Chapter 24

Nearly the only people inside the United Nations Building at this time of morning were the cleaning crew and security. There had been more than a hundred seventy nations as members of the UN. So far, forty-nine had withdrawn their membership from the UN and were rather publicly in talks regarding forming a new world government. To a certain extent, it was amusing that they were using the US Constitution as the basic framework for the new government, attempting to limit the powers of the world government while still allowing the nations their independence.

While that was by no means a majority of nations, it was nearly sixty percent of the actual population of Earth.

That was enough for me. Beth accompanied me in her uniform, taking up a position outside to catch things I threw out that might be worth saving. I started on the top floor, quickly confirming no one was present. I casually broke two windows out, before tossing two safes full of incriminating evidence down to Beth. The next floor had a couple of cleaners on it. I broke the windows out before I threw them out for Beth to catch. I continued working my way down. Some artworks were pitched out, if I thought they really were art, and just about everything else was left.

It didn’t take that long for the NYPD to respond, since there were still people outside the building, holding vigil over what I’d first done with the cement outside. They’d quickly contacted the police, who responded rapidly. They were quickly joined by camera crews from all the television stations.

Beth was setting everything down on the circular concrete pad I’d burned my orders in. As people would land, she’d tell them to simply sit down and stay put. When the first policeman started to respond onto the UN property, she told him to stop, and enforced it by using her laser vision to draw a line across the drive.

It took me right at an hour to get everyone out and to get out everything that was either incriminating or worth saving from the thirty-nine story building. There were close to a hundred people crammed onto the pad now. I’d gone through all of the buildings of the UN complex, including the Credit Union.

I finally landed in between where everyone was herded together, and where the police were working to keep crowds back while not knowing for certain what to do. I saw two familiar faces in the crowd, so I pointed at the two officers and waved them over.

“Officer Gonzalez, Sergeant Callahan, I’m rather surprised that the two of you are still working on this shift, although this does seem to be rather far from your usual beat.”

“Yeah, well, Mayor Koch gave us both medals, and we had the chance to change our districts and shifts. Me and Jesus talked it over and we both switched to Precinct 1, but stayed on this shift because we figured if you were going to show up in New York again, it’d be in the middle of the night, and right fucking here.”

Gonzalez said, “Realistically, I wondered how long it’d be once that comic book came out before you’d show up here, and do what I figure you’re here to do. I wasn’t too far off in my guess. I thought it’d be yesterday.”

I laughed a little. “I see the two of you are both wearing your tokens as necklaces.”

“How ... oh, right, you can see through our clothes,” Callahan said. “Yeah. I had a guy offer me a hundred grand for mine. I told him there wasn’t any amount of money that could buy this off of me.”

Gonzalez looked up, where Beth was still hanging in the air about a hundred feet up. “Skyline’s going to look a little different without this here any longer. Even if they don’t realize it right now, those folks over there are damned lucky.”

“Very perceptive of you, Jesus. I really don’t like killing people that don’t deserve it. I will, but their deaths do weigh heavy on my mind.” I saw someone who had just arrived. “Ah, good, time for Act Two of our little play. It certainly took you long enough to get here, Mister de Cuéllar. Please, won’t you join us? No, your bodyguards can simply wait there.”

I pointed for him to come forward, while at the same time making a motion with my other hand for Beth to proceed with phase two. From the noise the crowd made, I could tell she flew up into the sky and out of sight. That was only so she could move a short distance away, and deal with the official UN residence at 3 Sutton Place.

“I presume you are the notorious Messenger from Above, that has committed so many crimes against humanity. Have you arrived here so that you may finally face justice for your actions?”

I crossed my arms, then my legs, and leaned backwards, like I was leaning against a wall. Of course, there was nothing behind me. “Crimes against humanity? Wow, you must have a really oddball sense of humor, Javier.”

“I am the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and you will respect my position and my authority!”

Still leaning back against nothing, I said, “What authority?” I reached into my pouch and pulled out a copy of the comic book. I tossed it to him. “What’s it say on the last page?”

