Great White Throne (24 page)

“You know him?” Naomi asked.

I nodded, and he was there, climbing up the step beside the open driver-side door. He leaned in. “Elijah, Naomi, we’re so glad you’ve come.” He glanced into the dark tunnel behind us, then back into the truck. “Sorry about your friends back there. President Cristo said they were a threat. We had to take them out, but no worries. I’ll drive you from here.” He sat down behind the wheel and closed the door.

Alexi’s insanity almost gave me calm, an odd sense of peace, like this was supposed to happen. “You’re taking us to him?” I asked.

“Where else?” Alexi grinned and shifted into drive. We started rolling forward.

I placed my hand gently on Naomi’s leg, trying to comfort her. She looked at me like I was crazy, too. She shook her head and mouthed:
No. Get out.
Then she opened the passenger door.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Alexi said.

Naomi was half way out, ready to jump, when she froze. A creature blocked her way. It was the giant that had thrown Dumah. Its red eyes fixed on her, and she cowered back into the truck.

The giant slammed the door shut and jumped up, its feet landing with a thud on the roof above us. Gabriel’s spot. I hadn’t heard anything from the back of the truck. Was Aisha still there?

The truck cruised out of the tunnel. Stretched out before us, appearing all at once, was the vast city of Jerusalem. Its hillsides were dotted with charred buildings. Smoke rose in hundreds of columns and gathered in dark clouds overhead. The resistance had left its mark, but still the towers had multiplied. They clustered around the center of the old city to our left, close to the immense golden dome. The dome might have been brilliant in the early morning light, but all its radiance was swallowed by the dragon perched on top of it.
 

Alexi started laughing. “Looks like a golden egg, don’t you think?”
 

He still couldn’t see it. The dragon.

“It looks like blasphemy, like evil,” Naomi said. “Who are you?”

“Is she always this harsh?” Alexi asked me, taking his eyes off the road. We were headed straight at a guard rail and a steep drop down the hillside.

“Look!” I pointed ahead.

Alexi turned and whipped the truck left, just grazing the rail with the left headlight. He cackled again.

“This is Alexi Marcos,” I said to Naomi. “He is Don Cristo’s political adviser. You’ve seen him before. He was the UN delegate who attended our first meeting at ISA. And he visited me in Don’s palace. He was in the control tower.”

Naomi studied me, looking confused. “Are you okay?” she whispered.

I nodded, trying to assure her with my eyes, then turned to Alexi. “Why does Don want us?”

We were winding down the hillside, to a valley leading up to the dome and the dragon. “Who knows,” Alexi said, “but count yourselves lucky. See the line to visit with President Cristo?” He nodded up ahead.

An immense crowd covered the opposite hillside. They filled every inch of the roads weaving among the ancient buildings up to the Dome.

“Why do they want to see him?” Naomi asked.

“He is the world’s best hope!” Alexi said. “It was true before the solar flare, and it’s even more true now. Can you imagine the disorder and the destruction if Don weren’t in control?”

“No,” I said. “I can’t.” The buildings around us were bombed-out crumbles. Faces ducked into alleys as we rode by.

“What do you expect?” Alexi shrugged. “Don had created a perfect world for mankind, but the enemy was jealous. He destroyed it. We will pick up the pieces. Don will bring Babylon back. He has sworn this to the people.”

“What does he want with us?” Naomi asked.

“The same thing he wants from everyone: your allegiance to him.” Alexi turned and glanced at the baby. “And, of course, his son.”

The crowd grew thicker, and the roads grew tighter, as we approached the old city. The people parted for us, but we could still hardly fit. Some of them cried out for help and banged on the truck as we passed. I heard one or two shouts in Hebrew. Most were in Arabic.

The baby made a soft crying noise. Naomi cradled him close, but his eyes gazed out the front of the truck. His cries grew louder.

“Shhh, shh,” Naomi said gently.

Another bang on the side of the truck, right outside Naomi’s window. We hit a pothole in the road.

“Waa!” The baby whined. Then he was silent for a moment, winding up. “WAAAA!”

He wailed on, louder than I’d ever heard him. It made everything suddenly feel out of control.

“SHUT HIM UP,” Alexi demanded, shaking his head in annoyance. He had his right hand over his ear, keeping his left hand on the wheel.

The baby’s cries grew more intense, filling every space in the truck’s cab. It felt like we were sinking, the pressure rising.

Then Naomi started to sing. Over the baby’s wailing, over the shouts outside and the truck’s engine, her voice flowed like a soothing river. “
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
,” she sang, staring down at her son. His round, innocent eyes turned to her, and he quieted down. He let out a sigh—the kind of peaceful baby sound reserved for the voice of a mother.

“Thank you,” Alexi said, still annoyed, “but could you sing something else?”

Naomi continued as if she hadn’t heard him.

“No matter,” he sighed, “we’re here.”
 

