Jihada: The Lost Scriptures Read online

  All three men laughed; all thoughts of two sets of afterbirth forgotten.

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  Back at the village surgery, the doctor had just cleaned up the child and tied the umbilical cord as the young town Priest walked in and introduced himself. The doctor smiled at the pleasant young man; there was no need for an introduction; in a small town in the Catskills, the arrival of a new priest was quite an event, even though the church’s relocation and reassignment of the previous incumbent had come as quite a shock to the relatively religious and close knit community.

  The priest gently lifted the infant and remarked, ‘Tell the two officers that I have taken the child over to my place, and I will look after him until the next of kin come to collect in the next couple of days. My housekeeper used to be a child nurse, and will be only too pleased to be a temporary mother again’.

  Before the doctor even had time to issue more than a surprised nod, the Priest marched out of the surgery carrying the child, never to be seen again.

  The parents of both Kevin and Mary Jacobs searched long and hard for their missing grandson, but to no avail. They employed private investigators; they even involved the FBI. The child was no longer in America, neither was the young Priest; both had flown to the safety of England, and were now protected by the secretive Knights Templar, the possessors and guardians of the Arc of the Covenant. They had known of the second coming for almost one thousand years since their inception, and were aware of the LOST SCRIPTURES and of the Islamic second coming; they were also aware and fearful of the genocidal Armageddon that was prophesied to follow.

  The continued existence of the Knights Templar was doubted by both the Catholic and the Protestant churches; they had disappeared along with the witches of middle England: the existence of the Arc of the Covenant was believed by only the most devoutly holy. Formed during the early twelfth century and disbanded almost 200 years later; with their distinctive white mantles and red crosses, the Templars were the vanguard of the Crusades against the Muslim hordes throughout the Holy Land. For them, the new Crusade was just beginning.

  Word of the second born child, the twin, was passed throughout the Islamic community. Nowhere was safe, as groups of Islamic assassins scoured the world, looking for the Christian second coming. The Prophet Michael, as the biblical name and message emanating from the Arc of the Covenant had decreed, was closely guarded by the Templars, the keepers of the faith, and constantly moved around throughout Europe: soon, he began to fulfill his holy destiny.

  His powers were recognized long before his second birthday. He could move or levitate objects by sheer power of thought. By the time he was approaching his early teens, he could stop and control time. He could read minds and hypnotize at a glance. The young Priest, satisfied that his work was complete, returned to America. He had to prepare the country for the battle to come; the war that would precede and prevent the implementation of the LOST SCRIPTURES. - If not, there would be no American dream: NO Western world as was now known.

  There would only be Islam.

  By his sixteenth year, Michael was ready to make his move. His brother was now fully prepared and ready to make HIS move. Their powers were close, neither brother fully knowing which one of them was the master of these extraordinary powers. They constantly probed and blocked each other’s minds like combatants in a game of chess, neither of them knowing the other’s whereabouts; always probing, and always searching for weaknesses.

  The time was now near for implementing the Prophesy of the LOST SCRIPTURES: that would mean the death and genocidal elimination of over 5 billion people.

  Michael had been returned to earth to prevent such an event; his brother to facilitate it.

  The Islamic assassins were closing in on Michael; the vigilance of the Knights Templar was supplemented by the assistance of the American CIA; nothing could be left to chance if the world was to survive in its present form. Michael’s destiny was pre- ordained within the Christian scriptures contained in the Arc of the Covenant.

  Allah refuted these scriptures; HIS second coming, The JIHADA, would ignore them.

  CHAPTER 4

  Missing

  It was 7-30 on a Tuesday morning when the phone rang in the White house.

  President Michael Kenneth Steinberg was having breakfast. President Steinberg hated to be disturbed during his breakfast, as far as he was concerned his office hours started at 8--- not 7-30, and any deviation from this long practiced morning regime annoyed him intensely.

  ‘Don’t you think that you should answer it dear’? Sally, his wife said, ‘it could be important’.

  ‘Not as important as my breakfast darling, let it ring; I am not in the office until 8 0 clock, everyone knows that. Why that fool secretary of mine keeps putting these early calls through to me I just don’t know, it is getting very close to serious bollocking time’.

  ‘One thing that I do know Mr. President dear’, laughed his wife, ‘is that you are a grumpy old thing in the mornings, you always have been’.

  ‘That’s not what you used to call me in the mornings when we were first married darling; I can well remember what you used to say, in fact I can also remember a few occasions long before we got married when you----‘

  ‘That will be enough of that Michael, if you don’t mind, these walls could be bugged and you never know who may be listening’.

  ‘It’s a pretty good job that my bedroom wasn’t bugged before we married Sally, your father would have shoved both barrels of his shotgun right up my----

  ‘MICHAEL’.

  Both the President and his wife burst out laughing; theirs was a good marriage; from childhood sweethearts to President and first lady with hardly a cross word in between. Unlike many high profile politicians, the marriage was not kept together for vote gathering purposes’, there really wasn’t anything strong enough to separate them. Wherever the President went - the first lady went: it used to be a little different on their Tennessee pig farm where Sally steadfastly refused him any form of access to the house until he had eliminated all the stench of those ‘disgusting animals’ from his body.

