But I believed someone had to take the mark in order to buy and sell and keep us alive. I was willing, but the idea of worshiping that statue made me want to vomit. Forgive me.”
“Please, continue.”
“I was at the Temple Mount, planning to go through with it, even though in my heart I believed in the one true God. I did not know what else to do. I worried about my eternal soul, but I believed I was laying down my life for my family, and I could think of no nobler act. I did not realize at that time that I would be selling my soul to the evil one. Not even these men are worth that.”
Her husband and sons smiled.
“I was in line that day, Rabbi, actually in line. I don’t know how many people were between me and the mark applicator. But I saw a commotion and slipped out of line. I watched from the back of the crowd. I saw the gunshots that did not kill the man of God. I escaped back to our home, and my men will admit they ridiculed me. They had liked my plan of one of us—me—having the mark so we could eat. Now what were we going to do?
“I told them they could go out in the dark of night and find food, but I was going to find out more about the man of God. One of my young friends had a computer, and we found your Web site.
That is how I came to believe Jesus was Messiah. Now I was an outcast in my own home. My men were devout enough Jews to resist Carpathia, but they were not ready for Messiah.
“I tried and prayed and pleaded and begged, but finally we agreed to quit talking about it. Enough, they said, and I had had enough of their rejection and ridicule anyway. But still I could pray. And God answers prayer. Here you are, and here they are, with the mark of God.”
________
Rayford had trouble sleeping and felt compelled to check in with Buck. He tiptoed to the other room so as not to wake Kenny and placed the call. After asking about Kenny, Buck brought him up to date.
“Amazing,” Rayford said. “What’s Tsion saying about timing now?”
“He expects a predawn attack. Maybe there as well.”
“We’re kind of on that schedule too, Buck, but the combat part of this is so futile.”
“Temporarily, you mean.”
“Of course, but I just don’t know that I see the value of risking people’s lives when they could stay inside here and—”
“—and wait for Jesus?”
“Exactly.”
“Come on, Dad. Who wants to do that? I’d kinda like to have him find me on the job. Wouldn’t you?”
“I know, but you should see the crew we’re going to have on the perimeter. A couple of thousand I don’t know at all. Then Otto and a few of his people, none of them with any business manning a weapon. Ree, Ming, Lionel, Hannah, Zeke. Not exactly soldiers.
Mac, of course, and Smitty. They can take care of themselves, and there’s no question about Razor and George. Unless George tries to be a hero. He’s so military, Buck, you should see him, trying to make the best of it. You can just tell he thinks his street smarts
ought to carry the day, but then he realizes how few soldiers are under his command, and those eyes go glassy.”
“You’ve got directed energy weapons and fifty-calibers yet, right?”
“Yeah, but against nuclear power? Come on.”
“Do some damage. Stall till the Calvary cavalry gets here.”
“The what?”
“Thought of that the other day. Jesus is going to appear from heaven on a horse. That’s literal, according to Tsion. Ten thousand saints with him. The Calvary cavalry.”
“Too much time on your hands.”
“Hey, Rayford?”
“Yeah.”
“We can hear the armies coming. Can you?”
“Not the way this city is laid out. Maybe when they get closer.
They’re sure easy to spot from the high places, though. Pretty ominous. I’d be looking for a way out of here if I didn’t know better.”
“Sort of like watching a delayed ball game where you already know the final score, isn’t it?”
“I guess,” Rayford said. “That’s the kind of thing only a mind like yours would come up with.”
“Thanks, I think.”
________
Unable to sleep, Chang made his way to the tech center and his computer at about four in the morning. Idly checking the GCNN
affiliate feed out of Haifa, he heard a report of troop deployments.
“Supreme Potentate Nicolae Carpathia has made no secret of his strategy,” the reporter intoned. “In fact, it seems as if he would
just as soon enemy targets know what’s coming. I spoke with him late last night at his bunker, somewhere near the Sea of Galilee.”
