The Preacher Man

Mukhtar was among the few monks who managed to get off a hatchet throw. Remarkably, he was not aiming at the Guards who were firing directly in front of him but at my Council, perhaps even me. A sharpshooter within my Guard deflected the hatchet in mid-air with one well-placed exploding dart. I'll give Mukhtar credit. He may have been a hypocrite, but he wasn't stupid.

Once they had drained the non-exploding darts from their devil-dogs, a number of Guardsmen started to unsling their rifles, but by this time there were no targets left. Twenty seconds after the sacred transmission had ended, not a monk in the hall remained alive, while the Guard had suffered no casualties.

The battle had been fought and ended almost faster than the mind could recognize its existence. I noticed numerous Guardsmen blinking in bewilderment and staring with wide eyes at each other and at the carnage on the hall floor. Those in the encircling balcony had a better view of the scope of the slaughter and appeared to be the most visibly shaken.

Aleser was among the first to recover. He walked up to me and the Council and saluted stiffly. I was the only one who saluted back. Aleser made eye contact with me and said simply, "We carried out our sacred orders Abdul Hadi."

I nodded and reassured him. "You and your troops have performed well. You've carried out direct and sacred orders. Aleser, this Judgment was holocast live to Babylon. I want to conference with the remaining monks as soon as possible."

It took about ten minutes to set up. At 12:15 my Council and I and several senior Guards were in a nearby communications room. On the wall in front of us appeared the holocast of an empty comm room at Babylon. We began to wait. And we waited.

At 12:47 a Guard Commander came and informed us there that there were numerous civilian reports coming in from Babylon, speaking of warfare breaking out on the grounds of the township's adult monastery. He also said that satellite imagery was confirming the reports. I told him to pipe the satellite video into our chamber. We soon had an aerial view of the smoldering monastery campus on one wall and the holographic display of an empty Babylon conference chamber on another. My six Councilmen, including the new CL-28 from Health, seemed quite content to sit back and watch the historical battle unfold.

I sat back and watched in silence. The numerous flashes on the campus were indicative of both projectile and energy weapons. There was much to think about. The possibility of a factional war breaking out among the monks had not occurred to us, and the implications were complex.

At first the war seemed like a Holy-send. Our goal for the start of the revolution was to destroy the monk's base of power, and it appeared they were doing the second phase of the job for us. But the haze from the smoke was now probably too thick for us to maintain out satellite-laser link to The Code of Bel'dar. I sat wondering what state The Code was left in when Australia lost contact with it.

The details of the battle provided by the satellites were very impressive. Individual people's movements could easily be seen. I thought it fortunate that Babylon is located at the ancient site of Lima, Peru, only twelve degrees south of the equator. The world has several arrays of equatorial imagery satellites that orbit the planet at a height of 250 km and follow a latitudinal path from sixteen degrees north to sixteen degrees south, the location of the spaceport Xerxes. We were thus getting almost continuous overhead imagery of the warring township.

By 1:40 PM it appeared the four warring factions had been reduced to three. Whether the smallest group had been annihilated by the largest group or had decided to join them was not clear. Regardless, the largest faction looked as if it were taking control of the monastery's primary administrative complex at the southeastern end of the campus. From there they could control the campus's elaborate weapon systems. I thought the other two factions would soon realize this and surrender. Their alternative would be swift destruction.

At 1:43 PM there was a tremendous flash on the imagery followed by a satellite diagnostic message that it was repairing overloaded photo-sensors. A few minutes later the next satellite showed a gigantic smoldering pit where the administrative complex used to stand.

Jibran studied the pit carefully for a moment and then commented to me, "Somehow the other factions must have tripped the safety interlocks on the main reactor. That pit is deep, right down to the power level!"

I nodded. "It appears the two remaining sides are still battling each other."

Jibran nodded happily. "It certainly seems that way." We watched for another moment in silence. "Abdul Hadi," he commented, "this might take a while. Should I order some lunch?"

I looked at the time and thought for a moment, 1:53 PM. "No. Sundown will be in two hours. Let's fast until then, in respect for Bel'dar's Judgment."

Jibran smiled and returned to watching the battle.

