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83 Thus we find that no sooner was the decision reached than Nergal rushed to Gibil’s African domain to find and retrieve the weapons, not waiting for Ninurta. To his dismay Ninurta learnt that Nergal was disregarding the objective’s limits, and was going to use the weapons indiscriminately to settle personal accounts: “I shall annihilate the son, and let the fa- ther bury him; then I shall kill the father, and let no one bury him,” Nergal has boasted. While the two argued, word reached them that Nabu was not sitting still: “From his temple to marshall all his cities he set his step, toward the Great Sea he set his course; the Great Sea he entered, sat upon a throne that was not his.” Nabu was not only converting the western cities, he was taking over the Mediterranean islands, and setting himself up as their ruler! Nergal/Erra thus argued that destroying the spaceport was not enough: Nabu, and the cities that rallied to him, also had to be punished, destroyed! Now, with two targets, the Nergal-Ninurta team saw an- other problem: Would the “upheavaling” of the spaceport not sound the alarm for Nabu and his sinning followers to escape? Reviewing their targets, they found the solution in splitting up: Ninurta would attack the spaceport; Nergal would attack the nearby “sinning cities.” But as all this was agreed upon, Ninurta had second thoughts; he insisted that not only the Anunnaki who manned the space facilities should be fore- warned, but that even certain people should be forewarned: “Valiant Erra,” he told Nergal, “will you the righteous destroy with the unrighteous? Will you destroy those who against you have not sinned with those who against you have sinned?” Nergal/Erra, the ancient text states, was persuaded: “The words of Ishum appealed to Erra as fine oil.” And so, one morning, the two, sharing the seven nuclear explosives be- tween them, set out on their ultimate Mission: Then did the hero Erra go ahead, remembering the words of Ishum. Ishum too went forth in accordance with the words given, a squeezing in his heart. Gone with the Wind