PROLOG

Sahara, North Africa

27,000 BCE

            The six humans, four male and two female hauled the large golden box up the last of the path to the summit of a small hill overlooking a green and fertile valley.  Naked and bleeding from the lash of their master they stood huddled to one side afraid to move for fear of beating beaten more.  From their vantage point they could see a great city below, carved out of the earth, and covering the entire valley from one end to the other.  Their eyes were not strong enough to see movement but they knew from what they had been told that the enemy of their masters, called the Shoggoths, lived there and must be destroyed.

            Their master, a sloth like creature, gray in color, and moving on three appendages that worked the same as legs, held a star shaped stone in one claw and the golden arc that was attached to the lid of the box, with the other.  Suddenly the great shape lifted the top of the golden container and light exploded from inside.  Even though the day was at its fullest, the light blinded the humans and they hid behind some trees, fearful of the weapon. 

            From hilltops and peaks all around the valley similar light spread down the slopes to engulf the village below.  For what seemed like eternity to the humans the cries of the villagers rose from the depths of the valley, to gradually subside and finally cease.  Upon command the humans were herded back to the box where they were instructed to lift it and begin the climb down.  One of the women dared to look into the valley to see nothing.  Where there had been buildings, roadways, animal pens for giant lizards, and a great amphitheatre, there was now sand.  Nothing grew or moved.  What once had been green was now a desert.  The Shoggoths would no longer claim the Sahara as their own.

Jericho

1100 BCE

            Joshua walked out of the tent into the blazing heat of the mid day sun.  Holding a star shaped stone in his hand, known as God's Trumpet, he called to his priests.

            "Raise up the ark and follow me".  He commanded the seven.

            As one they lifted the golden box with the arched lid above their shoulders and following their king and leader marched deliberately around the walled city of Jericho.  At each gate Joshua, dressed in his robes and adornments of his station, would lift the trumpet to the air and call to it in the language of God.  The same priests had carried the same ark around the same city for six days.  Now on this, the seventh day, they had marched seven times around the city, always stopping at the gates.

            Once around the great walled building for the seventh time, Joshua stopped before the central gates of Jericho and held the Trumpet on high.

            "I call the God of all gods to destroy this most vile city of our enemies the Shoggoths".  The Trumpet of God began to shake in the old mans hands.  "I command, in the name of our God, that this unholy of cities be wasted to the earth, never to be rebuilt at the cost of all who would live there".  The stones in the fortress abutments began to crumble and cries could be heard from within.  "I command that all these things shall come to pass".

            Withdrawing to a safe distance the seven priests who carried the ark seven times around the city for seven days beheld the power of Joshua's God.  The city of Jericho shook as though a great upheaval was destroying it from beneath.  The walls crumbled, the towers fell, dust rose in great plumes into the sky, blotting out the sun.  For six days the city trembled and on the seventh it was done.  Joshua stood where the great acacia gates had been and held up the Trumpet of God.

            "I show you, God, in all your glory the destruction of your eternal enemy".

            A light breeze blew down the mountain pass, taking away the last of the dust from the city.  Before the armies of Joshua was nothing.  No tree, shrub, stone, or body showed.  The earth had been wiped clean again.  Accepting the sun as a sign from above the armies of the Lord broke camp and returned home.  Another enemy of God had paid the ultimate price for their heresy.

25 December, 2002

Daniels Farmhouse

Carter Falls, New Hampshire

            The redheaded woman sat on the large couch in the old farmhouse and watched the video playing out on the screen.  It had been a quiet Christmas and she was looking forward to the return of her best friend and co-director of the Carter Foundation, the multi-billion dollar organization that oversaw the security of the planet from metaphysical occurrences too large to be handled by any single government.  Claire Daniels was not an average forty something business director.  As the one time section chief of a large National Security Agency Task Force, Claire, when she had been Danny St. Claire had commanded teams and strike forces around the world.  After the shooting in 2000 which had killed Danny's cousin Claire Daniels, and left him with three bullets in the chest, the NSA had determined that to corner the killer, who had been the twos childhood friend Steve Lavesque, Danny would become Claire.

            The transition had been radical.  Hormones, surgery, implants, voice training, diet, had all taken their toll on the psyche of the male agent.  If it had not been for Dr. Rachel Jackson, the agencies most capable psychiatrist, and now Claire's best friend, Claire would probably not have survived, but survive she did.  Although promised by the agency to return Danny to his former self, the woman on the couch had decided to remain the way she was now, not completely female, yet no longer male. If you asked her what she considered herself to be she would say she was the new and improved Claire Daniels, Version 1.1. 

            Drinking her Moxie, that disgusting soft drink, according to Rachel, that only hard core Yankees drank, from a tinted, wide mouthed, Shell glass, that Claires father had gotten in 1968 with a fill up of fuel, she watched three Nazis open the Ark of the Covenant and release the avenging spirits.  When the scene was over only Indiana Jones and Marian remained, their bonds smoking, their hearts pure, their futures secure.  All else was gone, the equipment, the bodies, the dust.  Wiped clean by God.  As the credits began to roll the red head stood up, shut off the television, the lights, the VCR, and walked upstairs to bed.

            Rachel had told her to watch the movie but had not said why.  Her dark skinned friend had been traveling through Ethiopia and Scotland, visiting friends, and would be home in two weeks.  Until then, Claire would just have to wait.