Lane and Mike coordinated a media presence from mister Stanley’s office. They made a short series of advertisements that detailed the prophecy about the delivery on the foothills of Mount Olympus. Lane felt like he was getting an ulcer as they worked out the details. Mike was in good spirits. “It’s like getting paid to be in a commercial.” he said as he cheerfully made a fool of himself and posted it on every media platform that they could get access to. When they were just finishing up with the ads Mike’s phone started to ring.
“Jonathan. How the heck are you man?” Mike said as he answered the phone.
“Are you guys all right? I thought you would be back by now.”
“We are still at the bank. We needed to make some advertisements and post them as soon as we could.” Mike continued.
“Who is there with you? Are you getting some help?” Jonathan asked. He had a worried tone to his voice. Mike pushed the tab that made the conversation go to speakerphone.
“We are here with mister Stanley. He is really helping us out.” Mike continued.
The other side of the conversation went quiet for a long time. The icon was still lit up, so it was obvious that the phone was still connected.
“Jonathan, this is Sebastian. How have you been, brother?” mister Stanley said, but there was still no response. “It has been a long time. It looks like you have held up your end of the bargain. That is the only thing that matters. All is forgiven as far as I am concerned.”
“I was not the one who messed it all up. I was the one who saw the path forward. I found the one with vision. My end of the deal is done.” Jonathan said, and he hung up the phone without waiting for a reply.
“Well, you guys have some history. When was the last time you two got together?” Lane asked suspiciously.
“Me and Jonathan?” Sebastian asked while making air quotes. “We go way back. He did find you though.”
“Why the bad blood? He was acting suspicious last night.” Land said. “He did not want to come here today. Was he afraid of you?”
Mister Stanley took a few moments to consider his response. “He had a falling out with the organization. It was the organization that he has bad blood with, not me. I am just the facilitator of this establishment. Anger may have been brewing in him for a long time.”
“What exactly is the organization?” Lane asked.
“Let us promote this advertising some more. There will be plenty of time to talk later.” the old gentleman said.
...
The trip back to Utah was both better and worse than the way to New York. Mike was very well off, but Lane did not want to leave his crappy Honda there, so they brought it back. Jonathan had made himself scarce when the friends got back to the B&B but showed up at the first truck stop on the way back to Utah. Dumb luck was the only thing that got them together before they got too far back to turn around. He was mysterious on the way home, but he did explain a few things during the drive. Jonathan sat up front while Mike rode in the back. He was looking through the big leather book and paid the other two little attention. They never stayed in a place that was ideal for working on the prophecy statement, and it took most of their time to get back to Utah. Todd and Mike were worried about looking foolish, but even Jonathan was confident that they would be well known by the time they got to Salt Lake City. Lane stopped by the convention center in Salt Lake for Jonathan to pick up his truck. They went back to his place to rest up for the night and get ready for the big prophecy reveal.
One of the local news outlets got their hands on all the footage they shot in New York about the prophecy. Mount Olympus water company was capitalizing on the hype. The news showed the foothills on the west of Mount Olympus. Housing had expanded since the last time any of them had been there. There did not seem to be much space for the shipment. The rest of the foothills were covered with the national guard trying to secure the area from campers and treasure hunters that wanted their 10 minutes of fame.
“How am I supposed to receive the delivery when the place is crawling like that? And if the guard has been deployed..., how are they supposed to get the delivery there?” Mike asked as he pointed at the computer monitor.
Jonathan seemed unconcerned. “It will be there, and you will be the one to receive it.” he said calmly. “This is going to take no less than a couple of years to play out. This plan was set into motion a long time ago. The reason this prophecy is unique is because it will be the first one that cannot be proven false, or ambiguous in nature.”
“Mike giving the prophecy won’t prove anything.” Lane said. “Doubters will just say that someone saw the prophecy and then made the delivery. It is not a big deal. Unless you want to buy an inexpensive bottle of water while you wait. The delivery is already there under some air strike camouflage or something just waiting until midnight to pull off the disguise.”
Mike nodded agreement while Jonathan brought in some boiled eggs and put them in the refrigerator.
“The shipment isn’t there yet, and they won’t be doubting when it arrives.” Jonathan said. “No one will be able to keep it from showing up on schedule, and you will have an opportunity to be the one who gets to it first.”
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“You seem awful confident.” Lane observed.
Jonathan nodded. “I am. The whole reason that you made the videos is so that there would be a time stamp that was irrefutable. The entire world will know the importance of this prophecy, and it will have a time stamp. Future generations might misconstrue things, but everyone that is paying attention will see that this is real. That this is happening, and that this is right now. Everyone in the system will know the name of Mike Bennett for the rest of time.”
“You say that, but even I don’t believe it.” Mike said.
...
Zero hour was approaching fast. There was a big crowd gathered near the foothills that had been there for a few days. Mike was standing on a platform with Astroturf covering the top of it being interviewed by the local news stations. They had been broadcasting live and doing interviews during the commercial breaks of whatever program they had been showing. Mike just answered questions and commented on everything except how he found the hidden message, and how much money he had won. Many of the people there had been at the convention, and some recognized him from that 3-day event.
