Apollyon: The Destroyer Is Unleashed (9 page)

As soon as they were inside, a pale, trembling Chaim greeted them with embraces and demanded to know where Jacov was. Buck left the explaining to Tsion, knowing Chaim would need assurances that his protege had not planned the disgracing of Carpathia. “You assured me you would remain neutral,” Chaim said. “Otherwise I would not have urged him to attend.”

“You knew he was coming and did not tell me?” Tsion said.

“He wanted an element of surprise. Surely you must have expected him.”

“I had hoped he would wait until tomorrow or the next night. You should have prepared me.”

“You appeared more than prepared.”

Tsion sat wearily. “Chaim, the man interrupted the quoting of Scripture. It was as if he had planned his entrance for the worst possible instant. I am going to hold you to your promise to hear me out, and very soon. I am not up to it this evening, but as a brilliant and reasonable man, you will not be able to refute the evidence I have for Jesus as Messiah and Carpathia himself as Antichrist.”

Rosenzweig settled into a large, soft chair and sighed heavily. “Tsion, you are as a son to me. But what you just said could get you killed.”

“How well I know!”

“Of course, and I am still grieved and heartbroken over your losses. But to come to Israel to proclaim the deity of Jesus is as foolhardy as those troublemakers at the Wall playing tricks with our water and our weather. And, Tsion, calling Nicolae the Antichrist when he is visiting the Holy City is the height of arrogance and in-sensitivity. I have told you before, I would sooner believe Carpathia was the Messiah and one of those two so-called witnesses the Antichrist.”

Tsion sat shaking his head wearily, and Buck took the occasion to beg off for the evening. “If you’ll excuse us. . .”

“Of course,” Chaim said.

“I would like to know when Jacov arrives, no matter when,” Buck said.

“Thank you for your concern,” the older man said. “We will get word to you.”

Rayford kept one eye on the television while trying to reach someone in Israel. Neither Buck’s nor Chloe’s phone was answered, and he couldn’t raise Mac either. Forgetting himself for a moment, he swore under his breath. Hattie roused. “That’s the Rayford Steele I once knew,” she said, her voice airy and weak.

“Ah, I’m sorry, Hattie. That’s not like me. I’m worried about what’s happened over there, and I want to be sure everybody’s all right.”

“It’s nice to know you’re still human,” she whispered. “But you never were and you never will be as human as I am.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m going to kill Nicolae.”

“I’m sorry about your baby, Hattie, but you don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Rayford, would you lean closer?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Don’t be afraid of me. I’m not going to be around much longer anyway.”

“Don’t say that.”

“I just don’t have the energy to talk louder, so would you lean closer?”

Rayford felt conspicuous, though it was only the two of them in the room. He pursed his lips, looked around, and turned his ear to her. “Go ahead,” he said.

“Rayford, I was not with that man long enough for him to have affected me this much. I know I was no better or worse than the next girl. You knew that as well as anybody.”

“Well, I―”

“Just let me finish, because Floyd obviously drugged me and I’m about to fall asleep. I’m telling you, Nicolae Carpathia is evil personified.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Oh, I know you people think he’s the Antichrist. Well, I know he is. I don’t think he has an ounce of truth in him. Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. You saw him acting like he was a friend of Mathews? He wants him dead. He told me that himself. I told you he poisoned Bruce. He sent people to murder me after I was poisoned, just to make sure. The poison had to have killed my baby. Anyway, I hold him responsible. He made me do things I should never have done. And you know what―while I was doing them, I enjoyed it. I loved his power, his appeal, his ability to persuade. When I was making Amanda look like a plant, I actually believed I was doing the right thing. And that was the least of it.

“I want to die, Rayford. And I don’t want to be forgiven or go to heaven to be with God or any of that stuff. But I will fight this poison, I will work with Floyd, I will do whatever I have to do to stay alive long enough to kill that man. I have to get healthy, and I have to somehow get to where he is. I’ll probably die in the process with all the security he’s got. I don’t care. As long as I get to be the one who does it.”

