“Thank you!”
They turned to head down the stairs.
Rayford couldn’t resist. “You can be obnoxious, Mrs. Rose, you know that?”
“Daddy!” Chloe said, her back still to him. “We deserved that and you know it.”
Leah stopped and turned to face him. “I respect everyone here,” she said. “But that was sexist. You’ll call me a feminist, but you would not tell a man, insulted like I was, that his response was obnoxious.”
“I probably would,” Rayford said. “But the point is taken.”
“Thanks for making me feel like a creep,” Leah said. “I spoke to your son-in-law earlier in a way I have rarely spoken to anyone. And now I’ve done it again. I don’t know what’s happening to me.”
Rayford felt exactly the same but didn’t care to admit it. “Promise me tomorrow we can discuss a truce,” he said.
“That’s a deal.”
The women descended, and Rayford was finally able to get to bed. He hung his robe and lay back on the cool sheets, feeling morning-after soreness from his work in the cellar and the backyard, and it wasn’t even morning yet. He locked his fingers behind his head and within minutes felt himself drifting—until he heard footsteps on the stairs, then a knock at his door.
“I was showing Leah the cellar,” Chloe said, “where Hattie sleeps. Only she’s not there.”
“Hattie?”
“Where could she be? She’s not in the house. Not outside as far as we can see. And, Dad, a lot of her stuff is gone. She took a heavy load.”
Rayford rose and pulled on his robe again, wondering if he had the energy to deal with yet one more crisis before collapsing. “Check the shed for Ken’s car. Make sure Buck’s is still in the yard. She couldn’t get far on foot. Buck and I can each take a vehicle and start looking for her.”
“Dad, we have no idea when she left. She might have been gone since the burial. I don’t remember seeing her since, do you?”
He shook his head. “We can’t let her out of here with all she knows.”
“Talk about vulnerable. If she got someone to pick her up somewhere, you’ll never catch her.”
They followed footprints to what had once been the street in front of the house. Now it was just a dirt path strewn with chunks of asphalt and dotted with potholes. She could have headed either direction. Rayford fired up Ken Ritz’s Suburban, and Buck threw dirt from all four wheels on his Land Rover. He sent Buck north and headed south.
When it became clear Hattie was nowhere in Rayford’s vicinity, he called Buck. “Nothing here either,” Buck said. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this. It’s not like we can report her missing.”
“I’ve got one other idea,” Rayford said. “I’ll see you back at the house.”
Rayford reluctantly dialed Delanty’s cell phone and was greeted with a groggy hello.
“Sorry, T. Did I wake you?”
“Of course you did. ’Sup, Ray? I don’t want this to be an emergency, but if it’s not I’m gonna ask why you called now.”
Rayford filled him in. “So I was just wondering if Tweedledee and Tweedledum are still kicking around out there.”
“Ernie and Bo? Haven’t seen Ernie for almost a year. Kind of miss him, even if he was an idiot. I heard he headed west. Beauregard Hanson still hangs around trying to exercise his 5-percent stake in the place. Why?”
“Just wondering if Hattie might have used him to get somebody to fly her out of there.”
“I left at six. Had a guy in the tower till nine. We shut down after that.”
“Any way I can find out if a big plane left there this evening?”
“Ray, I can’t call a guy at this time of the morning and ask him that.”
“Why not? I just did.”
“Yeah, but you were pretty sure I wouldn’t hate you for it.”
“Don’t you?”
“I’m not allowed to say. We’re brothers, remember?”
“Speaking of that, you’re the only ‘brother’ brother I’ve got left, if you catch my meaning.”
“What?”
Rayford told him about Doc.
“Oh, man! I’m sorry, Ray. You don’t suspect Hattie . . . ?”
Ray told him Floyd’s own theory on how he contracted the poison. “But still, I’ve got dire reasons to know where she is.”
“I’ll check the log.”
“I don’t want you to go out at this hour.”
