Kingdom Come - The Final Victory (27 page)

“ ’Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously, since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. And I will make you a house.

“ ’When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him.’

“Then the Lord told Nathan of me, ‘Your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.’

“As you can imagine, I was overwhelmed. I went in and sat before the Lord and said, ‘Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far?’

“Now, children, I want you to rise, and I want to teach you the proper way to worship the Lord God of Hosts, Jehovah, Messiah.” David reached toward heaven and lifted his face to the sky and said, “Now what more can I say to You? For You, Lord God, know Your servant. For Your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have done all these great things, to make Your servant know them
.

“Therefore You are great, O Lord God. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You. And who is like Your people, Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people? For You have made Your people Israel Your very own people forever; and You, Lord, have become their God.

“Now, O Lord God, let Your name be magnified forever. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; the God of my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge.

“In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry entered His ears. He rode upon a cherub, and flew; and He was seen upon the wings of the wind. He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support.

“He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me; and as for His statutes, I did not depart from them.

“With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; with a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; with the pure You will show Yourself pure; and with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd. You will save the humble people, but Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down.

“For You are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord shall enlighten my darkness. His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

“For who is God, except the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high places.

“You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your gentleness has made me great. You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip. The Lord lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let God be exalted, the Rock of my salvation! Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and sing praises to Your name.

“He is the tower of salvation to His king, and shows mercy to His anointed, to me and my descendants forevermore.”

And when Cameron and the children and all the staff looked up from their prayer, David had disappeared from their midst.

ASIDE
FROM
having been born in the old United States of America and carted about by his globe-trotting parents during the Tribulation, Kenny Bruce Williams had spent nearly all his ninety-seven-plus years in Israel. Others he knew, especially his extended family, loved to travel. But he had never seen the appeal of being away from the very country in which the King of kings and Lord of lords physically resided and presided.

On the other hand, despite the anxiety over working undercover, Kenny had found Paris interesting. None of the historical landmarks remained, of course, but attempts had been made to reproduce some of the more familiar—like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and even some of the great cathedrals.

The prospect of going to Amman intrigued Kenny, if for no other reason than that his friends Bahira and Zaki had grown up there and had vague memories of the culture and the food. He didn’t expect to experience much of either, but perhaps something in his travels would somehow find its way into his work with the kids at
COT
.

On the plane with Ignace, Lothair, and Nicolette, Kenny for the first time became aware of the stares and glares of people—mostly naturals, some glorifieds—who must have recognized the alternative clothing of the TOLers for what it was.

Kenny had known so little negativity in his life—of course, he barely remembered much of the Tribulation, as it ended with the Glorious Appearing when he was still about four months shy of his fifth birthday—that it had been his practice to catch people’s eyes, even strangers’, and smile. That would not do now. His pretend compatriots were rebels, misfits, outcasts. They kept to themselves, looking serious, or if they did meet someone’s gaze, they proffered a hateful scowl. Kenny found that nearly impossible, so he just kept his eyes focused on the floor most of the time.

Ignace, who sat next to Kenny, spent most of the 2,100-mile flight scribbling on papers he had apparently received from the leaders of various
TOL
cells around the world. But every time Kenny glanced toward them, Ignace covered them and shot him a look.

Finally, with about twenty minutes to go until touchdown, Ignace packed up his stuff and leaned over. “Here’s the deal with Amman: We’re fairly new there, so even though we’ve got two of our brightest recruits in that office, not much is happening. They use the name Theological Training Institute as their front, but free speech is virtually unheard of in Jordan, so these guys lie low and do most of their work over the Internet. They’re building a database of people who are at least intrigued, so we want to find out how that’s going. Truthfully, we had been steering them toward hosting secret parties where kids who are fed up or questioning the status quo can come and feel like they’re really rebelling. We told Mudawar—he was a recruit from my own international blog and is our top guy there, really gifted—to offer them contraband stuff.

“But the more Lothair and I think about your idea, about taking the high road, the more sense it makes. I mean, I didn’t sign up Mudawar, and he didn’t sign up his assistant, based on dope or booze or women or anything like that. Like you said, we appealed to their minds. And that
is
the kind of recruit we want. So once we’re through with all the formalities and we get their progress report, you give ’em your pep talk, okay?”

Kenny nodded. This couldn’t be worse. All he had intended with his little speech two days before was to allay their suspicions. He had done it so well he had inspired them to a better approach for recruiting. He sure didn’t want to be responsible for their amassing a higher class of dissidents.

Cameron and Chloe sat in the office, poring over employment records. “Strange,” Cameron said. “You realize that this Qasim Marid has been gone all three times we had the Bible heroes here.”

Chloe leaned to look at the records. “That’s some coincidence, Cam.”

“It’s got to be more than that. What are the odds? It’s almost like he doesn’t want to be here when they are. But who wouldn’t want to hear those guys?”

“Hey,” she said, “what did you do with the master list?”

“Which?”

“The printout with all the staff names and addresses.”

“You know I don’t go into the files, Chlo’. You’ve got it backed up on disk, right?”

“Of course, but no one else is supposed to have access to the hard copy. Oh, Cam, we’re not going to have start putting locks on the doors, are we? Not after almost a hundred years with no mischief.”

