C:\salvationday\salvationday.txt Friday, June 07, 2013 1:28 PM Salvation Day: The Immortality Device A Novel by T.L. Winslow (C) Copyright 2000. All Rights Reserved. In accordance with the International Copyright Convention and U.S. federal copyright statutes, permission to adapt, copy, excerpt, whole or in part in any medium, or to extract characters for any purpose whatsoever is herewith expressly withheld. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, apply to copyright holder. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. FF Preface It is the year 2005. A major world corporation discovers "quantum psycho-organic hologram technology" (Q-Psohot, pronounced "Q so hot") which promises a true "immortality -1- C:\salvationday\salvationday.txt Friday, June 07, 2013 1:28 PM device", a way for a person to preserve his "design" for later "resurrection". It is not long before top scientists begin to believe that the Shroud of Turin is a Q-Psohot of Jesus Christ, and top management makes an irrevocable and fatal decision. Using the relatively hectic scene in Turin a year before the XXth Winter Olympics to stage a stealth commando raid they steal the Shroud, with inside help. The company's scientists, led by the discoverer Dr. A'ny Daniels, indeed resurrect the Shroud Man. Then the fun begins. Foo fighters break out! You make me dizzy chasing circles in my head. You make me crazy making me face my friend... Acknowledgements Barbara Tuchman, for her book _A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous Fourteenth Century_, whose title kicked my imag. in the big b. Edgar W. Swank, President, American Cryonics Society, http://www.jps.net/cryonics/, whose scanned web page portrait along with his scientific interest suggested Dr. A'ny. Dr. Steven Mizrach, Florida International University, for permission to use his web essay on the Priory of Sion et al. Lest we forget, Michael Night, Michael Ha-Shev Ben Chaim, "Who's Like God, throne of God (or Return/Restore), son of Life", may his pages ever fly, even if he doesn't. To the innumerable "little people" who keep the greatest work of fiction ever written so very interesting. -2- C:\salvationday\salvationday.txt Friday, June 07, 2013 1:28 PM FF Chapter 1. The Shroud Man _February 14, 2005. 2:50 A.M._ Turin, Italy. Torino. An ancient Roman fort in the northwest corner of Italy. The home of the mathematician of heat theory, Laplace and the essential ingredient of James Bond's martini, vermouth. The site of the 2006 XXth Winter Olympics. A center for Satanism and Roman Catholicism alike. The home of the Shroud of Turin. Via Rodi - Via Antonio Bartola - Via Santa Maria - Via Giuseppe Barbaroux - Via Giuseppe Garibaldi - Via Corta D'Appello - Via San Domenico - Intersection with Via Piave - Number 28 Via San Domenico. The hybrid-electric stealth Humvee braked quickly and silently. The commandos, dressed in winter parkas, jumped out, rushing the museum, their boots wrapped in fur. The doors were unlocked. The fake carabinieri were soon in place at each end of the street. A sign greeted them at the door: The Museum of the Shroud Opening Hours: Daily (except Tuesday): 9-12 a.m. and 3-7 p.m. Guided tours of the museum every 30 minutes. No unaccompanied visitors. The security team disabled all the security easily and on-time. _Located at the top of the Italian boot, bordered by France to the west and Switzerland to the north, Turin is the capital of the Piedmont region. Roads leading from the French and Swiss Alps converge here, where the Dora Riperia meets the vast plain of Po. The Italian Appenine mountain range starts just below Po near Genes, and stretches south along the boot of Italy towards Sicily._ The Guarini Chapel. The silver casket was opened, the -3- C:\salvationday\salvationday.txt Friday, June 07, 2013 1:28 PM neatly-folded Shroud removed, replaced with a fake. The Shroud was placed in a special bulletproof fireproof satchel disguised as an athletic backpack covered with colorful nylon. The encrypted transponder was quickly checked for go status. _Called Taurani by the Celtic tribes of the 1st century, Turin became a bishopric when Christianity belatedly reached it in the 5th century. This elegant and fairly prosperous industrial town shrouded by the Alps is perhaps best known as the home of the Shroud of Turin. In 2006 it will host the XXth Winter Olympics._ The extraction phase was smooth, on-time, no hitches. Villa Milano - Via Conte Verde - Villa Porta Palatina - Via Venti