Tribulation Force: The Continuing Drama Of Those Left Behind (21 page)

“That’s the job you told me about. You’d be flying that plane?”

“I don’t know. I suppose. I didn’t realize the old [_Air Force One _]was going to become [_Air Force Two, _]the vice president’s plane. I wonder if they’re really retiring the current pilot. It’s like musical chairs. If the current pilot stays with the 747 when it becomes [_AF2, _]what happens to the current [_AF2 _]pilot?”

Chloe shrugged. “You’re sure you don’t want the job flying the new plane?”

“Surer now than ever. I don’t want to have anything to do with Carpathia.”

Buck took a call from Alice at the Chicago office. “You’d better get two lines into there,” she said, “if you’re going to keep working from home.”

“I’ve got two lines,” Buck said. “But one of ‘em’s for my computer.”

“Well, Mr. Bailey’s been trying to reach you, and he’s been getting a busy signal.”

“What did he call there for? He has to know I’m here.”

“He didn’t call here. Marge Potter was on with Verna about something else and told her.”

“Bet Verna loved that.”

“She sure did. She all but danced. She thinks you’re in trouble with the big boss again.”

“I doubt it.”

“Know what she’s guessing?”

“I can’t wait.”

“That Bailey didn’t like your cover story and he’s firing you.”

Buck laughed.

“Not true?” Alice said.

“Quite the opposite,” Buck said. “But do me a favor and don’t tell Verna.”

Buck thanked her for the deliveries the day before, spared her the story about Chloe having thought Alice was his fiancee, and got off so he could call Bailey. He got to Marge Potter first.

“Buck, I miss you already,” she said. “What in the world happened?”

“Someday I’ll lay it all out for you,” he said. “I hear the boss has been trying to reach me.”

“Well, I’ve been trying for him. Right now he’s got Jim Borland in there, and I hear raised voices. Don’t think I’ve ever heard Jim raise his voice before.”

“You’ve heard Bailey raise his?”

Marge laughed. “Not more than twice a day,” she said. “Anyway, I’ll have him call you.”

“You might want to interrupt them, Marge. Their meeting may be the reason he was trying to reach me.”

Almost immediately Stanton Bailey was on the line. “Williams, you’ve got a lot of nerve acting like the executive editor you’re not.”

“Sir?”

“It’s not your place to be assigning cover stories, telling Borland I originally had him in mind for the treaty piece, then kissing up to him by offering to take his garbage stories and letting him have your cover article.”

“I didn’t do that!”

“He didn’t do that!” Borland hollered.

“I can’t keep up with you two,” Bailey said. “Now, what’s the deal?”

With Chloe gone to see about her new job at the church, Rayford thought about calling his chief pilot. Earl Halliday wanted to hear from him as soon as possible and would likely call him if Rayford didn’t get back to Earl soon.

Today’s news was the very kind of development that would seal Rayford’s decision. He couldn’t deny the prestige that would accompany being the president’s pilot. And being Carpathia’s might be even noisier. But Rayford’s motives and dreams had swung 180 degrees. Being known as the pilot of
Air Force One
—or even
Global Community One
—for seven years was simply not on his wish list.

The size of his own house had sometimes embarrassed Rayford, even when four people were living there. At other times he had been proud of it. It evidenced his status, his station in life, the level of his achievement. Now it was a lonely place. He was so grateful to have Chloe home. Though he would not have said a word if she had returned to college, he didn’t know what he would have done with himself during his off-hours. It was one thing to busy your mind with all that is necessary to transport hundreds of people safely by air. But to have virtually nothing to do at home but eat and sleep would have made the place unbearable.

Every room, every knickknack, every feminine touch reminded him of Irene. Occasionally something would jump out and flood his mind with Raymie, too. He found a piece of Raymie’s favorite candy under a cushion on the couch. A couple of his books. A toy was hiding behind a potted plant.

Rayford was growing emotional, but he didn’t mind as much any more. His grief was more melancholic than painful now. The closer he grew to God, the more he looked forward to being with him and with Irene and Raymie after the Glorious Appearing.

He allowed his memories to bring his loved ones closer in his mind and heart. Now that he shared their faith, he understood them and loved them all the more. When regret crept in, when he felt ashamed of the husband and father he had been, he merely prayed for forgiveness for having been so blind.

