As they looked up, they saw that the luminescent columns stationed over El Refugio had begun to move across the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Suddenly, majestically, they poured down toward the east and the south.

It was indescribable! The columns seemed like beams of pure white light, yet they also appeared to be cascades of colored light. They were brighter than the most intense laser beams ever created, yet they were full of the colors of a thousand sunsets over the mountains.

They reached the assembled army of the Antichrist. Where there once had been tanks and trucks, suddenly there were piles of ash. Where soldiers once stood, there remained only charred spots on the desert floor.

In less than sixty seconds, it was all over. The luminescent columns seemed to stream backward, as if pulled upward by a great vacuum. Once again, they stood high above the mountain home of El Refugio.

Archie Gladstone was speechless. He fell on his knees, raised his hands, and cried aloud, “I praise Thee, O God of my fathers!”

Then he stood.

“They’re all gone!” he said. “There is nothing left of that huge army but black spots and ashes. I saw it with my eyes, but I don’t know what happened!”

“Archie,” Al said reverently, “I’ve lived a long time, and I’ve seen many things, but never have I seen anything like that. I used tricks and gimmicks to blow up some field pieces, but my tricks aren’t enough to beat Satan. What we just saw can do it.”

He slapped the general on the back. “Archie, old boy, what we saw was the power of the angels of God! They were only waiting for someone to stand up to Satan’s boy in Babylon, and, when they saw that we would stand, they took over and did the rest!

“Just think about it: we knocked down a few planes, but we didn’t have to kill a single soldier. The angels did it all! They’re moving with us. From now on, we’ll begin to break out of here and attack the system.”

THE ANTICHRIST MADE HIS ATTACK against the rebel outpost at the Western Defense Zone a widely publicized event. But by the same token, the humiliating defeat at the Sangre de Cristo Mountains was also widely publicized. The controlled media suppressed the story, but they could not suppress the rumors that spread among the people like wildfire.

Now, there was doubt. A tiny band of rebels had annihilated five hundred thousand UP troops. It was said that angels were involved.

Could it be that angels existed that were more powerful than their god-man? Could it be that they who had sided with the Antichrist had made the wrong decision?