Triple Threat (20 page)

“Not unless you hurry. At the speed Josh is driving—”

“Are you being chased?”

“We were. But when they pulled out an assault rifle, Josh—”

A loud expletive blasted through her cell phone. She jerked it away from her ear. “We got away…at least for the moment.”

“Stop at the border, Katie. I'll call them and have you two protected there.”

“But the scale of the attack is—”

“Tell me about it when I get there. I'm taking the chopper. I'll be at the Lynden crossing in about an hour and a half. Can it wait that long?”

“Yes. We can wait that long, but not any longer.”

“Good. When you reach the border, don't leave. Mind the police. I've got to call them now.” Before the call ended, she heard Peterson muttering something about handcuffs.

Josh used both hands to steer through a sharp curve, and then took her hand. “It didn't go well, did it?”

“Actually, I thought it went really well. All except for the stuff he mumbled about handcuffs.”

“Great! They're going to arrest us at the border. If that happens, you can forget your career with the FBI.”

She looked at Josh and flashed him a smile. “That's exactly why it won't happen. Peterson wouldn't end my career before it even started. He's the one who promised me a job.”

“One of these days, Kate…” He squeezed her hand, “…you're not going to escape from one of your escapades smelling like a rose.”

She returned his hand squeeze. “I've never been into roses. Sweet, white lilies maybe, but—there's the border. Better get in the middle lane. And let me handle the police.”

“Yeah. No way big, old, dumb Joshua West could handle them.”

“I think a sweet young woman will evoke more sympathy.” She grinned at him.

He gave her a coy smile in return. “You're sweet, Kate. Very sweet.” He pulled up to the guard station. “But, despite that, you'll have to pretend really hard to look innocent.” Josh rolled down the window. “Good luck.”

Kate was already out of the car and walking to the guard's window…and drawing a serious scowl from the man in the booth.

 

 

 

 

26

 

When Katie rounded the front fender of Josh's car, the policeman in the booth stepped out with his hand near his weapon. “Stop! Now!”

“Sir, there are two armed terrorists chasing us. You need to—”

“No. You need to stop…and keep your hands away from your body.” He pulled his weapon and nodded toward Josh. “Out of the car. Stand beside her, now.”

Josh opened the door and slid out.

Katie glared at the policeman. “Are you trying to get us all killed? There is a middle Eastern jihadist group who's after us.”

Josh stepped to her side.

The man scanned Josh for a moment. “Why should I believe either of you?”

“Look at the back of my car and the windows.” Josh stuck a thumb at his rear window.

“For all I know, this could be the result of a drug deal gone bad.”

“Look,” Kate huffed. “This is a serious matter of national security.”

“Yeah, right. What would a kid like you know about serious matters of national security?” His tone was cryptic. The man simply did not believe them.

Josh blew out a blast of frustration. “You had better bite your tongue or you'll seriously regret this.”

The man raised his weapon part way. “Are you threatening me?”

“No. Just anticipating what Special Agent Peterson will do if you don't—”

“Am I going to have to arrest you two?”

This guy was really dropping the ball. He hadn't even asked for identification. “If a black sedan pulls up, you won't live long enough to arrest us.” She glared at the man again.

“The only danger I see is you two.”

Josh shook his head. “Kate, that's about what I would expect from an organization that let a terrorist cross the border and nearly kill a PhD candidate at UW.”

The look on his face said he had finally heard them. “What do you mean about letting a terrorist cross the border?”

“I wouldn't have a clue.” Katie's voice was laced with sarcasm. “I'm just a dumb blonde kid.”

The frown on the man's brow grew deep. “Who are you two?”

Finally, he was getting to where he should have started.

Katie nodded to Josh. “He's Joshua West and I'm Katie Brandt. We're both PhD candidates at—”

“Brandt?” The officer's eyes widened as recognition lit his face. “The Key Arena incident? You?” He nodded at her, raised his eyebrows, but lowered his weapon.

“Both of us,” she said.

Josh grinned at the man. “If you multiply your IQ by two, you might give her a little competition. But watch out for her karate moves. You just don't mess around with Kate Brandt.”

“You should take your own advice, Josh.” She glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

“Officer Brannon…” Two heavily armed policemen approached from the large building on the U.S. side of the crossing. “We'll take these two off your hands. No charge. The FBI is on their way here in a chopper, and we need to keep these two safe. It's a serious matter of national security.”

The Border Patrol officer's gaze darted between her and Josh. “So, you were telling the truth?”

Katie gave him a hands-up shrug. “Yes. But you had better watch out for a black sedan with a man and woman in it. They have handguns and at least one assault rifle. They want us dead and you too, if you get in their way.”

“Take them and good riddance.” He waved them away with his hand.

The two Border Patrol agents took her and Josh into the building and placed them in what must have been a search or interrogation room.

One of them stood outside the door with an assault rifle. The other stuck his head in before closing the door. “Peterson just called in. He's a little less than an hour out. You're safe in here, but we were told not to bug you. Can I get you anything?”

“Do you have any coffee?” Josh asked.

“Yeah. But it's the kind some people call black tar.”

“We'll pass,” Katie said. As the door closed, she focused on Josh.

He smiled warmly at her.

Katie's nearly relaxed heart started a slow acceleration.

 

 

 

 

27

 

“You know, we make a pretty good team, Kate. What we did tonight could save a lot of lives.” Josh gave Kate the warmest smile he could muster.

She returned it, looking up into his eyes. “I know, Josh. That's why I think God had a purpose in bringing us together. I think it began with the Key Arena incident. Maybe even before that. What do you think about that?”

Her eyes, her face, everything about Kate was beautiful, but her beliefs kept getting in the way. “I don't think that's what's happening here.”

