“She’s a traitor!” the tall blonde woman yelled.
The deputy commander turned and called for silence. “There will be none of that.” He looked at Vicki. “Point out the Judah-ites.”
Vicki looked at Colin and gave a harried glance toward Cheryl and the dark-haired girl, who were still talking in the corner.
“Let’s come back here after she’s seen the males,” Colin said.
Natalie Bishop was double-checking the progress at the Iowa reeducation facility to make sure the order she had sent had gone through. She had used Deputy Commander Henderson’s computer while he was out earlier and had typed in Colin’s fake name, Commander Blakely, as the ordering officer.
As the afternoon had worn on and she hadn’t heard from Vicki or the others, she had become worried. What if she had led them into a trap? What if the deputy commander in Iowa hadn’t gotten the release order for the Judah-ites?
Just settle down and stay calm, Natalie told herself.
When Henderson left and told his secretary he wouldn’t be returning for the day, the woman gathered her things and walked out the door. Natalie waited, then returned to the office, got on the computer, and pulled up information about the Iowa facility.
She had just called up the release order when Deputy Commander Henderson walked into the office.
“What are you doing?” Henderson said.
Vicki wasn’t allowed into the men’s section of the prison. Instead, she stood at a window while men filed past. As Vicki pointed out the three believers, GC guards separated them from the other prisoners and led them to a holding room, where they were handcuffed and their names recorded.
One of the younger boys thought he was being led to the mark application site, and the guards had to restrain him. When a guard said he was being turned over to a commander, the boy stared at Colin.
Colin leaned forward and said, “Tell me the truth. Are you a Judah-ite?”
The boy nodded. “How did you know?”
Colin smiled. “Your friends have given you up. But if you will tell us what we want to know, you will live.”
Colin gave the order to lead the three males outside to the van. Vicki was taken back to the women’s building, and the females were paraded past her like the men had been. When the girls she had known from the abandoned college walked past, she pointed and they were taken into another holding room.
Vicki couldn’t help thinking that she was somehow controlling the destinies of these women. If she chose them, they would be safe from the Global Community. If she let them pass, they would be forced to take the mark of Carpathia. She only chose the believers, of course, but she still felt bad for the women who had rejected God’s love.
As the line dwindled, Vicki scanned the crowd for the dark-haired girl she had seen when she first arrived. Finally, when the last few women passed, Vicki spotted her and pointed.
The last girl in line was Cheryl. She had pulled the hood of her sweater over her head. When she passed Vicki, she threw the hood off and Vicki gasped. On Cheryl’s forehead was the mark of the true believer.
7
NATALIE quickly clicked Deputy Commander Henderson’s computer off and moved away from his desk.
“I said, what are you doing in here?”
“I’m sorry, sir … your computer is so much faster—”
“You have no right.” Henderson clicked the computer back on.
“Sir, I was just composing a message to … a friend of mine, and I didn’t want anybody to see it.”
“A love interest?” Henderson said.
Natalie looked away.
Henderson studied the screen. “Let me ask you again, and this time don’t lie—”
“I was helping a friend,” Natalie interrupted.
“But why were you using my computer? Unless …” Henderson pulled up the last document in the computer, and Natalie closed her eyes. If he found the entry about Commander Blakely, the kids were dead.
She fell to the floor and grabbed at her throat, pretending to choke. She glanced at the wall and found the computer’s power cord. Before she could reach it, Henderson’s foot came down hard on her arm, grinding it into the floor. Natalie cried out, but Henderson kept his eyes on the computer.
“I’ve had my suspicions about you.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her into a chair. “No one can see your computer from your desk. Why would you use mine?”
Natalie rubbed her arm and stared at the man. Before she could speak, he opened the order sent to the Iowa reeducation facility. The name Commander Blakely appeared on the screen.
Henderson turned wildly. “Did you send this order from my computer?”
Natalie put her head down and prayed that God would somehow intervene on her behalf.
