Frantic Page 8

Judd could hardly catch his breath. He had seen pictures and videos of the city Nicolae had built, but he never dreamed he would have the chance to see it in person. Before he could answer, Nada quickly stood and walked out of the attic. Judd called for her but she didn’t turn around.

  “Is something wrong?” Pavel said.

  Judd shook his head. “We just had a disagreement.”

  “I assume you’ll want to think about the offer,” Pavel said.

  “Do I have to come alone?” Judd said. “I have two other friends who want to make it back to the States as well.”

  Pavel adjusted his glasses. “I will speak with my father and get back to you at midnight.”

  Vicki retrieved her notebook and was ready to meet with the kids from South Carolina the next day. Pete took Carl to hook up with the GC and finish his run to Florida.

  Pete told Vicki and the others where and when to meet him. “Give me three days and then we’ll head north.”

  Carl thanked the kids for their help and made sure they had access to a computer. “After I get back to the GC, I’ll be in touch. Look for my e-mail.”

  Vicki, Conrad, and Shelly kept the motorcycles and rode behind Luke and Tom’s pickup through the lowlands. The smell of saltwater plants was refreshing. They hid the truck and cycles deep in a thicket. Vicki knew she wouldn’t be able to find the spot again without Luke and Tom’s help.

  “What were you guys doing at the station last night?” Vicki said.

  “We’d been waiting all day to see who showed up,” Tom said. “We put the word out that anyone interested in getting serious about being a part of the Trib Force should be there.”

  “How’d you know we’d show up?” Shelly said.

  “We didn’t,” Tom said, “but Luke had a dream last night. He was sittin’ in a classroom, studying the Bible like nobody’s business. I thought he’d had too much shrimp sauce, but he swore it was a message from God.”

  Luke helped the kids into a small boat. He pushed off and paddled into the middle of the marsh and started the engine.

  Vicki turned to ask a question but Luke stopped her. “Just wait. You’ll see.”

  Luke took them through a maze of creeks and small rivers. He knew each sandbar and shallow stream. Twenty minutes later the river widened, and it felt like they were headed to the ocean. Luke pulled the boat up to what looked like a tangle of scrub oak and some old logs.

  “Who’s there?” someone said from behind a tree.

  “It’s Luke and Tom and some friends,” Luke said.

  Vicki stepped out of the boat onto dry ground. What had looked like something to avoid from a distance was actually an island with a cabin stocked with food, drinking water, and even a solar-powered computer.

  Several people came out of the cabin to greet the kids. Most were teenagers, but a few were a little older. Some, like Luke and Tom, had the mark of the true believer. Others didn’t but for some reason hadn’t been stung by the locusts.

  Everyone crowded around the cabin. Vicki asked questions and discovered most of the kids had lost one or both parents in the disappearances.

  “My daddy was a shrimp boat captain,” one boy said. “I’d work on the boat all day long when I wasn’t in school. The summer before, he tried to convince me to come to his church. He used to drink and cuss a lot, but since he started going there he’d quit doing both.

  “He convinced me to go out with him one night, said he had a new plan. I didn’t want to go, but he kept after me. He talked about God the whole way and I said I wasn’t interested.

  “Now, when he was fishing, he always tinkered with something. Nets. The motor. But when we got way out and set anchor, I didn’t hear anything. Nothing but the waves lapping at the side of the boat.”

  “What did you do?” Vicki said.

  “I went back to find him, and all that was there were his clothes and his gear. It was the spookiest thing ever. I didn’t know if he’d fallen overboard or maybe jumped for some reason. I looked for maybe a half hour before I called a Mayday, but by then things were going crazy. Wasn’t too long later that I hooked up with Tom and Luke and they explained stuff to me that made sense.”

  “Still doesn’t make sense to me,” said a girl who didn’t have the mark.

  “That’s why these guys are here,” Tom said.

  Vicki opened her notebook and looked at Shelly and Conrad. She took a deep breath. “All that’s happened— from the disappearances to the earthquake, the tidal wave to the locusts—has happened because God wants to get your attention.”

