During the final singing note of the final song at daybreak at the local music festival mentioned in the previous post, keyboard-synthist Bryan McClellan was given two separate missions by God’s angels, the Tooters. The first one given was to preach to bikers to consider accepting Christ as Lord and Savior, which was featured in the previous post, Part A. The second mission is more complicated and more difficult to deal with as it concerns a loved one, his wife, Mo, whom he had been trying to take back from the New Age cult leader she was living with along with their three sons, and was with the day before the concert ended as agreed to get back together again. Below is his missions, from Chapter Ten of The Prophesied Band © 1998 Deborah Lagarde:
Just as Tooter Two instructed Keith to lead the working and gang youth, the angel told Bry to lead the bikers and free-spirits, then added what the bulky synthist wanted to hear. “Further, only you can deliver your only love from the hand of Evil.”
McClellan smiled as he thought, “So you want me to get Mo away from Cole Blessing? That’s easy enough now.”
“No, Redbeard. Compared to what the others have to do, your mission is the toughest, because you will be pitted directly against the harbinger of sin. Don’t even think he will let you take his number one disciple from him. I just hope you are made strong enough to handle this vilest spirit.”
So that, while he had won her back, he was told that the evil forces that would inhabit another person as the satanic Corion would take over a third person after having murdered both Swami Negran and then Cole Blessing (whom had taken her from Bry and who would be ‘taken’ by Corion as the song mentioned above was concluding). This third person featured in the final trilogy novel, The Prodigal Band (© 2018 Deborah Lagarde), is named Mark Besst and is a tech mogul as well as the new leader of the Circle of Unity cult Swami had founded and previously led by Blessing, a fake physician healer.
In Chapter Fourteen of The Prodigal Band, Besst had a couple of assassins kidnap Mo at their ranch house in far west Texas and bring her to the cult Ashram Besst controlled, so as to try to win her back into the cult and murder her if she did not comply. Meanwhile, Bry and the others, who were also kidnapped by Besst’s evil comrades and survived satanic ritual murders themselves thanks to God’s angels, were planning to make it back to the US shortly after visiting with family and friends in Britain. When Bry was unable to reach Mo at their house, he was unable to sleep that night and worried that the evil had taken her, which it had using Besst. The snippet is below regarding the kidnapping and the result:
The basement of Cole Blessing’s palace near his Ashram in St. Xenos, California, same hour
“I’m not coming back to Blessing’s cult.” Mo’s head bag was removed, and then she was untied at the floor of where Blessing held Hellyon meetings she knew little about.
Only ambient lighting shown. She did not recognize who was facing her as Ike and Trenchcoat untied her. ‘Beast’ had already left the palace.
Mark said softly so as not to alarm her—she was already alarmed, however. “It is not Blessing’s cult anymore. The Church of the Circle of Unity is now my, as you say, ‘cult.’ And you were one of Blessing’s top disciples. But whether or not you stay in the church or leave it, is not why I brought you here. In fact, you are leaving this church very soon.”
Mo had heard that one before. So Cole did sacrifices here. That’s what the adept told me right before he left the cult. And he told me that ‘leaving’ the church was the key word used before the sacrifice took place—and that he was going to be sacrificed! And now it’s me!
“Right. You just told me I was being sacrificed at the altar! I’m not sure who you are, but you must think I have no clue about how this cult works!” But he is young. He almost sounds like Mark Besst. The same Mark Besst who weaseled his way to the top here. I’m amazed I stayed with Cole for so long. He said I would be an adept but he never did it. He didn’t want to sacrifice me I guess!
Well, Mark ol’ boy, you blew this one! “Very, very smart, Xulya.”
“Screw the ‘Xulya’ crap! My name is Mo McClellan. I am sure you know my husband.”
Mark sneered. “Yeah, one of the traitors to their Oath. He’s the reason you are here. I’m taking you instead of him.” Laugh. “But I guess I’m too new at this. I should have taken one of the other of you wives.”
So you took me because our ranch place is not guarded like Ger’s and Jar’s and Lau’s are!
