Read Jerusalem Man 01 - Wolf in Shadow for Free Online Page A

him.'
    'I am going to prepare some food for you, Ash. And while I do it, I want you to find Jon and talk with him.'
    'What could I say?'
    'You can talk about your God, Ash. He at least will be able to understand.'
    'You mock me, Donna,' he said sadly.
    'Not by intention, Ash. Go and talk to him.'
    Burry shook his head and rose from the table. Out in the sunlight he saw Shannow sitting on a white rock and watching the hills. The man was wearing the infernal pistols which had so brutally slain Pope and Miles and God knew how many others, he thought.
    'May I join you, Mr Shannow?'
    'Of course.'
    'When will you be leaving Rivervale?'
    'Soon, Mr Burry.'
    'How soon?'
    'I do not know.'
    'What do you want?'
    'I want for nothing, Mr Burry.'
    'It is said that you seek Jerusalem?'
    'Indeed I do.'
    'Why?'
    ‘To answer all my questions. To satisfy me.'
    'But the Book answers all questions, Mr Shannow.'
    Shannow smiled. 'I have read the Book, Mr Burry -many many times. But there are no pistols mentioned. Twelve years ago I saw a picture which had not been painted. It was like a frozen moment in time. It was a city, but it took me a long time to realize it was a city for the picture was a view from the sky to the ground. There is nothing like it in the Bible, Mr Burry. I met an old man once who had a special book, very old. In it were drawings of machines with wheels and levers; there were seats in these machines and men could travel in them without horses. Why are these not in the Bible? The old man said he had once seen a picture of a metal machine that could fly. Why is this not in the Scriptures?'
    'It is, Mr Shannow. You will recall that Elijah ascended to Heaven in a chariot of fire? You will also recall that there are many examples of angelic beings in strange machines.'
    'But no pistols, Mr Burry. No guns.'
    'Is that important? We know that Christ told his disciples that the end of the world was nigh, and we know that it happened. The oceans rose and the world was destroyed. Those of us now living are in the End-times.'
    'But does it not also say, Mr Burry, that these are the times of the Anti-Christ, that men would wish they had never been born and that pestilence, plague and death would stalk the land?'
    'Yes. And that has certainly come to pass.'
    'And that a New Jerusalem would be built?'
    'Yes.'
    'Then I mean to find it.'
    'Only God's servants will find Jerusalem, Mr Shannow. Do you honestly believe you serve the Almighty?'
    'No, Mr Burry, I do not, though I have tried and will go on trying. I was taught that the world is young, and that Christ died three hundred years ago and his death caused the oceans to rise. Yet I have seen evidence that the Dark Age of our world lasted much longer than that. You know that there are some who believe that the Lord died two and a half thousand years ago?'
    'Heretics,' declared Ashley Burry.
    'I agree with you, yet I wonder if they are not closer to the truth than you or I. I have seen remnants of old maps which do not even show Israel, or Judah, or Babylon - or even Rome.
    There are names unheard of in the Book. I need to know, Mr Burry.'
    'For what purpose? Are we not advised to ignore the seeking of signs and portents?'
    'And yet when the clouds darken, do we not reach for our oilskins?'
    'Yes, Mr Shannow, but what does it matter if the Dark Age after our Lord was long or short? We are here now. Does it matter if machines once flew? They no longer do so. Does not Ecclesiastes say, "There is nothing new under the sun", and that everything that ever was will be again?'
    'Have you ever heard of England, Mr Burry?'
    'A Dark Age land, I believe. They preserved the Book.’
    'Do you know where it might be?'
    'No. Why is it important to you?'
    'I once saw a scrap of paper with a printed verse that said, "And was Jerusalem builded here, in England's green an pleasant land."'
    'May I offer you some advice, Mr Shannow?'
    'Why not? Most people do.'
    'Leave this place. Continue your search. If you