The Left Behind Collection: All 12 Books (102 page)

“I am not sure I wanted to hear that!”

The smashed patrol car resumed pursuit. Buck saw the lights of the airstrip in the distance. “Tsion, come up here. We need to strategize.”

“Strategy? It is lunacy!”

“And what would you call what else we’ve been through?”

“The lunacy of the Lord! Just tell me what to do, Cameron, and I will do it. Nothing will be able to stop us tonight.”

The guard in the squad car had apparently radioed ahead not only for a roadblock but also for help. Two sets of headlights, side-by-side and covering both lanes of the road, headed toward the bus. “Have you heard the phrase ‘playing chicken’?” Buck asked.

“No,” Tsion said, “but it is becoming clear to me. Are you going to challenge them?”

“Don’t you agree they have more to lose than we do?”

“I do. I am hanging on. Do what you have to do!”

Buck pressed the accelerator to the floor. The heat gauge was pressed to the maximum and quivering. Steam billowed from the engine. “Here’s what we’re going to do, Tsion! Listen carefully!”

“Just concentrate on your driving, Cameron! Tell me later!”

“There will be no later! If these cars don’t back down, there’s going to be a tremendous crash. I think we’ll be able to keep going either way. When we get to whatever roadblock they have for us at the airport, we have to make a quick decision. I need you to pour all those gas containers into the one big water bucket, the one that’s wide open at the top. I’ll have the cigarette lighter hot and ready to go. If we come upon a roadblock I think I can smash through, I’ll just keep going and get as close to the runway as possible. The Lear is going to be off to our right and about a hundred yards from the terminal. If the roadblock is not something we can smash through, I’ll try to go around it. If that’s impossible, I’m going to pull the wheel hard to the left and slam on the brakes. That will make the back end swing around into the roadblock and anything loose will slide to the back door. You must put that bucket of gasoline in the aisle about eight feet from the back door, and when I give you the signal, toss that cigarette lighter into it. It needs to be just enough ahead of the collision so it’s burning before we hit.”

“I do not understand! How will
we
escape that?”

“If the roadblock is impenetrable, it’s our only hope! When that back door blows open and that burning gasoline flies out, we have to be hanging on up here with all our might so we don’t get thrown back into it. While they’re concentrating on the fire, we jump out the front and run toward the jet. Got it?”

“I get it, Cameron, but I am not optimistic!”

“Hang on!” Buck shouted as two cars from the airport closed on him. Tsion hooked one arm around the metal pole behind Buck and wrapped his other around Buck’s chest, grabbing the back of the chair like a human seat belt.

Buck gave no indication of slowing or swerving and headed straight for the two sets of headlights. At the last instant he closed his eyes, fully expecting a huge collision. When he opened his eyes, the road was clear. He looked first one way then the other behind him. Both cars had gone off the road, one of them rolling. The original pursuit car was still behind him, and Buck heard gunfire.

Less than a mile ahead the small airport loomed. Huge fences of mesh and barbed wire flanked the entrance, and just inside sat a blockade of a half-dozen vehicles and several armed soldiers. Buck could see he would not be able to blast through it or go around.

He pressed in the cigarette lighter as Tsion lugged the gas cans and the bucket to the back. “It is sloshing around!” Tsion called out.

“Just do the best you can!”

As Buck raced toward the open gate and the huge blockade, the patrol car still following close behind, the cigarette lighter popped out. Buck grabbed it and tossed it back to Tsion. It bounced and rolled under a seat. “Oh no!” Buck shouted.

“I have got it!” Tsion said. Buck peeked in the rearview mirror as Tsion climbed out from under a seat, tossed the cigarette lighter into the bucket, and scrambled to the front.

The back of the bus burst into flames. “Hang on!” Buck shouted, pulling hard to the left and slamming on the brakes. The bus whirled so fast it nearly tipped over. The back smashed into the stockade of cars, and the back door burst open, flaming gasoline splashing everywhere.

Buck and Tsion jumped out and ran, low as they could, around the left side of the blockade as guards began firing into the bus and others screamed and ran from the flames. Tsion was limping. Buck grabbed the older man and dragged him around the dark side of the terminal near the runway.

There was the Learjet, ready for takeoff. Never had a plane looked like such an oasis of safety. Buck looked back twice, but no one seemed to have seen them escape. It was too good to be true, but it fit with everything else that had happened that night.

