The Left Behind Collection: All 12 Books (243 page)

“This was the greatest man who ever lived,” a Turkish man said through an interpreter. “The world will never see another like him. It is the worst tragedy we will ever face, and we can only hope that his successor will be able to carry on the ideals he put forth.”

“Do you believe Nicolae Carpathia was divine in any sense?” the reporter said.

“In every sense!” the man said. “I believe it’s possible that he was the Messiah the Jews longed for all these centuries. And he was murdered in their own nation, just as the Scriptures prophesied.”

As David settled in behind his computer in the privacy of his office, he left on the TV monitor hanging from the ceiling in the corner. GC CNN had followed that interview with a live feed from Israel, where thousands were listening to enthusiastic preachers, running forward, falling on their knees, and then shouting of their new allegiance to Jesus the Messiah.

The Jerusalem correspondent had with her a religious expert, who attempted to explain. “In the vacuum created by the deaths of both the head of the One World Faith and the supreme potentate of the Global Community, whom many considered every bit as much a religious as a political figure, spiritually hungry people are rushing to fill the gap. Longing for leadership and bereft of the one man who seemed to fit the bill, they now find attractive this fairly recent craze of ascribing to the historical figure of Jesus the Christ the qualifications of the Messiah Israel has awaited so long.

“This phenomenon existed in small pockets of conservative fundamentalist Christian sects but was fueled shortly after the vanishings by Dr. Tsion Ben-Judah, an Israeli biblical scholar. He had been commissioned by the State of Israel to clarify the prerequisites of the prophesied Messiah for the modern Jew.

“Dr. Ben-Judah created an uproar, particularly among Jews, when at the end of the live, globally televised airing of his views he announced that Jesus the Christ was the only person in history to fulfill all the Messianic prophesies, and that the vanishings were evidence that he had already come.”

David was impressed that the “expert,” while clearly not agreeing with what was going on, had an accurate handle on the issue. Having studied under Tsion online for so long, David knew that this further outbreak of evangelism in Israel would also spawn many more false christs and second-rate antichrists. Dr. Ben-Judah had often cited Matthew 24:21-24 in urging his followers—now referred to as Judah-ites—to beware:

Then if anyone says to you, “Look, here is the Christ” or “There!” do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

By now David was deep into the labyrinthine inner workings of the Strong Building. While whirring through the many security pass gates using code breakers of his own design, he had a phone tucked between his cheek and shoulder.

“Captain Steele,” he said, “if I can do this, I’m going to get you in through one of the parking garage’s inner doors. The gates will be down, but you can walk around those and get to the elevators.”

“We were that far,” Rayford said. “The glass doors leading to the elevators are the ones we need opened. We could break the glass, but we’re afraid that would set off an alarm.”

“Who’d hear it?”

“I know, but usually those kinds of alarms are attached to all sorts of interrelated devices. Like at the airport, you force your way through the wrong door, and certain systems automatically shut down.”

“Bingo,” David said.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re in.”

“We’re not even on that side of the building.”

“Well, get there,” David said. “I can’t wait to hear what you find. Listen, good news: the designers of this building did two very nice things, as if they knew we were coming. First, the electrical panel room and the telephone room, both of which are traditionally on the top floor or even above in some spire, are located on the first floor, one up from where you’ll enter. Second, I think I have detected why the structure is so sound below where the bomb damage is. The blueprints show what’s called a ‘closure for stack effect’ every fifteen floors or so. It happens that there is just such a closure one floor beneath where the bomb damage occurred. This closure acts as a new roof for the building. I’m not certain yet, but you may be able to land a helicopter there, if you can deal with the complications of a three-sided opening above that.”

“Helicopter?” Rayford said. “We’re in the garage, by the way.”

“I can see you.”

“You can?”

“See the monitor up in the corner to your right?”

The three waved at David and he almost waved back, forgetting this was not a two-way visual feed.

“Yep. I see you. The door directly in front of you should be unlocked. And yes, I said helicopter before.”

“Where am I going to get one of those?”

“I don’t know,” David said. “Know anybody in purchasing anywhere?”

“We also need to start thinking about a new air base, closer to here. Different anyway. We have no friends at Palwaukee anymore.”

“How was Kankakee?”

“Might work. How about we have Albie set up there as a small private transport company, maybe serving Laslos, who’s still considered legit by the GC? Then we can come and go as we please out of there with no questions asked. And we can chopper our way up here when we need to.”

“I like the way you think, Captain Steele.”

“I like the options you provide, David.”

“I’ll try to keep track of you floor by floor with the various monitors,” David said. “But I may have to leave you abruptly too. You know where I am.”

Leah and Chloe appeared to be working well together. Though David could hear only Rayford, he could see the women checking out sight angles from various windows.

“Leah wants to talk with you, David. Here she is.”

“You’re looking at blueprints?”

