Meet Me by the Lane

We now learn more about the rise of Carl Ring, the future Antichrist-about his viewpoints, about his inspirations, about his intentions, about how his fallen English wife from two centuries ago still haunts his every thought and word and action. As the 2050s roll on unbearably for him, he becomes more and more enraged by what he sees around him in Europe and elsewhere in the world: the liberalism, the socialism, the outright Communism, what he considers the halfhearted right-wing efforts at reform, the never-ending flood of Islamic immigrants he views as invaders. Above all else, by Russia and the East. And then there is a third war in Korea. Poorly planned and prepared for and executed yet again, just like Second Korea, it results in more American than Korean dead, enraging an increasingly evil and bloodthirsty nation who will not stand for continuing defeats or even stalemates on the battlefield any longer, especially the new precedent of more American than enemy casualties. There is, however, one caveat to America's poor performance: she decides to use poison gas against her foe. In Europe, Ring notices, and begins to plan his move. He actually believes that a worse form of gas will be vital. Maddened by the myths of his Teutonic ancestors, and his fantasy of a new Crusade led by Anglo-Saxon and American men of war like him, he is war and death in human form. World War III begins. Ring's choice of venue for his Crusade to be launched is Munich in the fall of 2060 immediately following the election of his rival Ryan Preston, veteran of Second Korea and hardline anti-Chinese Senator from Missouri, not to mention author of the treatise "Absolute Freedom" in which Preston celebrates the possibility of a limitless environment where men and women can do, both alone and together, whatever they wish with no consequences, no moral restraints, no true guilt or wrongdoing. Preston, the False Prophet of Revelation, is aided and abetted by his new wife Joanna Preston, daughter of the late President Greg Coba