“You see,” Carpathia said, “we have such an overwhelming advantage in manpower, firepower, and technology, it really makes little difference what we encounter. I have not hidden that we have two main objectives aiming toward the same goal. We want to lay siege to the city of Jerusalem, where the majority of the remaining Jews reside. And we want to eliminate Petra once and for all, where what they like to call ‘the Remnant’ remains in hiding like scared children.
“They know we are coming, and they will see us coming, and there is little they can do about it.”
“You expect no casualties?”
“Oh, there are always casualties,” Carpathia sniffed. “But my people are honored to give their lives in service to me and the Global Community. I will see that they are appropriately rewarded.
Of course, there is the possibility of no loss of life or limb on our part. That is, if the enemy sees what is coming and realizes it has no hope. An unconditional surrender would be the prudent course, and naturally I would accept that with utmost face-saving respect for them.”
“Seriously? What accommodations would you make in that case?”
Carpathia could not answer over his gales of laughter.
________
Rayford was up, dressed, and armed before dawn. He opened the door before Priscilla knocked.
“I’ll stay here with him until he wakes up, Rayford, if that’s okay.”
“Perfect. Thanks, Priss. Make yourself at home.”
“Uh, Ray? You’re going to be sure my husband comes home tonight, aren’t you?”
“As much as it’s up to me.”
“That’s not very reassuring.”
“Well, I take it that was a serious question. A serious answer is that there are no guarantees. I’m hoping he’ll make sure I come back.”
“He feels obligated to everybody,” Priscilla said, sitting.
Rayford stood by the open door. “Price of leadership. He volunteered for this command.”
“Like there was another choice.”
“There wasn’t in my mind, Priscilla.”
“Well, I’m just saying—”
“I know. Sometimes, though, seems a guy like me trying to keep an eye on a guy who knows what he’s doing can just get in the way. You know, of course, that even if—”
“Don’t say it, Rayford. Too many of the wives try to comfort themselves with that stuff about how their man will only be in heaven a day or two, maybe less, then he’s coming back. That doesn’t help.”
“It’s true.”
“I know. But it isn’t the living without him that worries me right now. It’s his getting hurt, suffering, dying a hard way.”
________
Buck and Tsion and their hosts drank the thickest, bitterest coffee Buck had ever had. It was still pitch-black outside. Shivte’s wife was already sniffling and trying to hide it.
“Cameron,” Tsion whispered, “I would like you to go with the old man, Shivte, at first.”
“Now, wait. I came here to be your bodyguard, no one else’s.”
“Do me this favor. I worry about him. Even his weapon is ancient. The sons believe the invaders will come from the northwest and try to come through the Damascus Gate.”
“Based on what?”
“The Unity Army could probably easily overrun
any of the gates, but the Jaffa Gate and the Citadel are well fortified with many rebel troops.”
“But beyond that,” Buck said, “they could try to storm any of the gates, and the most likely, in my opinion, would be the Golden Gate. Their first priority has to be the Temple Mount, no?”
“I don’t know, Cameron. Just do this for me, please. Take the old man to the Citadel. Once he is settled there, then come and find me. I will be with the other two near the Damascus Gate.”
Buck would rather have followed his hunch and gone straight to the Golden Gate, but he was here for Tsion, and he would do him this favor. He didn’t know why the brothers were even guessing. If two-thirds of Carpathia’s troops were concentrating on Jerusalem, it wouldn’t take many of them to take over the tiny Old City.
As soon as he and Tsion and the other three men were out the door, they heard gunfire. Tsion and the brothers jogged northwest, Buck and Shivte, west. Rebels ran everywhere, shouting what they knew. The enemy was on the Jaffa Road. Damascus Gate was under siege. The Yad Vashem Historical Museum to the Holocaust victims had been destroyed. Hebrew University, the Jewish National and University Library, and Israel Museum were in flames. The Old City would be next.
