I changed the world.

Page 268

Before dawn, Bishop Wells was awakened by the urgent ringing of his cell phone. His Excellency had not slept well the night before. Due to his heavy heart and the fact that the traditional rosewood bed in the guesthouse was rather firm, the bishop did not fall asleep until the early hours of the morning.

Still a bit grumpy from being woken up, the bishop answered his phone. He heard Father Simon, his entourage, urgently requesting an immediate visit. Knowing something important must have happened, he suppressed his slight annoyance and, while getting out of bed, told Simon to come directly over.

Soon, the doorbell rang, and Bishop Wells, wearing a bathrobe, opened the door. Standing outside was indeed Father Simon.

“Your Excellency, we have just received news that a major abnormal weather change occurred near Danding Mountain in the early hours of last night, suspected to involve supernatural phenomena…” Father Simon closed the door and gave a brief greeting to Bishop Wells before eagerly taking out a tablet computer from his pocket and handing it over.

As the assistant to the Bishop of Wells, Father Simon was responsible for liaising with the Vatican's internal intelligence gathering agency. Although the Vatican's intelligence gathering agency was not as well-known as some of the intelligence agencies of the major powers, it still had considerable intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities thanks to the Vatican's millennia-long history of being rooted in the Western Continent, and it maintained certain communication channels with the intelligence agencies of the major Western powers.

Bishop Wells took the tablet, glanced at it, and frowned. Then he quickly swiped his finger across the screen, which displayed a series of photos, clearly taken from high above. It was even evident that these photos did not come from the same source.

“These satellite photos are from three different sources and have been verified.” Father Simon pointed to an image that Bishop Wells was examining closely and explained, “This one was provided by Holstein. They’ve obscured the source, but we speculate it’s from their Dragonfly series weather monitoring satellites. As you know, they’ve been monitoring famous religious sites around the world.”

Bishop Wells simply nodded silently. He was well aware of this, and he even knew that there were likely many more satellites hovering over the city of Bergopelli, the City of Prophets. Of course, even if they were discovered, each country would offer a plausible, civilian-based reason, such as weather analysis, scientific research, or some other cause…

Bishop Wells silently looked through the photos to the end; there were eight pictures in total, followed by an intelligence briefing.

After reviewing the briefing analysis, the professionals had retrieved and compared local climate records from previous years, basically ruling out normal climate factors. Coupled with the shocking images that looked like natural disasters, Bishop Wells had already reached a conclusion. Although Father Simon's wording was still "suspected," it was practically certain.