“I can do it from here, bro. Just a minute.”
Rayford heard T’s bed squeak and then computer sounds. He came back on the phone. “I’m scrolling through here. Not much traffic tonight. Mostly small stuff, business planes, couple of GC. Hmm.”
“What?”
“There is a unique entry here. Oversized Quantum, that’s like a huge Learjet, different manufacturer, arrived pilot only at 2230. Left 2330 hours with a fuel top-off, no cargo, one unidentified passenger, destination unreported.”
“That’s all?”
“Well, we’ve got a column here that asks whether it was paid, charged, or OK’d. This one was OK’d by BH.”
“I don’t know the specs on the Quantum,” Rayford said. “What kind of speed and range?”
“Oh, fast as a heavy but probably needs one more top-off before going overseas. How far you figure your escapee’s going anyway?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her to think she can march into Carpathia’s office and personally give him what for. Well, there’ll be no catching or intercepting that craft, will there?”
“Nope. What is it, almost one? That thing’s been airborne, I assume at maximum speed, an hour and a half. Even with twenty minutes on the east coast for landing, fuel, and takeoff, it’s still gonna be too far away by now.”
“You got enough information that I could radio the craft?”
“Think about it, Rayford. Whoever’s flying that plane is not going to answer unless he knows who’s calling.”
“Maybe I could spin him a yarn, urge him to put down in Spain due to a fuel irregularity or something that turned up here or wherever he refueled.”
“You’re dreaming, Ray. And I’d like to be.”
“Thanks for nothing, friend.”
“You’re going to have to go round her up yourself or turn some of your contacts onto her over there.”
“I know. I appreciate it, T. I’ll try to get out to the strip for some co-op business tomorrow.”
“Today, you mean?”
“Sorry,” Rayford said.
“I might bring a couple of people from our house church. We want to get behind this thing in a big way.”
For all Rayford knew, Hattie had the power to blow the lid off the co-op, too.
Mac McCullum had a full morning. After tipping his cap to Annie Christopher as he passed her office in the hangar, he arrived at his own office to three messages. The first was a list generated by Leon Fortunato’s secretary, outlining personnel authorized on the flight to Botswana in three days. The supreme commander, his valet, an assistant, a cook, and two servers would make up the GC contingent. Two aides would accompany President Ngumo of Botswana. “Note that the Supreme Commander has decreed that the plane shall be stationary while the Botswanians are aboard.”
The list also included captain and first officer in the cockpit, with an asterisk after the latter. At the bottom of the page the asterisk referred to a note: “The Supreme Commander believes you will be pleased by the resolution of this matter.”
Mac was. The second document was a note from Personnel regarding the application of Abdullah Smith for Condor 216 first officer. Not only had he been ranked high in every technical aspect save verbal acuity (“Somewhat laconic” read the summary), but he had also been judged “an outstanding citizen, loyal to the Global Community.”
Fortunato himself had scribbled in the margin, “Congratulations on a wonderful find, Mac. Smith will make a great contribution to the cause! S. C. L. F.”
If you only knew, Mac thou
ght.
Mac’s third missive was from David Hassid. “Important message for you, Captain,” it read. “In person, please.”
Mac and David had learned to appear impersonal and professional in front of staff. Their difference in age helped. The entire GC complex, though ostensibly antimilitary because of Carpathia’s avowed pacifism, was pseudomilitary in its organizational structure. Mac felt comfortable with the chain of command, having spent so much of his life in uniform. And David often deferred to Mac’s counsel because David had come to the GC from the private sector. Now the two were on equal footing in separate branches, and it appeared their occasional face-to-faces attracted no attention.
David’s secretary ushered Mac into David’s office. “Captain,” David said, shaking his hand.
“Director,” Mac said, sitting.
