Dead Heat

  Bennett had shared the gospel with him countless times. He had pleaded with

  Costello to examine the evidence of Jesus' miracles, His death, and His resurrection. He had implored his colleague to consider the fact that they were watching with their own eyes the literal, dramatic fulfillment of major End Times prophecies—the rebirth of Israel, the War of Gog and Magog, the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, the rise of Babylon—

  and to realize that their time on this planet was very, very short.

  Costello had been fascinated by all the End Times prophecies in the Scriptures. He and

  his wife, Tracy—both long-time agnostics and self-described lapsed Catholics—had studied them carefully and had long talks with Dr. Mordechai about them before he'd been

  murdered. They had admitted being fascinated with Mordechai's "theory," as they put it, but they weren't yet convinced by his conclusions. They'd begun attending a Bible

  church in Bethesda, Maryland, a few months before their twins were born.

  Tracy had seemed the most open to spiritual things, but it was Ken who asked Bennett on more than one occasion, "How much time do we have left?" Bennett admitted he had no idea. Jesus, he had explained to Costello, had refused to throw the game. When asked by the disciples in Matthew 24 about what to look for, Jesus had explained the general signs that would foreshadow His return: wars, rumors of wars, revolutions, earthquakes,

  persecution, the spread of the gospel to every nation on earth. But He had refused to tell His disciples the exact time He was coming back to them.

  "But of that day and hour no one knows," Jesus told His closest followers, "not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will

  the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there will be two men in the field; one will be

  taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming."

  Bennett had all but begged Costello to be ready, to realize that the signs were in place, that time was running out. He had urged Costello to get on his knees and ask Christ to

  come into his heart and forgive him his sins and give him a new life. But Costello kept hemming and hawing and saying he wasn't quite ready. And now it was too late.

  Bennett could not bear the thought of where his friend was now. "Jonathan? Can you hear me? Hello?"

  Bennett realized Doron was still on the line. He felt embarrassed. How long had he

  zoned out on the prime minister? Bennett suddenly noticed the temperature was dropping

  and the winds were picking up strength. He quickly apologized and tried to refocus.

  "Where are you now?" Doron asked.

  Bennett realized he didn't know. "Good question, sir; one moment." He turned to Dr.

  Kwamee. "Where are we?"

  "Jerash," came the reply.

  The very name of the ancient city stirred another clash of emotions. Bennett knew the

  name Jerash from one of the guidebooks or tourist Web sites Erin had read to him. He

  remembered phrases like "nestled in a quiet valley among the mountains of Gilead" and "one of the largest and most well-preserved sites of Roman architecture in the world outside Italy." Like Erin, he had hoped to someday visit Jerash and stroll down its "paved and colonnaded streets, soaring hilltop temples, handsome theaters, and spacious public squares and plazas." But now, he knew, that would never happen—not in this lifetime, anyway—and that only fueled his growing depression.

  "How far is that from Amman?" Bennett asked, getting more to the point.

  "Maybe forty kilometers, give or take," Kwamee said.

  Bennett nodded and told the prime minister, "We're about twenty- five, thirty minutes out, sir. Why do you ask?"

  "I'm asking because I know you're in direct contact with President Oaks," Doron said,

  "and I need you to get him an urgent message."

  "Of course," Bennett said. "Whatever you need."

  "I need you to tell the president that I'm accelerating construction of the Temple."

  "Whatever for?" Bennett asked.

  "The Levite priests are trained and ready to go," Doron said. "I want them to place the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies by Yom Kippur. And I'm hoping that the entire structure can be complete by Hanukkah at the very latest."

  Bennett tensed. Yom Kippur? That was only three weeks away.

  "Mr. Prime Minister, are you sure that's such a good idea?" Bennett asked, thinking through the implications, none of which struck him as good.

  "The Jewish people have waited nearly two thousand years to rebuild the Temple; why should we wait any longer?" Doron said.

  Bennett could think of a host of reasons. "For one, most of the world is going to see this as a highly provocative act at a moment when the peace of the world hangs in the balance."

  "You don't think we have a historic right to rebuild the ancient ruins of our holy places?"

  "Of course I do," Bennett said. "I'm just saying that perhaps now would be a better time to announce a suspension—perhaps a temporary one—of the construction of the

  Temple until a regional peace treaty can be hammered out, or at least until the

  international climate can cool a bit."

  "No, I'm sorry, Jonathan. I can't do that," Doron replied bluntly.

  "Of course you can," Bennett insisted. "You're a leader, Mr. Prime Minister. You're a statesman. The world is about to go up in flames. You have the chance to pour cold water on the flames, not gasoline."

  "Jonathan, the reason I'm accelerating the completion of the Temple is precisely

  because the world is going up in flames. Don't you see? There won't be world peace until the Messiah comes. And the Messiah won't come until there's a Temple. Now is not the time

  to apply the brakes. Now is the time to hit the accelerator and get this thing done. The world needs the Messiah now more than ever. You should know that better than anyone. As to whether it's His first visit or His Second Coming, well, we'll ask Him when He gets here."

