Stung Page 7

  Nicolae gave a list of his achievements: everything from the repair of cities, roads, and airports to the rebuilding of New Babylon into the most magnificent city ever constructed. “It is a masterpiece I hope you will visit as soon as you can.”

  Lionel closed his eyes in thought. One day Carpathia is going to declare himself god. With this kind of technology, Nicolae will be able to rule the world!

  As Lionel listened, he noticed something strange about Carpathia’s voice. In the past, he had been always in command, never making a mistake, never struggling to remember a name or a date. Now he had grown hoarse. He turned away and cleared his throat. “Pardon me,” he said, his voice still raspy. “I wish you and the rabbi here all the best and welcome you, … ahem, ahem, … excuse me—”

  Nicolae turned to Tsion. “Would someone have some water?”

  Dr. Ben-Judah didn’t respond. Lionel saw someone in the front pass a bottle to the stage. Nicolae nodded and smiled. He unscrewed the cap, tipped it back for a long gulp, then gagged and spit it out. The crowd gasped. Nicolae’s lips and chin were covered with blood. He held the bottle at arm’s length, staring at it in fear.

  Carpathia cursed at Tsion. “You and your evil flock of enemies! You would disgrace me like this for your own gain? I should have my men shoot you dead where you stand!”

  Lionel saw two figures pass in the aisle near him. Both had long hair and wore tattered clothes. In unison Eli and Moishe spoke without any microphone. The crowd fell back from around them, and the two stood in the eerie light of the stadium, shoulder to shoulder, barefoot.

  “Woe unto you who would threaten the chosen vessel of the Most High God!”

  Carpathia threw the bottle to the ground. Clear, clean water splashed everywhere.

  Lionel looked around. Other people carried water bottles containing clear liquid. Eli and Moishe caused his throat to parch, Lionel thought. Nicolae pointed at the two and screamed, “Your time is nigh! I swear I will kill you or have you killed before—”

  “Woe!” Eli and Moishe thundered, silencing Carpathia. “Woe to the impostor who would dare threaten the chosen ones before the due time! Sealed followers of the Messiah, drink deeply and be refreshed!”

  A man beside Lionel took a long drink from a small bottle of water. He wiped his mouth and handed it to Lionel. “You drink now,” he said.

  The bottle was ice-cold and full. Lionel took a long drink. He handed it back to the man. Again, it was full. Throughout the stadium people sighed with pleasure at the taste. A few others tried to drink, but like Nicolae’s bottle, the water turned to blood.

  Lionel glanced at the stage. The chopper blades whirred to life, and Tsion was again alone. His notes flew around the stage like a tornado, then settled. People leaped to retrieve them. Tsion remained motionless, having ignored the entire episode with Carpathia.

  Lionel looked around for the two witnesses, but they were gone.

  Judd pleaded, but when the helicopter prepared for liftoff, Taylor picked up his weapon and placed it against his shoulder. The white chopper appeared over the top of the stadium and flew directly overhead.

  Taylor aimed. Judd started to rush him, but before he did, Taylor dropped to the ground with the gun.

  “It’s them,” Taylor gasped, his mouth hanging open.

  Judd turned and saw Eli and Moishe walking toward them. They didn’t say a word or even glance up as the helicopter passed. When they were gone, Taylor said, “I thought I was dead.”

  Judd helped him up. “You have to understand who you’re dealing with. If you shot Carpathia down, the GC would blame the followers of Ben-Judah. They’d make us all martyrs tonight.”

  “I don’t care. If that chopper returns, it’s going down.”

  “Then I’ll have to do what I have to do,” Judd said, walking away.

  “Which is what?” Taylor said.

  The crowd around Lionel took their seats. Tsion was back at the lectern. As if nothing had happened since he began quoting John 3:16, Tsion continued:

  “’—begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’”

  Tsion stepped back and repeated the verse louder as the helicopter flew away. “‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’”

  A man near Lionel fell to his knees. The man was holding a bottle filled with blood. Tsion said, “There may be some here, inside or outside, who want to receive Christ. I urge you to pray after me: ‘Dear God, I know I am a sinner. Forgive me and pardon me for waiting so long. I receive your love and salvation and ask you to live your life through me. I accept you as my Savior and resolve to live for you until you come again.’”

