Destiny

ONE-HUNDRED-TEN

They didn’t wait for the train to come to a complete stop entering Salerno station. Marcus kicked open the emergency door exit and turned to Alicia. “Ready?”

She shook her head. “Yes.”

The train slowed to a crawl. Marcus jumped from the steps leading out the emergency door. Alicia followed. She rolled once on the concrete and got up. They ran through the perimeter of the station, ignoring the dozens of passengers sitting on bus-stop benches in the passenger arrival areas.

Marcus flagged down a taxi. He and Alicia jumped in the backseat and he said, “Parli inglese?”

“Of course. Salerno is the number six most popular Italian city to the tourists. Many from England and America.”

“How far is the port?”

“Twenty kilometers. Not far.”

“Good. Take us there.”

“No problem. However, I am almost off the clock. Because my home is not far from the port, I will take you there. But, on the way, I must stop for a pizza I ordered. It will take only a few minutes. I used my mobile to call…how you say in English…a take-out. It is small restaurant downtown, so we go by there.”

“Do you happen to know the ferry schedules?”

“Some. Where you want to go?”

Alicia glanced at Marcus. He said, “We’re still undecided. Maybe in the area of the Aeolian Islands, Messina or maybe even Palermo.”

“Some leave at eleven or closer to midnight, and you wake up in Sicily in the morning. However, most ferries do not operate to the islands in this month. All ferries operate to Sicily. More go to Palermo. Some to Messina and one will go to Catania. I am not certain of all their schedules.”

“Please, take us to the port.”

The driver nodded and pulled away from the rail station.

Another car left and kept a good distance behind the taxi.

Within minutes, the cab driver was driving through the streets of Salerno. Gesturing toward the peaks of the mountains, which were lit by the moon to the east of the city, he said, “It is beautiful, no? Good wine comes from those mountains.” The driver slowed in front of a downtown restaurant. The word PIZZA flickered from a neon sign in the window. There was a large bell tower protruding from the adjacent building, the light from the moon coming through the massive arched portals on all sides of the tower.

“What’s that?” Alicia asked.

The cab driver grinned. “It is the Duomo of Salerno. It’s a cathedral — the final resting place of the Apostle Matthew. I’ll be right back.” He got out of the taxi and disappeared into the restaurant. Marcus stared at the bell tower, watching moonlight float through the arched portals. At that moment, the single bell began chiming: dong…dong…dong…

Marcus counted the rings. “Eleven…twelve.” He stared at the belfry, the light of the moon streaming through the old stone porticos.

“Paul, what are you thinking?”

Marcus whispered, ‘…about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, only the Father.’”

Alicia looked from Marcus up to the bell tower. “What did you say?”

“I’m remembering something I read in the Book of Matthew that Isaac Newton mentioned in his notes.”

“What?”

“Something Newton was trying to link to a passage from Daniel. Matthew wrote a direct quote from Christ that said, ‘…about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, only the Father.’”

“What are you saying?”

“Newton knew there was some connection between Revelation 12:12 in the year 2012 and some passage in Matthew. Now I know what that is…”

“What?”

“Thirty seconds ago, it just turned midnight, December twelfth. Add the twelfth day of the twelfth month and you get twenty-four…as in Matthew twenty-four. If you add the twelfth year, 2012, to twenty-four, you get thirty-six. Matthew 24:36 says, ‘…about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, only the Father.’”

“It sounds like Matthew was writing about the end of days.”

“He was quoting Jesus. In Revelation, 12:12, John was quoting God.”

“Do you remember what the passage in Revelation says?”

Marcus closed his eyes for a moment. ‘Therefore rejoice, your heavens and those of you who will dwell in them. But woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has gone down to you. He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short.’

Alicia lowered her eyes from the bell tower to Marcus. “Paul, this is being revealed to us in layers…maybe in a way we can fully grasp it.”

“There is a woman mentioned in Revelation twelve, who is described as clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet. On her head is a crown of twelve stars. Alicia, there is a similarity that Joseph gives of his father Jacob or Israel, his mother and their children. What if the stars refer to the twelve tribes of Israel…what if the woman in Revelation twelve is Israel…the place of Christ’s birth?”

“The metaphor, the woman, is really a nation…Israel?”

“When Revelation speaks of the woman fleeing into the wilderness for 1,260 days, maybe it means the future time some have called the Tribulation. Twelve hundred sixty days is forty-two months of thirty days each. Forty-two months is three-and-a-half-years. In Daniel’s prophecy, he mentions time, times and half a time…the seven-year week, may be divided into two periods of three-and-a-half-years each.”

“Okay, Paul, what if we go back to what we found on the bridge over the Tiber River? We’d reached the year 2011 with some certainty — the year 2024 is still iffy. If we factor in Daniel’s prophecy, a seven-year-week or what is really seven years, if the seven years is added to 2011 we come to the year 2018.”

Marcus watched a large bat circle the bell tower three times and fly inside the belfry. “The bat flew in a perfect circle…and that’s it!”

“What”

“The Circle of 13. Alicia, remember that Daniel 12:1 and Revelation 13 both deal specifically with the end of times. Add Daniel 12:1 and you have the number thirteen. That’s the common factor, the number thirteen. That’s our key and it points directly to the Circle of 13 and what those people have done to fulfill a prophecy of evil.”

Alicia looked up at the bell tower, the moonlight iridescent in her pupils. She whispered. “Add thirteen to the year 2011 and it’s the year 2024…the same number, the same year we reached on the bridge over the Tiber River. Paul, I have goose bumps all over my arms.”

“We may know when…and we may know where…the woman, is the place of Christ’s birth…”

“We need to get out of here. I wonder what’s taking the taxi driver so long. Maybe I can pick up the Internet here.” She used her mobile to find a signal. “It’s weak at best.”

“All I need is a half hour and I can finish and upload everything. See if you can find the ferry schedules from Salerno in Messina. Maybe there’s an Internet connection on the ferry boats.”

Alicia looked up the information. “Some of the ferryboats leave port at night so they’ll be in places like Messina in the morning. Our shuttle leaves in one hour, and we can buy tickets up to departure time.”

Heydar Kazim braced his rifle on the open door of the rental car he parked in the dark under a cypress tree with low-hanging limbs. He stood in the shadows within fifty meters of the Cathedral of Salerno. He waited. Twenty seconds later, the taxi driver walked out of the restaurant carrying a paper bag. Kazim followed him for three seconds, the rifle cross-hairs in the center of the man’s chest. Kazim squeezed the trigger. A bloom of red popped across the man’s T-shirt. He toppled on his back to the sidewalk. The assassin set his rifle in the front seat and started the car. He raced to the taxi.

“Oh God!” shouted Alicia, watching the driver collapse in a pool of blood.

“Stay down!” Marcus yelled, crawling in the driver’s seat. He started the taxi just as a car pulled in front of him, blocking the way forward. A rifle bullet exploded the passenger window above Alicia’s head.

Marcus pulled the pistol from his belt and fired directly at the front windshield of the car. He backed up, put the taxi in drive and slammed into the rear section of the man’s car before pulling out onto the street. He floored the accelerator. Marcus drove through the city square, tires screeching, a pedestrian running for the safety of a tree.

Alicia didn’t move from the rear floorboard. “Did your bullets stop him?”

Marcus looked in the rearview mirror. The car was stationary. Two seconds later, the car was on the street, high-beam headlights reflecting from the mirror and burning into Marcus’s eyes.

“No! He’s coming. Stay down!”