Showdown (19 page)

But Samuel had the same power. An incredible fact. Then again, all of the children had the same power. And that was a bit frightening.

His father's eyes were glassy. “Can you imagine what would happen if this got out to the world, Samuel?”

“But it won't! We won't let it.”

“It's not something we can control. Not now.”

“My whole life you've taught me the power of Christ's love to overthrow evil. I know this is difficult for you, Father, but you have to believe what you've taught me.”

David looked at his son. “Evil can be very powerful, Samuel.”

“And so can love.”

The door behind them opened. Samuel held his father's eyes one moment longer, then released his hand. He wasn't used to being the encourager in their relationship, but it felt right now. He was becoming a man, and his father needed him. The realization was both daunting and satisfying.

Two teachers and two students walked into the study. Raul and Andrew ushered the children through the door.

“Hey, Tyler. Hey, Christine.”

“Hey, Samuel.” They'd both been here before, but a trip to the director's study was an unusual occurrence. Their eyes took in the setting.

David smiled, cloaking all traces of concern. “Thank you for coming. Have a seat, please.” He indicated the chairs around the redwood table.

“Thank you, sir,” Christine said.

Tyler let Christine sit first. “Thank you, sir.”

They grinned at Samuel. Tyler and Christine were both orphans from India and they, like some of the others, had taken to speaking in accents from their mother countries.

“Excuse us for just a moment.” David walked toward the adjacent conference room. “Raul, Andrew, please follow me.”

They walked into the room and closed the door.

Samuel sat and looked at his friends. Were they strong enough to stand up to Billy? No doubt. His father's concerns were overstated. “You guys eat already?”

“Yes,”Tyler said.“Have you guys noticed how quickly they shut down the cafeteria these last two days?”

“No,” Christine said. “Two o'clock like always.”

“But two sharp?” Tyler snuck a look at the conference-room door and lowered his voice. “The overseers just seem a bit rushed. In fact, I'm not sure they aren't a bit uptight in general. I snapped Christian's boxers in the bathroom this morning, and Andrew happened to be walking by. He told me to grow up. That sound like Andrew to you?”

“Boys,” Christine said, rolling her eyes. “How does snapping boxers translate to fun in that lofty mind of yours?”

“It translates as easily as pinning back your hair or painting your nails,” Tyler said.

“I paint my nails for beauty. Beauty is intrinsically valuable.”

“And I snapped Christian's boxers for humor. Humor's also intrinsically valuable.”

Christine thought about that. “Point made.”

“I still think the overseers need to lighten up a bit.”

“I'll be sure to mention this to the director the moment he steps back in,” Christine said with a smirk. “All overseers to ease up on the fun-seekers of our cherished clan.”

She turned to Samuel. “So what's this all about?”

The enormity of her ignorance struck him as tragic. This was about the end of all things as they knew it. About the beginning of something either very good or very bad. How could he explain this to two kids who were for the moment preoccupied with snapping shorts and painting nails?

The door opened, saving Samuel from an answer. One look at Andrew and Samuel's gut tightened. The man's face was white. Raul looked concerned as well, but not like Andrew. Perhaps Raul had more faith in Christine than Andrew did.

They crossed the room and sat opposite Christine and Tyler. His father regarded them with unusual gravity.

Christine glanced at Samuel, any trace of a smile now gone. “What's wrong?”

“At least that much is obvious,” David said. He drew a deep breath. “Christine, Tyler . . . We are very proud of you both. In fact it's my confidence in you that brings you here. I've watched you both and I see that your character is strong.” He smiled.

Christine folded her hands. “Thank you, sir.”

Tyler followed her example. “Thank you, sir.”

“Good. Then let me tell you what I just told Andrew and Raul. Billy has challenged the school's prevailing rule of love in the first debate of its kind in the history of Project Showdown.” He let the statement settle in.

“A debate?” Tyler asked. “Billy's arguing against love? What on earth would make him do that?”

“He and Darcy have entered the forbidden
tunnels below the monastery,” David said.

“They've what?” Christine demanded. “How could they do that?”

“Oh, it's quite simple, really. There's no lock on the door. Billy was the first to go in. He convinced Darcy to follow. This morning Billy issued his challenge. He'll argue against our assertion that love leads to the Creator and that the discovery of love is the point of our lives. It seems he's found something besides love to satisfy him. The debate will be held tomorrow before all the students. In the end, a two-thirds vote by the students will determine the course we will take. If Billy wins, he will determine what is taught here and who teaches it. He will also establish new rules, which can be overthrown only by a similar challenge and a two-thirds vote.”

Christine jumped up. “He's a fool!” She relaxed her fists and sat.“Forgive me, I meant no disrespect, but he's the biggest fool. Not only for entering the tunnels, but for thinking that he can persuade two or three much less two-thirds of us to side with any twisted philosophy he tosses out.”

“Why can't we just lock Billy up?” Tyler asked.

Samuel watched his father. Not even the teachers knew the real reason, though what the overseers accepted as truth was compelling enough. What good would it do to create a monastery full of noble savages with the potential to reshape society, and then, having failed, to lock them up? If they ultimately failed, then they would be put back into society to continue with the rest of spoiled humankind.

But if the children survived tests like this one, they would be even stronger in their faith, and their impact on society would be even greater. This is what the teachers believed. And part of it was true.

But only part of it.

Samuel's father finally spoke. “We can't, Tyler. You'll have to trust me on that. No one is forced here. The effects of forcing Billy's hand could be far more devastating than any of us imagines.”

Samuel wondered if the two teachers caught his father's insinuation that the stakes were higher than they knew. Andrew stared at him with searching eyes. Raul looked at the bookshelf, expression blank.

“Who will he debate?” Christine asked.

