THE PORTENT
Volume Two of The Façade Saga
Michael S. Heiser
The Portent
Volume Two of The Façade Saga
Copyright 2014 Michael S. Heiser
Kirkdale Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225
All rights reserved. You may use brief quotations from this work in reviews, presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please contact Kirkdale Press for permission, at permissions@kirkdalepress.com.
This is a work of fiction. Characters, organizations, places, and events are either products of the author’s imagination or, when factual, used in a fictitious manner. Any fictional character’s resemblance to actual persons, living or dead—unless explicitly noted as such by the author—is purely coincidental.
Cover design: Patrick Fore
ISBN: 978-1-57-799561-6
To my awesome kids, Amy, Molly, Calvin, and Simmi (“Summit”).
You’re all in here somewhere, named and unnamed.
Por ∙ tent (pôr-tĕnt): An indication of something important or calamitous about to occur; an omen.
In Jewish history, there are no coincidences.
—Elie Wiesel
“Don’t just stand there, kick it to me!” the boy screamed impatiently. The target of his anger stood quietly, looking down at the round, awkwardly misshapen object that had come to rest at his feet, propelled there by an errant pass. He hesitated. It didn’t seem right.
“Out of the way,” an older boy in his early teens commanded, sprinting toward his tentative teammate. He was only a step ahead of the small pack in hot pursuit behind him. “I’ll show you how to kick a ball.”
“It’s not a ball.”
“It is today,” he cracked, expertly timing his kick without breaking stride. The object fluttered through the air clumsily, hitting the ground with a thud about ten feet away. A cloud of dust rose up as more players scrambled for a shot, pushing and shoving for position.
“Stop that!” a woman’s voiced suddenly broke through the ruckus. “Stop that right now!”
The boys wheeled around, startled, and saw an elderly woman, hair pulled back tightly under a stylish headscarf, rushing toward them with unexpected vigor. The woman paused for a moment, catching her breath as she glared at each one of the young male faces before her. “You should all be at home preparing for Shabbat!”
Her attention shifted to the ground. She gasped, her hand coming to her mouth unconsciously. She bent over and gingerly picked up a human skull, intact save for the jaw, which was missing. It was unmistakably old.
“Where did you find this?” she asked, her voice low and firm, barely concealing her contempt.
“Over there,” one of the group pointed. “We’ll show you. We didn’t steal it—it was just there.”
“I don’t care if you didn’t steal it!” she snapped. “We honor our dead. Do you hear me?”
The boy nodded, then looked at the ground, avoiding her gaze.
The woman followed several of the boys about fifty yards away to the location of their discovery. She saw the black hole in the ground, along with some boards ...
|
About The PortentThe climactic ending of The Façade left Brian Scott and Melissa Kelley with only each other—and the terrible secrets they carry. The Portent finds them living together under new identities, their future clouded by constant fear of being exposed. By the time they learn they’re being watched, their carefully constructed lives will be over. The Portent follows Brian and Melissa into the center of an unthinkably vast, centuries-old conspiracy, conceived by a relentless evil bent on turning the faith of millions against itself. Revelations from ancient tombs, long-forgotten Nazi experiments, UFOs, occult mythologies, biblical theology, and godlike technologies converge in answer to a terrifying question: Now that “they” are here, what do they want? |
| Support Info | theportent |