When the secretary left, David said, “Get this,” and turned around his laptop so Mac could read it. The captain squinted at the screen and read Rayford’s account of the previous day’s activities at the safe house in Illinois. “Oh, man,” he said, “that doctor. The girl lives, the doctor dies. Beat that.”
“It gets worse,” David said.
Mac reached the news of Hattie’s disappearance. He settled back in his chair. “Does he really think—”
David held up a finger to stall him. “Let me get rid of this while I’m thinking of it.” With a few keystrokes the heavily encrypted file had been trashed. “That she’ll come here? I can’t imagine. I understand she’s ditzy, but how far does she think she’ll get? It’s a miracle she survived this long with all the things Carpathia has tried to get rid of her. She shows her face in New Babylon, she’s history.”
Mac nodded. “She’s got to be holing up somewhere, waiting to surprise him.”
“I can’t see her getting close.”
Mac shook his head. “I know. Your people loaded two sets of metal detectors on the two-one-six last week.”
“Plan is to use them even for dignitaries. ’Course, that’s due to a basic distrust of Pete Two, you know.”
“I know firsthand. Fortunato’s got all ten kings, excuse me, regional international subpotentates—or whatever Saint Nick is allowing them to call themselves this week—primed for that snuffing. It’s almost like he wants them willing to do the deed themselves.”
“Like those guys would agree on anything,” David said. “How many of ’em you think are really loyal to Carpathia?”
Mac shrugged. “More than half. Not more than seven, though. I know three who would usurp given half a chance.”
“Would they take him out?”
“In a New Babylon minute. ’Course, Pete would too.”
“You think?”
Mac sat forward and pressed his palms together. “I’ve heard him say it. He rubs Carpathia raw with his brashness, but he pretends to be cooperative. Carpathia makes nice with him all the time, as if they handpicked each other. I’ll tell you what: if Leon doesn’t get rid of Mathews soon, he’s going to have to answer. It’s a directive clear as if it were on paper.”
David stood and pulled some files from a drawer behind him, then spread them on the desk. “In case anyone’s watching,” he said, and Mac leaned over as if studying them.
“They’re upside-down, you idiot,” Mac said, controlling his smile.
“Wouldn’t want to be distracted,” David said.
“You know what Rayford used to dream out loud?”
“Tell me.”
“Crashing on purpose with Carpathia aboard.”
David straightened and cocked his head. “That’s not even biblical, is it? I mean, if he’s who we think he is, he’s not going to die till the forty-second month, is he? And even then he doesn’t stay dead.”
“I’m just telling you.”
“Doesn’t even sound like Captain Steele. He always seemed so even and sensible.”
“Didn’t mean to spoil your image of him.”
“Believe me, you didn’t. I can’t deny I’ve fantasized about how I’d do it.”
Mac stood and headed to the door. “Same here,” he said.
CHAPTER 6
Emotional turmoil took as much out of Buck as did physical labor. Often, after toiling all day with Rayford and Floyd in the underground shelter, he had trouble falling asleep. But now he had taken to bed his grief over Floyd, fear of how Hattie could imperil the Tribulation Force, and dread over the strange behavior of his father-in-law. Buck was exhausted beyond measure. Lying next to his damaged but resilient wife, he fought to stay awake and listen to her.
He and Chloe had so little time to talk anymore, despite spending most of their days in the same house. She lamented not being as involved as she once had, housebound with the baby, slowed by her injuries from the earthquake.
“But no one else could do what you’re doing with the co-op, babe,” he said. “Imagine the millions who will depend on you for their lives.”
“But I’m on the periphery,” she said. “I spent most of today comforting you and Daddy and taking care of the baby.”
“We needed you.”
“I have needs too, Buck.”
He draped his arm across her. “Want me to watch Kenny so you can go with your dad to see T tomorrow? They’re talking co-op business.”
“I’d love that.”