Thousands were dead and many more captured and held. Buck knew, if the rumors could be believed, that he and Shivte were in the worst possible place. In essence, they had cornered themselves inside the walls of the Old City.
________
Rayford was impressed with Sebastian’s strategy, though they both knew tactics were out the window in the face of such odds. The third of Carpathia’s troops assigned to Petra carried every type of weapon in the potentate’s arsenal. At least two hundred thousand mounted troops slowly moved into position, far outflanking Sebastian’s forces and virtually surrounding them and the city.
“I have so few DEWs,” George told Rayford. “In retrospect, if I had known they were going to start with this horse trick, I’d have had Lionel find me more.”
“What do horses have to do with it?”
“Horses are not armored, and the riders can’t really hide. See how lazily they’re moving into position?”
Rayford took the field glasses and saw thousands of horsemen cantering into place. They were a mile from Petra’s massed troops.
“They act like they’ve got all day.”
Suddenly, George seemed animated. “We’re going to get in the first blow in this thing, and we’re going to have the advantage, at least temporarily.”
“How?”
“Those horses are trained to not spook under artillery fire. We could pop a few fifty-caliber rounds at ’em and get them stirred up a bit. Maybe take out a few horses and a few riders. But I’ll bet they haven’t dealt with DEWs yet. You ready for some action?”
“Sure.”
“I’ve got only about a hundred DEWs, but at least I was smart enough to assign them all positions inside on the rim. I need them pretty evenly spaced, all around the top of the city. Can you handle that?”
“On it. Then what?”
“Tell them all to wait for my command. If we can hit anywhere close to a hundred horses or riders with DEWs from this distance, we could cause a stampede that would put all their horses out of commission for a while.”
“Brilliant.”
“Only if it works. Thing is, we’ve got to do this before they really know where we are. We could have them on the run right off the bat and see how they like being on their heels.”
________
Buck got Shivte settled well inside the crowded Citadel, where it appeared many scared younger men had decided to hole up as well.
While Buck could hear activity on the Jaffa Road, the invaders had indeed ignored the Jaffa Gate for the very reason Buck guessed.
Why do more work than you had to?
Buck guessed the Damascus Gate was a little over a quarter of a mile away, but getting there through the crowd of petrified and wild-eyed rebels made it seem farther. And of course, Tsion and the brothers were nowhere in sight. “Lord, come quickly.”
________
Rayford scampered to a four-wheel-drive ATV and charged to the nearest high place. It took nearly half an hour with the vehicle and his walkie-talkie to get the hundred or so DEW operators spread out evenly and coordinated.
At George’s command, they would fire invisible beams of directed energy at the enemy. In essence, they heated soft tissue past the tolerance point in less than a second, and if the rider or horse didn’t elude the ray, their flesh would burn.
With Petra surrounded by a couple of brigades of mounted troops, the result had the potential to be maddeningly confusing to the enemy. The strategy was to try to hit horses only, making them bolt away and causing the steeds around them to do the same. No question some riders, especially their legs, would be hit in the process, hopefully causing them to kick and achieve the same result. If the beam hit higher on a rider’s body, he would likely scream and yank the reins. George, Rayford thought, was a genius.
________
“Dung Gate is giving way!” someone shouted. “Let’s kill us some One World Army!”
Buck prayed it wasn’t true. The Dung Gate was the southern gate closest to the Western Wall. It was the long way around to get to the Temple Mount, and that’s why he had assumed the Golden Gate on the east side would be the Unity Army’s first choice. If they got through the Dung Gate, they might try battering through the Wailing Wall to get to pay dirt.
Unable to raise Tsion by phone or find him or either of the brothers at the Damascus Gate, which seemed to be holding for the time being, Buck ran toward the Dung Gate, a mile away. All along the route he heard rumors and fears. If any of it was to be believed, it wouldn’t be long before half the greater city of Jerusalem was in captivity. His goal was to stay alive until the good guys showed up.
