The Devil's Whisper Read online

  About the Author

  T.H. Moore is a Southwest Philadelphia native who relocated to Camden, New Jersey at the age of ten. He’s an active member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Morgan State University. His career as an Information Technology Consultant and Real-Estate investor has afforded him the opportunity to travel to many countries all over the world as well as the majority of the United States. Blending experience with imagination helped formulate the basis of, and inspired him to write his first novel, The End Justifies the Means.

  His second novel, The Devil’s Whisper, is uniquely creative fiction that ventures away from the inspiration of his own life experiences. In The Devil’s Whisper, he dives into a darker set of dual protagonists whose sole objective is to survive the circumstances of the world they live in. Tarik is the proud father of one son, Jason, and currently resides in Virginia, where he is working on the next two installments of The Devil’s Whisper trilogy.

  Copyright © 2016 by Tarik H. Moore

  Published by:

  In Third Person Publishing

  P.O. Box 4128, Ashburn, VA 20148

  www.thmoore.com

  All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. It is not meant to depict, portray or represent any particular real persons. All the characters, incidents and dialogues are the products of the author’s imagination and are not to be constructed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or person living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Cover artwork by: Terrance Mease and Vanessa Mendozzi

  Interior book layout by Rochelle Mensidor

  First Edition April 2017

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN: 978-0-9779519-1-8

  Acknowledgements

  As always, I would like to first thank my mother for providing me all the educational opportunities I needed to become successful. Without you, I’m nothing. T. Jackson, for reading the manuscript of my first book “The End Justifies the Means.” I may have never decided to publish had it not been for you. My editors, Jenna Kalinsky and William Greenleaf. Proofreaders, Marti Tucker, Yasmin Carlos, and Pope Carlos. My friends, family, and loved ones who have supported me to continue chasing my dream of being a writer.

  Preface

  My children, let me warn you. Within these pages, you will see that the world in which you were conceived, born, and reared no longer exists. When you cracked the spine of this book, you ignited a ripple effect that forever changed everything you once knew to be true. This current now washes over not just you, but everything beyond you. Life as you’ve always known it to be will be no more.

  A metamorphosis of the existential niche you carved out began the moment your eye graced the pages of this text. With each successive page, the material possessions you once coveted will become irrelevant, and your socioeconomic status erased. Whatever religious dogma, political affiliation, nationality, culture, and heritage you considered yours is being reconfigured.

  This revelation may alarm you, but this unveiling is necessary. Shattering your world is a drastic yet required demonstration of my contrition for allowing you to suffer. Know this: I have suffered along with you. I endured your suffering and resisted my instinct to intervene because I believed you could navigate your own destiny toward righteous humanitarianism. I regret underestimating that a few of my offspring would be drawn to ugly actions and watched you edge closer toward darker days. My intercession now is necessary for the rest of my children to appreciate the world in all its natural beauty.

  Now be free—free from the artificial constraints that have imprisoned you. By this point, the effect that began in the first paragraph has penetrated all time and more, from before Adam was seduced by Eve to eat of the forbidden tree, and from before the stars exploded and the universe was spawned from the simplest molecules of carbon.

  The previous 285 words of this text have gradually dissipated the traps of corruption that have crippled and maligned your morality. Do not shy away from this transition, for it will guide you from the cold, brutal world to which you’ve grown numb. It is now my place to correct the imbalance of righteousness so you may realize the true meaning of World Peace.

  Indeed, no longer will those two words, “World Peace,” together act as an empty phrase abused by pageant queens, thrown around in acceptance speeches, or bandied about by opportunistic politicians. One and a half million years ago, when I created life, my goal was to see all my creatures live in peace, together. The civilization you will inherit is the result of a simple lifestyle that was matured in seclusion on the remote tropical island of Bermuda. I waited until I saw that the hearts of all humanity were open enough to embrace it.

  This small group, known in present day by a select few as the Society, nurtured the four principles of goodwill, selflessness, moral standing, and universal brotherhood. Those four principles were the seeds planted into the fertile soil of Bermuda, and they blossomed.

  Guided by my grace, they grew into a community that was perfect because of its simplicity. The foundation constructed by this colony of Bermudians allowed them to welcome and embrace all races, creeds, and lifestyles without bias or prejudice. Over time, their ideal concept spread, perpetuating hundreds of years of celebrated peace and relative harmony.

  Since I orchestrated the discovery of the Society in 1505, I’ve guarded your futures so the 8.5 billion inhabitants of Earth could live in harmony. Not long ago, you lived as hundreds of thousands of separate tribes, governed by your own respective laws. This method of existence led some societies to flourish, while others withered from famine and conquest.

