Your loved ones who have been called to what the world would call a gory end shall return with Christ at his Glorious Appearing! They shall live and reign with him for a thousand years! Glory be to God the Father and his Son, Jesus the Christ!
Judd closed his eyes and wondered if he would have to experience the guillotine. The phone rang and he quickly picked it up.
It was Chang. “I need to talk. I’m downstairs in the lobby.”
Judd sneaked past the guests in the suite and hurried downstairs. He found Chang sitting on a plush chair, his back to the elevators. Judd sat across from him and stared at the mark on the boy’s forehead.
“Can’t help yourself, can you?” Chang said.
“I’m sorry. It’s just so weird to see both of those together.”
Chang shook his head. “It’s haunting me. I’ve been trying to remember what happened—if I resisted or if I just sat down and let them give me the mark. I vaguely remember arguing with my father and a camera flashing in my face, but that’s about it.”
“Are your parents still here?” Judd said.
Chang nodded. “They leave tomorrow morning. I’ve convinced them I’m okay and that working for the GC won’t be as bad as I thought.”
Judd inched closer. “Have they taken the mark?”
“Thankfully, no. I think my father was upset by the whole Z-Van spectacle. He wanted to take the mark while he was here, but now he says they will simply do it when they get back home.”
“Are you meeting with Mr. Hassid?”
“We try to talk after hours. We’ll be going over the different things he’s set up via the computer system here. It looks like I’ll be their only contact inside.”
Someone walked past and Chang paused. He put a hand to his forehead and sighed. “I don’t know if I can do it.”
“Of course you can. You’re as capable as anybody—”
“It’s not that. I know I can do the job. What I don’t know is if I can keep it all together.”
“I don’t understand.”
Chang leaned forward and whispered, “These two marks are driving me crazy. When I look in the mirror, all I see is Carpathia’s number. I’d like to burn it off or cut it out. I haven’t been able to talk with anyone. If I tell Mr. Hassid, he’ll think I can’t handle the job. If I tell my father, he’ll know I’m not loyal to Carpathia and he’ll report me.”
“What about your mother?”
Chang lowered his head. “I don’t know if I should trust her. There are things I can’t remember. I think we talked about Ming and me being followers of Ben-Judah, but I’m not sure.”
“Your sister is still working inside too?”
Chang shook his head. “She has escaped to the Tribulation Force. How I wish I could be there. I would sit down and talk with Dr. Ben-Judah.”
“You’ll get your chance,” Judd said.
Chang told Judd the inside information he had learned about Carpathia and how angry the potentate was about the Judah-ites. “What about you?” Chang said. “Do you have a safe place to hide?”
“We’re not sure it’s so safe, but we’re going back to Israel with Z-Van’s crew.”
Chang frowned when Judd told him Lionel’s story of Z-Van taking the mark. He looked at his watch and rose to leave.
Judd wanted to say something that would comfort and encourage the boy, but nothing came to mind. He put a hand on Chang’s arm. “The only thing I know to tell you is that we’ll be praying for you. God keeps his promises, and if you have his mark, he’s not going to reject you.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Judd watched Chang walk out of the lobby and into the darkened streets. If Chang stayed in New Babylon, he would likely be the only believer there. It would be one of the loneliest assignments of any in the Tribulation Force.
10
VICKI awoke the next morning in the basement of a strange house. She felt something crackle as she rolled to a sitting position and found Pete’s letter still folded in her front pocket.
Seven kids were staying at this house. Conrad, Mark, and Shelly had joined Vicki in the green minivan after Pete had driven away. Vicki knew the name of only one of the three girls there—Cheryl, the new believer.
Someone coughed in the bathroom nearby. Whoever it was sounded ill. A few minutes later, Cheryl came out of the bathroom holding her stomach. “Must have been something I ate.”
Vicki crept upstairs to find medicine for Cheryl and found a group of adults sitting around the kitchen table, all with the mark of the believer. They stopped talking when Vicki walked in. She explained what she was looking for, and a woman hurried to a nearby pantry.
The others stared at Vicki until a younger man standing against the kitchen counter broke the silence. He looked about twenty, was tall and thin, with dark hair. He sipped from a coffee mug and studied Vicki. “I heard we had a celebrity in the house. Aren’t you the one from the satellite broadcast?”
Vicki extended a hand. “I’m Vicki Byrne.”
The man smiled and shook Vicki’s hand warmly. “Chad Harris. Nice to meet you.”
“You saw the satellite broadcast?”
“In Des Moines. We drove some believers there to hand out copies of The Truth. I assume you know about Buck Williams’s reporting?”
Vicki nodded.
“It was impressive what you were able to do. We saw a lot of kids actually get the mark of the believer after your presentation.”
Vicki told them about the satellite truck and how Carl Meninger had risked his life in Florida to help them beam the signal to Israel and around the world.
The woman came back with some medicine and said she would go downstairs to help Cheryl.
“Is the Global Community looking for us?” Vicki said nervously.
Chad laughed. “I’d say that’s a pretty good guess.”
Vicki gritted her teeth. “What I mean is, are there reports about us in the media?”
