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  ‘Do you think it could be worth something then?’ one of them asked curiously.

  ‘I dunno?’ commented another as they all now studied it.

  ‘We should get it valued and this metal cup thing, but before that, we need to get out of here before someone notices the damage we’ve done’ suggested the dune buggy’s driver as he pushed and shoved them all to get back into the buggy again, before they quickly race off again.

  ‘YEEEHAAA!’ they then all shouted ‘HAPPY NEW YEAR!’

  Chapter Seven

  1st January 2021

  Cairo, Egypt.

  The following day, still nursing some fairly sizable hangovers, the Americans all set off from their hotel as they headed for the Cairo bazaars.

  ‘Maybe we can find a buyer for the cup and scroll in here?’ suggested one as they came upon a sign partly written in English.

  ‘Yaseem Brushna – Buyer and Seller of Fine Egyptian Antiquities and Artefacts’ Hank read out the sign ‘yeah, that looks promising, let’s try in here’ he smiled.

  So they all just piled into this the narrowest of narrow shops within the bazaar.

  ‘Yes, Gentleman, how can I help you?’ a cheerful looking man at the far end counter asked them.

  ‘It’s more what we can do for you!’ muttered Jack the oldest member of their group.

  ‘Yeah, show the man the cup and scroll inside it, Hank’ insisted one of the others as Hank promptly just marched up and banged the cup containing the tightly wrapped scroll down hard onto the counter.

  ‘Yeah, Buddy, we found this cup thing, it has a scroll inside it. We wondered if you might like to take it off our hands?’ smiled Jack.

  ‘By ‘take’ he means ‘buy’ of course’ corrected Marvin, another member of their group.

  ‘We wondered what it’s worth?’ added Dan, the group’s fourth member.

  ‘Well then, Gentleman, let’s take a closer look’ smiled the shop owner as he put an eyeglass over his eye as he studied the large metal cup before he began to carefully unclasp the scroll’s metal fixing before gently unwrapping it all across the countertop.

  ‘It’s interesting, Gentleman, where exactly did you find it?’ asked the shopkeeper curiously.

  ‘Near the Great Pyramid’ replied one of the Americans.

  ‘Yeah, about ten miles in that direction’ smiled Hank ‘ooo, my head hurts’ he added as he now grabbed his head.

  ‘He means about ten miles West of here of course’ nodded Jack.

  ‘Well I’m sorry to tell you this, Gentlemen, but these types of things are found all over the Giza site. Most of them are just basic instructions for the stone engravers, not much more than that, and there are thousands of these found all over the site every year. I’ll take them off your hands for say twenty Dollars if you like though, as they may interest one of the tourists’ the shop’s owner concluded.

  The Americans though, weren’t at all impressed with that offer.

  ‘Come on, Bud, you can do better than that’ laughed Marvin.

  ‘OK, Gentlemen, you Americans drive a hard bargain. Forty Dollars then’ the shop owner smiled.

  ‘Jack, I think I can see another place a few hundred yards up the road’ Hank called out as he now leaned out of the shop’s front ‘come on, let’s try up there’ he called out to them.

  Then as Jack grabbed the cup and scroll back and they all began to stroll off again the trader suddenly shouted after them.

  ‘OK, GENTLEMEN! I’LL GIVE YOU TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS!’ Then as he saw the Americans all look at each other and then shake their heads he quickly added ‘EACH!’

  They now all looked at each other and smiled.

  ‘That’s more like it, Buddy’ smiled Hank as they all went back to hand over the cup and scroll and collect their cash.

  After paying them all off in American Dollars the shopkeeper then carefully stored the cup and scroll away, before politely waving them all goodbye.

  ‘Please, come again, Gentleman, if you find anything else’ he smiled as he watched them all stroll off into the busy bazaar.

  The moment they were out of sight he quickly closed up his shop and then locked its front doors!

  He then took the metal cup containing the scroll into his back office to examine them both more closely.

  He laid the scroll out carefully as he studied its hieroglyphs with his eyeglass over his eye.

  ‘Oh, my God!’ he uttered as he suddenly realised he might have something of a new discovery in his possession.

  He immediately telephoned a buyer he knew who worked at the British Museum in London.

