Sins of the Father by Mitchel Scanlon Read Free Book Online Page B

to pick up the weapon and, with one quick movement, it would all be over.
    One quick movement, and he could stop the baby's tears forever.
    Yet still, somehow, he found he was unable to do it. Unsure of his courage, Lucas had sat in the same place for hours while the child incessantly screeched and wailed at him. It had all seemed so clear back at Lindberg, but once he was alone with his victim in a secluded place the enormity of the act he contemplated had abruptly dawned on him. Chastened, he had told himself there was no other option. There was too much at stake to allow a failure of nerve to dissuade him. He had waited, staring down at the child, hoping the passage of time and the baby's continual noise might somehow combine to give him the strength he needed. Instead, he had felt his courage wax and wane inside him. At times, it felt like he was almost ready, only for his decisiveness to melt away as he reached for the knife. Competing instincts of mercy and ruthlessness warred within him: he did not hate this child, but the bitter consequences if he left his task undone appalled him.
    He was going to kill the Messiah. Even now, the thought made him uneasy. He felt light-headed and sick to the very pit of his stomach. Already, he had heaved up everything he had eaten, a puddle of vomit left festering beside one of the ruined packaging machines on the factory floor. Now, he felt tremors run through him as dry heaves wracked his body. It was almost too much for his mind to process. He was about to set himself against the Lord Grud's grand design. He was going to defy his Creator. He would commit an act of rebellion even greater than sinful Eve's in the Garden of Eden.
    In an attempt to stiffen his waning resolve once more, he thought back over his reasons. When he had first realised the child's true nature, he had told himself he had no choice. The Apocalypse was coming. The world would end. Billions would die, and only Lucas Verne could stand against it. Only he could avert the Final Judgement. He tried to reassure himself that perhaps even this might be some secret part of Grud's master plan. Grud was ineffable: his ways unknowable to the mind of Man. It could be that it was his destiny, divinely ordained, to kill the Christ-child. Why else would Grud have allowed the child to be born into the same housing block where Lucas lived? But even that thought only raised more questions.
    Why? Why would Grud do this to him? Lucas was reminded of the story of Abraham: of how the Lord Grud had ordered him to sacrifice his son Isaac, only to send an angel to stay the old man's hand at the very last moment. Was that it? Was this a test of his faith? Or was he like Job, condemned to suffer needlessly simply because it was Grud's will. The questions assailed him and he could find no answers. He wanted to pray, but all his prayers had left him. He felt forsaken and cast out, until a new thought occurred to him.
    If this was a test, perhaps it worked both ways. If he wished to know Grud's will, then he needed only to strike out against the child and the answers would become clear to him. Grud was all-powerful. If it was His will that the child be saved, when Lucas tried to harm it then Grud's hand would show itself. Like Abraham, Lucas would be prevented from completing the act. An angel would come, or Lucas would be struck blind, or the knife in his hand would turn to a serpent. Whatever the case, Grud's will in the matter would become clear.
    He played the thought in his head. He tested its logic. Finally, he came to a decision.
    He would kill the child. Then, all his questions would be answered.
     
    From the outside the factory was rundown and decrepit, its dozens of boarded-up windows peering blindly at the night-time traffic of the skedway alongside it. As the two Judges pulled their bikes onto an exit ramp leading to the parking forecourt, Anderson was struck by how quickly the place had been claimed by urban decay. According to