Book of Bravery: A Novel 2,000 Plus Years in the Making

CHAPTER V

Today

In the cabin of the hovering Bell helicopter, a family of five South Koreans, all with face masks on, took holiday snaps of Athabasca Glacier below them. Upfront in the cockpit, their heavily bearded pilot deftly handled the controls. It was Quintus.

When the half-hour joy flight over this part of the Canadian Rockies finished, Quintus landed the chopper at the Alpine Heli Tours' helipad, where the tourists exited to be escorted to a waiting minivan.

After the Bell's engine cut, he got out and made his way to the company office, a somewhat quaint building in the clichéd fashion of a small Swiss chalet.

Inside the office, framed photos covered the wall showing the company in better times. Some featured the bearded Quintus and Frank, the 76-year-old chain smoker, who sat at the manager's desk talking on the phone as he entered.

'So, there's no other course of action I can take?' Frank said on the call while waving Quintus to go grab something from the kitchen area. To give him some privacy, Quintus did so. He knew Frank and the company were in dire straits; things had been coming to a head for some time ever since the Covid-19 pandemic mauled tourism.

Drawing hot water from an electric urn, Quintus made a cup of coffee. Not far away, Frank's 13-year-old grandson, Zac, surfed through channels on a small television.

'Hey Quintus, how're you doing?' the boy asked.

'Good Zac and you?'

'Wi-Fi isn't working anymore.'

'Wi-Fi not working. Embrace it. Read a book.'

'Nah, I'll watch TV, which Grandad calls the idiot's delight. Got a joke?'

'Of course,' Quintus said. 'What do you call a pig who knows karate?'

'Dunno. What?'

'Pork chop.'

The boy laughed. 'That's dumb, but I like it,' he said while stopping on a news report featuring an on-the-street interview with an obese middle-aged balding man dressed in a suit. The supertitle at the bottom of the screen identified him as Chuck Goyette.

'The Australians are in a pickle with what's occurring to their agricultural sector, something I prophesized months ago, and I can add that it's only going to worsen,' the televised Goyette said. 'Famine is moving his way through the Aussie outback but, to be honest, a bit too slow for my liking, yet it is what it is. However, Famine is really the least of your problems,' he said.

'What do you mean by that?' asked the off-camera reporter.

'Well, you can wait and see, or you can do your research and check what I have posted online at Temple Science Ministries.com or read my Twitter feed. It's all there, at least everything that I've said thus far. The world's end is coming very soon, just around the corner in fact but whether you can accept it or not is not my concern.'

Disinterested, Zac grunted and changed channels.

More news.

This time, a goose-stepping military parade in North Korea was accompanied by the voice of a news anchor.

'The White House has accused China's government of handing over advanced missile technology to the North Koreans,' said the anchor. 'It's a dramatic turnaround from a month ago when officials from Pyongyang and Washington were talking up prospects of a summit.'

Zac changed the channel again; this time, he stopped on a rerun of the American game show Family Feud. He sighed in relief and stayed with that.

Quintus heard Frank finish his call. He looked over to see his boss peering outside at the tourists driving off in the minibus. Frank lit up a cigarette as Quintus approached.