“So, why didn’t you?” Short laugh. “Because you never would have gotten to them, that’s why. And you’re too new at this. Why else would you have screwed up a chance to kill Bry and the others? Pretending to be friends with them!” Loud laugh. “I lost count of all the so-called friends Sound Unltd has had for the last twelve years or so that wound up stabbing one or all of them in the back because they simply cannot be intimidated, taken down even a slight notch from their supremacy in rock music, bullied, smeared to negative effect, co-opted, coerced, culled, or crapped on.” Then she did her best impression of Erik’s volcanic eyes on him. “You will never defeat them! And you will never defeat and kill me! To hell with your sacrifices to that stupid god Corion, who made Cole sick when he stood across from that Tooters statue—I mean, the spirit in Cole—and in you obviously—can’t even get past a statue?”
And, as she got up what with Mark not paying attention to her movements he was so dumbfounded at her tenacity and her eyes, Mo whispered as she silently exited the basement, “Put me in your hands, Lord God, please! Sorry I doubted You.”
When Mark heard the door shut, he called out to Ike and Trenchcoat who stood at a distance from Mark toward the back of the basement, “Get her, now!”
But neither of the two assassins knew squat about the layout of the building, from top to bottom, as she did. Up one flight of stairs to the side exit facing the green grass field that led to a dirt road half a mile away. It was still light enough on this summer evening for her to see her way past a farm house that led to a driveway, which led to a side road headed toward what would become a highway toward LA several miles away. In her pajamas! Barefoot!
Here I am, heading toward the highway barefoot and in pjs! Good God, if the cops don’t arrest me for vagrancy or whatever, or indecent exposure—and I’m sure like Cole did, Mark controls the local cops anyway!—some shit head will pick me up and sell me down in Mexico! And I can’t wait to see how Bry and the boys will react to my being sold in some human trafficking scheme! MusicCom will have a field day with that one!
Just then, a pick-up truck pulled over. When she passed by, the old man inside shouted to her, “You need a lift, lady?”
Oh what the hell. This old dude won’t kidnap me! “Yeh. Guess you figured out some bastard stole me out of my bed and dragged me a few hundred miles from where I lived!” Then she smiled. “Sorry about the pjs, but I did get abducted and I need to go home.”
The man was not shocked at all. “Yeah that happens a lot around here. That damned Ashram place, no doubt.”
“Yeh.” So she got into the pick-up.
“So then, missy, where to?”
“LA. Well, actually, the Hills. I have some friends there. Sierra Vista Drive, in LA Hills. There’s a guarded gate at the entrance at the bottom of the drive. Just let me off there and I’ll find my way to my friend’s place.”
Laugh from the man. “The Hills, eh? This friend of yours an actress? Movie star?”
“Well, she has been in a couple of movies, can’t remember the names. She’s more like a model.”
And when he asked her name, she said, “Mo McClellan.”
“Don’t know any McClellans. Besides, you sound English.”
“Yeh, I’m from England.”
“Well, missy, how do you like the States?”
And on and on. Until he dropped her off at the bottom of Sierra Vista Drive, around 11:30 p.m.
‘Xulya’ was her cult name, and Ike and Trenchcoat are mentioned earlier in the novel as the doers of dirty deeds against the band including putting a bomb in their jet that damaged the jet, but not the band members or pilots. Sierra Vista Drive is where one of Mo’s friends lived, the wife of the band’s singer. Bry did not know how the kidnapping happened but got with her at the singer’s house when the band returned to the US the following day.
But that was only the first attempt to kidnap Mo. The second and final attempt occurs in the next to final chapter of The Prodigal Band, Chapter Seventeen, where Mo had told Bry (both now living back home in Walltown where they are from), that she was meeting with her Anglican pastor father, who was also meeting with a church leader Bishop. A fake bishop, that is, out to try again to kidnap Mo. The snippet is below:
In the Office of Pastor Ferguson, Highland Park Anglican Church
“After all these years, Maureen,” for that was Mo’s given name that only her parents called her, “your agnosticism has turned into a faith in the Word of God that I had once, and I have no longer.” The pastor sat at the edge of his desk, as if he didn’t deserve to sit in his chair behind it.
“But—”
“Now don’t get me wrong. I still believe in God and Christ. It is the level of faith, however, that fails me. I no longer believe the Word without question. And that I have to preach something unquestionably that I do in fact question.”
Mo sat in another chair facing her father. “Just what do you question?”
