Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle Of The Ages (25 page)

INTERLUDE

FIFTEEN
HOURS
later Buck staggered from Rayford’s plane, jet-lagged and bleary-eyed, but more than anything aching to hold his son. Abdullah had driven to the airstrip just outside Petra, and Ming had ridden along, holding the boy. Buck gathered him up and held him tight, his tears streaming down Kenny’s back.

As the five rode toward the Siq that led into Petra, Abdullah radioed ahead their estimated time of arrival. “I hope you don’t mind, Buck,” he said, “but Dr. Ben-Judah would like to hold the memorial as soon as you and Rayford get there.”

Buck was overwhelmed at the turnout. Several hundred had gathered at the high place, within the sound of rushing water from the stream. Acquaintances had made way for Buck’s and Chloe’s closest friends to gather in the front. Hard as it was with Kenny’s arms still wrapped tightly around his neck, Buck sat on a rock shelf and took in the scene.

Tsion and Chaim stood in the middle, waiting for people to settle. In an inner half circle, facing Buck and Kenny and Rayford, were George and Priscilla Sebastian and Beth Ann. Ree Woo and Ming Toy held hands close by. And fresh in from Illinois were Lionel Whalum and his wife, Felicia, along with Leah Rose and Hannah Palemoon.

Buck nodded to Zeke, who stood near Abdullah and Mac. Not far away Chang sat on a rock with his new friend Naomi. They appeared very comfortable with each other already, which Buck noticed seemed to catch the eye of Naomi’s father, Eleazar Tiberias, standing nearby.

Tsion raised a hand for silence. He began quietly, but Buck got the impression everyone could hear him over the rushing water. “I brought with me today my personal Bible. As you can understand, the elders and particularly Dr. Rosenzweig and I are constantly studying the Scriptures and commentaries and Bible dictionaries, trying to make sense of what is happening in these last days.

“These are academic pursuits, and while they bear on everyday life here, they can also be devotional exercises. Every day on every page we see the fingerprints of God himself, working his will in our midst and in this world.

“But today I bring the Word of God that is not just part of my theological library but rather is the text I have studied since a few years before the Rapture. As you know, my life changed when I discovered that Jesus was the Messiah I had so long sought, and I discovered that not only because of the Rapture, but also because I had been commissioned to study the prophecies concerning Messiah.

“To do this, I had to purchase a copy of both the Old and New Testaments, which was to me-at the time of the purchase-more than an embarrassment. I worried I would be an anathema not just to my colleagues but to my God as well.

“I was on to the truth before it was proved to me by the Rapture, and soon after that I made the knowledge of the true Messiah my own faith. And suddenly this book-” he held it aloft-“became my very life’s bread. It had gone from a necessary piece of textual research, which I bought apologetic and red-faced, to my most prized possession.

“When my family was massacred, I clung desperately to it for life. It became a physical symbol, a talisman if you will, of the Word of God that signified to me Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God, the Lamb who was slain to take away the sins of the world. I once read of a great theologian whose personal Bible became so precious to him that at times he found himself reaching out and patting it, almost caressing it as he would a son or daughter or spouse. That seemed strange to me, but I grew to understand it, to identify with it.

“I love this book! I love this Word! I love its author, and I love the Lord it represents. Why do I speak of the Word of God today when we have come with heavy, heavy hearts to remember two dear comrades and loved ones?

“Because both Albie and Chloe were people of the Word. Oh, how they loved God’s love letter to them and to us! Albie would be the first to tell you he was not a scholar, hardly a reader. He was a man of street smarts, knowledgeable in the ways of the world, quick and shrewd and sharp. But whenever the occasion arose when he could sit under the teaching of the Bible, he took notes, he asked questions, he drank it in. The Word of God was worked out in his life. It changed him. It helped mold him into the man he was the day he died.

“And Chloe, our dear sister and one of the original members of the tiny Tribulation Force that has grown so large today. Who could know her and not love her spirit, her mind, her spunk? What a wife and mother she was! Young yet brilliant, she grew the International Commodity Co-op into an enterprise that literally kept alive millions around the globe who refused the mark of Antichrist and lost their legal right to buy and sell.

“In various safe-house locations over the past half-dozen years, I lived in close proximity to Chloe and to her family. It was common to find her reading her Bible, memorizing verses, trying them out on people. Often she would hand me her Bible and ask me to check her to see if she had a verse correct, word for word. And she always wanted to know exactly what it meant. It was not enough to know the text; she wanted it to come alive in her heart and mind and life.

“To those who will miss Chloe the most, the deepest, and the most painfully until we see her again in glory, I give you the only counsel that kept me sane when my own beloved were so cruelly taken from me. Hold to God’s unchanging hand. Cling to his Word. Fall in love with the Word of God anew. Grasp his promises like a puppy sinks its teeth into your pant legs, and never let go.

“Buck, Kenny, Rayford, we do not understand. We cannot. We are finite beings. The Scripture says knowledge is so fleeting that one day it will vanish. `For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come,’ and oh, beloved, it is coming, `then that which is in part will be done away.

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.”

“Did you hear that promise? “But then . . .’ How we can rejoice in the
but thens
of God’s Word! The
then is
coming, dear ones! The
then is
coming.”

Tsion sat and opened his Bible in his lap. “Let me close with this, as we mourn, not as the heathen, but as we mourn the loss of our beloved brother and sister in Christ. The psalmist writes: `Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. 0 Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maid-servant; You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord.

“I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of you, 0 Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!

“Praise the Lord … laud Him, all you peoples!”

“For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!”

“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.”

“Let Israel now say, “His mercy endures forever.”

