Nada wept. When she had composed herself, she reached for Judd’s hand and squeezed it tightly. “I want you to meet my friend. This is Judd Thompson from the United North American States.”
The man put out his hand. “Pleased to know you.”
Judd shook his head. “I’m sorry. I don’t know who you are.”
“I’m Kasim. Nada’s brother.”
Vicki followed the others to the new truck. Chris Traickin knelt to tie his shoe before he climbed into the passenger seat. Pete drove and Vicki, Shelly, and Conrad rode in the sleeper.
As Pete always did, he said a brief prayer before they pulled out. “And we thank you, Lord, that you’ve brought a new brother to us. Protect his friends who are in custody, and release them soon.”
“Amen,” Traickin said softly.
Vicki watched for any GC vehicles, but none came. Traickin took off his helmet but kept the rest of his protective suit on.
“I’ve heard there are groups of believers springing up all around the country,” Traickin said. “How many would you say are in Johnson City?”
“More than a hundred,” Pete said, “and that was just one cell.”
“Where did you guys hide?”
“There’s a cave up in the hills behind the gas station,” Pete said. “We hid there, then spread out to people’s houses.” Pete explained how he had crashed the truck in order to get away from the Global Community Peacekeepers.
“You’re a genius,” Traickin said. “You coordinated everything through that guy at the gas station?”
Pete nodded. “Roger Cornwell. Fantastic guy. If we hadn’t met him, all those people would be in jail right now.”
Conrad frowned and leaned close to Vicki. “I wish Pete would shut up.”
“Tell me about the believers back in Illinois,” Traickin said.
“Well, there’s—”
“Let me,” Conrad interrupted. “There’s only the four of us and a little old lady and her dog. And the dog’s the smartest of the bunch.”
Pete shot Conrad a look.
“It’s OK,” Traickin said. “You don’t have to talk to me.”
“Why don’t you tell us more about yourself?” Conrad said.
“What do you want to know?”
“How long have you had that mark on your forehead?” Chris Traickin smiled. “The same time it showed up on everybody else. Look, why don’t I give you my story?”
“You don’t have anything to prove,” Pete said.
“I like telling it. I had a wonderful wife who tried to tell me the truth. But I was caught up in the political world. I thought I was really important. Then my wife vanished into thin air.”
“You were with her?” Pete said.
Traickin nodded. “Dana and I had an apartment in Washington, D.C., and a house in Maryland. I picked her up at the apartment late that night. She went to sleep as we drove home.”
Traickin glanced out the window. His lip quivered as he continued. “I record talk shows and listen later. Dana always hated them, which is probably why she went to sleep.
“I was exiting the interstate when I saw something move. Her clothes went flat and her shoes fell to the floor. Her door was still locked, so there was no way she could have gotten out. I pulled over and looked in the backseat. She wasn’t there.”
“I bet it made you think, didn’t it?” Pete said.
“It made me crazy,” Traickin said. “One minute she was there; the next she had vanished. I retraced my route. I looked along the side of the road. Then it hit me. She had told me about God coming back for the good people, but I didn’t listen.”
“So that’s when you believed?” Pete said.
“I went to the house and found a Bible and a book Dana had tried to get me to read.”
“What book?” Conrad said.
“Mere Christianity,” Traickin said. “It’s by C. S. Lewis.”
Vicki looked at Conrad. He shrugged and leaned forward to listen.
“How did you find other believers?” Shelly said.
“First, I got involved with the militia movement. It felt weird because I was always against guns and war, and here I was working next to people I’d been against.
“It was there that I met my first believer. He showed me Dr. Ben-Judah’s Web site and helped me find a group to meet with.”
“Where’s this guy now?” Conrad said.
Chris Traickin shook his head. “He was killed at the start of World War III.”
“Figures,” Conrad muttered.
Vicki didn’t know what to believe. Traickin sounded genuine, but the part about God coming back for “good people” made her wonder. She glanced in the side mirror and thought she saw someone behind them. She kept watch as the truck rolled toward Illinois.
