The War After Armageddon

SIXTEEN

The first thing Flintlock Harris heard when he walked into his headquarters well after midnight was his G-3, Mike Andretti, telling General of the Order Simon Montfort, “That’s an unlawful order. This corps will not obey it.”

The second thing Harris heard was cheering, followed by applause. It took him a moment to understand that the accolade was for him, not for the defiant operations officer.

The officers in the briefing room stood up. Yelling their heads off. Greeting Harris. Electrified, despite the wretched hour.

The welcome gave him an additional shot of adrenaline, reaching down into the part of his soul that would always be a soldier. Yet, Harris found himself behaving calmly. Unexpectedly so. During the wave-skimming flight in the black-ops helicopter, he’d felt a killing rage, imagining variations of revenge. Now, with his subordinates behaving like children who had just been informed that Christmas wasn’t canceled after all, Harris simply wanted to take care of business.

Still, he couldn’t resist stepping up beside the MOBIC Commander, leaning close as the ruckus began to subside, and saying, quietly, “Call me fucking Lazarus. Right, Sim?”

Montfort was stunned, but he’d always been quick on his feet. He thrust out his hand and babbled a welcome.

Harris ignored him, turning to his G-3. “What’s this about an unlawful order, Mike?”

“Sir… We’d been told by HOLCOM that your helicopter was down, that it disappeared from the radar screen offshore.”

“Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” Harris said.

“General Montfort…” The G-3 looked at the MOBIC commander with molten hatred. “…happened to be in the area. He claimed he was in command.”

“Temporary command, of course,” Montfort told Harris. “Until things got themselves sorted out.”

“Remarkable timing, Sim,” Harris said. “Amazing luck, you being in the vicinity of my headquarters.” Then he turned back to the Three. “What was the order, Mike?”

The room had grown death-watch quiet.

“Sir, General Montfort ordered us to kill the civilian refugees in Nazareth.”

Harris glared at Montfort. Unable to mask his disgust. The anger burned back up inside him.

In a voice as controlled as he could make it, Harris said, “You were right. That’s an unlawful order. In any case, General Montfort has no authority over this corps. Did he issue any other orders?”

“No, sir. He just got here.”

“Anything new on the ground?”

“The J’s are fighting for every speck of dirt along the Highway 65 line, but they’re taking heavy casualties for it. We’re chewing into them. Two reports of EMP mines in General Scott’s First Brigade sector. 1st Cav’s got elements of two brigades in the fight, and the division staff estimates they’ll have their last combat brigade in its forward assembly area by 1400. Tactical comms suck.”

Harris surveyed the room. Swiftly. “Anybody got anything urgent for me? No-bullshit urgent?”

Some of the faces just stared at him, calculating the situation’s implications. Several heads swiveled back and forth: No. Nothing that urgent. All of them were waiting to see what would happen next between their commander and Montfort.

“General Montfort and I have some matters to discuss in private,” Harris told his subordinates. “Excuse us, gentlemen. Sim? Join me in my office? It isn’t much, but it’s home.” Harris turned to his aide, who had just stepped inside the room. “John, make sure we’re not disturbed.”

The MOBIC commander opened his lips to speak, then thought better of it. Old Sim’s still reeling, Harris thought. But he knew the man. Sim Montfort would be back in control of himself before a condemned man could smoke a last cigarette.

Harris herded his old acquaintance out into the central hall of the big house, then led him down a corridor to his combination office, bedroom, and refuge.

“I’ll say a special prayer of thanks tonight,” Montfort told him. “For your safe return. I’d been told—”

“Fuck you, Sim. Let’s leave it at that. I’m unfamiliar with the proper etiquette for dealing with a fellow American who tries to kill me.”

“That’s preposterous.”

“I said, ‘Let’s leave it at that.’ ”

“As you wish.”

“Sit down, Sim. This is going to be a serious talk.”

“Gary, I’ve got commitments. It’s three in the morning. We each have a corps to run. There’s a war on, if you haven’t noticed.”

