Gabriel's Story - 6 April 2020

From the author of B.O.R.N. for the Quest

(now available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle https://www.amazon.com/B-R-N-Quest-Healing-Waters-ebook/dp/B0855N6WN4) – This excerpt of Gabriel's Story includes a little taste of what readers can expect to find in our second book “Mirror Image” due out this Fall. Reminder: Gabriel's Story is a work of fiction.

Singing stopped in a sanctuary that was packed for the first time in months. Gabriel didn’t blame the parishioners one bit, though. First, they suffered a string of misfortune, some called it bad luck, with the death of six church members. That was followed closely by Pastor Sean’s incident and subsequent hospitalization for unexpected complications from surgery which led to blindness. Then, most recently, they had been ordered by the State to limit groupings to no more than ten because of the virus. But today, looking out at the congregation, his congregation, gathered on Palm Sunday to celebrate the triumphant entry of Christ and the opening of Holy Week, Gabriel was so happy he could barely contain his laughter. More than once he had to back away from the pulpit microphone to prevent the church from hearing him giggle during worship.

“Amen! And now I would like to welcome back to the pulpit, for his first sermon since the accident, Pastor Sean Thomas.” Gabriel led the congregation in a standing ovation. Everyone was thankful for Sean’s return, to include Gabriel. He didn’t mind helping, but he knew his place wasn’t behind the pulpit.

Sean marched confidently from his seat at the back of the platform to ‘his’ pulpit. When he arrived, he adjusted the microphone down since he would be using a wireless mic attached to his belt, and waved for the congregation to take their seats. “Please, be seated at least six feet from a non-family member.”

When the congregation settled, he began, “Before I start today’s sermon, I want to clarify that this will be our last gathering for the next few weeks.”

Murmurs across the sanctuary erupted and people began to squirm, but Sean held them in check. “Alright. I know. The last thing anyone wants to hear is that we’re going to close our doors, especially since what we seem to need these days is more love and more of each other as this troubled Holy Week begins. However, if I’ve learned anything from the events of the last few months, it’s that God is in control even when we think He’s off on vacation or, if we’re honest, maybe even, doing a poor job of managing our lives.”

Sean’s sermon was interrupted by noises from the foyer. The congregation turned as a single unit to find half a dozen state police officers enter the sanctuary. The congregation focused on the officers, but Sean focused on their escorts, a handful of lesser demons. These weren’t the type of demons to go to war; rather, they were the type Lucifer used to mislead and confuse. Actually, Sean was more focused on the angel who appeared in front of the lead officer and held up his hand. Stop.

Before Sean could speak, and before the congregation could react, the lead officer spoke. “Is this a joke?” He turned to the Corporal, fourth in line, who was the senior officer. “The parking lot is full, but there’s nobody here.”

“Praise Jesus!”

“Oh my God.”

“They can’t see us?”

“Please, please, sit down.” Sean struggled to regain control, but as the angel stood with one hand raised and the officers mulled about the sanctuary, never entering the pews but wandering the aisles, the congregation slowly returned their attentions to their pastor."

“Alright, let’s check the rest of the building. I don’t know where they are, but they aren’t here.” The officers filed out, closing the door behind them.

Sean saw the last little demon thumb his nose at the angel, but that was the extent of interaction between ethereal forces of good and evil. When the doors closed, the angel looked to Sean and spoke.

“Peace to you and your flock, Sean. You will not tempt the Father after today.”

The angel’s message was clear. “Church, as I was about to say, before our most Gracious Heavenly Father punctuated my sermon in a way that only He can, today is our last gathering for a few weeks. We have been ordered by the State to close our doors, and we will give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.”

Nobody argued.

Nobody moved.

“But,” he moved out from behind the pulpit, down and around the altar, and into the center of the church, “that doesn’t mean we can’t raise the roof this morning!”

---***---

“In international news today, the WHO confirmed that Coronavirus-related numbers coming from China may have been underreported. According to our sources, doctors in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the global pandemic, received instructions to only report patients who died of causes directly associated with the virus as related, and not to report those who died of complications that may have been caused by it. According to the WHO, this likely reduced reports from China by as much as seventy-five percent, and has implications for those who were not treated at all…” The talking head continued in the background, but no one from the delegation paid attention. They were too busy discussing next actions and plausible deniability to care what WHO doctors had discovered. That report was, as they say in the West, “a day late and a dollar short.”

“We shifted to indirect flights two full weeks before the first report, first making direct hops through Taiwan, Dubai, and Rome, and then connecting to less conspicuous airports in Istanbul, Tunis, and Milan heading West, and Manila, Seoul, Osaka, and Bangkok heading East and South.” Zhongjiang Diyu briefed the delegation on historical tactical methods used to deploy the virus. “We anticipated the Americans drastically reducing air travel once they finally got involved, so we sent mislabeled shipments from Taiwan, India and Japan to their Stateside warehouses with ambient dispersal systems.”

“Ambient? How does that work?” Colonel Nevzadi, Iran’s premier biological scientist, was as interested in dispersal technologies as he was in China’s progress on the vaccine.

“Excellent question, Colonel.” Covid, disguised as Diyu, kept the explanation brief. “It’s in the manufacture of the cardboard boxes. We impregnated each box with trace amounts of the virus and coated the packages with a biofilm that both protects the virus’ lipid envelope while also offering a stratum that promotes viral growth.”

“Yes, yes, but dispersal. How do you secure dispersal? Doesn’t the virus die in a matter of hours?” Nevzadi was very persistent.

“In its pure form, yes. However,” Covid-Diyu sunk the hook. Now it was time to reel in his catch. “with weaponized nCOV-19, we created a biphasic organism that seals and protects itself once it gets released into the atmosphere and only reactivates upon contact with proteins found deep within its human host.”

“Clever.” Abaddon enjoyed Covid’s approach, appealing to the Iranian colonel’s scientific mind in a manner, not just to his hatred of the West. “When does that occur? The walling itself off?”

Covid stood a little taller. He hadn’t anticipated getting support from The Destroyer, but he would definitely take advantage of the prince’s help. “At approximately the two-week point, the boxes are teeming with the virus and the biofilm has reached the end of its life span. When the boxes are jostled, dropped, or even picked up, the biofilm bubble bursts, sending millions of virus clusters into the surrounding air, some as far as ten feet from the original package. This is when the virus’ biphasic properties take over and they seal themselves off.”

“So, they land on other packages, people, and objects, and lie dormant until a human or animal ingests them?” Nevzadi respected Abaddon’s Colonel General Andropov, but he wanted details. “How long do they survive? The WHO reports no longer than twelve hours.”

“Twelve hours is the limit for inferior viruses, or those that haven’t matured to the second stage. Those that enter stage two can survive up to thirty days. Once ingested, they take two weeks longer to replicate before causing symptoms. During this timeframe, viruses are reproducing both single and biphasic copies that get expelled through both breath and fluids.”

“So, the world hasn’t yet experienced phase two?” Nevzadi smiled.

“That’s correct, Colonel. We predict phase two will be three hundred times more effective than phase one.”

“And the vaccine?” Abaddon played his part well.

“We’ve already shipped the vaccine to Tehran and Moscow, as requested.” Covid smiled. There was no vaccine.

“Excellent.”