  11

  FOR THE next three days, Vicki showed the kids from South Carolina what following God was all about. Shelly and Conrad told their stories and talked with the kids one-on-one.

  By the end of the three days, everyone on the island had the mark of the believer. Conrad helped Tom fix their computer and work on the small generator that powered it. Vicki encouraged the kids to read Tsion Ben-Judah’s Web site and theunderground-online.com and keep looking for what was coming next.

  Luke and Tom took Vicki and the others to meet Pete. As they waited, Luke said, “A lot of what you said we knew, but we didn’t know how to tell others. It was a big help watching you explain it.”

  Vicki promised she would have Lenore put her notes on theunderground-online.com Web site. Pete’s truck rumbled in the distance.

  “Where are you guys headed next?” Tom said.

  “Wherever God takes us,” Conrad said.

  Lionel listened to Judd explain Pavel’s plan. At first, Lionel couldn’t believe Judd was serious. But the more Judd told him, the more sense it made. The pilot might be able to get them back to the States or know a different way.

  “Pavel’s supposed to get in touch in a few minutes,” Judd said, “but there’s something else I need to talk about.”

  “I hope this is not about Nada,” Lionel said. When Judd nodded, Lionel said, “Are you crazy? Haven’t you learned anything? Jamal’s going to—”

  “I don’t think he’s ticked off at me anymore. I think he understands this is between his daughter and me.”

  “What did she say this time?” Lionel said.

  Judd explained the conversation. When he said Nada thought he was restless, Lionel screamed, “I don’t believe this! Why are you having the conversation? When she came up here you should have—”

  “Fine,” Judd said, throwing his arms in the air. “I thought I could talk to you. I thought you could help me work through this.”

  Lionel took a deep breath and walked to the attic window. “OK, I’m sorry. You’re right.” He turned back to Judd. “What’s keeping you from just telling her that you like her, but you’re not interested in anything long-term?”

  Judd stared at the computer.

  “Why don’t you just tell her that you don’t feel the same way she does and leave it at that?”

  Judd looked up. His eyes were red. “Because it’s not true.”

  “What?”

  “My problem isn’t telling her I’m not interested. If that were true I could do it. The problem is, I am interested.”

  Lionel sat down hard. He felt light-headed. “Whoa, I didn’t expect that.”

  “Neither did I,” Judd said. “I’ve always thought we’d go back to the States, but this evening it occurred to me that I could stay and work from Israel.”

  “Man, you’ve been here way too long,” Lionel said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that.”

  “So, what do you think?”

  Before Lionel could answer, the computer beeped and Pavel stared into the monitor. Judd hit a few keys and they were linked.

  “I have good news,” Pavel said. “My father talked with the pilot and he says he can bring the three of you. But no more than that. I have aliases for all of you. Mac will bring your IDs.

  “He will pick you up at Jerusalem Airport as the pamphlets are being loaded. Listen for your names over the loudspeaker and Mac will tell you where to go.”

 
; Judd said good-bye to Pavel.

  Lionel said, “How can you commit to going to New Babylon when you don’t know what you’re going to do about Nada?”

  “I think we should go see Pavel no matter what,” Judd said.

  “Nada will think you’re running again.”

  “Maybe,” Judd said, “or this might work to confirm what we’re both feeling.”

  Vicki sat in the passenger seat and explained to Pete what had happened. He was excited to hear about the new believers in South Carolina and how much help the kids had been.

  “Luke and Tom said they’re moving their headquarters to the secret island,” Vicki said.

  “I’m glad you guys got to them before something bad happened,” Pete said.

  While Shelly and Conrad looked for the latest news on the satellite, Vicki asked about Carl. Pete frowned. “I’ve been waiting for an e-mail from him. He said as soon as it was safe he’d get in touch and I haven’t heard a thing.”

  Pete had such a load of food and supplies the kids could barely get the motorcycles in the trailer. “Where are we going with all this stuff?” Conrad said.