Rayford put a hand on her shoulder. “Hattie, you need to relax. Doc Charles did give you more anesthetic before we brought you home, so you may not even remember what you’re saying here. Now, please, just―”

Hattie wrenched away from Rayford’s hand, and her frail fingers grabbed his shirt. She fiercely pulled him closer and rasped in his face, spittle landing on his cheek. “I’ll remember every word, Rayford, and don’t think I won’t. I will do this thing if it’s the last thing I do, and I hope it will be.”

“All right, Hattie. All right. I won’t argue with you about it now.”

“Don’t argue with me about it ever, Rayford. You’ll be wasting your time.”

Carpathia would soon be on the screen, and Hattie was quickly dozing again. Rayford was glad she would be spared his image and whatever he would say about his debacle in Israel. Something cold ran through Rayford’s soul. She had forced him to face himself.

Rayford was relieved beyond description to find out that Amanda was all he believed her to be: a loving, trustworthy, loyal wife. But since discovering what Carpathia had done to Bruce, to Amanda, to Hattie, he was again battling with his own desires. He had once prayed for the permission, the honor, of being the one assigned to assassinate Carpathia at the halfway point of the Tribulation. Now, truth be told, he found himself angling to be in position at that time.

He knew he had to talk sense to Hattie, to keep her from doing something so reckless and stupid. But that was also why he would not confide in Mac or Tsion or his daughter and son-in-law, why he would not say a word to his new friend, Ken, or to Floyd, about his own murderous leanings. They would, of course, want to show him the folly of his ways. But he wanted to entertain the thoughts longer.

Only when Buck was alone with Chloe in the privacy of one of Chaim Rosenzweig’s guest rooms did he realize how worried he had been about her. Trembling, he gathered her in his arms and held her close, careful not to hug her too tight because of her injuries. “When I didn’t know where you were,” he began, “all I could think of was how I felt after the earthquake.”

“But I wasn’t lost this time, darling,” she said. “You knew where I was.”

“You didn’t answer your phone. I didn’t know if someone had grabbed you, or―”

“I turned it off when we were being chased. I didn’t want it to give us away. That reminds me, I never turned it back on.”

She started to pull away. “Don’t worry about it now,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be on now, does it?”

“What if Daddy tries to call? You know he had to be watching.”

“He can reach me on my phone.”

“Where is it?”

“Agh! I left it in the van. I’ll go get it.”

Now it was her turn to not let him go. “I’ll just turn mine on,” she said. “I don’t want to be apart from you again right now either.”

Their mouths met, and he held her. They sat on the edge of the bed and lay back, her head resting in the crook of his arm. Buck imagined how silly they looked, staring at the ceiling, feet flat on the floor. If she was as tired as he, it wouldn’t be long before she nodded off.

This probably wasn’t the time to bring up a delicate subject, but Buck had never been known for his timing.

As had become the custom, Global Community Supreme Commander Leon Fortunato introduced His Excellency, Potentate Nicolae Carpathia, to the international television audience. Rayford was stunned at how straightforward and overt Leon was in telling his own story. Tsion had warned Rayford that Nicolae’s supernatural abilities would soon be trumpeted and even exaggerated, laying a foundation for when he would declare himself God during the second half of the Tribulation. So far the widespread pronouncements had been circumspect, and Nicolae himself had personally made no such claims. But on this day, Rayford had to wonder how Nicolae would respond to Fortunato’s obsequious opening. And he also had to concede that the pair had done a masterful, if not supernatural, job of choreographing the ultimate spin on Nicolae’s most public embarrassment.

“I’m worried about you,” Buck said.

“I’ll be all right,” Chloe said. “I’m glad I came, and I’m doing better than I thought I would. I knew it was a little early for me to take such a trip, but it’s worked out.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about.”

She pulled away from him and rolled onto her side to look at him. “What then?”

There was a knock at the door. “Excuse me,” Tsion said. “But did you want to watch the Carpathia response on television?”

Chloe started to get up, but Buck stopped her. “Thanks, Tsion. Maybe in a little while. If we miss it, you can recap it for us in the morning.”

“Very well. Good night, loved ones.”

“Buck Williams,” Chloe said. “I don’t know when I’ve felt so special. You’ve never missed a breaking news story in your life.”

“Don’t make me out to be too altruistic, hon. I have no magazine to write for anymore, remember?”

“You do too. You have your own.”

