Free (Wrath-09)-Spiders From The Shadows (2013) by Chris Stewart

loved their country or a just cause. This was a group of men who’d been hating for many years, each of them having long before made the decision to betray their country. And, in a sad way, James realized they were not really traitors, for none of them had ever pledged allegiance to their country, not in any real sense of the word. They were outsiders on the inside, the cancer next to the bone, the disease that would kill the nation after having lain dormant all these years.
    The realization crushed him like a boulder, turning his warm blood into ice.
    He looked at them, his eyes finally adjusting to the light, his heart racing with fear and anger as he recognized the faces that had been hidden in the dark. All the men were dressed in suits, but some of them were not Americans. He recognized their ethnic features: men from the Arab peninsula, Syria and Oman, the prime minister from Malaysia, the foreign minister of Russia next to him. The young Arab beside the old man was King al-Rahman. Other leaders from around the world were in the crowd.
    None of the men were friends or allies. He slowly drew another breath.
    That was when he knew it. That was when he finally understood.
    It had been a terrible mistake to come here, and he knew that he was dead.
    A sudden calmness came over him, sweet and full of warmth, a sense of peace so real it caused his m burst into the room.ro fingerind to race. Time stopped and he drifted back, reliving the happiest moments of his life: the warm sun on the front porch of his ranch house, the ocean and the beach, the sound of his daughter’s laughter, the touch of his wife’s hand, the feel of the Bible as he read it, the assurance of the Spirit that he had felt so many times before. There were no memories of the pain, heartaches or the challenges he had overcome, just the joy and happiness, and he couldn’t help but smile.
    “ The battle will go forward ,” the Spirit told him. “ You’ve done your part, and I am grateful. There is nothing more for you to do. ”
    The old man sensed the presence of the Spirit and he snarled as he rose with surprising strength and quickness, his canines showing, his eyes wild and full of hate. He moved up to James, leaned into his neck, and whispered in his ear, “Your work is finished here. Yes, my friend, you’re done. Soon, I will dismiss you. But before I do, I want you to understand.” He pulled away and looked into James’ eyes. “Perhaps you wonder about where these men came from and the cause that binds us here today? I want to tell you, brother.
    “You see, Mr. Davies, all of us together,” the old man motioned around the room, “are bound in one purpose, one privilege, one plan. It didn’t start out that way, of course. Foolish to think of a dark, smoke-filled room with a group of conspirators conceiving a step-by-step plan to destroy the entire world. It was nothing like that. We are—how would you say it?—more laissez-faire in our approach. Market-based and opportunistic. We let the free will of the people work. They make a choice. We let them wonder. It’s not much more complicated than that.”
    His voice was tart and dripping with so much sarcasm that James felt like recoiling at his breath.
    The old man huffed in pride. “You think it was some great, grand conspiracy from the beginning? Such a stupid fairy tale. A few years ago, none of us even knew each other. We were independent in our thinking, operating on our own while moving toward the same unspoken goal. Yes, the paths we took to get here have wandered through many lands, but all the while our master taught us so that when the opportunity finally presented itself we would be ready. Then we emerged from the cracks of life together. Like spiders, these brave men scurried from the shadows when they heard their master call.”
    He paused and looked around the room, his teeth showing in a wicked smile. “Rats draw to the smell of a carcass. The U.S. is our carcass. Good men,