Settembre - Via Roma. _Comitato per l'Organizzazione dei XX Giochi Olimpici Invernali - Torino 2006._ Moncalieri. Gruglias. Rivoli. Parco Regionale La Mandria. The V-22 Osprey was waiting. The Humvee rolled onboard with all passengers. The bird quickly took off, its tiltrotor soon going from helicopter to airplane configuration and propelling it towards the Ligurian Sea. The markings of the International Olympic Committee gave it an official bearing. The Olympics still being a year away, there were many planes, copters, and other vehicles constantly coming and going with the same official markings. _That the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin is taken for granted in various pronouncements of the Holy See cannot be disputed. An Office and Mass "de Sancta Sindone" was approved by Pope Julius II in the Bull "Romanus Pontifex" of 25 April 1506, in the course of which he speaks of "that most famous Shroud (proeclarissima sindone) in which our Savior was wrapped when he lay in the tomb and which is now honorably and devoutly preserved in a silver casket"._ The Osprey landed on Corsica, where the identity switch was made. Five separate private yachts flying the flags of five different countries took off in five different directions, -4- C:\salvationday\salvationday.txt Friday, June 07, 2013 1:28 PM the Shroud on none of them. The Osprey and the Humvee, military vehicles, were quietly returned to the American air base at Aviano. _The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City barely over, the building frenzy was already underway. By early 2005 there were some 15,000 hotel rooms ready for visitors._ Back in Turin, the Shroud was quietly carried on a bicycle a total of three miles by a slim young man in racing uniform. Uniformed carabinieri guarded each intersection. The I-team was standing by in the underground lab in a stately Renaissance stone mansion in its own park guarded by an unthreatening but high tech security fence. Nude Roman statues clashed with statues of the Virgin Mary in the well-gardened park. I stood for immortality. The Shroud was carefully unwrapped, placed on the IDST, the immortality device scanning table, a large emerald structure in the shape of a tesseract. The resurrection team, led by Dr. A'ny Daniels, went to work. Thirty hours later, Jesus Christ was laying nude on a clean white marble table, perfect and unblemished, eyes closed, hands folded over genitals. The eyes opened. The nude man sat up. "Welcome back, Lord!" said a voice in Aramaic. * * * _February 17, 2005. 1:33 A.M._ "I knew the Q-Psohot of Turin was valid!" exclaimed Dr. Daniels amid toasts and popping champagne corks. -5- C:\salvationday\salvationday.txt Friday, June 07, 2013 1:28 PM Some said a comic book fell from the sky when he suggested to dozens of dumbfounded executive dips that the immortality device they had been paying him for years to discover for them had existed for hundreds if not thousands of years. Now they could see for themselves, see the light, see what it's like when worlds collide via the HEIL, the highly-encrypted Internet link with the mother company in New York. He wanted to watch it all go down, go ryeing down, watch the pleasure today, read between the lines on their brows, come down, push it down, suck it down, jam it down. There they were, blinking back at two gods, him and his resurrected man. His mathematical theory made general relativity look like bingo or grade school geometry. Where was he musically? He thought of his theory as musical, as godsmash, sting, cyberhill, ecstatic-ex, ultimate bingo, the very peak, a year-round sanitarium tour with car toys and a microwave. The temple of the dog. Captain's log stardate I don't know. I fear I must violate the prime directive. It's too late to start today. It's like a process. The cheesey phrase that plays. Complete the steps and go to Monte Carlo, Monaco, check out the big show. I will take it to a level you have never seen before. Like a two by four to the back of the head. Tonight will be the night the rock gets pulverized. Turn it on. He was a juice guy. He made lemonade like his grandmother never made lemonade. Not from concentrate, not even fresh squeezed, but from music. He poured a little Dom Perignon in his lemonade and drained his loving cup heartily, smacked it down to the point of no return. There was too much swelling in the back of his head to credit the evolution bozos for his godlike mind. He was no descendant of a sucker on a monkey's nipple.