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  Yitzhak shook his head. “You will not kill the Lord’s anointed until the due time.”

  “I know you will agree,” Carpathia concluded, “that this is a most generous response to an ugly attack. Thank you, my friends, and good night from Israel.”

  As the news anchor recapped the story, Yitzhak turned off the television. “God is at work, my friends. Now we must rest. The next two days are very important.”

  Mr. Stein followed Judd and Lionel to their cots. “Before you sleep, you must know what has happened. There was an attempt on Tsion’s life tonight.”

  “What?” Judd said.

  “Somehow Tsion and the others found out that the guards were preparing to attack.”

  Judd gasped. “The guard I met was probably after Tsion! I’m hoping to meet him before tomorrow night’s session.”

  Lionel scowled. “I don’t know if we should get that close to a GC guard.”

  Judd asked how Tsion got away.

  “He hid with Chloe in a utility room until a friend created a diversion with gunfire,” Mr. Stein said.

  “So that’s where the shots came from,” Judd said. “Where are they now?”

  “Tsion, Buck, and Chloe are staying at the Chaim Rosenzweig estate.” Mr. Stein leaned close to the boys. “I am almost convinced I am a true witness of God. I am going to see Eli and Moishe now. I must talk to them.”

  Judd sighed. “I can hardly keep my eyes open.”

  “I’ll go,” Lionel said.

  Mr. Stein smiled. “I would be honored to have you with me.” He looked at Judd. “I may not be able to spend much time with you over the next two days. Drink in as much of the teaching as you can.”

  Mr. Stein led them in a prayer. Judd fell back on his cot and was asleep in minutes.

  11

  LIONEL rode with Mr. Stein in Yitzhak’s car. They took a wrong turn and drove through a shabby part of Jerusalem. Drunks staggered about the streets. Bars, fortunetelling shops, tattoo parlors, and strip clubs advertised in glaring lights.

  “Yitzhak told me about this,” Mr. Stein said, turning the car around. “The new religion welcomes any belief system. Hedonism is rampant.”

  “Hedonism?” Lionel said.

  “Pleasures of the flesh. Whatever feels good. This is what happens when people buy into the lie that God is whoever we want him to be.”

  Mr. Stein found the right road and made it to the Wailing Wall. When they arrived, a GC guard was making an announcement.

  “Attention, ladies and gentlemen! I have been asked by the Global Community supreme commander to remind citizens of the proclamation from His Excellency, Potentate Nicolae Carpathia, that the two men you see before you are under house arrest. They are confined to this area until the end of the Meeting of the Witnesses Friday night. If they leave this area before that, any GC personnel or private citizen is within his rights to detain them by force, to wound them, or to kill them. Further, if they are seen anywhere, repeat, anywhere, following that time, they shall be put to death.”

  A huge crowd near the fence cheered wildly, laughed, and jeered at the witnesses. Eli and Moishe seemed not to notice the guard or those nearby who spat at them.

  Gigantic lights lit the area. The witnesses were bathed in a glaring spotlight, but they didn’t squint or blink.

  “So much for a quiet conversation,” Lionel said. “Since Carpathia’s new law, the media’s crawling everywhere.”

  Mr. Stein took Lionel to the bushes where they had been before. The crowd cheered when a man suggested he wanted to kill the witnesses.

  Barely moving his lips, Eli spoke at the top of his lungs. At the force of his voice, the crowd stumbled back. “Come nigh and question not this warning from the Lord of Hosts. He who would dare come against the appointed servants of the Most High God, the same shall surely die!”

  When the crowd inched forward, taunting again, Eli erupted a second time. “Tempt not the chosen ones, for if you come against the voices crying in the wilderness, God himself will consume your flesh!”

  A man held up a high-powered rifle and laughed. The GC guards spoke to the man, but Lionel couldn’t hear them. Mr. Stein tugged on Lionel’s arm. “They’re moving!”

  Eli and Moishe disappeared behind the slope. Mr. Stein stood. “If we can make it to the other side of the hill, I may be able to speak to them.”

  Lionel ran through the dewy grass, following Mr. Stein to the bottom of the hill. Behind them the GC guard spoke urgently. “Search the area behind the fence! If the two are not there, they are in violation of the potentate and may be shot!”

  “The Mount of Olives!” Mr. Stein whispered.

  Lionel gasped for air as they climbed. Finally they spotted the two at the top of a knoll beside a lone olive tree. Mr. Stein bent double, his hands on his knees. They were ten feet from the two witnesses.

  “Please,” Mr. Stein gasped. “I am a Jew. I believe Jesus is the Messiah. Can I know if I am truly a witness of the Most High God?”

  Moishe didn’t speak but motioned for them to get behind a tree. Crowds ran up the hill, shouting murderous threats.

  Eli and Moishe spoke at the same time. They looked directly at Mr. Stein and said, “Harken unto us, servants of the Lord God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth!”

  The witnesses were suddenly bathed in light, not from the news cameras or anything earthly, but from a heavenly glow. The sight was awesome.

