Meanwhile, in new Jerusalem an exasperated Zeke Salvation echoed “Are you shitting me?”. “Mind your language Governor Salvation”, said The AI, ArchAngel. He hated his nom de Guerre. The name, Zeke Salvation was foisted on him by The pompous idiot, Zed Ivory on his Ordination to The curio Guard, the henchmen to the Elder Council. It wasn’t his first new name.
He lost count of how many names he held in this zigzag existence. He left a broken home in Butler, Arkansas at 16, purchased a one-way bus ticket to New Orleans. With very limited career options, he discovered a knack for crime and quite liked it. He claimed Nathan Forrest, Josh Beetlejuice, Lucas Perry… Stealing cars. A little Snatch-and-grab. Then, a drug-deal with a jittery crime family Lieutenant ended in a furious firefight with The feared Nemesis gang. Zeke killed 2 gang-members, rescuing his team in The process but losing The drugs. They got The hell out of New Orleans with The Police, Boss Gardenia & The Nemesis on Their heels. Zeke had a talent for big trouble. His original, Christian name was Theodorre Stephen Dallas, a name lost in time as an America that is now an ocean.
In Jacksonville, Florida, he and his team parted ways. He met a kindly Preacher of The New Hope Church. Becoming his assistant, Then Deacon, he got an intense education in The New Testament. In return, he helped The Preacher rob The faithful. This, he liked. No drug-deals, just good, god-fearing, honest grift. He became Brother Matthew.
Then, They got snared by the dark side of Christianity. A shadowy Cabal of self-declared Children of the Sun, 7 Mountain dominionists, Rapture mystics and messianic mafiosi called The Apostles. They loved humble, healing humanitarian Jesus so much they wanted everybody to get on their knees, swear eternal obedience & Holy Jihad or get a bullet to the head. People who wrote about them, criticized or challenged them, the Demonic Forces, tended to suffer mysterious, fatal accidents, leaving behind scenes of notorious sin. Those were not by the hands of God, but by the hands of a man, God’s Assassin. A mysterious figure who did the bidding of the shadowy Star Apostles, a name they only spoke in a hushed whisper when in complete privacy.
High members took an immediate liking to Brother Matthew. The Kindly Preacher vanished, never to be heard from again. Matthew took part in some truly sketchy operations and he rose through the ranks. Then, he met God’s Assassin, Nathan Wade.
Nathan was a former Navy SEAL, and he was goddamned good at the art of Death. If The masters need someone terminated, Nathan did it in ingenious ways. It wasn’t enough to merely kill a man, you had to kill his reputation too. So, They find a nosy Congressman hanged in an apartment with kiddie porn displaying on his laptop screen. A teetotaling critic overdoses on heroin. a potential witness with a bullet hole in the head in a locked room in a safe house. Or 2 former members dead from a homosexual suicide pact. Nathan was more than The Reaper, he was The Devil. Nathan took Matthew in as his apprentice and acolyte, teaching him the black art.
Matthew bloomed under Nathan’s tutelage. He participated in surveillance, set-ups, scheduling meetings, acting as envoy, cut-out, drop-off. Then, Nathan gave him the kill, a male Journalist, who they left to be found in a cheap motel room in a Girl Bunny furry suit. Fentanyl overdose, the Police said. Matthew made his bones and started disposing the doubtful on his own. Matthew was a natural, and he killed a dozen more people for the Apostles.
In all his life, Matthew never got close to anyone. Not with his Mother, He never knew his Father. He had prostitutes, but never felt the exultant vulnerability of love. Then, Nathan came into his life like a flash of lightning. Nathan thrilled him, captured his imagination, his emotion. Matthew loved Nathan as the Father he never had, and very nearly as a man. They were literally a whiskey’s breath away from becoming lovers. Could Matthew have love a man that way? He never found out, because one day, the Apostle Elders ordered him to kill Nathan.
Matthew killed God’s Assassin. And It was disturbingly easy. Nathan had his enemies and The FBI was sniffing around. So, The Grand Inquisitor, a man with no name, ordered Matthew to terminate Nathan and take his place. Matthew invited him to his apartment,, served him some fresh Ruby Red Grapefruit juice spiked with Fentanyl. Nathan made sure Matthew had a glass too, They clinked glasses and drank. Nathan died slurring damnation upon the traitor. Matthew had taken his methadone just before Nathan arrived. He called a number on The burner phone, some guys came & took his body away. He didn’t feel remorse, he didn’t feel pride, he felt… nothing. Well, not nothing. He felt power. If he could erase Nathan out of existence, he could wipe Them all out.