“By rule it has to be a student. I have—”

“What kind of rule is that? Excuse the interruption.”

“Not only a student, but one of five that he chooses,” David said. “It's a rule that places the ultimate responsibility in any one of the students' hands. We are only as strong as our weakest links, both in life and in here. Billy put five students' names forward. I have chosen you, Christine.”

“Me? It should be Samuel!”

“Samuel wasn't an option. It will be you.”

Raul cleared his throat. “I must express my objection. I think we're going too fast. Having this debate tomorrow is premature. She needs time to prepare.”

“No, no, that's not our call,” Andrew responded. “I've looked up the rules. The debate must be held within twenty-four hours.” It was odd that even the teachers were foggy on the rules of debate, Samuel thought. Then again, they'd never had to know.

“What on earth for?” Raul demanded. “If the future of the monastery is at hand, we should all tread carefully.”

David held up a hand. “We've been treading carefully for twelve years. As it is now, Billy hardly stands a chance. The more time we give him, the stronger his argument will become. Time favors him, not us. The debate will be held tomorrow morning.”

“And Billy will debate me?” Christine asked, still unconvinced.

“You know what he's going to argue,” Samuel said. “I say throw it back in his face. Make him grovel and cry for mercy.”

That earned him a few smiles.

“Oh, you can bet I will. Trying to argue that love has no trajectory,much less one set for our Maker, is like trying to argue that we are nothing more than a sea of slugs, inching aimlessly about in the dark. You're sure this is the basis of his argument?”

“I doubt he'll cast it in those terms,”David said. “But in the end all arguments end there. You'll do fine, Christine.”

She nodded. “And what happens to Billy when he's defeated?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? Could he cast another challenge?”

“Not for three days.”

“I think it's too soon,” Raul said. “They're still children, for heaven's sake. They could drag us all down.”

“Then, in the eyes of some, our project will have failed,” David said.

“And not in the eyes of others?” Andrew asked.

David didn't respond.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

PARADISE

Friday morning

PAULA WANDERED around her house without really knowing what she was doing. Oh, she did the dishes and made the bed, but she knew there was something else she should be doing. Problem was figuring it out.

It came to her out of nowhere. A blue streak of desire so deep that she gasped right there in her hallway.

Wanna trip, baby?

She left the house and walked up the street toward the church. The streets were still deserted, and the thumping sound was still coming from behind the house.
Get a clue, Steve. Please.

Wanna trip?

Her pulse quickened and she quickened her pace. Steve could rot in hell for all she cared.

She found the front doors to the church locked. They were never locked. She walked to the side and entered through the office, hoping that Stanley and that fat secretary of his had left for lunch early or something.

Now come on, Paula, you have no right calling people fat. That could be
you in twenty years.

But she is fat.
Paula walked through the kitchen to the back stairs.
Fat as
a cow.

“Hello, Paula.”

Paula gasped, startled. Nancy stood in the back-office doorway holding a large brown grocery bag. She wore a yellow cotton dress that made Paula think of a gunny sack with two holes cut out for those pudgy arms and another for her thick neck. A white substance that must be butter or frosting had dried on Nancy's left cheek.

“Don't scare me like that,” Paula said. “Where is everybody?”

Nancy stared at her and held up the bag as though apologetic. “I just had to run to the store.” She walked into the office without another word.

Paula breathed a quick sigh of relief and turned down the stairwell. See, now there was another weird thing. Nancy was fat enough as it is. No need to clean out Claude's store.

Wanna trip, huh? Like I do?

Paula stopped halfway down the stairs, her heart in her throat. What was she doing? Where was she going, anyway?

Down to the basement. To divide bone and marrow. Down to her office to trip.

Or at least to check on her Sunday-school room, just to make sure that everything was in order for Sunday service. Never could take the responsibility of teaching the children too seriously, right? Never.

When she landed on the gray carpet and rounded the corner to the all-purpose room, tingles were sweeping through her belly. Goose bumps fanned out at the base of her skull.
You shouldn't be here, Paula.

Trip,
trip, trip. Say it like that, baby. Say it like you mean it.

The room yawned vacant and still. She stepped across it lightly, barely breathing. The door to her office was cracked, but she often left it open. It was her office all right, given to her as the Sunday-school coordinator. The sign on the door said it in brass.

Paula reached the office, ran her sleeve over the brass plate, glanced back to the empty stairwell once, and pushed the door open.

The room was shrouded in darkness. Empty? Of course it was empty. What did she expect? She reached in and flipped the light switch. Four fluorescents stuttered to life.

Her desk sat as she had left it, neat and tidy with her little gray chair shoved under. The room was indeed empty, and an awful sense of disappointment ran through her chest.
Yeah, I'll show you how to trip, you
freak show
. Her anger surprised her.
Trip this!
She flicked the air with her tongue.

Now that was forward. She did it again. Goodness, she was a regular sex bomb.

Paula stepped into her office and sighed. What had she come here for again?

A large black body moved to her left and she yelped.

Then she saw the whole of him, and her peripheral vision clouded. He stood there, tall, dressed in the same black trench coat he seemed never to take off, smiling under those sapphire eyes.

“Marsuvees!”

The initial shock fell away, and a cold wave of relief washed down her back. She smiled sheepishly.

He raised his shoulders in a shrug and chuckled. A low, empty chuckle that echoed through the room and bounced around in her skull. Paula felt a stab of fear.

“Paula . . . ha.” He ended her name with air, and then clacked his teeth shut, as if taking a small bite out of the air.

Her name came to her like a soothing salve. An image of him standing up at the pulpit, commanding the attention of every last soul in town, ran through her mind.

“Hi.” Her voice sounded like a squeak.

“I didn't mean to startle you. I just thought you might come here and . . .” He smiled warmly. “Well, I wanted to show you something.”