  “Z said there’s a group in North Carolina with a storage facility—”

  “Hey, hey, I think we have something here,” Shelly interrupted. “A message from Carl.”

  Vicki looked back over her shoulder.

  “Read it,” Pete said.

  “It’s all garbled,” Shelly said.

  “It’s code,” Conrad said. “We have to run it through the program.”

  Shelly pasted the text into another document and ran the code-breaking program. “OK, here it is,” Shelly said. “Sorry it’s taken so long to write. I ran into some trouble explaining how I got back and why I hadn’t been stung. The GC is major paranoid about the locusts. About 80 percent of the Peacekeepers have been infected. They’re trying to keep the other 20 percent healthy and protected with their weird gear.

  “My commander asked about the group in Illinois and I told him it was a dead end. I said the people up there were dealing with the locusts just like everyone else. They pressed me about Mark—they knew he was John’s cousin—and I said the two were as different as night and day.”

  “That’s true,” Vicki said.

  “I told him the God stuff doesn’t run in the blood like the locust stings, and he seemed to buy it.”

  “I’d been praying Carl would be able to think on his feet,” Pete said.

  “Listen to this,” Shelly said. “The GC are taking the remaining troops that haven’t been stung and they’re moving them out to several test areas. They’re going back to South Carolina. Tell our friends there to stay low the next couple of weeks.”

  “We’d better e-mail Luke and Tom,” Vicki said.

  Shelly kept reading. “There are two other hot spots the GC have targeted. One is Johnson City, Tennessee. Don’t ask why— they must have reports that the believers there are really strong.”

  Pete punched in the coordinates for Johnson City on his computer. “We could be there by tomorrow morning if we push it.”

  “The other place is Baltimore. I found a memo from the guy who’s head of the Enigma Babylon One World Faith there. He’s been complaining that a lot of his followers have left. They’re reading Tsion Ben-Judah’s Web site and some are meeting in a nearby warehouse. All three places—South Carolina, Tennessee, and Maryland—are supposed to get hit Sunday morning.”

  “That’s tomorrow morning,” Shelly said.

  “Those people probably have no idea the GC are onto them,” Vicki said. “What about Baltimore?”

  “We’ll have to go to Tennessee and let someone else figure that out,” Pete said.

  “There’s more,” Shelly said. “I don’t have any names in Johnson City, but the believer in Baltimore they’re targeting is Chris Traickin. Used to be a senator or congressman before the GC took over. They think he’s telling people about God to get them to start a new government. All three of these hits are supposed to be splashed on the news. They want to make these believers an example so it’ll discourage others from following Tsion’s teaching.”

  “There’s got to be a way to get in touch with that Traickin guy,” Vicki said.

  “I don’t understand how the GC can even try this with the locusts still buzzing around,” Conrad said. “Write Carl and ask about this suit they’re using. Is there any way a locust could get inside?”

  “And see if he can get us information on Traickin,” Vicki said.

  Shelly typed the questions in code and sent them to Carl at GC headquarters. “I’m going to send all this to Mark back at the schoolhouse,” Shelly said. “He might be able to find out something from there.”

  “Good idea,” Vicki said.

  Pete went as fast as the big truck could go over the crumbling roads. Vicki knew they were racing against time and the GC.

  The next morning, Judd asked Nada to go for a walk with him.

  She frowned. “I thought you were staying out of sight.”

  “A short walk in the back,” Judd said. “Please.”

  Sam rushed up to Judd. “Lionel just told me about the trip. Thanks for including me.”

  Judd nodded and excused himself. Nada stared at Judd as they walked into Yitzhak’s backyard. A patch of grass led to a rock wall. Up the incline was a waterfall that snaked its way to a tiny pond at the bottom with multicolored fish swimming beneath lily pads. The water trickled down the rocks.

  “You’ve made up your mind,” Nada said. “You’re running again.”

