Great White Throne (12 page)

“No, I—”

My voice caught as he pulled a gun and pointed it in my face. “Boss prefers folks alive. But he’s a good boss. Gives me discretion.”

Naomi stepped forward. “
How. Dare. You.
” Her voice dripped with arrogance. “You treat the mother of the President’s son like this?” She raised her hand and pointed into his face like an indignant queen. “And
you
would make
me
speak to you directly?”
 

She turned slightly, allowing a clear view of her son. I imagined the baby’s big eyes were staring into the man’s.

“No, ma’am, I mean,” the man fumbled. “I’d heard about you, but—” he bowed to a knee. “It’s an honor.”

“The President insists that I speak to this man Ronaldo,” Naomi said with contempt. “Take me to him.”

“I guess that’s alright. If it’s important, you’ll be watched anyway.” The man rose up and lumbered a few steps, to the door directly across the hall. He paused. “Mr. President had me rough him up. That’s what I do, ya know. Ain’t no machine can scare a man like me.”

“He better be hurting,” Naomi said. “You know what this man did?”

The giant nodded slowly. “He’s one of them religious types. Maybe even one of their leaders. I hear we got all but three now. I killed one myself.”
 

Naomi’s poker face held. “Well done.”
 

A memory fell into place. A hulking frame standing over Jacques. “Did I hear right that you killed the Frenchman?”

The man grinned. “That one was tough to crack.”

“So I hear,” Naomi said, her voice tight. She pointed to Ronaldo’s door. “What have you squeezed out of this man so far?”

“Oh, I’m just getting started. But he’ll talk. Don’t worry.”

“I never worry,” Naomi said. “We’ll see what we can learn first.”

The man nodded and pulled the door open. Naomi glided past without giving him another glance. I followed after her into a the thin corridor. Each step made me feel like I was being squeezed tighter in a vice. The tight hall opened onto a dark, bare room. Its only light was from a small holograph of Don’s face in a corner. His eyes stared down at us.

“Naomi!” Ronaldo rose to his bare feet. Chains connected the shackles at his wrists to the floor. He looked down at the baby. “Ya boy’s beautiful!”

“Thank you,” she said, concern thick in her voice. “It’s good to see you alive.”

“Just a matter of days.” Ronaldo dipped his head. As Naomi stepped to the side, I saw the bruises and bloody marks on his face. His nose bent sharply to the side.
 

“Elijah! Good to see ya, mon.”
 

I stepped closer and I embraced him, gently. “You too,” I said, “but I’m sorry to see you in here.”

“It’s no matter. My soul is free. My God is with me. What more could a man want?”

I smiled. No one could keep this man down. “Maybe some privacy.” I motioned to the holograph of Don. “I assume that’s just a recording?”

“Mon, assume nothin’ about the devil. This is his domain. He watchin’ us, but that don’t bother me, because the Lord is watchin’ too.”

“We came as soon as we got your message,” Naomi said.

“I barely got it off before an android caught me. Now I can’t send a bit of data through these doors. But there’s plenty to keep me busy.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Ya think I don’t have anything to pray about? This ain’t no tropical vacation.”

I suddenly remembered the eyes I’d seen peering through the doors. “Did you see anything strange when you were brought here? Whatever’s in the other cells heard Naomi when she was calling for you.”

Ronaldo shook his head. “What did ya see?”

“Eyes. They were like fire. Yellow and gold.”

Ronaldo and Naomi exchanged a look. “Angels?” Ronaldo asked.

“Maybe, but I’ve seen an angel,” I said, thinking of Michael hammering a hole through rock. “No way they could be kept locked up like this. They’re too strong.”

“This is the devil’s prison, mon.” He looked to Naomi. “What do we know about angels being held up?”

“It’s happened before,” she said. “The angel who visited Daniel told him
the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days
. But Michael helped him get out.”

“Then Michael will help again.” Ronaldo sounded certain. “Let’s make the most of this place until then. What can I do for you now?”

“Shouldn’t we be asking you that?” I said.
 

“Sure should,” he said, “it’s a question we should always be askin’ others. But even a jailed man can pray.”

“We have a lot of questions,” Naomi said.

“Let’s hear ’em.” Ronaldo motioned for us to sit. The shackles at his wrists slid slightly, revealing bloody sores underneath.

We sat on the hard floor across from him. “For starters,” Naomi said, “what’s going on outside the palace walls? We’ve had no safe way to get information.”

“It’s not good,” Ronaldo said. “We lost Neo. Don’s huntin’ down anyone who didn’t go to Babylon. Some of them are believers, but some were just too old or too poor to have precepts. If they’ll take a precept after they’re caught, then Don lets them go to Babylon. If not … Well, we don’t know, we’ve never seen one of them again.”
 

“He’s a murderer.” Naomi stared down at her baby, shaking her head slowly.

“It’s only going to get worse before the Lord comes.”

“So what’s next?” I asked.

“If
you
don’t know,” Ronaldo said, “then none of us know. Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

“That’s from the Bible?”

Ronaldo nodded. “And here’s another one: the Lord will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”

“Sounds pretty harsh,” I said.

“Is it harsh if it’s just?” Naomi replied.

“Not if God’s dealin’ the justice,” Ronaldo said. “Like always, there’s no use guessin’ about the time. What matters is what we do now. We gotta testify. We gotta pray. We gotta fight for Him.”

