The Devil_s Workshop

Chapter 19

They had switched trains at Amarillo, and were now on the old, lyrically named Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe, heading back toward Vanishing Lake. Now that Dexter was an Acolyte of the Choir, he had been assigned his very own sub-angel to guide him to the path of godly reckoning. Dexter's sub-angel was the cruel, war-hardened Randall Rader. When Dexter wasn't listening to Fannon Kincaid's long, dissociative lectures, he was forced to sit with Randall and read scripture from the "Available Light Bible," which was just a long rolled-up filmstrip and a plastic viewer that they held up to the sunlight. The filmstrip only contained the Old Testament and the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation. No mention was made of the fact that all the other chapters of the New Testament, Matthew through Jude, were missing. Randall started Dexter's Bible study by concentrating mostly on Deuteronomy, which, he explained, was the Fifth Book of Moses and necessary for a new member of the Choir to fully understand. Fannon was a latter-day Moses, Randall told him. He was fighting for the Lord while attempting to lead his flock out of metaphoric Egypt, which in today's world was not a corrupt state, but a corrupt state of mind. Although hardened by war and life on the rails, Randall still cried as he read Deuteronomy: 44 'Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I swear to give unto your fathers.' " He whispered reverently as he read Chapter Two, Verse One: " 'Then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness by way of the Red Sea.' " Dexter learned the new metaphor for the parting of the Red Sea. Randall explained that the rail system from which Fannon led his flock parted a sea of corruption and misplaced moral values in America. As they read through the Available Light Bible, looking for appropriate passages, Randall explained that his biblical name was "The Angel in the Church of Per-ga-mos," a long, exalted title. Randall was, after all, a sub-angel.

As they scrolled Deuteronomy, they skipped right over a few important Commandments that caught Dexter's eye, like Chapter Five, Verse Seventeen, "Thou shalt not kill," or Verse Nineteen, "Thou shalt not steal."

When Dexter asked Randall Rader about these two cornerstones of religion, Randall simply explained, "How can one steal something that was itself stolen?" And regarding killings, Randall recalled a quotation from Luke 22:36: "He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one."

Dexter had given up, and was now just going along with everything. He had been captured by maniacs.

In the evenings they sat in a circle in the moving freight car, warming their hands over "canned heat," which was tins of Sterno. Fannon would give political, social, and religious lectures as the train rumbled back up the east face of the Black Hills.

"Prison is a kiss on the lips of defeat," Fannon said softly one evening, as they discussed their inevitable incarceration, if they allowed themselves to be caught alive. Moon shadows moved slowly across the floor of the moving car. The members of the Choir all looked at Fannon as if he had just uttered something so profound that a pause was needed to completely digest it.

"The field of Armageddon will be either in Kansas, or Nebraska, or Maryland," he said, for the umpteenth time. They all sat in silence and contemplated the great wisdom. For this reason the Choir rarely, if ever, ventured into those states.

"The filthy Levites control the banking system," Fannon continued. "This was predicted in Revelation with Apostle John's nightmarish vision, where he foretold that nobody could get a job or even buy in a store. The capability already exists for us to live in a cashless society." He rambled on, "Computer technology has accomplished this feat for the Jew. Already the banking system is increasingly multinational, and Levites are now managing the world's wealth. Their private banks issue computer credit, which is a debt against the currency of nations, instead of how it always was before, where nations issued currency backed by their own people's productivity. This change has delivered the financial powers into the hands of the International Jew Bankers, who now control the ability to throw us into financial dungeons."

His lectures were even more emotional when he turned to the mud races. He ranted endlessly on mixed marriages and the blurring of bloodlines. "The White men in America are 'sheeple,' " he announced. "Our White brothers are blind to what's happening in the Jew-nited States of America."

Dexter listened and nodded. He was trapped. He had made a horrible mistake when he told Fannon about his deadly secret, hidden in sealed containers in the freezing water at the bottom of Vanishing Lake. He had intended to escape from the Devil's Workshop and then retrieve the containers to continue the next phase of his research alone. He had only told Fannon in a moment of white fear, when he thought he was just seconds from death. It had been his only bargaining chip. Now he knew that if the deadly bio-weapon fell into the hands of this maniac, he might indiscriminately wipe out huge sections of the population. Still, he couldn't figure out a way to undo what he had done.

Dexter's attention drifted back to Fannon, who was now talking about death. It was clear from what he was saying that he didn't expect to survive his war with the U. S. Government. He was telling them that he would only strike the first blow before perishing. Others would have to pick up his lance and march to victory.

"Bob Matthews said it before he died," Fannon lectured. These last few days, Dexter had been hearing a lot about Bob Matthews, the martyred White separatist who went down in a hail of government gunfire. "Matthews said it, and remember his words," Fannon ordered. " 'The only thing I know of that does not die is the fame in dead men's dreams.' " All of them sat quietly in the rumbling freight and thought about their own death and fame as martyrs to the Cause. All, that is, except Dexter, who was only thinking about escape. But with Randall Rader never more than a few feet away, it seemed increasingly impossible.