  Today, while many countries are still separated by geography, skin tone, and language, you all now share a single collective system of civility and governance. That the clear majority of you have reached a pinnacle of peace and gentility, I rejoice in watching, even as a minute few have chosen to remain savages. The way of life for the Society has made war, holocausts, genocides, abuses of civilizations, and other large-scale crimes against humanity inconceivable. All the atrocities I’ve just mentioned, you know all too well—or rather, knew all too well prior to having opened this book. There continue to be individual anarchists or miscreants who engage in immoral behavior, but they are removed and punished.

  For them, Katingal City was created, a place where criminals can harm themselves and others like them until they all perish.

  It is a delight to see my original intentions for human beings realized. No longer mere vestiges of the raw clay from which I created you, your DNA and humanity have evolved and peaked. While your clumsy early days of discovering fire gave rise to more advanced modes of technological innovation, you dared to remain misled in your belief that all of life’s mysteries can be comprehended through science. From this, a healthy arrogance has arisen, one that has allowed you to believe that things could be done without my influence. Some of you even dare to doubt my existence. But allowing you the freedom to question everything, including me, has played a strong part in galvanizing your evolution. I am pleased to see how far you’ve come.

  The following pages bring forth a new day, a new world in which people live in peace.

  Now is your time. Go forward and claim this new world of which I’ve given you a glimpse. Remove the locks from your mind. You have earned your place in a world in which you can dare to believe your fellow man loves you as much as you want to love th
em. Be blessed, and take your place in this reverie. May peace be upon you.

  —Eloah

  13.7 billion years ago – I initiated the beginning of the universe, your world, and created the most basic elements needed for your eventual existence. Your history books have labeled my creation of the universe the Big Bang.

  100,000 years ago – In Africa, I molded the raw clay of your human existence and breathed life into the first of you, the Homo sapiens.

  1492 – One of my more curious children, Christopher Columbus, voyaged across the Atlantic in search of a new trade route to India, but poor navigation steered him to a cluster of islands in the Caribbean. He was met with hurricane-force winds that laid waste to the crews and sank all three of the vessels. Columbus and his crew never set eyes on the “New World” and its indigenous tribes. Indeed, the New World was never colonized by the English.

  1505 – I instigated Spanish navigator Juan de Bermudez’s discovery of a community of people that later came to be known as the Society. By manipulating the winds and sea, I forced his ship to run aground just off the coast of the island this innocent community calls home. When he and his crew scoured the island, they discovered a multicultural population of 140 non-indigenous people. This community had also arrived by shipwreck and was unable to leave the island, so they cultivated their very own harmonious Garden of Eden.

  1500 - 1520 – I marveled at the Songhai Empire in West Africa as it entered a period of great expansion and power under the leadership of Askia Mohammed Toure. Equipped with arms and ammunition from Portuguese trade, the Songhai Empire utilized its superior numbers and military tactics to thwart Portuguese and European domination of the African gold, spice, and slave trade. The Portuguese and Europeans were driven out of the coastal countries of northwest Africa. The practice of African slavery was abolished in its infancy. Portuguese and European ambitions of extending slavery were never realized.

  1609 – I again manipulated the Atlantic winds, pushing English explorers to the small island of Bermuda. They found 214 inhabitants in a self-sustained community living in peace, innocent of outside influences. The community shared the journal of Juan De Bermudez, the Spanish explorer from a century prior, who chronicled his experiences from living on the island. When the English explorers returned to Great Britain, they published Juan De Bermudez’s journal under the title The Garden of Eden.

  1609 – King James I colonized Bermuda. The king then entered an agreement with the country of Ethiopia, one that allowed the Bermudians to preserve the lifestyle they had created on an Ethiopian reservation. The reservation was dubbed “the Garden” after rumors circulated of this unusual community of relative harmony. Pilgrims from all over Ethiopia journeyed to the reservation.

  1625 – The Garden’s population exploded to over ten thousand people, outgrowing its reservation and spilling over into neighboring communities and villages.

  1770 – Katingal, located between the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean, was colonized, and its southern quadrant subsidized by Great Britain as a destination for exiled violent criminals of the British penal system.

  1783 – The continent of Africa reorganized its fifty-three distinct countries into fifty-three territories, thereby unionizing the continent into a single country. The new country, The United Territories of Africa, or UTA, designated Ethiopia as the country’s capital and most powerful territory. When each territory pooled their natural resources and products, the UTA became the world’s first superpower.

  June 1914 – The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by the Black Hand, a Serbian nationalist secret society, was prevented. World leaders recognized this event as an intentional attempt by one country to invade another. As a result, world leaders gathered into a secret council, and the United Nations was established. The organizers of the Black Hand were apprehended, tried, and exiled to Katingal City.

  1919 – Benito Mussolini attempted to create the National Fascist Party that advocated for aggressive nationalism. His plot to forcefully “restore law and order” in Italy was foiled. Mussolini and his conspirators were tried by the United Nations and exiled to Katingal City.

  1924 – Several defecting members of Kampfbund, and the German National Socialist party in Bavaria, Germany, identified Adolf Hitler and Erich Ludendorff of an attempted coup d’état of Germany. They were exiled to Katingal City for conspiracy to incite a war and enacting genocide on people of the Jewish faith.