“On-line,” he said, “yeah.”

“Am I seeing this right? Are we not visible from the street, at least where we are now?”

“Affirmative.”

“And what if we turn on lights?”

“That I wouldn’t do.”

“What if we spray painted the windows black?”

By ten o’clock Saturday night in Illinois, Tsion had survived two messy operations: feeding and changing Kenny. The boy was now sound asleep in his crib in the other room, and Tsion had turned the sound off on the television. He merely glanced at it occasionally, tired of the endless repetition.

How many times had he seen Rayford’s photograph and history and the grave conclusion on the part of Global Community Security and Intelligence forces that he was the lone assassin, the lone gunman? Rayford was also constantly referred to as a committed Judah-ite. Tsion knew, because he knew the Tribulation Force, that Rayford Steele had ceased to exist. He would neither make himself obvious to the public nor leave a trail in his own name. Tsion prayed that would preserve Rayford for as long as possible.

Tsion pored over his Bible texts and commentaries, trying to make sense of the vivid dream. He pleaded with God for another of the same, but short of that, he wanted to understand the one he’d had. Scholars were divided on who the sun-clothed woman was, the one who wore a garland of stars and used the moon as her footstool.

Clearly she was symbolic, as no woman was that large or had a child in space. Some believed she represented womankind as mentioned in Genesis when God told Satan that the woman would produce a child whose heel Satan might bruise, but who would crush his head. That was a prophecy of the Christ child, and of course that woman turned out to be Mary. Yet further details of this symbolic woman indicated that she might symbolize Israel. The Christ came from Israel, and Satan pursued and persecuted God’s chosen people even to the present day.

As Tsion studied the biblical texts about Lucifer and his being cast out from heaven, he became convinced that when he had seen the dragon sweep a third of the stars from the skies and they fell to earth, he was witness to eternity past. The Scripture often referred to angels, righteous or fallen, as stars, so he believed this was a picture of when Lucifer was first cast down due to his sin of pride.

Yet Tsion also knew that Satan, even up to the halfway point of the Tribulation—where Tsion believed history stood right then—had been granted access to the throne of God. He was the accuser of believers, yet when he pursued the woman and her child to devour them, a great battle was to be waged in heaven and he would be cast out for good.

Tsion was not aware he had fallen asleep again. All he knew was that the trip from the underground safe house into the chilly night air took less getting used to this time. He didn’t worry about temporal things. He could see Kenny sleeping in his crib and himself dozing on the couch as clearly as he could see the oceans and continents of the beautiful blue planet. How peaceful it looked from up here, compared to what he knew was happening down there.

When he arrived at the appointed place, the woman had left her footstool. The sun-garment was gone with her, of course, as was the garland of stars. Yet brightness enveloped Tsion again, and he was eager to ask questions before this all faded and he awoke. Though Tsion knew it was a dream, he also knew it was of God, and he rested on the promise of old men dreaming dreams.

Tsion turned to the brightness, marveling again at the size and majesty of the angel. “Michael,” he began, “is the woman Mary or—”

“Michael is engaged in battle, as you will soon see. I am Gabriel, the announcer.”

“Oh! Forgive me, Prince Gabriel. Can you tell me, who is the woman? Is it Mary, or is it Israel?”

“Yes and yes.”

“That was not as helpful as I had hoped.”

“When you ponder it, you will find it so.”

“And the twelve stars on her head. Do they represent the tribes of Israel?”

“Or . . . ?” Gabriel prodded.

“Or the . . . the apostles?”

“Yes and yes.”

“Somehow I knew you were going to—so these things mean whatever we want or need them to mean?”

“No. They mean what they mean.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Son of earth, did you see what the male child bore in his hand?”

“I’m sorry, I did not.”

“A rod of iron, with which he shall rule the nations.”

“So clearly he is Jesus . . .”

“The Christ, the Messiah, Son of the living God.”

Tsion felt unworthy even to hear the description. He felt as if he were in the very presence of God.

“Prince Gabriel, to where has the woman fled?”

“Into the wilderness where God has prepared a place for her, where she will be safe for three and a half years.”

“Does this mean God has prepared a place in the wilderness for his chosen people, where they too will be safe during the Great Tribulation?”

“You have said it.”

“And what of the dragon?”

“He is enraged.”

“And Michael?”

Gabriel gestured behind Tsion. “Behold.”

Tsion turned to see a great battle raging. Michael and his angels wielded great double-edged swords against fiery darts from the dragon and his evil angels. The ugly hordes advanced again and again against Michael’s mighty forces, but they could not prevail. As his comrades retreated behind him, the dragon fled to the throne. But it was as if a colossal invisible door had been slammed in his face. He fell back and tried to advance again to the place he had enjoyed before the throne. But from the throne came an insistent, “No. There is no longer a place here for you. Be gone!”

