Free The Inca Prophecy by Adrian D'Hagé

issues.’
    ‘They’ve done a lot of work on the Israeli side of the problem,’ Aleta shot back, ‘but I can’t see too much evidence of any work on behalf of the Palestinians. They’re people too, Ryan. What does Pastor what’s-his-face —’
    ‘Buffett!’
    ‘What does Pastor Buffett suggest we do with the Palestinians and the hundreds of thousands of refugees that have been forced from their homes?’

    Ryan put down his Bible very deliberately. ‘We’ve been through this before as well, my dear. How many times must I remind you that Palestinians are Arabs? They’re Muslims.’
    ‘And that means they don’t count? You speak about Muslims as if they’re another species!’
    ‘They’re certainly not God’s chosen people, but that said, they’re free to go wherever they want.’
    ‘That’s just it, Ryan. They’re not free! The bloody Israelis come along in the dead of night with their bulldozers, destroying homes and ripping out olive groves that are hundreds of years old. Then they build a wall between the Palestinian villagers and their farmland, preventing the villagers from making a living while the Jews build more settlements on territory they occupy illegally … all of which has been condemned by the International Court of Justice!’
    Ryan sighed. ‘The International Court of Justice carries no weight in the Promised Land, Aleta. We’ve been over this before. This is God’s business, and not the business of some court staffed by ignorant, overpaid lawyers.’
    Aleta felt like shaking him. ‘And what sort of a God creates seven billion people, and then turns around and says, “You Christians are okay”, oh, and let’s not forget God’s chosen people,’ she added, ‘“but the rest of you are fucked”? Not any God I want to know!’
    ‘Aleta!’
    Aleta grabbed her coat, torn between rage and despair. ‘You’re not the man I married, Ryan. You’re becoming more like your father every day – a Bible-bashing bigot,’ she fumed, fighting back her tears. ‘When we get back to Guatemala City, we need to talk!’ Had the door not been on a lever-spring, she would have slammed it behind her.

    Ryan shook his head, frowning. Guatemalans could certainly be hot-headed. Confident in the rightness of his position, he felt sure his wife would soon come to her senses. He picked up his Bible, as he often did, and turned to the last book, The Revelation, and began to read: ‘Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.’

Chapter 9
    The lights were ablaze on the cooling towers soaring above a mass of pipes and storage tanks, giving the heavy-water plant and adjacent nuclear reactor the appearance of a massive oil refinery. The heavily guarded facility was set into barren, rocky hills in a sparsely populated area some 60 kilometres to the northwest of Arak, between the towns of Gazran and Khandab. The hills were patched with snow and the small valley below was dotted with irrigated fields where the local farmers eked out a meagre living.
    ‘Major Jafari! General Shakiba is here. He wants to see you in the colonel’s office now,’ the corporal said, out of breath as he caught up with Jafari outside one of the laboratories in the heavy-water plant.
    Jafari’s heart sank. The commanding general. He’d only reported for duty this morning, and already they were on to him. Fleetingly he thought about making a run for it, but he knew he had little chance of getting past the guards on the front gate, andeven if he did, they’d be watching the air and sea ports. And even if he could make the borders, to the east lay war-torn Afghanistan and Pakistan, under siege from the Taliban and Islamic extremists; to the west, the shambles that was now Iraq. The only hope might be crossing into Turkey through the Kurdish areas, but that border was a long way from Arak.
    ‘Did he say what it’s