Chapter 51. The Battle of Babylon

Time: July 4, 8244 4:00 PM

At sunset I broke up my meeting with my council and wandered into another communications room which was in contact with the civilian section of Babylon. I moment later I was addressing a CL-2 militia Priest who was near Babylon's primary train terminal. It clearly looked as if he wanted to kneel before me, but current law discouraged that. He called me by my name instead and stood there trembling.

"Name?" I asked, trying to look friendly.

"Nusrat, oh Servant of the Guide," he squeaked back.

"Nusrat, who is in charge of the CL-2 militia at Babylon?"

The man blushed for a moment and then replied, "I am, Abdul Hadi, trying to get things organized here I mean. I don't mean to usurp my superiors, but"

"Yes, I know. Your superiors decided to go to war with each other. You are to be commended for taking the initiative. Tell me, is their warfare still confined to the sacred monastery?"

He paused for a second. "Currently yes. We have pulled all our available Priests from the child monasteries and have our forces scattered around the adult monastery's perimeter, about 500 CL-2 militia and 400 CL-2 police. We can't match the monks' weaponry though."

"No, I don't intend that you should. Nusrat, until help arrives, I'm placing you in acting command. Maintain the troops in an observer status. If possible, try to evacuate the citizens adjacent to the monastery."

The man nodded. "Yes, Abdul Hadi. That is what we are currently trying to do."

"Excellent. Well done Nusrat. Don't defend the township if the fighting spreads outside the monastery. Return fire only if directly fired upon or if the monks start attacking the civilians."

"Yes Abdul Hadi. Those are our current engagement rules. Thank you Abdul Hadi." The man looked quite relieved. He had made several militarily correct but politically dangerous decisions over the last few hours, and I had just backed him up. I took a moment to think when reinforcements would arrive.

Babylon is perhaps the most isolated township on the South American continent. By Holy Law, no other township can be within a 1000 km of its boundaries. The three closest townships are Az Zarqa, Zoser, and Zabbut. They are all about 1100 km distant. Babylon was the single exception to the planning of bullet-train connections across South America. The monks want to retain their isolation.

Abigail! She has such insight! About two months ago she suggested I have a large, mobile troop presence in the area if possible, and I picked Zabbut to host the annual winter war exercises. Located at the ancient site of Rio Branco, Brazil, it is the home township of the Utility Guild specializing in excavation and grading equipment. The township has some of the best aviation support facilities in the world.

I checked with my local Commanders in the comm room and then turned back to Nusrat. "The paratroopers will be at Babylon in another hour. I'm also going to attempt to land a single military transport plane at the airport. I don't think the monks will be insane enough to shoot at it. We also have 6,000 militia arriving by train, 400 from Az Zarqa, 1200 from the tri-townships of the Xerxes area, and the rest from Zabbut. They should all be arriving between 9 PM and midnight tonight."

"Yes Abdul Hadi." The man's relief was clearly visible.

"Remember the law Nusrat. The monks reign supreme only on their monastery grounds. Unless there is a direct decree from The Code of Bel'dar, the township itself is under Royal jurisdiction. So unless you're on sacred ground Nusrat, your orders flow from Royalty, from me."

"Yes Abdul Hadi, that is clear. But what if the monks start commanding us with a Bel'dar decree?"

"You're under my orders on this Nusrat. Any such decree by a monk below CL-6 has to be verified as genuine. I know this is unusual, but under the circumstances, you are ordered to ignore any unverified claim of Holy Decree until you check with someone here." I spent a few more minutes discussing logistics with him, and then left the room to rejoin my Council.

The rest of the day proved uneventful. After leaving orders to be called if there were a change in conditions, I rejoined my Council for a light supper and then we all attended evening Prayers. It was interesting to observe my Council's demeanor during the Prayers. Some were joyful, while others appeared very thoughtful.

After the close of the Hour of Repose at 10 PM, I checked in briefly with the military and saw we were making great progress in surrounding the monks' campus and isolating it from the rest of Babylon. Miraculously there were no reports of civilian casualties, in spite of the continued warfare. The carnage on the campus itself was immense.