Judd sat hard on the couch and stared at Kasim. He remembered pictures Nada had shown him of vacations when they were younger. He had seen a couple of Kasim in a GC uniform, but in those, Kasim had no beard or mustache. No wonder Nada fainted, Judd thought.
Nada was clearly upset with her brother. They spoke in a different language until Judd said, “English, please.”
“I was just asking how he could do this to his family,” Nada said, turning to Kasim. “Why not send us an e-mail or pick up the phone?”
Kasim put a finger to his lips as footsteps sounded down the hall. “Let’s move into the next room.”
When they were settled in the computer room, Kasim began his story. “I was questioning my loyalty to the Global Community. I met a man named Dan who—”
Nada interrupted and explained they had talked with Dan in a GC prison. “He’s the one who told us to come here.”
“So that’s how you knew,” Kasim said.
Judd explained how they had read the computer files embedded in his daily log.
“You read my diary?” Kasim said.
“We thought you were dead,” Nada said, “and you never gave us any reason to doubt it.”
“I’m getting to that,” Kasim said. “I met with Dan several times. I don’t know why he trusted me, but he told me the truth. On the morning of the earthquake, I made my decision. I was on security detail on the ground floor of Carpathia’s building.”
Kasim took Nada’s hands in his own. “You have to understand. I was not just choosing God; I had to choose against Nicolae. He was my whole life, everything I had hoped for. To turn from him was so difficult, but after reading and researching, I had to do it.
“I walked outside and prayed the prayer Dan had written for me. Afterward, I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders, and yet, another one had taken its place. How could I be against Nicolae and work for the Global Community?”
“What happened?” Nada said. “How did you survive the building collapse?”
“I went inside but noticed something strange. Dogs barked. People walking them were being dragged down the street. Then I remembered that animals can sense the vibrations of the earth.
“I ran inside and told everyone to get out. They stared at me. I said there was an earthquake coming. One woman got on an elevator. She was laughing. They all thought I was crazy.”
“Did you run?”
Kasim nodded. “But before I went outside, I took off my radio and my badge and left them in the lobby. I ran as fast as I could. At the time there was a field a few blocks from the building.”
“Where the park is?” Judd said.
“Yes. I ran there, hoping no buildings would fall on me. The earth opened up and nearly swallowed me. I spotted the helicopter on top of Carpathia’s building and figured he made it out. Then I saw people falling from the chopper. It was terrible.”
Nada put a hand on Kasim’s shoulder. “Judd heard he kicked people off the helicopter who were trying to get on.”
“I believe it,” Kasim said.
“So, how did you get here?” Judd said.
“When I left my badge and radio in the building, I knew I was walking away, but I hadn’t fully form
ed my plan. I knew I was a believer in Christ. That meant I was an enemy of the Global Community. When the building collapsed, I knew I would be counted along with the other dead.”
“So you disappeared,” Judd said.
Kasim nodded again. “Getting out of the country was impossible. I found Dan and he let me stay here.”
“They didn’t find you when Dan was arrested?” Judd said.
Kasim held up a hand. A radio squawked in the hall. Kasim switched the power off in the apartment, and the computer went dead.
“Quickly,” Kasim said, “follow me.” He raced to a back bedroom. Judd noticed there was nothing out of place in the apartment.
Kasim lifted the carpet in a closet. Underneath was a door. He opened it, and the three climbed down a ladder mounted to the wall. Someone was putting a key in the door to the apartment as Kasim repositioned the carpet and closed the trapdoor.
The room below was long and narrow. Kasim told them to keep quiet and showed them a video monitor hooked to a small television.
“Where are the cameras?” Judd whispered.
“In the smoke detectors,” Kasim said.
Two GC Peacekeepers moved furniture and searched the apartment. One opened the blinds. “What was the report again?” the man said.
