Servant of the Bones

He laughed sincerely and like a child. "But that's just it, my tactless and impulsive one, I am a moral genius." He pointed to the maps:

"They are ready within two hours of confirmation of my death to destroy two-thirds of the world's population completely. Now, before you object, let me explain that this will be done by a filovirus perfected here by us which is already in place in those various temples. Don't interrupt."

He raised his hand and went on.

"It is a virus which kills within five minutes or less; it is airborne only as long as its host breathes, which is no more than five minutes; its first immediate action is to fog the brain and to fill the victim with a feeling of peace and ecstasy."

He smiled gently, his eyes glazed suddenly, as though he were listening to grand and majestic music.

"No one will suffer, Azriel, at least not more than a few moments. Oh, it is such perfection compared to the hideous, bumbling stupidity of Hitler when he bludgeoned, shot, and tormented the Jews. What a crude, cruel monster he was. A digger of graves, a ragman, a fiend who tinkered with the gold in the mouths of his millions of victims." He shrugged. "Ah, maybe it simply wasn't the time. We didn't have the technology."

He resumed:

"The virus will be dropped along with a lethal gas that tends to dissipate within four hours. These combined should kill everything living and human in the area. My planes and helicopters are ready worldwide to perform the annihilations. They will go over and over the territories involved until all people in them are exterminated.

"Foot battalions have been organized in some densely populated cities, like Baghdad and Cairo and Calcutta. They will insert the gas and the virus into large buildings through their air systems. Some of these people are themselves willing to die. Others will wear protective clothing."

"Good God, how many cities, countries, people, are you talking about?"

"Most of the world, Azriel. I told you. Two-thirds of the world's population. Think of it as an inevitable plague, if you will, a plague which comes in angelic form, to clear the planet of the debris as other plagues have done in the past. Do you know what the Black Death did to Europe?"

"How could I not?" I thought of Samuel and the burning houses of Strasbourg.

"What you don't know is that Europe would be a desert now were it not for that plague. You don't know how many died in the flu epidemic early in our century. You don't know that AIDS was meant. You don't know that it takes courage to learn from nature and rise above it, rather than simply tamper with it, and make chaos out of it as you destroy it."

"What countries of the world; you speak of Asia?"

"Oh, yes," he said. "Definitely. Asia, the Orient, all of those people will be wiped off the face of the earth. All of northern Russia. Only some of eastern Russia will be saved, and even on that score I haven't entirely made up my mind. There will be no more Japan."

He didn't want to stop for breath, he went right on, excited now. I could swear that a light emanated from him.

"You haven't been here long enough to know the logic of it. First and foremost, everything in populated areas on the African continent will be wiped out. Think of it. Emptying Africa. Villages have been targeted, all areas where men and women live. The only animals who will survive are those which are far from populated areas. It's brilliant. You see, the filovirus won't affect most animals anyway, and the gas will dissipate soon enough for most animals to survive it. Oh, it's very complex. It has stages. But everything has been done to avoid panic or pain or knowledge among those who are dying. They will not suffer, no, they will not endure the absolute agony of our parents and others in the German camps. That was hideous, beastly."

I didn't dare interrupt him. But, Jonathan, you can imagine my feelings at this moment. Panic rose in me, but something harder overcame it: a determination that this madness was not going to happen! Absolutely not going to happen! I kept a mask of a face:

"You truly have an immense vision, Gregory."

"Every living person in India and Pakistan will be wiped out," he continued with rapturous enthusiasm. "In fact, almost every living person in Nepal, too, and up into the mountains. Of course Israel will be destroyed because Palestine has to be destroyed, and Iraq and Iran. In fact, all of that world will go-the Armenians, the Turks . . . the Greeks, the Balkans, where the war goes on, Saudi Arabia, Yemen ..."

"The Third World, as you call it," I said. "The poor world. That's what you're talking about."

"I'm talking about the world that is fatally diseased, always at war, courting famine, and dragging us all down with it. The great unsalvageable world-the world that Alexander couldn't save, or Rome, or Constantine, or the President of this country, or the United Nations, or all the weak fumbling liberal kindhearted peacemakers of today who do nothing but preside over massacres!"

He sighed.

"Yes," he said, "the disease ridden, the uncontrollable, and the unredeemable. It's absolutely essential. They will all die. By midnight tonight most will be dead. But the Temples are ready for a renewed gas attack on all areas again tomorrow. Our vans, our planes, our helicopters-all are disguised as medical vehicles. Our people are clothed as medical people. Anyone seeing them will think they are trying to help. People will come to them for help and shelter, and they will kill these people without torturing them or frightening them. It's going to work brilliantly. We have worked out our estimates. All of Cairo will be dead in two hours. Calcutta will take longer." . He looked sad as he continued:

"The third day will be the worst, because we have to hunt down those who might have somehow survived and it will be difficult. People will know fear. But it will be brief. There may be bullets used then, even bombs, but we hope not. We envision a beautiful and silent world by the end of the third day."

His hand fell warm and firm on mine, his eyes glowed.

"Imagine it, Azriel, all of the African continent still and quiet, the beautiful pyramids of Egypt standing in silence, the smog and filth of Cairo settled down like so much sand. Imagine Zaire with no more epidemics and secret filoviruses brewing to destroy the world. Imagine the starving put to sleep in silence. Imagine the great rain forests allowed once again to grow, the dense jungle blooming without intrusion, the wild animals of the interior allowed to multiply as God planned for them to do.

"Oh, Azriel, my dream is as great as Yahweh's dream when he told Noah to build the ark. I have even sheltered critical species. Very talented geniuses and scientists have already been lured here for a convention so that they might be saved as their people die. This, my country, is my ark. But the rest must die. There is absolutely no other beautiful or elegant or merciful way out of our present state."