“I have lost some faith because I can no longer maintain the faithful!” Pounded the desk with his right hand. “Every Sunday—fewer and fewer in the pews. It isn’t my faith in God, but my faith that I can spread His Word. I must be doing something wrong for fewer and fewer people coming to my services. As if I’m not ardent enough in my own faith that is rubbing off on my flock.”
Should I tell him the Bible Studies we do at the White Horse and elsewhere are gaining every month? But Mo knew that could devastate him. He was ordained after years of training at a seminary. Losing out to a ‘preacher’ who had once been abused with a Bible!
So Mo consoled him instead. “That’s not your fault, dad. That’s the fault of the hierarchy of the Anglican Church. It’s the leadership of the Church that’s almost letting the collective flock as you call it ignore the Words of Christ.”
It was obvious to both that Christianity was dying in much of Britain.
“In England, anyway. In Scotland it’s more Christian, but with a Celtic lilt, I reckon. And if this bishop asks you if you attend my church, Maureen, do you really think he’ll take kindly to your going to church in a—a pub?” Sarcastic laugh. “Good grief, girl, he might have me de-frocked!” Another sarcastic laugh, but nervous. “Who knows? Maybe that would be the best outcome!”
“So you think this bishop is coming to do just that?”
Just then, the bishop walked in, unannounced.
Which put Mo on edge.
For one thing, he was wearing the cap of a Monseigneur, not a Bishop. And his face looked a bit familiar. And was he wearing a wig? Now that put Mo on an even sharper edge!
After the bishop and the pastor greeted each other and Mo was introduced to the bishop that surprised her with his youth, the two Anglicans got right to it.
“There have been some changes as far as what must be emphasized regarding Biblical teachings, and, quite frankly, Pastor, it’s as if the Church is getting more and more Roman Catholic every year!” Short laugh.
Not wanting to ridicule one who, being so much younger than himself, clearly worked his way up the religious hierarchy ladder in record time, Pastor Ferguson merely quipped, “Well, our church does derive from Roman Catholicism, what with King—”
“True.” Then, turning away from the pastor and standing only four feet from the office door, the bishop then asked Mo, “Would you excuse us, Maureen? The pastor and I need to discuss this person-to-person.”
“It’s fine, Maureen. You can wait outside, eh?”
“Okay, dad. See you in the church hall.”
So she walked out the door.
Into the awaiting brutish arms of two Dark Web thugs, both standing behind the door. She was immediately bagged similar to her kidnaping episode in 2001, with the hand of one thug bound tightly over her mouth as she tried to scream to warn her father.
Who would not have heard her anyway, what with the bishop talking rather loudly and the door made of thick oak wood created a century ago.
Pretending to not know what had happened outside the door, the bishop—Mark Besst with a curly-haired wig under a priestly cap—continued to explain the ‘rule changes’ to the sermons to be given. For about ten minutes, giving the thugs plenty of time to put Mo into the trunk of a car, after being given a sleep potion.
“Well,” the ‘bishop’ finished his ‘talk,’ “I need to make a couple of more stops. Thank you Pastor Ferguson for having me on such short notice.”
“Thanks for coming,” Pastor answered. “Anytime.”
But when Ferguson walked out the door into the main church hall looking for Mo, and didn’t see her, he called Bry at their house.
Who told Ferguson over the phone, “She’s not home yet. Why? Something wrong?”
It didn’t take long after the phone conversation before both men realized that Mo not showing up at home nor her re-appearance at the church was taking on a Deja vu feeling.
As Besst, now out of the fake ‘bishop’ garb, chuckled in the back seat of the car driven by the thugs heading toward the completely dilapidated ‘Pastor Righteous cult church building’ across from the old Hovels site. “You’re not getting away from me this time, Xulya!”
Besst had her brought to the same church building where the fake ‘Christian’ cult that had abused guitarist Jack years before (where his dad beat him over the head with a Bible) and then took her below into tunnels where previous human sacrifices had taken place, into a dark room. Spirit being Morwenna got the band members together in the local park and notified them where Mo was taken. Morwenna and the band was able to locate where Besst was going to sacrifice her, and so they came to her rescue. From the final chapter of The Prodigal Band, Chapter Eighteen, comes this snippet which climaxes the novel:
In the ‘sacrifice room’ just yards from the old sewage tank where Codae had been found
“Wait outside, please.” Besst commanded of the two thugs who clobbered Mo that they exit the ‘room’ and then exit the tunnel by following the path lit by the kerosene lamps that Besst had set up that morning before the kidnaping. “Neither of you need to see this.”