Buck thought he had responded. He had meant to. But when Chloe removed his arm from her and turned away, he realized he had drifted off. She had said something more; he was aware of that now. He tried to muster the energy to force his eyes open and apologize, finish the conversation. But the more he tried, the more jumbled his thoughts became. Desperate that he was missing a huge opportunity to be to his wife what she needed him to be, he slipped over the edge of consciousness.
Late in the afternoon in New Babylon, David was urgently ordered to the office of Global Community Supreme Commander Leon Fortunato. Leon’s opulent quarters comprised the entire seventeenth floor of the new palace, only one below His Excellency, the potentate’s.
Though David reported directly to him, a face-to-face with Fortunato had become rare. The organization chart, as Mac had mentioned more than once, had to look like a spaghetti bowl. Ostensibly, Carpathia himself had only one subordinate—besides his secretary and the ever-present gaggle of obsequious lackeys—and that was Fortunato. But the entire administrative wing of the palace was filled with sycophants who dressed like the potentate and the supreme commander, walked like them, talked like them, and bowed and scraped in their presence.
David, the youngest member of the management staff, seemed to have garnered the respect of the brass with what appeared only appropriate deference. But for the moment, he was in trouble.
As soon as Fortunato’s door was shut, before David could even sit in the gargantuan room, Leon started in on him. “I want to know where those computers are and why they aren’t being installed as we speak.”
“The, uh, gross of—”
“The biggest single shipment of hardware since we equipped the castle—excuse me, the palace,” Leon said, planting his meaty frame in the thronelike leather chair behind his desk. “You know what I’m talking about. The more you hem and haw, the more suspicious—”
“No, sir, of course I know. We took delivery of those yesterday and—”
“Where are they?”
“—they’re not in position to be directly moved into th—”
“What’s wrong with them?” Leon barked, and finally pointed to a chair.
David sat. “It’s a technical thing, sir.”
“A glitch?”
“It’s a, an orienting problem. Positioning renders them inoperative in the palace.”
Leon glared at him. “Do they need to be replaced?”
“That would be the only solution, yes, sir.”
“Then replace them. You understand me, don’t you, Director Hassid?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You get my drift?”
“Sir?”
&
nbsp; “When I get exercised, you understand it’s not just me?”
“I know, yes, sir.”
“His Excellency is eager that I—you—that we get a handle on this. He has confidence, because I assured him he could, that you will complete this assignment.”
“We will get that equipment installed as soon as humanly possible.”
Leon shook his head. “I’m not talking about just the blamed installation! I’m talking about tracing the opposition.”
“Of course.”
“His Excellency is a pacifist, as you know. But he also knows the only power a man of peace has is information. That’s why he monitors those two crazy preachers in Jerusalem. Their day will come. They have admitted as much themselves. And sympathetic as he is to variant views, a small but influential faction has the attention of those rebellious to the new world order. Would you not agree?”
“Agree, sir?”
Fortunato looked frustrated. “That His Excellency has reason to be concerned about this Ben-Judah character and his own former publisher, who is spewing anti-GC propaganda!”
“Oh, yes, absolutely. Dangerous. I mean, if there were just small pockets of these types out there, who cares? But, they seem to have rallied under the banner of—”
“Exactly. And they’re harboring the mother of His Excellency’s child. She must be found before she tries to abort, or worse, reveal information that could damage . . .”
Leon let his thought trail off. “Anyway,” he said, “replace that order or fix that orientation or whatever problem, and get people on this.”
Buck was grateful to have awakened before Chloe. He kissed her cheek and straightened her blankets. He left a note on the bedside table: “Sorry I drifted off. Go with your dad today. I’ll cover here. I love you.”
He padded to the kitchen, where Tsion sat alone, shoulders hunched, eating breakfast. “Cameron!” he whispered. “If I had known you were coming, I would have fixed something for you.”
“No need. Gonna get a head start on my writing so I can watch the baby.” Cameron poured himself a glass of juice and leaned against the counter. “Chloe’s going with Ray to see T about the co-op.”