At midnight, the news crews went live with footage of the west foothills. Everyone in the capital city of Utah recognized the place, and many were tuned in to see the prophecy come true, or not. There was a countdown as it grew near, and when the countdown reached zero... nothing happened. About half of the crowd booed as they witnessed nothing happening. Then there were the laughs, and the embarrassment kicked into high gear. Mike was crushed. Jonathan had him so stoked that he believed something big was going to happen that when it didn’t happen it wounded him deeply. Most of the crowd began cleaning up their encampments and started to leave. Jonathan appeared from nowhere and came up on the platform that they were using for the newscast. He stood behind the desk next to Mike and moved close to his ear to give him some support.
“The prophecy stated that the shipment would arrive at 12:05 am MST.” Jonathan whispered.
Mike nodded his head wondering if he confused am and pm.
“It is summertime in Utah.” Jonathan whispered.
Mike nodded again as tears rolled down his face.
“It is now 12:12 am mountain daylight time. The shipment will arrive at exactly 12:05 am mountain standard time.” Jonathan drew his head back enough to see the recognition in Mikes tear filled eyes.
“Hold on everybody.” one of the news casters said. “We forgot about daylight savings time.”
It took a few minutes for many of the crowd to grasp the difference. Some of the ones present did not want to commit to another hour of waiting, and they left anyway.
When it was finally 12:00 MST there was another tense moment as many people in the world awaited the prophecy. There were helicopters circling the area looking for the delivery of the containers. At 12:03 it was obvious that nobody was coming. Several people thought it was going to be a David Copperfield moment. At 12:05 am MST there was no new activity on the west foothills. Tens of thousands of people were simultaneously disappointed. Mike closed his eyes and bowed his head in embarrassment again.
“This is the worst day ever.” he said.
Jonathan whispered again in Mikes ear.
“This is the wrong Mount Olympus. Your delivery has arrived on schedule and is waiting for you to retrieve it.” Jonathan whispered.
Mike wiped his eyes again and looked up into the sky. He was not sure where Mars was that evening, but he was sure that Olympus Mons was facing the earth, and there was someone watching it.
Mikes phone rang. He looked down and noticed that it was Sebastian calling from New York. He toggled the icon to answer but mister Stanley was talking before he could acknowledge him.
“Your shipment has been delivered and awaits you.” he said. “There is too much dust to get any good video, but I am certain that it is intact. Stick out your thumb Mike. You need to hitch a ride to Mars.” Sebastian said.
“Best day ever.” Mike replied.
...
It would be a couple of years before Earth and Mars got their alignments worked out for Mike to get the delivery. The media blew up after the prophecy came true, but people still found a way to be unconvinced, and others were just pissed off that the shipment did not come to our own planet. There were still a lot of people who thought it was a hoax. Sebastian was right about this being the right time in history, and now Mike and Lane understood why. Jonathan mentioned that he was hopeful that he would find the man with vision in the late sixties or early seventy’s during the space race. Jonathan did not appear to be any older than thirty-five. The other men did not press him about his age until he admitted that he was born in 1866.
“Sebastian was born in 1740.” Jonathan said. “It is a quirk of high-speed travel. I do not know if it is possible to stop ageing completely but it can be drastically slowed if you travel fast enough for long enough.”
Lane blinked a few times as he tried to decide if Jonathan was telling the truth.
“How?” Mike asked. “It must have happened a long time ago to make you able to get this old and look so young. How did you go that fast?”
Jonathan ate a hardboiled egg while he considered his response.
“There are a few people on earth who belong to an exclusive club. Each of us has been abducted by beings from another planet and taken to another world.” Jonathan said calmly. “The aliens are waiting for our planet to advance to the point where we can compete in interplanetary commerce. We have been slow to get onboard with the rest of the worlds because we lost something that allows us to power an interplanetary ship.”
“That is impossible.” Lane said.
“Actually, it is not. Mike has vision right now. He can control a ship to another world.” Jonathan said. “This planet lacks fuel. There are a couple of ships in this system that can travel to other worlds.”
“This system?” Lane asked. “Every time you talk about the system, are you talking about our solar system?”
Jonathan nodded.
“No way.” Mike said. “That can’t even be possible.”
“But it is.” Jonathan said. “One of the ships is yours. No one on Earth can fly it. Except you.”
“Well saddle up. Let’s take it out for a spin.” Lane said sarcastically.
Jonathan gave him a look that could curdle milk.
“Although they use fuel sparingly, there is not enough to leave the system. That is why there is a shipment of fuel sitting on Mars right now. Mike needs to go and get it.” Jonathan said.
Lane tried to think of a way to get to Mars to get the fuel.
“How much fuel will it take to get to Mars?” Lane asked.
“To purge the engines and manifolds it will take about 200 liters. Once that is done, we could get there with just over a milliliter of each of the 3 fuels, and a quarter milliliter of coolant.” Jonathan said.
“This is America you freaking commie. Do not tell me how many liters it is going to take.” Lane said.
“Does the fuel disappear or something? Why do we need to purge the system with so much fuel?” Mike asked.
Jonathan got a disappointed look on his face.
“No one has used one of these drive systems for a few decades. The fuel and coolant were drained from the ship so that the one with vision could be found.” Jonathan pointed at Mike. “I have been using the fuel and coolant in the fertilizer for my chicken feed. I needed that fuel to boost the color receptors in my eyes, and the eyes of the people in my little contest.”