"He may be trying to communicate the same to me, brother,"
Rayford said, "but that one of them is my daughter may affect my faith."
Tsion nodded again and smiled. "Possible. But after what you survived here today, is it not fair to say that any breakdown in communication between you and the Lord has to be your fault?"
"Well, that goes without saying."
"Oh, by the way, I am speaking Hebrew, and you are "
"I know, brother. I have been all through that with the young lady."
The others laughed and one said, "My daughter!"
"Lovely. " "Thank you!"
"Chaim and I have been talking with these brothers about plans,"
Tsion said. "We will be praying for the Tribulation Force members all over the world and are eager to see how G.o.d delivers them.
But everyone needs accountability, and as Chaim and I are accountable to you, we "
"Oh, Tsion, no! Surely we"re way past that! You"ve been the spiritual leader of the Tribulation Force for some time, and of the worldwide church of Christ for almost as long."
"No, now, Rayford, hear me."
"Begging your pardon, sir, you always flattered me by deferring to me as the t.i.tular leader of the Trib Force, but please . . ."
"These men, Rayford, are a good start for us here. They are the core of a group of elders I hope will eventually arise to help Chaim with the daily decisions. But they are, naturally, new to the faith."
"As I am, Tsion. Surely you"re not suggesting "
"Excuse me, Rayford, but you forget. None of us is terribly mature in the faith. In years anyway. I am not going to insult your intelligence by implying that I will seek your counsel on the Scriptures, though I cannot deny I have learned from you. But G.o.d put you in a strategic place for me at a very dark time in my life. If you do not mind, I would like to run past you some thoughts regarding the immediate future and get your feedback."
"If you insist, but at least concede that it was not I who stood in the midst of a million people and saw G.o.d miraculously spare them from the fires of h.e.l.l. "
Tsion looked at him with a twinkle in his eye, then turned to the other men. They laughed uproariously.
Chaim pointed at Rayford and chortled. "Was it
not you? Then my eyes fail me!" Ire turned to Ben
Judah. "Tsion! Did I not see this very man standing
in the midst of us, and could he have not seen what
G.o.d did?"
"Well, okay," Rayford said. "Point taken. But I was not the reason the enemy attacked, Tsion. You and Chaim were. And I was not preaching, not praying, not standing there full of faith when the bombs fell. Truth be told, my faith is stronger in the aftermath than it was in the fire."
Tsion fell serious and ran a hand through his beard, studying Rayford. "You would make a good Israeli," he said.
Rayford shrugged. "Zeke was going for the Egyptian look, but whatever."
"No, I mean you argue like my countrymen. We could debate all night. And even when you are wrong, still you argue.
That brought more laughter from the others.
"All right, Tsion. I don"t know why you would want to hold yourself accountable to one you find it so easy to ridicule "
"All in good fun, my dear brother. You know that."
"of course. But anyway, I"m listening." Mac pulled his phone from his pocket and turned it on. "What"re they doin", Socrates, your pals? Checkin" us out?
Socrates shrugged.
"C"mon, you won"t hurt my feelings. They trying to make sure we"re legit, that we"re not gonna jump "em, embarra.s.s "em, what?"
Mac punched in Chang"s number.
"There are no cells out here, sir," Socrates said. "You won"t get through to anyone."
"Well, I wouldn"t if I had bad technology, would I? But what if I had a phone juiced by the sun and bounced by the satellites? Then I wouldn"t care whether you"ve got cells in the woods here, would I?".
"But you won"t be able to reach the commander unless "
"This is Chang, Mac. You okay?"
"I"m fine, Supreme Commander, sir. Just checkin" in to see if my phone works all the way to New Babylon. "
"Loud and clear, Mac. Talk to me. What"s going on? You in trouble? What can I do?"
"Fine, sir. How"s the weather there?"
Chang said, "I"ve got my screen open to the GPS, and I"m tracking you and, ah, Jinnah and Irene right to where you ought to be."
"Hang on, boss. Just a second."
Mac pretended to tuck the phone to his chest, but he held it lightly enough so Chang could hear. "What did you just say, Socrates? That I couldn"t use my phone in the woods?"
"Yeah, well, obviously you can, with the satellite and all. But you couldn"t talk to somebody unless they had the same thing is all I was saying."
"Who would I want to talk to here with my fancy phone who wouldn"t have one?"
Socrates paled. "Well, like I don"t have one."
"Who else?"
"My partners don"t either. We have regular."
"Thought I was gonna call one of your partners, did you?"