Judd took a breath. “What does the 30 mean?”
“There are ten different regions or subpotentateships, as Carpathia likes to call them. Dr. Ben-Judah calls them kingdoms like it says in the Bible. There are ten different prefixes, all related to Carpathia, that people will get around the world. I get a 30 because I’m from the United Asian States.”
When Chang put his head back, Judd couldn’t help staring at the two marks. He had never seen anything so bizarre.
“I’m so confused,” Chang said. “I met with Director Hassid, the believer.”
“What did he say?”
“I was still woozy when they took me to him. I tried to act cool, like I was sure of myself, but I really wasn’t.”
“What aren’t you sure about?”
“The Bible says nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. God says we’re hidden in the hollow of his hand and that no one can pluck us out. But it also says those who take the mark will be separated from God forever.”
“But you didn’t choose it—they forced it on you.”
“True, but I have doubts. Maybe I’m some kind of freak, like a werewolf. Maybe when the moon’s full, I’ll follow Carpathia and rat on all my friends.”
“You know you won’t do that.”
Chang leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. “It’s not just my spiritual health. I’m worried about this new position too.”
“What do you mean?”
“The believers on the inside of the Global Community have to get out. They want me to come with them—”
“You have to go,” Judd interrupted.
“Not if I have this,” Chang said, pointing to his forehead. “Carpathia loyalists can’t see the mark of the believer. They just see the 30. That means I can live freely among them, buy and sell, and even work here without the slightest suspicion that I’m anything but true-blue GC. Mr. Hassid called it being bi-loyal.”
“So you could stay and do what Mr. Hassid has been doing.”
“He said I’d never get his job. I’m too young to be a director. But if he teaches me everything he’s done inside—listening in on Carpathia, his staff, and warning believers—I could be a big help to the Tribulation Force.”
“Sounds like a lot of pressure.”
“It won’t be very long before Christ comes back. I want to do something worthwhile, even if there’s danger.”
Judd smiled. He felt the same way, and he was sure others in the Young Tribulation Force did too.
“Mr. Hassid wants me to keep playing things cool until I’m offered the job in his department.”
“That way they won’t suspect you when he shows up missing, right?”
Chang nodded.
“How are they going to escape?”
“I can’t tell you that. It’s not that I don’t trust you. I just have to keep their secret.”
“Understood. It must be exciting thinking about being alone in your own place. I assume your parents are going back to China.”
Chang nodded again.
“Have they taken the mark yet?”
“No, and it’s curious. I saw Z-Van was allowed to take it. I thought my father would have pulled a few strings to get him and my mother inside to get theirs as well.”
“Maybe you can convince them not to do it,” Judd said.
“I pray every hour that they will not take the mark.”
After much debate about whether the GC would recognize Vicki, she convinced the others to allow her to be the decoy inside the reeducation facility. She changed clothes and rode with Colin and the others in the van. Colin had asked Jim Dekker and Natalie Bishop to send immediate orders to Iowa, and Dekker gave them phone numbers and names for the leaders there. “I’ll have everyone pray for you,” Jim Dekker had said.
They were a few miles away when Mark and Pete pulled the van and the truck to the roadside. Everyone got out, joined hands, and prayed that God would show them what to do.
When they were finished, Colin looked at Vicki. “I’m not comfortable taking you inside the facility. I’ll go in alone as Commander Blakely and take my chances.”
Vicki shook her head. “I can get inside, identify all the believers, and get out. Plus I can tell them what’s going on. It’ll lend credibility to your story.”
“If something goes wrong …”
“You won’t be able to get me out. But it’s the same for you. I don’t want to have to go back to Wisconsin and tell your wife we let you die here.”
Pete held up a hand and put an arm around Colin. “You haven’t known these kids as long as I have. They’re about as fearless as anybody I’ve ever known.”
Vicki smiled.
“And they’re reckless and irresponsible at times,” Pete added.
“Why would you say a thing like that?” Shelly said.
“Because it’s true.” Pete looked at Colin again. “But I know one thing. God’s working through them. I’ve seen it happen before, and I don’t doubt that he’s going to work through them again.”
Colin pursed his lips and nodded. “Okay. Keep your radio on.”
Pete drove ahead of them, making sure he had his papers for the injection devices. Mark drove to within a few hundred yards of the entrance to the facility, which was ringed with chain-link fencing and barbed wire around the top.
The kids waited while Pete made his delivery. Colin talked with Jim Dekker and verified that the transfer order for Judah-ite prisoners had been sent from the Des Plaines office.
As Pete’s truck pulled away from the facility, he radioed the van. “Package delivered and ready. He is risen.”
Colin dialed the number of the Iowa facility and identified himself as Commander Blakely. “You should have received a transfer request for a few of your prisoners. We’ve captured a suspected Judah-ite, and she’s given us information about others in this area. … Yes, they’re real squealers when you threaten them with the right punishment. … No, we’ll be taking them with us—”
Colin frowned and closed his eyes. “Let me remind you that you’re speaking to a superior officer. I say we’re taking them with us. We’re pulling up to your facility now, and I expect complete compliance.”
