Arrived (30 page)

He watched for Vicki for nearly an hour. When he saw her coming, he hid in a corner of the room and waited.

“Judd?” Vicki called as she came close. “Mr. Thompson? Are you home?” She walked inside and saw the bush. “What in the world?”

Judd started humming a Christmas tune.

Vicki caught her breath. “What's going on?”

“Just because we're in the middle of the Tribulation doesn't mean we can't celebrate, right?”

“It's December 25th! I forgot all about it.”

Judd pointed at the tiny, crudely wrapped present in the bush. Vicki just stared at it, her mouth open. Judd handed her the box and she opened it slowly, the fading sunlight twinkling off the stone in the middle of the ring.

She couldn't say anything for a moment. Then, “It must have cost a fortune.”

“I didn't have a chance to get you a ring when we were married. Mac found a jeweler on one of his flights, and he got a bargain. The jeweler thinks it'll last at least a thousand years.”

Vicki smiled. “I hope we get to find out if he's right.”

30

LIONEL
awoke from another nightmare and wiped sweat from his forehead. On some nights he dreamed about dogs chasing him, barking and biting at something trapped under a rock. Other nights Lionel dreamed of a dragon chasing his friends toward a cliff. At the edge of the cliff was a huge army.

This time he had dreamed of Judd and Vicki being caught by the Global Community. He knew it had something to do with their leaving the day before. Lionel had promised he wouldn't say anything to Chang or anyone else about their secret departure. Judd had been sure Captain Steele would have stopped them.

When Judd had discovered that Westin Jakes, Z-Van's former pilot, had caught an airlift out of the desert near New Babylon and was again flying for the Tribulation Force, Judd had asked a favor. Lionel had seen them off to the airstrip and waved good-bye, not knowing if he would ever see his friends again.

Lionel got a glass of water and looked out the screenless window at the lightening sky. The sight of Petra in the morning never ceased to move him. The red-rocked city seemed to glow at both sunup and sundown.

Lionel quietly went to the tech center. He kept in contact with his friends in Illinois and e-mailed a new friend in New Babylon, of all places. Through Tsion's Web site Lionel had met a young German woman named Steffi. She was with a group that had stayed in the still-darkened city. She reported that nothing much had changed. People were still screaming and chewing their tongues, and the believers were able to move through the city undetected.

Lionel, is there a way I could call your phone and talk about our airlift out of here?
Steffi wrote.
I know that our main connection is through Otto Weser and you probably don't have much to do with that, but it would calm my nerves if I could talk
.

Lionel wrote back, giving Steffi a number and a time. As soon as he sent the message, another message popped up.

Lionel
,

We finally made it to Shivte's house a little after four
this morning and wanted you to know we're okay. We're
supposed to meet with some of the resistance fighters later
.

The flight out of Petra was a little scary, but Westin
found the landing strip. Then we hooked up with one of
Shivte's sons and made the drive into Jerusalem without
being spotted by the GC
.

Westin told us the most amazing story about getting
out of New Babylon. He and his friends found an abandoned
terrorist training camp and holed up there for a
while. Westin got a flight out through the Trib Force, but
Judd's friend Zvi and some of the others decided to go
back into New Babylon
.

Thanks for praying for us, and don't worry. We're not
planning to do any fighting, just trying to reach out to
Jewish people who haven't accepted their Messiah
.

Take care and we'll call you soon
.

Love,
Vicki

Lionel shook his head. Most people would try to stay as safe as they could during the final battle. But after all Judd and Vicki had been through, they still wanted to reach people with the message of God's love and forgiveness.

Judd shook hands with Shivte in the dimly lit home and introduced Vicki. The elderly man shuffled to the kitchen table of their small home. He and his sons were stocky men and soft-spoken. None of them had the mark of the believer.

Shivte asked one of his sons to get his wife, then motioned for Judd and Vicki to sit. “You should know that it was my wife who arranged this,” he said. “And I only agreed to help you come here on the condition that you would not try to get us to change our beliefs.”

Judd pursed his lips. “As I wrote from Petra, we don't want to get in the way. We just want to support the resistance effort in any way we can.”

“My son will show you to one of the underground hideouts,” Shivte said. “There are military people there who can show you what is needed.”

Shivte offered them some meager rations, which Judd and Vicki politely refused. “We brought some supplies with us,” Judd said. “It would please us if you would take them.”

Shivte nodded. “We're grateful.”

Shivte's wife came through the doorway, smiling. She was a large woman with heavy lines in her face, and Judd thought she looked a lot like his grandmother. When she spotted the mark of the believer on their foreheads, Judd thought she would weep. She hugged them both and thanked them for bringing food.

“How I would have liked to have experienced Petra, if only for a few days,” the woman said. “I can only imagine the teaching and fellowship you enjoyed there.” She glanced at her husband. “But there are more pressing matters here. You can see that I have not yet convinced the most important people in my life of the truth.”