Her gaze became more intense, penetrating.

His mind seemed turned inside out, exposed to her. He wanted to hide, but the only thing available to hide behind was an argument.

Her smile had turned to a frown. “But don't you think it's possible?”

“Possible? Yeah, maybe. Probable? No, Kate.”

“So you really don't believe in God?”

This was a sensitive issue with her, but he needed to be brutally honest. “I'm not sure about God, His role in this universe, about any of that.”

“You did ask me to pray several times during…you know.”

“That was just desperation. Not intellect.”

“But you're not a Hawking or Dawkins follower are you?”

She wasn't going to drop this until he ended it. He hated doing this to Kate, but he wanted this conversation brought to a speedy conclusion.
Time to smash her make-believe world with the hammer of reality.
“Let's just say that God is needed for so few things that I'm not sure we need Him to explain anything at all. But more importantly, look at the mess the world is in. Children being abducted, murders, rapes, wars, drugs…”

“So you think there is no God, or He's not good, or He's just…impotent?”

“Something like that.”

“Which one?” She shook her head at him. “Forget the question, Josh. Suppose He wanted to have a relationship with the people He created, a love-based relationship?”

“Why?” He gave her a shrug. “The people are mostly bad.”

“You can't force someone to love you…
or
to be good. Love requires allowing someone a measure of free will and, because of that, it requires taking risks.”

This conversation was no longer just annoying. Kate was probing into his heart in a way no one else ever had, and the direction her logic was headed made him far more than merely uncomfortable. From somewhere deep inside something or someone asked him a question.
Have you actually examined your life and found any basis for what you profess to believe or disbelieve?
He took the shot right in his intellectual solar plexus. He wasn't even sure what he—

“Josh? Are you listening?”

“Yeah. I'm listening.” Well, he meant to be listening.

“Then answer me.”

“Uh…would you please repeat the question?”

Her penetrating, mind-reading gaze came again, full force. “What would you risk to have a relationship with someone you cared about? Danger? Perhaps death?”

“Maybe…” He looked at Kate and instantly knew the truth. He would risk everything for her. Did that mean he loved Kate?

“That's what God did when he came to this earth as a man, to open the door for the relationship between bad people and a good God. He risked everything, including scorn and rejection. He even risked His life. And by giving it, He made a relationship with Him possible.”

Kate's words had raised a dagger positioned over his heart. Was she going to shove it in? “Josh, isn't that what you're risking to have a relationship with me? I'm not stupid, you know.”

He looked down at the floor. Kate's words had pushed the dagger in, dead center. But was God like that? The Bible said He was like a father. Wouldn't a father sacrifice himself for his children? And Josh would certainly sacrifice himself for Kate. She was worth it. But how could God see in Josh the goodness Josh saw in Kate?

He looked up into her eyes, into warmth that seldom replaced the intensity in those brilliant blue eyes. He couldn't lie to her about taking risks to be with her. “Yeah. But you're worth it, Kate.”

She shook her head. “I'm glad you think so, but I'm not perfect. I'm not even that good. Five years ago I was within a split second of killing a nineteen-year-old-girl, Anya. A girl I now love and correspond with.”

“You mean you accidentally almost killed her?”

“No. I was intentionally delivering a deadly blow that would have crushed her larynx. I meant to kill her for something bad she had done. I set myself up as her judge, jury, and executioner. My Granddad grabbed my wrist and stopped me. But I had already committed murder in my mind and heart and was in the process of killing this girl. I held nothing back when I went for the kill.” She paused and gave him that penetrating stare again. “You've never tried to kill anyone, have you?”

He looked away. “No, but—”

“No buts about it. I'm worse than you, Josh.” She stopped and her words sank deep into his heart. “But God loves me. He proved it by allowing Jesus to die in my place, murderer that I am. And now I'm God's own, adopted into His family, just like Mom and Dad adopted me into theirs.”

Kate's sincerity, her logic, and her intensity pulled hard on his heart. But there were other questions that needed to be answered. What about the existence of God? People could have simply made him up because they needed something to help them survive. But would relying on something that didn't even exist actually help you survive? And if God really was Who Kate described, He would know what people needed, right? Was that why Josh was drawn to Kate, to her story, and its explanation?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

You can't have it both ways, dude.

But he needed to be
certain
before committing to something so—the word,
certain
, arrested his thoughts. A person can't be absolutely certain about anything, not certainty in the sense of a mathematical proof. He wasn't certain about Kate. He saw her, observed her, wanted to be with her. Somehow, he just knew. For reasons already set in his heart, the way he was wired, Josh knew Kate was a person he wanted in his life.
She
was the proof.

Would it be the same way with God? Josh couldn't prove God absolutely. An infinite Being could always remain beyond his finite grasp, unless He—

“He reaches out to us, Josh.” Kate's voice came softly. She took his hand.

He gasped at her words, an answer to his unspoken question.

Kate pulled his hand to her heart and held it there. “He reaches out because He loves us and wants us to be with Him forever.”

Where had Kate's words really come from? What was going on here? Coincidences? Was this just Kate's influence on him? Or was God reaching out to Josh through Kate?

Josh needed to stick with Kate. He sensed that through her would he find the answers to his questions, the missing pieces to the puzzle of reality.

“Our world is broken, Josh. Like a giant jigsaw puzzle where we only have part of the pieces.”

Puzzle? He drew a sharp breath. Was Kate somehow reading his mind?

“He gave us enough pieces so that, if we put them together, we anchor the big picture. We can see the big picture and recognize it for what it is. We can see God in it. We just can't see all the details. Put the pieces you already have together, Josh, and you will see God as an integral part of the big picture.”

The whole conversation was eerie, confining. Like a chess match when there were no more moves left. Checkmate. “Kate…I—”