by Tim LaHaye
Buck flinched and looked at her. So did Verna. For the first time, Buck saw a flicker of uncertainty on Verna’s face.
“You’re telling me I didn’t see Tsion Ben-Judah in church this morning?”
“It certainly sounds unlikely,” Chloe said. “Wouldn’t you say?”
“Not really. I know Buck was in Israel and that his papers were found with a Ben-Judah sympathizer.”
“And so you saw Buck in church with Ben-Judah?”
“I didn’t say that. I said I saw Ben-Judah. He was sitting with that woman who put me up the other night, Loretta.”
“So Loretta’s dating Tsion Ben-Judah, is that what you’re saying?”
“You know what I’m saying, Chloe. Ben-Judah even spoke in that service. If that wasn’t him, I’m no journalist.”
“No comment,” Buck said.
“I resent that!”
Chloe kept the pressure on. “You were sitting somewhere where we couldn’t see you—”
“I was in the balcony, if you must know.”
“And from the balcony you could see a man sitting in the back with Loretta?”
“I didn’t say that. I meant I could tell he was sitting with her. They both spoke and it sounded like it was coming from the same area.”
“So Ben-Judah escapes from Israel, apparently with Buck’s help. Buck is brilliant enough to leave his official papers with some enemy of the state. When Buck gets Ben-Judah safely into North America, he brings him out in public at his own church, and then Ben-Judah stands and speaks in front of hundreds of people. This is your thought?”
Verna was sputtering. “Well, he, well, if that wasn’t Ben-Judah, who was it?”
“This is your story, Verna.”
“Loretta will tell me. I got the impression she liked me. I’m sure I saw him walking out the back with her. A small, kind of stocky Israeli?”
“And you could tell from behind who he was?”
“I’m gonna call Loretta right now.” She reached for a phone. “I don’t suppose you’d give me her phone number.”
Buck wondered if that was a good idea. They had not prepped Loretta. But after the incident in the office with Rayford earlier, he believed Loretta could handle Verna Zee. “Sure,” Buck said, scribbling the number.
Verna hit the speaker button and dialed.
“Loretta’s phone, Rayford Steele speaking.”
Apparently, Verna had not expected that. “Oh, uh, yes. Loretta please.”
“May I ask—”
“Verna Zee.”
When Loretta came on, she was her typical, charming self. “Verna, dear! How are you? I heard you were at the service today, but I missed you. Did you find it as moving as I did?”
“We’ll have to talk about that sometime, Loretta. I just wanted to—”
“I can’t think of a better time than now, sweetheart. Would you like to meet someplace, come over, what?”
Verna looked irritated. “No, ma’am, not now. Sometime, maybe. I just wanted to ask you a question. Who was that man with you in church this morning?”
“That man?”
“Yes! You were with a Middle Eastern man. He spoke briefly. Who was he?”
“Is this on the record?”
“No! I’m just asking.”
“Well I’m just telling you that that’s a personal, impertinent question.”
“So you’re not going to tell me?”
“I don’t believe it’s any of your business.”
“What if I told you that Buck and Chloe said you’d tell me?”
“First off, I’d probably say you were a liar. But that would be impolite and more impertinent than the question you asked.”
“Just tell me if that was Rabbi Tsion Ben-Judah of Israel!”
“It sounds like you’ve already named him. What do you need my input for?”
“So, it was him?”
“You said it. I didn’t.”
“But was it?”
“You want the honest truth, Verna? That man is my secret lover. I keep him under the bed.”
“What? What? So, come on—”
“Verna, if you’d like to talk about how moved you were by our memorial service this morning, I’d love to chat with you some more. Do you?”
Verna hung up on Loretta. “All right, so you’ve all gotten together and decided not to tell the truth. I don’t think I’ll have much trouble convincing Steve Plank or even Nicolae Carpathia that it appears you’re harboring Tsion Ben-Judah.”