Rayford decided to cook for Chloe that night. He would prepare one of her favorite dishes—shrimp scampi with pasta and all the trimmings. He smiled. In spite of him and all the negative traits she had inherited, she had grown to be a wonderful person. If there was one clear example of how Christ could change a person, she was it. He wanted to tell her that, and dinner would be one expression. It was easy to buy things for her and take her out. He wanted to do something himself.

Rayford spent an hour at the grocery store and another hour and a half in the kitchen before he had everything cooking in anticipation of her arrival. He found himself identifying with Irene, remembering the hopeful expression on her face almost every night. He had said his thank-yous and complimented her enough, he supposed. But it wasn’t until now that he realized she must have been doing that work for him out of the same love and devotion he felt for Chloe.

He had never grasped that, and his paltry attempts at compliments must have been seen as perfunctory as they were. Now there was no way to make it up to Irene, except to show up in the kingdom himself, with Chloe alongside.

Buck hung up from the call with Stanton Bailey and Jim Borland wondering why he didn’t just accept Carpathia’s offer to manage the [_Chicago Tribune _]and be done with it. He had convinced them both that he was sincere and finally got the old man’s gruff approval, but he wondered if it was worth being in the doghouse again. His goal was to tie the religious stories together so neatly that Borland would get an idea how his job should be done and Bailey would get a picture of what he needed in an executive editor.

Buck didn’t want that job any more than he had when Steve Plank left and Buck had been talked into it. But he sure hoped Bailey found someone who would make it fun to work there again.

He banged out some notes on his computer, in essence outlining the assignments he had acquired in the trade with Jimmy Borland. He had made the same initial assumptions Borland did about all the breaking stories. But that was before he had studied prophecy, before he knew where Nicolae Carpathia fit into the sweep of history.

Now he was hoping all these things would break at essentially the same time. It was possible he was sitting on the direct fulfillment of centuries-old prophecies. Cover stories or not, these developments would have as much impact on the short remaining history of mankind as the treaty with Israel.

Buck called Steve Plank. “Any word yet?” Steve said. “Anything I can tell the secretary-general?”

“Is that what you call him?” Buck said, astonished. “Not even you can call him by name?”

“I choose not to. It’s a matter of respect, Buck. Even Hattie calls him ‘Mr. Secretary-General,’ and if I’m not mistaken, they spend almost as much time together off the job as on the job.”

“Don’t rub it in. I know well enough that I introduced them.”

“You regret it? You provided a world leader with someone he adores, and you changed Hattie’s life forever.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Buck said, realizing he was dangerously close to showing his true colors to a Carpathia confidant.

“She was a nobody from nowhere, Buck, and now she’s on the front page of history.” That was not what Buck wanted to hear, but then he wasn’t planning to tell Steve what he wanted to hear either. “So, what’s the story, Buck?”

“I’m no closer to a decision today,” Buck said. “You know where I stand.”

“I don’t understand you, Buck. Where’s the glitch? What’s going to make this not work? It’s everything you’ve ever wanted.”

“I’m a journalist, Steve, not a public relations guy.”

“Is that what you’re calling me?”

“That’s what you are, Steve. I don’t fault you for it, but don’t pretend to be something you’re not.”

Clearly, Buck had offended his old friend. “Yeah, well, whatever,” Steve said. “You called me, so what did you want?”

Buck told him of the deal he had made with Borland.

“Big mistake,” Steve said, still clearly steamed. “You’ll recall I never assigned him a cover story.”

“This shouldn’t be a cover story. The other pieces, the ones he’s letting me handle, are the big stories.”

Steve’s voice rose. “This would have been the biggest cover story you’ve ever had! This will be the most widely covered event in history.”

“You say that and tell me you’re not a PR guy now?”

“Why? What?”

“The U.N. signs a peace treaty with Israel and you think it’s bigger than the disappearances of billions all over the globe?”

“Well, yeah, that. Of course.”

“Well, yeah, that. Of course,”’ Buck mimicked. “Good grief, Steve. The story is the treaty, not the ceremony. You know that.”

“So you’re not coming?”