Colin hung up the phone. “I hope this works.”
Shelly found a pair of handcuffs Jim Dekker had included with their stash of uniforms and equipment. Vicki put her hands behind her, and Shelly quickly locked the cuffs around her wrists. “It’s not too uncomfortable, is it?”
Vicki smiled. “You’re supposed to be GC. You don’t care how it makes me feel.”
Mark got past the front gate guard by showing their fake papers. Though the road to the buildings wasn’t paved, the main facility looked new. It was two stories and shaped like a U.
Mark parked the van in front and Colin turned to Vicki. “What I say or do to you in there is for your protection. Understand?”
Vicki nodded. “You’re the commander, sir. I’m the prisoner.”
Colin looked at the others. “The rest of you stay outside the van and wait for me. I’ll signal if there’s a problem. And if there is, get out of here as fast as you can.”
Colin pulled Vicki out roughly, and she nearly fell on the concrete stairs that led to the main building. A man in a deputy commander’s uniform walked out quickly and saluted Colin. Vicki kept her head down.
“Like I said on the phone, sir,” the deputy commander said, “we’re ready to process the prisoners—”
“Then I’m glad we got here in time. If you’ll show me where you’re holding the prisoners, we’ll let this one identify her friends and be on our way.”
“Sir, we’ve been waiting all day to begin—”
“Have I not made myself clear, Deputy Commander?” Colin said forcefully. “We have reason to believe some of your prisoners will choose the blade instead of the mark of loyalty.”
“All the better,” the man said. “We’ll be done with them.”
“Have you ever hea
rd of Tsion Ben-Judah? Have you not been briefed on the Tribulation Force? One of your prisoners may know the location of the Judah-ites’ main hideout. If my superiors or anyone in New Babylon finds out that you’ve hindered the process—”
“I’m sorry, sir. I understand. Right this way.”
Colin took Vicki’s arm and rushed her up the stairs, following the deputy commander closely. GC guards stood at the doorway with guns. As she entered, she glanced back at her friends. Shelly gave her a nod as Colin pushed Vicki into the enemy’s lair.
6
VICKI felt the eyes of the GC guards on her as soon as she walked into the building. There was a sense of evil about the place. These were people who had given their lives to the Global Community, pledged their service to Nicolae Carpathia, and would no doubt kill believers without a second thought.
“It’s a shame these prisoners get to take the mark of loyalty first,” the deputy commander said. “I’ve got a whole staff here anxious to go.”
Colin bristled and spoke softly to the man. “Those orders are from New Babylon, and I’ll caution you not to spread dissension among your workers.”
“I only meant that—”
“I know what you meant, and I commend you for wanting to show your devotion. But a subtle complaint like that can infect those around you and cause people to question the ultimate authority of the potentate.”
The deputy commander stopped. “I would never want that, sir. Please forgive my lapse in judgment.”
Colin nodded and put out a hand. “Proceed.”
The deputy commander gleefully reported that they had received information from around the country and the world of many successful mark applications. “We haven’t heard one story of applicators failing.”
“Any news about those who wouldn’t take the mark?”
“There have been a few pockets of resistance. We raided an underground meeting in Arizona and found Judah-ites. Every one of them chose the blade instead of—”
“Please refer to it as a loyalty enforcement facilitator,” Colin corrected.
“Of course. Sorry, sir. There have been Judah-ite … uh, deaths in the south and northeast as well. North Carolina. Maryland. Pennsylvania. I suppose you saw the communiqué from New Babylon about this.”
“I haven’t yet. What did it say?”
They walked through a series of doors, and Vicki felt a whoosh of air as she walked inside one of the long buildings attached to the main one. The farther they went, the more scared Vicki became. What if they find out Colin’s not GC?
“The report listed the number of uses of the loyalty enforcement facilitators. They seemed to be concentrated in the United Asian States and, believe it or not, in the United Carpathian States.”
“How could that be?” Colin said. “I had heard the UCS had the lowest concentration of rebels than any other region.”
“You would think so,” the deputy commander said. “But they rounded up a large contingent in Ptolemaïs, in the country formerly known as Greece.”
“And took care of the problem?”
The deputy commander ran a finger across his neck. “With one chop.”
The man opened a final door that led into the holding area. “I assumed you wanted to go to the women’s facility first.”
Colin scratched his chin. “That’s fine.”
“How did you catch this one?”
“She was helping a group of Judah-ites store food and medical supplies. She has agreed to identify the rebels in this group in exchange for leniency in her sentence.”
“Is that right?” the deputy commander sneered.
Colin leaned over to the man and whispered something.
The man laughed. “A Judah-ite rat, eh? If you ask me, they’re all like rats, spreading betrayal to the potentate like a disease.”
Colin unlocked her handcuffs and leaned toward Vicki. “Find as many of them as you can and do it quickly, Judah-ite.”
Vicki glared at Colin as the deputy commander shoved her inside. “Find them or it’s the blade for you.”
