“Yes, but I thought it was with the men from FOCO.”
“Foco?” Nick asked.
“Foco,” Anna repeated. “It’s spelled f-o-c-o. I don’t understand how she’s using it, but the word means focus in Spanish.”
Anna asked Maria what she meant.
“It is a group that has been helping villages in our area,” Maria said. “They drilled a new water well for our village. I must have been confused.”
“Did you tell the police about that?”
“No, I thought I was mistaken.”
“Well, if you think of anything else, let me know,” Nick said. “I’d really appreciate hearing about it.” He turned back to the door.
“Dr. Hart, I am so sorry,” Maria said.
* * *
Maggie and Nick sat in tranquility on the bench under the mango tree; it was a respite they looked forward to at the end of a busy day. They watched in companionable silence as the moon rose over the mountains. Only the hushed voices of children at the orphanage whispered in the night.
“I talked with Maria today when I changed her dressing,” Nick said, breaking the stillness.
“She doing okay?”
“Yeah. I’ve been pretty worried about her wound.”
But her wound wasn’t all he wanted to talk about. Nick wasn’t sure where to start. He had so many questions. “Do you know what John was doing up in that area of Guatemala?”
Maggie sighed. She’d known he was bound to ask, but didn’t want to talk about it. “I don’t know, Nick, I guess checking on some of the villagers that we see. He would often travel all around Guatemala. Honestly, I thought he wanted to get away from here every once in a while,” she smiled at Nick, “for a fresh perspective.”
“Was there anything different about this trip? Did he say anything?”
“I don’t know. I’ve racked my brain about that. He was just going to be gone a few days. The only thing that I have been able to remember is he told me that some of the villages in the north were having fertility problems. John thought it was the pesticides they use so heavily in their agriculture that was causing the problem. What’s weird is that I can’t even remember that much about the day he left. You know happy-go-lucky John—he gave me a big kiss and a smile and was gone.” Tears welled up in her eyes.
“I’m really sorry, Maggie. I’m sure it is hard to talk about.”
“It’s okay, Nick. Maybe it’s just my Blackfeet blood. We don’t like to talk about the bad things. My God, if we did, that is all there would be to talk about.”
Nick saw Maggie’s discomfort and his brain raced for a positive subject. “I can’t believe how all this is working out. My instrument rep in Memphis gathered all the implants and supplies together, but I couldn’t figure out how to get them here until I thought of my friend Buck. I called him yesterday and thought he was going to jump on a plane that moment, he was so excited. He flies in tomorrow with eleven boxes of implants. Unbelievable.”
She finally smiled. “Goes to show that nothing is impossible with God.”
“Well, I guess I have to admit, it sure appears that way.”
Nick drank some iced tea. “You’re really going to like Buck. He is a gem of a guy and women always swoon over his good looks.”
“Nick, how come you never got married?” It was Maggie’s turn to change the subject. “Weren’t you pretty serious with that one girl in med school?”
“Michelle? Yeah, I guess, but it didn’t work out. I don’t know, maybe I’m too picky or too busy or just too handsome.”
“Certainly not too humble,” Maggie retorted.
“I guess the real reason is that the best one was already taken.” He rolled his eyes at Maggie.
“Oh, stop it,” she said, punching his arm.
“John was very lucky. That’s all I can say.” He wasn’t kidding around.
Their moment was broken when Nick’s cell phone rang. He answered immediately. “Hey Tod, let me put you on speakerphone. I’m sitting here with Maggie Russell who runs the Hope Center.”
“Hi, Maggie,” Tod’s voice came through the speaker. “You want the good news or the bad news?”
Nick grimaced. “I guess you better start with the bad.” He had prepared himself all day for this. What am I going to tell those kids and their parents?
“Well, the bad news is that you are going to owe me big time,” Tod roared with laughter. “The good news is that you are going to have to put up with me and my family for a few days.”
Nick wanted to stand up and shout, and Maggie did.
“Oh, that is so great, Tod. Thank you so very much. I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”
“Kim, the girls, and I prayed about it, and we really felt like we were supposed to do this. Honestly, I wasn’t so sure. You know the whole money thing. We were sitting at the table eating, and my youngest girl looked up and asked, ‘You know what we learned in school today?’ ‘What?’ I asked. And she said, ‘We were reading out of First Samuel. We learned that for God, obedience is better than sacrifice.’ I told her she was getting too smart for her own britches,” Tod guffawed.
“The real clincher for the deal was when I called my friend, the travel agent,” he continued. “I forgot we had taken out trip insurance. Turns out we could change our plans without losing a dime. Then she got us some screaming deals on the flight to Guatemala. Goes to show nothing is impossible for the Lord.”
Nick laughed. “Seems like I just heard that.”
Maggie was still dancing. See, I told you so, she mouthed to Nick.
“We get in on Tuesday. I figured that would give us Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to get all the kiddos done. That okay with you?”
“Oh man, I don’t know how I am ever going to pay you back for this one, my friend. Honestly, I’m speechless.”
