Edge of Apocalypse Page 16

  "But not too gradual," the chairman added. "We don't want a meltdown of our markets, Mr. President."

  Corland was trying somehow to tie a rhetorical bow on the whole thing. Then his face lit up. He had it. "We can describe this as historic. An end of an epoch, perhaps, and yet the beginning of a new age of financial freedom..."

  The chairman relaxed back in his chair when he saw the president coming around. "We've been in global markets since the end of the twentieth century, for heaven's sake. Is it really so radical that we now become part of a unified global currency?"

  "And the precedent you talked about?" Corland asked.

  "Yes, the International Monetary Fund. Right. It's a little known fact that the IMF's had the authority for years to issue a financial form of paper called Special Drawing Rights--SDRs--as a global form of money."

  "And these SDRs--"

  "They're just like an international currency, Mr. President. So this move for the United States to join the rest of the major nations in adopting the new international currency--the Currency Regulation Drawing Order--the CReDO--as part of our national currency, well, that's not that new after all. Besides, the CReDO is already a dualpurpose form of money. It's being used in the paper version, yes, but it also is available as an electronic form. Like an international debit card. A major plus since the entire world will be going the way of cashless currency very shortly. Besides, Americans are primed for this. They've been making more purchases with cards than they have with cash since 2007. So we are way overdue for this worldwide system of money."

  Corland looked at Hank Strand to help him through the politics of this one.

  Strand smiled and said, "The Congress is with you on this. You've got them behind you, sir."

  "And the vice president?"

  "Oh, Vice President Tulrude hasn't ever wavered. She believes that the United States needs to become a more evolved international entity. More integrated in the world community. Yes, she is very excited about this."

  "Okay," the president said, "get our press secretary working on this. A series of short announcements about a 'monetary enhancement.' Something vague. That we'll still permit Americans to use the dollar. That sort of thing. But pretty soon, the American people will see their dollars are worthless but that they can use the CReDO, and suddenly they'll be saying, hey, you know, I can buy more with the CReDO than with the old currency. Right?"

  There were nods all the way around.

  The secretary of the treasury was scheduled for a 3:30 meeting in the Oval Office. President Corland would give him the good news then. America was soon going to join the new form of global currency.

  By 4:30, however, someone in the White House, no one ever found out who, leaked the information to an underground blogger who ran a website called the Barn Door.

  At 4:48, the Barn Door reported that the president had approved the U.S. disbanding the dollar and changing America over to the CReDO.

  Seventeen minutes later, the big telecom Internet server that hosted the Barn Door blogsite, fearing reprisals from the White House, without warning shut it down permanently. So the webmaster for the Barn Door blog immediately called all the major news networks to complain about it.

  None of them reported it.

  THIRTY-TWO

  The suffocating stench of death permeated the room.

  After years of investigating crimes of violence for the FBI, John Gallagher had developed the knack of picking up the pungent smell of decaying human flesh. He was known to have a nose like a corpsesniffing police dog.

  But John Gallagher never really got used to the odor.

  Ever.

  Even with the organic vapor-filtering mask he was wearing, Gallagher cringed as the county medical examiner from Northern New York State used a heavy duty pair of scissors to cut away the soggy bag that contained the corpse. But the body wasn't in one of those plastic contractor bags like an amateur criminal might use.

  That was the first thing Gallagher noticed, after the smell, of course. The person who had dumped the body had used a burlap bag.

  "The killer knew what he was doing," Gallagher said, standing next to the body on the stainless-steel table in the coroner's office. "Wrapped this poor guy in burlap, so the elements could start the decaying process sooner rather than later. Then added lime to the mix."

  The coroner opened the mouth of the cadaver to examine it. But he wasn't prepared for what he saw there. Gallagher saw it too.

  Then the coroner closed the victim's mouth and said, "But the murderer made one mistake."

  "What's that?"

  "Dumped his victim into a swamp."

  "Go on..."

