Seeking Refuge

by Alana Terry

“While I huddled in the trees and waited for Manuela, I prayed earnestly because I had never been so terrified in my life—of wild beasts, of those men, for all those babies. And I heard God say the strangest thing in the midst of my heart. But He spoke so loudly I almost thought He was right beside me. As soon as He spoke I wasn’t afraid anymore—of anything.” She grew quiet and returned in her mind to the moment in the trees.

  “What did He say?”

  Hadassah smiled wide, the first burst of emotion she had allowed to slip. “He said I was born for such a time as this.”

  “Like Esther. The other Hadassah.”

  “Right. He also said to watch for the ‘Cooper’ and to watch for the ‘Hop.’ And you know how you hear people say, ‘Don’t go there!’? Well, I heard God say in my heart just as emphatically, “Go there, go there, go there!” And I felt such peace. Two more hours passed before Manuela called my name and shined her flashlight toward me. During those two hours my heart sang songs of praise to the Lord. And I’m here now—He preserved my life.”

  “Manuela told me to tell you a proverb of her people, ‘The daughter of a lion is also a lion.’”

  “Tell her thank you for me.”

  “I’ll forward the e-mail so you can tell her yourself.”

  “What do you think about the Lord’s word to me, about the Cooper and the Hop?”

  “Don’t go looking for this Cooper or the Hop. Wait for the Lord to reveal them to you.”

  “I can’t stop thinking about it.”

  “Pray about it, Haddy, but don’t try to make it be one thing or another. Remember, understanding grows at a snail’s pace.”

  Hadassah sighed in sudden melancholy. “Bobeshi used to say that all the time. I miss her.”

  Mom scraped one of her thumbnails across the tip of her index finger, then folded her hands together quickly and set them on her lap. “I didn’t tell you. Mr. Lavo was killed during the raid.”

  “Any word about Mr. Blessing?”

  “None.”

  Hadassah pressed her lips together and sighed again. “So, what do you think about my joining Revelation Special Ops?”

  Mom nodded, but if Hadassah hadn’t been looking at her she would have missed it. “I think you’ll do better in a team than on your own. You might not lose half your money.”

  Heat rushed to her ears and cheeks as she cast her gaze to the ground fixing her stare on the wire covered floor. How did Mom manage to keep so many wires looking so neat?

  Mom interrupted her listless thoughts. “That is if you still want to join this Revelation Special Ops.”

  “So, are you saying yes?”

  “Perhaps you should do an assignment or two with me first.”

  She gave Mom a wide smile. “When can I start?”

  “I’m going to let you get some rest and settle into your senior year before I send you on any assignments.”

  “I forgot, only six more days until I start. I hope they don’t have another ‘What did you do with your summer?’ essay question on the first day.”

  Mom chuckled. “What would you write?”

  She shrugged. “Oh, a short anecdote about how I dispersed a human trafficking ring in Africa and slept alone in a jungle ten feet below the most poisonous snake in the world. All sorts of believable stuff.”

  Mom shot her the get-serious face, then chuckled again. “I’m glad you can joke about it after the fact. Have you been struggling with nightmares at all?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve been too tired to dream. Were there any more earthquakes while I was gone?”

  Mom shook her head. “Nothing serious. Don’t forget to wake early tomorrow so Dad can take you out for your birthday.”

  THE NEXT MORNING, IT took a fourth knock at her door for Hadassah to wake. She looked at the clock; it was already 10:30am. This was the second morning in a row she had slept in. The jet lag woke her at 1:28am, and she tossed and turned until almost 6:30.

  “Are you okay?” Dad asked.

  “Oy vey!” She jumped out of bed and scrambled about her room. “I forgot to set my alarm.”

  “I thought we’d go out for breakfast. Then I could take you to the aviary at the Bronx Zoo.”

  “Really?” She stuffed her tired body into the closest clean clothes. “I’d love that. Sorry I slept in. Give me three minutes.”

  “This isn’t the army, Haddy, you can take your time.”

