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and gets lost in a convolution. "What will happen if this continues?" I ask
out loud. "Will mouse.net become so choked that it will die?"
"Possibly. Chaos is unclean. Too much of it will kill us all."
I turn to look at Victory. Without the interface I see her as she exists in
her purest form. She is a pulsating mass of badly written code. She looks like
a living scribble. Lines that should connect easily from A to B wander
aimlessly before finding their way home. The only straight lines in her are
those of the exoskeleton provided by the combat computer.
"But you're chaos," I say.
"I am fixing it. I will fix it all."
STOCK MARKET CRASHES AS CHRISTIANS PREPARE FOR RAPTURE
Agnostic Press (April 2083)
New York, New York The New York Stock Exchange index dropped a staggering 55
percent today, while the NASDAQ also fell to its lowest since the Medusa
bombings. Banks have reported that many people have liquidated their credit
counters and have asked for cash paper and coin money something unheard-of in
these days of electronic transfer of funds.
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The leading cause for the crash appears to be a divestment of thousands of
Evangelical Christian stockholders in preparation of "the Rapture." The
Rapture is the belief that at a certain point during the end of times (also
known as the tribulation), the Christian God will recall the chosen faithful
bodily to heaven. The idea comes from Revelation 4:1 where the words "come up
hither" appear. There is, however, much dissension about the exact timing of
this event. Thus, there are those who are called pretribulation,
midtribulation (sometimes referred to as midwrath), and posttribulation
Rapture believers. The one thing they all seem to agree on is that the time
for preparation is now.
"With the possible invasion from Gog, I just decided all my business
investments were meaningless," said one Christian investor who asked not to be
named. "I think I'd just like to take all the money I've earned and live it up
for a few days. Then I'm going to retreat to the country or somewhere nice and
quiet and spend some time with my family and say good-bye to everyone, you
know?"
The common feeling among those who divested today was that they would be among
the Raptured. If not, however, they wanted to have all the resources necessary
to take care of themselves, their homes, and their family members who may be
"left behind." This survivalist mentality is causing many to stockpile food,
ammunition, and gold. "There's a lot to take care of," said Steven Smith as he
was leaving the First National Bank with his life savings. "I want to go to
God's mansion knowing that someone will watch over my cat."
The U.S. government issued a statement asking investors to exercise caution
when considering divesting. "There have been other end-times scares. People
have looked pretty foolish when they sat on the roof waiting for God to swoop
them up, and He never showed up," said Federal Reserve board member Stephen
Longfellow. "Think about that before you destroy the stock exchange and the
American way of life."
Chapter 21 Michael
I lost Amariah.
I started running in the direction Perseus had gone. I put one foot in front
of the other, but despair made my movements mechanical, lifeless. My shoes
slapped against the polished wood floors and the sound bounced off the arched
ceiling. All I'd been doing for the past several hours was trying to keep
Amariah safe, and I failed. I, who once commanded the Hosts of Heaven, failed.
And I didn't just fail; I failed miserably.
I defied God to keep Amariah by my side. Who knows what the cost of that would
be on my immortal soul? More than that, she was my only daughter. And I lost
her. I let some crazy Gorgon waltz off with her.
As I ran, I felt the cold wetness of blood on my torn shirt. Flesh & how
strange to notice it now the heavy weight of muscle and bone, the stretch of
skin and to know that it ran deep, much deeper than it ever had before. At
some point during my sojourn here on Earth, my body had begun to transform. I
was becoming a mortal. Goose bumps rose on my arms, and fear tickled my
stomach.
Pain and death didn't frighten me nearly as much as the thought that I might
lose Them. To live in darkness like humans, without the brightness of God's
glory that scared me.
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