The other Peacekeeper was right above Judd, inspecting the closet. “Neighbor across the hall heard a scream. She looked out and saw somebody coming in here.”
The Peacekeepers moved to the other end of the apartment. Kasim whispered, “Dan knew they would try to catch him one day, so he built this hideout. Then he rented the apartment above and cut the hole. The people who moved in here never knew the back bedroom was supposed to be four feet wider.”
Judd noticed a refrigerator and cans stacked in the corner. “You must have enough food to last a month.”
“Two,” Kasim whispered. “It was packed so full I could hardly crawl in when Dan was arrested.”
“Why didn’t you call us?” Nada said. “Mother and Father were so upset.”
“Dan found the GC files confirming my death,” Kasim said. “I was afraid an e-mail would be traced, and the same with a phone call. Dan was arrested before I could get phony identification. Without that, there’s no way I can get out of the country.”
The Peacekeepers moved to the kitchen. One opened the refrigerator. “No food in here. Why don’t we just rent the place to somebody and let them keep an eye on it?”
The other Peacekeeper walked into the living room and sat on the couch.
“Oh no,” Nada said.
“What?” Kasim said.
“We forgot something.”
“Hey, look at this,” the Peacekeeper said, bending over and picking something off the floor.
Judd gasped. The man held up the ice pack Kasim had brought to Nada.
“The ice is still frozen,” the Peacekeeper said. “Secure the building. We’re not letting them get out of here.”
25
JUDD and Nada huddled close to Kasim as they watched the Peacekeepers on the monitor. Two more officers arrived to inspect the apartment.
“Why didn’t you go to Kweesa after Dan was arrested?” Nada said.
“How do you know her?” Kasim said.
Nada explained that she had stayed with Kweesa since arriving in New Babylon. “Kweesa gave us your minicomputer.”
Kasim nodded. “I couldn’t confide in her. She was even more into the Global Community than me. As soon as I made my decision to follow Jesus, I had to go underground.”
Nada shared her conversations with Kweesa. “She’s been asking questions about God.”
Kasim scratched his beard. “We don’t dare trust her yet.”
As they watched the Peacekeepers comb the apartment, Kasim asked about their parents. Nada told him everything. Kasim asked Judd how he had come to Israel.
Judd began with the night of the disappearances and told Kasim about the Young Tribulation Force. Kasim listened closely. He raised his eyebrows when Judd told him about his speech at Nicolae High School. When Judd told Kasim what had happened during the earthquake, Kasim said, “Incredible.”
“Why didn’t you work from inside the Global Community?” Judd said.
“I’ve been loyal to the potentate and his ideas for a long time,” Kasim said. “Once I believed in Christ, I didn’t think I could fool anyone. When Dan was arrested, I had to hide until I could find a way out.”
Another Peacekeeper entered the room above them. He put on plastic gloves and asked to see the bag of ice.
“What are they doing?” Nada said.
“Fingerprints,” Kasim said.
“You both handled the bag,” Judd said.
Kasim nodded. “And if they find even one print of mine, they’ll match it with the database at headquarters.”
“What does that mean?” Nada said.
Kasim held up a hand and pointed toward the monitor. Another GC official ordered the Peacekeepers into the hall. “We’ll do an apartment-by-apartment search. A security camera in the stairwell shows a young man and woman were on this floor. We’ve sealed the front, so they couldn’t have gotten out. Let’s find them.”
Kasim stood.
“Where are you going?” Nada said.
“We have to get that bag before they take it to the lab,” Kasim said.
As Pete drove, Vicki thought of her friends back at the schoolhouse. She couldn’t wait to talk to Mark and Darrion and find out how Charlie was doing. Tolan had probably grown since they had been gone. Then she thought of Judd. Where was he? Would he ever come back to Illinois, or was he stuck in the Middle East with Lionel forever?
Chris Traickin asked about other believers in Johnson City. Pete told him what he knew. Vicki, Conrad, and Shelly kept quiet.
Vicki spotted a motorcycle behind them and told Pete.
