Mark gasped.

By now, Damien, couldn't even comprehend the meaning of what he was saying. The words just kept pouring out, as if of their own volition. 'He had to, in order to rule alone.' Damien made it sound as though there had been no alternative. 'And then,' he said, lowering his voice as if to share a great, dark secret, 'he started calling himself names like the Great Nimrod, the Scourge of God, and... the Anti-Christ!'

The classroom was dead silent.

Just then, the door burst open and Neff strode in. He walked straight over to the chaplain, who by now was sweating and shaking, in a state of near disintegration, and whispered a few words to him. The chaplain nodded.

Neff turned to Damien. 'Come with me, Thorn,' he said.

Without a word, Damien did as he was told.

'Copy what's on the blackboard,' Chaplain Budman shot at the astonished class and followed Damien and Neff, leaving a deathly silence behind him. Then the class suddenly broke into a furious, speculative chatter.

***

Neff walked Damien down the hall, far enough away so that they could not be heard by anyone. Behind them, the chaplain brushed past on his way to the men's room, badly in need of a drink of water. When the door swung closed, Neff turned to the boy and said angrily, 'What were you trying to do in there, Damien?' It was the first time he had ever called him by his first name.

Still overwhelmed and bewildered by his own performance, Damien said, 'I was just answering questions, Sergeant.'

Neff shook his head. 'You were showing off,' he said.

Damien didn't even stop to wonder how Neff could have known what had happened. He was too full of what he had done, what he had never realized was in his own power to do. 'But I knew all the answers!' he tried to explain. 'Somehow, I just knew them all!'

Neff was stern. 'You mustn't attract attention,' he said.

'I wasn't trying to,' protested Damien. 'I just felt this-‘

Neff cut through Damien's reply: 'The day will come,' he said, 'when everyone will know who you are, but that day is not yet here.'

It was just what Buher had said.

Confused, Damien asked, 'Who am I?' He was beginning to get frightened. He didn't know what was going on, what he was destined for, why all these men seemed to be singling him out. He thought he must be going crazy.

'Read your Bible,' Neff said. 'In the New Testament there is the Book of Revelation. For you, Damien, it is just that... a Book of Revelation… for you… about you.’

Damien stared at him.

'Read it,' Neff said with terrible urgency. 'Read, learn, understand.'