“I hope you’re not being facetious,” Rayford said, “because if you really wanted to talk, I’d let her know in advance.”
“Wow, I don’t remember your first wife being so possessive.”
“She would have been if she’d known what kind of a man I was.”
“Or what kind of a woman I was.”
“Well, maybe—”
“You go ahead and check with your wife, Rayford. If I have to sit by myself, I’ll understand. Who knows? Maybe we can sit across the aisle from each other.”
Rayford smiled tolerantly. He hoped for at least that.
CHAPTER 10
Buck followed a strong urge to take his bag when he left the King David that night. In it was his small dictation machine, his sub-notebook computer (which would soon be replaced by the mother of all computers), his camera, that great phone, his toiletries, and two changes of clothing.
He left his key at the front desk and took a cab to the Wailing Wall, asking the cabbie if he spoke English. The driver held up his thumb and forefinger an inch apart and smiled apologetically.
“How far to Galilee?” Buck said.
The cabbie took his foot off the accelerator. “You go to Galilee? Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.”
Buck waved him on. “I know. Wailing Wall now. Galilee later.”
The cabbie headed for the Wailing Wall. “Galilee now Lake Tiberius,” he said. “About 120 kilometers.”
Hardly anyone was at the Wailing Wall or even in the entire temple mount area at this time of the night. The newly rebuilt temple was illuminated magnificently and looked like something in a three-dimensional picture show. It seemed to hover on the horizon. Bruce had taught Buck that one day Carpathia would sit in that new temple and proclaim himself God. The journalist in Buck wanted to be there when that happened.
Buck did not at first see the two witnesses. A small group of sailors strolled past the wrought-iron fence at the end of the Wall where the witnesses usually stood and preached. The sailors chatted in English and one pointed. “I think that’s them, right over there,” he said. The others turned and stared. Buck followed their gaze past the fence and to a stone building. The two mysterious figures sat with their backs against it, feet tucked under them, chins resting on their knees. They were motionless, appearing to sleep. The sailors gawked and tiptoed closer. They never got within a hundred feet of the fence, apparently having heard enough stories. They weren’t going to rouse the two, the way they might do to animals at the zoo for sport. These were more than animals. These were dangerous beings who had been known to toast people who trifled with them. Buck did not want to draw attention to himself by boldly approaching the fence. He waited until the sailors got bored and moved on.
As soon as the young men were out of the area, Eli and Moishe raised their heads and looked directly at Buck. He was drawn to them. He walked directly to the fence. The witnesses rose and stood about twenty feet from Buck. “I need clarification,” Buck whispered. “Can I know more about my friend’s location?”
“He who has ears—”
“I know that,” Buck said, “but I—”
“You would dare interrupt the servants of the Most High God?” Eli said.
“Forgive me,” Buck said. He wanted to explain himself but decided to remain silent.
Moishe spoke. “You must first communicate with one who loves you.”
Buck waited for more. The witnesses stood there, silent. He held out both hands in puzzlement. He felt a vibration in his shoulder bag and realized his cell phone was buzzing. Now what was he supposed to do? If he wasn’t to interrupt the servants of the Most High God, did he dare take a call while conversing with them? He felt a fool. He moved away from the fence and grabbed the phone, clicked it open, and said, “This is Buck.”
“Buck! It’s Chloe! It’s about midnight there, right?”
“Right, Chloe, but right now I’m—”
“Buck, were you sleeping?”
“No, I’m up and I’m—”
“Buck, just tell me you’re not at the King David.”
“Well, I’m staying there, but—”
“But you’re not there right now, right?”
“No, I’m at—”
“Honey, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I just have this feeling that you should not be in that hotel tonight. In fact, I just have a premonition that you shouldn’t be in Jerusalem overnight. I don’t know about tomorrow, and I don’t know about premonitions and all that, but the feeling is so strong—”
“Chloe, I’m gonna need to call you back, OK?”
Chloe hesitated. “Well, OK, but you can’t take the time to talk to me for a moment when—”
“Chloe, I won’t stay at the King David tonight, and I won’t stay in Jerusalem overnight, OK?”
“That makes me feel better, Buck, but I’d still like to talk—”
“I’ll call you back, hon, OK?”
Buck didn’t know what he thought about this new level of what Bruce had referred to as “walking in the spirit.” The witnesses had implied he would find who he was looking for in Galilee, which didn’t really exist anymore. The Sea of Galilee was now Lake Tiberius. His dream, if he could put any stock in that, implied he should go to Egypt for some reason. Now the witnesses wanted him to use his ears to understand. He was sorry he was not “John the Revelator,” but he was going to have to ask for more information. And how had they known he had to talk to Chloe first? He had been around the two witnesses enough to know that they were never too far from the miraculous. He just wished they didn’t have to be so cryptic. He was here on a dangerous mission. If they could help him, he wanted their help.