Abdullah was amused by Mudawar and Sarsour. For the first time since he had met them, they looked clean and tidy. Oh, Mudawar was still oily; it was as if he couldn’t help that. But his hair was combed, and his fatigues, like Sarsour’s, were clean and crisp. They had spent the entire previous afternoon cleaning up the offices, and now they scoured the suite, making sure they hadn’t missed a thing. Every sheet of paper tacked to the wall hung square. Every stack of books or papers was neat and straight.

Abdullah knew he had endeared himself even more to them by helping with the cleanup. “A suggestion?” he said.

“Sure, what?” Mudawar said.

“You don’t want it to look artificial. I mean, you want your mentors to believe you actually work here, right?”

“Yeah, so? We’re not going to slop it up just so it looks lived in.”

“No, I’m just saying that when they arrive, you shouldn’t be standing around like you’re posing for school pictures. You should be on your way to or from some important project.”

“Good idea. Look alive when they get here, Sarsour. Don’t act like you’ve got nothing else to do.”

“But I don’t. What’s more important than entertaining them?”

“Just look busy! And you, old man—I haven’t decided exactly what to say about you yet, so blend into the woodwork unless spoken to. Understood?”

Another young man and young woman—whom Ignace identified as
TOL
operatives from Az Zarqa, northeast of Amman—picked up the Jospin brothers, Nicolette, and Kenny at the airport in a plain white van. Kenny was struck by how the colleagues greeted each other. He detected no warmth or enthusiasm. It was all business.

“By the way,” Kenny said, “I might as well head straight back to Israel from here. I’m not much more than forty miles away. What would be the best way to get there?”

The driver said, “I can run you there. We have business in Beersheba anyway.”

“Really?” Kenny said. “Another cell?”

“The only one in Israel. They’re pretty squirrelly about it, as you can imagine. Right there in enemy territory.”

“Well, you can drop me close to my home, but needless to say, I can’t draw any attention to myself.”

“That goes double for us,” the driver said. “We’ll just drop you where you tell us.”

When Abdullah heard the loud knock, he and Mudawar and Sarsour immediately rushed to the TV monitor to get a look at the visitors. “There are the brothers,” Mudawar said, “and that must be the girl they’ve told me about. I don’t recognize the others.”

“Should I open it?” Sarsour said.

“Take a breath, man,” Mudawar said. “Don’t look too anxious.”

Abdullah froze. What could he do? Where could he hide? Unless his eyes were deceiving him, that was Cameron and Chloe’s son, Kenny! What could this mean? He rushed back to his desk, swept his Bible and papers and other personal effects into his bag, and moved quickly to the front door. When Sarsour opened it, Abdullah stepped behind it, and as the others were going through the introduction formalities, he slipped out.

He bounded up the stairs to the street and headed back to his apartment, fearful beyond all reason.

Minutes later he was pacing in the small place with Yasmine pleading with him to sit down.

“I can’t,” he said. “I cannot. I have known that precious boy since he was born! What am I supposed to do with this information? Ask his parents? Or would I be telling them?”

“You had better be certain first, Abdullah. You have no doubt?”

“It was him all right. I caught a live glimpse of him too and heard his voice. There is no question.”

“Strange.”

“It’s worse than strange, Yasmine. It’s catastrophic and has dire implications.”

“Ask Bahira and Zaki. They’re his friends.”

Abdullah reached the message systems of both kids’ phones, informing him they would return his call at the end of their workdays. “Yasmine, what was the name of that infiltrator? He will know. Perhaps Kenny is in league with him.”

“Yes, that has to be it!” Yasmine dug around until she found the contact information for Qasim Marid.

Abdullah phoned. “I have a very delicate question for you, Master Marid. Is there another infiltrator from Millennium Force?”

Qasim sounded wary. “An infiltrator where?”

“You tell me. Within
TOL
, of course.”

“Why do you ask? Of whom are you speaking?”

“Sir, please! If you know, just tell me.”

“Well, first I must swear you to secrecy.”

“From whom?”

“From everyone! Your friends, even your children. May I count on you for that?”

“If it will ensure the safety of the person in question, certainly.”

“I have your word you will speak of this to no one until further notice?”

“Yes, yes, of course!”

“We, shall I say,
had
another infiltrator, yes.”

“What a relief! Was it—?”

“Please, do not mention names other than in person. The bad news is that this infiltrator, I have just learned, has turned.”

“Turned?”

“He is full-fledged
TOL
now. He has entirely bought into their philosophies.”

“Oh no!”

“It is sad but true, sir. I am in the midst of damage control now. All I can do is all I can do, and I must tell you, that you are aware of this is a great complicator. Please reassure me that you will not share this information with a soul until you hear back from me.”

Abdullah could barely speak. “You have my word,” he managed.

The Amman office of the Other Light looked efficient enough, Kenny decided, even if the occupants seemed quirky. For as bright as Ignace had made them out to be, they seemed obsequious. The top guy, the pudgy Mudawar, acted the sycophant around Ignace, having to stop and catch his breath, he spoke so quickly.