Seeking Refuge

by Alana Terry

  “Tell me the nature of the organization you work for, this Revelation Special Ops.”

  She didn’t want to say anything about R.S.O. She wanted him to acknowledge the trauma Zach must have undergone. He seemed immune. Maybe he needed to be.

  Hadassah sighed. Then she explained R.S.O. exactly as Mr. Cooper had instructed, switching around vocabulary and maintaining strong eye contact so it didn’t sound as if she was reciting a cheat sheet. “We are a non-profit, religious NGO and the primary goal of our work is to free men, women and children from forced labor.”

  “How old are you, Ms. Michelman?” he asked.

  “I’m eighteen, sir. I’ll be nineteen in August.”

  “You’re an Israeli citizen.” He stated it as plain fact. It caught her off guard, and she tried her best not to stutter.

  “This would explain why I have an Israeli colonel interrogating me in Rome instead of Italian police.”

  “Do you understand, Ms. Michelman, what it means to be an Israeli citizen?”

  “I’ll have to serve in the military.”

  “Two years with the Israeli Defense Force. But I want to give you a unique opportunity to serve your Eretz Israel. I can arrange a position for you with Israeli Intelligence, where your unique talents can be put to use defending our nation from similar terrorist attacks.”

  “So this interrogation wasn’t about what happened here in Rome, but about recruiting me.” She gripped the edge of the table and stared at him.

  He ignored the stare even more thoroughly than Dad ever did. “Do you know what Sayeret Matkal is?”

  “Yes, I know what Sayeret Matkal is. It’s the anti-terrorism wing of the IDF.” She smiled. “My mother is Eva Vishniac Michelman, sir, and she taught me about every branch of the Israeli Defense Force. And I can tell you knew her. Your eye twitches every time I mention her name.”

  “You don’t miss much, Ms. Michelman. Tell me what you think of my offer.”

  “You seem high ranking enough to put me in Sayeret Matkal if you wanted, but I want to work with R.S.O.”

  “More than protect your homeland? More than see Jerusalem?”

  Hadassah fell silent.

  “We are giving you a unique opportunity, Ms. Michelman. You will be off the watch lists, unlike the rest of your team.”

  Hadassah sank back in her seat and fought tears. “I thought we helped here.”

  “You did, but you must understand that your presence on the watch lists was necessary given the political environment these attacks created.”

  “But all anyone knows about is Zach. No one knows about the rest of the team except you, and we have given full disclosure of our activities.” She was glad she remembered the phrase “full disclosure” from Mr. Cooper’s drill the day before.

  “After a full investigation, the authorities will review whether or not those affiliated with Revelation Special Ops will be allowed in the EU again. But you are being given a unique opportunity, Ms. Michelman. This is our expression of gratitude to you. If you accept, we may be able to clear your friends’ names from the watch lists as well. And remember that if you step foot in Israel you will be required to serve your two years anyway, but your service to Sayeret Matkal could be in lieu of this.”

  “I am a Christian, sir, a follower of Yeshua Ha’Mashiach. I will not deny my faith.”

  “You won’t be asked to deny your faith.”

  She let her shoulders relax slightly. “What if I don’t accept your offer?”

  “It would cost you your Israeli passport. And I cannot give assurance your friends’ immunity if you refuse.”

  Hadassah reeled, her whole body atingle with a wave of anxiety. How could she face the team if she refused their offer? How could she say yes to such ultimatums? “You’ll guarantee my friends’ immunity?”

  “Guarantee is a strong word, Ms. Michelman.”

  She cocked her head to one side and softened her gaze. “And you’re a strong man with lots of influence, Colonel Schindler.”

  He gave his first real smile. “Flattery like that could get you far in this line of work.”

  Hadassah thought through his offer. No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t compartmentalize her emotions about this. “Must I give an answer right now?”

  “Your friends will be leaving Wednesday afternoon. Italian authorities have arranged a flight for them. I would need to know your answer by Tuesday afternoon. Any attempt to leave the country before then would be understood as refusal.”

  “I understand. You said my friends are leaving. Do you mean Zacharias as well?”

  “I’m sure your injured friend will follow when his health returns.”