  “Trust me, Dad, three minutes and I’ll be at the front door.”

  DURING BREAKFAST AT her favorite diner, where the eggs and bagel tasted different after a few weeks out of the country, she and Dad both noticed the cover of the same newspaper.

  “Did you see what it said in the headline of the Post?” Hadassah asked.

  “I did. Scientists in Babylon have cloned their first dinosaur.” Dad winced as if the words assaulted him even as he spoke them.

  Not knowing what to make of his reaction she stored it away to think about later. “I wonder what kind of dinosaur it was.”

  Dad ambled ponderously to the stand and purchased a copy of the paper.

  After reading the first two paragraphs Hadassah looked up at him again. “Was there anything about this in the Times?”

  “Not even a blip, but I’m sure if this is real there will be an article soon. And I hope the Times won’t be as sensational.”

  Hadassah lowered her voice. “I heard the strangest thing while in Africa. The kidnapper was talking to the Minister of Justice about receiving payment in Babylonian silver. I thought the Kingdom of Jordan was overseeing the rebuilding of Babylon, so wouldn’t they have the dinar just like Jordan does?”

  Dad glanced up at her. “Both Iraq and Jordan are involved in the construction of Babylon. Jordan’s Prime Minister, Fahd Afsal, is overseeing most of the work, as well as some elusive, Scandinavian businessman named Vladimir Therion.”

  Hadassah gasped when she heard the name. “How do you know all this?”

  Dad gave a shrug. “Your mom has friends who’ve been there for years. They even brought back evidence of the new Hanging Gardens. The place is supposed to be impressive, so I wouldn’t be surprised to hear they have stores of silver and even treasure troves of gold.”

  “Mom didn’t say anything to me when I mentioned Vladimir Therion’s name to her.”

  “You know your mother and the secrets she keeps.”

  Hadassah rolled her eyes. “Always. I don’t know how you can stand it.”

  Dad gave a rare, knowing smile to her. “See?” He pointed at the newspaper. “The first dinosaur is a brachiosaurus.”

  She scanned through the whole article. “This is disturbing, because who knows when they’ll start cloning the T. Rex or velociraptor?”

  Dad sighed and closed his eyes in response.

  A tingle ran through every one of her limbs. “If they’re doing all this in Babylon, do you think the End Times have begun?”

  “I don’t know. But it looks like it might be very soon.”

  “But do you think Yeshua has started to open the seals yet?”

  “I think if He hasn’t opened the first seal already, it’ll be in a few years from now instead of decades away.”

  This time, when the tingling ran through her limbs, she shivered. “Do we start asking Him to open the seals yet?

  Dad reached his strong hands across the table to hold onto hers then nodded. “Also, given this news about Babylon, we need to stand even more with our brothers and sisters in Israel.”

  “Do you think the nations will surround her again and try to destroy her?”

  “They have since she formed 3,500 years ago. But hopefully they won’t for a few more years.”

  “Then can I go to Israel yet?”

  “Soon, Haddy... I’m still preparing my heart for that day.”

  “Why are you always so uptight about me going to Eretz Israel?”

  He glanced at his plate, then at the wall. “Because.”

  She stared hard at him. />
  “It won’t work. I learned how to ignore that stare nineteen years ago, after my honeymoon with your mother.”

  She continued to stare at him.

  “Your mother will kill me if I tell you. You know this, right?”

  “C’mon, Dad. I’ll take the blame. What is it?”

  “You have an Israeli passport. You have citizenship. You’ll have to serve in the military if you go there.”

  “Not till I’m eighteen, though, right?”

  “And I know you. You’ll fall in love with Eretz Israel, just like I did, and you won’t want to leave.”

  “Then why did you leave?”

  He pushed his plate forward and looked at her. “It just got too violent. I moved us over here after Hamas began murdering children in their beds.”

  She furrowed her brow at him. “So, I lived there too?”

  “For about a year and a half. We moved back to Brooklyn before you turned four.”

  “Wow. I wonder if some of my memories aren’t from movies or pictures, but from my time in Israel.”

