Stung (12 page)

Fortunato bowed deeply and tried to make way for Carpathia, but he stumbled on a light cord and tumbled out of range of the camera. The kids laughed. Carpathia seemed flustered by the distraction, then quickly recovered.

“Fellow citizens, I am certain that if you did not see what happened earlier this evening at Teddy Kollek Stadium in Jerusalem, you have by now heard about it. Let me briefly tell you my view of what occurred and outline my response.

“One of my goals as a strong leader is tolerance. We can only truly be a global community by accepting our differences. It has been the clear wish of most of us that we break down walls and bring people together. Thus there is now one economy highlighted by one currency, no need for passports, one government, eventually one language, one system of measurement, and one religion.”

Carpathia described Enigma Babylon One World Faith, which brought different religions under one banner. “Your way may be the only way for you, and my way the only way for me, but all religions of the world have proved themselves able to live in harmony.”

Carpathia frowned. “All religions except one. You know the one. It is the sect that claims its roots in historic Christianity. It holds that the vanishings of two and a half years ago were God's doing. Indeed, they say, Jesus blew a trumpet and took all his favorite people to heaven, leaving the rest of us lost sinners to suffer here on earth.”

Carpathia crossed his arms and squinted. “This is not the truth of Christianity as it was taught for centuries. That wonderful, peace-loving religion told of a God of love and of a man who was a teacher of morals. His example was to be followed in order for a person to one day reach eternal heaven by continually improving oneself.”

“This is too much,” Vicki said. “If we reach heaven by improving ourselves, why did Jesus have to die?”

Carpathia continued. “Following the disappearances that caused such great chaos in our world, some misguided people looked to the Christian Bible for an explanation. They created a belief that said the true church was taken away.”

“You think people are actually buying this?” Darrion said.

Carpathia referred to the followers of Dr. Ben-Judah as a cult. “I come to you tonight from the very studio where Dr. Ben-Judah turned his back on his own religion. While in exile, he has managed to brainwash thousands who are desperate. Dr. Ben-Judah has used the Internet for his own gain, no doubt taking millions from his followers. He has invented an us-against-them war.”

“He hasn't taken a penny,” Vicki shouted.

“For months I have ignored these harmless holdouts to world harmony. When Dr. Ben-Judah invited his converts to meet in the very city that had exiled him, I decided to allow it.”

“Here comes the payoff,” Conrad said. “He's about to bring the hammer down.”

Carpathia held up his hands in a gesture of peace. “In a spirit of acceptance, I gave my public promise for Dr. Ben-Judah's safety. I believed the only right thing to do was to encourage this mass meeting. I wanted his followers to join us. But the choice was theirs. I would not have forced them.

“And how were my actions rewarded? Was I invited to the festivities? Allowed to bring a greeting or take part in any of the pageantry? No. I traveled to Israel at my own expense and dropped in to say a few words.

“My supreme commander was met with the rudeness of utter silence. The most revered Supreme Pontiff Peter the Second was received in the same manner, even though he is a fellow clergyman. This was obviously a well-planned mass response.”

“A vast conspiracy,” Conrad said.

“Shh,” Vicki said. “Here's his explanation.”

Carpathia accused Dr. Ben-Judah of controlling the minds of his audience. “I had the clear feeling that the crowd was with me. They wanted to welcome me. Dr. Ben-Judah somehow gave a signal to release an invisible dust or powder that instantly parched my throat and resulted in a powerful thirst.

“I should have been suspicious when I was immediately presented with a bottle from someone in the crowd. But as a trusting person, I assumed an unknown friend had come to my aid.”

Carpathia gritted his teeth. “I was ambushed by a bottle of poisonous blood! It was such an obvious assassination attempt that I accused Dr. Ben-Judah right there. He had hidden in the crowd the two elderly lunatics from the Wailing Wall who have murdered several people. With hidden microphones turned louder than the one I was using, they shouted me down with threats.

“My doctor says if I had swallowed what they gave me, I would have died instantly.”

Judd, Lionel, and Mr. Stein had fought their way through the crowd of frightened people to the safety of a nearby building. When the GC emergency vehicles left, the three headed for the university gymnasium.

Judd was exhausted. He lay on his cot, listening to the prayers and conversation around him. Before he drifted off to sleep, Mr. Stein touched his shoulder and asked him to follow. “You'll want to see this.”

A small group gathered around a television in an office near the front. Yitzhak sat with his feet on a desk. Judd recognized the man who had introduced Tsion onstage. His name was Daniel. Other members of the local committee stared at Nicolae Carpathia on TV.

Lionel brought Judd up to speed about Nicolae's speech. “He just said the assassination attempt is an act of high treason, punishable by death.”

“Who are they going to execute, all of us?” Judd said.

Lionel shrugged.

Carpathia clenched his jaw. “There is no doubt that this ugly incident was engineered and carried out by Dr. Ben-Judah. But as a man of my word, I plan to allow the meetings to continue for the next two nights. I will maintain my pledge of security and protection.”

“We do not need either from you,” Daniel muttered.

Carpathia continued. “Dr. Ben-Judah, however, shall be exiled again from Israel within twenty-four hours of the end of the meeting. As for the two who call themselves Eli and Moishe, let this serve as public notification to them as well. For the next forty-eight hours, they shall be restricted to the area near the Wailing Wall. They are not to leave that area for any purpose at any time. When the meetings in the stadium have concluded, Eli and Moishe must leave the Temple Mount area. Their appearance anywhere but near the Wailing Wall for forty-eight hours or their showing their faces anywhere in the world after that shall be considered reason to kill. Any Global Community officer or private citizen is authorized to shoot to kill.”

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.