“It does not matter what this piece of paper says!”

I turned my face towards Jesus. My mask fit well enough that he could figure out my expression, even if he couldn’t actually see my features.

“Mister de Cuéllar, I’m simply a New York police officer, but I suggest you read, aloud, what it says, on the last page.”

De Cuéllar grumbled, but opened it. Aloud, he read, “‘This comic was published at the request of, and with the cooperation of the governments of the United States, Soviet Union, China, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, India, Pakistan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Australia, and others, and all free peoples of the world. Excelsior!’ Is that what you meant?”

“Obviously, of course. Last time I looked, all of those nations listed have withdrawn their memberships from your worthless little social club here.”

He shook his head, his jowls flapping in anger. “They can say what they want. There is no provision in our charter for them to do so.”

“There are provisions in your charter to remove a country, though, aren’t there?” He stood, silent. “AREN’T THERE?”

The force of my voice rocked him backwards. His guards started to run forward, as did some of the security men from out of the middle. I shook my head, saying, “You don’t really want to do that, do you?”

Two of them did, which resulted in them being tossed up into the air, over the UN Building, and into the East River.

I saw Sergeant Callahan suppress something. “What’s the matter, Michael?”

“We have ordinances against littering here in New York. You just threw some trash into the East River.”

“Ah, but they’re employees of the United Nations ... at least at this moment. That means they don’t have to pay the fines – not like they would, anyway,” I said, purposely misunderstanding him. I turned my head. “Now then, Mister de Cuéllar, I believe you owe me the answer to a question, don’t you?”

He was still staggering, but he said, “Yes, there are.”

“Of course there are. Which means that whether you want it to be or not, membership in the United Nations is completely voluntary. The forty-nine nations that have voluntarily resigned from this corrupt organization are free to do so. Which means you no longer represent a majority, and they do!”

“What? Even if I allow that fiction, there are still more than a hundred twenty nations that we represent! How can that be any kind of majority?”

I chuckled. “Because there are four point eight billion people on this planet, and nearly three billion of them live in those forty-nine nations. That’s close to sixty percent of the population of this planet, and is a majority. By their actions they have told me, as the representative of the Galactic Council, that the world government they are attempting to form represents this planet. And this,” I said as I pointed to the building behind me, “ ... this is now nothing more than real estate in need of development.”

I turned, rose into the air slightly, then used my laser vision to cut the building just above ground level. Before it could collapse on itself, or fall over, I flew over to it, grabbing some of the frames. I still didn’t know exactly how this power of mine allowed me to do it, but I guessed it was an extension of my telekinesis, through my body. The how didn’t really matter, anyway. The what did, as I simply tossed the entire structure into the air. I stayed in the air, hovering back over where de Cuéllar was standing in shock, watching the flight path for the building until I was sure it wouldn’t hit anything. I saw that Beth had already turned the official UN residence into an empty lot and it was following the building, too.

“Okay, sorry about that. I probably just scared the crap out of the flight controllers at LaGuardia. Maybe give the people who like to ... what’s that sport of yours, scuda? Scuba? Anyway, it’ll give them someplace to explore underwater off of the coast of Greenwich, Connecticut if it holds together long enough. Are you okay? Your face is turning red.”

“What have you done?”

“Oh, something that’s needed doing for quite some time. You know, I thought it was interesting that you happened to mention you wanted to charge me with crimes against humanity. Almost amusing, considering the evidence that was in the safe in your office showing that your predecessor had claimed to have been in the SS during World War II, served in the Army in a location where partisan fighters and civilians alike were rounded up, shot, and killed, all while he was the aide-de-camp for General Löhr. Who, if you know the history of your own planet, was executed for war crimes. Amazing how someone who worked closely with his superior officer wouldn’t know anything about that. Jesus, that’s the safe sitting right there, with the door ripped off it. You’ll want to get that information, and see that it’s disseminated appropriately.”

“That is property of the United Nations, and cannot be taken!”

