by Alana Terry
“I hope I can fall asleep without the constant lullaby of sirens.”
“You’ve always adjusted quickly. I’m sure you will at R.S.O.”
Hadassah shrugged and tried to put on a cheerful face. “And I don’t know if I’ll be able to make friends.”
Mom smiled softly. “I know you’re used to keeping to yourself. But remember to put yourself out there and show lots of interest in others. If you ask people questions about themselves, most are so self-absorbed they won’t suspect you’re keeping secrets from them.”
“Do you think I can train myself to be an extrovert?”
“I used to be shy.”
Hadassah laughed at the thought of Mom being shy.
“I’m serious. My personality changed a thousand times when I was younger, especially in the army.”
Chapter 12: Paradigm Shift at NoCaHoP
GREENSBORO, NC
When greeters opened the doors at NoCaHoP and ushered them inside, both mother and daughter fell silent. The presence of the Lord was palpable. Mom found a seat near a box of tissues where she shed silent tears and raised her hands to God.
Hadassah’s whole body tingled as she tried to find a seat. She didn’t mean to ignore the kind faces and waves of welcome, she just didn’t know how to acknowledge them. The church in Brooklyn had many conferences and prayer meetings where the presence of God swelled to this level, but she had never felt it with this immediacy and with this much strength. She felt both afraid and safe. So this is what Dad meant when he talked about the Shekinah glory.
After half an hour she realized she had been sitting on the floor staring at a seat back, thinking about the Bridal Paradigm from John 3, Psalm 45 and Song of Solomon. It wasn’t at all like Yeshua being her boyfriend. This was about her position as a partner beside Him, and the privilege of His favor and listening ear. She’d have open access to the throne at all times where she could ask Him to reveal His love to her. The revelation of this privilege was overwhelming, like being told she owned the ocean and could do with it what she liked.
But there was more. It wasn’t just an idea. He actually opened His heart to her when she asked. Sitting there on the floor of the prayer room, she burned with a warmth she hadn’t felt since that night in the jungle. He tore the thick curtain of heaviness away, and the wind of His love blew in and refreshed corners of her soul she had hidden for years. He wasn’t afraid of her emotions, the sadness, the anger, the fear, her love for Dad, her feelings of superiority toward others. She could run to Him instead of from Him, and He would transform her. Her heart burned further, as if the transformation were physical as well.
He liked her and she knew this would be the premise of all His other emotions. She would be able to draw on His tenderness toward her. Forever.
Another two hours passed, but she was unaware. She didn’t move except to brush away tears.
Where was Mom? She lifted her gaze to scan the room. An Asian girl with coppery skin, sad, aged eyes and arms over her belly stood at the back and caught her glance; they smiled at one another.
Mom was out in the lobby talking with Mr. Cooper and Ronny Gibbons. At least he looked like Ronny Gibbons from the website picture. Hadassah followed Mom’s beckon into the lobby.
“I’ll be taking you to visit the other recruits and team members,” Mr. Cooper said. “We were waiting for Priscilla, but she got here about 20 minutes ago.”
She turned to Mom. “Will you be coming too?”
“I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll be meeting with Pastor Gibbons and several others while you settle in.”
Chapter 13: Priscilla
PRISCILLA GAVE WHAT smile she had left to the girl with the determined, tear-stained face. Of all the people in the prayer room, this girl with fly-away black hair sitting on the floor had been the one Priscilla felt most drawn to. Like they were friends before hello. But having kept quiet her whole train ride from Tampa, FL, to Greensboro, NC, Priscilla couldn’t bring herself to say hello. Not in this solemn and holy room.
This had to be the girl Mr. Cooper had referred to as the youngest recruit at R.S.O. And this girl made her feel old, even though she was still two months shy of her nineteenth birthday. She wondered, as she had the whole train ride there, if anyone at R.S.O. would be able to relate to what she had been through in her short life.
The sound of rapid-fire prayers brought her thoughts back to the prayer room. The second girl stepping up to the microphone to pray reminded Priscilla of her sister, Filipa. It was her voice, high, sweet, so confident of God.
