"Yes! I"m really curious. What could give you pause after that?
Surely you did not still doubt G.o.d."
"No, that is true. I don"t know how to explain it, Captain Steele. All I can say is that the enemy has a stronghold over the mind until one surrenders it to G.o.d. I was a pragmatist, proud, a journalist. I wanted control over my own destiny. Things had to be proved to me."
"But what more proof
"I know. It mystifies me still. I suppose what comes closest to explaining the lunacy is the verse that both Dr. Rosenzweig and Dr. Ben Judah have often quoted how does it go, Doctor? Something about wrestling not with flesh?"
Chaim nodded. "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against princ.i.p.alities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."
"Yes, that"s it! And that"s why we have to wear the armor of G.o.d, right?" "That you may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all, to stand. Amen."
"I appreciate very much hearing your story, Ms. Rice," Rayford said. "You know my son in law was "
"There, yes. Dr. Rosenzweig told me. That"s why he thought you might like to hear it."
Rayford looked to Chaim and back at Bernadette. "Please tell me Buck hasn"t heard this yet," he said.
"Not from me," Chaim said.
She shook her head.
"Then, if you"ll excuse me . . ."
Rayford hurried back past where Naomi was finishing her computer cla.s.s, down through the tent area where many of the younger people preferred to sleep, and finally to a small encampment of prefabricated modular homes. They were tiny but well built, had been provided almost wholly by Lionel whalum, the new Co op member, and had been a.s.sembled by a team of volunteers who seemed to reshape the landscape of Petra nearly overnight.
Rayford, hoping and planning that his stay in the rock city would be only temporary, chose one of the smallest but for him, efficient units not far from where Abdullah stayed. Smitty liked an open fire and had opted for a tent, not much smaller than Rayford"s enclosure, on the edge of one of the bivouac villages.
Before Rayford ducked into his place, which was barely big enough for his bed and all area for his computer and transmitting equipment, he peered down the way to see if Abdullah was still awake. The Jordanian, silhouetted behind a smoky fire, waved at him, then beckoned him.
"I will join you in an hour or so, my friend!" Rayford called.
He sat before his computer with two gla.s.s jars, one containing water, the other manna. No preservative or storage was necessary for the manna. It would spoil overnight, but there was always a fresh supply every morning anyway so saving it was considered a lack of faith, and forbidden.
Rayford entered his code, keyed in the coordinates that allowed him to interact securely with San Diego some ten hours earlier on the clock and typed, "Praise G.o.d for David Ha.s.sid and Chang Wong."
He waited. Buck and Chloe"s machine would signal them that he was trying to communicate, and when one of them typed in their code, the units could talk to each other. Not only that, but they also had video capability. Sensors around the edges of the respective screens stored and interpreted digital images and transmitted them back and forth, so unless the sender turned off that feature both parties could see each other on the screen.
A minute later Chloe came on with twenty month old Kenny squirming on her lap. She had to block the boy from reaching for the keys. Seeing them both made it even harder for Rayford to wait to get to San Diego.
"Hi, Dad," Chloe said. "Say hi to Grandpa, sweetheart. "
Kenny said, " Gampa ! " and stared at the screen. Ray ford tried to situate himself for the best light and transmission and waved.
Kenny smiled and opened and closed his hand before the screen.
"I miss you, Kenny!"
"Miss! Big boy!" Kenny threw his hands over his head and arched his back, forcing Chloe to hold him tighter to keep him from slipping off her lap.
"Are you a big boy?" Rayford said.
But Kenny had already lost interest. He wriggled until Chloe let him down. "You need to come see him," Chloe said.
"Maybe soon," Rayford said. "I miss you all so much."
They brought each other up to date. Buck was somewhere with Sebastian and Ree Woo, so Rayford told Chloe Bernadette Rice"s story.
"Buck will be thrilled," she said. "You know Ree is headed back to China. Ming"s still not aroused any suspicion. She comes and goes as she pleases, but she sure wants to get out of there and bring her mother with her. Maybe this time."
"They would come to San Diego?"
"Yes. I think she"s sweet on Ree."
"Doesn"t surprise me. I got to meet him, you know, on one of his runs here."
"n.o.body told me that!"
"Yeah, he talks about her. Seems preoccupied with her. I thought I told you."
"No. "Course I"m buried with Co op stuff most of the day. It"s getting harder and harder, Dad. Has Tsion said anything about the lifting of the plague? Or are these things permanent?"
"The previous ones haven"t been. But this has held the longest.
Tsion thinks the Bowl Judgment on the lakes and rivers is imminent. That one is for sure not permanent. "
"It"s not? How does he know?"
"He says there"s a later judgment, one of those that ushers in the Battle of Armageddon and the Glorious Appearing, that calls for the drying up of the Euphrates River. And it clearly says it dries up its waters."
"That"s a relief, but if the rivers and lakes turn to blood soon and don"t happen to turn back to water until almost Armageddon, I don"t know. Should the seas clear up before the rivers and lakes turn, or does that even make sense? "
"No one knows, Chloe. And what happens if the seas do turn back to salt water? How long would it take to replenish them? "
"And what would we do with everything that"s dead now? The cleanup alone would take a hundred years. At least we might be able to treat salt water and make it potable, because if the lakes and rivers turn too and if the seas are still affected I don"t know how anybody or anything stays alive."
"Tsion says G.o.d will winnow out many who have the mark of the beast so they can"t continue to evangelize for the evil side. I guess he wants to even the odds a little for the last battle."
"As if he needs to do that, Dad." "How are you holding up, honey?"
"Exhausted, that"s all. But we love the Sebastians and the body of believers here. If you have to live through this time, this is the place to be."
It was well after midnight in Zhengzhou, and Ming was homesick.
For where, she was uncertain. She had no home anymore. She wanted to be with Ree woo, though they had never so much as held hands. He had visited her more than once as he had promised, and they had become dear friends, a brother and sister in Christ.
Ming didn"t know whether it made sense to think of him in romantic terms anyway, with only three years left before the Glorious Appearing. Besides, Ree had a ridiculously dangerous job, and who wanted to risk being widowed twice within a few years? On the other hand, what might it be like if they both survived? She would have to study what Dr. Ben Judah had to say about married couples entering into the millennial kingdom.
Though Ming was with her mother, still she did not feel at home.
Sure, she understood the language, even some of the more obscure dialects, because she had grown up in China. But the believers lived in constant fear, slept in communal rooms with little privacy, and never knew who might come knocking in the dead of night.
Her mother seemed remarkably at peace in spite of the recent loss of her husband, though she told Ming she wished she could have died with him. Though Mrs. Wong was a new believer, she was a worrier by nature, and she had grown fatalistic over the past several weeks. Ming tried to talk her into sneaking out of China and going to live in San Diego, but her mother would not hear of it. This was her home such as it was and California sounded like a different planet. She worried about Chang, and she worried about Ming, both playacting as employees of the Global Community.