The official party flew in a squadron of helicopters to the ancient site. As they walked the ruins, Mark was lost in thought: I have been here before! I feel a sense of history . . . of destiny! He knew without question that he was part of the great unfolding of the struggle of human civilization that had begun in Akkad and Ur, along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

But it was not until they reached the site of Babylon itself that Mark Beaulieu truly realized his destiny. As Beaulieu, Haddad, and Bin Ishmael walked through the desert ruin and the partially finished reproduction palace begun many years ago by Saddam Hussein, he saw it clearly. At Babel, all of the people on earth had been divided from one another by the barrier of language. Now he was here. President Mark Beaulieu would accomplish what no other human had ever achieved. He would unite all of the people on earth into one great union . . . a Union for Peace.

Mark Beaulieu felt a power far greater than anything he had ever known fill his being. He had attained his destiny. He would lead the world. In his mind’s eye he saw gatherings of troops and armies as vast as the sea. He saw bombs falling and weapons firing. Millions of men of war would go forth under his leadership to destroy those who would oppose the Union of Peace. Now he knew how it was supposed to be. Now he understood his destiny.

President Mark Beaulieu was interrupted from his reverie by the voice of an excited Ibrahim bin Ishmael. “My friend, I see it now!” the Iraqi leader proclaimed. “Rising from this very place will be a great palace and a magnificent capital. Babylon will be restored, and the destiny of all mankind will rise from its slumber. Here, in this very place, will be the capital of the world—your capital! The world headquarters of the Union for Peace.”

As bin Ishmael spoke Mark Beaulieu could see it too. There were lavish, tree-lined boulevards. Stupendous buildings with giant marble columns that towered a hundred feet above the heads of the people who thronged there for his leadership and his judgments. The Congress Hall for the Nations. His personal headquarters. And at the very center, elevated above all the other structures, would be the temple of the Church of World Peace. Yes, it would be large, stately, imperial, and capped by a dome covered with glistening twenty-four-karat gold. It would be his temple! His destiny!