Filipa. Why did she have to go on that mission trip back to the Philippines? Priscilla closed her eyes against the flood of memories planting her back in Cebu City in the Philippines, in the brothel, in the corner of the always dark bedroom, all those years ago.
She loved it here in America, thousands of miles away from Cebu City’s filth. Why did Filipa go back? Priscilla rehashed the night Filipa left, thinking of all the words she should have said to keep her sister from going, as if she could go back in time and make it different. Then Filipa disappeared along with everyone else on the mission trip.
Priscilla had hid in the prayer room at her church for the next three months and silently screamed at God. She prayed for her sister’s safety. She cried until both body and soul felt dry.
Her adoptive parents wept with her and promised to do what they could to find Filipa. In their search they happened to contact Ronny Gibbons, who connected them with Aaron Cooper.
“Why is this happening all over the world?” Priscilla demanded of Mr. Cooper the day she met him. “If my sister’s alive, sir, I know the sort of life she’s forced to live. I know it better than I ever want to tell you.” She jutted her jaw forward and ground her teeth as she remembered the sound of the gun shot twelve years ago. The brothel owner’s sneer, her mom collapsing onto the bed as life ebbed away all too quickly, but the scene replayed in slow motion more often than she ever told anyone. “If there’s anything you can do to help me get my sister back, please tell me. My parents won’t let me go alone.”
“With good reason.” Mr. Cooper’s sad smile held the compassion she longed for and a determination she related to. “With R.S.O. you wouldn’t have to go back there alone. But we’d need to train you before we send you anywhere.”
“Sign me up to R.S.O. and I’ll go with you.” She focused her gaze on him, then all her anger and frustration began to melt when she saw that Mr. Cooper had a plan instead of mere condolences.
“It will take about a year to train everyone.”
“A year! She might not be alive by then.”
He seemed so patient with her emotional outbursts. “It’s up to you if you want to join us. If you don’t, then we can keep in contact and try to find your sister for you in a year.”
“No. I said whatever it takes and I meant it. Sign me up.”
Priscilla’s dad, always the pacifist, objected at first, but said he preferred this option far above the army, the other place Priscilla determined to go if she found no solid leads about her sister.
Her mom wanted to drive her all the way up to North Carolina, but Priscilla insisted on the train.
“I need time to think,” she told her parents when they stood with her on the platform in Tampa.
The twenty-five hours on the train definitely gave her time to think. But when she had to transfer with all of her bags in Raleigh, she wondered whether she should have taken her dad’s offer.
Mr. Cooper’s wife, who picked her up from the Greensboro station, was a short, light-skinned black woman who exuded plenty of no-nonsense attitude. She stood beside the station, only ten feet from the train tracks, with sharp eyes and a generous smile as she held the sign reading ‘Priscilla Rogers.’ As soon as Priscilla made eye contact, Mrs. Cooper rushed over and offered to carry the baggage encumbering her.
“When my husband told me you were definitely coming, I told him I’d come getcha.” Mrs. Cooper flashed another of her welcomi
ng grins. “I’m going to be on staff with R.S.O. now that I’ve retired from the Department of Social Services, because I know y’all will need someone to hold your secrets with you.”
“I don’t think I’m ready to talk about stuff on that level yet.” Priscilla lowered her eyes from this woman’s tenderhearted gaze.
Mrs. Cooper clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Yer gonna be a hard shell to crack, ain’t ya. No worries. Most of the folk my husband recruited for R.S.O. are similar to you. My husband, too. I think you’ll be a good fit here.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I can tell you keep a secret real well.”
Priscilla’s attempt at a smile failed. She loaded her bags into the back of Mrs. Cooper’s hybrid SUV. “I can tell you were a social worker.”
“You’ve seen quite a few, haven’t ya, darlin’.”
She shrugged, then gave a small smile when Mrs. Cooper opened the door to the front seat for her. “Thanks.”
“I promise I won’t pull any social worker tricks, but I wanted to let you know I’m available.”