  "Bogs like the one where they found this victim are high in tannic acid. Acts like a preservative. Sort of like a natural form of formaldehyde."

  Gallagher thought about that. So the killer wasn't local and didn't know much about peat bogs or swamps. Otherwise he would have known that.

  Now the coroner was inspecting the neck of the victim.

  "How'd they find him?"

  "Talk to Red Yankley, the county deputy. He's out there in the lobby grabbing a cup of coffee. He'd be able to tell you."

  After a minute or so of closer examination of the larynx, the coroner looked up at Gallagher with a strange smile that reflected some professional pride.

  "I think he was strangled. I'll be able to give you a definite by tomorrow after I do the full deal, lungs and all. But I will bet my bottom dollar that the ligature marks here on the neck were from a thin metal cable."

  Gallagher was trying to keep himself calm. Zimler particularly liked to polish off his victims close up, and usually with a garrote. And he was known to be in the States.

  Gallagher excused himself and stepped out into the lobby. He stripped off his mask and then hunted down the deputy who was standing next to the coffee machine with a Styrofoam cup in his hand. "Deputy Yankley, I'm Special Agent Gallagher from the FBI."

  "What can I do for you? Is this some kind of federal matter?"

  "Possibly. Wondering how the body was discovered."

  "A hunter. Had his bird dog out there in the bog. No rain for a couple days and things dried up. Dog found it right off."

  "Motive?"

  "Well, we found tire tracks leading to and from the site. We think they were from the victim's car. So right there you've got car theft."

  But Gallagher had the feeling in the center of his gut this was no simple stolen-auto case. He was trying not to get ahead of himself. Take it easy, John. Don't jump to conclusions.

  "So, Deputy, anything else of interest?"

  "Let's see...oh yeah. All of the victim's ID was taken from his body. He was picked clean. I mean really. If you know what I mean. Maybe the killer was a dentist or something..."

  "Yeah, I noticed," Gallagher remarked. He'd seen that the murderer had broken all the teeth of the victim and removed them in order to prevent dental identification.

  "Yeah, but not that smart. The killer left the victim with his fingers still on...finger prints."

  "We just got lucky," said Gallagher. "If that dog hadn't come across the body when he did, the prints would have pretty well dissolved with all the lime that he'd been packed in."

  "Well," the deputy continued, "anyway, you've got to wonder. Yanking teeth from a dead man. What was going on with that?"

  Gallagher didn't need to wonder. The FBI veteran had figured that the killer couldn't afford to leave any direct connection to the victim. So he wanted to make sure that the victim wouldn't be immediately identified. This was one sadistic, calculating killer.

  The deputy slurped down the last bit of coffee and laid the hunting magazine down; then he eased his hands down on both sides of his leather gun belt. "You got some thoughts on all this, Agent Gallagher?"

  Gallagher smiled. "Yes," he said. "I do." But he made a point not to tell him what that was and instead turned and strolled back to the swinging doors leading back to the tile-floored autopsy ro
om.

  He swung the doors open. The coroner was still bending over the body and looked up.

  "You have an ETD?" Gallagher asked.

  "I think so...," the medical examiner began.

  But Gallagher raised a finger to stop him before he answered.

  "No, let me guess. Six to ten hours."

  The coroner's eyes widened and he wagged his head a little.

  "Other than being maybe an hour or two off, you're right on the money, Agent Gallagher. How'd you do that?"

  "It's a theory I'm working on," Gallagher said with a sly smile. He turned and exited the autopsy room, cut through the lobby, and threw a quick wave to Deputy Yankley as he headed to the parking lot and toward the exquisite pleasure of fresh air.

  John Gallagher had more than a theory. His instincts told him that the same man who killed the Yergi Banica in Bucharest was the same one who used the dead man's passport to gain entrance into the United States at the Canada-New York State border. Also, it followed that the killer would need to exchange cars quickly once he entered the United States. The FBI special agent was betting that this assassin was a consummate professional. So he picked the car owner at random, killed him, and dumped the body in a way that was designed to leave almost no trace. All because the killer needed to use the car for a day or two without being tracked, and then he would soon rid himself of that vehicle and steal another.