Buck set his bag down and straddled it, trying to indicate that he was willing to stop anything else he was doing and simply listen. Moishe and Eli huddled and seemed to be whispering. They approached the fence. Buck began to move toward them, as he had done the last time he visited with Rabbi Tsion Ben-Judah, but both witnesses held up a hand and he stopped a few feet from his bag and several feet short of the fence. Suddenly the two began to shout at the top of their lungs. Buck was at first startled and backed up, tripping over his own bag. He righted himself. Eli and Moishe traded off quoting verses Buck recognized from Acts and Bruce’s teaching.
They shouted: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.”
Buck knew there was more to the passage, but the witnesses stopped and stared at him. Was he an old man already, having just turned thirty-two? Was he one of the old men who dreamed a dream? Did they know that? Were they telling him his dream was valid?
They continued: “And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Buck was inspired, moved, excited to get on about his task. But where should he start? And why couldn’t the witnesses just tell him? He was surprised to realize he was no longer alone. The shouting of Scripture by the witnesses had produced another small crowd. Buck didn’t want to wait any longer. He picked up his bag and moved toward the fence. People warned him not to advance. He heard warnings in other languages, and a few in English. “You’ll regret that, son!”
Buck came within a few feet of the witnesses. No one else dared come close. He whispered, “By ‘Galilee’ I can only assume you mean Lake Tiberius,” he said. How was one supposed to tell people who seemed to have come back from Bible times that their geography was out of date? “Will I find my friend in Galilee, or on the Sea of Galilee, or where?”
“He who has ears to hear . . .”
Buck knew better than to interrupt and show his frustration. “How do I get there?” he asked.
Eli spoke softly. “It will go well with you if you return to the multitude,” he said.
Return to the multitude? Buck thought. He backed up and rejoined the crowd.
“Are you all right, son?” someone said. “Did they hurt you?” Buck shook his head.
Moishe began to preach in a loud voice: “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’
“And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’
“They immediately left their nets and followed Him.”
Buck wasn’t sure what to make of all that, but he sensed he had gotten all he was going to get from the witnesses that night. Though they continued to preach, and more people gathered seemingly from nowhere to listen, Buck drifted away. He lugged his bag to a short taxi line and climbed into the back of a small cab.
“Can a fella get a boat ride up the Jordan River into Lake Tiberius at this time of night?” he asked the driver.
“Well, sir, to tell you the truth, it’s a lot easier coming the other way. But, yes, there are motorized boats heading north. And some do run in the night. Of course, your touring boats are daytime affairs, but there’s always someone who will take you where you want to go for the right price, any time of the day or night.”
“I figured that,” Buck said. Not long later he was dickering with a boatman named Michael, who refused to give a last name. “In the daytime I can carry twenty tourists on this rig, and four strong young men and I pilot it by arm power, if you know what I mean.”
“Oars?”
“Yes sir, just like in the Bible. Boat’s made of wood. We cover the twin outboards with wood and burlap, and no one’s the wiser. Makes for a pretty long, tiring day. But when we have to go back upriver, we can’t do that with the oars.”
It was only Michael, the twin outboards, and Buck heading north after midnight, but Buck felt as if he had paid for twenty tourists and four oarsmen as well.
Buck began the trip standing in the bow and letting the crisp air race through his hair. He soon had to zip his leather jacket to the neck and thrust his hands deep into his pockets. Before long he was back next to Michael, who piloted the long, rustic, wood boat from just ahead of the outboard motors. Few other crafts were on the Jordan that night.
Michael shouted above the wind and the sound of the water. “So, you don’t really know who you’re looking for or exactly where they’ll be?”
They had set out from near Jericho, and Michael had told him they had more than a hundred kilometers to travel against the current. “Could take nearly three hours just to get to the mouth of Lake Tiberius,” he had added.
“I don’t know much,” Buck admitted. “I’m just counting on figuring it out when I get there.”
Michael shook his head. “Lake Tiberius is no pond. Your friend or friends could be on either shore or at either end.”
Buck nodded and sat, burying his chin in his chest to keep warm, to think, and to pray.
“Lord,” he said silently, “you’ve never spoken to me audibly, and I don’t expect you to start now, but I could sure use more direction. I don’t know if the dream was from you and I’m supposed to go through Egypt on the way back or what. I don’t know if I’m going to find Ben-Judah with some fishermen or whether I’m even on the right track by heading to the old Sea of Galilee. I’ve always enjoyed being independent and resourceful, but I confess I’m at the end of myself here. A lot of people have to be looking for Ben-Judah, and I desperately want to be the first one to find him.”
The small craft had just gone around a bend when the engines sputtered and the lights, fore and aft, went out. So much for the answer to that prayer, Buck thought.
“Trouble, Michael?”
Buck was struck by the sudden silence as the boat drifted. It seemed headed toward shore. “No trouble, Mr. Katz. Until your eyes grow accustomed to the darkness, you’re not going to be able to see that I’ve got a high-powered weapon pointed at your head. I would like you to remain seated and answer a few questions.”