  1971 – Idi Amin Dada failed in his coup d’état of the Ugandan African Territory. He and his generals were exiled to Katingal City.

  1994 – The United Nations intervened to prevent the planned genocide of the Tutsi tribe in the Rwanda Territory of the UTA. Government officials and Rwandan Patriotic Front militia leaders were tried and exiled to Katingal City for crimes against humanity and conspiracy to commit genocide.

  2000 – At the turn of the millennium, the United Nations passed a decree that emphasized the restoration of the quality of life across the globe. Recreational drugs in their natural form, such as marijuana and hashish, were legalized. Cocaine and opiate-based drugs such as heroin and opium were outlawed. All organized crime syndicates who manufactured, distributed, or profited from the sale of these banned substances were apprehended and prosecuted.

  2003 – As the war on illegal narcotics reduced profits for its ringleaders, organized human trafficking grew. In an urgent response, the United Nations passed another decree to stop the momentum that human traffickers had gained.

  2010 – One by one, the heads of all known human trafficking organizations were apprehended and exiled. The head of the most powerful criminal organization Duenno eluded capture. Led by Charles Gravo, aka “Yäbälay,” it remained a small yet powerful criminal network. The World Intelligence & Criminal Coalition, WICC, declared him their most wanted fugitive.

  2011 – WICC assembled an elite militarized task force to track and apprehend Yäbälay and bring him to justice.

  Chapter 1

  ASPOTLIGHT ON THEIR STANDING IN the world, the moon threw a white glow over the gleaming high-rises clustered at the heart of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The pristine pillars were as modern as they were vertiginous. Only social climbers, business moguls, and the most affluent of Addis Ababa could call these architectural masterpieces home.

  Yet none could stand as tall as Pantheon Tower. Just below the top beamed a series of penthouse suites constructed of glass, the view affording the occupants the chance to look down on the world as gods.

  Nevertheless, this glass box operated only as support for the uppermost dwelling, one of several impenetrable fortresses around the world belonging to the notorious Charles Gravo. A curated collection of military-trained mercenaries in black two-piece suits manned this stronghold. They lined the windows at perfect three-foot intervals, each sentry clutching a semiautomatic assault rifle and donning an earpiece that disappeared into his jacket collar. Most of them stood in earshot of their boss, a man in his mid-thirties, as he pleasured a half-naked teenaged girl.

  Eyes closed, the baby-faced teenager moaned from atop the disheveled black satin sheets on the palatial bed. Her tongue mimicked the slow laps as Gravo bobbed his head between her skinny thighs.

  She cracked open an eyelid to check his mood. If he were angry, she would need to work harder, but if he were content, she might live. Failure to please him, as per his exact instructions, meant she would end up dead like the others. Nobody ever talked about that. It was just understood.

  Gravo soon sat up and wiped his mouth with her shirt. “Lay back and pleasure yourself,” he ordered.

  Was that boredom on his face? She reacted with urgency. With playful fingers, she traced an imaginary line down her stomach until her fingers met the plaid miniskirt gathered at her hips. She made sure she had his undivided attention as she massaged her bald labia, working in methodical circles.

  “Like this,
Papa?” she whimpered, her hips matching the rhythm of her hands. She willed herself to keep going in the desperate hope that this would be over soon.

  “Yes. Just like that.” He scooted closer and stroked himself while watching her small, manicured fingers disappear inside herself and then reappear to rub the full length of her labia.

  “Come on,” she urged him. “Empty yourself inside me, Papa.”

  Just then, she felt a single tear sneak out of the corner of her eye. As it streamed down her face, she turned her head and looked through the glass walls and out to the starlit sky to hide her shame. The thought of her so-called Papa discovering her disgust sent a shiver down her spine, so she forged forward with her role.

  She wiped the tear into the pillow cover and peeked back at him, only to be greeted by his grimacing stare. She stopped breathing for a split second when she noticed that he was losing his erection.

  “Now, Papa?” she pleaded. “Will you fuck me now?”

  His upper lip twisted as he lifted the girl up to him. He knew exactly how he wanted her positioned to heighten his pleasure. But before he could do so, a deafening rumble caused him to lurch back. The clink of shattering glass echoed through the room. The lights flickered, and dust fell from the ceiling. Gunfire and explosions sent shock waves through the penthouse.

  “UTA police!”

  Three masked men in black military assault gear with UTA Police stamped across their chests burst through the door.

  “Charles Gravo, put your hands in the air and step away from the child!” The police officer locked in on Charles with his assault rifle. A bright red pulsing dot danced across Charles’s vision, and he knew it was the rifle’s laser sight.

  He cracked a menacing smile and, moving with the lithe grace of a cat, slid out of the bed. He stood still, naked and unapologetic, with his hands up. The young girl remained in his bed.