Chad sobered. “It’s been pretty silent about you kids. I don’t think the GC wants anybody to know they let you get away.”
“What about the others?”
“We have you split up in different houses. You’re all safe.”
“And Pete? He’s the guy who drove the van—”
An older man at the table sat forward. “Haven’t heard anything about him yet. We’ll let you know if we do. Right now, you need to get back downstairs and relax. We’ll take care of you.”
Vicki thanked them, and Chad lifted his coffee mug toward her. “If you need anything, just let us know.”
Vicki went downstairs to find Mark on the phone with Jim Dekker in Illinois. Mark’s face showed the strain of the past two days when he hung up. “Jim was able to keep the power off in the building until the van was hidden. A couple hours later the GC spotted the van heading west and caught up to it before nightfall.”
“They have Pete?” Vicki gasped.
“Jim doesn’t know. He needs to talk with Natalie to get the information.”
“Let’s e-mail her.”
“He’s done that. No answer.”
“If they have the van, they’ll trace it to Wisconsin, right?”
“Colin took care of that a long time ago. But there’s another problem.” Mark sat on a couch.
The television was on in the background, and two of the girls from the reeducation facility were watching the latest news. Thousands had gathered near a statue of Nicolae Carpathia in Spain and knelt before it. The report switched to Australia, then to a city in South Africa, where more people worshiped Carpathia.
Mark turned back to Vicki and pursed his lips. “Dekker was supposed to have returned the commander’s uniform that Colin’s been wearing. Because of this trip, he couldn’t.”
“So Jim’s in trouble,” Vicki said, sitting next to Mark.
“They haven’t accused him yet, but the operator of the cleaners in Jim’s building was taken in for questioning. They must have found out Colin’s Co
mmander Blakely was fake and traced the missing uniform.”
“Is the guy a believer?”
Mark shook his head. “No, but Jim says he won’t let the guy hang for something that’s Jim’s fault. If he’s not released soon, Jim may turn himself in.”
Vicki put her head back on the couch and sighed. “That means they’ll search Jim’s house. Are the Shairtons and the others still there?”
“They were supposed to be on their way to Wisconsin overnight. I checked with Darrion and she said they hadn’t made it yet.”
Vicki put a hand to her forehead. “Everything’s falling apart.”
Cheryl came out of the bathroom with Shelly. Shelly gave Vicki a strange look.
“Feel any better?” Vicki said.
“A little. I’m going to rest some more.”
When Shelly joined them, Vicki asked her what the look was for. “I’ll tell you later,” Shelly said.
Conrad called them over to a computer stacked on top of a pool table.
Mark told Vicki that he’d learned something about this house where they were staying. Before the Rapture the people who owned it had several children, one of whom was left behind during the global disappearances. “He opened the house to some of his uncles and cousins. They’ve been reading Tsion’s Web site every day.”
“Is Chad the son who was left behind?” Vicki said.
Mark nodded.
“He’s pretty cute,” Shelly said playfully.
“Watch it,” Conrad said. He turned the computer screen where everyone could see it. “I was doing some research too. Look at this information I found buried on the official GC Web site.”
A picture showed several people standing in front of a fire, with what looked like a huge church in the background. Vicki inched closer and saw it was the Vatican.
“These are photos of Global Community officers destroying paintings, sculptures, icons, and even old Bibles,” Conrad said. “The directive came from Leon Fortunato himself.”
Mark shook his head. “That stuff is priceless.”
“A spokesman said they destroyed everything that paid tribute to the impotent God of the Bible,” Conrad said.
“Pretty soon they’re going to see he’s not so impotent,” Vicki said.
Judd talked with Chang on the phone the next day and discovered that Chang’s parents were gone. The GC had offered to let them both take the mark in New Babylon, but Mr. Wong had refused. There had been a tearful good-bye at the airport, and Chang returned to the apartment and was assigned permanent quarters. “I’m all by myself now with my own room and my own computer. I don’t have to worry about my parents listening in on my conversations.”
“Have you talked with Mr. Hassid about his escape?”
“Sorry, Judd, I can’t tell you about that. I can tell you this though. Director Hassid and I are designing a new computer system. I should be able to do everything he did up until now from my office or from here in my new apartment.”
“What will you do?”
“I’ll give the Tribulation Force access to anything they want to hear or see in the palace. But first, I have to monitor the escape and keep things going in the safe house in Chicago. It’s going to be a pretty complex mission.”
“Who will be your new boss after Hassid leaves?”
“A guy named Aurelio Figueroa. David says he treats the people above him like kings and queens and the people below him like servants. I should be able to handle him okay.”
Judd asked how Chang was doing with his feelings about the dual marks, but the boy quickly changed the subject. “Director Hassid showed me how to tap into both live and recorded conversations in the palace, and I came across something you’ll be interested in. Are you ready?”
Judd heard several keyboard clicks, then the unmistakable voice of Nicolae Carpathia. “Now when I spoke the other day of a host of enforcers, I wanted you to gather that I meant the very core of my most loyal troops, the GCMM. They are already armed. I want them supported! I want them fully equipped! I want you to marry them with our munitions so their monitoring will have teeth. They should be respected and revered to the point of fear.”