Buck felt a strange calmness. This was too bizarre, too strange even for his weird life. “I mean you no harm, Michael,” he said. “You have nothing to fear from me.”
“I’m not the one who should be afraid just now, sir,” Michael said. “I have twice within the last forty-eight hours fired this weapon into the heads of people I’ve believed were enemies of God.”
Buck was nearly speechless. “One thing I can assure you of, Michael, is that I am in no way an enemy of God. Are you telling me you are a servant of his?”
“I am. The question is, Mr. Katz, are you? And if you are, how will you prove it?”
“Apparently,” Buck said, “we will need to assure each other we are on the same side.”
“The responsibility is yours. People coming up this river looking for someone I don’t want them to find wind up dead. If you’re the third to go, I’ll still sleep like a baby tonight.”
“And you justify this homicide how?” Buck said.
“Those were the wrong people looking for the wrong person. What I want from you is your real name, the name of the person you’re looking for, why you are looking for that person, and what you plan to do should you find that person.”
“But Michael, until I’m sure you are on my side, I could never risk revealing that information.”
“Even to the point where you’d be willing to die to protect your friend?”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that, but yes.”
Buck’s eyes were adjusting to the darkness. Michael had carefully pointed the craft in such a way that when the power had been cut it drifted back and gently nudged an outcropping of dirt and rock jutting from the shore.
“I am impressed with that answer,” Michael said. “But I will not hesitate to add you to the list of dead enemies if you can’t convince me you have the right motives for locating whoever it is you want to locate.”
“Test me,” Buck said. “What will convince you I’m not bluffing, but at the same time convince me that you have the same person in mind?”
“Excellent,” Michael said. “True or false: the person you are looking for is young.”
Buck responded quickly. “Compared to you, false.”
Michael continued: “The person you are looking for is female.”
“False.”
“The person you are looking for is a medical doctor.”
“False.”
“A Gentile?”
“False.”
“Uneducated?”
“False.”
“Bilingual?”
“False.”
Buck heard Michael move the huge weapon in his hands. Buck quickly added, “Bilingual doesn’t say enough. Multilingual is more like it.” Michael stepped forward and pressed the barrel of the weapon against Buck’s throat. Buck grimaced and shut his eyes. “The man you are looking for is a rabbi, Dr. Tsion Ben-Judah.” Buck did not respond. The weapon pushed harder against his neck. Michael continued: “If you are seeking to kill him, and I was his compatriot, I would kill you. If you were seeking to rescue him, and I represented his captors, I would kill you.”
“But in the latter case,” Buck managed, “you would have been lying about serving God.”
“True enough. And what would happen to me then?”
“You might kill me, but you will ultimately lose.”
“And how do we know that?”
Buck had nothing to lose. “It’s all been foretold. God wins.”
“If that’s true, and I turn out to be your brother, you can tell me your real name.” Buck hesitated. “If it turn
s out that I am your enemy,” Michael continued, “I’ll kill you anyway.”
Buck couldn’t argue with that. “My name is Cameron Williams. I am a friend of Dr. Ben-Judah.”
“Would you be the American he talks about?”
“Probably.”
“One last test, if you don’t mind.”
“I seem to have no choice.”
“True. Quickly list for me six prophecies of Messiah that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, according to the witnesses who preach at the Wailing Wall.”
Buck breathed a huge sigh of relief and smiled. “Michael, you are my brother in Christ. All the prophecies of the Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. I can tell you six that have to do with your culture alone. He would be a descendant of Abraham, a descendant of Isaac, a descendant of Jacob, from the tribe of Judah, heir to the throne of David, and born in Bethlehem.”
The weapon rattled as Michael lay it on the deck and reached to embrace Buck. He squeezed him with a huge bear hug and was laughing and weeping. “And who told you where you might find Tsion?”
“Moishe and Eli.”
“They are my mentors,” Michael said. “I am one who became a believer under their preaching and that of Tsion.”
“And have you murdered others looking for Dr. Ben-Judah?”
“I do not consider it murder. Their bodies will be buoyed up and burned by the salt when they reach the Dead Sea. Better their bodies than his.”
“Are you, then, an evangelist?”
“In the manner of Paul the apostle, according to Dr. Ben-Judah. He says there are 144,000 of us around the world, all with the same assignment that Moishe and Eli have: to preach Christ as the only everlasting Son of the Father.”
“Would you believe you were an almost instant answer to prayer?” Buck said.
“That would not surprise me in the least,” Michael said. “You must realize that you are the same.”
Buck was spent. He was glad Michael had to go back to the outboards and busy himself with the boat. Buck turned his face away and wept. God was so good. Michael left him alone with his thoughts for a while, but then called out with good news. “You know, we’re not going all the way to Lake Tiberius.”