  “Probably.”

  What other secrets would he tell if she asked the right questions?

  THE WORLD OF BIRDS at the Bronx Zoo was one of Hadassah’s favorite places on earth. With elbows leaned against the rail, she stood beside Dad and drank in the sounds while her heart grew quiet. In the presence of those birds she felt she could approach one thought at a time, or nothing at all. Sometimes she stared at each beautiful creature in turn and tried to figure what sound it made. Sometimes she let the symphony meld. The older she was, the more those less exotic birds enraptured her, the ones with brown or gray plumage and sweet songs: the wood thrush, the wren, the song sparrow, the mourning dove, the nightingale.

  There was so much to sort through about Africa, her Israeli citizenship and her application to Revelation Special Ops. Today she wanted contentment. She yearned for it. Closing her eyes, she distinguished one birdsong from another. There was the wood thrush, there the nightingale, there the song sparrow.

  “It’s 4:30,” Dad said. “We’ve been here five hours.”

  “I’ve taken your whole day.”

  “I gave it to you. I hope you feel rested.”

  “I do. How about you?”

  “I’ve been praying. Do you still want to join this Revelation Special Ops?”

  “Your teachings as much as Mom’s make me certain about Revelation Special Ops. You always talk about how we need to lay our lives down for Yeshua, for His gospel and for others. You’ve sown this in my heart for years. I need to live it.”

  He nodded. “I agree with you, and so I’ll give my blessing to your application. You were made for this sort of work.”

  The birds suddenly grew quiet. The bench beneath them trembled, and they looked at one another until the quake stopped.

  “My daughter, this is not the hour for me to hold you back. But don’t forget what I have taught you about Yeshua. Don’t forget what He teaches us about our Abba Father.”

  She reached over and took hold of his hand. “I won’t, Dad.”

  As soon as she got home, she completed her application. Despite her exhaustion she stayed up until 11:00pm to finish it. Each answer she filled out revitalized her further. She woke at 6am the next morning and skipped all the way to the mailbox.

  Chapter 7: Assignment and Departure

  THE FIRST MONTH OF school passed quickly. Some of her classmates, the ones who had seen the news coverage of the incident in Africa and knew she had gone, asked if she had run into trouble while there. She told them about the miraculous return of Isabella and Danny’s baby, without the details of her involvement, and some other benign stories from the orphanage. She grew a little nervous in early October after Isabella posted the story on her blog and on Facebook. Isabella mentioned Hadassah in the story, how she went missing and came back the same day as their baby. Both Mom and Dad assured Hadassah there wasn’t enough information for anyone to make the connection.

  As the semester drew on, Hadassah wondered if she’d ever hear back about her application or go on another assignment. She pined for more reconnaissance work.

  On a Friday morning that she had off from school, four days before Dad was scheduled to leave for Pakistan, Mom called her into the office.

  “You ready to help me on a job?”

  “Always.” She was about to flash Mom a smile but caught a stressed look in her eyes.

  “It’s bad this year.” Mom shook her head. “Bad.”

  Concern crossed Hadassah’s face. “What’s bad?”

  “The number of children who have gone missing in the City since the beginning of the school year. I had three new clients this morning. Someone has organized a seedy operation, and I’d like your help to figure out who.”

  “Do you have any leads?”

  Hadassah took an envelope from Mom which had pictures of eight men and two women.

  “Each of these people is innocent until we prove them guilty. So please, help me prove someone guilty. Maybe even two or three, if we find enough evidence. There’s a smaller envelope which has a picture of each of the teens. If we can get a photograph of any or all of these children with any of the men or women I gave you photos of, then we’ll have enough to feed to the boys in blue for warrants.”

  “Are there any other investigators on this case?” Hadassah asked as she committed the faces in the pictures to memory.

  “Three detectives from NYPD, but we’ll be going to a location no one else has looked into.” Mom handed Hadassah a sheet of paper with an address.

  “When do we start?”