  Eli and Moishe warned the mob that they would be devoured by fire if they tried to hurt God’s servants. “We have been granted the power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of our prophecy. Yea, we have power over waters to turn them to blood and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as we will.

  “And what is our prophecy? That Jesus of Bethlehem, the son of the Virgin Mary, was in the beginning with God, and he was God, and he is God. Yea, he fulfilled all the prophecies of the coming Messiah, and he shall reign and rule now and forevermore, world without end, amen!”

  Lionel looked down the hill. The people ignored the warnings. “I don’t like the looks of this.”

  “It is ours to bring rain,” the witnesses shouted. A freezing gush of water poured from the skies and drenched the ground.

  “Yitzhak said it has not rained here in twenty-four months!” Mr. Stein said, shivering.

  The rain stopped a moment later.

  “And it is ours to shut heaven for the days of our prophecy!” the witnesses proclaimed.

  Lionel heard the murmurs and threats of the crowd. They were a hundred yards away and tramping through the mud.

  “You got your answer when they called you a servant of God,” Lionel said. “We should get out of here.”

  Before Mr. Stein could move, the prophets stopped the crowd with their booming voices. Eli and Moishe spoke against the new temple. They called it blasphemy. “Your sacrifices of animal blood are a stench in the nostrils of your God! Turn from your wicked ways, O sinners! Advance not against the chosen ones whose time has not yet been accomplished!”

  Lionel peeked from behind the tree. Two GC guards rushed up the hill, weapons raised. They slipped on the wet hillside and fell to the ground.

  “Woe unto you who would close your ears to the warnings of the chosen ones!” the witnesses shouted. “Flee to the caves to save yourselves! Your mission is doomed! Your bodies shall be consumed!”

  The guards crawled on their bellies. The crowd shouted to the guards, “Kill them! Shoot them!”

  Gunfire exploded. Lionel heard a ping and looked up. A bullet left a gash in the tree just above his head. The witnesses remained steady, unmoving, unhurt. They stood, still illuminated on the hill. The guards reloaded and fired again. Lionel and Mr. Stein huddled together.

  A flash of light and a whooshing sound surrounded them. The air was filled with an intense heat. The gunshots were replaced with a sizzling fire. Lionel looked down the hill and saw the two guards engulfed in flames. They had no time to react. Within seconds the whi
te heat turned their rifles to puddles of boiling liquid and their bones to ash. The crowd fled, screaming, cursing, and crying.

  “Let’s go,” Mr. Stein said.

  Lionel looked back only once more. The witnesses were walking slowly down the hill toward the Wailing Wall.

  Vicki awoke at 11 P.M. Midwest time. It was pitch-black outside, and there wasn’t a sound in the rest of the house. She went to the meeting room and searched the Web to find coverage of the all-day training. It would begin at midnight her time.

  The numbers reported by the media were staggering. Twenty-five thousand had been in Teddy Kollek Stadium the night before. More than fifty thousand had gathered outside. Another report said the two preachers at the Wailing Wall had violated the potentate’s directive. Two guards had been murdered trying to apprehend them. Eyewitnesses on the Mount of Olives accused the two of hiding flamethrowers in their robes. The weapons had not been recovered, and the preachers were reported back in their usual spots.

  Vicki scoffed at the report and wondered what the real story was. She opened her Bible and went through the passages Tsion had read during the first meeting. She wrote out a prayer in her notebook: God, show us what you want us to do. I put myself and all of the Young Trib Force in your hands. Amen.

  Listening to the meeting the day before had given Vicki an idea. The evening sessions seemed mainly for encouragement, motivation, and Tsion’s teaching. She could only imagine the feeling of worshiping God with thousands of other believers, hearing the words of their earthly leader firsthand. But the bulk of the training to evangelize the world would occur during the all-day sessions. Vicki and the others could memorize that teaching and train other kids.

  She quickly sketched out a plan of action. They would record the sessions onto the computer’s hard drive, just as they were recording Tsion’s messages. The kids would then write out the lessons in a way anyone could understand.

  At 11:30, Vicki set out the food and awakened the others. Conrad nodded when he heard Vicki’s plan. “This could help us answer some of the e-mail Tsion is getting from kids.”

  Judd awoke, refreshed, and found his way to the morning session. Lionel was still asleep. The meetings were open on a first-come, first-served basis. When one location filled, participants moved to the next site. The teacher at Judd’s seminar was Yitzhak. Judd was amazed that such a humble man was actually one of the leaders.

  After a song and prayer, Yitzhak tackled the subject of speaking one-on-one with unbelievers. “Though many of us have come to faith via the Internet or watching the mass media, we must not underestimate the importance of talking with individuals.”

  Yitzhak outlined a series of questions. “Do not use these as a list to check off. If you are not interested in the other person, he or she will know it and will sense you are asking in a selfish way. If you can, get to know the other person. Many have gone through tragic circumstances. They have lost loved ones. They are separated from family members. Remember that the Good News must be accompanied by true compassion.”

  Judd believed each member of the Young Trib Force had already followed these principles. Their work on the Underground and Judd’s message at graduation proved how much they were willing to risk. Now Judd felt like being even bolder with people one-on-one.

