The Teacher

The Teacher: Part II Testament, Chapter 42

CHAPTER 42

WHILE RUNNING THE UNDERGROUND railroad for Christian insurgents, Pastor Ben, even with his new powers, was no match for the GLSF operatives when captured alone. I, on the other hand, had all the powers of a Disciple, and several special gifts besides. Also, being connected to Holden I had protected status. Leading a double life, I'd managed to keep my family hidden behind a false wall in the attic of the home I grew up in, which now appeared to be abandoned.

Like the Anne Frank family, my parents and two brothers were betrayed by suspicious neighbors who noticed the deliveries of supplies I arranged to have sent to them in the middle of the night. I picked up an alert of the arrest on Cloud 10.0 transmissions and went to the processing center to attempt to intervene, but was too late. My father's interrogation was already in progress and I didn't have the authority to stop the proceedings.

"Are you prepared to renounce your allegiance to the dead Jew known as Jesus?" the head prosecutor challenged.

My father was speaking on behalf of the family.

"We knew this question was coming. Jesus was a Jew, and yes, the body He lived in was murdered, but today He lives more surely than you and I. We can not and will not deny Him. Do with us as you will."

Resigned to their fate, my father looked over to his family, then, up and over to the one-way mirror. He didn't know I was there watching, horrified, but unable to show any emotion for fear of tipping off the GLSF agents to my treason.

"We want that Bible you have hidden. Tell us where it is."

My father sat there silently, refusing to answer.

I taught my family members how to block the deep telepathic probe that under normal circumstances could have reached right in and found the memory about the Bible's location.

Just then an agent in a black uniform with an upside down crimson cross on the back and collar entered the room.

"You have only one chance to be spared being condemned to a feeding station. Tell me where you hid the Bible," threatened the special-forces agent whose responsibility it was to make sure no Bibles survived the Christian purge.

Again, my father made no attempt to save himself or his family.

"As you wish," glared the GLSF operative.

The agent stood up.

"Process them for a feeding station and arrange for their home to be destroyed first thing in the morning," came his dispassionate order.

I couldn't watch as my mother, father, and brothers were led away to have their minds wiped clean before being transported to the Fermi Feeding Station just outside of metropolitan Chicago, Illinois. All I could think to do was race home and retrieve the Bible. I had a pretty good idea where it was hidden.

THE AGENTS LEFT THE FALSE WALL open to my family's living chamber under the roof. From there I took a passageway down to the basement and followed the Catacomb-like group of tunnels and small rooms to a well they used for water. The well was lined with bricks. At arm's length down along the well wall I was feeling for the indentation of a cross scored in the surface. Next to the cross was a loose brick behind which they kept their Bible. I retrieved the sacred text, but made the mistake of looking right at it.

Any visual image of the Bible triggered an alert on one of many security apps running constantly on the Cloud. GLSF agents were dispatched immediately.

Despondent and not thinking clearly, I brought the Bible upstairs, sat down in the living room, and opened up to the Gospels which I remembered fondly growing up. Reading silently, I ignored the various alarms going off in my Cloud connection trying to alert me of the security detail about to close in. Instead, I bowed my head and summoned what was left of my free will to ask God to forgive me for abandoning my Faith. In the middle of my prayer, the GLSF operatives broke in. They did not realize who I was when they rushed through the front door.