“You weren’t concerned about that fifteen minutes ago.”

“I was trying to help. We were monitoring the HOLCOM net, of course. And when I heard the report, I was afraid your staff would be demoralized. We couldn’t afford—”

“And you were just in the area. By dumb, fuck-me-dead luck. Christ, Sim… Save it for Sunday school.”

“If we’re going to have a conversation, I’ll have to ask you not to take the Lord’s name in vain. In any of His incarnations.”

Harris smiled. “You sound almost like a Hindu, Sim. And to tell you the truth, I could see you as a devotee of Kali.”

“Who might you be, then, Gary? Shiva? I think not. Hanuman, perhaps? The monkey god? The prankster?” He raised a dark eyebrow. “Don’t stumble in front of the Juggernaut.”

“Sim… How can you do it?”

“What?”

“All of it. Specifically, ordering American soldiers to massacre defenseless civilians.”

“Are they defenseless? Or even civilians?”

“They certainly look that way to me.”

“Gary, Gary… Why do you refuse to understand? This isn’t Iraq. You’re not a lieutenant. Multicultural playtime’s over. This is total war. Us or them. The end game.”

“The End of Days?”

“In a sense. Not in the cheap sense.”

“What’s going on, Sim? Really? You’re not stupid. I’ll credit you with a better mind than I possess—not that that’s the world’s highest accolade. So, I ask myself, why would Sim Montfort do exactly what the Jihadis want us to do, what they’ve set up?”

“What’s that? Exactly?”

“Come on, Sim.”

“You’ll have to explain it to me.” Montfort crossed his legs and sat back. He was and had always been a handsome man, but his looks were the lucky kind that photographed better than they fairly should have, the sort of features that made a comprehensive impression that blinded you to the imperfect details. Had he been an actor, he would have disappointed the fan who finally saw him up close.

It struck Harris that the parts didn’t really fit. The jaw was too strong, as if drawn by a cartoonist. The eyes that burned so intensely were too close together when viewed straight on. And Montfort’s forehead, below the widow’s peak of still-black hair, was too low. To Harris, it made the other man look as if his skull were weighted down and sagging into that big jaw. Sarah had noted it, too. Most women saw Montfort as distinguished, but Sarah had labeled him “the Cro-Magnon glamour-boy.”

The others, women or men, never seemed to see Montfort in detail. That was part of the man’s genius, Harris realized. Montfort had undeniable charisma and bulled through life on the strength of the total package he delivered—or, more accurately, the external trappings he constructed and fortified. People reacted to Montfort the way men reacted to women with cascades of long blond hair, falling uncritically for a commonplace.

Montfort was, in short, the most brilliant con Harris had ever encountered.

“All right, Sim. I’ll explain it to you. But first, I’ve changed my mind. I’ve got to reach closure about your attempt to assassinate me.”

“I never—”

“Save it. And with suicide volunteers, too. Good Lord, Sim—what’s to choose between you and our enemies?”

“Between Christ and Mohammed?”

“Save that, too. We may get to it later. Right now, I have an intellectual dilemma to resolve: This shabby little plot to kill me says either that you’re afraid you lack the leverage to have me removed, that your support back in Washington is more tenuous than you thought—watch those casualty figures, Sim—or that you just got impatient. Now, that would worry me. Impatience, I mean. Because it would establish a pattern. Impatient to get to Jerusalem, you throw away so many good Christian lives… Impatient to have your way in every last regard, you arrange a death for me straight from the handbook on how to get rid of African presidents-for-life. Just doesn’t seem like you, Sim. You’ve always played a controlled game. Admirably so… from the standpoint of tactics, if not objectives. So which was it? Eroding political support? Hard to believe, given your chumminess with our vice president, the Reverend Doctor Gui—by the way, will Air Force One go down with the president aboard? Was tonight just a rehearsal for the big game?”

“That’s treasonous.”

“Sim… I don’t think you want to get into a pissing contest with me on the subject of treason.”