I remembered my training and Don’s offer. “Don wants me to sync with one of his machines and fight in the battle against the Mahdi. Why do you think he wants that, and should I do it?”

Ronaldo was quiet before answering. “God gave ya a gift, Elijah. I told ya before, ain’t nothin’ the devil wants more than to twist God’s plan. That means he’ll do anything,
anything
, to make God’s gifts his own. The more special the gift, the more desperate he’ll be to steal it.”

“But he knows Elijah is on our side now,” Naomi said.

“Nah.” Ronaldo shook his head, dreadlocks swinging. “It ain’t that simple. Just ’cuz he knows Elijah joined us don’t mean it’s finished. This battle for souls goes to the last day. Ya know the story of the wheat and the weeds?”

“No,” I said.

Ronaldo smiled. “Listen, Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a man who planted good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and planted weeds
among the wheat and went away. So when the plants grew, the weeds grew too. The master told his servants to let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time he’d tell the reapers:
gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn
. Ya get that?”

“I think so,” I said. “The enemy is the devil?”

“Sure is. The harvest is comin’ any day now. I figure the reapers are God’s angels. The weeds are whoever goes to the evil one. So maybe you’re wheat, Elijah, but the devil wants ya to be a weed. We can’t know for sure until the harvest.”

“This has to be a trap,” Naomi said. “It makes no sense for Elijah to waltz into it and sync with Don’s machine.”

“I ain’t so sure. The devil sets traps everywhere he goes, but he controls only as much as God lets him. Maybe there’s a trap within a trap. What the devil seeks for evil, God can use for good. Elijah, what ya seen or heard from the Lord?”
 

The words I remembered calmed my feverish mind. “You know what I heard before Don caught us, right? About speaking to the world.”
 

Ronaldo nodded.
 

“The only thing since then is that I should
trust and wait
. And I keep having dreams about my Mom taking me to the dragon in Jerusalem and about a huge, blazing fire coming to burn up the world.”

“Hmm, trust and wait.” Ronaldo leaned forward and rested his shackled hands on his knees. “Ya better get comfortable. You’re reborn, Elijah, but as newborn as this baby.” He motioned to Naomi’s son, still sleeping soundly. “We drink milk before we’re ready for the real food of the spirit. We gonna wait here as long as it takes. Let’s pray.”

Naomi put her hand on my knee and met my eyes. “Jesus said, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them.”
 

“Even in a prison cell?” I said. “Shouldn’t we try to get you out of these chains?”

Ronaldo shook his head. “We gotta pray. Ready?”

Naomi nodded and closed her eyes. I did the same.

“Lord Jesus Christ,” Ronaldo began, speaking with a slow cadence, “we gather in your name, seeking ya even here, in the enemy’s home. Only your light can pierce darkness this thick. Be with us, speak to us. Lord, we listenin’ ….”

His voice trailed off and left the sound of silence. I listened carefully, grasping for hope that I’d hear something. I could hear Ronaldo and Naomi and the baby breathing. I could hear my own deep breaths. That was it. Time ticked by like water from a slowly dripping faucet.
 

After a while, Ronaldo started murmuring something under this breath. I couldn’t make out the words, but he sounded intense. I adjusted my weight, trying to get comfortable on the hard ground.

Then I heard the sound of sliding metal.

DON WAS STRIDING in, looking everything like a president and nothing like a devil. “I see you’ve found each other.” He leaned against the prison cell’s wall.

Ronaldo surged to his feet, but Don silenced us with a raised hand. “The battle is going well. The Muslims have their backs against the wall in Tehran. We surround the city. The Mahdi’s last stand will be any day now, and what a last stand! These people truly believe they can defeat me. They won’t surrender. Every last one of them will die.” Don straightened his tie casually. “Eli, you passed your training. Well done. You will join me tomorrow.”

“He’s not your pawn,” Naomi said.

Don’s gaze swiveled to her. “The mother of my son speaks.” She squirmed under his stare. Her face went pale, lips pressed together in a thin line.
 

“But of course,” Don continued, shifting his eyes back to me, “why would I force anything? The Muslims will try to kill us, but I’m giving Eli my very best weapon.”

A chill went down my spine as I remembered the other presence that had operated the drone with me. “It was quite a machine,” I said. “I’m surprised I could control it.”

“It takes more than a gifted mind,” he said. “This is beyond what is seen. My power knows no limits.”

“You lie, Satan!” Ronaldo’s words burst out like water from a dam. “You get only what God lets ya have. Ya reign is short, evil, and dyin’. Ya gonna lose, gonna burn!”

“You finished?” Don picked at his nails.

“I’m just warmin’ up. I rebuke you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Get back, Satan!” Ronaldo moved toward him. “I say, in the name of—”

Don held up his hand and Ronaldo stopped, as if the words were strangled in his throat. “That’s enough. I prefer not to hear that name in
MY kingdom
. Understood?”

Ronaldo stared him down, but fear was in his eyes. “What did I tell ya?” he growled. “Ain’t no corruption like power on this earth.”

“Corruption?” Don laughed. “Is that what you call change, growing toward freedom? Then yes, I suppose I do corrupt little slaves into fuller pleasure.” He turned to me. “I tire of this. It’s getting late, and you must prepare to fight by my side tomorrow.”
 

“What if he doesn’t?” Naomi’s voice was soft. Her gaze was fixed on the baby at her chest. “Do you need him so that you can be exalted? Or is it just spite?”