  "That's it? That's the message you want me to pass to the president?" Bennett asked, stunned by the prime minister's chutzpah, given the events of the past twenty-four hours.

  "You don't think the American people are paying a high enough price for standing with Israel as you defy international opinion and build the Temple before a comprehensive

  peace treaty is signed? Have you completely lost your mind?"

  Remarkably, Doron stayed calmer than Bennett would have expected. "Jonathan, with all due respect, your analysis is backward."

  "How so?" Bennett asked.

  "The United States wasn't attacked because she stood valiantly by the Israeli people,"

  Doron replied. "She was attacked because she has abandoned us in our time of need."

  "What?" Bennett asked, incredulous.

  "Where was the United States when the Russians and the Iranians formed an alliance to wipe us off the map?" Doron retorted, an edge of anger now in his voice. "Where were your president and the leaders in Congress when my people faced an imminent holocaust?

  Where? Nowhere to be found, were they? Your government abandoned us, Jonathan, and

  you know it. That vote in the United Nations condemning us to obliteration? Did the U.S.

  defend us? No. Did the U.S. veto that cursed resolution, as we asked them to, as we begged them to? No. No. No. You abstained. You abstained!"

  "I had no part of that, Mr. Prime Minister," Bennett reminded his friend. "You know that."

  "I'm not saying you personally abandoned us," Doron agreed. "But your country did.

  America did. You kno
w it's true. That's why you resigned—because you couldn't work for a president, for a government, that would cut us loose. And what have you and Eli told me time after time, year after year? Haven't you always quoted me Genesis chapter 12 verse 3? 'He who blesses Israel, the Lord will bless, and those who curse Israel, the Lord will curse.' Right? Well, it seems to me the Lord may very well have removed His blessing

  from America the moment America stopped blessing us."

  Bennett sat in stunned silence as he stared out at the Jordanian countryside passing him by and the first drops of rain beginning to hit his window. It was the first time, Bennett noted to himself, in the many years

  he had known David Doron, a largely unreligious man, that Doron had quoted Scripture

  to him. His words stung bitterly, but the fact was, Bennett wasn't entirely sure Doron was wrong.

  "I'm not saying I'm happy about what has happened, because I'm not, and you know

  that," Doron said after a long, awkward pause. "But I am saying you have your national interests, and we have ours. And one of ours is finishing this Temple. The Bible says it's going to be built. We Jews have been praying for it to be built for the past two millennia.

  And now we have the unprecedented opportunity to finish the job and clear the way for the coming of the Messiah, and I'm going to seize that opportunity. If the world wants to go to war with Israel to stop the Temple and wipe us off the map, then I say bring them on.

  We have the Ark. We have the God of the Ark. So let's just say, we like our chances."

  11:46 A.M.-ROUTE 15, HEADING SOUTH TO AMMAN

  The rain was falling harder now.

  Dr. Kwamee turned on the windshield wipers. Bennett hoped like crazy the NSA was

  getting all of this. They had to be. Within the hour, Secretary Trainor would be reading the transcripts or listening to the recording. Soon the president would be. Doron had to know it as well. That was, after all, the whole point of the exercise, wasn't it? To communicate directly with the president of the United States?

  Bennett tried to process what the Israeli prime minister was saying, but it wasn't easy.

  It cut too close to home. He felt guilty for entertaining the question, even for a moment.

  But was Doron right? Had God removed His favor on the United States because the U.S.

  had turned her back on Israel in her moment of need?

  Bennett knew many Christians felt America had long been living on borrowed time.

  After all, they said, why should God keep blessing a nation that celebrated its sin? More than forty million abortions since 1973. Pornography sales topping $13 billion annually, more than annual NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball revenues combined. The most

  toxic cultural pollution imaginable pouring out of Hollywood and the music industry every day. Nearly seventeen thousand murders a year, more than double that of the 1950s. The list could go on and on.

  Bennett had always tried to avoid the debate. He loved his country. He loved being an

  American. He loved America's freedom and her generosity. Americans had done so much

  good. They had been such a blessing to people all over the globe for so long. But while all that was true, as much as he hated to admit it—and he really did—he knew it wasn't the whole truth. America had a dark side, and as the apostle Paul put it to the Galatians: "God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." So does a nation.

  Bennett felt a gloom descending upon him that he couldn't shake. He grieved for everyone suffering back home. He grieved, too, at the very thought that the worst was yet to come.

  But he had no time to grieve alone. Doron had more to say.

  "Please tell President Oaks that the Temple project notwithstanding, I will help the American people in every way I can," the prime minister continued.

  All Bennett wanted to do was hang up, get in the back of the ambulance, and take care

  of his wife—to love her, to comfort her, and to hold her as the darkness began to overwhelm them both. But it didn't matter. He knew he couldn't. Not yet, anyway.

  He asked Doron for an example.

