Save Him
What's It About?
“You want me to go back in time and save Jesus Christ?”When the lords of literature — the same lot who gave us science fiction — gifted us with the marvelous concept of time travel, they opened the doors to endless plot possibilities, no matter how plausible. So if you are going to employ it, why not swing for the fences?
That’s exactly what William M. Hayes has done in his imaginative, thrilling work, Save Him. Here’s how he gets us from Point A to Point B.
A ten-member SWAT team, sent on dangerous missions to keep Americans safe from threats around the world, is brought to the secretive military Genesis Lab and told of their next assignment — stop extremist groups in Afghanistan who have been hiding weapons of destruction. Much like the character Q who provides intricate gadgets to aid James Bond, the brilliant scientist Rydel Scott is at it again. He has already developed applications to make team members resemble the appearance of any culture, past or present, and a translator to make them fluent in any foreign language on the spot.
TIME TRAVEL WITH THE “PLACEMENT” CHIP
While showing off a new way to save wounded soldiers, Rydel stumbles on a means of time travel. But before the so-called “Placement” chip is even employed, the heads of the Genesis Lab, Colonel John Adams and Will Stevens, fear that the altering of any occurrences in the past will have grave consequences for the present, with the changes resulting in the deaths of thousands.
This all becomes significant when Rydel visits his dying sister, a nun, who tells him, “He came to me. He has been guiding you these past few years, finding the right soul to give the knowledge to [through the time travel] … God’s hand was guiding you to save our Savior … He was crucified before He was able to finish what He was sent here to do.”
The Sister’s message to Rydel in a nutshell: Go back in time and save Jesus.
There’s plenty of good and evil at work here, and choose your side for how you feel about Rydel. Ray Catlin is head of the SWAT team, a religious man, a true leader, who guides his outfit. When Rydel travels back in time ostensibly to find and save Jesus, the motives for his disappearance are unknown. Adams and Stevens see Rydel as misguided, taking important equipment and information with him. They instruct Ray and his team to go back in time, find Rydel and return him to the lab.
Rydel claims it was divine intervention, “God’s hand guiding me,” in his work to discover time travel and use it for a specific intention.
WHICH MISSION IS NOW THE PRIORITY?
Amazingly, during his transport back to ancient Jerusalem, Ray sees Jesus passing in a crowd and physically brushes against him for an instant. This brief contact has an incredible effect on Ray, providing a peaceful, joyous sensation of goodness, a euphoric state that he has never felt to this degree. At this point, Ray becomes torn between finding and returning Rydel — the focus of his mission — and helping Rydel in his effort to save Jesus.
While one might think Save Him is a book with strong theological overtones, starting with its title, it really is not. It is a work of fiction. So with the liberties of the medium, readers can wonder whether the author will in fact rescue Jesus and allow us to ponder the enormous resultant effects. And at a less holy level, will Ray ultimately be swayed by emotion or occupation? And who exactly are the heroes and villains of this story?
Hayes tackles a number of intriguing issues in Save Him: the threat of global warfare and behind-the-scenes efforts to combat it; basic power struggles; the use and misuse of science and technology; clashes between military and religious interests; a ton of moral and ethical dilemmas; and perhaps none greater than imagining what would have happened had Jesus lived on.
The writing style is crisp, and the plot fast moving and plausible enough — within the grounds of reader discretion — to keep us captivated throughout.
“You believe in what I’m doing here, don’t you Ray?” Rydel asks when the two confront each other in ancient times.
Belief is in the eye of the beholder.
Save Him is available for purchase. Learn more about Hayes on his BookTrib author page.
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