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.
14
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.
15
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.
“Not exactly Times Square, is it?” Hunter quipped as he trained his video camera on the crowd.
“No,” Feldman responded, “more like Apocalypse Central.”
Earlier in the day, Feldman and company had been down among the pilgrims, sending candid footage of millenarian interviews via satellite back to hungry audiences all over the world. Now, as the crowd grew too dense for comfort, Feldman had elected to retreat to their apartment above the fray to set up for the “climactic” evening.
Even before the godsend of the Negev laboratory disaster, WNN had been steadily priming its worldwide audience, shrewdly building toward this moment. And for tonight, WNN's executive producers had fashioned a special program. Cleverly, the coverage would be coordinated with the time zone changes. Once midnight had uneventfully passed in Jerusalem, the WNN coverage would shift to Rome for a live telecast of the Millennium Eve happenings there. Then, after doomsday failed to materialize in Rome, coverage would jump to New York, and on to Salt Lake City where the last bastion of millenarians would be crossing their fingers. By capitalizing on the time changes in this way, WNN would ensure itself a rotating, worldwide, prime-time audience.
All of which had given Feldman butterflies. The prospect of hosting potentially the largest live audience ever was intimidating. This surprise honor had been bestowed on him abruptly this morning when the intended announcer, who'd flown in yesterday from New York, had come down with a sudden flu. Honor or no, because Feldman was reasonably certain nothing apocalyptic was going to happen tonight he had to contend with the fact that he'd be presiding over the largest theatrical letdown of all time. A hell of a send-off for his last official day with WNN.
“Worse than Geraldo Rivera and his Al Capone vault,” Hunter insensitively suggested.
But, as WNN had calculated, the magnitude of the inevitable disappointment would itself be newsworthy. There'd be ample backpedaling, rationalizing millenarians to keep the story interesting. Irrespective, Feldman could content himself with the knowledge that, shortly afterward, he'd be off to Washington, D.C., and a whole new life in the preeminent world of U.S. political news coverage.
Outside WNN's rented apartment, it was beginning to drift into evening. Looking beyond the balcony across the mountainside and off into the ancient land of the Israelites, Feldman was taken with how quickly this harsh, drought-stricken country softened in the pink and purple twilight. If ever there were a night for a religious experience, this would be it. But not for the destruction of the world. More for a quiet, divine social visit.
Except for the gathering of a few clouds far off to the southwest, the sky was clear, starlit and still. Peaceful but for the singing, chanting and sermonizing of the millenarians attempting to solidify their positions with God.