  “We only have a limited time,” Yitzhak said. “If someone does not respond to the message, pray for that person. Then ask God to lead you to someone else who needs the hope of eternal life.”

  Speaker after speaker circulated through the meeting places. By the end of the day, Judd had taken in an incredible amount of information.

  He met with Lionel for dinner at the gymnasium and found out what had happened with Eli and Moishe the night before. “Because of the death of the two guards,” Lionel said, “security is supposed to be really tight tonight.”

  “I almost forgot,” Judd said, looking at his watch. “I was supposed to meet the guard!”

  Vicki and the others took turns taking notes during the early morning sessions. When she heard one man talk about speaking to people one-on-one, she thought of Melinda and Charlie. Melinda stayed away from the daytime sessions, but Charlie watched. He began to ask questions, and Vicki had to take him out of the room.

  Charlie seemed upset. “I don’t have that thing on my head,” he said. Vicki questioned him once more about what he thought had happened during the disappearances.

  “That’s easy,” Charlie said. “All the good people got taken up to heaven, and the bad people stayed down here.”

  She explained that afternoon and again at dinner that those who were raptured weren’t better than those left behind—they had just been forgiven. “How much good stuff do you have to do to get into heaven?” Vicki said.

  “Enough so that the good stuff is more than the bad?” Charlie said.

  “No,” Vicki said. “Even if you do only one bad thing, God has to reject you because he’s holy.”

  Charlie nodded, but Vicki knew he still didn’t get it.

  Conrad rushed into the room. “You have to see this.”

  Vicki rushed to the meeting room and saw an urgent e-mail on the screen. “Is it from Judd?”

  Conrad shook his head. “This is really weird.”

  Vicki scanned the message. It simply said, Need to talk to Mark immediately. Let me know how I can find him. A friend.

  “Who could it be from?” Vicki said.

  “Look at the return address,” Conrad said.

  Vicki gasped. It was from a GC military post.

  As thousands streamed toward the stadium, Judd and Lionel looked for the guard. GC guards looked threateningly at the growing crowds. Judd could tell by the conversation of those around him that many were skeptics, curious about the meeting.

  “Let’s separate,” Judd said as the meeting time approached. “He might think I’m up to something if he sees somebody with me.”

  “It’s your funeral,” Lionel said, walking away.

  A few minutes later the guard approached Judd, his rifle ready.

  “I’m glad you came,” Judd said. “I wanted to talk to you about—”

  The guard interrupted. “You heard about the two who were killed last night?”

  Judd nodded.

  “I was supposed to be on duty there,” the guard said. “My friend took my place and now he’s dead.”

  Judd thought of the guards who had been burned alive.

  “You and your kind are the reason he’s dead.”

  “You’ve had a terrible loss,” Judd said, “but don’t blame us. God loves you and wants to get your attention.”

  The guard pushed Judd away. “If I get the okay, the people onstage are dead.”

  12

  VICKI and the others tried to figure out who had written the e-mail and what they should do. As difficult as it was to put it out of their minds, they decided to leave the e-mail unanswered until after the Meeting of the Witnesses was over.

  After the early sessions were complete, the kids ate. Some slept, while others went outside to walk or get some fresh air. Conrad had found an old baseball and a tree limb about the size of a bat. He tried to get others to join him, but no one seemed interested.

  The meeting began at 11 A.M. with cheers and applauses for Tsion. He smiled and raised his hands for silence.

  “You have learned much today,” Tsion began, “and I have warned you of many judgments. I will tell you now what to expect next. When it occurs, let no man deny that he was warned and that this warning has been recorded in the Scriptures for centuries.”

  Tsion explained that God doesn’t want anyone to die without being forgiven of their sin. “That is the reason for this entire season of trial. In his love and mercy God has tried everything to get our attention. Is there doubt in anyone’s mind that all of this is God’s doing?

  “Repent! Turn to him. Accept his gift before it is too late. It is likely that three-fourths of everyone left behind at the Rapture will die by the end of t
he Tribulation.

  “I want to tell you tonight of the fourth Trumpet Judgment that will affect the look of the skies and the temperature of the entire globe. Revelation 8:12 reads, ‘Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.’”

  Tsion explained that this judgment would cause great distress on the earth. “Prophecy indicates this darkening and cooling is temporary. But when it occurs it will usher in—for however long—winter-like conditions in most of the world. Prepare, prepare, prepare!”

  “It’s a good thing we have a generator that works,” Conrad said. “We’d freeze out here.”

  “The glorious appearing of Jesus Christ is fewer than five years away,” Tsion said. “I believe the greatest time of harvest is now, before the second half of the Tribulation, which the Bible calls the Great Tribulation.

  “One day the evil world system will require the bearing of a mark in order for its citizens to buy or sell. You may rest assured it will not be the mark we see on each other’s foreheads!

  “You must begin to store food and other provisions for what is to come. Above all, we must trust God. He expects us to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves.

  “Tomorrow night I’m afraid I have a difficult message to bring. You may get a preview of it by reading Revelation 9.”