  "With Dmitri Galishnikov's help, I'd be willing to sell Israeli oil to the U.S. at a significant discount below global market prices, and we can start this immediately."

  "I'm sure that would be very helpful," Bennett replied, though his heart wasn't in it.

  "I'm sure the president would be very grateful, as would the entire country."

  "Good, and there's more," Doron said.

  Bennett waited, trying to stay focused.

  Doron lowered his voice. "Mossad has a mole deep inside the North Korean military

  command structure."

  Bennett was suddenly alert again. "What do you mean?" he asked.

  "We've been working with him for nearly a decade," Doron explained. "He's the one who told us about the North Korean nuclear tests a few years ago and the one who tipped us off to how closely Pyongyang was working with Iran on long-range ballistic missiles, back

  before the Day of Devastation."

  "And?"

  "And he's giving us incredibly valuable information on the most sensitive military thinking inside the country. He says it looks as though the DPRK is gearing up for a

  strike against Seoul. He says the leadership believes that with the U.S. government in

  chaos, this may be the best chance they've ever had. They think they can win, and he says he wouldn't be surprised if the war starts in the next seventy-two hours or so."

  "Wait a minute," Bennett said, trying to process yet another bombshell from the Israeli prime minister. "You're saying North Korea is about to invade South Korea?"

  "In the next two to three days, yes," Doron confirmed. "What's more, he's convinced the DPRK was responsible for the nuclear attacks against the U.S."

  "Does he have proof?" Bennett asked.

  "He's gathering what he can. But he says the Legion has been using the country to

  create terror training camps. They've been running operations through North Korean

  embassies around the world. He even says Indira Rajiv has been through Pyongyang several times in the last few months."

  Bennett was stunned. Was Doron sure? Indira Rajiv?

  Doron related what he knew about her, but it wasn't much. She seemed to have formed

  some kind of partnership with the DPRK and the Legion. She was receiving payments from

  someone outside the country, though he didn't know who.

  "Can you find out?" Bennett asked.

  "About the payments?" Doron asked.

  "Anything you can," Bennett stressed. "She's a high-priority target, as you know."

  "Fine. I will ask him to get us more on her," Doron agreed. "In the meantime, he made two points."

  "What are they?"

  "First, he said your people at DOE should test the radioactivity at each of the blast sites. When they do, they should be able to determine that the plutonium used in each of the bombs came from the reactors at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, a

  hundred kilometers or so north of Pyongyang."

  "DOE?" Bennett asked, referring to the U.S. Department of Energy. "There is no

  DOE—it's been obliterated."

  "I realize that, and so does he," Doron said. "But the research couldn't have all been kept in Washington, right? Don't you keep stuff like that out at Sandia Labs or Los Alamos?"

  "I don't know," Bennett said. "I really don't. What's the second thing?"

  "He said that the speed with which the DPRK's military is mobilizing suggests to him that they knew all along that the attacks against the U.S. were coming," Doron replied.

  "He says he believes the leadership is executing a very carefully developed plan of attack, and if the U.S. has any hope of saving Seoul and the rest of the peninsula, they'd better start airlifting troops and moving naval assets in immediately."

  Thunder boomed overhead. Bennett felt nauseated. He was opera
ting on no sleep, no

  food, and pure adrenaline.

  "You believe this guy?" he asked.

  "He hasn't steered us wrong yet," Doron said.

  "How high up is he?"

  "I can't say, Jonathan. I'm sorry."

  "Mr. Prime Minister, you're asking my president to base war decisions on this

  information," Bennett noted. "We have to know. How close to the top is he?"

  "Believe me, Jonathan, I understand," Doron said. "But it's very sensitive. This man is terrified. He wants out. He wants us to extract him. Honestly, I don't know if we can—not in the next two or three days—not without everyone at the top of the food chain over there missing him."

  "But it's fair to say he's a very senior official?" Bennett pressed.

  "I really can't say any more than I have," Doron said.

  "I know," Bennett sighed. "We have our national interests, and you have yours."

  "I'm giving you as much as I can—advance warning of a war your government doesn't

  know is coming," Doron responded. "The president is fixated on China. But with all due respect, I think he's wrong. China's leaders don't have anything to gain by nuking you. But the North Koreans? Well, that's a different story. Their president is a lunatic—an absolute psychopath."

  "You think he'd really try to decapitate the American government just to get the South back?" Bennett asked.

  "Frankly, Jonathan, I think he's capable of anything," Doron said. "I will share all the intel this source gives us before we pull him out—if we can pull him out—and believe me, he's a treasure trove. He can provide detailed targeting info on every sensitive military and industrial site in his country. And that could come in very handy for Secretary Trainor and his staff, especially if the president chooses a fast strike."

  "What do you want in return?" Bennett asked.

  "You know very well what we want," Doron replied without hesitation. "The president gets Salvador Lucente and the U.N. to back off. We're not giving up the Temple project. I don't care what Lucente offers us, or how much of a stink he makes. I'm not compromising on the Temple, and that's final. That said, however, everything else is on the table."