  ‘BRIAN!’ he almost shouted in his excitement ‘I’ve just discovered the most amazing find, found at the site of the Great Pyramid itself’ I swear, it’s GENUINE, Brian’ he told him almost bursting with excitement.

  ‘Slow down, Yaseem, tell me what you’ve found again?’ asked his friend in London.

  ‘It’s a metal cup with a scroll hidden inside it, Brian, they contain writing in ancient Hebrew’ Yaseem announced again.

  ‘The language of the Bible, the Old Testament by the sound of it’ nodded the Englishman. ‘It sounds like you’ve got quite a find there, Yaseem.’

  ‘Would you like to buy them for the British Museum?’ the trader then enquired.

  ‘Well I’d love to, old boy, but unfortunately the British Museum has just spent the whole of this years budget on ensuring that many of our finest paintings stay in this country’ explained his English friend ‘otherwise I’d jump at the chance, definitely.’

  ‘I’ll have to take them to auction then’ the shopkeeper commented sounding a little disappointed.

  ‘Better not, old boy, the Egyptian government is now coming down hard on anyone they catch selling off any of their ancient antiquities’ advised his friend.

  ‘I know’ replied Yaseem ‘I’ll have to go careful’ he agreed.

  ‘Have you contacted the Vatican?’ asked the Englishman.

  ‘Pardon me, Brian?’ queried Yaseem.

  ‘Even the Egyptian government would be reluctant to challenge the Vatican on something like this, Yaseem, as the Catholic Church may lay claim to these artefacts anyway, if they truly are as old as you suspect they are’ he explained.

  ‘You think they would buy them?’ queried Yaseem.

  ‘I’m sure they would, Yaseem. Take down this number, it’s the telephone number of their head buyer’ explained the Englishman.

  ‘Thank you very much, Brian, my good friend’ smiled Yaseem.

  ‘You are welcome, Yaseem’ smiled the Englishman.

  Then he paused for a moment as if in thought.

  ‘Tell me, Yaseem, have you been able to translate anything on the cup or scroll?’ he asked curiously.

  ‘Yes, a little, enough to know it is genuine. Sadly not enough to really read it through though’ he explained honestly.

  ‘Gosh, I’d give my eye teeth to know what it says’ laughed the Englishman ‘why it could be a whole new missing Gospel or something for all we know. Sadly, we can’t afford it in the British Museum though. These bloody cutbacks are a nuisance’ he cursed.

  With that they said a warm goodbye to each other before Yaseem immediately telephoned the number at the Vatican Brian had kindly given to him.

  Soon a deal had been struck and the ancient cup containing the scroll found its way to Cardinal Moretti’s desk as the leading expert on transcribing ancient Hebrew texts.

  Cardinal Moretti had examined any number of these texts over the years with the vast majority turning out to be of very little significance.

  This one however, proved very different. He had never seen one hidden inside a metal cup before.

  The metal cup itself had little written upon it but he quickly translated it.

  ‘The Prayerman’ he read out aloud.

  Then he examined the scroll itself.r />
  He immediately became very animated and called for Cardinal Greco to quickly join him.

  ‘What’s the matter, Cardinal Moretti, is there a problem? I was told to get to you as quickly as possible?’ Cardinal Greco inquired urgently as he rushed in to see his old friend.

  ‘Cardinal Greco, you are not going to believe this, but I have just transcribed an ancient scroll brought to me today hidden inside a large metal cup. It describes a young man given the power of God himself in the year 2021!’ explained Cardinal Moretti excitedly.

  ‘Is this telling of the second coming?’ immediately asked Cardinal Greco.

  ‘No, this is another man entirely. It roughly describes him as a young man given the power of God through prayer. It calls him The Prayerman’ Cardinal Moretti explains as he reads from the scroll.

  ‘It is a hoax surely?’ queries Cardinal Greco.

  ‘It is definitely no hoax’ explained Cardinal Moretti. ‘I had a small section of the document quickly carbon tested and it is as old as the bible itself. It is also written in the same ancient Hebrew dialect. This ancient document and its solid Gold container that remained hidden all these years, I believe are both 100% genuine!’ he told him excitedly.