Chloe looked at Buck. “You think Buck would do something so royally stupid it would not only get him fired, but it would also get him killed? And you’re going to use the threat of this news to the Global Community higher-ups in exchange for what?”
Verna stalked out of the room. Buck looked at Chloe, winked, and shook his head. “You’re priceless,” he said.
Verna rushed back in and slapped Buck’s checks on the table. “You know your time is short, Buck.”
“Truth to tell,” Buck said, “I believe all of our time is short.”
Verna sat down resignedly. “You really believe this stuff, don’t you?”
Buck tried to change the tone. He spoke sympathetically. “Verna, you’ve talked with Loretta and Amanda and Chloe and me. We’ve all shared our stories. You heard Rayford’s story this morning. If we’re all wacko, then we’re all wacko. But were you not in the least impressed with some of the things that Bruce Barnes garnered from the Bible? Things that are coming true right now?”
Verna, at last, was silent for a moment. Finally she spoke. “It was kind of strange. Kind of impressive. But isn’t it just like Nostradamus? Can’t these prophecies be read into? Can’t they mean anything you want them to mean?”
“I don’t know how you could believe that,” Chloe said. “You’re smarter than that. Bruce said that if the treaty between the United Nations and Israel was the covenant referred to in the Bible, it would usher in the seven-year tribulation period. First there would be the seven Seal Judgments. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse would be the horse of peace—for eighteen months—the horse of war, the horse of plague and famine, and the horse of death.”
“That’s all symbolic, isn’t it?” Verna said.
“Of course it is,” Chloe said. “I haven’t seen any horsemen. But I have seen a year and a half of peace. I have seen World War III break out. I’ve seen it result in plagues and famine with more to come. I’ve seen lots of people die, and more will. What will it take to convince you? You can’t see the fifth Seal Judgment, the martyred saints under the altar in heaven. But did you hear what Rayford said Bruce believes is coming next?”
“An earthquake, yes, I know.”
“Will that convince you?”
Verna turned in her chair and stared out the window. “I suppose that would be pretty hard to argue with.”
“I have some advice for you,” Chloe said. “If that earthquake is as devastating as the Bible makes it sound, you may not have time to change your mind about all of this before your time is up.”
Verna stood and walked slowly to the door. Holding it open, she said softly, “I still don’t like the idea of Buck’s pretending to Carpathia to be something he’s not.”
Buck and Chloe followed her out toward the front door. “Our private lives, our beliefs, are none of our employer’s business,” Buck said. “For instance, if I knew you were a lesbian, I wouldn’t feel it necessary to tell your superiors.”
Verna whirled to face him. “Who told you that? What business is that of yours? You tell anybody that and I’ll—”
Buck raised both hands. “Verna, your personal life is confidential with me. You don’t have to worry that I’ll ever say anything to anybody about that.”
“There’s nothing to tell!”
“My point exactly.”
Buck held the door open for Chloe. In the parking lot, Verna said, “So we’re agreed?”
“Agreed?” Buck said.
“Th
at neither of us is going to say anything about the other’s personal life?”
Buck shrugged. “Sounds fair to me.”
The funeral director was on the phone with Rayford. “So,” he was saying, “with the backlog of deaths, the scarcity of grave sites, and so forth, we’re estimating interment no sooner than three weeks, possibly as late as five weeks. We store the bodies at no charge to you, as this is a matter of public health.”
“I understand. If you could simply inform us once the burial has occurred, we’d appreciate it. We will not have a service, and no one will attend.”
Loretta sat at the dining room table next to Rayford. “That seems so sad,” she said. “Are you sure not even one of us should go?”
“I’ve never been much for graveside services,” Rayford said. “And I don’t think anything more needs to be said over Bruce’s body.”
“That’s true,” she said. “It’s not like that’s him. He’s not going to feel lonely or neglected.”
Rayford nodded and pulled a sheet from a stack of Bruce’s papers. “Loretta, I think Bruce would have wanted you to see this.”
