Frantic Page 3

  Mark didn’t know whether he could trust Carl. Mark knew the boy was sincere about his faith. That was as clear as the mark on his forehead.

  “The GC knows about Dr. Ben-Judah, but they can’t find him,” Carl said. “There’s even a reward for any GC officer that finds information about where he’s located.”

  “A bounty?” Mark said.

  Carl nodded. “And there are other rewards for people who bring in rebels—people like us. It’s very secret, but the operation is new.”

  “How much would they offer for someone like you?” Mark said.

  “I don’t even want to think about it,” Carl said. “They found one group in South Carolina just before I left. They were set to move in on them.”

  Mark looked at the sky. The locusts had moved north to more populated areas. The two got back on the motorcycle and drove away slowly, but Mark still had questions. Should he take Carl to the hideout?

  Judd, Lionel, and Sam walked through the Old City streets. From windows and doors came the screams of people who had been stung by the locusts. The sound of the winged creatures was like a thundering herd of horses.

  “Will anybody not get stung?” Sam said.

  “Everybody without the mark is fair game,” Judd said. “Why?”

  “I’m thinking of my father,” Sam said. “If he avoids these things, perhaps he’ll listen.”

  Judd convinced them to go to Jamal’s house, so they backtracked to the right street. When they turned the corner and saw the apartment building, Judd gasped.

  Three Global Community squad cars were in front of the building, lights flashing.

  Judd, Lionel, and Sam raced to the front entrance and buzzed. Several uniformed officers were on the floor inside, writhing in pain. A woman who had been stung managed to open the door for them.

  “What are they doing here?” Judd asked, pointing toward the officers, but the woman was in too much pain to answer.

  Judd ran toward the elevator. He stopped in his tracks when an old man cackled.

  “The GC’s going to get them!” the man said, talking through a crack in the door. “I told the GC what the people upstairs were teaching.” The man squinted at Lionel. “You’re one of them too! I saw you down here speaking against the potentate.”

  A locust buzzed nearby and the man slammed the door. Judd ran to the elevator. The man behind the door yelled, “They’re taking them away! I hope they get the whole group!”

  “Jamal and his family!” Lionel said.

  “I hope we’re not too late,” Sam said as he stepped into the elevator. A locust flew inside, then tried to get out, but the elevator door clanged shut. The locust buzzed around the lights above and finally came to rest on the floor, panting. Judd took off his shirt and trapped the creature.

  “What are you doing?” Sam said.

  “We may need him,” Judd said.

  When the elevator reached the twelfth floor, the three ran down the hall. They took the stairs two at a time and reached Jamal’s door. Judd smacked the demon locust and tried to keep it quiet, but the thing kept yelling a muffled, “Abbadon!”

  Judd listened closely at the door. Someone was yelling questions at Jamal and his family.

  “The fire escape leads to our room,” Lionel said.

  Quickly they took the stairs to the roof and climbed down the fire escape. Judd opened the window easily and climbed inside. Lionel and Sam followed, closing the window before any locusts could get inside.

  Lionel put the trapped locust under a mattress and sat on it. Judd put a finger to his lips and opened the door slightly. Jamal, his wife, and Nada sat with their backs to Judd, their hands cuffed behind them. The GC officer paced in front of them, barking questions Jamal didn’t answer.

  “I know this guy,” Judd whispered to Sam and Lionel. “He was with your dad when they questioned me.”

  “Deputy Commander Woodruff,” Sam said. “He’s pretty tough.”

  Judd listened closely. Two other GC officers were in the apartment.

  “We know you have illegally housed people who are against the Global Community,” Woodruff said. “We know from inside sources that you have spoken out against Potentate Carpathia and the Supreme Pontiff.”

  “We have only spoken the truth,” Jamal muttered.

  Deputy Commander Woodruff leaned close. “Then tell us the truth about where Rabbi Ben-Judah is hiding.”

  As Judd listened, he noticed something familiar about Woodruff’s voice. Judd was sure he had met the man before the questioning. But where?