The truck stopped before a small gate in a huge wall. Two robotic guards stood on either side. A crowd of people gathered behind us. One of them shouted again in Arabic.

“Don awaits!” Alexi turned to me with a clown smile spread across his face.

Then a gunshot fired into the truck.

THE WINDSHIELD SPLATTERED in blood. Alexi’s smile froze. His head fell forward and thudded against the steering wheel. There was no hair to hide the gruesome hole—shot from behind. I started to look back when the demon landed on the hood and glared inside. His red eyes matched the blood on the glass. 

Naomi was pulling at my arm. I could see she was shouting, but I could barely hear her through the ringing in my ears.

I read her lips: “Come on!” 

I shook my head, trying to wake up, but this was no dream. I stumbled out of the truck after Naomi. A crowd pressed around us. They all wore black robes, head to toe. Their bearded faces were a blur, and so were their voices, shouting in Arabic but muffled to my ears. A line of them had guns raised in the direction of the Dome, at the dragon. Before I could make sense of it, two of the men grabbed my arms. I barely resisted as they ushered me down the hill. We were heading away from the dragon, and Naomi was right in front of me.

We rushed down two old city blocks, then turned into an alley, then another. The crowd began to clear, and so did my mind. Someone had shot Alexi. Someone from behind.

“In here!” someone shouted. 

The men corralled Naomi and me through a door. We left the alley and entered a plain room stuffed with more black-robed, bearded men. They circled tight around us. They blocked the door we’d come in through—the only door out.

Aisha was cradled in the arms of a man facing us. He set her down gently in a chair beside us. Aisha laid a gun down in her lap.

“You shot him,” I said. It was neither a question nor an accusation. She’d been in the back of the truck. 

She nodded. “I couldn’t shoot the guy while he was driving. Too risky. But we stopped, and I heard Zafar’s voice shouting. It was the best chance I was going to get.”

“Zafar?” Naomi’s eyes scanned the group around us.

The man who’d been holding Aisha took a step closer. “We are the Mahdi’s people, what’s left of them. He will rise again.”

“This is one of the entrances to our headquarters here,” Aisha added. “The other leaders should be here soon, including one from your order.”

“Who?” I thought of Chris.

Aisha shrugged, her lower body motionless on the chair. “I don’t know. I’ve been here only as long as you have. When the power came back on a few hours ago, Zafar and the others picked up my signal. They knew we were coming into Jerusalem. They were waiting to save us from Cristo’s men.”

“
Dajjal
.” Zafar growled the name and glared down at the baby in Naomi’s arms. “This is 
his
 child?”

“Yes.” Aisha’s eyes were sad. “I’m sorry, Naomi.”

Naomi clutched her son tighter and stepped back. “He is 
my 
child.”

“You are lucky,” the man said. “I let you live. But not this … monster.” Zafar nodded to the others in the room and shouted some order in Arabic.

Naomi crouched as the men closed on us. I tried to step in front of her, but the men were soldiers. One of them shoved me aside like I was nothing. A man reached for the baby, and Naomi shrieked and twisted away. She fell back and collapsed into Aisha. The men surrounded her, but then they froze. Naomi had Aisha’s gun in her hand.

The men drew their own guns. At least a dozen of them. 

“Naomi.” Aisha’s voice was calm. “Give them the baby.”

“Never.” Naomi held the gun steady. 

“If you shoot, you die,” Zafar said. “So does the monster.”

“You know what 
it
 is,” Aisha added. “The devil is its father. We cannot let it live.”

Naomi shook her head. “The devil wants evil, but my baby is innocent.”

“
Dajjal
 won’t stop until he has the child. Hand him over. Now.”

I glanced at Naomi. Her eyes were fierce. I remembered my dream, with the baby in the dragon’s belly. Maybe this was how it was supposed to happen. Maybe there was a compromise. “What if—”

“No more words,” Zafar demanded, his eyes locked on Naomi. “Last chance, put down the gun.” 

He stepped forward, and Naomi leapt back. She swung her arm around and jammed the gun to Aisha’s temple. “Try to take him, and Aisha dies.”

“Take the child,” Aisha said to Zafar. “I’ve done my part. I’m nothing without my legs.” 

Nobody moved. I slid between Naomi and the men. 

“Easy, now,” I said. “She’ll shoot.”

“Do it!” Aisha said behind me. “
Fire!
”

Zafar lurched forward. Naomi fired a shot.

CRACK.
 

The sound froze everyone, but only for a moment. One of the men slammed into me. We crashed to the floor. I tried to fight free, but another man grabbed my legs. They pinned me down, tied my wrists and ankles. Something was tied over my mouth. A bag went over my head.

Over the noise of men rushing past, I heard Naomi screaming, more shouting, and the baby wailing. Then, slicing through it all, I heard a familiar voice shouting, “
Stop. No, STOP!
”