“What is it?”
“It’s from his personal journal. A few private thoughts about you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course.”
“I mean, are you sure he’d want me to see it?”
“I can go only by my own feelings,” he said. “If I had written something like this, I would want you to see it, especially after I was gone.”
Loretta, her fingers shaking, pulled the sheet to where she could read it with her bifocals. She was soon overcome. “Thank you, Rayford,” she managed through her tears. “Thank you for letting me see that.”
“Buck! I had no idea Verna was a lesbian!” Chloe said.
“You had no idea? Neither did I!”
“You’re kidding!”
“I’m not. You think that little revelation was of God too?”
“I’d sooner think it was a wild coincidence, but you never know. That tidbit may have saved your life.”
“You may have saved my life, Chloe. You were brilliant in there.”
“Just sticking up for my man. She rattled the wrong cage.”
CHAPTER 17
A week and a half later, as Rayford was preparing to head back to New Babylon to resume his duties, he got a call from Leon Fortunato. “You haven’t heard anything from the potentate’s woman, have you?”
“The potentate’s woman?” Rayford repeated, trying to let his disgust show.
“You know who I’m talking about. She flew over there on the same flight you did. Where is she?”
“I wasn’t under the impression I was responsible for her.”
“Steele, you don’t really want to withhold information about somebody Carpathia wants to know about.”
“Oh, he wants to know where she is. In other words, he hasn’t heard from her?”
“You know that’s the only reason I’d be calling you.”
“Where does he think she is?”
“Don’t play games with me, Steele. Tell me what you know.”
“I don’t know precisely where she is. And I don’t feel the liberty to be reporting on her whereabouts or even where I think she is, without her knowledge.”
“I think you’d better remember who you work for, pal.”
“How can I forget?”
“So, you want me to imply to Carpathia that you’re harboring his fiancée?”
“If that’s what you’re worried about, I can put your mind at ease. The last time I saw Hattie Durham was at Mitchell Field in Milwaukee when I arrived.”
“And she went on where?”
“I really don’t think I should be sharing her itinerary if she chose not to.”
“You could regret this, Steele.”
“You know what, Leon? I’ll sleep tonight.”
“We’re assuming she went to see her family in Denver. There was no war damage there, so we don’t understand why we can’t get through by phone.”
“I’m sure you have many resources for locating her. I’d rather not be one of them.”
“I hope you’re financially secure, Captain Steele.”
Rayford did not respond. He didn’t want to get into more of a war of words with Leon Fortunato.
“There’s been a slight change of plans by the way, as it relates to your picking up Supreme Pontiff Mathews in Rome.”
“I’m listening.”
“Carpathia will be going with you. He wants to accompany Mathews back to New Babylon.”
“How does that affect me?”
“I just wanted to make sure you didn’t leave without him.”
Buck had already had his tongue-lashing by phone from Steve Plank about having allowed his passport and ID to fall into the wrong hands in Israel. “They tortured that Shorosh guy within an inch of his life, and he still swore you were just a passenger on his boat.”
“It was a nice big, wood boat,” Buck had said.
“Well, the boat is no more.”
“What was the point of destroying a man’s boat and torturing him?”
“Are we on the record?”
“I don’t know, Steve. Are we talking as journalists, friends, or is this a warning from a colleague?”
Steve changed the subject. “Carpathia still likes the copy you’re sending out from Chicago. He thinks Global Community Weekly is the best magazine in the world. Of course, it always has been.”
“Yeah, yeah. If you forget about objectivity and journalistic credibility—”
“We all forgot about that years ago,” Plank had said. “Even before we were owned by Carpathia, we still had to dance to somebody’s tune.”
Buck brought Amanda, Chloe, Rayford, and Tsion up to speed on their new laptop computers. Tsion had been using his secure phone to talk to everyone at Loretta’s place, which they began calling their “safe house.” More than once Loretta said, “That man sounds like he’s next door.”
