Sins of the Father Read Online Free PDF

programmes on the Tri-D entertainment channels. He realised he was living through the Time of Tribulation: the period when the faith of the righteous would be put to the test. Soon, the nations of the Earth would turn against each other. The Great Beast would walk among them. The countdown to Armageddon had already begun. These were the Final Days.
    The truth had frightened and appalled him in equal measure. All his life Lucas had tried to live by Grud's Commandments, but now he felt a deepening unease about the state of his own soul. He wondered whether he was truly one of the righteous. He worried about the Last Judgement. When it came to separating the wheat from the chaff, would Grud assign him a place in heaven or cast him with the other sinners into the fiery pits of hell?
    Even as such thoughts plagued him though, he realised it was not within his power to do anything about it. Most likely, the shape of his destiny had already been decided. It was too late to buy his salvation with last-minute prayers and frenzied devotions. For all he knew, he was as doomed to damnation as every other sinner in Mega-City One. Brooding, Lucas realised he was utterly powerless to avert his fate. Armageddon was coming, and there was nothing he could do to change it.
    Or, at least, that was how it seemed until he saw the child.
    It had happened in the hallway outside his apartment. Lucas had just returned home after a long day spent preaching of the wrath of Grud to the heedless masses in Speakers Square - the one place in the city where he could hold forth on his views without the Judges throwing him in the cubes. Lost in his own thoughts, he had passed the Cooley woman from apartment 37-A as she stood outside the elevators talking to one of the neighbours. She was showing off her new baby. A boy. She said his name was Garret. Largely indifferent to the lives of his fellow block residents, at first Lucas had ignored them. Until, from the corner of his eye, he had spotted a glint of light come from the direction of the baby. Then, gazing closer, Lucas had seen something remarkable. Something extraordinary...
    A halo.
    The baby's head had been surrounded by a radiating nimbus of divine light. His blue eyes had sparkled. His face had been angelic. Staring dumbstruck, Lucas had blinked his eyes in disbelief. When he had opened them again, the halo had been gone. The moment had passed. Noticing the mother was looking at him strangely, Lucas had hurried to his door and retreated inside his apartment.
    It had been clear, whatever the nature of the vision he had experienced, Lucas had been the only one to see it. The memory of it had stayed with him. It was imprinted on his retinas when he closed his eyes. It lingered in his dreams when he fell asleep.
    A halo.
    The fact of it had astounded him. In his apartment, Lucas had considered the meaning of the vision for days. On the surface the Cooleys were a perfectly ordinary family, little different from the millions of other similar families throughout the city. Yet, Lucas was sure of what he had seen. The baby's features had shone with such a perfect and saintly light.
    No, not saintly. The brilliance of the halo had been of an entirely different and higher order. It had been like staring at the sun. It had been unearthly, with the glow of a divinity reborn into human flesh.
    A halo.
    Slowly, the true significance of the vision had dawned on him. It was hard to believe, but he realised there was only one explanation. Lucas had checked his facts. He had checked the names of the Cooley baby's parents in the block's register of tenants. It had been there in black and white. Their names were listed as Joseph and Mary.
    Joseph and Mary. It could not be a coincidence. Whether through some twist of fate or quirk of the divine order, Lucas realised he had been granted an opportunity beyond all his wildest dreams. The realisation filled him with a new sense of purpose. Suddenly, a new mission in life was