  ‘It is how I make my living’, he used to say.

  Her standard reply, uttered almost every day of their marriage was, ‘well please stop rolling around in IT’. Sally never swore, her strict Presbyterian upbringing saw to that.

  There was a knock on the breakfast room door, and Theodore Warburton, the President’s private secretary opened it and nervously popped his head round. ‘Sorry to disturb you Mr. President, but Admiral Black, the chief of defense staff is on the phone and he says that it is urgent’.

  ‘More urgent than my breakfast Theodore? Put him through if you must’. The President pretended to be serious to the point of anger.

  ‘Michael’ Sally chuckled as a red faced Theodore left the room, ‘You really can be so cruel to him sometimes, it isn’t his fault that he is so dozy’.

  ‘Dozy isn’t the word to describe him dear, he really does amuse me. Did you know that he has an eidetic memory, almost total recall since the day he was born; he also has an IQ that is beyond the scale, it cannot even be measured; there are many things that you don’t know about Theodore Sally, things that you could never imagine; without him I would be lost’.

  ‘A memory a bit like yours then dear’? Sally smiled demurely.

  ‘Yes, a memory and a brain just like mine dear’.

  The phone rang again, and the President of the United States picked it up and answered it.

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  The president listened carefully before exploding. ‘What the fuck are you talking about’? He almost screamed.

  ‘Michael’, Sally, his wife shouted, ‘There is no need for such language, you know I hate it’.

  The President ignored her and continued his tirade. ‘How the hell can you lose a fucking nuclear missile in the middle of the Gulf? What bloody ship was it on? I have never heard anything so ridiculous in all my life. I am going to pretend that th
is conversation never took place; ring me back after 8 o clock and tell me that you have made a mistake and everything is back to normal’. With that the president slammed down the phone and with a contrite look on his face apologized to his wife.

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  On board the USS Mississippi, at anchor off the coast of Iran just barely in International waters, Captain Garry Stevens was just about managing to remain calm. He could feel his heart pounding; pounding with such ferocity that he was beginning to feel light headed. Thoughts of a stroke or a heart attack were foremost in his mind. How could he possibly be the first American Naval Captain in history to lose a nuclear missile? Twenty two years in the US navy, all the way from the naval academy to strike force Captain, and now,--was his career to end in ignominious failure with the biggest cock up in American naval history? Where was the missing inter-continental ballistic missile; the multiple warhead man made monster that contained enough destructive power to destroy a major city, maybe several major cities? - It was supposed to live in the bowels of his ship. It had its own little home, its own name, and a family of sailors to look after it’s every need.

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  The day of the Cruise missile appeared to have passed without the world noticing; there was a new world order. America still sat at the top of the pyramid, but the perceived enemy had changed. Russia had for 50 years been the major threat as she plotted her world communist revolution behind the cover of Churchill’s “Iron Curtain”; China had threatened briefly before the internal financial implosion and the violent and destructive revolution had ripped it apart; India and Israel were the new financial powers; but now in military terms, the threat no longer came from a major power---the threat was invisible yet could be clearly seen---the threat was all around yet could not be isolated---the threat was ISLAM.

  Islam presented the United States with a completely different military perspective. There was no longer a static enemy that could be pinpointed and targeted; they didn’t even know who the target was or where it was. They just knew that it was out there somewhere, and more importantly, to misquote Admiral Beatty’s famous First World War comment:---

  There seemed to be something wrong with their bloody weapon systems.

  They no longer worked. Cruise missiles had been deployed against Iran; not a full scale war; - more of a warning - a threat of things to come - a gentle reminder of who was still the Superpower - and of what would happen if Iran deployed any of her ever expanding nuclear arsenal against Israel or against any other country for that matter.

  America had tried everything in her power to keep Iran under control. Iran was now drunk on her nuclear capability, and was enviously eying the greater oil and gas riches of her Arab neighbors. As Iran’s bellicose threats to Israel grew louder and more frequent, following Israel’s discovery of the world’s largest underground water reserves, America had decided to reduce her wealth earning capacity by destroying her oil terminals.

  How often had America warned Iran? America had planted bugs and viruses in Iran’s military computer software that had rendered her completely defenseless for a number of years, yet still she had recovered, regrouped, and once again was the dominant military power among the Arab nations. America had decided that Iran once again needed to be taught a lesson; America’s role as self appointed world policeman must not be challenged.

  Of the 15 tried, tested and frequently proven cruise missiles deployed, 14 had exploded shortly after being fired, and the 15th had exploded prior to launch, resulting in an almost instantaneous chain reaction, and the destruction of the entire US ship with all hands on board.

  The American military were in a quandary; was there something inherently wrong with the most sophisticated weapons system in the world;-or had the Iranians simply devised a means of neutralizing the technology of the worlds’ most advanced nation? The Americans remained silent; to reveal details of what was proving to be a near unsolvable and unexplainable problem, and worse still, the failure of the abortive strike on a relatively technologically backward power like Iran, would have caused world- wide consternation.