“Well, that’s payment enough,” Tod hooted. “See you Tuesday!”
Nick hung up. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Well, a good place to start is, thank you, Jesus.” Maggie sat down again, jiggling her knees with joy. “God is so good. Don’t you think?”
“I don’t know, Maggie, I’ve never thought of God that way. I don’t know. I guess I thought of Him as out there somewhere. The great observer.”
Maggie put her hand on his. “And now?”
“I guess some would say it’s all coincidence.”
Maggie tilted her head, “Really? Is it that hard for you to see God’s fingerprints all over this?”
“Well, honestly, no.”
“Then what is it?”
Nick turned away and thought for a long time. “I don’t know. I guess it’s easier for you to think of God like that. Most of my time is either not thinking about God or thinking that he’s mad at me.” He turned back, his face crossed with pain. “I haven’t been the best person in the story of my life.”
Maggie squeezed his hand. “Then you’ve been reading the wrong story.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, Nick, God loves you so very much.”
“I don’t know about me, but I can see why he loves you,” he said.
Maggie leaned back and crossed her arms.
“Maggie, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“Did you ever wonder why John and I never had kids?”
“Well, yes. I guess I did.”
“You know I grew up in Browning on the Rez—not the easiest of places for a kid. Our parents were pretty darn strict, but we got into our share of trouble.”
Maggie searched for words. “Nick, I haven’t told anybody about this except my parents and my best friend growing up. And, of course, John. I got pregnant. Twice. One ended with an abortion and the other an ectopic pregnancy. The second one just about killed me. They flew me to Great Falls for emergency surgery.”
“Oh, Maggie,” Nick hugged her shoulder.
“That was the end of my baby days. It caused me a lot of shame for a long time. When I met John, I
didn’t tell him right away. I was so afraid to lose him.”
Maggie shifted in her seat.
“When I finally told him, he just held me, and we both cried buckets. But he didn’t cry out of hurt or anger or anything like that. He cried because he felt God’s heart break for me. He said God’s heart broke for the pain and shame that I carried.”
Tears fell from Maggie’s eyes as she looked at Nick to see if he understood.
“I know God loves me,” she said. “He sent his only Son to redeem me. He has become so real to me. John would tell me that God takes ALL things and turns them for good. Talk about good,” she smiled. “Look at me now—I have seventy-three children.” She wiped her tears and laughed.
Nick smiled briefly and looked up at the stars. “Maggie, I’m trying to understand. It’s like my brain hears, but my heart can’t translate.”
Maggie put her hand on his. “You see, Nick, we all have our stinky stuff. That is why we need a Savior. People have it so very wrong so much of the time when they turn away from God. They think He’s a killjoy, a party pooper. They couldn’t be more wrong. If they only knew the joy Jesus brings. If they only understood what is available to them from heaven. I pray that you will come to understand what I’m saying.”
CHAPTER 26
* * *
History
Professor Kwon stared at the picture as it came off the printer connected to the electron microscope. As the paper spooled out and dropped onto the tray, he paused to savor the reality of his discovery.
Even though he had been up all night preparing the specimen, he was not tired. He was excited like a boy on his birthday. He took the picture from the tray. The greyscale image was indistinct, an array of spheres arranged in a random pattern. But to Kwon, it was magnificent, a Michelangelo, a Leonardo. It was not just a virus that would change the world, although it would certainly do that! It was magnificent because it confirmed his discovery and validated his reason for living. It had been a winding road to this truth, and Kwon had enjoyed every moment. He loved reliving those moments on the way to creating his masterwork.
A preeminent microbiologist, Kwon realized that it would be a microbe—one of the tiniest of earthly elements—that would shape history more than any war or nuclear device. Many of his friends had chosen to pursue careers in nuclear physics; they considered him irrelevant for his minor role in science. The fools will now know where the real power lies.
It all started that day in grammar school when he’d studied the great epidemics of the world. He asked the instructor for a copy of the list of epidemics the teacher presented to the class. No one else in his class seemed to care, but Kwon was fascinated.
Like his classmates, except for the Great Leader, he had no thought of a supreme being or beings. His instructor provided a brief history of the Greeks, the ancient civilizations, and world religions, but he taught the class that any belief outside of North Korean culture was for the weak and should not to be taken seriously. Kwon wasn’t much interested in anything except epidemics. Wiping out huge swaths of populations fascinated him to his very core like nothing else ever had.
Was there something in the cosmos that held the power of life and death?
The only evil he was taught was the evil that came from countries like the U.S. and Europe, but the more he studied epidemics, the more he believed there was even greater evil.
The great Bubonic Plagues of the fourth and twelfth centuries wiped out half of Europe’s population. Smallpox, measles, and influenza epidemics single handedly eradicated entire cultures in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. It was these microbes that Kwon spent his life studying. Over his career, he had created stockpiles of them for his country’s biological warfare programs.
In the early 1900s, seventy-five million people worldwide died from an influenza epidemic. He knew that whoever controlled the microbe kingdom controlled the world.