  Jamal and the others remained silent. The deputy commander sighed and walked across the room. Another officer spoke and called attention to the locusts outside.

  “Since you know so much about the future, you must know a way we can avoid these ghastly creatures.”

  “I do,” Nada said.

  “Tell me.”

  Nada sat straight in her chair. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”

  Deputy Commander Woodruff slapped her. Jamal struggled to get up, but the man pushed him back, sending his chair to the floor. Jamal’s arms were pinned behind him. He screamed in pain and opened his eyes, looking directly at Judd.

  Judd put a finger to his lips.

  “Shut up!” Woodruff said.

  Suddenly, Judd remembered where he had heard Woodruff’s voice. A chill went up his spine. Judd knew exactly what he had to do.

  4

  JUDD motioned to Lionel for the locust. Lionel slid off the bed and pulled the shirt from beneath the mattress. The locust screeched and tried to click its wings. Judd held it tightly and listened as Deputy Commander Woodruff told the two GC officers to check the first floor and see if the locusts were still there.

  “Good thing we didn’t stay in the hall,” Lionel whispered.

  Judd told Lionel and Sam to stay out of sight from the door. If they needed to run, he’d give the signal.

  Woodruff approached Jamal and hovered over him. “Tell us what you know about Ben-Judah and we will free you. Keep playing games and I’ll be forced to act. First against your wife, then your daughter.”

  Judd fumed. When Woodruff yelled, Judd pieced the clues together about the man. Judd had vowed revenge against him.

  “You can’t treat us like this,” Jamal protested. “The Global Community would not allow—”

  “Do you see any witnesses?” the deputy commander said. “Either you tell me what I want to know or—”

  Judd opened the door. “There are witnesses. Just like there were witnesses when you killed those two in Tel Aviv.”

  Woodruff turned, surprised. “What are you talking about? Who are you?” Woodruff yelled for the other officers.

  Judd took a step into the room. “I was on the phone when you killed my friends Taylor and Hasina. You said they resisted arrest and you were forced to kill them. You lied.”

  “Judd, get out of here!” Nada yelled.

  “Judd?” Woodruff said, reaching for his gun. “That wasn’t the name you gave at the station.”

  Judd stood his ground. “I was on the other end of the phone when you killed my friends. I said you wouldn’t get away with it, and you won’t.”

  “I should have dealt with you while I had the chance,” Woodruff said. “If it hadn’t been for Goldberg and the people at headquarters, you’d still be locked up.”

  “I’m going to give you the chance you never gave my friends,” Judd said. “Walk out of here and leave these people alone.”

  Woodruff shook his head and moved a step toward Judd. “You’re in no position to bargain.”

  Judd held up the shirt. “Abbadon,” the locust said.

  “This is the next judgment from God,” Judd said. “These locusts will sting those who don’t believe and they’ll feel incredible pain. You’ll want to die, but you won’t be able to.”

  Woodruff scoffed and held up his gun. “You can’t scare me with your little animal.”

  “You can’
t kill it,” Judd said.

  The elevator doors opened in the hall. Footsteps approached quickly.

  Woodruff leveled the gun at Judd. “Now you’ll see what a mistake you made coming here.”

  Judd opened the shirt, and the locust skittered into the air, disoriented. It looked at Jamal and his family, then spotted Deputy Commander Woodruff. “Abbadon,” it screamed, its teeth dripping venom.

  Woodruff jumped back, terror on his face. The locust darted toward the ceiling. Woodruff shot and missed.

  Judd ran for the front door and locked it. The other officers shouted outside.

  Judd turned and the locust dived for Woodruff. The man fired wildly and missed again, the bullet lodging in a wall. Then the locust was on him, biting his forehead.

  “Deputy Commander!” an officer screamed outside the door. “What’s wrong?”

  Woodruff swatted at the locust but it was too late. The venom immediately entered the man’s bloodstream. He thrashed and yelled in pain. His gun rattled to the floor.

  Judd stepped over Jamal and his family and knelt beside Woodruff. The locust flew toward the front door.