“It can if I say it can, and I believe I just did. Of course, I would expect no less from someone who called the rescue of hostages from terrorists ‘a serious violation of the national sovereignty of a United Nations member state’. But what am I saying? You’re from Peru. You were a part of the Peruvian Foreign Ministry during World War Two. You helped to bring members of the Nazi Party, including Doctor Mengele, to Argentina at the conclusion of the war. You were given this position because the ruler of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru manipulated things, when he was still cooperating with the Open Society Alliance, prior to my arrival.”

De Cuéllar stumbled backwards for real this time, falling on his ass, ripping the glasses from his face.

I looked down at him. “You sad, pathetic excuse for a human being. Did your real master not think I was aware of him and his goals? Do you not imagine that I’m quite well aware of how and what Shiva did to this planet during his reign, and what his plans and goals are now after he was defeated by those few people who were capable of turning his own devices ... devices that he needed to have powers like mine, but which I do not need in the least ... against him?”

Beth returned to my side now. “Evabethia, would you care to enlighten the good people of New York and the rest of the world what you found inside the former home of Mister de Cuéllar? Oh, I have to say former home, of course, because it, just like your luxurious office tower, no longer exists above the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.”

She held out her hand. “I found this inside, Caelistis. In addition, of course, to large sums of money, fine jewelry, and two young ladies who were rather surprised to see me show up in the bedroom, where they were waiting for ‘Uncle Javier’, which is what they said he liked to be called, to return.” In her hand she held a large rock.

“Well, isn’t that interesting? I bet you were told that if you had this in your house, just like the one you’re wearing under your shirt as part of that necklace, that it would protect you from me and my ‘Angels’ ever disturbing you. Oh, just out of curiosity, what’d you do with the rest of the stuff?”

“The money, jewelry, and young ladies were all taken to Mount Sinai Hospital. As the girls were both suffering from certain sexually transmitted diseases, and neither was over the age of fourteen, they needed assistance. I simply told the people in the medical treatment facility ... the Emergency Room, I believe is their name for it ... that all of the money and jewelry was a donation from an ‘Angel’. It was only about fifty million dollars worth, anyway. Everything else went into the ocean.”

De Cuéllar fainted.

“My, that’s ... rather disappointing. Evabethia, will you watch things for a moment, while I deal with one other piece of trash, as Michael would probably call it?”

She nodded. I quickly took off, then using both my speed and strength, flattened both the building where the General Assembly met, as well as the rest of the buildings in the complex. I was careful to make sure debris didn’t fall down onto FDR drive, and I also pulled the vault out of the Credit Union before flattening that building.

That took every bit of three minutes, so de Cuéllar was just regaining consciousness when I plunked the vault down in front of him. A quick rip and the door was off. I had scanned what was inside the safety deposit boxes while I was tearing the vault out.

“All of you who, well, no longer have a place to work and happened to be here tonight, let’s make two nice and orderly lines so you can get your severance pay. Jesus, Michael, here is a nice, brand new, pallet stacked full of hundred dollar bills. Folks, there are ninety-four of you here tonight. Jesus and Michael will give each of you one of these wrapped packages of what you use for currency here. That’s ten thousand dollars for each of you. After you’ve received your packet, please quietly exit the property.”

De Cuéllar was shaking his head. “No, no, no! You can’t do that! It doesn’t belong to you!”

“Well, it sure doesn’t belong to you, and since these people are now out of a job, they’re going to need something to survive on for a couple of weeks. Since I’m quite certain that these television crews are sending things out live ... you are doing that, right?”

Several shouts of ‘yes’ came back at me.

“Thank you.” I glanced at Beth.

She nodded back to me. “Lynevila has been at the White House, with Ambassador Mondale, Ronald, and Jeane, since just before we arrived. She’s briefed them on what we’re doing here, and there are US Army troops in position.”

“Very good. They have my authorization to act now,” I stated.

“What do you mean, your authorization to act?” de Cuéllar asked.

