I also remembered something I had thought at the time. Appreciation was the act of acknowledgment that locked in the Connection. Immediately, I felt the Connection more intensely, and as I did, the Agape began to increase in slow increments, almost to the level we had achieved on Secret Mountain but not quite. Tommy and Coleman had already sensed what I was doing and were gathering the others back into a circle with us, explaining how to hold the emotion of appreciation.

Then I knew something more. We were calling this phenomenon a point of Connection, but in actuality it was something else. Rachel had said not to get hung up on a name. We had to understand more about what we were feeling. I no sooner had that thought when an image of Wil down there with the Apocalyptics came to mind. And then another image came-one of the radio sitting on the briefcase. In a flash I understood. Wil hadn't been nodding toward the radio, as I'd thought earlier. It was the briefcase he wanted me to see!

Down at the trails below, the shooting had stopped and the soldiers and the crowds were now in an uneasy stalemate, the people still pressing to go forward, the soldiers holding fast.

"I've got to go back down there," I said to the others.

They voiced agreement, so without saying another word, I slid off the outcropping again and hurried down the slope, trying to hang on to the Connection. The others were right behind me. Coleman caught up with me and smiled as we jumped a wide crevice in the rock. When we approached the mound, we could see two men wrestling over a rifle and several more fighting twenty feet away. We avoided them and ran around to the side of the rocky protrusion. Now we could see Anish and some of his own men in an armed standoff. Some of the men had awakened and were now pointing weapons and begging for Anish to give up. Joseph and his brother were in that group. Anish and several other men were facing them, unyielding, still in control of the bomb. One of the men held a small remote control in his hand, apparently the triggering device for the nuke.

Closer to us, Wil was still sitting in the same place. But he had managed to free his feet and hands in the confusion, and at his side was the briefcase, now open. Four or five pages of copy paper were scattered beside it. Our eyes met, and I instantly knew the pages belonged to the Twelfth, and that he had already read it. I noticed, too, that my hands were shaking again. I had lost much of my Connection in the face of the conflict. Still locked in Wil's stare, I went deep into Agape until I began to feel the point of Connection again.

Right away, I realized Wil was trying to tell me something again, but I couldn't hear him amid the shouting.

"Be prepared to detonate," Anish said, gathering everyone's attention. He seemed to have regained his calm determination.

I looked at Wil. He was still looking at me intently, sending me a message with his eyes. Behind me were Coleman, Tommy, and his mother. The rest of the group were several paces behind them. Down below, I could see the crowds still pressing against the soldiers' barricades.

Anish squinted with final resolve, about to order detonation. I looked at Wil one more time, and finally got it. Rachel. He wanted me to tune in to Rachel. Immediately, I felt her saying, "Let go! You'll be shown the way."

"Wait a m-minute!" I stammered at Anish. "Can't you feel what's happening here? You had the Twelfth Integration the whole time. You must have read it!"

Anish shook his head. "The only thing I feel is the end of time approaching."

"But that's just it! Something is approaching, but it's not what you think. It's something you have to feel inside."

Anish looked at me askance.

"Ask yourself," I continued, "why you formed this group in the first place, including both Eastern and Western traditions. The members were all mortal enemies and you brought them together. Was it the Twelfth Insight that gave you that idea? You began a reconciliation of religion. And you continued to look for more of the Doc.u.ment for a long time. Why? Maybe you knew you weren't going far enough."

He looked away, shaking his head.

"Why did you name your group the Apocalyptics?" I continued. "Don't you know the word apocalypse means revelation? We can have a revelation about the real meaning of the end times. I tried to tell you. The prophecies are meant for all of us. If all of us are engaged in one Rapture, then we can all be spared Armageddon. We get the Return without the war. We're already sensing ..."

I stopped. I still couldn't explain this point of Connection we were feeling.

"No," Anish screamed, looking again at the man with the detonator. Again he appeared to be ready to order the detonation.

