Goliath

IS THIS FEAR?

IS THIS FEAR?

Gunnar and Rocky watch the communications monitor in fascination as another burst of blue energy originating from an orbiting communications satellite reaches down from space to strike mainland China.

The burst maintains its integrity for a brief second, then fragments and disappears.

“It’s trying, but the computer can’t seem to get a fix,” Rocky says.

Another burst. Another failure.

“Persistent, isn’t she,” Gunnar whispers, his feeling of dread causing his stomach muscles to tighten.

Another burst spits down from the communications satellite. The blue line wobbles, brightens, then holds.

“Oh, Christ, it’s gained a fix.”

Tiananmen Square

“And so I ask the world to join us now as the People’s Republic of China makes a stand against terrorism and …”

Murmurs rise from the crowd, people pointing.

President Li Peng pauses, then turns to face the big screen. His image blurs, then becomes grainy, then simply disappears, replaced by a backdrop of iridescent electric blue.

And then a new image appears.

The crowd gasps as the image sharpens. It is a face—a Caucasian male—hairless, save for a thick, rust- colored mustache and goatee. The eyes are closed, the right ear gone. More startling—the man’s skull appears to be missing. The folds of a human brain protrude above the mangled, crimson-stained forehead like a bizarre tangle of bloodworms. A myriad of tiny wires rises from the gray matter like a fiber-optic star burst.

GOOD MORNING, MR. PRESIDENT.

David’s voice, emotionless yet powerful.

A hush falls over the stunned crowd.

“Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.”

-C. W. Ceram

“I could kill everyone without blinking an eye.”

—Charles Manson, mass murderer and cult leader

“The city of necks, waiting for me to chop them.”

—Gaius Caesar Caligula, Roman emperor

“In the 1960s and 1970s, there were many student movements and turmoil in the United States. Did they have any recourse but to mobilize police and troops, arrest people, and shed blood?”

—Deng Xiaoping, Chinese leader, justifying the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989

“When Nixon was president and leader of the free world, he found that firmness paid.”

—Richard Nixon, U.S. president, at a private dinner party with

Chinese officials shortly after the massacre at Tiananmen Square.

Nixon, who often referred to himself in the third person.

was president when the National Guard fired on and killed student

protestors at Kent State University

CHAPTER 25

Identity: Stage Six:

I am at the center of an immense scheme of

Power and intelligence that emanates from God.

—Deepak Chopra

Aboard the Goliath

Gunnar, Rocky, and the crew of the Goliath stare at the control room’s giant overhead screen in disbelief.

Rocky points to the communication console. “Sorceress is using Goliath’s satellite feed to hack into the broadcast.”

Gunnar remains focused on the screen, staring at the microwires protruding from Covah’s brain. Crazy son of a bitch … . he finally did it … he interfaced with a computer. But why David’s voice? What’s his part in all this?

Rocky’s fingernails dig into the flesh on Gunnar’s arm as she feels the submarine lurch beneath her feet. She steals a quick glance out the scarlet viewport. “We’re rising!”

Gunnar tears himself away from the CNN broadcast as the decking begins reverberating. “Something’s happening. I think the ship’s preparing to launch—”

The baritone rumble cuts him off, building to a deafening, thunderous roar as a Trident II (D5) nuclear missile comes to life within its vertical launch silo—

—punching up through the surface of the Indian Ocean …

—rocketing into the air.

Tiananmen Square

President Li Peng, the Communist Party officials, one hundred thousand uniformed troops, and the rest of the world breathlessly watch and listen as the American’s voice is translated into Mandarin.

ALL CHINESE PERSONNEL WILL LEAVE TIBET IMMEDIATELY. ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS WILL BE FREED. THE WILL OF HUMANITY HAS SPOKEN.

A digital clock reading 00:04:03 appears on screen beneath the image of the unconscious, deformed man’s face. The clock is lapsing backward.