The Left Behind Collection: All 12 Books (371 page)

Six Years, Eleven Months, into the Tribulation

With just weeks to go to the culmination of the final events, Rayford had finally gotten used to the idea that Tsion was going to Jerusalem.

“That I’m acceding to this doesn’t imply that I support it, does it, Tsion?”

“I know you better than that. But I may also know you better than you know yourself. After all this talk, you would be disappointed if I pulled out now.”

“Disappointed? Relieved. I somehow feel I’m going to have to answer to God for what happens to you.”

“Trust me. I will let you off the hook.”

“Let me see those hands, old man.”

“I told you,” Tsion said, extending his hands. “I am not that old.”

“Older than I am, so ancient in my book,” Rayford said. “But those are impressive calluses. And George and Razor tell me you’re actually starting to hit targets with that Uzi.”

“I do not see how anyone can miss. It shoots so many bullets in so short a time, to me it is like using a garden hose. If you miss your mark, just swing it back and forth until you hit it.”

“What do you plan to do, seriously, Doctor? Stand somewhere and preach with a weapon hanging from your shoulder?”

“If I must. Rayford, we have known each other long enough that we should be free to be frank. I feel such a compulsion to plead with my fellow countrymen to give their lives to Messiah that I do not believe it would be physically possible for me not to. I must get there, and I must preach. I do not want a disguise. I cannot imagine the GC even caring about me anymore.”

“Are you serious? The leader of the international Judah-ites—”

“That is their term for us, not ours, and certainly not mine.”

“But, Tsion, everybody knows you. If they thought my daughter was a prime catch, imagine if they got hold of you.”

Tsion shook his head. “But if God has laid this so heavily on my heart, maybe he is telling me that I will be supernaturally protected.”

“Well, is he or isn’t he?”

“All I know is that I must go.”

“I’m sending Buck with you. I promised him duty in Jerusalem. I can’t think of a role with more action than what you’re going to draw.”

“I would be honored to have him as my bodyguard. Is he the military man George is?”

“Who is? But George is otherwise engaged, you know.”

“Defending the perimeter here, yes, he told me. My question is, why don’t we ignore the perimeter if our borders are impregnable?”

“Because people are seeking refuge here all the time, and they are not safe until they get inside.”

“And yet they are safe in the air. How do you figure that?”

“I’ve quit trying to figure out God, Tsion. I’m surprised you haven’t.”

“Oh, Rayford, you have just stepped into one of my traps. You know how I love to quote the Word of God.”

“Of course.”

“Your mention of figuring out God reminds me of one of my favorite passages. Ironically, it leads into a verse that justifies my going in spite of the danger.”

“I’m listening.”

“Romans 11:33-36: ‘Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?” For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.’”

“Impressive.”

“But, my friend, that leads into the first verse of the twelfth chapter, which is my justification: ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.’”

“Just hope it’s a
living
sacrifice, Tsion.”

Chang had concluded that Carpathia believed the prophecy about the drying up of the Euphrates, because he had sanctioned sensitive devices in the river that recorded information that was fed into and evaluated by the GC mainframe computer. Chang, of course, was monitoring that from Petra. Nearly four weeks later, he knew when the event occurred before the GC did.

“It’s happened!” he shouted, standing at his computer. Everyone nearby jumped and stared, and Naomi came running. “There was water in the Euphrates a minute ago, and now it is as dry as a bone. You can bet tomorrow it will be on the news—someone standing in the dry, cracking riverbed, showing that you can walk across without fear of mud or quicksand.”

“That is amazing,” Naomi said. “I mean, I knew it was coming, but isn’t it just like God to do it all at once? And isn’t that a fifteen-hundred-mile river?”

“It used to be.”

Mac’s and Abdullah’s reconnaissance flights over the area showed that weaponry had been taken from the armories in Al Hillah until they had to be empty. Within days, great columns of soldiers, tanks, trucks, and armaments began rolling west from as far away as Japan and China and India.