Someone to his right yelled, "You must stop!"

Joseph's brother, the general, was walking up to Anish now, Joseph at his side.

"You know you and I both read those words," the general continued. "We laughed and ridiculed it at every page, but it was touching us all the same."

Anish became enraged and pointed a finger at the general. "What has happened to you?" he screamed. "You know our plan is foolproof. A nuclear blast here in Sinai and the simultaneous destruction of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem will push Iran to blow the ca.n.a.l. Saudi Arabian missiles, under our control, will fly at Iran. Our people in China will take the opportunity to disable the American capability in that region. And then everything will blow! Nothing could contain it, not even Peterson. It would be the end we've all been praying for."

"No," Joseph's brother said firmly. "The prophecies are all saying the same thing because they come from only one Divine source. I know that now! There's only one Creator, and only one Rapture: the one that comes from attaining an ever-higher Connection and consciousness. We are already sensing the Divine return. It is a 'Presence' that we can feel within us."

"That's it!" I yelled. "That's what we're feeling. It's a Divine Presence!"

The sound of the words reverberated through everyone. Will and I looked at each other. That is what we had felt on Secret Mountain: the Presence of G.o.d as a tangible reality. This was the return the prophecies had been pointing toward all along, the final Alignment.

Thoughts raced through my mind over the magnitude of what was happening. It was not the idea of a presence, nor an abstract theory about a presence. It was an actual Presence: the Feeling Ident.i.ty of the Divine-real and personal and with us at this very moment.

With that thought, my energy and consciousness began to soar, and I could detect the Presence increasing inside me. Time stood still. The Apocalyptics appeared frozen. I looked over at Wil again. He was nodding in excitement. Coleman was sending a text to Adjar and Hira telling them what we had discovered. Tommy and the others were awestruck.

As we glanced at one another, the energy increased more. We were recapturing together that final level of energy we had glimpsed in the wilderness of Sedona. Instantly, I sensed what the rest of the group was thinking. This was it: the Twelfth Insight and its Integration. We can open our consciousness enough to reach the actual Presence of the Divine, right here where it has always been waiting for us.

Spontaneously, we all fell into a Template of Agreement. I could feel our conclusion. All of the traditions hold that G.o.d is a real presence, but it has only been emphasized and really thought possible in the most esoteric religious teachings.

"Acknowledge the Presence in appreciation and the link will get stronger," I heard Tommy whisper to the others. "This will connect our final template conclusion with all those in the world who are sensing this."

No sooner had we done this than our energy soared even more.

"Now join with the higher souls of the Apocalyptics," Tommy added, "and lift them into this new Connection with us."

As we did so, the presence increased to another level, and its character changed. Now it was not only inside of us, it was also outside as well, manifesting as a perceptible wave of luminosity all around the mound area. Then it swept down toward the crowds in a wave that lit up the rocks as it went.

Down at the trails, we could see people reaching out to the soldiers again, pushing at the barricade lines, darting around the weapons aimed at them, and moving all at once, as though of one mind, up the trails.

Then, in a scene reminiscent of the fall of the old Soviet Union, the soldiers broke ranks and refused to fire, throwing down their weapons. Commanders stopped shouting orders, resigned to the inevitable. Some soldiers were actually joining the flow of people toward the summit.

Anish turned and looked at me, and for a moment I thought he was going to get it. Then his face hardened again.

"Blow the bomb!" he screamed.

"No," I yelled. "Don't you understand? It's okay to reverse your life direction. You don't have to push that b.u.t.ton. You can change."

The man with the detonator was hesitating, listening to me, not moving. So Anish suddenly charged him, grabbing at the device. It fell to the rocks. He hurled himself toward it, stretching out his arms to pick it up. But Joseph's brother rushed up to block his grasp.