There was so much that puzzled him.
Why had the great epidemics not wiped out the entire population? Why had they stopped?
No one ever truly controlled microbes. Extreme caution had to be observed when producing super-bugs for warfare against another nation; if anything went wrong the microbes could just as easily wipe out his own country.
Five years ago, one of his Kwon’s assistants had contracted the swine flu H1N1 virus that typically only infected pigs. His assistants had manipulated the virus which allowed for human transference. Fortunately, quarantine in North Korea was simple—infected people and those in close contact were quickly eliminated by fire. Only fifty people died from the virus, but nearly a thousand died from quarantine.
* * *
Kwon held the image of the virus to his eye level and turned it ninety degrees, then another ninety. The image reminded him of a blurred picture of a butterfly feeding on a flower.
Strange, something so beautiful, yet so noxious.
His epidemic would be entirely different. There would be no deaths, and he would not see the ultimate results in his lifetime. He created the virus for his children’s children and generations beyond.
Since his family had been thrown in prison, he assumed his biological son had not survived, but his own gene pool would live on, thanks to his friend Pak and his baby factories.
Kwon held the image to his chest.
His epidemic would be different by its stealth. The virus had been engineered to be less virulent and less deadly but extremely effective. As rapidly as biological warfare programs developed an infectious disease, other world scientists would manufacture vaccinations or treatments, making the warfare less threatening and less effective. As death tolls mounted for the bird flu or swine flu, worldwide resources produced vaccines that were quickly distributed.
Kwon’s virus would cause only a small blip on the World Health Organization’s epidemic and pandemic monitors; its cold-like symptoms would be mild when released at the height of cold and flu season. But, it was not symptoms Kwon was after. It was the side effects.
CHAPTER 27
* * *
The New Order
Pak knew he did not have to hurry. Like Professor Kwon, he was a cog in the wheel of change for the destiny of the New Order of North Korea.
He sat at the desk in his sparsely appointed government office and reviewed the numbers. The population growth rate in North Korea was a measly 0.8 percent. He doubted they would ever get it up to two percent, like most developed nations, and even if they did, their economy could not support it. At least it was up from 0.6 percent—reflecting an additional 38,000 babies born this year. But it wasn’t so much the quantity that mattered, but the quality, and the quality was first rate because hundreds of those children were his.
Sperm had been donated by many of the top scientists, creative artists, and leaders of the country, including Kim Jong-un, himself. But Pak controlled the program. When he had returned from his studies in Paris, the government had finished a survey of the population and realized that its growth was too small in relation to that of South Korea. The government called for an accelerated population growth plan. Although large families were encouraged, the population did not grow fast enough for the government’s liking. That’s when Pak’s suggestion of baby factories garnered instant favor.
Access to the labs allowed him to switch out Kim’s sperm for his own.
I will not allow that weak family line to continue.
Pak glanced at his framed diploma hanging in front of the desk. His degree from the University of Paris was in History. His father had sent him to study, hoping that he would learn lessons from the great civilizations of the world and bring the best of what he learned back to his homeland. All North Koreans knew their destiny was to dominate the world. Theirs was the superior race, and all others should be eliminated. As a superior people, their birthright was to dominate society by purging inferior elements.
Pak’s studies brought him to the realization that domination could never be achieved
by raw power. Even with the development of their nuclear weapons program, they had little ability to attack other nations, not even the South, and any outright aggression would mean certain death and destruction of their people.
Pak stared at the photograph next to his diploma. It showed him standing in front of the Coliseum in Rome with a fellow student from the university. During their visit, he and his colleague went to the Sistine Chapel. Pak was fascinated with Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam and wondered about this “God” that could create life and take it away. Pak even went to the university library on his return to Paris and read the book of Genesis. It was the first time he had touched a Bible. Bibles were restricted in North Korea, and the possession of one was punishable by death. Pak was riveted by the story of Noah and how his God destroyed the entire population of the earth.
Because Pak rejected the notion of a god, any destruction of mankind would be at the hands of man. That was the reason he was such a staunch supporter of Professor Kwon and his profound knowledge. Pak ensured that the professor had the most sophisticated microbiology lab in the world. Pak marveled at the fact that he and Kwon shared the same belief in ethnic purity. He vividly remembered the day that he and the professor stood and talked beside his limousine parked at a farmer’s field as they watched the farmer till the soil. Kwon pointed out how the earth had to be worked, the old crop had to be removed or tilled under, and the new crop planted.
CHAPTER 28
* * *
An Extended Stay
“Look, Ms. Roe, I am not asking for a leave of absence. I just need another week here.”
Nick’s face flushed. He and Maggie sat on the picnic table outside the clinic. A line of patients had returned at the start of his second week, and Nick realized he needed more time.
Buck was bringing the equipment, and Tod was bringing the expertise, and they would arrive tomorrow evening. He would have only three days to operate, and most of that time would be spent on the kids with clubfeet. He was responsible for the children’s post-operative care, but he also wanted to operate on others before he left.
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