“If you really intend to make something of these nonsensical allegations, Gary… file your charges with General Schwach.”

Harris smiled. But said nothing.

“Otherwise,” Montfort went on, “let’s talk strategy. I’m delighted that the report about your helicopter going down proved unfounded. After all, you and I go back a long way. Differences aside.”

“We can’t put those differences aside anymore. And the he li cop -ter did go down. I just didn’t happen to be on it. Your own people betrayed your plot. They’re not all with you at the altar rail, Sim.”

“That’s nonsense.”

“We’ll see.” Harris drew a finger across his nose, banishing an itch. “Maybe it’s both, Sim? Maybe your power base is eroding, and you’re impatient. That would make sense.”

“This is getting us nowhere.”

“Where do you want us to go, Sim?”

“You need to get some sleep. We’re all tired. You’ve had a difficult day.”

“And you’ve had a disappointing one. But I’m not tired at all. Surviving an assassination attempt ups a man’s natural caffeine content. But back to Nazareth: What do you want to do, make some sort of grand entrance over a carpet of corpses? Montfort the Conqueror, instead of Mehmet the Conqueror?”

His old acquaintance’s crossed legs interested Harris. Montfort would never have sat that way in public. Now, the narrow, broken X of Montfort’s lower limbs seemed like a defensive obstacle that the MOBIC commander had emplaced between them. Without realizing how much of his discomfort the posture gave away. Montfort had put so much effort into controlling his facial features that he’d failed to discipline the rest of his body.

“All right. Nazareth,” Harris continued. “I’d blame al-Mahdi, not al-Ghazi, for that par tic u lar plan. Al-Ghazi’s a soldier. Al-Mahdi’s an opportunist—oh, a great believer, too. But still, an opportunist underneath it all. Like you, Sim.” Harris couldn’t resist smiling. “I suspect the two of you would get along famously if you ever met. But back to the plan: bussing in thousands of members of the Arab intelligentsia. Including some from beyond the borders of the Emirate of al-Quds and Damaskus. Shove ’em out front, a gift to the Crusaders, a clever blood sacrifice. We’re supposed to slaughter them, Sim. And you know it. You’re a smart man. Al-Mahdi wants them dead. Because his vision of Islam’s future really is a return to the past. The people won’t need doctors or professors. Just their mullahs. And, of course, Suleiman al-Mahdi.” Harris inched forward. Until his rump was almost at the edge of his chair. “I wonder, Sim, if that doesn’t reflect your movement’s view of America.”

“That’s ridiculous. And insulting. It’s absurd.”

“Well, I’m willing to sound absurd, Sim. Because the world’s gotten absurd. Absurd and bloody. So bloody no incense of theirs or ours will ever cover the stench. But stay with me now, Sim: Al-Mahdi wants us to do his dirty work for him, so he can get a two-fer. Surely, you see that. First, those annoying intellectuals are exterminated. No more global community of conscience or anything bothersome like that. Second, he gets to rally his fellow Muslims, in the Arab world and beyond, by blaming us for killing them. It all makes perfect sense, once you crack the code.” Harris looked at the broadshouldered man in the other chair. “But what I don’t get is why a clever man like you would fall in with his plan—when it only strengthens the enemy. After all, those people in Nazareth are the closest thing we’ll ever have to allies in this part of the world.”

“We have no allies here. We never had any. And we never will.”

“But come on, Sim. You’re a genius at using people. Why wouldn’t you want to use all those scientists and surgeons al-Mahdi’s crammed into Nazareth? You could always dispose of them later.”

“Gary, you refuse to understand.”

“What?”

“The sooner we get this over with, the better.”

“Get what over with?”

“Their destruction.”

“Who? Those poor bastards in Nazareth? And their families? Win the war by murdering some dentist’s wife?”

“Not just the ones in Nazareth. All of them. Every Muslim.”

Harris snorted a one-syllable laugh. “Give me a break, Sim. That’s crazy.”

