The Called: Chosen (The Called Series Book 2) (14 page)

“Understood”, said Chaim solemnly.

“Washington, DC?” asked Maggie. “That’s where my husband is believed to be.”

“Yes Mrs. Robertson. That’s correct”, said Joshua. “Unfortunately, we won’t be able to stop. Between the assassination attempt today and the political unrest there, the environment is far too volatile to do anything in.”

I know”, said Maggie. “It’s just so difficult knowing that he is out there somewhere and not knowing what they are doing to him. I would do anything to see him again.”

Murray shook his head in affirmation and said, “Believe me, if we were able to penetrate their security, we would be going in after him. I just don’t think it’s possible. Not with the World Council forces and the federal government being involved.”

As they were talking about the situation they were in and the whereabouts of John, Chad looked up and noticed a white car quickly approaching with blue lights flashing.

“Oh, not now Jesus”, he said. “Well…it looks like we may be getting pulled over. Probably local or state law enforcement by the looks of it. Still yet, the plates and tags are not legitimate. If they run this information, we will be in trouble.”

“They are still a little ways off”, said Chaim. “Do you think we should just try to pull off on a side road and maybe park off somewhere that he won’t see us?”

“I don’t know”, said Joshua. “I’m pretty sure he would find us and I don’t want to be accused of evading the police. That would be one more charge they could throw us in jail for. The problem with me is that I was too high profile in the government that they know what I’ve done. They know I have become a Christian and I am involved with the underground church. I will be in prison for the rest of my life. I could even be executed. Just pray guys.”

“Not to worry you even more”, said Chaim, “but we have weapons on board as well. That alone would have us arrested and put away for years. If they find anything at all, we will have no choice other than flee or attack. That’s the only way we will have a chance of getting out of this.”

“I just can’t believe this is happening”, said Maggie. “This early in the trip and we already have the police on our tails. How much worse can it get?”

“Don’t ask that”, said Chaim. “It could get a lot worse.”

The car continued to approach at a high rate of speed. It had almost caught up to them. They pulled over to the side of the road and prayed with everything they had in them.

Abbie sat in her hotel room that evening after finding out that Charles Billingsley was without a doubt her biological father. She had a full range of emotions bombarding her at once. Anger at her mother for keeping it from both her and Charles and guilt for even showing up to drop the bombshell on her dad. The fear of rejection was overwhelming, yet the excitement of getting to know him was also a reality.

The one thing that she wished could be done was to turn back time to the time when she was a little girl. Most of the other kids in her neighborhood had their dads around. She remembers watching them in their yards playing ball or pushing them on the swing set. There was nothing she ever wanted more, but the experience was robbed from her. She used to feel bad for her mom for being left alone with a baby to raise.

It was an odd thing really. The anger she used to feel toward the unknown man who left her mother was now directed toward her mom and the sympathy she had for her mother was now directed toward her dad. She wondered if there was a father in her life, if she would have turned out any different…any better off.

She heard a knock at the door, so she got up off the bed and walked over to open it. Peering through the hole, she could see who it was. ‘Not now’, she thought. She took a deep breath anyway and opened the door.

“Hi honey”, said Susan.

“Hi mom”, said Abbie. “What brings you here?”

“I just wanted to know that I went and talked to your father tonight.”

“Oh, really? You mean the man that you never told me about? I had always thought it was some mystery, but you knew who my father was and where he was at all of these years.”

“Listen, I am really sorry. I have explained myself to Charles already and I know that you are both feeling a lot of emotions right now. You have a right to be angry, but I want you to know that I did it for your own good and his.”

“For our own good?” she asked. “For our own good? Are you kidding me? How was it in our best interests that he didn’t even know he had a daughter and I didn’t know I had a father, and one that could have been a good one at that?”

“Charles had so much going for him in his life after High School. I knew that a baby could change that. I didn’t want to slow him down or make him feel like he had to stay there in Arkansas for us.”

“Well God forbid that a man has to take responsibility for something he helped create”, she snapped. “That’s part of life mom. You have to take responsibility for your own choices. You never even gave him a chance and because of that, I never had a chance.”