Then gunshots began to ring out as the two factions exchanged fire. Reacting swiftly, Joseph ran toward his brother and knocked him behind a boulder. Simultaneously, Wil lunged forward and hit me in full stride, also pushing me out of harm's way. A single grenade exploded, covering us with smoke and dust.

When I could see, I realized most of the Apocalyptics had fled. Wil and Coleman were sitting beside me. We all just looked at one another, knowing how fortunate we had been that the bomb hadn't detonated. Looking around, we saw that Anish and another extremist were seriously wounded and Joseph's brother had superficial cuts. No one else was hurt. Above us, hundreds were on the summit of Mount Sinai, waving their hands in celebration.

In minutes, we were surrounded by fresh Egyptian soldiers, a whole battalion of them, who provided immediate medical care and order. Hundreds more soldiers were quickly moving up the trails, ushering the crowds off the summit. The people didn't resist, realizing clearly that the day had been won. Our group was rejoicing as well. At least for now, the threat was over.

One of the officers, a lieutenant, took our group into custody and sat us down by the mound, taking particular interest in Tommy and Joseph and pulling them to the side. He was the officer Tommy had been talking with for months at the eastern gate. The three discussed the situation intensely for several minutes, gesturing toward the rest of us.

Just then my phone rang. It was Adjar, updating us on the situation at Jabal Al Lawz, saying that the template groups had gained the Twelfth Insight and Integration simultaneously with us. The infiltrators from within the missile base had fled. Right after Adjar, Hira also texted, on cue. They had not reached the Temple Mount but instead had gathered at the Wailing Wall at the moment of reaching the Twelfth. No confirmation, she said, about the rumored charges under the Dome of the Rock.

Finally, I heard the officer say, "Get them out of here!"

Joseph and Tommy rushed over and pointed out the path leading back to St. Katherine, telling us we were free to leave. We all just looked at one another and erupted in laughter.

Suddenly, I noticed some papers blowing along the ground back near the mound. Rushing over, I was just about to reach down and pick them up when another man, whom I recognized as one of Peterson's operatives, stepped in front of me and scooped them up himself, giving me a half smile and a small shake of his head.

All around me, I could see people being thoroughly searched, and anything remotely looking like a copy of the Integrations was seized. When they reached us, we didn't resist.

I wondered: did Peterson now think the Doc.u.ment was a threat to him? Was he moving to find and destroy all the copies, the same way the government of Peru had managed to destroy all the copies of the old Prophecy? At best, I reasoned, he could create enough fear so that people would feel guarded about talking about the Doc.u.ment and would keep their copies hidden. Such a suppression, I knew, would have to include an immediate cleansing of the Internet of all traces.

When I got back to the others, Joseph was saying good-bye, telling us he would stay there with his wounded brother.

"Thanks," I said, "for being on that hill in St. Katherine when we arrived."

He gave me a smile and a little bow of his head.

"Also," Wil added, "thanks for not giving up on your brother. Whatever you said to him worked. Just shows us: reach one person and it may make all the difference in the world."

"I simply told him," Joseph responded, "what Rachel had said to me: anyone can wake up and change in the blink of an eye."

"Oh, by the way," Joseph went on, "did I tell you the three Mountains- Jabal Al Lawz in Saudi Arabia, Mount Sinai, and Secret Mountain in Arizona-all line up roughly in a straight line?"

He looked at us a moment more with his face filling with Agape and tears, then he pulled us into a huge hug.

"I wanted to look upon the face of G.o.d," he mused, "but I think feeling the Presence is even better."

As he walked away, the rest of us, lost in our own thoughts, hiked down the mountain until we hit the wide path taking us back to St. Katherine. Wil was on his phone. As I looked around at everyone, I could tell we were all still feeling the Presence. It was with us as we moved down the path, automatically raising the luminosity of the rocks as we walked. When we met people coming toward us, some would even slow down and look closely, as if they sensed the elevation in energy.

When Wil hung up his phone, I edged over beside him.

"Okay, Wil," I said, "what about the Twelfth? Tell us what the Doc.u.ment actually says."