“Why?”

“You can’t kill over a billion people.”

It was Montfort’s turn to smile. “Are you sure?”

“Sim… for God’s sake…”

“Exactly that. For God’s sake. Gary, don’t you see it? I wish you could. I’d love to have you as my ally. As a true ally, a brother in Christ. Don’t you see what this fight’s really about, how final it is? You can mock me… mock us… but this is the great struggle between Christ and the Anti christ. Or, I should say, the climax of that struggle.” Montfort uncrossed his legs and edged forward on his chair, aping Harris’s earlier gesture. “We’ve tried peaceful cooperation, we’ve tried compromise, even indulgence. We made excuses for them, looked the other way when they slaughtered the innocent like sheep for one of their satanic festivals. And what did it bring us? Their rage, their intolerance. The savagery in Europe—you were there, weren’t you? At the end of all that? Then the destruction of Israel. By fire, as foretold. And then the nuclear massacres in Los Angeles and Las Vegas…”

“Sim, I really do wonder… whether the rumors aren’t true. About your boys helping the Jihadis pull that off. Las Vegas, at least. ‘Sin City.’ And, I suppose, Los Angeles had plenty of sins to answer for, too. No more naked breasts on movie screens these days. It’s time for Susannah to show a little respect for those elders. Honestly, if the Reverend Doctor Gui, our beloved vice president, had picked two American cities to sacrifice, which two do you think he would’ve picked? Little Rock and Lynchburg? Or Sodom and Gomorrah?”

“I won’t dignify that with a response.”

“I didn’t expect one. Tell me, though… exactly how do you kill a billion people? Without getting overly sloppy? That’s a big project. Even for you.”

“You mock me. As those other soldiers mocked Christ.”

“Comparing yourself to Christ, Sim? Already?”

“There’s no need for blasphemy.”

“Of course, there’s nothing blasphemous about the idea of killing a billion people. Over a billion. When Jesus said, ‘Suffer the little children,’ He didn’t mean it quite the way you seem to interpret it.”

“They’re the hordes of the Anti christ. Beyond redemption. Their religion was born in blood, it was spread in blood, and it will end in blood.” Montfort turned his head slightly but kept his eyes locked on Harris. “Gary, you can’t think in the old ways any more. This isn’t geopolitics in some classroom. The old, secular regime is finished. This is the final struggle… for new heavens and a new earth. We’ve worshipped too long at false altars, fallen for the dev -il’s snares, for the folly of believing that those who have been washed in the blood of Jesus Christ must accommodate themselves to the wickedness of the damned. And what have we gained, Gary? What did our tolerance bring us? What did all our efforts at extending the hand of brotherhood, our ecumenical absurdities, what did all of it gain for us? Nothing. Nothing beyond the ever-greater madness, the ever-greater demands, the megalomaniacal vanity of an utterly failed civilization, the sickness unto death of this satanic realm of Islam and the heathen occupation of our holy shrines… and the massacre, the slaughter, of our own kind. Tell me, Gary: What would you have us do? Please. Give me your solution. After all the devastation… the nuclear destruction of two great cities in our homeland… do you really believe there’s room left for compromise?”

“Absolutes are for God’s Kingdom.”

“We’re going to build God’s Kingdom. Here. Now.”

“By killing over a billion people?” Harris shook his head. “Even if you could pull that off… I wouldn’t want any part of a God who thought that was a good day’s work well done.” Rubbed raw in the spirit, Harris asked, “What about the love of Jesus Christ, Sim? Don’t the Gospels mean anything to you? Or to your ‘Military Order of the Brothers in Christ’? Are you proposing that Christ’s lost years were spent in a Roman legion, spearing the local nuisances? That He just forgot to mention that killing was perfectly legit? Or that the editors cut the battle cries from the Sermon on the Mount?”

“The Book of Revelation follows mankind’s rejection of Christ’s message. We nailed the Son of God to a cross and abused Him, scorned Him. The Book of Revelation is God’s response.”