Then, The Apostles came for him. Soon before They made Their move to install God’s Paradise on Earth, they sent An assassin to blow up Matthew’s car. He wasn’t in it, having told his girlfriend to get in while he took care of some quick chores. She went inside, sat down and closed the door. Then, BOOM! He thought of her once in awhile, but in the end, They didn’t get along anyway.
Matthew expected this. He executed an escape planned, all The pieces cashed away. He fled Jacksonville, drove nearly nonstop to Canada and began a new life as Stephen Smith. In Toronto he met Wayne Sherrod, who would eventually become Zed. He had started a strict Church and was planning a Mission to Papua. Stephen joined them and left America for The last time.
A few months later, A rogue AI, ArchAngel, hijacked a giant asteroid in orbit, making it fall to Earth. It slammed into Wyoming, uncapped The Yellowstone Caldera, triggering an apocalyptic earthquake that collapsed the American west, unleashed monstrous waves world-wide. Matthew, now Stephen was in Papua when the Big Crash happened. They all heard The impact followed by an erupting Earth all around them. Stephen knew the name, ArchAngel and knew it was the Apostles. The Apostles were holed up in Canada, counting on a few meters of dirt & God’s protection. By the time the Earth settled, it was a tomb of shattered remains. Canada burned for a month., it looked far more like damnation than Paradise.
Stephen had no idea it could ever get so cold at sea level in Papua. The long winter had begun for The few million who survived The big crash. He also has no idea how Wayne arranged to have Them go into space. Fortunately, Papua had a SpacePort. Wayne’s group were among The first to leave Earth, leading the Great Diaspora.
Space is immense, but habitats were few, far between and cramped. Eventually, they made their way to the HomePlex, as Christian Missionaries from Papua with no connection to the Apostles, God forbid!
To avoid uncomfortable questions, Wayne became Zed and Stephen Zeke. Zed threaded a perilous gap between what was known and wasn’t known, and Mother granted them asylum & Sanctuary over the objection of some top people in Kyoto.
In addition to his psychopathic soul baggage, Zeke had a Steamer Trunk. Among his clothes, toiletries, Cross and Bible was an old fashioned Globe. Curious but not alarming to the people who inspected the group’s luggage. Inside it was an ornate key-shaped thumb drive and a holo-cube of an AI Zeke stole from the Apostles now buried in Canada and in spirit reunited with their Master.
For master-minding the takedown of Boomtown, the grateful Elders of Gilead made Zeke the Military Governor of the Plex NoWhere, renamed Jerusalem, a Protectorate of Gilead. A sweet operation. His grand purpose was to keep revenue flowing into Gilead, run a good Christian community while keeping its vices & Earthly delights alive for paying customers & Gilead’s upper-class. So Zed instructed him. Zeke had other plans. if his scheme worked, he would do away with the Elder Council structure, rebuild Gilead as a Jihadist Army under his Supreme leadership, now that’s fun & prophet.
“How in the hell am I going to push tanks through the Mendocino Forest if I cannot mark up the pathways! “The populace of Mendocino has no military, they are peaceful and are not likely to interfere as long as we stay clear of their primary produce.”, ArchAngel said. “We have recent maps & drone footage for you, you can review the Forest in holographic format. Also, we do not want to spur Kyoto into action before we are ready.”
“What do you think Trumbull is doing? He & his family are not stupid. We need to strike now before that wily bastard hatches his schemes!
“There are other considerations…”, ArchAngel reminded.
“Intervention? The other Habitats & Plexes don’t want to be involved! Sovereignty of a bunch of Stoners? Or maybe Zed doesn’t want me to attack now because his gay son is hiding out with his hunky boyfriend in Kyoto and he doesn’t want me to find him? I really don’t care about his son. My plan is to take over everything, Mendocino, Kyoto, Lake Geneva, Gilead. Do you think Zed’s suspicious?”, Zeke asked. “Of course he is”, Archangel replied, but he still believes in the other plan. that you’ll turn Jerusalem into a family-friendly, civilized Christian Wild West theme park and gambling casino, while building up an army to eventually invade HomePlex”. Zeke sighed with relief. “And I don’t want to force Zed’s hands right now. While he’s still alive”.
Zeke had a new name in mind, once he takes over Gilead and unleash his faithful in a Ring-wide Jihad, the Prophet Michael. With a Golden Crown and a fiery sword, his ArchAngel AI.
“and glory be thy name, the blood will flow and they will burn.”
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