________
Rayford figured Petra was fewer than fifteen minutes from sunrise when he let George know the directed energy weapons were in
place and awaiting his command. “I’d really like to make sure the targets are where I want them before we commence,” George said.
“Only one way to do that as fast as you need it done,” Rayford said.
“ATV?”
“Too much ground to cover. You’d have to circle the whole perimeter up top.”
“Helicopter?”
“Bingo. If you want to risk it.”
“They wouldn’t believe it was us,” George said. “Who’d be stupid enough to make himself that kind of a target?”
“You would.”
________
Buck had run almost half a mile and was sucking wind when he saw Carpathia’s Unity Army troops coming the other way. Now he was desperate to find Tsion and get him out of the Old City.
Rebels, some shooting over their shoulders, ran past him for their lives, but Buck noticed the GC were not firing. They were moving in a colossal battering ram that looked as if it would make short work of the Wailing Wall. Now that was a tragedy. After millennia of prayer, could such a sacred site be wasted in just moments?
Suddenly, all those rebels who had flooded past Buck turned and came back. Shouts resounded: “Not the Wailing Wall!” “Not the Wall!” “Sacrifice yourselves!” “Fight to the death!”
The word spread throughout the Jewish Quarter and into the center of the Old City, and instantly hundreds became thousands.
Buck joined the fray. They charged the GC, shooting, throwing rocks, fighting hand to hand. The rebels overcame those on the battering ram and turned it back toward the Dung Gate.
As more and more rebels joined, at least for that brief skirmish, the Jews had the Unity Army on the run. They pushed the battering ram up to the Dung Gate, chased out the army, and managed to shut the gate with the ram inside. Great cheers rose, and so, it seemed, did the rebellion’s confidence. Someone assigned a large group to guard the gate, while others were sent to the Golden and Lion’s Gates on the east side.
&nbs
p; Buck’s phone chirped. “Tsion! Where are you? I tried to call you!”
“My phone is dead. I am borrowing this one. Is it true the rebels turned the army away from the Dung Gate?”
“Yes! I’m here now! Where shall we meet?”
“Do you know the Church of the Flagellation?”
“Near the Muslim Quarter?”
“Just west of there, yes!” Tsion said. “Hurry! I have lost the brothers.”
________
“You know we’ve always been protected in the airspace around here,” Rayford said as he lifted off.
“I’d rather not test that,” Sebastian said. “Just straight up and give me a three-sixty so I can see if the horses are where I want them. Then straight back down.”
“Oh no!” Rayford said. “Incoming!”
“What?”
A missile was streaking right at the chopper. Rayford tried to evade it, knowing that was hopeless. A whirlybird simply didn’t have the maneuverability or speed to dodge a missile.
“My idea and a bad one, George. Sorry.”
“Just stay away from the city, Ray!”
Rayford had toyed with the idea of dropping onto a high place, but if the missile tracked him, it could injure or kill more than just the two of them.
He banked and let the chopper roll out past where Petra troops were stationed, which only brought him face-to-face with the missile that much faster.
“Sorry, Priscilla,” Rayford muttered, shutting his eyes as the warhead met the chopper.
________
It didn’t make sense to Buck that he should get to the rendezvous point before Tsion, despite the difference in their ages. Buck figured Tsion had started from at least twice as close. He searched the crowded church, but once again, no Tsion. This was getting old.
“Herod’s Gate!” someone shouted, and hundreds of rebels headed toward the northernmost gate in the city. It was amazing to see the zeal in their eyes when their ancient holy sites were threatened. That had to be where Tsion went too. Buck couldn’t think of another option.
It was just over an eighth of a mile from the church, but there was no running this time. Buck found himself pressed on all sides, wall-to-wall rebels. Maybe it was for the best. He was exhausted already, and his pulse raced uncontrollably.