“Abbie, don’t you think I know about responsibility? I chose to raise you alone without him even knowing, not only for him but for you as well. I knew he had gotten married and started a new life within a few years. I didn’t want you trying to contact him at any point because I was afraid he would reject you out of fear of hurting his family. When I found out that he lost his wife a while back, I knew it was safe to tell you his identity.”

“That still doesn’t make it right mom”, said Abbie. “Yes, I understand your fear of me and Charles being hurt, but we have even more to work through and deal with now that we ever would have if we had known years earlier.”

“You might be right about that hon. I don’t know… Hindsight seems to be twenty-twenty. The fact of the matter is, we will never know how it could have turned out. All we have is today. That’s all any of us have.”

“Well, I have had about all I can handle today. Tomorrow is a new day and we will go from there, but right now I would like to be alone.”

Abbie opened the door for her mother to exit, not even looking her in the eye as she passed by with tears in her eyes.

“I just hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me Abbie”, said Susan.

“It’s not really about that right now mom. I’m sure I will. I have to; after all it’s in my nature now. Honestly, I just need to be mad and upset for a little while and process all of this. Maybe try to figure out what I am going to do with this.”

Susan nodded her head in understanding. “Good night honey. I love you.”

Abbie just turned around and let the door close behind her, immediately falling apart and bursting into tears. She turned the lights out and slipped under the covers of her bed; completely exhausted. She cried herself to sleep, but it seemed to happen within only a few minutes.

She found herself in a wheat field. There was nothing but wheat blowing in the wind for as far as the eye could see. There was a calm in the air as the gentle breeze blew her hair around her face. ‘Where am I?’ she thought as she walked through the field.

Suddenly, she could hear thunder in the distance. Dark clouds formed in the west and lightning lit up the sky. The wind began to pick up and blow harder. The peaceful feeling gave way to one of fear as she began to run from the clouds that were quickly closing in.

It didn’t matter how fast she ran, there was no place to go; only open fields. She finally stopped struggling and just stood and looked up as the clouds came directly overhead. The thunder became even louder and lightning struck all around her.

It began to rain, but there was something very different about this rain. She felt like she was being pelted by something solid. To her horror, she looked down and saw the tiny creatures bouncing off of the ground before getting up to devour the wheat around her. The insect-like creatures had red eyes and looked like they had armor with the tales of scorpions. She batted at her clothes in fear, trying to get them off of her.

Everything suddenly became extremely still. She could hear their evil laughs as she looked at each one of their awful faces. The clouds above began to swirl until a tornado touched down right in front of her. She felt like she should have been afraid, but there was something about it that attracted her to it.

She couldn’t stop herself from walking toward it. The wind lifted her up and into the vortex. It should have been pure chaos inside, but there was a strange peace. She looked up and saw a hand with scars reach down to her and pull her up. She knew who it was.

Abbie woke up from her dream with her heart still pounding from what she had experienced. ‘What does all of this mean’, she wondered.

―――――

Samyaza al Assad had just finished his address to the world. He was legitimately angry that the United States and Britain would turn their back on him and the World Council. ‘It will be short lived’, he thought. ‘It can’t be them versus the whole world. They don’t stand a chance. They may even tear themselves apart from the inside out.’

He went into his private chambers and knelt down on the floor. He began to chant in an old language that was not his own. Within seconds, two creatures appeared. Their terrible eyes glowed and their wings nearly folded in front of them.

“What is the condition of the fallen ones?” asked Assad.

“We are gaining strength. We have been roaming back and forth across the earth causing deception, disease, and death. Soon we will be strong enough to torment them in the physical world.”

“Good, the second seal has been opened on the earth. War is breaking out due to the ignorance of some who would break away from us. The third seal will be famine. You see, I know what is coming next. Yahweh wrote it in his word for all of us to see. Who gives away their battle plans?”

“This shows why you are superior master. You will take your rightful place as god. We will not fail you.”

“The window of time for me to do this is short. We must completely wipe out the Christians. Their presence here is the only thing holding me back from my destiny.”

“We have one problem there sir”, said the demonic angel.

“What is it?” asked Assad.

“We can’t harm them. They are protected by a force much greater than we are. We have fought and fought against the angels that protect them and have lost many times. Even when one of us gets the upper hand, we are unable to cross the blood of the Lamb.”