The dragon turned, his anger nearly consuming him. With his seven heads grimacing and gnashing their teeth, he gathered his own around him, and they all tumbled toward the earth. And Gabriel announced in a loud voice, “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” And now louder still, with great joy: “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

“What happens now?” Tsion said.

Gabriel looked at him and folded his arms. “The dragon will persecute the woman who gave birth to the child, but God will protect her. In his wrath the dragon will make war with the rest of her offspring, those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus the Christ.”

Michael stood next to Gabriel now, his great sword sheathed, his warriors dispersed. Tsion could not speak. He opened his mouth to form words of gratitude, but he was mute. And he awoke. It was still ten o’clock.

By nine in the morning Carpathia Time, New Babylon was a sea of people. Opportunists had set up shop on every road that led to the palace courtyard. Sellers of chairs, sunblock, umbrellas, bottled water, food, and souvenirs preyed on the pilgrims. Some merchants were run off by GC Peacekeepers, only to set up again a quarter mile away.

It was clear the forecasted one hundred degrees would be surpassed before noon. A canopy was erected behind the bier to protect both it and the armed guards from the relentless sun. Still, mourners and officials dropped right and left and were ferried to medical tents, where they were hydrated and fanned and sometimes doused with water.

David returned to his perch above one of the med tents, though it had been moved more than two hundred yards from the courtyard to make room for the crowds. Barriers, ropes, and makeshift fences forced people to snake back and forth in an agonizingly slow path to the bier. Street entertainers, jugglers, clowns, strippers, and vendors tried to keep people occupied. Here and there scuffles broke out, quickly quelled by the Peacekeepers.

Laborers continued to swarm, finalizing the reconstruction that would allow hundreds of thousands more in the courtyard. The huge screens were in place and operating, as were countless monitors surrounding the palace. When the ceremony was about to begin at noon, the line would be stopped and millions would fan out from the speaker’s platform next to the coffin to more than a mile away.

From his spot David heard bands practicing, choirs rehearsing, dance troupes going through their paces. With binoculars he saw Annie manning her station nearly a half mile away. His phone chirped. It was a Peacekeeper at the airport.

“Director Hassid, I have a family here from China looking for their daughter, a GC employee named Ming Toy.”

“Yes?”

“They say she told them to contact you or Cargo Chief Christopher if they could not find their daughter. She’s come from Buffer in Brussels.”

“Do they know where she is positioned here? It’s all numbered, you know.”

The guard covered the phone and asked them. “No,” he said. “They said they thought their daughter was trying to get assigned near Ms. Christopher.”

“Ms. Christopher is stationed at marker 53.”

“Thank you, sir.”

David kept his field glasses trained on Annie and saw when the red-uniformed Asian approached and they embraced. They engaged in what appeared an animated conversation, and Annie grabbed her phone. David’s erupted again. “Hi, babe,” he said. “Ming’s parents and brother are on their way from the airport and will look for her at your station. Did she get assigned—”

“David!” Annie whispered fiercely. “North American GC has identified the safe house!”

“What?!”

“Ming overheard it. She couldn’t let me know before because they gathered everyone’s phones for security.”

“Call Tsion! I’ll call Steele.”

Rayford believed the new safe house might be the greatest gift God had bestowed on the Trib Force since the arrival of Tsion Ben-Judah. Several floors had been left virtually unblemished, and all the systems worked. There were more bathrooms than the occupants could ever use, and every service imaginable. It wasn’t a home, of course, so beds would have to be brought in or fashioned. But the place could hold hundreds, maybe more. He didn’t know how reasonable it was to think a whole lot of people could hide out there undetected, but he dreamed of inviting every dispossessed believer he knew: Leah’s friend from Brussels, maybe her brother from China, Albie, maybe the Mikloses one day, all the insiders from New Babylon. A guy could dream.

He and Leah and Chloe were headed back toward Mount Prospect just after midnight, Central Standard Time, when David called with the news. “Annie’s calling Tsion,” David said. “He’s got to get out of there.”

“There are certain things we have to have,” Rayford said. “And Tsion doesn’t have wheels.”

“Captain, he’s got to get out of there now.”

“We have to go get him, David. Any way you can tell where we might run into GC?”

“Not in time to help you. You might have to take some risks.”

“We’ll also try to get Tsion on the phone. Who knows where the GC is or when they might strike? Our underground is a pretty good cover.”

Tsion thanked Annie and rushed to shut off the power, trying to keep from hyperventilating. He felt his way in the dark and filled two pillowcases with necessities. The TV would stay. He gathered up essential medicines, a few reference works, and all the laptops, baby stuff, a handful of clothes, whatever he could fit into the bulging slipcases. He left enough room at the tops to tie them together and left them at the bottom of the stairs. There was only one way out of the shelter, and that was the way he had come in. Even if he were to throw a blanket over Kenny and lug him and the stuff out into the garage, that would be the second place the GC would look.