Jesus & Co. (#1): Beefed Up Balloon

JESUS & Co.

  BEEFED UP BALLOON

  by Jacob Lindaman

  JESUS & Co. BEEFED UP BALLOON by Jacob Lindaman

  This book or the parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise – without prior written permission of the author except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarities to actual people, organizations, and/or events are purely coincidental.

  ISBN: 9781311245823

  Copyright © 2014 by Jacob Lindaman

  All rights reserved

  Cover art by Josiah Wunderlich

 

  A group of 20 men huddled together in the royal tent each studying the hand drawn map sprawled out on the table before them. The room was dim, but their thoughts were unhindered by the meager flames of small candles. They conjured a strategy, but any decision making had to be done by King Herod, who was two hours late.

  Once they realized their plans could only go so far their conversation turned casual. General Ahab, fashionable as always, showed off his new sundial watch. “Does it work indoors?” Melchizedek, a fellow general, asked. “No, but you’re missing the point. These just came out last week. They’re so new no one’s made fakes yet. Man I love technology.” Other generals admired his watch. One of the new ones, Titus, recently became a father. They toasted him with a drink to the air. But David and Nathan were quiet. David played with a freshly minted coin while his thoughts focused on the unpredictable king. “Look,” he pushed the coin to Nathan, “it’s got Herod’s image 1213 BC.”

  “That didn’t take long,” Nathan said.

  A stir of commotion outside caught their attention. Finally, the king’s hot air balloon landed.

  “What’s going on around here?” the king blasted his generals. “I ordered you to attack the Germans. Why are we on the defensive?”

  “Sir, if I may,” Nathan said, “the last news we received from the palace was to not attack.”

  “This happened right when we were about to charge,” David chimed in.

  The king glared at both of them. The laurel crown on his head had slipped loose and slumped to one side. “There have been some…issues…I’ve had to deal with lately. I discovered a traitor working within the government and relieved his body of his head. That was three days ago I believe. He’s been interfering with everything I’ve been trying to do. Speaking about someone to come and save everyone. A messiah something.” He chuckled to himself playing with the gold rings on one of his fingers. “To save everyone from what? I’ve saved us from this traitor.”

  Nathan’s eyes widened as he looked at David.

  “This is just a big mess. A big stinking mess.” King Herod scratched his chin for a minute then said, “OK, so what are our options now? How about we ask the…oh, what’s that one guy’s name? You know the one who speaks all mystical and the like.”

  “The prophet?” Nathan shrugged his shoulders.

  “Yes,” the king snapped his fingers when he heard the word. “Why don’t we ask the prophet? He’s required to have good ideas isn’t he?”

  “It was Isaiah, but it sounds like you had him beheaded.”

  “Oh, that was him? Hmm…oh well, he didn’t have any good ideas anyway. How about something else? We’ll call it Plan B. What do you got?”

  David gulped, but worked up the courage to speak. “There’s always the other prophets.”

  “Who?” the king asked.

  “You know, the ones who prophesy, but not as much.” Nathan winked at David. “They’re still prophets, just not full time guys like Isaiah was.”

  “Oh yes, yes. That’s a good idea. They’ll know how to remove this Germanic thorn from my side.” He stood up at the front of the table with a beer stein raised high. “Assemble the Minor Prophets! Jose, Jonah, Obediah and, um…,” with unhindered enthusiasm he rolled right on, “those other guys whose names I can never remember!”

  The generals disbursed to their camps. It fell upon them jointly to gather the team, but David took the lead. His messengers sent word out through the entire camp to each of the tribes that all of the Minor Prophets were to report to his tent by evening.

  While the messengers were out David convened with Nathan in his tent.

  “Not every general can be trusted,” Nathan said. “That’s why I summoned you three. David, you’ve been my trusted friend for many years. Titus, I can see the frustration in your eyes when the king has people killed on a whim, especially, Isaiah. You yearn for justice and goodness. And Melchizedek, you have influence among your people that lead them towards God. We four are the only generals against attacking Germany without any prophetic permission. Tomorrow, I fear Herod will make an attempt on our lives and the lives of the Minor Prophets during his Strategic Planning Session.”

  “If what you say is true we have to act. Do you have any ideas?” Titus asked.

  Nathan snapped his fingers. A large armed man threw two other men on the ground before them. After him another large man did likewise.

  “Instead of taking the Minor Prophets to the planning session we take these guys.”

  “Who are they?” Melchizedek asked.

  “They’re prisoners from our last battle. I’ve got a half dozen more in the back.”

  “Shouldn’t you have killed them?” Melchizedek asked.

  “I could or I could make them my slaves. You could have done the same. Sometimes, my kindness gets in the way.”

  “How did you get them to comply?” Titus asked. “I guess once Herod finds out they aren’t the real deal he won’t care about them. They’re lives aren’t really at risk.”

  “There’s more to it than that,” Nathan went on. “Our best soldiers will accompany us to the planning session. We take extra swords. We’ll have them so far outnumbered they won’t try anything stupid.”

  “Or super stupid,” David said.

  By evening all of the Minor Prophets had arrived. David informed them of the situation. For the moment they unlatched their sandals to relax. The next day they were to remain in David’s tent with some of his best men on guard. The Minor Prophets gave their thanks and prayed together for safety and peace.

  In the morning before he embarked to the king’s tent he spoke with one of his soldiers, Hezekiah.

  “Ensure everything is ready to go when I give the signal. I have a feeling Herod will try to escape.”

  “Aye aye sir.” Hezekiah saluted then started walking away.

  “And make sure no one knows about this except for you.”

  Hezekiah saluted once more.

  A great posse of men armed with the finest Arabian scimitars, pole axes and leather girdles formed on the main path in camp. As they made their way toward the king’s tent Nathan turned to his friend, “What are you thinking?”

  “Anything could happen. We must be careful for our lives.”

  Nathan nodded then spoke. “I have something for you.” He reached into his satchel and produced six fist-sized stones, smooth, elliptical and stained with blood. “I believe these are yours.”

  “You shouldn’t have!” David said. “How did you”

  “We recovered them from the broken skulls of fallen men. I’ve been meaning to return them to you, but just kept forgetting.”

  “I’ll make good use of these again, I promise.”

  Inside the tent David’s and Nathan’s men outnumbered the other generals and the king’s guards. He wondered if the pres
ence of all the soldiers would spook everyone, but they seemed to think nothing of it.

  As usual, the generals waited for King Herod to arrive. Their small talk continued for a time then David heard noise outside. Men were yelling back and forth. Suddenly, someone rushed into the conference room, saw all the extra soldiers and darted out as soon as he had entered.

  David rested his hand on the hilt of his sword, but didn’t get up. The evil generals were confused as well and weren’t anxious looking. At least not to him.

  The man outside yelled again. This brought on a storm of muffled yelling that David couldn’t make out. Another man dashed into the conference room. This time his sword was drawn. A dozen other men jumped in behind him. The first guy yelled an accusation then ran to the nearest solder cutting and hacking. The other twelve soldiers attacked as well.

  David and Nathan stood, swords drawn aimed at the nearest assailant. But it was not needed. Nathan’s plan was working. They outnumbered the attackers three to one. As the skirmish continued David was confident they’d win. So, he and Nathan made their way outside.

  More yelling guards with swords ready to fight.

  David yelled