Let the Fire Fall

Chapter Eighteen

“HERE they come,” Merton said, watching the parade on a screen no bigger than a postage stamp. The usual cloud cover hung over the city, dirty cumulus clouds forming in the midst of the blanket of smog that never dispersed, so that there were columns of deeper yellow-gray than the background, as if a mad architect had decided to hold up the smog ceiling with these whirling unstable materials.

The parade was being watched by millions in the city, and hundreds of millions on the entire planet. Many of the viewers didn’t believe in the Star Child at all. It was a myth that the U.N. had created for its own reasons. Others believed exactly what Obie had said about the Star Child: originally damned, he had been converted and was the agent through which Earth could be saved. Most of them had no opinion, but were curious, or watching the 3D sets because that was what one did.

The parade was long, with each nation represented in national costumes, with national bands and marching corps. Overhead the sky was filled with U.N. ships of every description, taking the extraordinary precautions that had been deemed necessary for this event.

Lenny had been horrified when he learned that Johnny was to address the assembly in person. From the start they had agreed that he would remain in his hideaway to make the worldwide telecast, but arguments had arisen. He could be a ringer. Anyone could be put before the cameras and the world wouldn’t know the difference. He had to appear in person.

The parade was on Fifth Avenue when the clouds began to descend. Leading off had been the Amsterdam dancers, then the Angola band, followed by the Australian aborigines in native costume, and in the middle was the bubble that shielded Johnny from the crowds, but exposed him to view. He looked frightened, as he was by the claustrophobic effect of the buildings and the millions on millions of people. Such numbers had never been real before, but here they were, all touching, packed together in a mass that was a blur of flesh colors and gaudy plastics. He should have refused. He wouldn’t be able to say a word. He felt like crying then, or fainting. A heart attack. He could manage a heart attack and be taken back to the quiet of the estate. He could make his debut more slowly, not like this, not with millions all at once…. Lightning suddenly sparkled, crackling and snapping, between the towers and peaks of the buildings, and there was a roll of thunder that shook the bubble in which he rode. He shivered. He was very pale, but managed to lose more color.

Lightning streaked again, and in the U.S. Meteorology Building a weatherman frowned and pressed his communicator button: Thirty seconds later he was talking with his chief forecaster, who was reading information as it came from the computer.

The meteorologist then put through a priority call to the chief of security in charge of the parade and informed him that the storm that was then turning day into night was artificial.

The cloud that was sinking hovered over the bubble, casting it into deep shadows. More lightning, and then the cloud swooped and when it rose again, there was no bubble to be seen. The cloud began to rise fast. Hovercraft darted at it and fell to the ground, creating panic among the people. A voice was in the air then, Obie’s voice, everywhere.

“I am the Voice, the Power, the Strength of God. I am the Voice that God has chosen to use. You who believe in God’s power, fall to your knees so that God will not strike you down.” There was a moment of almost complete silence before the bedlam was raised again. People were trying to run away, but they couldn’t move. The parade had come to a halt with the lowering of the cloud and the attack of the hovercraft on it. Throughout the world people were watching the scene on 3D or conventional, outmoded televisions, and there was stunned disbelief everywhere. Fighters were scrambled, and they too fell back to the ground. Then the windows started to break. Everywhere in the area of the parade windows exploded with cracks of noise, or bangs, or soft popping tinkles. Half the people were on their knees protecting their heads. and those left standing were being knocked down, or pulled down by others. The UNEF were hemmed in so tightly that they couldn’t move, and they hacked their way through the bodies as if they were a dense jungle.

The cloud continued to ascend straight up into the sky, now carrying its cargo of the bubble ground effect car as well as its passenger. At fifteen thousand feet it turned west, and it was tracked on radar all the way to Mount Laurel where it was lost from sight as it landed gently.

Obie had had his miracle. Few on Earth now doubted that he had been in touch with the Star Child, as he had claimed, and few of the people who had seen the miraculous cloud sent by God to do Obie’s bidding doubted that he was in truth the Voice of God.