  The overwhelming military might of the US was a major stabilizing force throughout the world; she acted like, and considered herself to be the world’s judge, jury, and executioner.

  “ An internal explosion - an act of God” was all the information that the world’s press received. The American safety umbrella barely existed any more – it was full of holes. Who else knew of the problem was America’s greatest worry; the world’s policeman appeared to have been neutered.

  The top technical brains in the military were brought together to discuss the problem and to find a solution. The manufacturers were initially placed under suspicion; had they cut corners and introduced poor quality and cheaper parts into the assembly? The manufacturers were indignant and proceeded to demonstrate by a series of tests that their manufacturing processes and their components were flawless; every single test firing was faultless, and at a range of up to 1500 miles, the missiles had landed in the desert firing range in New Mexico within a few yards of the designated target; more often than not, exactly on target.

  Happy with the manufacturing side, the military turned their attention to the ship’s personnel. Personal records were checked and double checked, and in every case came up clean.

  The answer had to be hidden somewhere behind the Iranian military intelligence screen: could they possibly have created an invisible defensive shield; something to make their airspace invulnerable; something that would make their entire country invulnerable? If so, Iran would now be at liberty to achieve her more than obvious long term objective; total and absolute control of the entire Middle East; this control would also include the annexing of Israel, a prospect that was secretly desirably to President Steinberg, and also to many of his closest allies, both within and outside of the USA.

  President Steinberg hated Jews with an all consuming passion; his Nazi ancestry had programmed him that way; he always claimed in front of his fellow Jew haters that it was in his DNA. ‘The biggest Gene in my body is my anti-Jew Gene’, he often boasted.

  Israel was not just powerful militarily; Israel controlled the purse strings of America and much of the western world. At the press of a button, Israel could make or break the economy of any single country that she chose. World currencies were firmly under her control and could be manipulated at will. It was too late for both America and the Western World to make changes; no one could afford the financial destruction and calamitous social consequences that would follow the instantaneous rendering of the country’s currency and credit worthiness as junk;- not even worth the paper that it was printed on.

  Many financial experts had foreseen the growing problem decades ago and had formed the Euro, the European single currency, as a barrier against Israeli financial domination. Internal problems and squabbling, together with the overwhelming efficiency and financial power of Germany had ultimately led to the Euro’s disappearance. The Western country’s had once again disastrously reverted back to their original currencies. They were now not only vulnerable, they were reluctantly compliant to whatever demands or restrictions that Israel made or imposed on them.

  They were at Israel’s mercy; - they were being blackmailed into their compliance.

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  On board the Mississippi, Captain Stevens took another sip of his coffee before speaking to his number two. ‘What the hell is happening David? If I hadn’t inspected the missile bay myself, you would now be in a straight jacket under close arrest for bringing me such a stupid message. - ‘ Captain, one of our nuclear missiles is missing’, you said; five minutes later I was repeating you with the same stupid message, ‘Admiral, one of our missiles is missing’; can you imagine how fucking stupid I felt conveying that idiotic message to the Chief of Defense Staff; probably the second most powerful man in the world? - Admiral Black went fucking berserk; threatened
to relieve me of command if I didn’t sort out the problem– sort out the problem for god’s sake; its slightly different to having an electrical problem, we have electricians for problems like that; he made it sound like I was responsible’.

  A smile crossed the face of Lieutenant David Knowles as he spoke. ‘Yes sir; however I don’t need to imagine how you felt; I went back to the missile bay twice to check that I wasn’t just having a bad dream; it was only then that I plucked up enough courage to come to the bridge and tell you’.

  ‘Am I that bad David’?

  ‘No sir, on the contrary, it was just the vision of the straight jacket that concerned me’.

  Both men burst out laughing. ‘Come on David’, Captain Stevens said rather nervously, ‘Have we got any magicians on board, I don’t believe in magic myself, but I can think of no other explanation? What the hell am I going to tell the Admiral when he rings me back; “ able seaman Harry fucking Potter was responsible sir”. His last words before he slammed down the phone were,“Well bloody well find it then, or you will immediately be relieved of command”. How do I do that David, the telemetry surrounding the missile makes its’ removal without my authorization totally, completely, and absolutely bloody well impossible’.

  The first mate entered the bridge, and looking directly at the Captain said ‘Sir’, there was then a long pause before he continued. ‘Sir, it’s back----the missile is back’.

  The Captain heaved a sigh of relief before speaking, ‘Thank God for that, you may well have just saved my career; I wish that I had never told the Admiral now, it would have been so much simpler waiting for it to come home. Where the bloody hell has it been though. It was not in its’ bay; it was nowhere on board the ship, so where the fucking hell did it go to. It was as if a magician had arranged a series of mirrors to make it appear to have vanished. Tell me David, did I really reach my arm into an empty bay, or did I simply imagine it’?