  As the man near Lionel repeated the prayer, the blood in the bottle changed to ice-cold water. The man stood. Lionel pointed at the bottle. The man raised it over his head, laughing, and let the liquid pour over him.

  “I can see it,” the man yelled, looking from one face to the next. “The cross on your foreheads. I see it!”

  Others shouted, “Praise God!” and embraced one another.

  Tsion stood at the lectern, his eyes brimming with tears, his hands clasped in front of his face in a posture of prayer.

  Judd knew he had to tell someone about Taylor’s plan. He pushed his way into the stadium and found a young guard with “Kudrick” on his name tag.

  At first the guard told Judd to move along, but when Judd mentioned the high-powered weapon, the man radioed other guards and followed Judd outside. When they reached the area, Taylor was gone.

  The guard pulled out a handheld computer and entered some data. Judd was sketchy about Taylor. “All I know is that this guy had a bazooka ready to fire at the potentate’s helicopter, and the thing that stopped him was those two fire-breathing guys from the Wailing Wall.”

  The guard studied Judd. “Why are you here?”

  “Curious,” Judd said.

  The guard put his computer away. “Do you know anything about the teaching of this Ben-Judah?”

  “Are you asking for your report or because you’re interested personally?”

  The guard crossed his arms. “Does it matter?”

  Suddenly an alarm went off on the guard’s communication device. The guard plugged in his earphone, then pulled out his pistol and released the safety lock. He gave Judd a frantic look and ran back toward the stadium.

  “Meet me right here tomorrow night,” Judd yelled.

  Judd wondered if he had just hurt the Young Trib Force by giving the GC information. Or had he made contact with a future follower of Christ?

  Lionel waited for Judd. Though Dr. Ben-Judah had left the stage, people stood at the front, weeping, kneeling, and praying. As he watched, Lionel saw Mr. Stein walk across the stage and jump to the infield.

  Lionel got Mr. Stein’s attention, and the two embraced. Mr. Stein glowed with excitement. “I am overwhelmed. I had hoped you and Judd would be able to get inside.”

  “What happened to you?” Lionel said.

  “You will not believe it. Yitzhak asked me to accompany him backstage as the group met for prayer before the message. I actually met Tsion Ben-Judah face-to-face.”

  “I bet he was surprised you were here in person.”

  “Very,” Mr. Stein said. “I saw Buck and Chloe Williams backstage as well.”

  Nicolae Carpathia’s helicopter appeared again. Judd rushed up and explained what had happened with Taylor Graham.

  “You did the right thing,” Mr. Stein said. “Taylor must be stopped.”

  “Something’s wrong,” Judd said. “The guard took off with his gun drawn.”

  “You don’t think they’re going to kill people, do you?” Lionel said.

  Mr. Stein grabbed their arms. “Let’s not give them the chance.” The three raced for the nearest exit.

  Above them, Leon Fortunato’s voice boomed over the helicopter’s loudspeakers. “We hav
e been asked by Global Community ground security forces at the stadium to help clear this area! Please translate this message to others if at all possible! We appreciate your cooperation!”

  Lionel ran ahead of Judd and Mr. Stein. The crowd did not obey. Hundreds of people moved to the corner of the stadium where the helicopter hovered.

  As Lionel reached the stairs that would lead them outside, a machine gun fired outside the stadium. People screamed and dived for cover. Lionel kept moving, stepping over those on the ground. As the three made it outside, more shots filled the air.

  10

  VICKI switched the laptop to the sleep mode and sat back.

  “I wonder how Carpathia’s going to work this to his advantage.” Conrad said. “I can’t believe he lost his cool and cursed like that on live television.”

  “Can you imagine what the press will do with the water-to-blood thing?” Shelly said. “It’s going to be plastered all over the headlines.”

  “Yeah, but the publicity will make everybody want to watch,” Vicki said. “The meeting will be the biggest thing in TV history.”

  “If they let them continue,” Conrad said.

  Vicki sighed. An idea had been brewing since the beginning of Tsion’s message. “I think we should change our clocks to Jerusalem time.”

  “What for?” Shelly said.