Six Years, Five and a Half Months, into the Tribulation

A
FEW
DAYS
after the memorial service, Ree and Ming had been married in a small ceremony officiated by Tsion. Chang and Naomi’s relationship had blossomed, but they were counseled to delay their engagement until after the Glorious Appearing.

Over several months, Rayford had reorganized the Tribulation Force. Mac, Abdullah, and Ree became the principal pilots. Lionel Whalum, after months of duty in the air, volunteered to take over the direction of the Co-op with Ming assisting and Leah and Hannah joining the staff.

Chang had come up with a brilliant plan to bug the Baghdad site of the international confab of GC heads of state. By checking the main computer in New Babylon daily, he discovered that Leon Fortunato was having someone remotely transmit records of the daily activity of the government for duplication and dissemination. The big break came when Chang learned the government was bidding out the job of wiring the conference hall for sound for the big event.

He told Naomi of his scheme. “It’s brilliant,” she said, “and I think Captain Steele will think so too. You’d better include him in your thinking soon, don’t you think?”

Late one night, Chang invited Rayford to the tech center. “Here’s my plan,” he told him. “Ree Woo’s identity has never been compromised, and his name is not known to the GC. I have formulated a dossier on him that tells his entire background in technological college and his small sound-engineering firm in South Korea, Woo and Associates.”

“Which I assume does not exist.”

“Of course. As you can see, I have him registered as a loyalist in good standing from Region 30, with a list of satisfied customers. If you cross-check those customers, their endorsements are all in order. I already know what all the other bids are on the sound job, so I can easily underbid them and get Woo the job.”

“Then what?”

“I put in a bunch of caveats about how he prefers to use a small crew and work quickly at night when no other sounds would interfere with his adjustments. Setting up the main room and working with
GCNN
will be easy. I can teach Ree and you how to do that in a day or two. We tell the GC the job will take about twice as long as it really will, giving you access to the main con-ference room off the big hall, where we know Carpathia and his cabinet plan to meet with the regional potentates. Bugging that room is trickier, but I can also teach you that.

“I’d love to come and do it myself, but it would take too much for Zeke to make me unrecognizable to people I worked with for so long. So I propose teaching Buck and George how to do the bugging work, and while you and Ree are doing the basic sound stuff in the big hall, they can slip into the conference room and get that done.”

“Ree’s the only one who’s going to look Korean, Chang. The rest of us are too big.”

“That’s easy. The whole crew has to be approved in advance anyway, so whatever looks and nationalities Zeke can come up with, I can plug them in and have them cleared. I’ll have Mr. Woo explain that he’s using his all-star international crew to do the best job possible.”

“I like it, Chang. Let me make sure everybody’s on board, especially Zeke. He’s going to have to make company uniforms and get everyone’s disguises and documents in order.”

It went off without a hitch. Zeke was masterful in turning both George and Rayford into much older men. Buck he made a ruddy-faced Aussie. All were quick studies in electronics. Chang found Buck the easiest to teach because, he believed, Buck so badly needed to immerse himself in a new project.

It seemed a small break at the time, but in retrospect, Rayford believed it was major. The only representative of the GC cabinet responsible for letting Woo and Associates into the conference hall was a woman who had not been in place when Rayford and Buck had worked for Carpathia.

She was not suspicious anyway, but interacting with a stranger put them both at ease. The rest of the government was still ensconced at Al Hillah, but the woman let on that as soon as the hall was ready for the big meetings in a few weeks, the government would move there and prepare.

Rayford was impressed by Ree’s ability to bluff about electronics. He had learned enough from Chang to know the lingo, and he made sure to keep it over the head of the woman with the keys. She rarely stayed long, and since the Woo crew all had ID tags and company caps riding low on their foreheads, they were never carefully checked, and the job went smoothly.

Chang had worked closely with Lionel in bartering for parts, and the men lugged in with them everything they needed to transmit from every station around the big conference table, as well as put video transmitters in half the light fixtures.

Ree Woo and his associates finished the job ahead of schedule, and to their credit, the GC electronically deposited full payment via the Internet. “We are now on Carpathia’s payroll,” Chang told Rayford.

Nicolae’s cabinet moved from Al Hillah to palatial quarters near the conference hall in Baghdad, and in a matter of days, the heads of the ten regions would join them. Rayford told Buck one night, “It’s been months since the world has heard directly from Carpathia. Now at least we’ll know what’s in that mind of his.”

Carpathia had lain low since the darkening of New Babylon. The government was in chaos and many employees had died. The potentate seemed to have done little but instigate the massive troop buildup in Israel. Rayford speculated that Nicolae was actually embarrassed and humiliated by his inability to counteract the latest plague.

“That’s when he’s most dangerous though, right?” Buck said. “When given time to think and plot. You can bet he’s cooking up something spectacular.”

Carpathia hinted at that “something” the first time Chang tapped into the conference room when it was just Nicolae and his inner circle. Chang recorded it for Rayford. “I have news,” the potentate said. “And it is so dynamic and delicious, I can hardly wait to share it. But I must. I will make you wait until our colleagues from around the globe are here. I have a trio I want to introduce to everyone, three who will help us accomplish our goals.”

“Where are they from, Excellency?” came the clear voice of Viv Ivins.

“That is also a secret for now.”

“Oh, Lordship, why must you toy with us?” Leon said.

“Be glad I only toy with you, confrere. The rebel forces will rue the day they ever dreamed of opposing me.”

Rayford was about to retire late one evening when he received word that Tsion wanted to see him. “He’s willing to come to your quarters,” Rayford was told.

“Oh no, I’m happy to go to his.”

When Rayford arrived, Tsion began, “Before I get to my request, I want you to know that I am at your disposal. The elders and I are fully aware that when you are in Petra, you are the head of the Tribulation Force, and I am merely, how shall we say it, the chaplain of that.”