  “Is there anything else, sir?”

  “Not unless you have more to tell me.”

  “No. Thank you, sir, and I’ll contact you by Tuesday.” She staggered out of the room after the accompanying officer.

  THE E-MAIL SHE WROTE to Mom was the most difficult she had ever had to write. Between her tears and her reluctance, she hunted one key at a time. “Please, Mom, please—what should I do?”

  She started an e-mail to Matt eleven times, but her eyes welled up too much after Dear.

  Throughout the evening, Christina tried to gently pry a clue from her about the interrogation. Hadassah only cried until her throat was dry. All the sorrow she stuffed inside gushed forth: Zeke; Zach; the blast in Rome and so many lives lost; the possibility of being so far from Matt, the R.S.O. team, and Mom for two years; and the lack of leads about Dad. But maybe Sayeret Matkal would know something about Dad. The confusion overwhelmed her.

  Chapter 43: Separated

  IN THE MORNING, WHEN her well of tears had dried, Hadassah told Christina the details of the interrogation, pushing her words past the lump in her throat. Christina urged her to call a meeting and have everyone pray.

  “Let me check my e-mail first,” Hadassah said. There was nothing from Mom. But there was an e-mail from Matt.

  “Mr. Cooper said you’ll be returning to the States soon. And our work here is nearly done. I can’t wait to see you again soon.

  “This world looks so much like the days the Lord teaches will be the Last Days of this age. We must watch and we must pray, and eagerly await His coming. And we need to love His people more than ever. I can’t bear to look at the newspapers anymore, and see the propaganda against the Jews. Why do they blame your people, my beautiful friend? The political cartoons break my heart and leave me feeling ill.

  “All around here, through the streets of Babylon, the faces look cold. There is more wealth here than anywhere I’ve seen on earth, opulence like I have never dreamed. But the faces are cold. The love of many has grown cold, and my heart aches because of it.

  “But my love for you hasn’t grown cold, and it will blaze like a bonfire in my heart, waiting to see your face again. I miss you, too.”

  Walking beside Christina to the church to meet with the R.S.O. team, Hadassah stared at the faces around her. The streets were filled with mourners. She prayed over them. In the distance, the smoke from Trastevere still trickled into the sky.

  When they arrived at the church the rest of the team had already gathered in the conference room and she saw Mr. Cooper’s face crisscrossed with concern. Although Hadassah thought of little beyond her own looming trials, this look in Mr. Cooper’s eyes alarmed her.

  “We’re all here, now,” Hyun said. “Will you tell us what happened?”

  “Early this morning there was a raid on the hotel in Babylon where our team was staying,” Mr. Cooper said. “Matt, Maleek, Adam and Paul were there. Only Paul made it out. He sent me a text twenty minutes ago. He doesn’t know the fate of the others.”

  “But, but...” Hadassah could hardly get these words out. “I got an e-mail from Matt this morning, sir.”

  “He must have sent it before the raid,” Mr. Cooper said. “I’m so sorry Hadassah. I’m so sorry.”

  “Who ordered the raid and why?” She couldn’t ev
en cry. Her throat felt dry.

  “Paul doesn’t know. He said the people who raided the hotel weren’t dressed like police or military, but no one stopped the raid, no one paid any attention.”

  Pedro’s mouth tightened. “Where is Paul now?”

  “He sent a text saying he was hiding, but I don’t know how long he can hold out.” Mr. Cooper hung his head and sighed. He looked up at Hadassah. “I understand you have a separate issue to address, Hadassah, and we will address it. But I thought you’d want to hear this first. It would probably affect your decision.”

  Hadassah’s throat tightened. “I’m unable to make a decision, Mr. Cooper. I wrote my mom, but I haven’t heard back from her yet. Shall I tell you what the Colonel offered me?”

  “Go ahead, and then we will pray for you.”

  After Hadassah told them the offer the Colonel made, she felt just as confused. She rested her forehead on her fist and thought about Matt, prayed for Matt, fought the tears sliding down her cheeks. Her teammates and friends gathered around her to pray. While they prayed earnestly on Hadassah’s behalf, her phone beeped several times with incoming text alerts. She curbed her curiosity and prayed.

