Brimstone (Pendergast #5)(76)
Reverend Buck plucked the first newspaper from the pile: the previous Sunday’s Sacramento Bee. He leafed rather quickly through the national and local pages—big cities like Sacramento could always be counted on for stories of murder, rape, corruption, vice, corporate greed. Buck had read enough such stories for a thousand cautionary sermons. He was more interested in the squibs and sidebars, the news bites taken off the wire feeds and recounted in odd corners of the paper for reader amusement. The tiny town where two brothers hadn’t spoken to each other in forty years. The trailer park where every single child had left, a runaway. These were the stories that spoke to him; these were the signs that impelled him and his message.
The Bee completed, Buck turned to the next: USA Today. Laverne, the waitress, came over with coffeepot in hand. “Another cup, Reverend?”
“Just one more, thank you kindly.” Buck practiced moderation in all things. One cup of coffee was a blessing; two cups was an indulgence; three cups, a sin. He perused the paper, put it aside, and picked up a third: a day-old copy of the New York Post. Buck came across this tabloid only rarely, and he had nothing but scorn for it: the brazen mouthpiece of the world’s most dissipated, sin-ridden city held no interest for him. He was about to put it aside when the headline caught his attention:
DESTRUCTION
Renowned Scientist Claims Recent Deaths Signal End of Days
by Bryce Harriman
More slowly, Buck turned the page and began to read.
October 25, 2004—A respected scientist yesterday predicted imminent destruction for New York City and possibly much of the world.
Dr. Friedrich Von Menck, Harvard scientist and Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, says the recent deaths of Jeremy Grove and Nigel Cutforth are merely the “harbingers” of the coming catastrophe.
For fifteen years Dr. Von Menck has been studying mathematical patterns in the famous disasters of the past. And no matter how he cuts the data, one number shows up: the year 2004.
Von Menck’s theory is based on a fundamental ratio known as the golden ratio—a ratio that is found throughout nature, as well as in such classical architecture as the Parthenon and the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci. Von Menck is the first to apply it to history—with sinister implications.
Von Menck’s research has revealed that many of the worst disasters that have befallen mankind fit the same ratio:
79 A.D.: Pompeii
426 A.D.: The sack of Rome
877 A.D.: Destruction of Beijing by the Mongols
1348 A.D.: The Black Death
1666 A.D.: The Great Fire of London
1906 A.D.: The San Francisco Earthquake
These and many more dates line up in ratios of uncanny precision.
And what do these natural disasters have in common? They have always struck an important world city, a city notable for its wealth, power, technology—and, Dr. Von Menck adds, neglect of the spiritual. Each of these disasters was preceded by small but specific signs. Von Menck sees the mysterious deaths of Grove and Cutforth as precisely the signs one would expect preceding the destruction of New York City by fire.
What kind of fire?
“Not any kind of normal fire,” says Von Menck. “It will be something sudden and destructive. A fire from within.”
As further evidence he cites passages from Revelation, the prophet Nostradamus, and more recent clairvoyants such as Edgar Cayce and Madame Blavatsky.
Dr. Von Menck left today for the Galápagos Islands, taking with him, he said, only his manuscripts and a few books.
Buck lowered the paper. The rest of the pile sat at his elbow, forgotten. He felt a strange sensation rise up his spine, spread down his arms and legs. If Von Menck was right, the man was a fool to believe he could take refuge on some faraway island. It put in mind some lines from Revelation, his favorite book of the Bible, which Buck frequently quoted to his flock: And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men . . . hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains . . . For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
He raised his cup of coffee, but it no longer seemed to have any flavor, and he replaced it in its saucer. Buck had long believed he would see the End Days in his lifetime. And he had always believed in signs. Perhaps this sign was just larger than the others.
Perhaps it was very large, indeed.
Revelation, chapter 22: Behold, I come quickly . . .
Could this be what he’d been waiting for all these years? Did it not also say in Revelation that the wicked, the men with the mark of the beast on their foreheads, were taken first, in successive waves of slaughter? Just a few, here and there, would be taken. That’s how it would start.
He read the article a second time. New York City. This was where it would begin. Of course, this was where it would begin. Two were taken. Just two. It was God’s way of getting the word out to his chosen people, so they in turn could spread the message of repentance and atonement while there was still time. The wrath of God would never descend without warning. Let he with ears hear . . .
Behold, I come quickly . . . Surely I come quickly . . .
But New York City? Buck had never set foot beyond the Mississippi River, never been in a town much larger than Tucson. To him, the East Coast was Babylon, a foreign, dangerous, soulless region to be avoided at all costs, no place more so than New York. Was it meant to be? Was it, in fact, a sign? And more to the point: was he being called? Was this the great call from God he had been waiting for? And did he have the courage to follow it?