The Lost Apostles Read online

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Introduction

  Part OneChapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Part TwoChapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  About the Author

  THE LOST APOSTLES

  Book 2 of the Stolen Gospels Series

  Brian Herbert

  Copyright 2011 DreamStar, Inc

  Digital Edition 2011

  WordFire Press

  www.wordfire.com

  eISBN: 9781614750321

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the copyright holder, except where permitted by law. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Book Description

  Long ago, the ancient gospels of Jesus’s female apostles were stolen by powerful churchmen and relegated to the rubbish heaps of history. But those apostles have been reborn as female children, and are dictating new gospels that will be incorporated into a radical new religious text, the Holy Women’s Bible.

  At a hidden women’s fortress in Greece, the teenager Lori Vale develops a paranormal relationship with one of the reincarnated children, and soon begins to suspect that she may have been connected to the female apostles of Jesus in ancient times, when the Son of God walked the earth and preached to the people of the Holy Land.

  While information about Lori’s past is unfolding, she finds herself caught in a violent religious conflict that has immense historical repercussions. Powerful, brutal men want to suppress the emerging gospels of the she-apostles, men who are hell-bent on destroying the radical women and their heretical texts. The women race to get their material completed and published before they are annihilated, but they have another big problem: the twelfth she-apostle—Martha of Galilee—has not been found yet, and the other female apostles say she holds a dark secret that could do enormous damage to the cause of women, and to the entire planet. . . .

  Dedication

  For my talented, special daughters, Julie, Kim, and Margaux. As women, you are the members of a very select group—and you are far more complex and interesting than men.

  Acknowledgements

  Over the years there have been numerous advisers and editors on this project, and the suggestions of Jan Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Robert Gottlieb, Matt Bialer, Martin H. Greenberg, John Silbersack, Mary Alice Kier, and Anna Cottle have all been greatly appreciated. I am also grateful to Rebecca Moesta-Anderson, for her work on the e-book edition of this novel.

  Introduction

  The Lost Apostles

  (Sequel to The Stolen Gospels)

  This novel is the second half of an epic story that my wife Jan and I originally conceived in the mid-1990s, a tale that became so large in the writing process that it eventually had to be divided into two novels—The Stolen Gospels and The Lost Apostles.

  As I have said in the introduction to The Stolen Gospels, this project has a long and checkered history, and the story has never before been published in traditional form. In part, this has to do with the story’s radical nature—both from a feminist and religious standpoint—and the fact that most of the submissions my literary agents made involved publishing it as one huge book. In addition, it spanned several literary genres—containing elements of a religious thriller, combined with science fiction and fantasy. Most publishers prefer to stay within one genre or another.

  Eventually a publisher did offer me a contract—a contract that was never signed. So, this epic story was never published. Until now.

  At long last, sixteen years after Jan and I began brainstorming this far-reaching, heroic story, I am pleased to finally make both novels available in e-book form.

  Brian Herbert

  September 10, 2011

  Brief summary of the events in The Stolen Gospels

  Teenager Lori Vale and her mother attend a goddess circle meeting in a Seattle suburb, unaware of a bitter rivalry between the event organizers (United Women of the World) and their archenemies the male-supremacy Bureau of Ideology. During the meeting, the BOI launches a violent commando attack against the group, hoping to kill the UWW’s second in command (Dixie Lou Jackson), who is making a guest appearance. In an attempt to save Lori’s seriously injured mother, Dixie Lou connects her to a life support system on an escape aircraft, taking Lori along as well. Lori’s mother dies. Dixie Lou—sensing that she has known Lori Vale before, and that it is important—takes her into custody and flies her to the UWW headquarters in Greece, effectively kidnapping her.

  At the secret headquarters, a heavily guarded fortress in an ancient Greek monastery, a group of radical women is creating an earthshaking religious text, the Holy Women’s Bible. The new sacred book will include the Old Testament and the New Testament, edited to alter gospels that are detrimental to the interests of women, such as passages asserting that they should obey their husbands, remain silent in churches, and suffer the burden of Eve’s sins.

  The teenager learns that a third section of the Holy Women’s Bible is even more of a bombshell, the Testament of the She-Apostles. It asserts that Jesus Christ had 24

  apostles, not 12, and that half of them were women called “she-apostles.” Eleven she-apostles have been reincarnated in modern times as female children, and are revealing new female-oriented gospels about the life of Jesus, stories that were omitted from the Bible by male church authorities who decided what to include in the Bible and what to leave out of it, in order to assert the power and dominance of men over women. According to evidence in the hands of the radical women, the ancient gospels of the she-apostles were stolen by such men and relegated to the rubbish heaps of history.