Latest reports from the ground and satellite imagery were showing that the battle was winding down, with the remaining monks concentrated in the relatively undamaged northwestern quadrant of the campus. The massive northeastern vaults holding The Code of Bel'dar appeared shielded and intact. The southern half of the monastery campus appeared completely gutted. It looked worse than some of the pictures of the nuclear war eight thousand years ago.

I got back to my private quarters shortly after 11 PM. Deep within my capital palace, there was a solid aura of security, but we all knew that the real foundation for our safety lay in the invisible shields around us. There were several minutes of intense diagnostics before Chanah and Shephatiah pronounced the system was functioning normally. We contacted Australia immediately afterwards.

"We have so much to report Abdul Hadi," said Dalis as the Australian council appeared before us. "Where would you like us to begin?"

I was wondering if she would be smiling, the day had been so successful for us. But the attitude of all the women was somber. It matched my own. The deaths of the monks were weighing on all of us. And yet, at the last Judgment, I had presided over a process that had sent tens of thousands of children to their deaths. The possibility to end such madness justified today's actions.

"What is the status of The Code?" I asked. "Can you still communicate with it? Be wary of the laser link. The arriving troops have equipment sensitive enough to detect the beam if it gets scattered by smoke."

"Yes, we know. We have an elegant solution to that. To answer your first question, the The Code of Bel'dar is in full lock-down mode. The vault has successfully sealed itself, over 200 meters of rock and steel, and we're the only ones now with the encryption keys to open it. We should be safe for quite a while."

"And the monks within the vault complex?"

"All dead."

I sighed. "Was that necessary?"

Dalis nodded her head. "Yes. We had to accelerate our plan. As soon as the top-level monks were killed at the capital, the duty staff at Babylon logged in as prime-user. They tried to initiate trace diagnostics into The Code. Strictly against Bel'dar's holy directives I know, but that's what they were doing, no question. We were in imminent danger of being detected. So we activated the vault's emergency security program. The monks had three minutes to evacuate before the vault would seal and release the biologicals."

I nodded. "And they didn't evacuate?"

"No! They tried to fight us, abort the procedure. There were several times when they were just seconds away from discovering us, that there was a second login as prime user. Fortunately we managed to stay one step ahead of them in controlling The Code." Dalis gave a grim smile. "We had the evacuation warning klaxons turned on at full volume. It must have been ear-splitting. That probably helped. Yadira, you were the team leader during this phase. Do you want to continue?"

"Yes, thank you. Abdul Hadi, the monks stayed at their stations until the end. I don't think they realized how little control they had until the very last moments, and by that time it was too late to attempt an evacuation. And then the vault complex sealed and the biologicals were released. The monks' deaths... weren't pretty. Mercifully it happened very fast."

I nodded. "And then the campus war broke out?"

"Yes. The sub-factions within the Order were more polarized than we realized. They all suspected the other factions were trying to seize control of The Code and establish themselves as the new Holy authority. We did everything we could to keep the war going. The fusion-power overload in the main administration building; that was us. We took the safety-interlocks off-line and then drove the hydrogen ion injectors into a resonance failure mode. We managed to release several hours' worth of fusion energy in a few microseconds."

"Wasn't the smoke from the battles interfering with your control?"

For the first time in the meeting, I saw Yadira smile. "No! Pascha, do you want to take this?"

"Sure! Abdul Hadi, Dalis mentioned an elegant solution to this problem. It turns out the satellite on which we have our communications laser is designated as an acceptable relay for The Eyes of Bel'dar. We just had The Code switch its worldwide surveillance to run through our particular satellite. We now control the code directly through its own shielded monitoring system. The troops might detect the microwave satellite connection, but they will be expecting it to be there."

"Excellent work Pascha." I gave a deep yawn. It had been an extremely stressful day. "Are we all set for tomorrow's pronouncements?"

"Yes. All the scripts are loaded and set to go. The hologram will announce a pending proclamation at 11 AM, and the main release will occur at solar noon." Pascha paused for a moment and then gave a very deep sigh. ""Just in time to save the 0.6's from their marriage gates. It's such a tragedy we couldn't have done this sooner."

"We weren't ready Pascha. We accelerated the schedule as much as possible. What else could we have done?"

"Oh, I know. Still, all the young women this year... what a tragedy."

I nodded my agreement. We exchanged goodnights and signed off a moment later.