“Bullshit. The Book of Revelation is the scribbling of a nutcase in a cave. It’s Christianity’s Koran. It was only included in the New Testament because the message Jesus left behind made the early church’s bureaucrats nervous—not least, the idea of living humbly and sharing with the poor, or the fact that Jesus thought women were human beings. You’d be happier as a Muslim yourself, Sim.”

“You’re no theologian, Gary. You know not of what you speak.”

“Do you? Do you, Sim? Do you bear the love of Jesus Christ in your heart? Do you truly feel the solace of His mercy? You call yourself a Christian, but you’d just as soon cut out everything in the Bible between the Book of Joshua and the Book of Revelation. You’re no Christian, Sim. And your kind aren’t Christians. No man who could order the massacre of every human being in Jerusalem—then in Nazareth, for God’s sake—could ever claim to be a Christian.”

Montfort sat back and crossed his legs again. A cock crowed in the distance.

“And what about the home front?” Harris drove on. “What about the United States of America? What would Jesus have to say about your political antics, Sim? Remember that bit about ‘Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s’? Remember that part? Or ‘My Kingdom is not of this world’? Did I get that right? Did I miss the footnotes? Isn’t it enough that the American people are still overwhelmingly Christian? Do we really have to become an official religious state? Like Iran used to be? Or the Sultanate of Baghdad now? Didn’t things work pretty well for us over the past two and a half centuries? What were we denied as Christians?”

“The United States was, is, and shall be a Christian country. We have lived in error for many generations, but now we must accept our role as the New Jerusalem.”

“Well, you did a fuck of a job on the old Jerusalem.”

“Don’t mock, Gary. Don’t mock what you don’t understand.”

“I understand that Jesus Christ brought love and mercy into this world.”

“And we crucified Him. We had our chance. We failed Him. Now He returns with a sword.”

“Con ve nient. Show me that passage in the Gospels.”

“Luke 22, Verse 36, ‘he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.’ But you haven’t answered my questions, Gary. Tell me, please. Instruct me: After fourteen centuries of warfare between our faith and Islam—begun by a conquering, bloodthirsty faith and continued unto this day by its spawn—after all the Christian suffering, the enslavements, the relentless bloodshed, the hatred, the captivity of our churches… haven’t we had sufficient proof that we can’t coexist? That it’s us or them? Would you prefer it to be the Muslims who prevail? Should we just surrender? Would our enemies lay down their swords? To put it in secular terms for you, religions are competitors in a great struggle for survival. Religions can’t cooperate, not really. It’s not in their DNA. God tells us all that there can be only one path to salvation, one truth, but we refuse to hear. In our vanity and pride, we think we know better. ‘All religions share a universal spirit.’ Do they, Gary? Do they? You love to cite the Gospels. Well, where does Christ say, ‘Choose the faith you find con ve nient, they’re all the same to me’? You know better. As a Christian yourself, if a confused one. Christ tells us, in the clearest words He ever spoke, that those who do not believe in Him cannot be saved. He damns them. Or do you think He was just in a bad mood that day?” Montfort swept a hand back over his shining hair. “For fourteen centuries, we tried to find a way to live in peace with the forces of the Anti christ. For fourteen hundred years, we wandered aimlessly in a spiritual desert, bereft of comfort because we denied our purpose. And now, at last, our wanderings are over. We have been touched by the fire of God’s Word: There is only one true faith, and there shall be only one true faith, and this land will be purged with fire.”

“You sound like Charlton Heston in one of his lesser roles. What are you telling me, Sim? That a billion-plus dead Muslims won’t be enough? That the Hindus are next? And after them, the Buddhists? Then the Jews? Before you get started on the Catholics?”

Montfort waved his concerns away. “This is a struggle between God and Satan. Our faith is that of the One True God. Mohammed was the messenger of Satan. Allah is Satan. Islam is the faith of Satan, of the Anti christ, and must be expunged for this world to be redeemed.”