  At the monastery, Lori develops a paranormal relationship with one of the reincarnated children (eliciting a valuable scriptural story from the child)—and Lori soon begins to suspect that she may have been connected to the female apostles of Jesus in ancient times, when the Son of God walked the earth and preached to the people of the Holy Land.

  While information about Lori’s past is unfolding, she finds herself caught in a BOI-UWW war, a violent conflict t
hat has immense historical repercussions. Powerful, brutal men want to suppress the emerging gospels of the she-apostles, men who are hell-bent on destroying United Women of the World and their heretical texts. The women race to get their material completed and published before they are annihilated, but they have another big problem: the twelfth she-apostle—Martha of Galilee—has not been found yet, and the other she-apostles say she holds a dark secret that could do enormous damage to the cause of women, and to the entire planet.

  Lori is given some freedom to move around the monastery, but not to leave. She finds herself falling in love with Alex Jackson (the son of Dixie Lou), a young man who dislikes his own mother. Alex brings Lori into a conspiracy to rescue the she-apostles, who are being abused by the UWW in their obsession to extract new gospels from them. The rescue attempt fails, and the two of them (along with their co-conspirators) are imprisoned. Before their capture, Lori and Alex witness a murder committed by Dixie Lou.

  Soon afterward, the monastery is attacked by the Bureau of Ideology. Lori, Alex, Dixie Lou, the eleven she-apostles, and a handful of others escape in four small aircraft, and fly north across the Mediterranean Sea. . . .

  Part One

  WILDERNESS

  Chapter 1

  The unknown is a double-edged sword, concealing both the sublime and the terrible.

  —Amy Angkor-Billings, before her capture and crucifixion by the Bureau of Ideology

  March 2, 2034 . . .

  Satellites were of no use in the powerful storm, as thick, raging clouds prevented electronic eyes from observing the battlefield in the mountains of Greece. At his Bureau of Ideology office across the world in Washington state, a large, blond-haired man hung onto hope, but he felt extreme frustration. Styx Tertullian needed to see, needed immediate information—but the communication systems had gone offline, including the Internet, the radio, and phone services. For all he knew, the enemy headquarters at Monte Konos had already been completely destroyed, along with the heretical women and their blasphemous Holy Women’s Bible. He prayed it was so.

  Or his archenemy might have pulled off something startling, turning the tables on his attack forces and annihilating them. The vile United Women of the World were resourceful enough, and God knew they could very well accomplish something like that, especially under the cover of bad weather. They might even show up here at BOI headquarters for a surprise onslaught.

  Despite all of the intelligence reports he had received, the Bureau of Ideology leader harbored a nagging worry that the UWW headquarters in Greece was just a decoy, a diabolical facade designed to divert BOI attention and conceal the women’s true military intentions. The thought chilled him to the core. His defensive forces were on full alert here, but were they enough?

  It was one of the problems he’d experienced with his former boss, Minister Culpepper, a father figure to him, but a man who had been foolishly incapable of grasping the terrible extent of the danger from these women—leaving Styx no option except to stab the old man to death and get him out of the way.

  During his tenure, Culpepper had treated the UWW as little more than an annoyance, like insects to be swatted occasionally. He had procrastinated, fumbled, and made bad decisions. Styx, on the other hand, had a better way of dealing with those women, using decisive, deadly force. Pursue them to the ends of the earth; leave them no place to hide, nowhere to breathe. Exterminate them.

  My attack squadron should be reporting something to me by now . . . unless there’s no one to do it . . . unless they’re all dead.

  It was a preposterous thought, he tried to convince himself. He was worrying too much. In his position, a leader shouldn’t panic; he had to remain composed at all times—not only in the outward face he revealed to others, but internally, in the face he showed God.

  The thought of God’s presence always comforted Styx Tertullian, calming him immeasurably. He tried to tell himself the Lord Almighty would not allow anything to go wrong now, at this critical point in time. God would not allow heretics to destroy the sacred Bureau.

  Agonizing minutes passed, and finally Styx received a phone signal over the secure line. Nervously, he held the receiver in his hand, and heard the deep voice of the unit commander, Major Allion Smithee. “Monte Konos destroyed, sir. We blew the top off the bloody mountain!”

  “Fantastic! And the women?”