  “The all-day meetings will begin just after midnight,” Vicki said. “I know it’s the middle of the afternoon, but if we get some sleep now, we can get up and watch the whole thing live.”

  The kids all agreed to try it. Vicki went to the kitchen to prepare what would be a midnight breakfast. Conrad said, “I want to see what Carpathia says about all this.”

  Vicki looked in on Melinda. Her door was slightly open. Vicki knocked and entered. “What did you think?”

  Melinda shrugged. “Interesting. I’ve never seen the potentate that upset.”

  “What about the rabbi?” Vicki said.

  “I guess he made some sense. A lot more than that Peter guy. But there’s a lot I don’t understand.”

  “Like what?”

  “The stuff about the sheep,” Melinda said.

  “You mean the lamb?”

  “Whatever.”

  Vicki sat on the bed. She explained that Jesus was the Lamb of God. “In the days before Jesus, God asked for a sacrifice for sins. I don’t understand everything about it, but basically the people had to take a perfect lamb, kill it, then sprinkle its blood on an altar.”

  Melinda scowled. “That sounds weird. Why does God have to kill something? Can’t he just look the other way?”

  “The sacrifice reminded the people how bad sin is. Because God is holy, there has to be some kind of payment. That ceremony was sort of a picture of Jesus’ sacrifice. He was the perfect Lamb who gave his life for us.”

  “I got it,” Melinda said, “but I still think it’s pretty weird.”

  Conrad knocked at the door. “You oughta come see this.”

  “We’ll talk later,” Vicki said.

  The voice of Leon Fortunato echoed down the hall. “The supreme commander’s introducing Nicolae,” Conrad said.

  “I don’t believe this,” Shelly groaned as Vicki came into the room. “This is the ultimate setup guy.”

  Fortunato looked calm and collected. He said there were still pockets of resistance to the progress of the Global Community. “One of those movements revealed its true nature earlier this evening before the eyes of the world.”

  “Yeah, they turned his drinking water to blood,” Darrion said.

  “His Excellency has the power to use extreme measures because of this action, but in the spirit of the new society he has built, His Excellency has a different response he wishes to share with you.

  “Before he does that, however, I would like to share a personal story.”

  “Uh-oh,” Conrad said, “here it comes.”

  Fortunato told the world that after the earthquake, Nicolae Carpathia had raised him from the dead. He finished with, “And now, without further ado, your potentate and—may I say, my deity—His Excellency, Nicolae Carpathia.”

  “My deity?” Shelly said. “He thinks Carpathia’s God?”

  “Tsion said this would happen,” Vicki said.

  Fortunato bowed deeply and tried to make way for Carpathia, but he stumbled on a light cord and tumbled out of range of the camera. The kids laughed. Carpathia seemed flustered by the distraction, then quickly recovered.

  “Fellow citizens, I am certain that if you did not see what happened earlier this evening at Teddy Kollek Stadium in Jerusalem, you have by now heard about it. Let me briefly tell you my view of what occurred and outline my response.

  “One of my goals as a strong leader is tolerance. We can only truly be a global community by accepting our differences. It has been the clear wish of most of us that we break down walls and bring people together. Thus there is now one economy highlighted by one currency, no need for passports, one government, eventually one language, one system of measurement, and one religion.”

  Carpathia described Enigma Babylon One World Faith, which brought different religions under one banner. “Your way may be the only way for you, and my way the only way for me, but all religions of the world have proved themselves able to live in harmony.”

  Carpathia frowned. “All religions except one. You know the one. It is the sect that claims its roots in historic Christianity. It holds that the vanishings of two and a half years ago were God’s doing. Indeed, they say, Jesus blew a trumpet and took all his favorite people to heaven, leaving the rest of us lost sinners to suffer here on earth.”

  Carpathia crossed his arms and squinted. “This is not the truth of Christianity as it was taught for centuries. That wonderful, peace-loving religion told of a God of love and of a man who was a teacher of morals. His example was to be followed in order for a person to one day reach eternal heaven by continually improving oneself.”

  “This is too much,” Vicki said. “If we reach heaven by improving ourselves, why did Jesus have to die?”

