buildings on the sparsely developed mount were religious sites, scattered among the Aleppo pines, olive trees and wizened scrub. They included sacred shrines, tombs, churches, temples and various ruins dating from the times of King David up through the Crusades and the Knights Templar.

WNN had rented out an entire flat for the night, paying an outrageous sum to temporarily dislodge its residents. From the vantage point of the apartment's balcony was an unobstructed view of the highest point on the mountain, the imposing Tower of the Church of the Ascension, about fifty meters to the left. It was precisely at this tower that Christians believed Jesus made His triumphant Ascension into heaven. Logically, then, it was here that most millenarians felt Christ would return.

From the courtyard area at the base of the Ascension Church and Tower, the assembled multitudes of millenarians spilled down the slope directly in front of the WNN apartment, across the Cedron Valley and all the way to the ancient city gates below. The crowd also included a considerable number of Muslims-Christians and Jews holding no monopoly on the terminal significance of this mountain. Islam also predicted that Judgment Day would occur on this spot.