* * *
It was 3 p.m. when a police van pulled up in front of the governor’s mansion in Little Rock. The street had been blocked off most of the day, and the sidewalk and grounds were also out of bounds, patrolled by capitol police. Thus, as Dove was taken from the van and hustled inside, no spectators stood by. Only two video cameras, and inside the entrance two more, one following, the other backing ahead of him, across the foyer and along a corridor.
In his office, the governor watched Dove’s progress on the wall screen. This was to be Marius Cook’s finest hour: the public interrogation of Ngunda Aran, and his exposure as counterfeit. So far as possible, Marius intended to undo the damage brought about by the antichrist’s false teachings, which meant it had to be on national TV, preferably on prime time. So he’d had “the guru” quietly kept in a holding cell at the Highway Patrol substation outside Lonoke.
He’d had to jump the gun though, move it up to midafternoon. The public detention of the guru, followed by the discovery of the tour bus and its passengers by CNN, had brought a demand from “Babylon on the Potomac” for an explanation, and he didn’t want the FBI pounding on his door. So he’d promised to explain everything at 3 p.m., on network television. On Saturdays, afternoon was as prime as evening anyway, in the U.S.A. and Canada. And CNN would get him coverage throughout the rest of the world.
Standing, he watched Ngunda Aran being marched down the corridor to his office, and noticed with satisfaction that the man was handcuffed. Captain Swingel had protested the order, but obeyed it. He should have removed the man’s aura machine, too, stripped him if need be. It wasn’t seemly that a false messiah wear a halo to his interrogation. Good God! He looked like some kind of big yellow torch! Now they were at the door, and Captain Swingel was reaching, knocking. As Marius Cook turned his attention from screen to door, he found his guts in one titanic knot. There were three sharp raps. One of the governor’s bodyguards opened to them, and Ngunda Aran entered.
Somehow the guru seemed taller, more imposing in person than on the screen, his aura more alive. Two troopers had entered with him, one holding each arm. When they stopped in front of his desk, the governor was tight as a fiddle string. Licking dry lips, Marius gathered himself.
“Are you the man known as Ngunda Aran?”
“I am called that, yes.”
“Is it true that you have also called yourself God? Or a new Messiah?”
“When the Infinite Soul manifests itself in human form, it is each person’s choice to recognize it or not.”
The brief exchange had strengthened Marius Cook, but still he was tense, a spring wound near its limit. “Are you familiar with the Holy Bible, that it is the Word of God?”
“I know the Bible more thoroughly than you do. It is the word of men, some inspired, some not.”
Cook’s jaws clenched, and he began to redden. Oh God, thought Everett Miller, here we go. Marius is going to make a fool of himself on national television.
The governor’s voice displayed an edge now. “You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you, Antichrist!”
Dove didn’t answer, simply gazed calmly at the governor.
“Answer when I speak to you, you spawn of Satan!” Cook spit the words.
“Your question was rhetorical, not requiring an answer.”
Marius Cook’s jaw muscles were large and powerful, developed by a lifelong habit of grinding his teeth. Now they bunched like golf balls, and he jabbed the air with his finger. “When you land on God’s doorstep, it’s Him you’ll answer to.”
He paused, gathering himself again. He’d had this man brought here for interrogation, not to squabble with him. “Tell me, Ngunda Aran, what must a man do to be saved?”
“There is no need to be saved. The body dies whatever one does. And the soul is immortal; it cannot be threatened. Nor is there a hell, unless one insists on experiencing it.”
Cook turned to one of the cameras. “Note that! He says a man need not be saved!” Then he turned back to Dove. “What about where Jesus said, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’?”