Wesley Snipes - Talon of God

Then they had screamed .

“They were just men,” Talon said between labored breaths. “Men are fallible. They can be wrong. That doesn’t mean God is.”

“That’s what I’m trying to get through your skull,” Black said, shaking his head. “Your God’s no different. Like them, he says what’s right and what’s wrong and that’s how it is. There’s no argument, no logic, no mitigating circumstances on sin. He’s a judgmental prick, not to mention a giant hypocrite . That’s the worst part for me. I mean, the very first thing your Jesus says is to have mercy, and I could almost get behind that until I realized that every time I looked around God’s world, all I saw were people suffering. We’re all up to our necks in injustice and violence and war and disease and have been since the dawn of time, and here you come saying ‘through God, all things are possible.’ Like what? If that’s true, then why doesn’t God follow his own advice and come down here and be merciful? If he’s so all-powerful, why does he tolerate all this? Why doesn’t he fix it? Why does he let me do this?”

He released Talon and threw his arms down, gesturing with both hands at the vats of poison under their feet. “We’re going to burn the world to ash,” he said, chest heaving with excitement. “Tonight’s nothing but the first domino in a long, long line. But my favorite part, my favorite , is that your God could stop all of this. He could strike me down with lightning, or turn all those vats into hundred-dollar-a-bottle wine. And yet…”

He froze, waiting. When nothing happened, he shook his head.

“See?” he said to Talon. “One big-ass disappointment. Here you’ve got a God who could do anything , and yet chooses to do nothing . It’s enough to make a man want to see just how big a mess he can make, really tear things up to see just how much God will take before he finally gets off his lazy ass and fixes it.”

“And is that what you’re doing?” Talon said sadly. “Making things worse?”

Black snorted. “Better than walking around pretending to make things better. ’Cause I’ve seen the world, and, brother, you are doing a terrible job.”

Talon shot him an angry look. “I can’t speak for God, but anyone who’s read a word of scripture knows that the Almighty suffers along with his creation. It wasn’t always like this. He made us a paradise once, and we squandered it because we could not leave well enough alone.”

“Oh, right,” Black said, rolling his eyes. “Eat one apple because you don’t want to be ignorant and bam , eternal suffering for you and your entire species. Really making your God look good there, bucko.”

“They knew the choice,” Talon replied. “God did not have to put the Tree of Knowledge in the garden. He could have left us no choice at all, no chance to fall. But he loved us too much for that, for without free choice, obedience means nothing. So he let us choose, and when we chose other than how he wanted, did he abandon us? No. He has cared for us always, leaving the gates of heaven open no matter how many times we betrayed him or turned our backs. The suffering on earth is caused by men like you , not God.”

“So now it’s all my fault?” Black said, shaking his head. “Funny how he’s only all-powerful until it’s time to take responsibility. But you are right about one thing: God loves him some obedience. Loves it so much that, according to you, he left a way to doom ourselves forever sitting in arm’s reach just to see if we’d go for it. You know what that tells me? That your God loves obedience more than he loves any of us, and that’s just messed up. Especially when you consider his demands.”

“God asks nothing of us we cannot give,” Talon said stiffly.

“You’d know, wouldn’t you?” Black said, rolling his eyes. “You’re one of the most obedient sheep in his flock. But what has that gotten you, old man? You live like a monk—no money, no sex, no fun . Just riding around on your bike from ghetto to ghetto doing God’s work for decades on end. You don’t get time off, you don’t even get paid , since God has this whole ‘easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven’ nonsense. You know, if you guys had a union, that would be grounds to strike. But you won’t, ’cause you already know God doesn’t care about you. He just wants you to be good little obedient sheep and promises you mansions in heaven when it’s over like some time-share con man, and you sit there and eat it up. Meanwhile, I’m over here doing whatever the hell I want, unpunished, rich as Midas, with women and drugs and anything else at the snap of my fingers. I’ve done everything you can call a sin into the dirt, and even though you’ve beaten me more times than I can count, you never do a thing to stop me.” He grinned wide. “I think we can all see who’s got the better deal here.”

“Really?” Talon asked, sitting back on his heels. “If that’s so, if your life is truly so much better than mine, why are you still so miserable?”

“What are you talking about?” Black asked, throwing out his arms. “I’m having the time of my life here!”

Talon shook his head. “I think you are very unhappy indeed, Lincoln Black, and you know it. You hate God because he didn’t take away your hardships, but without suffering, we would never grow. That is why God permits suffering, because he wants us to be strong and stand on our own, not be coddled children. That is the lesson we learn in the SEE, and it has made us stronger than the strongest steel. But you will always be weak, because the only lesson you’ve learned from your suffering is that pain exists. For you, that is the end. You’ve never even tried to learn how to overcome it, or move beyond. You just wallow and blame God for not saving you when you won’t even humble yourself to ask.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Black snapped, drawing his sword. “I’ve learned a lot about suffering over the years. In fact, since you seem to like it so much, I think I’ll share some with you.”

He finished by placing his sword against Talon’s neck. The holy man didn’t even flinch, but he would. Black had tortured many Soldiers of El Elyon in addition to Talon’s old apprentice, and they all broke in the end. The trick was to remind them that, despite all their mystic trappings, they were only filthy, weak mortals same as everyone else. Sooner or later, they all joined him in screaming curses at the God they’d claimed to love. Talon would be no different—except for the part where Lincoln was going to enjoy it more than any before him.

How’s that for happy, bastard?

With that delightful thought, he sliced the first cut down Talon’s chest, taking care not to bleed him too much. Too much blood loss would make him pass out, and Black wanted this to last. So he took his time, alternating his strokes as he waited for the famous Talon of God to suffer his ultimate and inevitable break.

Lauryn had never seen the city like this.

Despite the fact that it was barely nine, prime time for Chicago’s clubs and restaurants, the icy streets were dark and empty. Though not silent. Even with the windows up, the wail of distant—and sometimes not so distant—sirens was constant. It sounded like every emergency vehicle in the city was out and on the job, but even with the disaster that implied, the blaring sirens were comfortingly familiar compared to the noises they covered up.

Every time the wailing sirens faded, the others sounds took over. Sometimes it was the birds. The flock she and Talon had spotted that morning must have just been the scouts. Now, they were everywhere, crows and vultures and carrion birds of every sort covering the telephone wires, window ledges, and rooftops of the city in a blanket of black-feathered bodies squawking constantly to each other like spectators waiting for the show to begin.