Fifty feet from the plane, Buck heard shots and turned to see a half-dozen guards racing toward them, firing high-powered weapons. When they reached the steps, Buck grabbed Tsion by the belt in the back and threw him aboard. As Buck dived into the plane, a bullet ripped through the bottom of the heel of his right boot. Pain shot through the side of his foot as he yanked the door shut, Ritz already rolling.

Buck and Tsion crawled up to behind the cockpit.

Ritz muttered, “Those rascals shoot my plane, I’m gonna be really mad.”

The plane took off like a rocket and rose quickly. “Next stop,” Ritz announced, “Palwaukee Airport, State of Illinois, in the U.S. of A.”

Buck lay on the floor, unable to move. He wanted to look out the window, but he didn’t dare. Tsion buried his face in his hands. He wept and seemed to be praying.

Ritz turned. “Well, Williams, you sure left a mess down there. What was that all about?”

“It would take a week to tell,” Buck said, panting.

“Well,” Ritz said, “whatever it was, that was sure fun.”

An hour later, Buck and Tsion sat in reclining seats, assessing the damage. “It is only sprained,” Tsion said. “I caught my foot under one of the seat supports when we first hit. I was afraid I had broken it. It will heal quickly.”

Buck slowly took off his right boot and held it up so Tsion could see the trajectory of the bullet. A clean hole had been blasted from the sole to the ankle. Buck took off a bloody sock. “Would you look at that?” he said, smiling. “I won’t even need stitches. Just a nick there.”

Tsion used Ken Ritz’s first-aid kit to treat Buck’s foot and found an Ace bandage for his own ankle.

Finally settled back with their wounded limbs elevated, Tsion and Buck looked at each other. “Are you as exhausted as I am?” Buck said.

“I am ready to sleep,” Tsion said, “but we would be remiss, would we not, if we did not return thanks.”

Buck leaned forward and bowed his head. The last thing he heard, before he slipped into a sleep of sweet relief, was the beautiful cadence of Rabbi Tsion Ben-Judah’s prayer, thanking God that “the glory of the Lord was our rear guard.”

Buck awoke nearly ten hours later, pleased that Tsion was still sleeping. He checked Tsion’s Ace bandage. The ankle was swollen, but it didn’t look serious. His own foot was too tender to go back into his boot. He limped forward. “How are you doing, Cap?”

“A lot better, now that we’re over American airspace. I had no idea what you guys got yourselves into, and who knew what kind of fighter pilots might have been on my tail.”

“I don’t think we were worth all that, with World War III going on,” Buck said.

“Where’d you leave all your stuff?”

Buck whirled around. What was he looking for? He had brought nothing with him. Everything he brought had been in that leather bag, which by now was charred and melted. “I promised to call my wife back, too!” he said.

“You’ll be happy to know I already talked to your people,” Ritz said. “They were mighty relieved to hear you were on your way home.”

“You didn’t say anything about my wound or about my passenger, did you?”

“Give me some credit, Williams. You and I both know your wound isn’t worth worrying about, so no wife needs to hear about that until she sees it. And as for your passenger, I have no idea who he is or whether your people knew you were bringing him home for dinner, so, no, I didn’t say a word about him either.”

“You’re a good man, Ritz,” Buck said, clapping him on the shoulder.

“I like a compliment as much as the next guy, but I hope you know you owe me battle pay on top of everything else.”

“That can be arranged.”

Because Ritz had carefully documented his plane and passenger on the way out of the country a few days before, he was on record and easily made it back through the North American radar net. He did not announce his extra passenger, and because personnel at Palwaukee Airport were not in the habit of processing international travelers, no one there paid any attention when an American pilot in his fifties, an Israeli rabbi in his forties, and an American writer in his thirties disembarked. Ritz was the only one not limping.

Buck had finally reached Chloe from the plane. It sounded to him as if she might have bitten his head off for keeping her up all night worrying and praying, had she not been so relieved to hear his voice. “Believe me, babe,” he said, “when you hear the whole story, you’ll understand.”

Buck had convinced her that only the Tribulation Force and Loretta could know about Tsion. “Don’t tell Verna. Can you come alone to Palwaukee?”

“I’m not up to driving yet, Buck,” she said. “Amanda can drive me out there. Verna isn’t even staying with us anymore. She has moved in with friends.”

“That could be a problem,” Buck said. “I may have made myself vulnerable to the worst possible person in my profession.”

“We’ll have to talk about that, Buck.”

It was as if Tsion Ben-Judah was in some international witness protection program. He was smuggled into Loretta’s home under the cover of night. Amanda and Chloe, who had heard from Rayford the news about Tsion’s family, greeted him warmly and compassionately but seemed not to know how much to say. Loretta had a light snack waiting for all of them. “I’m old and not too up on things,” she said, “but I’m quickly getting the picture here. The less I know about your friend, the better, am I right?”