Vicki walked inside the open area of the women’s division. A thin carpet, marked in places with colored tape, covered the floor. She guessed this was where prisoners lined up each morning.
The room was lit with natural light from several skylights. Bars covered doors and windows along the walls. Vicki noticed several cameras overhead focusing on different parts of the building.
Vicki guessed there were a few hundred women in the long room. Many were teenagers or in their early twenties who had somehow run afoul of the Global Community. Some had hardened faces, while others seemed lost, frightened, and confused. Though this building was larger, it reminded her of her stay in the Northside Detention Center.
Women milled about the room in clusters, talking and laughing. Some lay on the floor while others exercised, power-walking the length of the room.
A hush fell over the crowd when they saw Vicki. A woman motioned for her to come closer. “You got any smokes?”
Vicki shook her head and walked through the crowd, looking for anyone with the mark of the believer. As she passed, she overheard a few women talking about the mark. “Those kids said if we let the GC put that chip in and give us the tattoo, we can’t get into heaven.”
“You don’t have to worry about getting into heaven,” another laughed. “You’d never make it anyway.”
Several women laughed.
“Excuse me,” Vicki said. “What girls were talking about not taking the mark?”
A tall blonde woman stepped forward. “Did we invite you into this conversation?”
“I’m just looking for—”
“I don’t care who you’re looking for. Don’t interrupt!”
Vicki glanced back and saw Colin and the deputy commander moving into another room. She knew she didn’t have much time, but in a group this large, it could take a while to find all of the believers.
As Vicki moved forward, a woman took her arm and whispered, “Don’t be afraid of Donna. The girls you’re looking for are in the back corner.”
Vicki found two groups of believers surrounded by a cluster of inmates. The girls saw the mark on her forehead and rushed to her. Vicki quickly explained she had met them at the college and was here to help. A few women without the mark inched closer.
“I don’t have much time. They’re going to start processing people for the mark in a little while.”
One girl shook her head. “They wheeled the guillotine through this morning. I thought we were goners.”
“You kids aren’t thinking of refusing the mark, are you?” a woman at the edge said.
A dark-haired girl spoke up. “We’ve been trying to tell you, if you take Carpathia’s mark, you’ve sealed your fate for eternity.”
The woman rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Religious crazies,” she muttered.
“I need to identify all the believers for the GC,” Vicki said. “How many are there?”
“Three guys and ten girls as far as we know,” the darkhaired girl said.
“What about Cheryl?” another girl said.
“Who’s Cheryl?” Vicki said.
“In the corner with her back to us,” the dark-haired girl said. “We’ve held meetings to try and tell people the truth. Cheryl seems really interested, but she hasn’t made up her mind yet.”
“She’d better hurry,” Vicki said.
Another believer talked with Cheryl about the Bible but seemed frustrated. Then Vicki approached, sat, and took Cheryl’s hand. “My name’s Vicki Byrne. Someone said you’re pretty interested in what these girls have been saying.”
Cheryl nodded. She was small framed, had blonde hair, and wore a sweater. Vicki guessed she was about sixteen. The girl’s eyes were puffy and red.
Cheryl wiped away a tear. “I want to believe what they say, but I don’t think God could love me.”
Vicki stared at the girl, bit her lip, and began. “I never rush people into a deci
sion like this, but we’re in a big hurry. The Global Community wants you to take a mark of loyalty to Carpathia, and if you do that, you won’t be able to accept God’s truth.”
“I’ve been really bad.”
“I understand. I was no angel before I found out about God. But it doesn’t matter how bad or good you are, because all it takes is one sin to separate us from God. That’s why he sent his Son to die in our place and take the punishment for our sins.”
“You mean, Jesus?”
“Right. In the Bible it says that anyone who receives him has eternal life. But the people who reject him, reject God himself.”
“But that’s not what the Global Community wants us to believe.”
Someone blew a whistle at the other end of the room and Vicki stood. She looked through the masses of women and girls and saw Colin with the deputy commander.
Vicki knelt by Cheryl. “I’m going to pray a prayer because I have to go. If you want, you can say it with me or have one of the other girls pray with you. This is how you receive God’s gift.”
The whistle blew again, and the deputy commander yelled for everyone to sit on the floor.
“God in heaven, I know that I have sinned against you and I deserve to be punished,” Vicki whispered. “I want to turn from my sin right now and receive the gift you’re offering me. I believe Jesus came to die for my sins so that I could be forgiven, and that he was raised again so that I might spend eternity with you. Right now I want to reach out to you and ask you to be the Lord of my life. Forgive me. Save me. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Vicki glanced at Cheryl’s forehead, but there was no mark of the believer. “You still have questions?”
“How did you know?”
Vicki smiled. “It’s written on your face.”
Vicki glanced toward the center of the room and saw Colin and the deputy commander moving through the crowd of women. “I have to go. Please pray that prayer. And no matter what you do, don’t take the mark of Carpathia.”
Colin grabbed Vicki by the arm and pulled her to a standing position. “Have you found them?” he screamed.
Vicki nodded. “I don’t know all their names, but I can show you which ones they are.”
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