Priscilla crossed her arms over her belly. “Thanks.”
Greensboro looked so different from Tampa. There were no palm trees, for one. For another, it wasn’t very green, despite its name. Yet there were a few groves of evergreens in the middle of the city. She never would have seen this in Tampa.
As soon as she arrived at NoCaHoP she stepped from Mrs. Cooper’s SUV and stretched her legs.
“The last recruit is praying in the main room,” Mrs. Cooper told her. “Feel free to pray as well for a few minutes.”
But she hardly needed the permission. The yearning of her heart pulled her close to the Lord’s presence.
She stood in the back of the prayer room with arms folded over her stomach, eyes cast at her feet and a whisper on her lips of the only Name which brought her peace. Jesus. After a minute she chanced a scan of the room, curious about who the other recruit was. The girl’s piercing brown eyes seemed to hold lots of secrets too. They both smiled.
Peace and urgency filled her as she raised her face toward heaven and began to praise Jesus and thank Him for safe travels. He’d protected her from so much already... But she felt too antsy to stay still. She loved this sense of God’s presence, yet she didn’t want another moment to go by before she could start her training, since Mr. Cooper said she’d be the most untrained of all the recruits.
When she stepped out of the prayer room, the tall, lithe girl who had been sitting on the floor now stood in the lobby talking to Mr. Cooper, Pastor Ronny Gibbons and some other lady who was probably the girl’s mom.
“Priscilla.” Mr. Cooper interrupted her thoughts which were spiraling toward a heavy shyness. “I want to introduce you to Hadassah. The two of you will be coming with Mrs. Cooper and me to meet the others.”
Priscilla tried to give a firm handshake to this recruit. Instead, when she encountered Hadassah’s unexpected strength, her hand went limp.
“Nice to meet you,” Priscilla mumbled, but couldn’t remember if Hadassah said anything in return. She wrapped her arms around her middle again and stared at her knees. Why were they always wobbly in the presence of new people?
The whole car ride from NoCaHoP to the house where the recruits were staying, Hadassah and Mrs. Cooper dominated the conversation. Hadassah evaded most of the questions Mrs. Cooper asked. This young girl kept turning the questions around—not in a sarcastic or unkind way, but as if she wanted to listen more than she wanted to talk. Priscilla always admired this trait in other people, but never seemed to emulate it well.
Mr. Cooper found the right question for Hadassah. “So, I saw you praying for about two and a half hours in there... what was the Lord showing you?”
“Well, I was meditating on the suggested reading list, and asking God some of the questions I had written down on the long drive here when He began to reveal the Bridal Paradigm to me.”
“Really?” He grinned. “I knew He would, but I didn’t anticipate it this soon. Did He show you how important the Bridal Paradigm is for the times we’re living in?”
“Not so much. He just told me over and over how much He loves me.” The corners of her mouth raised in a smile.
Priscilla had been meditating on the Bridal Paradigm a bit on the train and longed for this same assurance from the Lord.
“Make sure you write it down,” Mrs. Cooper said. “You too, Priscilla. Write down everything the Lord says to you. I’ll be handing out journals to everyone tonight.”
If only He spoke so clearly to me.
The house was smaller than a true mansion, but reminded Priscilla of celebrity homes in Tampa. It stood at the end of a long driveway which was lined with a low stone wall and pristine landscaping. The porch was wide and long, a place to watch thunderstorms roll in. Black trim crisscrossing white plaster gave the house a Tudor look, but it was obviously less than ten years old. She had never been inside a place like this.
Three women she suspected to be R.S.O. recruits sat on the large porch swing and on the carved wooden bench sharing a laugh. One of the women was Chinese with soft features and the athletic contours of a soccer player or gymnast. The second was a black woman who looked ageless. She could have been sixteen or thirty with a face like that. Priscilla saw her chuckle graciously and place a gentle hand on the forearm of the third woman.
