Free The Artifact by Jack Quinn Page A

structures, clerics, tithing and resultant huge church bank accounts that could be better applied to battle genocide, famine and disease.
    ANDREA: Self-proclaimed ministers like yourself?
    HANNAH: I do not profess a ministerial agenda. My purpose is to disband religious organizations not create one.
    ANDREA: Then where would we go for knowledge of God, and comfort in distress provided now by the clergy?
    HANNAH: Understanding God should originate in the home. More dialogue and discussion of God by parents would benefit children and adults.
    ANDREA: The Family that prays together stays together?
    HANNAH: An excellent notion. I am not attempting to undermine the basic premises of religions, Ms. Madigan, only the unscrupulous hierarchies and factions that impede their stated objectives--unwittingly or otherwise.
    ANDREA: How do you think people should worship God?
    HANNAH: God is not so insecure that She requires adulation from mortal beings. We should talk to God as friend and confidant anytime, day and night; at work, stalled in traffic, or quiet meditation. God is whatever we wish Her or Him to be. She is not, however, an entity who will solve our petty, worldly problems. Prayer should be for the forgiveness of sins against others; for eternal salvation; for knowledge of our individual purpose in this life and the strength to achieve it. People must refine their image of God and Her requirements based on the modern world we live in, rather than ancient strictures and mystical legends.
    ANDREA: Some critics think you’d have a better chance overthrowing the federal government than organized religions. Do you honestly believe this radical idea has any chance of succeeding?
    HANNAH: I am not trying to overthrow anything. If people abandon the rituals of established religions and concentrate on getting nearer to God, those outmoded practices will fall of their own weight.
    ANDREA: You must realize you have a great deal of opposition to this concept.
    HANNAH: Another preacher espoused an equally unpopular theory 2000 years ago. His intent was not to establish a new order, but also designed to bring individuals closer to God. I would not be repeating that message if His followers had not encumbered those simple guidelines with the complex doctrines and accouterments that impede His basic teachings now.
    ANDREA: “Do you equate yourself and your message with Jesus?
    HANNAH: I leave that for others to decide.
     
    Mohamed Massoub listened intently until he was certain that the international connection had been broken on the other end of the line, then replaced the handset gently back on its cradle.
    “ Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is not pleased,” he said in Farsi, extending his clasped hands before him on the scarred surface of the wooden table behind which he perched on the edge of a plastic chair. In contrast to the younger agents seated cross-legged on either side of a worn path in the rug of muted colors, Mohamed was in his mid-thirties, his European-cut suit expertly tailored, the dark facial skin surrounding his thick, black mustache cleanly shaven.
    He had entered the United States several months before the glorious coup of Osama Bin Laden against the Americans infidels in 2001 September 11, but had no part in or knowledge of that seminal incident. A devoted member of the Iraqi rebel Shiites, Mohamed had been educated in Great Britain and trained in urban guerrilla terror tactics in Jordan. His original mission was to establish a cover identity in New York City as an independent OPEC trade consultant from Kuwait, thereby solidifying his commercial credentials while establishing the innocuous routine of a harmless visiting businessman, remaining inactive in the holy assault on the western infidels until called upon to execute some critical future plan against the complacent Americans.
    It was not until the leaders of his al Qaeda group had been convinced of the veracity of the artifact theft by the Madigan newscast that the