“What then?” asked Assad. “They aren’t invincible. They are only human.”

“We have found a way to get to them”, said the demon. “We have to influence the unbelievers to do them harm. That is the only way.”

“Very well then”, said Assad. “Use whatever tactics work. I just want them gone.”

“Yes master. It will be done just as you say.”

With those words, they were gone. Assad got up and walked over to a desk and sat down at it. ‘I was counting on them not even being here when I got started. But He has left him here like a thorn in my side. Yahweh could always be so straight forward yet so mysterious at the same time. He may have made it more difficult for me to take my place here on earth, but he won’t fool me again.’

Assad called Adnan Bahar to find out what he had accomplished in the United States during his discreet visit.

“Hello sir”, answered Bahar.

“Hello. Where are you?” asked Assad.

“I am in the air right now over the Atlantic Ocean somewhere”, answered Bahar.

“How did the operations go?”

“We had some small but effective victories. We were able to flush out the Christians hiding in Los Angeles and take many lives in the process.”

“Some of them got away?” asked Assad.

“Yes, but they won’t make it long out in the open. We have a team on that right now.”

“Good.”

“Oh, sir. We have done even better things on the east coast in New York. We also killed some insurgents there. To top it off, we captured the most wanted fugitive in the country; John Robertson.”

“That is wonderful new Adnan! What is his status?”

“We did the cerebral reconditioning procedure on him. He has no recollection of who he is and doesn’t have any of his own memories; only the ones that we planted.”

“He is a killing machine”, said Assad. “What plans do you have for him?”

“We will use him to track down and kill his comrades that fled the scene in New York. His wife is believed to be included in that group.”

“This is good news. We need every small victory that we can get. The time will come very soon when they will no longer be able to hide anywhere. Our World Council forces are getting stronger and so are our spiritual forces.”

“Sir…sir. I have to go. We seem to have an unknown aircraft following us. I don’t know what they would want.”

“It’s probably an American fighter jet. Call for reinforcements now.”

“Okay. The pilots are calling in some of our own jets that are about twenty miles away. We have fighter drones that we can drop from the plane. They will slow them down until we can get help here.”

Assad could hear gunfire and loud noises just before he lost contact with Adnan. “Americans!” he shouted as he slammed his fist down on his desk. “They never quit.”

―――――

John Robertson aka Kyle Graves was being treated like a king as he was healing from the wounds that had been inflicted on him by the same people that were now acting like his comrades. He felt a little hazy, but he was told that was just from the concussion he had sustained from the fight with the Christians.

He had a suite with a king size bed and all the amenities he would ever want. It felt like a five star hotel. The memories of the dark dungeon they had locked him in were no more. He couldn’t remember the electric shocks or the waterboarding. He couldn’t remember the beating. He remembered nothing but the cruelty of the Christians when they had kidnapped and tortured him.

He remembered the spy, Maggie Robertson, who had set him up to be taken. He had trusted her and she turned on him. He decided in his mind that her fate would be the same as the others when she was found. There would be no mercy.

It was intriguing how many automatic habits had carried over from when John was himself. Ever since he had been in the military, he would get up out of bed and do push-ups and sit-ups. He would then eat a protein bar with a glass of water and go running. He was still doing these things without even thinking about it. His instincts, habits, and skills stuck with him but the most important parts of his life were gone.

Rollands looked at the screen that showed John doing push-ups by his bed. He turned to his superior officer, Zeke Austin, and said, “Amazing isn’t it? The guy is still very much himself, but without the memories. Will this last indefinitely?”

Zeke turned and stared at John on the screen intently. “Yes…Well our studies have shown that it lasts for years with ninety-eight percent of our subjects. Even in the two percent who have gone back to their previous state have done so after at least a year. He will accomplish what we want him to accomplish at the very least.”

“How long will we give him before we send him back out?” asked Rollands.

“I think five days is sufficient. He is already healing at a rapid pace and making enormous gains. He will be back at about one-hundred percent by then with the engineered food and meds that we have been giving him.”

“Great news sir. Could I go out this time?” asked Rollands.

“I intend on sending you out with John…absolutely”, said Zeke.

“How are we going to locate them?”

“The same way we got them last time. We have an inside source. We will know exactly where they are going. Once they are all together, we will attack.”