“And the Jews? How about the Jews, Sim? You’ve made them a lot of promises. Where do they fit in?”

Montfort fidgeted in his chair. “The Jews aren’t a problem.”

“You’re really going to hand everything back to them? To re-create Israel? With what’s left?”

“The Jewish people will receive justice.”

“Sim, if I were a Jew and I heard you say that, I’d run for the trees.”

“Don’t try to create further dissension. Please, Gary. I’ll get down on my knees if you like. Join us. Before it’s too late. We’re doing God’s work. Men follow you. As they follow me. Together, we could do great things.” Montfort leaned in closer than he had yet done, close enough for Harris to imagine he smelled scorched breath. “It’s not too late for you to see the light.”

“I see your light, Sim. It comes from burning heretics at the stake.”

“Don’t wait too long, Gary.”

“I’m still waiting for that cock to crow again. A second time. And a third.”

“Rhetorical flourishes don’t suit you,” Montfort said. “You never had a mind for subtleties. You’ve always been a practical man. Al-beit with some mushy idealism thrown in. It would help you if you behaved practically now. If you can’t believe, Gary, just go through the motions. Faith will come.”

“Isn’t that a Catholic regimen, Sim? Sounds odd, coming from a good old Protestant boy like you. Although I do recall you were a great one for skipping chapel at VMI. I suppose you hadn’t yet traveled the road to Damascus.”

Montfort sighed. “Speaking of roads, I’ll have to get on the road myself. Figuratively speaking.”

“Careful of those helicopters, Sim. They fall out of the sky. Unexpectedly.”

Montfort stood up. Harris followed. The MOBIC commander was almost a full head taller. Charlton Heston, indeed.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Montfort said. “I’ve had a report that a CHART disappeared. In or around Nazareth. Could you look into it for me?”

“You’re not supposed to have any CHARTs in my area of operations, Sim. You know that. As a matter—”

“Just trying to do my duty as a Christian,” Montfort cut him off. “I didn’t think you’d mind. But see if you can find them, won’t you, Gary? For old times’ sake? The officers and men selected for our Christian Heritage Advance Rescue Teams are a little too courageous for their own good. I worry about them.”

“Wheels within wheels within wheels. You really are amazing, Sim.”

“And one other thing. I’ve got an order for you from General Schwach. You’re to detach one armored brigade and put it under my command to reinforce my corps. And not a depletedbrigade, either. One that hasn’t been shot up, that hasn’t been overcommitted. I’ve also got authorization to assume the primary responsibility for the advance into northern Galilee and beyond, once my corps elements have reached your sector. Which should be any moment now.”

“All right.”

Montfort’s eyebrows tightened. “Not even one word of protest? You’re making progress, Gary.”

“You can have your brigade, Sim. And you’re getting one that hasn’t taken any significant casualties. I’m chopping Avi Dorn’s outfit to you. From the Israeli Exile Force.”

“But—”

“Come on, Sim. What did you expect? You’ve been working some scam, some deal, with Avi. I’m not that stupid. I figure it’ll be easier for the two of you to coordinate things when he falls directly under your chain of command.”

“I expected—”

“A U.S. Army brigade? Sim, you’re not prejudiced against the Israelis, are you? After all those speeches you made back home? All those interviews? On your way out, just tell Mike Andretti where and when you want Avi to link up with your people. I’ll let Mike know I blessed it.”

The confident, studied impassiveness that ruled Montfort’s features had disappeared again. For an interval of suspended time, the MOBIC commander looked as if he would fill the room with sulfur simply by breathing.

“Anything else?” Harris asked.

“Goodbye, Gary.” Montfort did not extend his hand. Slowly, as if wearing ankle weights, he crossed to the door. But halfway through the portal, he turned back toward Harris.

“Yes. There is something else. I’m told you’re going blind. I’m concerned that you might be unfit for command.”

“I see you, Sim. Clearly.”

“And one other thing, Gary,” he said. “Did your wife ever tell you I fucked her?”