Henderson pulled out his service revolver and pointed it at Natalie. With the other hand he picked up the phone and dialed. “Send two guards to my office at once.” He stared at his computer, then looked hard at Natalie. “If you sent this order, then you must have been behind the escape of that teenage boy. …”
Natalie sat still, trying to come up with a verse about feeling peaceful in a time of great stress. All she could think of was a passage from Isaiah Jim Dekker had included with his last e-mail: “But Lord, be merciful to us, for we have waited for you. Be our strength each day and our salvation in times of trouble.”
Natalie had wondered how it would feel to be caught. There was a chance she could still talk her way out of this or come up with some kind of explanation, but the more Henderson questioned her, the more her hopes faded. She had helped the Shairtons, Maggie, and the new believer, Manny, escape from the Global Community’s snare. She had also helped Vicki, Darrion, and other Young Tribulation Force members. If the plan in Iowa went through, more lives would be saved. Not bad for a lowly Morale Monitor, she thought.
The elevator dinged.
Henderson seemed deep in thought. Then he said, “If you sent this order, then Commander Blakely is phony. And if that’s true, those four people he took from here are loose.” He slammed his hand on the desk. “How could I have been so stupid!”
“If that’s true and you report it, you admit your incompetence,” Natalie said. “Those orders were placed from your computer. How will anyone know it wasn’t you who made Blakely up?”
Two guards rushed into the room and saluted. Henderson set his jaw firmly. “This Morale Monitor is to be held in a private cell until we can interrogate her further.”
“What’s the charge, sir?” one guard said as he snapped handcuffs on Natalie.
“Treason,” Henderson snapped. “And I suspect her to be a Judah-ite.”
As they led Natalie to the elevator, she heard Henderson on the phone with someone at the Iowa facility. She prayed that Vicki and the others were already out. Vicki and the group of believers were led through a side door into an outside holding area. She looked past several GC guards to the van in front of the building. Mark walked toward her and nodded. His eyes widened as the believers were herded through the door. They both knew the van would only hold fifteen people. Counting Colin and the others, there were nineteen. Mark went back to the van and said something into his radio.
The deputy commander and Colin walked outside to count heads. “I don’t think you have enough room in your vehicle for these, Commander.”
“I’m not interested in their comfort during the ride,” Colin said sharply. “We’ll manage. Now, if you’ll open the gate, we’ll be on our way.”
Vicki sidled up to the dark-haired girl. “The Morale Monitors at the van are believers too,” she whispered. “Tell the others to act like you’re upset that I ratted you out.”
The girl whispered the message to the others, and it spread through the group.
The deputy commander nodded toward a guard by the chain-link fence, and the man unlocked the gate and slid it back.
Vicki pushed her way to the front, and one by one the kids walked to the van. “You said you’d tak
e me separately!” Vicki yelled.
Conrad shoved Vicki hard. She lost her balance and went down in the gravel.
“Leave her!” the deputy commander said.
The others piled into the van, some grumbling about Vicki, others complaining about how packed the van was. A few had to sit on the floor to fit inside.
“Why don’t you leave her here?” the deputy commander said to Colin. “We would be glad to take care of her for you.”
Colin picked Vicki up by one arm, and she screamed in mock pain. “You’re not putting me in there with those people. They’ll kill me!”
Colin shoved Vicki toward the van and she climbed inside. “She may be able to tell us more.”
A guard yelled that the deputy commander had a phone call. The man shook hands with Colin and went inside the building.
Colin closed the door and turned to Mark. “Get us to the main road as quickly as you can.”
Mark pulled out, the tires spinning in the gravel. A boy behind Vicki said, “I want to thank you guys for helping us get out of there, but next time I’d like to order a bus.”
A few laughed nervously. Colin said, “Keep it down. We’re not out of this yet.”
“That guy is running toward us!” someone yelled from the back of the van.