I sat down, like I was in a reclining chair, except I was hovering in mid-air. I interlaced my fingers behind my head, and leaned my head back. “You ought to learn a little bit about how to relax, Javier, considering you were told by your master that he has things well in hand and completely under his control. You almost act like you don’t trust him. After all, he’s the one that told you that when he was working in concert with the Open Society Alliance and the Bilderberg Group, he arranged for the plane carrying Dag Hammarskjöld to be shot down, because United Nations interference in Africa could not be allowed. I suppose I should technically say, former Bilderberg Group, because while certain members of that organization still exist, they’re actually cooperating with the countries forming the new world government. It’s rather annoying that they think I’m unaware of what they’re doing, but ... what can I say? Unlike the last person with my powers who showed up on this planet, I don’t think I’m a god. And I neither need these toys, nor am I affected by them.”

“What are you?”

“I’ve told you many, many times. I’m the Messenger From Above. My friends – like Jesus and Michael here – can call me Caelistis. If you want to be precise, since you’re a bit more advanced technologically, even if nowhere nearly as advanced socially as you think you are, I’m the Ambassador Plenipotentiary to this stellar system, and to all intelligent life forms that may be present, from the Galactic Council. Using the title ‘Messenger From Above’ is what those of us with my job typically have to use, because as I said when I first met several intelligent men in Israel, you do have free will. I also stated that I have my own moral, ethical, and operational limitations. You can’t tell, but I’m grinning inside this mask, because dealing with and cleaning up the grief caused on this planet by Shiva gives me so much more leeway than I normally would have had.”

Beth said, “The operations are complete.”

“Thank you, Evabethia. You were wondering what operations? The United Nations World Bank and United Nations International Monetary Fund both happen to be located in Washington, DC. On my authorization, law enforcement and military forces of the United States government, acting on behalf of the new world government that is being formed, have now seized all of their assets. Both the physical assets, including the buildings and all funds deposited there, as well as the computerized records and all electronic banking information they have. As well as all funds that have been sent to nations for ‘loans’ that were placed in accounts that are now ... empty. I may have helped with that last bit just a little, since I do have a fully functioning AI assisting me that has complete access to every single computer and computer network on this planet. Including, by the way, the ones that all your people don’t think I can access. Quite a shame about the money that you, and so many others that worked here, have been siphoning off for your own uses and putting into ‘secure’ Swiss bank accounts. It’s no longer there.”

From the TV crews, someone had finally worked up enough courage to shout out, “How much money?”

“Oh, in the grand scheme of things, not much. Maybe a few million quatloos.” I stopped talking for a second, raising my left hand with the index finger up. “Sorry, I was watching a ... Evabethia?”

“Television show, Caelistis. Really, I sometimes think you’re getting forgetful.”

“You have to admit, it was amusing that they used the term the people who live on ... well, the name of the planet wouldn’t mean anything to you people here ... but that it is the same term for currency used in that television show. In your currency here, no more than a few billion dollars. Of course, the other, what, three hundred or so billion dollars, that has been seized by the United States from the former United Nations? That ought to go quite a ways in helping form the new world government.”

I stood back up. “In any event, I think we’re about done here.” I held my hand out, my voice changing to one that was rather stern. “I believe you have something that you don’t deserve to have.”

De Cuéllar looked confused for a moment, then pulled the necklace off, handing it to me. “Thank you.” I put it into my pouch, where no one but Beth knew that I already had half of the shivalingam we owned, to make sure that whatever we found wouldn’t affect me. Beth, of course, had the other half, which was the only way she’d been able to pick up the guardian shivalingam.

“Jesus, do you remember what I told you and Michael earlier? I’m not really a heartless bastard, you know. Unlike Mister de Cuéllar here.” My hand shot out, punched through his ribs, and pulled his heart out. “Now, he’s heartless. Literally.”

Some people from the crowd screamed as de Cuéllar fell over, and I heard more than one person vomiting.