Besides, they were just lower level Hellyons who were not allowed to take part in any human sacrifice. And if they did, Besst would have to kill them immediately!
Dead men tell no tales, right?
Now all Besst had to do was wait for Mo to wake up from her sleep potion that she had been given only an hour-and-a-half ago.
When the two thugs left the ‘room’ they said nothing, but did have loud footfalls.
Which Morwenna and the rest heard.
She whispered to the rest, “Silence! And turn off your flashlight!” As she did the same.
As the thugs left headed in the opposite direction, to where they could no longer be heard, she commanded all to stay where they were, making no noise. “We will wait. Mo is still asleep. When she awakens it is very likely she will scream.” So quietly did she whisper the others could barely here her, but they said nothing.
“When she screams is when you, Bry, followed by the rest of us, will intercede on Mo’s behalf.”
Bry said so softly he could barely hear himself, whispered, “Seven against one. I like those odds.”
Mo woke up about twenty minutes later. Dazed, confused, and then scared.
When she saw Mark Besst, she screamed.
So loudly, that the seven rescuers knew they were close by.
With Bry in the lead and Morwenna, holding one of the dimmed flashlights—Mick, at the end, held the other—they all got to the outer wall of the room. There was no door.
By the grace of God, Besst did not see any flashlight beaming.
His heart pounding, Bry peered in so as not to be seen.
At that moment, Mark began his Satanic-Corionic chant prayer to his master. Just as Torquay had done at the Hellyon meeting they witnessed, followed by the rest and Mark. Who could not accomplish his dastardly deed until his prayer chanting concluded.
Bry noticed that the room was dark except for two kerosene lamps both lit on either side of the sacrificial altar. Mark stood at the head, holding the sword above his head by which he would take Mo’s heart, then consume it.
It was the screaming—the agony—out of his love’s mouth and heart that could have caused him to relent in crying shame and his own agony, but he chose instead—in mindful prayer to his Lord and Savior Christ—to ‘put on the armor of God’ and rally his forces.
He won’t hear me come at his back with Mo’s screaming and his own chanting, now will he? Bry thought as he snuck very, very quietly into the room, dark as it was, using the walls to guide him. Dear Father God, don’t let him see my shadow!
And, just as Besst finished his chant and prepared to gore Mo’s heart—
As Mark raised his sword as high as he could, Bry sent his armed embrace tightly around Mark’s upper chest, instantly grabbing him and pulling him away from the altar as Jack and the others armed with the flashlight rushed in to untie Mo. As Morwenna flung the sword away from Mark’s hands.
Now with the redhead safe away from the altar, Tom, Erik, and Keith took hold of Mark allowing Bry to embrace his wife, while Jack took the rope that had confined Mo and began running the length of the rope around Besst so that he could not move his arms nor legs, still being held by the three others. Then tied an untie-able knot at Besst’s mid-back.
As Mick held the flashlight.
Then the four literally threw Mark onto the altar. Nearly breaking his backbone.
Tied tightly, Mark could not break the bonds. So he screamed instead.
As Bry together with Mo, and then the others, left the room, Morwenna blew out the kerosene lamps, leaving a terrified and writhing Mark Besst completely in the darkness, still screaming.
Alone and still screaming, a red crystal sight then appeared, held right at Mark’s screaming face.
A voice said to Mark, “For failing in your mission, weakling, I, Corion, will now gnaw on your bones forever.”
The sword, flung onto the floor earlier, then levitated above Mark’s heart. Pointed straight down, then gored him.
As the spirit within Mark Besst was imprisoned within the crystal and taken to the Abyss—where God had instantly sent Corion. Only to be released near The End.
The next posts, which I have yet to decide on, will arrive sometime in Decembers before Christmas. And Happy Thanksgiving to all the readers and loved ones!
Use the menu above to read snippet posts of the novels, download the FREE PDF The Prodigal Band as well as the FREE PDF The Murder Rule, and more. Cheers!
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