Vicki glanced in a side mirror and saw the deputy commander waving his hands, yelling at the guards, and pointing toward the van.
“What do you want me to do?” Mark said, taking his foot from the gas pedal.
“The guards have their guns out!” a girl yelled.
“Step on it!” Colin yelled. “Everybody get down!”
As the van sped toward the front gate, a shot shattered the back window. Kids screamed and Colin told them to stay calm.
“What if they shoot at the gas tank and make it explode?” Shelly screamed.
“That only happens in the movies,” Mark said.
The guards at the front scrambled to action, activating a large gate that slowly blocked the entrance.
“Pete, we need some help!” Mark yelled into the radio.
“I’m on my way.”
The guards flew inside the guardhouse as the van careened around the closing gate, sending sparks flying. When Mark turned onto the main road, Vicki felt the van tip slightly, and she thought they were going over. Mark swerved and the van righted itself.
“GC cruisers are following us!” someone shouted.
“Okay, here comes Pete,” Mark said, slowing.
“What are you doing?” Colin yelled. “Keep going.”
Mark stopped the van as Pete’s truck neared the entrance. Vicki craned her neck and saw the two guards in front raise their rifles and fire at the truck, then run away. Pete’s trailer slid sideways, crashing into the guardhouse and blocking the entrance. The trailer tipped but didn’t turn over. GC cruisers raced after them.
Mark put the van in reverse and zoomed toward Pete. The man had a huge gash over one eye and a bruise was forming on his forehead, but he had managed to limp to the middle of the road. Vicki threw open the van door when Mark slowed enough for Pete to climb inside.
Pop-pop-pop went the rifle fire as Vicki slammed the door. Two of the side windows shattered as Mark floored the accelerator and sped away.
“Stay down!” Colin said.
“I don’t know where this road comes out,” Mark yelled. “We came in the other way.”
“Keep going,” Pete gasped. “When you come to the next road, turn right.”
“Are you all right?” Vicki said.
Pete was on the floor, wedged between a seat and the door. He was holding his right arm and for a moment let go. A dark, red stain covered his shirtsleeve.
“He’s bleeding!” Vicki gasped.
One of the kids ripped a piece of cloth from his shirt and tied it around Pete’s arm. The man looked pale and was having a hard time catching his breath.
“Will they be able to trace your truck?” Colin said.
Pete shook his head. “It’s under a different name.”
“What happened back there?” Shelly yelled.
“I knew that phone call wasn’t a good sign,” Colin said. “Somebody finally figured out we’re not who we said we are.”
“You could have fooled us, sir,” a boy in the back of the van said.
Colin smiled. He dialed Jim Dekker in Illinois to update him and see if he knew how the GC had discovered them.
Vicki leaned over and put a hand on Pete’s forehead. He was breathing easier now, and some of the color had come back to his face. “You hang on until we can get you some help.”
Pete smiled. Someone in the back folded a uniform and passed it forward. Vicki placed it under Pete’s head, and the big man closed his eyes.
Colin hung up and shook his head. “Jim has no idea how the GC found out about us. He’s been trying to get in touch with Natalie, but he can’t reach her at her apartment, the jail, or by e-mail.”
“You don’t think … ,” Vicki said.
Colin kicked the dashboard with a foot. “I knew she should have gotten out of there.”
“We have to go back for her,” Vicki said.
“We have to get out of here first,” Mark said.
Colin remained silent. “We’ll go back and help her, right?”
When no one responded, Vicki slumped onto the floor. She felt helpless, useless.
“Maybe Natalie ran,” Shelly said. “She’s smart. Maybe she’s on her way to Wisconsin right now.”
Vicki closed her eyes and prayed that Shelly was right. But something inside her said she wasn’t.
Natalie sat on the bunk in her cell, her head in her hands. By now she was sure they had found the e-mails she had sent from Deputy Commander Henderson’s computer as well as from Peacekeeper Vesario’s machine. Her prayer was that Vicki and the others had gotten away safely.