Beth ripped the section of the vault wall containing safety deposit boxes off, put it on a bit of an angle so the contents of all the boxes would fall to the back of them, then used her laser vision to cut the fronts off all of them in one easy pass. The door section fell off with a clang. She carried the vault wall over to the cement circle, and dumped the contents into one big pile. Then she and I took the remainder of the money from the vault and carried it over there as well.

I looked at the television cameras. “If anyone doubts that I have the authority and the power to do with this what I deem, speak up now.”

There was nothing but the sobs from upset people and silence coming from everyone else for a full minute.

“Very well. Officer Jesus Gonzalez, Sergeant Michael Callahan, this is yours,” I said, pointing at the pile of money, gold, silver, jewelry, stock certificates, and other items. I waited three seconds. “Well, not yours personally, but I wanted to get a look at the reactions on both your faces, my friends. I don’t suppose that Mayor Koch or the Chief of Police for New York City happen to be standing out there in the crowd, do they?”

Three men stepped forward. “I’m Mayor Ed Koch, this is Police Commissioner Ben Ward, and Chief of Operations Bob Johnston.”

“Good, I’m glad the three of you are here, it’s my pleasure to meet you.” I held my hand out to shake theirs, then looked at it. “Oh, sorry about that. Just a second.” I used my heat vision to cook the blood off, then blew on it quickly to cool it off. Then I stepped forward again, my hand out.

I’ll give him this. Mayor Koch was made of tougher material than I expected. He took my hand and shook it, which then gave permission for the other two men to do so.

“Gentlemen, please follow me. Jesus, Michael, you two as well.” I walked over to where everything was piled together. “Truthfully, I have no idea how much of what you consider wealth is in this pile. As far as I’m concerned, it’s all forfeited. The United Nations no longer exists. Those people who were not here when this happened are not entitled to any of it. Even if they had personal items in there. My first inclination was to simply burn it. But I had a second thought. By my authority, and with your gracious permission as their supervisors, I hereby place everything that remains on this site under the control of Jesus Gonzalez and Michael Callahan. They can do with it what they wish, so long as they are doing it for the betterment of the human race. That may also be why I moved certain art pieces to a safe distance from the buildings.” I chuckled. “Of course, that’s why some things that somebody, somewhere, thought was art, are also now somewhere under the Atlantic Ocean. I realize one of your people said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That’s pretty much a universal truth. At the same time, so is ugly. As it was my eyes that got to make the call ... if it’s not here, I didn’t deem it to be art.”

I looked around the site. “They may each have one half of one percent of whatever this pile is worth as compensation, as you value things. In return, they will use the remainder to clear the debris, and ... well, like I said, do with it whatever they want. While they are doing this, they will not be required to work their police shifts, but they will retain their jobs and continue to accrue seniority towards promotion.” That made me laugh again. “I doubt your promotion periods are nearly as long as ours, since ours are typically longer than any of you currently live. Oh, the property they’re in charge of, also includes the land where the residence of the Secretary-General was. I’m sure that Walter will make sure that the United States uses the property in Washington wisely.”

The tall, black man said, “I’m the Police Commissioner, and it’s up to me to decide what these men can and can’t do. I just witnessed you perform a cold-blooded murder of a diplomat right in...”

Mayor Koch surprised me. “SHUT UP, you fucking idiot!”

Ward looked at him in shock. “Mister Mayor, you can’t talk to me like that!”

Koch shook his head. “You moron, I’m trying to save your fucking life! Do you think that this man gives two shits what Louis Farrakhan or Charlie Rangel think? You think you can scare him into cooperating by threatening to incite a riot? For God’s sake, Ben, would you listen to yourself?”

Ward shook his head, and changed the intonation of his voice. “We are a city, and a nation, founded upon laws! This man has chosen to disrespect those laws! It does not matter where ... YAHHHHH!”

His scream was from me picking him up and tossing him in the general direction of the East River.

“Has he always been that annoying?” I asked.

“Um, no. Technically, he is right, though, about our laws,” Chief Johnston said.

