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they were having an effect. Even though most of the clinics continued to
operate at full capacity, the length of the lines began to dwindle. So far,
only 140 million, or about 5 percent of the world's 2.8 billion people had
received the communion. The shorter lines posed serious concerns for those
responsible for administering the communion. Interviews with people who had
not yet taken communion revealed that fear of the terrorists was the number
one reason for not going to the clinics. "What good is the communion going to
do me," asked one interviewee, "if I get killed on my way in the door?"
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The problem was further exacerbated on the afternoon following the third night
of bombings when two armored vehicles bringing new supplies of the communion
blood to clinics were hijacked and set ablaze. An eyewitness captured one of
the hijackings on video, which was shown on television around the world. The
video started just as the truck's guard was shot when he tried to resist the
attackers. Two of the five terrorists then pulled the driver from the truck
and violently threw him to the pavement and forced him to kneel on the
86 Acts of God street. Holding a gun to the driver's head, one of the
terrorists told the driver to pray and ask
God's forgiveness for his sins. Terrified, the driver did as he was told,
shaking and stuttering in fear as he repeated every word. When he had finished
the terrorists all said "amen." The man who held the gun then shouted,
"Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus!" and pulled the trigger, blowing the man's
brains out on the street. Despite all that the world had suffered over the
past few years, the inhumanity of this scene, shown repeatedly on television,
struck viewers with a very personal sense of outrage.
Local authorities attempted to stem the terrorism by providing escorts for the
armored trucks and additional security at the clinics, but these efforts met
with only limited success. Despite their efforts, ultimately the
responsibility for dealing with the problem belonged to the United
Nations. Secretary-General Christopher Goodman officially asked the Security
Council to provide
United Nations forces to protect the citizens, the clinics, and the communion
supply.
In an address designed to calm fears and to let the people of the world know
what was being done, Christopher took verbal aim at the terrorists. "No one is
being forced to take the communion or to accept the mark. It is entirely
voluntary. Those who do not want it are free to refuse it. Neither
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to stop those who oppose the communion from expressing their opinions, as long
as they are peaceful. But this is not enough for them  instead they have
turned to violence and bloodshed. We cannot, as a civilized people, allow
terrorists to operate with impunity. The rights of individuals to make their
own choices must be protected!"
The Security Council quickly granted Christopher's request to deploy U.N.
forces, but it was not soon enough. That night 32 more clinics were bombed.
Communion 87
August 2, 3 N.A. (2025 A.D.)  Babylon, Iraq
"I am tempted," said Robert Milner, "to use such euphemisms as 'eliminate' or
'nullify,' but, while such terms may play more favorably with the public, it
is important that we in this room face squarely the reality of this proposal."
His honest appraisal was like a splash of cold water in the face of one in the
penumbra of consciousness: it was unwelcome in its jarring impact but
appreciated in that it brought the reality of the situation into clear focus.
"What we are faced with is sanctioning the reinstitution of capital punishment
 the death penalty."
With him in the room were Decker, Christopher, and the ten members of the
Security Council.
Christopher had surrendered his position as Primary for Europe and caretaker
for the Middle East and East Africa in January so that there were again ten
Primary members of the Security Council.
The meeting, informal and very strictly 'off the record,' had been requested
by Christopher to assess what options still existed for dealing with the
fundamentalists' continuing reign of terrorism. The response to his question
kept coming back the same.
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For three weeks now the terrorist attacks had continued. The use of United
Nations security forces had reduced the number of bombings and drive-by
shootings at communion clinics, and only three more hijackings had taken
place. Yet somehow the fundamentalists always seemed to know beforehand where
the weakest point in security lay and how to use that weakness to their
advantage. While on rare occasions this might have been attributable to
security leaks within the U.N. forces, more often than not the U.N. forces
were unaware of the particular weaknesses until they were so skillfully
exploited by the terrorists. What the terrorists knew went beyond inside
information and demonstrated a knowledge of details no one else knew. Neither
did coincidence or dumb luck provide a sufficient explanation for the success
of their attacks. The only reasonable explanation was that members of the KDT
88 Acts of God were employing their psychic abilities to aid the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]