Tsion answered her circumspectly. “I am deeply grateful for your hospitality.”

Loretta soon trundled off to bed, expressing her delight in offering hospitality as her service to the Lord.

Buck, Chloe, and Tsion limped into the living room, followed by a chuckling Amanda. “I wish Rayford were here,” she said. “I feel like the only teetotaler in a car full of drunks. Every chore that requires two feet is going to fall to me.”

Chloe, characteristically direct, leaned forward and reached for Tsion’s hand with both of hers. “Dr. Ben-Judah, we have heard so much about you. We feel blessed of God to have you with us. We can’t imagine your pain.”

The rabbi took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, his lips quivering. “I cannot tell you how deeply grateful I am to God that he has brought me here, and to you who have welcomed me. I confess my heart is broken. The Lord has shown me his hand so clearly since the death of my family that I cannot deny his presence. Yet there are times I wonder how I will go on. I do not want to dwell on how my loved ones lost their lives. I must not think about who did this and how it was accomplished. I know my wife and children are safe and happy now, but it is very difficult for me to imagine their horror and pain before God received them. I must pray for relief from bitterness and hatred. Most of all, I feel terrible guilt that I brought this upon them. I do not know what else I could have done, short of trying to make them more secure. I could not have avoided serving God in the way he has called me.”

Amanda and Buck each moved to put a hand on Tsion’s shoulders, and with the three of them touching him, they all prayed as he wept.

They talked well into the night, Buck explaining that Tsion would be the object of an international manhunt, which would likely have even Carpathia’s approval. “How many people know about the underground shelter at the church?”

“Believe it or not,” Chloe said, “unless Loretta has read the printouts from Bruce’s computer, even she thinks it was just some new utility installation.”

“How was he able to keep that from her? She was at the church every day while it was being excavated.”

“You’ll have to read Bruce’s stuff, Buck. In short, she was under the impression that all that work was for the new water tank and parking lot improvements. Just like everyone else in the church thought.”

Two hours later, Buck and Chloe lay in bed, unable to sleep. “I knew this was going to be difficult,” she said. “I guess I just didn’t know how much.”

“Do you wish you’d never gotten involved with somebody like me?”

“Let’s just say it hasn’t been boring.”

Chloe then told him about Verna Zee. “She thought we were all wacky.”

“Aren’t we? The question is, how much damage can she do to me? She knows completely where I stand now, and if that gets back to people at the
Weekly
, it’ll shoot up the line to Carpathia like lightning. Then what?”

Chloe told Buck that she and Amanda and Loretta had at least persuaded Verna to keep Buck’s secret for now.

“But why would she do that?” Buck said. “We’ve never liked each other. We’ve been at each other’s throats. The only reason we traded favors the other night was that World War III made our skirmishes look petty.”

“Your skirmishes
were
petty,” Chloe said. “She admitted she was intimidated by you and jealous of you. You were what she had always hoped to be, and she even confessed that she knew she was no journalist compared to you.”

“That doesn’t give me confidence about her ability to keep my secret.”

“You would have been proud of us, Buck. Loretta had already told Verna her entire story, how she was the only person in her extended family not taken in the Rapture. Then I got my licks in, telling her all about how you and I met, where you were when the Rapture happened, and how you and I and Daddy became believers.”

“Verna must have thought we were all from another planet,” Buck said. “Is that why she moved out?”

“No. I think she felt in the way.”

“Was she sympathetic at all?”

“She actually was. I took her aside once and told her that the most important thing was what she decided to do about Christ. But I also told her that our very lives depended upon her protecting the news of your loyalties from your colleagues and superiors. She said, ‘His
superiors
? Cameron’s only superior is Carpathia.’ But she also said something else very interesting, Buck. She said that as much as she admires Carpathia and what he has done for America and the world—gag—she hates the way he controls and manipulates the news.”

“The question, Chloe, is whether you extracted from her any promises of my protection.”

“She wanted to trade favors. Probably wanted some sort of a promotion or raise. I told her you would never work that way, and she said she figured that. I asked if she would promise me that she would at least not say anything to anyone until after she had talked to you. And then, are you ready for this? I made her promise to come to Bruce’s memorial service Sunday.”

“And she’s coming?”

“She said she would. I told her she’d better be there early. It’ll be packed.”

“It sure will. How foreign is all this going to be to her?”