  “Get it off me!” Woodruff screamed, swatting at the locust that wasn’t there.

  Judd grabbed keys from the man’s belt and quickly unlocked the handcuffs. The officers outside kicked at the door. Lionel opened the window, and a few more locusts flew inside.

  “I wouldn’t come in here if I were you,” Jamal shouted. “There is a gang of locusts waiting for you.”

  The pounding stopped. The men yelled for their leader, but he was still thrashing and moaning on the floor. Lionel and Sam helped Jamal’s wife and Nada to their feet. Sam grabbed the gun and stuffed it under the mattress in the next room.

  “We have to hurry,” Judd said to Jamal.

  One by one they climbed onto the fire escape. Judd was the last one out the window. As he crawled outside, the front door splintered. Then came the frightened cries of men who were now face-to-face with evil.

  Vicki and Lenore tried to help Melinda and Janie but nothing worked. The girls were just as miserable as when they were first stung.

  “We have to make them comfortable and leave it at that,” Lenore whispered as she and Vicki left the bedroom.

  The other kids complained about the moaning and crying upstairs. “This is going to get spooky if it keeps up through the night,” Darrion said.

  As evening approached, the kids gathered to eat and talk about what had happened. Everyone had questions about the locusts and what was ahead. Charlie drank in every word. Conrad found an Internet news outlet and turned it up so everyone could hear. The news anchor had locked himself inside the studio to keep the locusts out.

  “We can’t estimate the millions of people who have been stung,” the anchor said, “but reports are flooding in from throughout the world. All modes of transportation have come to a standstill. Hospitals are jammed with patients, but in many there is no one to treat the wounded. Doctors and nurses have been stung as well.”

  The anchor spoke by phone with a scientist in Philadelphia who had miraculously escaped the locusts.

  “These creatures seem to be a hybrid,” the scientist said, “between a horse, a lion, a human being, and an insect. I’ve looked at the venom closely, and this isn’t like any other I’ve ever seen. It attacks the central nervous system and causes severe pain. The good news is, the sting is not fatal. The bad news is, there seems to be no letup to the pain.”

  The anchor continued. “That diagnosis seems to be true. With all the reports of locust attacks, we still haven’t been notified of anyone dying because of an attack.”

  “I wonder if Nicolae Carpathia will get stung,” Shelly said.

  “The locusts are probably too scared to go near the guy,” Conrad said.

  Instead of heading to the schoolhouse, Mark took Carl toward the suburbs of Chicago. They made it to Z’s gas station by nightfall, and Z’s father led them downstairs.

  While Carl grabbed something to eat, Mark explained why he was there. Z listened and scratched his neck.

  “If he’s got the mark and the locusts haven’t stung him, that’s proof he’s one of us.”

  “I’m scared to take him back to the hideout,” Mark said. “He could lead the GC to us.”

  Z nodded. “I understand. He could lead them here, too. Did you think of that? But where else is he going to get the kind of teaching you guys can give him?”

  Z took Mark to his office and showed him how much money he had made from the coins the kids had found. “I’ve already sold almost half of them.” Z pointed to a figure on the screen.

  “Incredible!”

  “With that money, plus what I get for the other half, we should be able to buy lots of food and supplies to send to believers around the country.”

  “How are you going to ship the stuff?” Mark said.

  “A couple of pilots I know will take care of the flights overseas,” Z said, “and I’ve already got drivers lined up for the States and Canada. I think you know one of them.”

  “Who?”

  “Guy named Pete.”

  “The biker?” Mark said.

  “Yeah. He’s supposed to be coming here with a rig from down south. He’s got an amazin’ story.”

  “I can’t wait to hear it,” Mark said.

  Judd and the others crammed into Jamal’s car and drove away. The GC squad cars were still in front of the building, their lights swirling.

  Judd told them what had happened at the airport. Jamal wanted to hear about Mr. Stein and their trip to Africa, but Judd said he would tell them later.

  “We will not be able to return to our home,” Jamal said. “We are fugitives.”