  So Gallagher used the date and time that the man with the passport entered New York as the starting point, figured it was the same guy who killed this poor car owner. Presto. Time of death all figured out.

  Now that the coroner agreed with his estimate, that meant that the odds were increasing that the killer of Dr. Banica was the user of the Romanian professor's passport, and he was also the murderer of the owner of the car.

  Now all he had to do was to determine whether his suspect, Atta Zimler, was the guy who strangled the professor in Romania. Back there is where the dominoes had started falling. Down deep, Gallagher just knew that Zimler was the man behind all of it, even though he couldn't explain it in any terms that you could find inside an FBI investigation handbook.

  Which led him to the much more frantic question. What was Zimler doing inside the United States?

  Gallagher's heart was pounding. His chest was tightening with the familiar burning, crushing sensation. He needed to find a quickie-stop gas station and pick up a carton of milk to soothe the pain. He thought that he had spotted one when he first drove into the sleepy little town after exiting Interstate 87.

  Gallagher climbed into his car. He was hoping that there wouldn't be more victims for a while and that maybe the stench of death was behind him. On the other hand, if he was right about Atta Zimler being in the States on business, well, that would put the chances of that at around zero to the tenth degree.

  PART THREE

  The Global Tower of Babel

  Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as "internationalists" and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure--one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.

  David Rockefeller, Memoirs

  To stabilize and regulate a truly global economy, we need some global system of political decision making. In short, we need a global society to support our global economy.

  George Soros, socialist billionaire

  If we can learn from our experience of turning unity of purpose into unity of action, we can together seize this moment of change in our world to create a truly global society.

  Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister

  THIRTY-THREE

  "Chaos. Death. Destruction. Is that what you're thinking?"

  He paused. No one was moving.

  "Is that what floods your mind when you think about the end of the world? Armageddon. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Whatever phrase you might want to use.

  "When people imagine it, they visualize the horror. But let me challenge that idea. The God who controls the future is a merciful God. In the midst of catastrophe, He will still give us all the choice to be saved through His grace. In fact, I believe that the end of the world will in reality be the first chapter in a radical new kind of life. It isn't just about the ravages of destruction. The future world that God has for us after the birth pains are finished here on planet Earth will really be all about life--and life abundantly. And life with Him for eternity."

  Pastor Paul Campbell was addressing a packed church from his position in the ornate pulpit of the Eternity Church in downtown Manhattan.

  Sandwiched between his wife and daughter in the pew, Joshua Jordan was waiting for the minister to get to the point. He knew a little about Campbell's background. He had checked out his credentials on the Internet. Ph.D. in philosophy, Th.D. in theology. Campbell had written two books, both of them about the Bible and end-times prophecy. And yes, Joshua had to agree, Campbell was a dynamic communicator. He had heard him a few times before at his wife's urging.

  But now Joshua was waiting for the punch line. Campbell's message had been publicized--"Globalism--Three Signs of the End Times." Frankly, Joshua had expected something else. He was getting antsy and regretted coming. Maybe he should have pushed back a little when Abby encouraged him to leave Colorado early just to attend the service.

  When are we going to get to the dangers of globalism? That's why I'm here.

  Joshua's mind started drifting. Back to their log mansion in Colorado. They had left their ranch in the Rockies at the crack of dawn that same day by private jet. Joshua was now smiling as he was thinking about the trail ride on horseback that he, Abby, and Debbie had taken the day before. Joshua had been scheduled to shoot some early golf with Rocky Bridger first, just after sunrise, but he found out from their housekeeper, Ronda, that Rocky had already left the ranch with his bags in hand while it was still dark. She said that Rocky had a concerned look on his face and said something about an "urgent family matter."

  Joshua had tried Rocky's cell phone, but his friend wasn't picking up. So he left a message. He wanted to know if everything was okay and whether there was anything he could do.