  “They must be dead, sir. Except for those aboard four small aircraft that escaped and disappeared into the storm.”

  “Escaped, you say? Disappeared?” Styx wanted to strangle the man for his incompetence and stupidity.

  Chapter 2

  We have unconfirmed reports of military action in the Macedonian mountains of northern Greece. The Greek government denies any knowledge of this, but refuses to allow reporters into the region.

  —From an Associated Press news story

  Buffeted by strong winds, the helicopter followed three other stealth aircraft through a night storm, with the female pilot remaining as far back as she could without losing contact. Fifteen year old Lori Vale sat behind her in the low illumination of the cockpit, with a handgun on her lap. She wore khaki jeans and a heavy knit sweater.

  Tall and auburn-haired, Lori was old beyond her years, having survived a startling series of events in which the female apostles of Jesus had come back to life in the form of children, and had dictated the new gospels of a sacred book, the Holy Women’s Bible. Now the caretakers of the young she-apostles, the United Women of the World, were fleeing a brutal military attack on their headquarters by the ultra-conservative Bureau of Ideology, who wanted to murder the children and prevent their gospels from being released. Lori and the other passengers aboard the squadron of aircraft had barely escaped with their lives.

  The window at her side was rain-streaked and foggy, and in the surface she saw her own shadowed reflection. She wiped the glass, but the rainy darkness outside prevented her from seeing where they were going, or their companion craft. The pilot, Rea Janeg, could be heard transmitting code words over the radio, gibberish that made Lori think of ancient Aramaic—the language of Jesus that was spoken by the she-apostle babies and toddlers.

  On a round screen, Lori watched the progress of the escaping aircraft as they crossed the Mediterranean Sea in the middle of the night, heading southwest. A stocky brunette, the pilot answered questions about the equipment, and the answers seemed to make sense to Lori. Even though these were all covert aircraft, the pilots in the squadron sent encrypted transponder signals to each other, and data appeared on their navigation screens, showing the formation.

  “If we stop sending signals, they can’t see us anymore in this weather,” the pilot said.

  Lori found the comment interesting. “Why are you telling me so much?” she asked.

  “Because I admire you. A lot of the women do. I’ve heard them talking.” She was referring to Lori’s attempt to free the young apostles from the captivity imposed on them by the United Women of the World and its ambitious, brutal leader, Dixie Lou Jackson.

  “Thank you.” For the moment, Lori didn’t let her guard down, but knew she would have to trust someone, sometime. Barring that, she would never be able to sleep. She couldn’t go off on her own, and felt honor-bound to remain with the four toddler she-apostles on this helicopter, to make certain they were protected. She had Mary Magdalene, Veronica, and two of the other children, along with a couple of members of the UWW council—Fujiko Harui and Wendy Zepeda. Lori had to take a chance and trust someone, but whom? Alex Jackson, Dixie Lou’s rebellious son, had been her most trusted confidante, but he’d gotten into trouble, along with Lori, for trying to free all of the children. Now he was aboard one of the other aircraft, under guard.

  As she considered this, she peered through the windshield while the stealth vessel flew toward the northern coast of Africa. In the darkness she could not see any sign of land yet, only glints of white on the cold vault of the sea, as whitecaps rolled beneath them. To the naked eye, her
helicopter seemed to be alone out here. Overhead, storm clouds blocked the stars, but in the distance a patch of sky came into view just above the horizon, where she saw a few faint stars and a flash of lightning.

  “Could our helicopter stop sending transponder signals and still pick up theirs?” Lori asked.

  “Absolutely,” Rea Janeg responded. She glanced back, showing curiosity in her expression.

  “Interesting,” Lori said. “Shut it off, and don’t reply if they radio us.”

  The pilot changed settings on the instrument panel.

  Over the ensuing minutes, the radio made intermittent static sounds, and voices crackled over the air. “Number three, do you read me?” a voice asked.

  Following Lori’s orders, her pilot did not respond.

  Then Lori changed her mind, and said, “Tell them we’re fine, and we’re tracking their signals.”

  The pilot nodded, sent the message.

  “Roger,” came the response. Then: “Say, shouldn’t we use a woman’s name instead of Roger?”

  “How about Rogerette?” another pilot suggested.

  Women’s laughter, followed by static. Then one of them said, “Hold on. The wind is increasing.”

  Lori’s aircraft jerked and pitched as her pilot fought to maintain control.

  And over the radio, the pilot in the command helicopter said, “It’s hard to stay in the air. We’d better touch down at the first landfall.”