  Carpathia continued. “Following the disappearances that caused such great chaos in our world, some misguided people looked to the Christian Bible for an explanation. They created a belief that said the true church was taken away.”

  “You think people are actually buying this?” Darrion said.

  Carpathia referred to the followers of Dr. Ben-Judah as a cult. “I come to you tonight from the very studio where Dr. Ben-Judah turned his back on his own religion. While in exile, he has managed to brainwash thousands who are desperate. Dr. Ben-Judah has used the Internet for his own gain, no doubt taking millions from his followers. He has invented an us-against-them war.”

  “He hasn’t taken a penny,” Vicki shouted.

  “For months I have ignored these harmless holdouts to world harmony. When Dr. Ben-Judah invited his converts to meet in the very city that had exiled him, I decided to allow it.”

  “Here comes the payoff,” Conrad said. “He’s about to bring the hammer down.”

  Carpathia held up his hands in a gesture of peace. “In a spirit of acceptance, I gave my public promise for Dr. Ben-Judah’s safety. I believed the only right thing to do was to encourage this mass meeting. I wanted his followers to join us. But the choice was theirs. I would not have forced them.

  “And how were my actions rewarded? Was I invited to the festivities? Allowed to bring a greeting or take part in any of the pageantry? No. I traveled to Israel at my own expense and dropped in to say a few words.

  “My supreme commander was met with the rudeness of utter silence. The most revered Supreme Pontiff Peter the Second was received in the same manner, even though he is a fellow clergyman. This was obviously a well-planned mass response.”

  “A vast conspiracy,” Conrad said.

  “Shh,” Vicki said. “Here’s his explanation.”

  Carpathia accused Dr. Ben-Judah of controlling the minds of his audience. “I had the clear
feeling that the crowd was with me. They wanted to welcome me. Dr. Ben-Judah somehow gave a signal to release an invisible dust or powder that instantly parched my throat and resulted in a powerful thirst.

  “I should have been suspicious when I was immediately presented with a bottle from someone in the crowd. But as a trusting person, I assumed an unknown friend had come to my aid.”

  Carpathia gritted his teeth. “I was ambushed by a bottle of poisonous blood! It was such an obvious assassination attempt that I accused Dr. Ben-Judah right there. He had hidden in the crowd the two elderly lunatics from the Wailing Wall who have murdered several people. With hidden microphones turned louder than the one I was using, they shouted me down with threats.

  “My doctor says if I had swallowed what they gave me, I would have died instantly.”

  Judd, Lionel, and Mr. Stein had fought their way through the crowd of frightened people to the safety of a nearby building. When the GC emergency vehicles left, the three headed for the university gymnasium.

  Judd was exhausted. He lay on his cot, listening to the prayers and conversation around him. Before he drifted off to sleep, Mr. Stein touched his shoulder and asked him to follow. “You’ll want to see this.”

  A small group gathered around a television in an office near the front. Yitzhak sat with his feet on a desk. Judd recognized the man who had introduced Tsion onstage. His name was Daniel. Other members of the local committee stared at Nicolae Carpathia on TV.

  Lionel brought Judd up to speed about Nicolae’s speech. “He just said the assassination attempt is an act of high treason, punishable by death.”

  “Who are they going to execute, all of us?” Judd said.

  Lionel shrugged.

  Carpathia clenched his jaw. “There is no doubt that this ugly incident was engineered and carried out by Dr. Ben-Judah. But as a man of my word, I plan to allow the meetings to continue for the next two nights. I will maintain my pledge of security and protection.”

  “We do not need either from you,” Daniel muttered.

  Carpathia continued. “Dr. Ben-Judah, however, shall be exiled again from Israel within twenty-four hours of the end of the meeting. As for the two who call themselves Eli and Moishe, let this serve as public notification to them as well. For the next forty-eight hours, they shall be restricted to the area near the Wailing Wall. They are not to leave that area for any purpose at any time. When the meetings in the stadium have concluded, Eli and Moishe must leave the Temple Mount area. Their appearance anywhere but near the Wailing Wall for forty-eight hours or their showing their faces anywhere in the world after that shall be considered reason to kill. Any Global Community officer or private citizen is authorized to shoot to kill.”