  “What about our things?” Jamal’s wife said.

  Jamal shook his head.

  Lionel told them about the man downstairs who said he contacted the GC.

  “We knew it was dangerous trying to help others in the building,” Jamal said. “A few of them have believed our message. For that I am grateful.”

  Locusts buzzed the streets. People who had been stung moaned and screamed along the sidewalk. They passed a few cars. Everyone who hadn’t been stung was staying inside.

  “Look out!” Jamal’s wife shouted as they drove through an intersection.

  A woman stepped in front of the car. Jamal swerved, but it was too late. They hit the woman at full speed, smashing the right headlight. The woman flew through the air and landed with a sickening thud on the pavement. Judd and Nada ran to help.

  Judd felt the woman’s neck for a pulse. “She’s still alive!”

  The woman groaned and rocked her head.

  “Why did you do that?” Nada asked.

  “I don’t want to live!” the woman screamed. “Please, I can’t take the pain.”

  Jamal phoned an ambulance, but there was no answer.

  They helped the woman to a nearby bench. When another car came near, she leaped from her seat and ran into the road again.

  Jamal brought Judd and Nada back to the car. “She won’t die. But there’s nothing we can do for her now.”

  They drove to the home of Yitzhak Weizmann, the man who had helped Judd, Lionel, and Mr. Stein find a place to stay when they first arrived in Jerusalem. Yitzhak welcomed them with food and listened to their story. “Don’t worry. You will stay here.”

  Jamal motioned for Judd to join him in the living room as everyone pulled out blankets and pillows for the night.

  “I promise I won’t be a problem,” Judd said.

  Jamal looked hard at Judd. “Nada told me everything. I was . . . stern with you. Too hard. I would be grateful if you would accept my apology and my thanks for saving our lives this evening.”

  Judd smiled. “Apology accepted.”

  The last time Mark had seen Pete, he was heading south with some of his gang. The rattle of Pete’s 18-wheeler shook Z’s gas station. Mark reached to shake hands, but Pete grabbed him in a bear hug, and Mark co
uld hardly breathe. Pete was still big, but it looked like he had lost some weight.

  Mark and Carl helped Pete unload supplies and stash them deep in Z’s hideout. When they finished, Z’s father had dinner ready. Mark couldn’t remember when he’d had a better meal.

  Mark brought them up to date on the kids and introduced Carl. Pete was surprised that Judd and Lionel were in Israel, but he was glad Mr. Stein had been able to attend the Meeting of the Witnesses. Pete asked about Vicki and the schoolhouse. Mark told him about Taylor Graham’s death.

  Pete hung his head. “I hoped Taylor would become one of us.”

  “My cousin John also died,” Mark said.

  Carl explained what had happened.

  Tears came to Pete’s eyes as he listened. “I’m glad you came to the truth, son.”

  Z asked about the condition of the roads.

  “It’s pretty rough in places,” Pete said. “With a cycle it’s a breeze, but with the 18-wheeler you have to take it slow.”

  “Where you going next?” Mark said.

  “I head to Florida tomorrow. We hooked up with a believer who can get us food that won’t spoil. I’ll take it north and put it in a warehouse, then head back this way.”

  “How did you get into trucking?” Mark said.

  “I’ve met a lot of people over the years,” Pete said. “Sometime ago I was through Alabama and Mississippi and hooked up with some good friends. I left to find them and tell them the truth.”

  “What happened?”

  Pete smiled and took another bite of pie. “I had hoped everybody I talked with would become a believer. Didn’t happen. A few believed, though. We even started a church at one of the truck stops.”

  “How’d you get the truck?” Mark asked.

  “An older guy I know got hurt in the earthquake. Said he wanted me to drive his rig. I told him I wasn’t interested, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Said he thought God wanted me to have it.”

  “Another driver down south told me about Pete,” Z said. “We talked and he agreed to come on board.”

  “This is the perfect time to store provisions,” Pete said. “With all the locusts attacking people, it’s like we’re the only ones on the road. The GC won’t be able to keep track of us.”