Shivte stood and waved a hand at her. “I'm not staying to hear this.”

“Will you go get the people now?” she said.

Shivte nodded and left the house.

“Who is he going to get?” Judd said.

“You'll see,” Shivte's wife said.

“How did you become a believer?” Vicki said.

“I didn't plan on it,” she said. “My husband and sons said they would not take Carpathia's mark, but we had to have food. So I volunteered to take it so I could buy and sell. The idea of worshiping that statue … well, I couldn't imagine it, but we had to survive.”

“How close did you come to taking it?” Judd said.

“I was at the Temple Mount, in line. I thought it was the only way to save my family. But then I saw a disturbance and slipped out of line. A man of God was shot— his name was Micah—but the bullets didn't kill him. After that, I had to know more about this message. I have a young friend, the one who wrote your friend Sam, and he helped me find Tsion Ben-Judah's Web site.”

“And your husband and sons?” Vicki said.

“We have agreed not to talk about it. They are devout Jews, and they will resist Carpathia to the end, but they are not ready for Messiah. How I pray for them every day that somehow the message will get through.”

Footsteps sounded on the street outside. Shivte's wife stood and motioned for Judd and Vicki to follow her to the door. “I was talking with a friend about you two and where you would stay. We have very little room here. One conversation led to another, and finally I discovered that—”

The door opened and a man and a woman walked through. In the dim light, Judd couldn't see their faces. When they moved closer, his mouth dropped open. “I don't believe it!”

The two hugged Judd tightly and wept. Judd turned to Vicki. “Remember Nada and Kasim? These are their parents, Jamal and Lina Ameer.”

Lina reached out and hugged Vicki. “So this is the person Judd was in love with. You're very beautiful, my dear.”

Vicki blushed. “I'm very sorry about your son and daughter. Our group back in the States prayed for you almost every day.”

“We appreciate that more than you can know,” Jamal said.

“We couldn't believe it when we heard you were coming,” Lina said. “We'd love to hear what God has done since we last talked. How is Lionel?”

They sat at the table and Judd explained about Lionel's injury and how they had gotten back to the States. The two were saddened to hear about Lionel's arm but were glad he was safe in Petra.

Judd asked if they knew anything about the rebel fighters, and Jamal pulled out a crude map. “There are underground tunnels through here. Many people have hidden in them since the GC took over. We have weapons and ammunition, even some computers to help us track the movement of the GC One World Unity Army's troops. We can go through there as we head to our apartment. You will stay with us.”

Shivte closed the door quietly and put a finger to his lips. “We must hide. The GC are going house to house down the street.”

Judd and Vicki followed the others to a hiding place under the stairs.

“Does this happen often?” Vicki whispered to Jamal.

“All the time,” Jamal said.

Lionel took Steffi's call and listened to her story. It was much like others he had heard from people who had already come out of New Babylon. Her father wanted to be in Carpathia's city to fulfill prophecy, but things had become so horrible there with the plague of darkness that Steffi couldn't imagine staying any longer.

“Fortunately, I think you'll be out of there pretty soon,” Lionel said. “The seven-year anniversary of Carpathia's peace treaty with Israel is coming up in only a few days.”

“I've longed for the coming of Jesus,” Steffi said. “I've been afraid the plague of darkness will lift and the GC will catch my father.”

“Does he spend a lot of time in GC areas?” Lionel said.

“The palace, the prison—wherever he thinks he can find information or a possible person who doesn't have the mark of the believer. I've told him he should be more careful. …”

Lionel pulled the phone away from his ear. Something odd was happening in Chang Wong's area. “Hang on a second, Steffi.”

Chang was standing and pointing to his computer screen. “It's happened!”

Others came running.

“What's happened?” Lionel said, but Chang didn't hear him.

“What's going on?” Steffi said.

“It might be something with the Euphrates River,”

Lionel said. “Chang's been watching sensors planted there by the GC—”

Before Lionel could finish his sentence, Chang turned to Naomi Tiberius and said, “There was water in the Euphrates a minute ago, and now it is dry as a bone. You can bet tomorrow it will be on the news—someone standing in the dry, cracking riverbed, showing that you can walk across without fear of mud or quicksand.”

“That is amazing,” Naomi said. “I mean, I knew it was coming, but isn't it just like God to do it all at once? And isn't that a 1,500-mile river?”

“It used to be.”

Lionel explained what he had heard to Steffi, and she gave an excited shout. “This means the Lord's return is that much closer.”

Lionel finished the conversation and joined Chang and the others.

Later a Trib Force scout plane reported vast weapons and troop movement toward the dried-up river. Lionel figured Carpathia had been reading the Bible but was too stupid to understand how the book ended.