  “Tonight. I’ll be going right inside the club; you’ll need to take photos from outside in the back of the place, since this club checks ID some nights. But I’ve observed the back door, and there’s not much by way of security.”

  “What do you mean by ‘not much,’ Mom?”

  “Two men, but you should be able to escape their notice if you keep a low profile. Here’s satellite footage of some of the girls going out back for cigarettes and fresh air. I haven’t been able to get a close-up on any faces. While you’re out back I’ll go inside the club as an evangelist. Maybe one or two will repent of their wicked ways.”

  “We can always hope.” Hadassah looked over the satellite footage of the night club. She noticed an air duct running between the club and the building next to it. “What’s in this building next door?”

  “You know, I’m not sure.” Mom lifted her eyes and called toward the other corner of the office. “Yitzak.”

  “Yeah?” He set down the bracelets and ear pieces he was placing the final touches on.

  “Find out what’s in the building east of the club.”

  After a minute of browsing the web, he answered, “It appears to be vacant at the moment. But it looks like Giuseppe DiNapoli owns it.”

  Mom cringed. “Oh. This is not good.”

  Hadassah stared at the photo, hoping it would yield a different option. “You can’t get me in?”

  “I didn’t say that. But he won’t open the door for you.”

  “Oh, wait, look at this,” Yitzak called over his shoulder. “The building’s up for sale.”

  “Who’s the agent?”

  “God is good, Aunty Eva. Jacob DeSalvoso, from Warehouse Realty.”

  Mom closed her file and dropped it on the desk. “God is good. Jacob’s the one whose son we found in a drug house in Connecticut two years ago. I’ve had to boost our security since then, but it was so worth it.” She paged her secretary. “Lena, get Jacob DeSalvoso on the phone for me.”

  “So can you get me in?”

  Eva winked at her daughter. “He’ll turn the key if I ask him to.”

  A COLD FRONT MOVED in over the Northeast that November evening, promising an early snow in the city. This weather felt colder to Hadassah after the heat of an African summer. Stomping her feet and shivering, she tried to look as inconspicuous as possible while she waited for the realt
or to show up. But he was late. Along this street, in the section of Queens Hadassah never traveled alone, the night clubs bloomed with patrons, the drug houses loomed with despair, and the warehouses owned by the mafia clenched secrets even the police wouldn’t want to know. The African jungle at night was probably safer than this neighborhood. At least Mom was with her. Eva knew how to blend in better than most, and even wore a green wig for the occasion. She dressed Hadassah for the assignment: spikes on her leather clothing, blue streaks in her hair, heeled boots elevating her to six feet.

  “Ms. Michelman,” Hadassah heard behind her.

  She turned about to face this man, maintaining her professional facade. “Yes.”

  “I’m Jacob DeSalvoso. Nice to meet you.” His covert skills were terrible. “I want to show you around this side of the building.”

  As she followed him she kept in full character in case anyone from the street took notice of them.

  Before rounding the corner, she caught Mom’s glance. Eva Michelman waited in line to gain entrance into the club, looking for all the world like a punk rocker instead of the evangelist, private detective, or abolitionist she was. She tapped her wrist to remind her daughter she planned to keep in contact through the bracelets and ear pieces Yitzak had made. Hadassah turned the ear piece on as soon as she was off the street.

  “This is the entrance you’ll use.” Mr. DeSalvoso unlocked the door and held it open for Hadassah. “The building’s still in DiNapoli’s name, so his people have access here too, but I told him I was showing it this evening. I doubt anyone will show up. Still, we’ll need to keep the light use minimal. I’ll come in with you at first, so we can keep up the pretense. Oh, and I need to show you to the air duct, which is on the second floor. I hope there are no earthquakes while you’re inside.”

  “Yeah, me too. After you show me you can turn the lights out again—I brought a flashlight with me.”

  Once DeSalvoso had left, Hadassah set her boots on the floor beside the entrance of the duct so her movements would be muffled. She began to make her way through the long, narrow and very cold shaft. The thump-thump-thump of the bass from the club masked every sound she made and rattled the duct in a way that made her a little nervous.