  Wisdom, Lord! she cried in her heart. You said to ask You for wisdom and You’d give it. Here I am. I need Your wisdom quickly.

  After five minutes of praying for Hadassah, the team sat quietly, everyone staring at the wall, or the table, or their fingernails. Hadassah’s phone beeped again. She glanced at it under the table, unsure why she was keeping the text secret. The latest was from Mom, as well as the three before it. A whole e-mail sent as texts.

  I’ve been awake all nite praying about this. U r a strong & capable woman, Haddy, and can make a decision like this 1 b4 u. That said, here is my heart: we must continue to search for ur dad and the other missing missionaries. And stay connctd to R.S.O. U need a group of strong, uncompromising Christians around. I luv u whtevr u choose. Let me know ASAP & I’ll catch the next flight.

  She sighed and checked her e-mail to see if there were any new developments. One e-mail stood out from the rest—Priscilla’s.

  “Over the last few weeks, I have given hours of thought and prayer as to why I left R.S.O. I left because Zeke died, or so I concluded. Now I realize I left because of my own fear. Zeke’s actions should have inspired me, but I let them terrify me. I didn’t understand why Zeke would throw his life away. But he didn’t throw his life away. I’d believed it was important to preserve my own life at all cost — I believed this is what God wanted from me.

  “Something you shared, Hadassah, about how Zeke laid his life down for his friends, struck me. But it’s more than this. He laid his life down, yes, but it wasn’t for just friendship, or an ideology or some vague concept of love. He laid his life down for Jesus. This is all about Jesus. It’s not about our family members or loved ones. It’s about Jesus receiving the reward for His suffering. Will we complain about some light and momentary trials when we have such an excellent Friend? Or will we partner with Him to see His Kingdom come?

  “God is so good! Even though Zeke is dead, and my sister suffered unspeakably, God is good. I’m going to ask Mr. Murray and Mr. Cooper if they’ll have me back at R.S.O. I don’t know where you are in the world, but I wanted to tell you first because you were there when God moved through me in the alleys of Manila. Do you think He will move through me again? I miss you, my friend. The world has gone crazy (did you hear what happened in Rome?), but at R.S.O., we were actually doing something rather than letting life drag us along.”

  Without hesitation, Hadassah sent a quick e-mail in return. “I look forward to seeing you sometime soon, Priscilla. And yes, I’m sure God will move through you again — He just did. Thank you so much for reminding me how everything we do is for Yeshua, Jesus of Nazareth.”

  After sending the reply, Hadassah longed to speak, but before she could set her unraveled heart on the table, Mr. Cooper broke the silence and set his tangled heart there first.

  “I’m going to be fully honest with you, because I really don’t know what to do, friends.” He sunk his head into his hands for a full minute before he spoke again. “How can I tell the board of R.S.O. what has occurred? We expected our work to be difficult, but I don’t think anyone anticipated this level of opposition. I don’t know if we can go on.”

  “Are you suggesting we give up?” Hyun asked him plainly.

  Mr. Cooper hung his head. “I don’t know what I’m suggesting, but I think it’s time we talk about things openly and begin to figure out where we can go from here. We’ve lost five of our best operatives, and we may lose another this afternoon.” He looked up again and over at Hadassah.

  “No,” Hadassah said forthrightly. “I’m with R.S.O. Even if I decide to work with Israeli Intelligence for the next two years, I will not leave R.S.O.; I could work for you from anywhere.”

  “I will not ask you to compromise you commitment to Israel.”

  Hyun raised her hand to speak. “R.S.O. is not affiliated with a particular government, and nothing we do compromises the ethics or moral duties of an Israeli officer.”

  “It’s the only circumstance where I could envision a totally honest dual operative,” Christina remarked.

  “Anyone who is in the military and a follower of Christ always is a dual operative,” Pedro added.

  Tameka stared at Hadassah. “If you go to Israel, Haddy, and enlist with Sayeret Matkal, all the while continuing to work with R.S.O., our every step will be tracked by the Israeli intelligence community.”

  “They’re already tracking us,” Mr. Cooper told them. “If you decide to do this, Hadassah, we’ll be open to working with you, as long as you don’t compromise the premise of R.S.O.”

