"Walking twenty-five hundred miles will do that," I said.

"Indeed it would."

We drove almost ten minutes before we came to a fenced compound consisting of a large, rustic-looking red barn, an A-framed house and two log buildings. A garden and a vineyard ran the length of the front fence.

There was a guard booth near the compound's front entrance and the gate opened at our approach. El pulled the car to the front of the barn and put it in park, leaving the vehicle idling. A muscular young man wearing the same style of yellow T-shirt as the woman at the tree ran out of the building as if he'd been waiting for El's return.

"This is where we'll be dining," El said.

The man stood at attention as El handed him the car keys. "Welcome home, Master," the man said.

"Thank you, MarkEl," he replied.

El walked around the side of the car where I was standing. "Follow me," he said.

I opened the back door to retrieve my backpack.

"You can leave it," El said. "It will be safe."

I pulled it out anyway. "I would be more comfortable having it with me."

He looked annoyed, but said, "Whatever makes you more comfortable."

I shut the car door and the man pulled the vehicle away, disappearing around the side of the barn. Behind us the large gates shut. I wondered if I was a prisoner. I thought about the gun my father had given me, stowed in the bottom of my pack.

"This way," El said, motioning to an open door.

I followed him inside. Even though the building looked rustic on the outside, inside it was clean and nicely furnished in a modern European style. The high-ceilinged room was s.p.a.cious and open and three of its walls were painted with murals. The largest wall depicted the moai statues of Easter Island, while the other two were of the Egyptian Pyramids and the Mayan Pyramids of Tikal. The vaulted ceiling was painted dark blue, with constellations, and the exaggerated stars had eyeb.a.l.l.s in their centers. The floor was hardwood, with areas covered by rugs.

Most surprising to me was that the room was filled with people, maybe forty or more, all dressed in the same yellow T-shirts. They all stared at us as we entered, looking curiously at me. I felt like a stray their "master" had brought home. Near the center of the room were two long dining tables. As we entered, El said to a young man with long, dark blue hair, "DarEl, bring us something to eat."

"Yes, Master. What would please my Master?"

"Surprise us," he said. The young man quickly disappeared behind a white door splattered with blue and red paint. "Come," El said to me, gesturing. Every eye in the room was still on us as I followed him to the first table.

"Sit. Please," he said.

We sat down on a long bench lined with red vinyl cushions.

A stunningly beautiful redheaded woman walked up to us and knelt in front of El. "How may I serve my Master?"

"Bring us something to drink," El replied. "My usual. And some tea. What will you have?" he asked me.

"Just water," I said.

She glanced at me, then back at El. "Yes, Master." She leaned down and kissed his feet, then stood, hurrying off behind the white door. I watched in amazement. El seemed used to such adoration.

The man with blue hair quickly returned, carrying a bowl of red hummus and a stoneware plate piled with pita bread.

"Your service is accepted, DarEl."

The man smiled. "Thank you, Master. Praise Master."

El motioned to the bowl. "Eat. It's quite good. It's hummus with red chili." He dipped a triangular piece of bread into the bowl, scooping up a dollop of hummus. "Tell me, Alan, before you were a sojourner, what did you do?"

Just then the redheaded woman returned carrying our drinks on a tray. She set a gla.s.s of red wine on the table in front of El, followed by a teacup and a teapot. She poured the tea, then put in a spoonful of sugar, stirred it, then looked at El. "May I serve my master anything else?"

"I am satisfied, my dear. Your service is accepted."

"Thank you," she said. She handed me a gla.s.s of water, knelt again and kissed El's feet, then took the tray and walked away. I waited until El looked back at me.

"I was in advertising," I said.

He nodded. "We are in similar fields then. We both are engineers of the mind. Are you a religious man?"

"Not particularly."

"Do you believe in a G.o.d?"

"Yes."

"Do you believe in the Bible?"

"Yes. I think so."

"You think so?" He gazed intently into my eyes. "Have you even read it?"

"Parts," I admitted.

He shook his head condescendingly. "Parts," he said. "Then you do not really believe it. Or, at least, that it might lead to your eternal salvation. Otherwise you would cling to it as an overboard sailor clings to a life ring." He lifted his gla.s.s of wine and drank. "Unlike you, I've read the Bible more times than I can remember. I'm more fascinated by it each time I read it. As I said before, the truth of the Bible must be understood in context."

He leaned toward me. "The Bible is as ancient as time, but more modern than ours. To the enlightened, the book describes s.p.a.ceships and interstellar beings, rocket launches, weapons of ma.s.s destruction, holograms and, most importantly, the origin of the species."

"What species?" I asked.

"Our species, of course. You see, the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, it's all truth, contextually shaded, but as truthful as today's newspaper." He grinned. "Actually, given the state of today's media bias, more truthful. In fact, DNA evidence has proven conclusively that our entire species descended from a single female. This isn't conjecture, it's proven fact. The idea that mankind gradually descended from monkeys is intellectually absurd. What do you think of that?"

"I think most scientists would disagree with you."

He smiled. "Only the foolish ones. You see, scientists are just as dogmatic as the religious. Maybe more so. They rarely change their minds, they just die off and the next generation's thinking emerges. The difference between them and me is that I have a viable explanation for the species and they don't.

"You see, even the most ardent Darwinist must admit that there is a fundamental flaw in his belief when it comes to the evolution of human beings. For millions of years, hominids, a half-ape, half-man beast, roamed the world. Then suddenly, boom"-he flourished his hands dramatically-"there are h.o.m.o sapiens. Intelligent, self-aware, language-speaking beings capable of building pyramids, advancing complex mathematical formulas, understanding advanced aerodynamics and mapping the universe. They even performed successful brain surgery. Yes, there was successful brain surgery more than a thousand years ago. We have the archeological evidence."

He shook his head. "What a culture we live in. We are swimming in an ocean of information, and drowning in ignorance. In the late 1800s archeologists discovered the ancient Sumerian cuneiform texts, writings of earth's oldest-known civilization. When scholars translated their writings, what they discovered surprised them. The Sumerian tablets actually agreed with the Old Testament; the genesis of the earth, the Garden of Eden, even the story of Noah and the Great Flood. Of course, even the oldest Chinese writings, carved into tortoisesh.e.l.ls, tell of the great flood. You do believe in Noah and his ark, don't you?"

"Not literally," I said.

His brow fell with disappointment. "If not literally, then how?"