“No, actually, he’s not. If anyone has an issue with what I’m doing, then they can complain to my supervisors. Otherwise, I have Plenipotentiary powers over this entire planet. In other words, from a legal perspective, if I ordered everyone in this crowd that’s watching right now to strip down naked, then it would be fully lawful for me to do so, and for them to comply, regardless of your local laws on ... public decency. Sorry, had to think about the words for a moment. Granted, it’s fairly chilly for you all this morning, so I probably won’t do it, but the point is, I could if I wanted to. You...” I motioned with my hands towards the crowds and the TV cameras. “ ... do not get to place checks on what I ... what we ... do. It’s the other way around. I think if there were any surviving members of the government of the nation of Colombia, they might agree with me on that.”

Beth stepped forward. “I have been doing a bit of research into your society. Michael and Jesus are doing this because Caelistis trusts them to do the job. Whatever it is that they decide to do here, there will be no interference with them. So far as they, their families, their friends, and everything they are doing here is concerned, it is sacrosanct. That means as far as we’re concerned, they will receive full cooperation from the local, county, city, and state governments in whatever they decide to do, on their own! That also means that as far as any groups that may be headed by Misters Rastelli, Scarpati, Castellano, Gigante and Corallo are concerned ... and yes, ‘Tony Ducks,’ I know you were indicted yesterday, and I don’t care, so if ‘Vic’ takes over for you, this applies to him, too... any of your boys mess with them, you’ll all wish that ‘the Feds’ had you behind bars. They’d have mercy on you. I will have none.”

I turned, my head cocked. “Evabethia, that sounds like you’re telling those men, whoever they are, that you’ll kill all of them if they bother Jesus and Michael.”

“I read in our own history books that we used to have something called organized crime, many thousands of years ago. That still exists here.”

“Oh, really? I thought the only organized criminal activity I’d found so far was the United Nations, and, of course, certain members of the British House of Commons and the American Congress. Your comments then, are perfectly justified. How annoying.” I sighed, then turned back to face Jesus and Michael.

“The two of you don’t realize that we’ve given you a chore that is going to be difficult, time-consuming, and will make you question yourselves. You don’t know, of course, that I’ve watched you ever since that first night, and I approve of your actions since then. Do what I ask, won’t you?”

“Si!” “Yes, Sir!”

“Good men.” I turned back around. “Mayor Koch, to paraphrase one of your ... movies ... this was ‘a wretched hive of scum and villainy.’ Take care that the rest of your town doesn’t become that way.”

I flew up into the sky, Beth right behind me.

Once we were five miles up, she stopped. “If I give you the rest of the shivalingam that I have, will that be enough? I’m damned near drained from fighting it!”

“Sure. At the same time.” She handed everything to me at once.

“Naughty, naughty, you little defensive shivalingam. Don’t even try that crap with me!” Having all of our shivalingam in my possession and under my control allowed me to basically use my telekinesis to make them circle the larger one, like electrons around a nucleus. We hovered in midair for almost five minutes, while I worked on it. Eve and Dora both joined us, watching in concern.

“There we go. That’s a nice computer program. Exactly, just like that. No, you can’t operate under their control any longer, sorry. Oh, really? Well, then I’ll guess they’ll be in for a surprise, won’t they? All right, you promise? Good enough, everyone into the pouch, then.”

I opened the flap on my pouch, the shivalingam moving into it. Once I got it closed, I said, “Well, that was fun! I don’t know how you managed to control it for that long.”

“Helen was feeding me power through our mental link. You know those piles of brush we have behind the house? That’s not just cleaning things up, they’re there for her to light on fire as need be, so she can contact the Sacred Souls. There’s a very nice bonfire in our back yard right now.”

“Mycroft shouldn’t have any issues with it, especially with it behind our Faraday cage. Right about now, there is one very pissed off man in South America, too. I know that Doctor Fallow said that cloning someone was beyond even the powers of the Nazis. He was right, but he forgot one minor detail. Genetic manipulation, in vitro fertilization, followed by use of a surrogate mother once a viable sample was produced. Publicly, it’s only been done quite recently.”