Time: July 5, 8244 5:13 AM

My Council had activated one of the palace situation rooms to monitor Babylon. I was the last to join them. CL-28 Hani, the new Council member from the Health faction, gave me a beaming smile as I entered and came to my side.

"Ninety percent fatalities Abdul Hadi! The Commanders on the ground are estimating ninety percent fatalities for the combatants, perhaps more! There may be fewer than a hundred monks left alive outside the vaults!"

I looked at him and smiled. Hani was so different than the former Council members from Health, CL-29 Imaad and CL-28 Hassam. The man was always so full of enthusiasm. He had spent most of his life at Dalma, my own Domine and the township responsible for controlling the evolution of the human genome. Hani's focus though was not in medical research but in data storage, and in addition to being a Council Grand Mufeto, he was also one of the world's leading authorities on the township's medical history files, all eight thousand years of it.

I took his faction's support for him to CL-28 as a peace offering from Health, that Health thought this would be a man I would enjoy working with. And they were right. Over the last six months, Hani had become my good friend.

"Have they tried to contact us yet?"

"No Abdul Hadi. The fighting might be over though. The last detected firing occurred before 4 AM."

"Ah. You think the monks are negotiating a cease fire?"

"It would appear so."

I walked over to my place at the head of the table and sat down and called the council into session. "And what of the Holy vault?"

"It's very curious, Abdul Hadi," answered Jibran. "The monks inside are still keeping the facility completely shielded and locked down. As of yet they've made no move to use the facility to end the outside fighting, or to contact us." He shrugged his shoulders. "They are refusing all requests for communications, and they are letting the remaining monks destroy the rest of the campus, absolutely incomprehensible."

I nodded and replied, "It's been my experience that when people do incomprehensible things, it's because there are motivations involved that are not understood."

Jibran nodded back and we began the meeting. We spent most of our time being briefed on the situation by CL-15 militia Commanders. Our troop strength was currently over 7,000, and scheduled to swell to 12,000 by noontime. All reports from the town were indicating that the local civilians were joyfully accepting the influx. My council was also informed that we were still receiving a base holographic carrier wave from Babylon in the palace auditorium. The council unanimously ordered continued monitoring of the signal.

I pondered whether to halt the additional military buildup I had ordered. The full staff at the vast vault complex would normally be over 800 monks, and I doubted if Mukhtar would have left a light crew on duty during his absence to the capital. Everyone in the room with me was assuming the monks were still in control of the vault and its priceless asset. I wondered, did the monks outside the vault think the vault was still manned? No, impossible. The klaxon warnings must have been heard. But Mukhtar must have had his best crews manning the facility during his absence. I began to see why our attempts to ignite internecine warfare had proven so successful.

I decided to let the troop buildup continue. There was no incentive to stop it, and the troop presence added to our negotiating options. At 5:45 AM, I adjourned the meeting, and my Council took a leisurely stroll to morning Prayers.

At 9:09 AM, in the opening Prayers of the Hour of Counted Failings, we received word that a CL-5 monk named Imad-al-Din was demanding an immediate audience with the Supreme Council. After confirming that the summons was not coming from the vault complex, I realized I was under no sacred obligation to obey and informed the messenger that the Council would meet with the monk at 1 PM. As the messenger ran off, I glanced at Jibran. He rolled his eyes at me and then smiled. We went back to our Prayers.

Chapter 52. A New Order

Time: July 5, 8244 11:59 AM

I calmed myself by gazing outward through the auditorium's northern windows. They presented a fine prospect of one of my favorite inner courtyards, the one named The Stone Fields of Falling Waters. Stone is a very modest word for the splendor. The crystal mosaics are stunning in their beauty, perhaps especially the amethyst falls. Smiling at the beauty, I realized with a start that after a year of being the 85th Cunif Califar, the palace complex at Bandar Arenas was finally beginning to feel like home.

Previously at 11 AM, the holographic link to Babylon had come alive and revealed that a major Judgment would be delivered at solar noon. That would occur today at 12:05 PM, when the sun was due north and about fourteen degrees above the horizon. There was a enormous functional stone sundial built into the plaza at the center of the northern courtyard below us, and I was idly tracking the time with it. Just a few minutes more...