  Cardinal Greco sat opposite his friend and now looked quite shocked as Cardinal Moretti continued to read important sections from the scroll.

  ‘It continually calls this man ‘The Prayerman’ and describes how he has been sent to Earth to save the world’ explained Cardinal Moretti.

  ‘Save us from our sins?’ queried Cardinal Greco.

  ‘No, it says he has been sent to save us from a great evil, a great evil from the stars’ explained Cardinal Moretti.

  ‘But what does that mean exactly?’ queried Cardinal Greco.

  ‘I don’t know’ confessed Cardinal Moretti as he just shrugged his shoulders.

  Suddenly Cardinal Moretti’s eyes lit up.

  ‘Oh no! I’ve just had a terrible thought. Do you think this man, given the power of God, could be the self same man we thought to be the Anti-Christ?’

  ‘No, that’s the man in the painting, he’s quite different surely?’ suggested Cardinal Greco as he began to look quite worried.

  ‘But if this is the self same man, far from being the Anti-Christ as we thought, he may well have been sent here to save us instead?’ queried Cardinal Moretti.

  Cardinal Greco was now visibly shaking and holding his face in horror.

  ‘My old friend, what’s wrong?’ queried Cardinal Moretti as he now looked alarmed at seeing the sudden distress of his good friend.

  ‘No, it can’t be?’ Cardinal Greco suddenly uttered ‘I’ve just ordered his destruction!’

  ‘YOU’VE DONE WHAT?’ suddenly shouted Cardinal Moretti as he looked very shocked. ‘I never dreamt you’d actually really go through with this crazy idea of yours.’

  ‘But, we thought he was the Anti-Christ then didn’t we?’ uttered Cardinal Greco in his defence.

  ‘Cardinal Greco, you may have just ordered the death of the only man who could save us! If this man is ‘The Prayerman’ as predicted to come to save us in the year 2021, then he must not be harmed in any way’ stated Cardinal Moretti forcefully as Cardinal Greco immediately rushed from the room.

  ‘ORDER THIS MADNESS TO BE STOPPED, IMMEDIATELY! THAT MAN MUST NOT BE HARMED!’ Cardinal Moretti shouted after him.

  ‘I FEAR, MY FRIEND, IT MAY ALREADY BE TOO LATE!’ Cardinal Greco shouted back as he continued to rush off down the corridor.

  ‘Then you may well have spelt the very end of the world!’ muttered Cardinal Moretti to himself as he lowered his head as he put the palms of his hands on the desk in front of him in despair.

  Chapter Eight

  2nd January 2021

  Little Compton,

  Surrey, England.

  The Vatican investigator into any reported miracles in Great Britain and Ireland, Mr Joseph Raines, after receiving orders from Cardinal Greco to have Tom destroyed, had taken the unusual action of contacting a rather hardened criminal from a well known Mafia gang in Italy, a man known as Afredo Beaks.

  Raines had simply done exactly as Cardinal Greco had ordered him and hadn’t asked anymore questions about it.

  He had originally investigated Tom and had very quickly realised how the miracle he had made happen was very different from the usual weeping statues or the reports of crowds flocking to a site somewhere of a rather unlikely miracle.

  Tom’s miracle by comparison seemed to have been done in complete secrecy and by stark contrast seemed entirely genuine.

  Raines instantly felt he was onto something, but Cardinal Greco’s claim that he was in fact the Anti-Christ had shocked him to the very core. It had made him even more determined to carry out the orders he had been given to have Tom secretly executed.

  Gangland killer Alfredo Beaks had by this time already reached England from Italy through a series of small planes and boats to secretly land on the shores of the quiet seaside town of New Romney, near Dungeness Lighthouse in Kent. He had then quickly headed for London and had already staked out the best vantage point from which to carry out his deadly deed.

  After obtaining more details of Tom’s habits through various contacts he had, Beaks decided it was best to pick Tom off on his way to work, when he could guarantee he would be at a certain place at a certain time. The heavy noise of the rush hour traffic would both make it harder for anyone to hear his shots, but also make it harder for the police to get there quickly, and also make it easier for Beaks himself to escape.