“Yeah, but I’m the boss and I sign the checks. There’s no money for any checks, so what am I going to do―fire myself?”

“Anyway, you chose me over the latest news.”

Buck rolled toward her and kissed her again. “I know what he’s going to say anyway. He’ll have Fortunato on first to sing his praises, then he’ll act all humble and self-conscious and attack Tsion for embarrassing him after all he’s done for the rabbi.”

Chloe nodded. “So what’s on your mind?”

“The baby.”

She raised her brows at him. “You too?”

He nodded. “What’re you thinking?”

“That we weren’t too smart,” she said. “Our baby will never reach five, and we’ll be raising him, or her, while we’re trying to just stay alive.”

“Worse than that,” he said. “If we were trying just to survive, we might hole up somewhere safe. The baby might be relatively secure for a while. But we’ve already declared ourselves. We’re enemies of the world order, and we’re not going to just sit by and protest in our minds.”

“I’ll have to be careful, of course,” she said.

“Yeah,” he said, snorting. “Like you have been so far.”

She lay there silently. Finally she said, “Maybe I’ll have to be more careful, hmm?”

“Maybe. I just wonder if we’re doing right by the little one.”

“It’s not like we can change our minds now anyway, Buck. So what’s the point?”

“I’m just worried. And there’s nobody else I can tell.”

“I wouldn’t want you telling anyone else.”

“So tell me not to worry, or tell me you’re worrying with me, or something. Otherwise I’m going to get all parental on you and start treating you like you don’t have a brain.”

“You’ve been pretty good about not doing that, Buck. I’ve noticed.”

“Yeah, but sometimes I ought to do more of it. Somebody’s got to look out for you. I like when you keep track of me a little. I don’t feel demeaned by it. I need it and appreciate it.”

“To a point,” she said.

“Granted.”

“And I’m also quite good at it.”

“And subtle,” he said, draping his arm over her.

“Buck,” she said, “we really should watch Carpathia, don’t you think?”

He shrugged, then nodded. “If we’re going to have any chance of thwarting anything he does.”

They padded out to where Tsion and Chaim sat watching TV. “No word on Jacov yet?” Buck asked.

Chaim shook his head. “And I am none too pleased.”

“I merely asked him to go in and get them,” Buck said. “Playing decoy and drawing the gunfire was his idea. I wasn’t happy about it either.”

“The what?!” Chaim demanded.

Rayford was strangely buoyed, despite Hattie’s threats against Carpathia. In his mind that showed a level of sanity that, according to Dr. Charles, she had not had in weeks. He didn’t consider himself a lunatic, despite his own admittedly unrealistic wishes to be God’s hit man. What he longed for, down deep, was that Hattie get healthy enough to change her mind about God. She knew the truth; that wasn’t the issue. She was the epitome of a person who could know the truth without acting on it. That was what Bruce Barnes had told Rayford was his own reason for having been left behind. As for Rayford, he had missed the point―despite his first wife’s efforts to explain it―that nothing he did for himself could earn God’s favor. As for Bruce, he knew all that. He knew salvation was by grace through faith. He simply never made the transaction, thinking he could slide by until later. Later came sooner, and he was left without his family.

Ken appeared at the top of the basement stairs. “Doc and me was wonderin’ if you wanted to watch down here,” he said. “He thinks maybe Hattie’ll rest better that way.”

“Sure,” Rayford said, rising quickly. He tried dialing Chloe and Buck one more time without success and left the phone on his chair.

As he left the room, Hattie called out to him. “Would you leave that on, Rayford?”

“Don’t you want to sleep?”

“Just leave it on low. It won’t bother me.”

“My people are calling around looking for Jacov,” Chaim whispered as Leon Fortunato’s benign smile graced the screen. “If anything happened to him, I don’t know―”

“I believe no harm can come to him, Chaim. He has become a believer in the Messiah and even has the mark of a sealed tribulation saint on his forehead, visible to other believers.”

“You’re saying you can see it and I cannot?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“Poppycock. How arrogant.”

“Can you see our marks?” Chloe asked.

“Pish-posh, you have no marks,” Chaim said.

“We see each other’s,” Tsion said. “I see Buck’s and Chloe’s plain as day.”