Natalie leaned against the concrete wall. She had longed to be away from the Global Community, on the outside with Vicki and the others, but she believed God could use her best inside. She had felt a sense of mission, working against the GC, and now her mission was complete.
Natalie regretted not being able to talk to Vicki about her story. She had imagined them sitting on a couch in front of a fire with mugs of hot chocolate steaming in their hands. Vicki would first fill in all the missing places of her story, and then she would listen to Natalie’s.
But that wouldn’t happen now. Natalie would never have the chance to tell Vicki about the woman who had taught her Sunday school class, who had prayed for Natalie and her family. After the disappearances, Natalie had rushed to the woman’s house. When there was no answer at the door, she went inside. The woman’s prayer journal was open on the kitchen table, and Natalie found her name. She also found Christian books and literature that she shoved into a garbage bag and dragged home.
Natalie smiled as she thought about how hungry she was for information in those days. She nearly inhaled the books and stayed up all hours of the night reading her Bible and asking God to show her his plan.
“Thank you, God, for using me to help others,” she prayed softly.
Natalie suddenly sat up straight, realizing that someone else needed to hear the message. She banged on her cell and yelled for the guard.
8
VICKI and the others in the van raced through the back roads of Iowa, knowing their chances of escaping the GC dragnet were slim if they didn’t get help.
Colin dialed Jim Dekker’s phone and reached him at the satellite operations center. “They’ve gotten a request to track us,” Colin told the kids a few minutes later.
“Then Jim can help us,” Vicki said.
Colin shook his head. “An operator is trying to track us now. Jim doesn’t think he can help without revealing himself.”
“What about the girl who wrote us, Kelly Bradshaw?” Vicki said. “Maybe she has a place we can hide.”
Vicki dialed the Wisconsin safe house and Darrion answered. “No time to t
alk. We need to get in touch with Kelly Bradshaw.”
“I just got an e-mail from her about an hour ago,” Darrion said.
“Did she leave a number?”
Darrion pulled up the message and gave Vicki a phone number. “She wants you guys to call her no matter what happens.”
Vicki immediately dialed Kelly. The girl was overjoyed to hear they had gotten their friends out safely. Vicki explained the situation and told her they were coming near a more populated area.
Kelly covered the phone and spoke with someone else in the room.
“Tell her we don’t have much time,” Mark said. “They’ll probably have helicopters out soon.”
“Hide the van and we’ll come get you,” Kelly said.
“Where could we hide a big van like this?”
“There!” Colin yelled.
Vicki saw a long, white building with what looked like several hundred garages. On top was a sign that said U-Store It.
Mark pulled into the parking lot, and Colin told everyone to stay down while he went inside. Vicki gave Kelly the address of the building, and Kelly said they would be there as soon as possible.
“What about Pete?” Shelly said. “We need to get him to a doctor.”
“I just need to rest,” Pete said. “I think the bleeding’s stopped.”
Colin motioned for Mark to drive the van around back. He opened one of the large bay doors, and the van barely fit inside. As the others got out and stretched, Vicki covered Pete with some spare uniforms.
Several kids knelt in prayer in the darkened storage room, thanking God for delivering them from sure death at the hands of the GC. They all prayed for Pete and that they would be able to escape the oncoming GC manhunt.
“What did you tell the guy at the front desk?” Vicki asked Colin.
“I told him the truth. The GC is looking for some escapees from a reeducation facility not far from here and to keep his eyes open. I deputized him and told him to—”
Colin stopped as noise filled the storage facility. It grew so loud that the door shook.
“Helicopter,” Mark said.
Natalie waited in her cell, praying that her request would be granted. She had promised to tell the GC everything about herself if she could meet with her roommate. She imagined Deputy Commander Henderson mulling over the request, thinking of some way to salvage his career.
Deceived Page 5