“He’s coming up fast,” Pete said.
Vicki craned her neck and saw a skinny man on the cycle. His scraggly beard blew in the wind. When he pulled up next to the truck, he waved at Pete to pull over.
“He’s not GC,” Chris Traickin said, snapping on his helmet, “but this might be a trick.”
“Good thinking,” Conrad muttered.
Shelly shouted, “It’s Omer!”
Pete stopped and rolled down his window. “What’s up?”
Omer glanced at Chris Traickin as a few locusts flew inside. “I need to talk with Vicki.”
Chris Traickin spoke into his microphone hidden under his shirt. “We’re on official Global Community business, son.”
“It won’t take long,” Omer said.
“What do you want with her?” Traickin said.
Omer hesitated. “I want to say something. I-I think I’m in love.”
As Kasim climbed the ladder, Judd grabbed him. “If the GC catch you, you’re dead meat. They’ll charge you with deserting or worse.”
“Judd, you’re not going up there,” Nada said.
“Why not?” Judd said. “If they catch me, I’ll tell them—”
“If anybody should go, it’s me,” Nada said. “If they catch us, who has the best chance of getting out?”
“They’d hammer Kasim,” Judd said.
“And they’d probably find out you were staying with Pavel and his father,” Nada said. “You don’t want that.”
Judd shook his head. Nada had a point. He couldn’t drag Pavel’s father into this.
“She’s right,” Kasim finally said.
Before Judd could protest, Nada was up the stairs and into the room above. Judd and Kasim moved to the monitor. Nada ran into the living room. She gave a mock Global Community salute to the camera.
“Hurry up,” Kasim said.
Nada placed the bag of water in the sink and grabbed oven mitts from the counter. She found another plastic bag and filled it with the ice from the first bag, then switched the bags and headed for the hideout.
Suddenly, the door to the apartment opened and a GC officer backed in. N
ada ducked and scampered into the back bedroom. The GC officer turned. “Did you hear something?”
“Don’t think so,” the man outside the door said. “The room’s been locked.”
The GC officer walked through the apartment. Kasim enlarged the screen and focused on the bedroom where Nada was hiding. The officer walked into the room and slowly moved to the closet. He grabbed the handles of both doors and swung them open.
A few more locusts got inside the truck when Vicki climbed out, but Pete got rid of them. Conrad gave Vicki a wink as she followed Omer behind the truck. Omer looked at the ground and shifted from one foot to the other.
Vicki shook her head. “Why did you drive all the way out here?”
Omer turned his back to the truck. “You guys are in big trouble. This Traickin fellow is dirty.”
“What?” Vicki said. “How do you know that?”
“I finally talked with your people in Illinois. I was online with your friend Mark, when that Roger guy from the gas station came to the house. He said you were taking Traickin back to Illinois, and Mark told us Traickin’s a GC plant.”
Pete yelled for Vicki, “We need to get moving!”
“Give me another minute!” she yelled back.
“Mark also told me to warn you that Traickin might be wearing a wire,” Omer said.
“You mean the GC are listening to everything we’re saying?”
Pete honked the horn.
“Go,” Omer said, “and get rid of this guy before you get to Illinois.”
Vicki hugged Omer. “Have you thought any more about what we talked about?”
“Maybe we can talk when you get home.”
Vicki got back in the truck. Conrad and Pete teased her and she blushed. “He ask you to marry him?” Pete said.
Vicki ignored them and scribbled a note to Conrad. She hid it when Chris Traickin took off his headgear and turned. “What did your friend want back there?”
Vicki shook her head. “I spent some time at his mom’s house, and I guess he has a crush.”
When Traickin turned, Vicki passed the note to Conrad. His mouth dropped open and he passed the note to Shelly.
What do we do? Shelly mouthed.
Vicki put a finger to her lips. After a few miles she pecked Traickin on the shoulder. “Can I see your helmet? I’ve wondered what it feels like to wear one of those things.”
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