  After leaving school, both Tom and Alec worked in Alec’s father’s car workshop five days a week and a fellow mechanic picked them up in his car at the same spot every day to take them into work.

  Unbeknown to them, the gunman had set up camp on the roof of a building opposite. So Beaks now lay in wait for the two teenage boys to meet up on the pavement where they both waited for their daily lift into work as usual.

  From the moment he arrived though, Tom could just ‘sense’ that something wasn’t quite right, but he had no idea what it was.

  ‘Hi Mate!’ Alec greeted him cheerfully.

  Then he noticed Tom looked a little on edge.

  ‘What’s up, Tom, you look a little nervous about something?’ queried Alec.

  ‘I don’t know’ puzzled Tom as he looked all around him ‘I’ve just got a funny feeling this morning’ he explained.

  ‘Well never mind, don’t scratch it or you’ll make it worse’ joked Alec.

  High above them, the gunman had sprung into action the moment he had spotted Tom arrive. He quickly adjusted the sights of his high powered rifle as he lined them up with the very centre of Tom’s head.

  ‘Ah, now I have you’ Beaks smiled to himself.

  Just as he pulled the trigger though, a white dove inexplicably flew down and struck Beaks on the back of the head!

  ‘What the..?’ uttered Beaks in surprise as the annoying bird instantly made his shot miss its target!

  ‘PING!’ went the bullet as it deflected clean off a lamppost right next to where Alec and Tom were now both standing.

  ‘Damn that bird! It made me miss!’ cursed gunman Beaks waving his fist at the white dove before he immediately focussed in on his target once again.

  ‘What the hell was that?’ asked Alec looking all around him, having heard the sudden noise.

  ‘I don’t know, Alec, but I’ve a very bad feeling about standing here this morning’ uttered Tom as they both looked all around them for an explanation for the strange sound they’d both just heard.

  Just then, another shot rang out, but just as Beaks had pulled the trigger this time, a large lorry had pulled up right in front of him, completely blocking his view!

  It hadn’t stopped the bullet though, as it went clear through the large truck’s roof and out through its side, leaving a very sizable hole as it then w
ent onto take a large lump out of the pavement right at the two boy’s feet!

  ‘CHRIST, ALEC! SOMEONE’S ONLY FIRING BLOODY SHOTS AT US!’ screamed Tom as he immediately dragged Alec down to take cover behind a metal telephone junction box.

  ‘But who would be shooting at us? And why?’ questioned Alec as he now looked very shocked.

  ‘Well don’t let’s worry about that now, just keep your bloody head down!’ suggested Tom.

  ‘PING!’ went another bullet as it struck the other side of the telephone junction box.

  ‘CHRIST! THERE IT WENT AGAIN!’ shouted Alec ‘BUT SOMEONE CAN’T REALLY BE SHOOTING AT US, SURELY?’

  Tom then noticed that one of the rifle bullets had travelled all through the thick cast metal telephone junction box and had lodged just the other side right next to Alec’s head.

  ‘Bloody hell, that was a bit close!’ Tom uttered before he then dug the remains of the bullet out using his keys.

  ‘Still doubt someone’s firing at us now do you?’ queried Tom as he showed Alec the bullet as he just shook his head in dismay.

  Just then, there was another sound and Mark, their mechanic friend just casually pulled up in his car right next to them to give them their usual lift into work.

  Of course, Mark was completely unaware anything out of the ordinary was even going on, so he just stared at the two boys as he spotted them hiding behind the telephone junction box.

  He wound down his passenger window as he smiled at them both.

  ‘ALL RIGHT YOU SILLY BUGGERS! I’VE SPOTTED YOU BOTH THERE!’ he laughed cheerfully.

  Just then though, a rifle bullet smashed right through part of his front windscreen as the two boys just ducked down again, before they then made a sudden dash for it as they quickly clambered into the back seat of Mark’s car!

  ‘What hell was that?’ uttered Mark in shock ‘something’s just smashed part of my flipping windscreen clean off!’

  ‘DRIVE, MARK! JUST BLOODY DRIVE!’ shouted Tom just as another bullet hit the car and not wanting anymore convincing Mark just sped away in a loud squeal of tyres as their smoke filled the air behind them!