“You want the citizenry afraid, sir?” another man said.
“Walter! No man need fear me who loves and worships me. You know that.”
“I do, sir.”
“If any man, woman, young person, or child has reason to feel guilty when encountering a member of the Global Community Morale Monitoring Force, then yes, I want them shaking in their boots!”
Chang stopped the recording. “Carpathia’s talking with Walter Moon, the new supreme commander. They go on about their budget, and then Carpathia says he’s going to have at least one hundred thousand armed troops in Israel when he returns there.”
“A hundred thousand?”
“You may want to reconsider going.”
“Maybe it’s time we head back to the States. It’s probably a lot safer.”
Vicki and the others were careful to stay inside the rest of the day. All the kids were glad when they received the news that Bo and Ginny Shairton, Maggie Carlson, and Manny Aguilara had made it safely to the hideout in Wisconsin. They had also taken an ample supply of Jim Dekker’s uniforms and Global Community gear.
But their joy quickly turned to concern when Jim Dekker phoned. Vicki answered and asked for an update.
“No change with me,” Jim said, “but you need to sit down.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s about Natalie.”
“Is she still in Des Plaines? She should have gotten out of there a long time ago.”
“I’m afraid she won’t be getting out, Vicki.”
“No, even if I have to go down there and—”
“She’s gone, Vicki. I just received a communiqué from Des Plaines. That deputy commander over her is being—”
“What do you mean, she’s gone?” Vicki interrupted.
“Let me read this release to you. It’s to all United North American GC.”
Vicki’s heart raced as Jim Dekker slowly read the words she dreaded to hear.
“Deputy Commander Darryl Henderson was relieved of duty after a Judah-ite plot was discovered under his command. At least four prisoners were released in Des Plaines, and more than a dozen more in Iowa when a man posing as Commander Regis Blakely presented false papers and escorted prisoners out of custody.
“It is believed that a female Morale Monitor, Natalie Bishop, 17, aided the impostor by sending information of the transfer via Deputy Commander Henderson’s computer.
“The Global Community joint chiefs of the United North American States have appointed Commander Kruno Fulcire as head of the Rebel Apprehension Program (RAP). Commander Fulcire will visit the suburban Chicago facility, as well as the Iowa reeducation facility where the escapes took place.”
“But it doesn’t say anything about Natalie’s death,” Vicki said. “They could still want to interrogate her!”
“Let me finish,” Jim said. He took a breath and continued.
“Commander Fulcire reported that the Morale Monitor Bishop was given the opportunity to swear allegiance to Potentate Carpathia by taking his mark of loyalty. Upon refusal, Peacekeepers used the loyalty enforcement facilitator.”
“No,” Vicki whispered. She felt like she had been kicked in the stomach. Shelly, Mark, and Conrad kept asking questions, but she waved them off.
“They go on to say they think this is the first Global Community employee to die for not taking Carpathia’s mark. Commander Fulcire says this shows the importance of administering the mark to everyone on the planet. He has commanded complete compliance from every Global Community employee.”
“Jim, you have to get out of there right now. If you turn yourself in for stealing the uniforms—”
“I’m not letting somebody take the fall for my actions! Even if he is an unbeliever.” Jim clicked at his computer, then gasped.
“What’s wrong?”
“Then you have to get out.”
“This is my fault,” Jim said. “I have to go. I’ll let you know what happens.”
“Jim, listen—”
Click.
Mark, Conrad, and Shelly gathered around Vicki, and two others from the reeducation center joined them. Vicki was too overcome to speak, but the others could tell what had happened from the conversation.
“Father, we’ve lost another member of our team today,” Mark said, his voice breaking. “We can only imagine what those last moments were like for Natalie. But you gave her the courage to be faithful to you, even until death.”
“We know that one day we’ll see her again,” Conrad continued, “but right now we’re hurting. Show us every step we need to take, and make us brave like Natalie. Amen.”
11
VICKI spent a few hours alone, thinking about Natalie, how they had met, and what the girl had done for the Young Trib Force. They wouldn’t have escaped the schoolhouse or gotten Charlie and the others away from the Global Community without her. Vicki cried herself to sleep and had nightmares about the guillotine.
When Vicki woke up the next morning, she didn’t want to talk with anyone. Turning over in bed, she grabbed a Bible, leafed through the pages, and closed it.
“God, I don’t know why you let this happen. You saved people before, you helped us get out safely, but you let Natalie die. Why? I don’t understand.”
Vicki buried her face in her pillow and wept. She wanted to blame someone for Natalie’s death, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that the girl had died because of Vicki’s choices.
While Z-Van and his group went into a studio to record, Judd and Lionel went with Westin Jakes to Z-Van’s plane at the New Babylon airport. Though they were able to talk at the hotel, they all felt freer on the airplane.
The three prayed about their next move, feeling strongly that they should get out of New Babylon. But they didn’t know whether they would travel to Israel or the States.
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