“She claims she’s been in church only about a dozen times in her life, for weddings and funerals and such. Her father was a self-styled atheist, and her mother apparently had been raised in some sort of a strict denomination that she turned her back on as an adult. Verna says the idea of attending church was never discussed in her home.”

“And she was never curious? Never searched for any deeper meaning in life?”

“No. In fact, she admitted she’s been a pretty cynical and miserable person for years. She thought it made her the perfect journalist.”

“She always gave me the willies,” Buck said. “I was as cynical and negative as any, but hopefully there was a balance of humor and personability there.”

“Oh yeah, that’s you all right,” Chloe teased. “That’s why I’m still tempted to have a child with you, even now.”

Buck didn’t know what to say or think. They had had this discussion before. The idea of bringing a child into the Tribulation was, on the surface, unconscionable, and yet they had both agreed to think about it, pray about it, and see what Scripture said about it. “You want to talk about this now?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m tired. But let’s not shut the door on it.”

“You know I won’t, Chlo’,” he said. “I also need to tell you I’m on a different time zone. I slept all the way back.”

“Oh, Buck! I’ve missed you. Can’t you at least stay with me until
I
fall asleep?”

“Sure. Then I’m going to sneak over to the church and see how Bruce’s shelter turned out.”

“I’ll tell you what you ought to do,” Chloe said, “is finish reading Bruce’s stuff. We’ve been marking passages we want Daddy to read at the memorial service. I don’t know how he’ll get through all of it without taking the whole day, but it’s astounding stuff. Wait till you see it.”

“I can’t wait.”

Rayford Steele was having a crisis of conscience. Packed and ready to go, he sat reading the
Global Community International Daily
while awaiting word from Hattie Durham’s driver that he was in front of the building.

Rayford missed Amanda. In many ways, they still seemed strangers, and he knew that in the little more than five years before the Glorious Appearing, they would never have the time to get to know each other and develop the lifelong relationship and bond he had shared with Irene. For that matter, he still missed Irene. On the other hand, Rayford felt guilty that in many ways he was closer to Amanda already than he had ever been to Irene.

That was his own fault, he knew. He had not known nor shared Irene’s faith until it was too late. She had been so sweet, so giving. While he knew of worse marriages and less loyal husbands, he often regretted that he was never the husband to her that he could have been. She had deserved better.

To Rayford, Amanda was a gift from God. He recalled not even having liked her at first. A handsome, wealthy woman slightly older than he, she was so nervous upon first meeting him that she gave the impression of being a jabberer. She didn’t let him or Chloe get a word in, but kept correcting herself, answering her own questions, and rambling.

Rayford and Chloe were bemused by her, but seeing her as a future love interest never crossed his mind. They were impressed with how taken Amanda had been with Irene from her brief encounter. Amanda had seemed to catch the essence of Irene’s heart and soul. The way she described her, Rayford and Chloe might have thought she had known her for years.

Chloe had initially suspected Amanda of having designs on Rayford. Having lost her family in the Rapture, she was suddenly a lonely, needy woman. Rayford had not sensed anything but a genuine desire to let him know what his former wife had meant to her. But Chloe’s suspicion had put him on guard. He made no attempt to pursue Amanda and was careful to watch for any signs coming the other way. There were none.

That made Rayford curious. He watched how she assimilated herself into New Hope Village Church. She was cordial to him, but never inappropriate, and never—in his mind—forward. Even Chloe eventually had to admit that Amanda did not come off as a flirt to anyone. She quickly became known around New Hope as a servant. That was her spiritual gift. She busied herself about the work of the church. She would cook, clean, drive, teach, greet, serve on boards and committees, whatever was necessary. A full-time professional woman, her spare time was spent in church life. “It’s always been all or nothing with me,” she said. “When I became a believer, it was lock, stock, and barrel.”

From a distance, having hardly socialized with her after that first encounter when she merely wanted to talk to him and Chloe about Irene, Rayford became an admirer. He found her quiet, gentle, giving spirit most attractive. When he first found himself wanting to spend time with her, he still wasn’t thinking of her romantically. He just liked her. Liked her smile. Liked her look. Liked her attitude. He had sat in on one of her Sunday school classes. She was a most engaging teacher and a quick study. The next week, he found
her
sitting in
his
class. She was complimentary. They joked about someday team-teaching. But that day didn’t come until after they had double-dated with Buck and Chloe. It wasn’t long before they were desperately in love. Having been married just a few months before in a double ceremony with Buck and Chloe had been one of the small islands of happiness in Rayford’s life during the worst period of human history.