“That’s cellular technology for you,” Buck said.
Tsion required daily visits from his fellow Tribulation Force members, just to keep his spirits up. He was fascinated by the new technology, and he spent much of his time monitoring the news. He was tempted to try to communicate via e-mail to many of his spiritual children around the world; however, he feared they might be tortured in attempts to determine his whereabouts. He asked Buck to ask Donny how he might go about communicating widely without the recipients of his missives suffering for it. The solution was simple. He would merely put his messages on a central bulletin board, and no one would know who was accessing them.
Tsion spent much of his days poring over Bruce’s material and getting it into publishable shape. That was made easier by Buck’s getting it to Tsion on disk. Frequently Tsion uploaded portions and in essence broadcast them to certain members of the Tribulation Force. He was especially impressed with what Bruce had to say about Chloe and Amanda. In his personal journal Bruce frequently mentioned his dream that they work together, researching, writing, and teaching cell groups and house churches. Eventually it was agreed that Amanda would not return to New Babylon until after Rayford got back from his flight to Rome. That would give her a few more days with Chloe to plan a ministry similar to what Bruce had outlined. They didn’t know where it would take them or what the opportunities would be, but they enjoyed working together and seemed to learn more that way.
Buck was glad Verna Zee was keeping her distance. Much of the staff of the Chicago office was deployed to various bombed-out cities to report on the resultant chaos. There was no doubt in Buck’s mind that the black horse of plagues and famine and the pale horse of death had come galloping in on the heels of the red horse of war.
On Wednesday evening, Amanda drove Rayford to Milwaukee for his flight to Iraq. “Why couldn’t Mathews fly on his own plane to see Carpathia?” she said.
“You know Carpathia. He likes to take the upper hand by being the mos
t deferential and kind. He not only sends a plane for you, he also comes along and accompanies you back.”
“What does he want from Mathews?”
“Who knows? It could be anything. The increase in converts we’re seeing has to be very troubling for Mathews. We are one faction that doesn’t buy into the one-world faith routine.”
At six Thursday morning, Loretta’s household was awakened by the phone. Chloe grabbed it. She put her hand over the mouthpiece and told Buck, “Loretta’s got it. It’s Hattie.”
Buck leaned close to listen with her. “Yes,” Loretta was saying, “you woke me, darlin’, but it’s all right. Captain Steele said you might call.”
“Well, I’m flying through Milwaukee on my way back to New Babylon, and I purposely scheduled a six-hour layover. Tell anybody there who cares that I’ll be at Mitchell Field if they want to talk to me. They shouldn’t feel obligated, and I won’t be offended if they don’t come.”
“Oh, they’ll come, hon. Don’t you worry about that.”
That same hour was three o’clock in the afternoon in Baghdad when Rayford’s commercial flight landed. He had planned to stay onboard to wait for the short flight on to New Babylon a little over an hour later, but his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He wondered if this would be the call from Buck, or from Carpathia about Buck, that would end the speculation and suspicion of the Tribulation Force. They all knew it couldn’t be long before Buck’s position was jeopardized past the point of safety.
Rayford also had a fleeting thought that this might be a call from Hattie Durham. He had waited as long as he could before heading back, hoping to connect with her before her return. Like Carpathia and Fortunato, he had no luck trying to reach her by phone in Denver.
But the call was from his copilot, Mac McCullum. “Get off that plane, Steele, and stretch your legs. Your taxi is here.”
“Hey, Mac! What’s that mean?”
“It means the big boss doesn’t want to wait. Meet me at the helipad on the other side of the terminal. I’m coptering you back to headquarters.”
Rayford had wanted to put off his return to New Babylon as long as possible, but at least a helicopter ride was a diversion. He envied McCullum’s ability to easily switch back and forth between copiloting jumbo jets and flying whirlybirds. Rayford hadn’t piloted a helicopter since his military days more than twenty years before.