young, handsome, a man of action. In the background, Simon listened to the rustling of hot desert winds in the palms of the courtyard.
When they sat back, Simon told them about the malfunction of the time travel stage. Was this part of the plan? Jephthah and the others didn't know. Simon was to meet with Serge Halam the following afternoon, and undoubtedly the agent from the future would know something about it. Jephthah ordered Simon to pay close attention to the goings on inside the hotel to see if he could pick up any useful information.
"Make sure you give no sign of what is to happen," Jephthah said.
"What makes you think that I would do so?"
"Ask your son, who wears their clothes and sings their music."
Simon bit back his urge to reply. Where had Jephthah been ten years before, when Simon had been the most zealous of them all?
They retreated to a room below, where Asher provided wine and bread. The others, like men hoeing over the same field for the one hundredth time, discussed their situation. Simon had once contributed to these obsessive complaints, these fervent oaths; now he sat silent, wondering whether he deserved Jephthah's suspicion.
"Perhaps once we begin, the Sadducees will turn our way," said Joset.
"As long as they get their penicillin, microwaves and frozen dinners, the Sadducees are lap dogs," Asher said. "The Essenes--"
"--are of no use to us," Jephthah said. The Zealots had once pinned considerable hope on the assistance of the Essenes. Yeshu's brother James was one of these deeply religious mystics--but after the departure of Yeshu the Essenes advocated complete withdrawal from contact with the futurians. They had retreated to the dry hills south of the city. That left only the Zealots, and those Pharisees they could goad into joining them, to try to sway the confused citizens into revolt.
Jephthah played with the blade of his curved dagger, speaking as much to it as to his fellows. "These dogs do not understand the power of faith. Their silk stockings and perfumed soap are not proof against faith."
It was Jephthah's theory that as the presence of the invaders caused more and more changes, so that even the simple could not fail to see how their lives were being irrevocably changed, the situation was turning their way. Obscene music blared out of the loudspeakers in the market, boorish tourists in scanty clothing, complaining about the heat, poked their cameras into sacred tombs, young men abandoned the scriptures for comic books, young women learned foreign slang and chewed gum. Just last autumn a film crew from the future had insisted on shooting a musical in the Temple, and only with difficulty had been kept out of the Holy of Holies. Then the star of this film, this gentile singer Elvis, accosted a young girl in the market. A riot started. The time invaders had had to call in a Roman legion to put down the uprising. Most of Simon's fellow conspirators felt a crucial point had been turned.
Simon hoped they were right. But he had had more contact with the futurians. Even Jephthah ought to be able to see that Halam, though he was helping their cause, was not a holy man.
Late in the night, with a feel of morning in the air, Joshua and Elam returned from the landfill with the boxes. They carried them to the downstairs room just off the courtyard, behind a hemp curtain, where the other cases Simon had smuggled out of the hotel over the last month were unpacked. Black rifle parts gleamed in the guttering light from the oil lamp. Cases of ammunition were stacked in the corner.
Jephthah picked up one of the rifles and ran his hand lovingly down its side. "The days of the invader are numbered. We shall slaughter them to the last man and his whorish concubine, and Israel in the light of God and the heart of faith will be free at last!
"God will deliver them into our hands."
FIVE: THE CONNECTICUT OATMEAL BATH TREATMENT
When Owen opened the door to his room a stench assaulted him. Wilma had
When they sat back, Simon told them about the malfunction of the time travel stage. Was this part of the plan? Jephthah and the others didn't know. Simon was to meet with Serge Halam the following afternoon, and undoubtedly the agent from the future would know something about it. Jephthah ordered Simon to pay close attention to the goings on inside the hotel to see if he could pick up any useful information.
"Make sure you give no sign of what is to happen," Jephthah said.
"What makes you think that I would do so?"
"Ask your son, who wears their clothes and sings their music."
Simon bit back his urge to reply. Where had Jephthah been ten years before, when Simon had been the most zealous of them all?
They retreated to a room below, where Asher provided wine and bread. The others, like men hoeing over the same field for the one hundredth time, discussed their situation. Simon had once contributed to these obsessive complaints, these fervent oaths; now he sat silent, wondering whether he deserved Jephthah's suspicion.
"Perhaps once we begin, the Sadducees will turn our way," said Joset.
"As long as they get their penicillin, microwaves and frozen dinners, the Sadducees are lap dogs," Asher said. "The Essenes--"
"--are of no use to us," Jephthah said. The Zealots had once pinned considerable hope on the assistance of the Essenes. Yeshu's brother James was one of these deeply religious mystics--but after the departure of Yeshu the Essenes advocated complete withdrawal from contact with the futurians. They had retreated to the dry hills south of the city. That left only the Zealots, and those Pharisees they could goad into joining them, to try to sway the confused citizens into revolt.
Jephthah played with the blade of his curved dagger, speaking as much to it as to his fellows. "These dogs do not understand the power of faith. Their silk stockings and perfumed soap are not proof against faith."
It was Jephthah's theory that as the presence of the invaders caused more and more changes, so that even the simple could not fail to see how their lives were being irrevocably changed, the situation was turning their way. Obscene music blared out of the loudspeakers in the market, boorish tourists in scanty clothing, complaining about the heat, poked their cameras into sacred tombs, young men abandoned the scriptures for comic books, young women learned foreign slang and chewed gum. Just last autumn a film crew from the future had insisted on shooting a musical in the Temple, and only with difficulty had been kept out of the Holy of Holies. Then the star of this film, this gentile singer Elvis, accosted a young girl in the market. A riot started. The time invaders had had to call in a Roman legion to put down the uprising. Most of Simon's fellow conspirators felt a crucial point had been turned.
Simon hoped they were right. But he had had more contact with the futurians. Even Jephthah ought to be able to see that Halam, though he was helping their cause, was not a holy man.
Late in the night, with a feel of morning in the air, Joshua and Elam returned from the landfill with the boxes. They carried them to the downstairs room just off the courtyard, behind a hemp curtain, where the other cases Simon had smuggled out of the hotel over the last month were unpacked. Black rifle parts gleamed in the guttering light from the oil lamp. Cases of ammunition were stacked in the corner.
Jephthah picked up one of the rifles and ran his hand lovingly down its side. "The days of the invader are numbered. We shall slaughter them to the last man and his whorish concubine, and Israel in the light of God and the heart of faith will be free at last!
"God will deliver them into our hands."
FIVE: THE CONNECTICUT OATMEAL BATH TREATMENT
When Owen opened the door to his room a stench assaulted him. Wilma had
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