  “I understand, sir,” Hadassah said.

  “When I get back to the Lighthouse,” Mr. Cooper said, “I’m going to lay all the cards on the table, just like I am right now with all of you. But what I want to know from each of you is if you want to stay with R.S.O., or if you want to go.”

  Pedro lifted his head. “I’m staying, sir.”

  “I’m leaning toward that decision as well,” Tameka said.

  “I’m staying with R.S.O.” Hyun seemed almost teary. “You have been my only family since my mother was taken, and I’ll never forget that. I want to go to Babylon the next chance we get.”

  “I’d like to stay,” Christina said. “I’d like to find my dad, and find our friends. I’ll go with you to Babylon, Hyun.”

  “I wish I could go to Babylon with you,” Hadassah said.

  “You’ve made your decision?” Hyun asked.

  “It’ll be better for you if I’m with Sayeret Matkal. And who knows where God might lead me through them. I may end up in Babylon after all.”

  Hyun slid a folded piece of paper across the table to her. “Keep this in your pocket.”

  “What is it?”

  “Friends of mine in Sayeret Maktal and the Mossad.” Hyun winked. “Keep it hidden until you need it.”

  “Thank you.” The sting of separation began to ease.

  ON WEDNESDAY, HADASSAH rode in the car while Eli drove Mr. Cooper, Christina, Pedro, Hyun and Tameka to the airport. She vowed not to shed a tear as she watched them leave.

  Eli waited with her in the three hours between the team’s departure and Mom’s arrival, but he hardly said a word since the television captivated their attention. Every few minutes Eli took another bite of his sandwich, but showed little interest in either food or his companion in light of the unfolding events. Hadassah had poked at the grilled cheese on rye in front of her, but her appetite plummeted as soon as the latest news report about the UN’s new Secretary General appeared. The UN had chosen Liberia’s Minister of Justice. Xavier Rhodes’s face beamed from every screen throughout the restaurant.

  “You can’t be serious.” She didn’t remember opening her mouth when she heard herself speak.

  “Do you know him?” Eli asked.

  “I know of hi
m. Enough to be disgusted.”

  The moment she saw Mom, Hadassah wrapped her arms around her and held her close.

  Mom rented a car right away, ignoring Eli’s pleas to escort them around. And as soon as mother and daughter were alone, Mom dived right in. “Haddy, I want you to know I haven’t been sitting on my hands for the last year. I’ve been finding out why. Why was your dad taken? Why were the rest of the missionaries taken? Why cargo ships? The answers I’ve found are terrible, but they give clues as to where we should look next.”

  “And you are telling me now?”

  “Need-to-know basis, Haddy.”

  Exhausted, she glared at Mom. “So, what do I need to know?”

  “It’s about economy. It’s better for the Prime Minister’s economy if he has slaves than if he has a bunch of dead bodies.”

  “Jordan’s Prime Minister?”

  “He now has control of Babylon. I acquired Echelon files on him—very unpleasant. But he’s one of the people behind it along with his friend Vladimir Therion. They hope to kidnap and enslave so many Christians and Jews, particularly Messianic Jews, that Yeshua won’t return.”

  “How can they be so ignorant and arrogant?”

  “They’ve talked about branding or tattooing the workers and slaves. They want to run some sort of experiment.”

  Hadassah wanted to be sick as she tried to weigh which was worse: death, or slavery under this man. “You mean the mark of the beast?”

  Mom closed her eyes as the car sat at the red light. “Therion is Greek for ‘the beast’, so I’m afraid this is probably the case.”

  “Matt wrote to me about cargo ships on the Euphrates, unloading in Babylon. He thinks that people are part of the cargo.”

  Mom’s face darkened. “Bodies and souls of men. Just like the ancient prophecies.” She stared at the sea of cars. “How did Colonel Schindler take the news about you joining Sayeret Matkal?”

  THE DAY BEFORE, IN the morning, as Hadassah walked to the Colonel’s private offices, tourists and Romans strolled all around her as if they yearned for normalcy and wanted life to be okay again. But every one of them watched the skies and their backs.