His eyes twinkled for a moment as everyone gathered around him.

"It says the Twelfth fires up the culminating pathways in our brains," he said. "It integrates all the Integrations. Think about how the Presence makes you feel. No problem with expecting and sustaining the Synchronicity now, is there? Or telling the truth and accepting it from others as we build out the details of our new spiritual worldview? How about manipulating people and being hit with all that Karma? Anybody want to start doing that again?

"No," he continued. "We want to stay in Alignment and in the consciousness that gives us all these other abilities: premonitions that offer us Protection, guiding intuition, higher Agape relationships, and an opening to full perception-and of course, all those messages from the Afterlife.

"The Twelfth says that if enough of us stay in this Alignment and in the Presence, the Plan can become conscious in human culture. With this knowledge, an enlightened center way will arise in politics. Civility and charm can return to human culture. And every government and every field of human endeavor will move into a state of Integrity."

"What about the Templates of Agreement?" Coleman asked.

"It says the Templates of Agreement will gradually move each tradition," Wil replied, "toward an acknowledgment of the one Presence, allowing the differences between the religions to be less divisive. Reconciliation will create a groundbreaking unity as we all focus on the experience that is possible." He paused. "The numbers are everything. It just depends on how many people are holding the Alignment."

As he talked, a question was forming in my mind.

"Does the Twelfth say," I asked, "how many people it would take to turn the world around and to begin to create the ideal world the prophecies predict?"

"A lot, just to get it started. The Doc.u.ment mentions again that many smaller groups in history have reached the point where we are now and weren't able to keep it going. The world is still deep in fear. And as we've seen, the stakes are getting higher."

All of us were huddled just off the path, in a circle.

"Does the Twelfth give us the specific number?" I pressed.

"Yes," Wil said. "It is the same as with some of the other prophecies."

"What is it?"

"144,000."

As soon as we reached St. Katherine, Tommy and his mother said good-bye as well, stating that they wanted to visit their friends at the big house one more time. They had given everyone a hug and were beginning to walk away. But after only a few paces, Tommy stopped and turned toward me.

"There's much to be done," he added, "so I'll see you in Sedona."

He smiled then and ran to join his mother, leaving me wondering what he meant.

Most of the others said good-bye as well and went with them, leaving only Wil, Coleman, and me standing together on the street. Coleman offered his hand.

"I'm going with them, too," he said. "Some of my scientist friends want to start an inst.i.tute to study all this. Do you believe it?"

He walked over and gave Wil and me both a bear hug.

"Listen," I said. "Thanks for being there all those times."

"I should thank you," he replied. "You reached me. It just shows how things change, one Conscious Conversation at a time."

Wil and I waved as he jogged off after the others, then Wil turned to face me.

"I was able to book a flight to Cairo," he said, smiling.

He then told me he had finally reached his friend the archaeologist, who had originally sent him the first part of the Doc.u.ment. The man had been in hiding, and Wil wanted to leave right away to talk to him.

He paused and we continued to look at each other, delaying the parting.

"What about Colonel Peterson?" Wil asked.

"The last thing he told me," I replied, "was that they were ready, and that all it takes is a coalition between the far Left and Right to implement his plan. I still don't know what he meant."

"I think you're going to find out," Wil said. "Better stay alert."

I nodded, then said, "I forgot to ask. Did you have any luck finding the people who had released this Doc.u.ment originally?"

He smiled and said, "You already know who it was."

I thought for a moment.

"Shambhala people?"

"There are more of them than I thought. They're going to be helping with everything. I'll let you know what I find out."

He was beginning to leave, but I thought of one last question.

"Why did they send the Twelfth to Anish?"

Wil laughed and pulled his pack onto his shoulder.

"They're like Wolf," he said. "They know things."

And with that, he was gone, leaving me alone. Only I wasn't alone. In fact, I knew I would never be alone again.