“And here,” Chang told Naomi, “is the break Tsion has been looking for, whether he knew it or not. Look at this.” He printed out a directive from Suhail Akbar himself, instructing Global Community Peacekeepers and Morale Monitors to cease and desist with all current assignments and consider themselves redeployed to the GC One World Unity Army. “Your superiors have been similarly assigned, and you will report to them in the staging area in twenty-four hours or face AWOL charges.”

“What happens to the streets?” Naomi said.

“I can’t imagine, love. The inmates will be running the asylum. But that means people without Carpathia’s mark can come out from hiding.”

“If they dare. There’s still a bounty on their heads. The loyalists will kill them and stack their bodies, waiting for the end of the war to cash in.”

“Won’t they be disappointed.”

“I must go as soon as possible,” Tsion told Rayford. “What is the fastest way Cameron and I can get to Jerusalem?”

“Helicopter, I suppose, if I can find you a pilot.”

“What are you doing right now?”

“Uh, well—I guess nothing. Anything else?”

Tsion laughed. “I cannot wait. I have packed foodstuffs and a change of clothes, and if Cameron has done as I requested, he will have done the same. Who would know if a chopper is available?”

“Meet me at the helipad in half an hour.”

Priscilla Sebastian made a valiant effort to distract Kenny Bruce as Buck tried to extract himself from the boy’s embrace.

“I’ll be back soon,” Buck said. “Got to go with Uncle Tsion.”

Kenny said nothing. He just hung on.

“Grandpa’s going to come see you after he drops us off, okay? You’re going to stay with him while I’m gone.”

Kenny lightened his grip and pulled back to look at Buck. “Grandpa?”

“That’s right.”

“Plane ride?”

“I bet so.”

“When?”

“Soon. Soon as he gets back.”

“I wanna go.”

“Not enough room. Now you be a good boy and play with Beth Ann, and Grandpa will be here soon. Okay?”

“’Kay.”

Mac was working with Otto Weser and George on planning the evacuation from New Babylon, as soon as the word came that believers were to move out. No one, not even Tsion, seemed to know how that would be supernaturally announced or even whether anyone outside New Babylon would hear it.

“I know of a few other cells there,” Otto said. “I have left instructions with one of the leaders to call me once she gets the word. I don’t know what else we can do. I’ll tell them to meet us at the palace airstrip and hope we have a plane big enough to get them all out of there.”

“All we can do is all we can do,” Mac said.

Naomi interrupted their meeting. “Want to say good-bye to Tsion? Everyone is turning out for the farewell.”

“He’s going already?”

She told Mac why.

“Tsion never lets any grass grow on an idea, does he?”

He and George and Otto followed Naomi to a clearing near the helipad, where it seemed hundreds of thousands had shown up. “Word travels quick round here, doesn’t it, Otto?”

“Mr. McCullum, many of these people are weeping. He’s only going to Jerusalem, isn’t he? That can’t be more’n a hundred miles, can it? And surely he’s coming back.”

“That’s what they’re cryin’ about, Otto. Most folks wonder if he will be back.”

Rayford waited on firing up the chopper so Tsion could be heard. The rabbi pulled a white cloth from his pocket and waved it vigorously at the people as Buck boarded behind him. “These people are going to want your neck when you come back without him, Rayford,” Buck said.

“Which, of course, I plan to do in an hour or less.”

“
I’d
just better not come back without him,” Buck said.

“People! People!” Tsion shouted. “I am overwhelmed at your kindness. Pray for me, won’t you, that I will be privileged to usher many more into the kingdom. We are just days away now from the battle, and you know what that means. Be waiting and watching. Be ready for the Glorious Appearing! If I am not back before then, we will be reunited soon thereafter.

“You will be in my thoughts and prayers, and I know I go with yours. Thank you again! You are in good hands with Chaim ‘Micah’ Rosenzweig, and so I bid you farewell!”

He continued waving as he boarded. Rayford noticed the rabbi’s tears as he buckled himself in.