  By late morning, Joshua still hadn't heard from him. So he and Abby and Debbie mounted their horses and took the familiar trail that broke into a large meadow full of wild flowers. That's when Joshua, without warning, decided to throw down the gauntlet. He playfully heeled the sides of his quarter horse, General Billy Mitchell, gave him a loud kiss, and lunged ahead, daring his wife to race him to the other side of the clearing. He beat his wife to the other side, but only by a nose. She playfully called him a cheater. Joshua smiled a little thinking back to that. Okay. So maybe I didn't give her a fair shake. Come on Josh, admit it. She's a better rider than you any day...

  But then something brought Joshua's mind back from the towering vistas of the Rocky Mountains. What was it? He was back again in the crowded sanctuary of the church. It was another comment by Campbell that had caught Joshua's attention. A little like someone gently tapping him on the shoulder in a crowded room.

  "To clearly understand what God intended for our future, we need to recognize that He has laid it all out for us in the Bible. The Bible contains God's agenda for the future of planet Earth, and everybody who dwells here. All right, so how do we know that the Bible is true?"

  Joshua clicked with that. Okay, let's hear it. I've respected Abby's "new relationship with Christ" that she talks about all the time. But the Bible as a predictor of the future? That's a stretch...

  Campbell said, "Besides being the inspired word of God, the Bible has proven itself over the centuries. Let's focus first on just one major prophecy. It is, perhaps, the most astounding evidence of the fact that we are seeing the approach of the end times of the planet Earth and the coming of Jesus Christ to establish His new kingdom. And that proof comes in a single word. Israel."
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  Campbell's argument was simple. When Israel was recognized as being a sovereign state on May 14, 1948, by the United Nations, it was nothing less than a modern-day miracle. "That one fact--the rise of modern Israel as a nation--was a startlingly accurate fulfillment of the 2,500-year-old prophecy recorded in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel, chapter thirty-seven. A prophecy that says:

  "Behold I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel.

  "Prophecy is defined," Campbell continued, "as 'history written in advance.' Now anyone can 'predict' history once it's already written. But only God can predict it before it happens and have it come to pass exactly as He says it's going to occur. That's how we know that the Bible comes from a divine origin. That it's not just a bunch of writings that came from the minds of men. Most people are unaware that at least twenty-eight percent of the entire Bible was prophetic at the time it was first written down."

  With that Campbell clicked his remote, and screens on each side of the sanctuary lit up with a huge image of a black Bible. Emblazoned across the bottom of the Bible was a red arrow pointing to the word "prophecy." He zoomed in on the arrow. Suddenly, the cover of the Bible disappeared and a parade of prophetic Scripture verses started appearing one after another, scrolling down the screen. Old Testament predictions of the terrible curse that would befall the man who would rebuild the city of Jericho, in the ninth century B.C. Prophetic warnings delivered to King David that as a result of his sin, "the sword would never depart from your house," a fact later established beyond question. Verses containing precise predictions about the manner of death that would befall the evil king Ahab and his equally corrupt wife, Jezebel, all fulfilled down to minute detail. Six separate prophecies regarding the fate that would befall the ancient city of Tyre, each having occurred just as foretold.

  "Over half of those events prophesied in the Bible," Campbell said, his voice growing more intense, "were later fulfilled. The other half relate to what we call 'end time events.' But listen carefully...many of those events are being fulfilled in our very lifetime...which is why many of us believe we are living in the 'time of the end' that the disciples asked Jesus about in Matthew 24. Now speaking of fulfilled prophecy, God Himself used those many fulfillments to prove His very existence. Eight hundred years before Jesus Christ was born, in Isaiah 46:9-10, God used one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament to rebuke His chosen nation for worshiping idols. And then, speaking for God, the prophet Isaiah said, 'I am God, declaring the end from the beginning...I have spoken it: I will also bring it to pass.' What God is saying here is that one of the great proofs that He exists is the astonishingly precise fulfillment of His prophecies. Only God is able to do that.