“Of course I’m coming, but I’m not riding along with you guys.”

“You don’t want to be on the new
Air force One
?”

“What?”

“C’mon, Mister International Journalist. Keep the news on, man.”

Rayford looked forward to Chloe’s arrival, but he also looked forward to the meeting of the core group that night. Chloe had told him Buck had been as much against accepting a job with Carpathia as Rayford was against accepting a job with the White House. But you never knew what Bruce would say. Sometimes he had a different view of things, and he often made a lot of sense. Rayford couldn’t imagine how such changes could figure in to their new lives, but he was eager to talk about it and pray about it. He looked at his watch. His dinner should be done in half an hour. And that was when Chloe had said she’d be home.

“No,” Buck said, “I wouldn’t want to go over there on the new or the old _ Air Force One_. I appreciate the invitation to be part of the delegation, and I’ll still take you up on being at the table for the signing, but even Bailey agrees that [_Global Weekly _]ought to send me.”

“You told Bailey about our offer?!”

“Not the job offer, of course. But about riding along, sure.”

“Why do you think the trip to New York was so clandestine, Buck? You think we wanted the [_Weekly _]to know about this?”

“I figured you didn’t want them to know I was being offered a job, which they don’t know. But how was I supposed to explain showing up in Israel and being in on the signing?”

“We hoped it wouldn’t make any difference to your former employer by then.”

“Just don’t make any assumptions, Steve,” Buck said.

“You, either.”

“Meaning?”

“Don’t expect the offer of a lifetime to stay on the table if you’re going to thumb your nose at an invitation like you did last time.”

“So the job is tied to playing ball on the PR trip.”

“If you want to put it that way.”

“You’re not making me feel any better about the idea, Steve.”

“You know, Buck, I’m not sure you’re cut out for politics and journalism at this level.”

“I agree it’s sunk to a new low.”

“That’s not what I meant. Anyway, remember your big-shot predictions about a new one-world currency? That it would never happen? Watch the news tomorrow, pal. And remember that it was all Nicolae Carpathia’s doing, diplomacy behind the scenes.”

Buck had seen Carpathia’s so-called diplomacy. It was likely the same way he got the president of the United States to hand over a brand-new 757, not to mention how he got eyewitnesses to a murder to believe they’d seen a suicide.

It was time to tell Bruce about his trip.

“Rayford, can you come in?”

“When, Earl?”

“Right now. Big doings with the new [_Air Force One. _]Have you heard?”

“Yes, it’s all over the news.”

“You say the word, and you’ll be flying that plane to Israel with Nicolae Carpathia on board.”

“Not ready to decide yet.”

“Ray, I need you in here. Can you come or not?”

“Not today, Earl. I’m in the middle of something here, and I’ll have to see you tomorrow.”

“What’s so important?”

“It’s personal.”

“What, you’ve got another deal cooking?”

“I’m cooking, but not another deal. I happen to be preparing dinner for my daughter.”

Rayford heard nothing for a moment. Finally: “Rayford, I’m all for family priorities. Heaven knows we’ve got enough pilots with bad marriages and messed-up kids. But your daughter—”

“Chloe.”

“Right, she’s college age, right? She’d understand, wouldn’t she? Couldn’t she put off dinner with Dad for a couple hours, knowing he might get the best flying job in the world?”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Earl. I’ve got that Baltimore run late morning, back late afternoon. I can see you before that.”

“Nine o’clock?”

“Fine.”

“Rayford, let me just warn you: If the other guys on the short list ever wanted this job, they’re going to be drooling over it now. You can bet they’re calling in all their chips, lining up their endorsements, trying to find out who knows who, all that.”

“Good. Maybe one of them will get it and I won’t have to worry about it anymore.”

Earl Halliday sounded agitated. “Now, Rayford—,” he began, but Rayford cut him off.

“Earl, after tomorrow morning let’s agree not to waste any more of each other’s time. You know my answer, and the only reason I haven’t made it final yet is because you asked me not to for the sake of our friendship. I’m thinking about it, I’m praying about it, and I’m talking about it with people who care for me. I’m not going to be badgered or shamed into it. If I turn down a job that everyone else wants, and later I regret it, that’ll be my problem.”