  “Hear me out,” Judd said as he lifted her up onto the wall so they could speak face-to-face. “After we talked last night, I realized something. I’ve known that I care about you a lot, but I didn’t know how much until I talked with Lionel.

  “I’ve only been a believer a couple years. My goals are a lot different than they used to be. Now I want to learn as much as I can about God and tell people about him. And I want to make it to the Glorious Appearing, when Christ comes back again.

  “In the back of my mind, I’ve always thought it would be nice to share the pain and the sadness and the few glimpses of joy we get with someone else.”

  “What are you saying?” Nada said.

  “I can see myself staying here.”

  “What?”

  “I never thought I could get used to living outside the States. But living in Israel with your family feels . . . OK. It’s good. I could stay, if that’s what God wants.”

  Nada leaned forward. Judd stood on the grass and was at eye level with her. “I want to use this trip to confirm what I feel about you.”

  “Which is what?”

  “I . . . I really like you. Being around you, talking, sharing our faith. I think I might be . . .”

  “Will you just say it?” Nada said.

  “I might be falling in love. Whoa, that was stupid, wasn’t it?”

  Nada jumped down and hugged Judd. “It wasn’t stupid. It was the most wonderful thing I’ve ever heard.” She pulled away and said, “But I’m afraid this trip will change your mind, or maybe you’ll head back to the States and I’ll never see you again.”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” Judd said.

  “We have to make the most of every moment we have together,” Nada said. “We don’t know what will happen next.”

  “I agree,” Judd said, “and I’m hoping to accomplish two things. I want to confirm my feelings for you and take advantage of the freedom we have while the locusts are loose.”

  Nada stepped back. “And if I said I didn’t want you to go?”

  “I have to,” Judd said. “Something tells me this will be good for all of us. Maybe I’ll get Sam and Lionel a way back home.”

  “I know I can’t talk you out of it,” Nada said.

  “If things go the way I plan . . . oh no.”

  “What is it?”

  “I’ll have to talk with your father—that’s how it works, right?”

  Nada blushed an
d smiled. Judd took both her hands in his. “You’re going to have to teach me about your culture. You know, what happens when you’re dating or engaged.”

  Nada laughed. “You’ll catch on quickly.”

  Judd leaned close and kissed Nada’s cheek.

  “I love you,” she whispered.

  Saturday evening Vicki checked their e-mail and found a response from Tom Gowin in South Carolina. Tom thanked them for alerting them to the GC activity and said they would pass the word. Mark had also written saying that he had traced the name Chris Traickin to an apartment near Baltimore. Mark had tried the phone number repeatedly, but there was no answer and no answering machine.

  Good work, Vicki wrote. Keep trying.

  The truck rolled into the night. “How far are we from Johnson City?” Vicki said.

  “We just passed Asheville,” Pete said. “We could be there in an hour or two, depending on the roads. Question now is, what are you going to do once you get there?”

  “Pray,” Vicki said. “Pray hard.”

  12

  VICKI and the others hit the outskirts of Johnson City, Tennessee, as the sun peeked over the mountain range. Vicki had seen trees and mountains like this in movies, but she’d never seen them this close.

  “Just got another e-mail from Mark,” Shelly said from the sleeper. “He found somebody who knows Traickin and left a message.”

  “All we can do is pray Mark gets through to him in time,” Pete said.

  Pete rolled into a truck stop for a quick refuel, and the kids split up to see if they could find any information about the believers in town. The restaurant was nearly empty. Vicki grabbed a stool close to an older man who sat hunched over a cup of coffee. He had long hair that hung past his eyes. Vicki leaned over to reach for a packet of sugar and tried to see his forehead, but the man didn’t look at her.

  “Nice morning,” Vicki said.

  The man sipped coffee and grunted, his hands shaking.

  “You guys got those locusts around here too. We’ve seen them everywhere.”

  The man turned to Vicki and rolled up his sleeve. At the top of a tattoo of an eagle was a huge red welt. The man gritted his teeth in pain. His eyes were bloodshot, and it looked like he had been up several nights in a row.