This last young woman was as pale as a lab rat, as if the only rays she ever soaked up were through a laptop; but IQ seeped from her pores—she would still be smarter than 99.9% of the world if she lost half her brain cells in a sneeze. This woman was the jester among the three, judging by the laughter of the other two.
Priscilla could hear them even while she sat inside the running car. She had expected much more seriousness and wanted to hide at the sound of that laughter, despite the bright and friendly eyes of these women.
Chapter 14: Icebreakers and Blessedness
HADASSAH WANTED TO love this laughter as soon as she heard it. Such contagious laughter. It almost made her forget her heartache.
“Mrs. Cooper!” the pale young woman shouted when they all got out of the car. “Are these the last two recruits?”
“They are,” Mrs. Cooper told them. “Lisa, Hyun, Tameka, come meet Priscilla and Hadassah. Would you take them inside to introduce them to the others?”
Hadassah took the opportunity to practice being an extrovert again. Since she was closest to Lisa, she smiled wide at her and began with her hand outstretched.
“Hi, Lisa, it’s so nice to meet you.” She shook Lisa’s thin hand as confidently as she dared. “This place is huge. How many are staying here?”
Lisa skipped up the stairs. “We won’t be staying here. We’ve only come here to gather in one place before we head out to what everyone calls the Lighthouse. That’s the new place and none of us, except the Coopers, have been there. Oops, I’m forgetting Mr. Murray, but he’s there already. Oh, yeah, how many of us—there are sixteen, well eighteen with you and Priscilla here. Enough to make this place feel small, even though it is huge! The ladies are sharing rooms on the second floor. Here, follow me.”
Tameka chuckled behind them. “Just don’t ask Lisa about any computer programing ideas. She will have you doubling over with laughter while you’re trying to walk up the stairs.”
Hadassah detected a West Coast accent from Tameka’s succinct tone. “How long have you been with NoCaHoP?”
“I’ve been here almost four years now, but only when on leave.”
“On leave?”
“I was in the Army.”
Hadassah’s mouth fell agape—Tameka looked so young.
“A few others here are former military, too,” Lisa said. “Take Dave—he’s the guy with a buzz cut and the mean scar across his nose and cheek—he’s a former Ranger.”
“Army Ranger?” Hadassah asked.
Lisa nodded. “And Christina was a Marine. She’s the short one with the long blond braid down her ba
ck. Between Christina and Dave I don’t know who’s toughest around here.”
Glancing at everyone who gathered in the large living room, Hadassah saw several of the guys in the midst of the crowd, showing off to each other with handstands. Some of them, especially that Asian kid, were really good. She drew her shoulders in and slumped her head, trying to think of another question. “Are there any who are former intelligence?”
“Besides Mr. Cooper?” Tameka took the stairs two at a time. “Hyun Xi, who you met outside, was CIA before retiring to be with R.S.O.”
“Retiring?” With a small gasp, Hadassah turned briefly to glance at Hyun, who was helping Priscilla carry her luggage. “She doesn’t look a day over twenty-two.”
Lisa chuckled. “She’s a bit older, but none of us want to ask her a third time.”
“I hear Mrs. Cooper,” Tameka said. “We’re probably going to do another icebreaker game, since you and Priscilla have arrived.”
“ONE MORE ICEBREAKER, y’all,” Mrs. Cooper told the crowd. “Then we’re going to have pizza for dinner. Mr. Cooper told me there will be a teaching tonight, but he hasn’t told me who the teacher is.”
The crowd milled around in boisterous curiosity, but grew quiet again when Mrs. Cooper raised her hands.
“The game’s called Lollipops. I’ve got a bag of lollipops and each flavor will have 4 matches. Your goal is to form a group without duplicate flavors. The first group to form tells their name, age, where they’re from and one fact about themselves; the second group to form tells name, age and two facts. And so on. Okay, ready? Go.”
The scramble, the laughter and the mingling of faces and names—Hadassah had had other notions about Revelation Special Ops. This fit none of those.
She ended up on the second team. Then she saw him—the Asian kid who ended up on the first team—and remembered his face from the market in Liberia.