“Why do you say that?”
“Callie, would you really like me to watch one of your movies? Should we go to the internet and see one? How would you feel about that?”
Callie looked down. “I…I don’t think I’d like that.”
“How about if your parents watched? Or your brother?”
She shook her head.
Kristen spoke slowly. “Then imagine that a totally holy God exists and created you and wants the very best for you. That he wants a relationship with you. That he wants to lift you up and love you as his little girl. Unconditionally, no matter what you’ve done. Would you like him to come to your taping sessions?”
Callie shook her head harder. “No.”
“Then that’s why I think you’ve been running from him. You know, there’s a small voice in all of us. It’s been talking to you since the first time you ever thought about doing those movies, telling you ‘No. It’s not right’. That’s him. You’ve been running from him. But he was there. He saw you making the movies. Taking the drugs. It broke his heart. But he let you.”
“He saw that? All those times?”
Kristen nodded.
“How could he want me then?”
Kristen smiled. “That’s the depth of his love. He was there when I messed up, too. But he loves us so much. Remember, he made each of us in his image. He knows us like no one else—every hair on our heads. He wants us back, no matter what we do.”
Callie shook her head. “I can’t believe that he’d want someone like me… I’ve screwed up so badly. Those movies. And I’m pregnant! My own father would kill me, much less God.”
“You’ve been running from him, too. Haven’t you?’
“Who?”
“Your father. You’ve been trying to get his attention, hurt him because you think he hurt you. Haven’t you?”
Now Callie pulled her knees up and rested her chin on them. “I…I guess.”
“Callie, listen to me. Both God and your father want you back. They love you totally.”
She shook her head. “Not my father. Not if he knew I was pregnant. He just wants me to stop embarrassing him with these movies.”
“Callie, you just told me that you’re embarrassed by them. So why can’t he be embarrassed, as well? I think you’ve hurt him pretty badly, actually.”
She was silent. Finally she asked, “Who would want me now?”
“I do. Your parents do. God does. But it’s up to you.”
“I can’t imagine. Hey—I’m pretty hungry. Can we, like, get some breakfast?”
Kristen smiled. “Sure. I’m hungry, too. Let’s get dressed and we’ll drive over to the café. It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day.”
“Maybe we can walk on the beach.”
At the same moment David was sitting down to dinner in an ornate private room in an elegant Moscow restaurant with Trevor Knox, Akbar Kamali, Peter Goncharev, Andrei Selivanov, Tanya Prescott, and four of Peter’s lieutenants in USNet’s Russian operation. Trevor had asked David to set up the dinner as a thank you to those who had helped in their recent growth, and they had invited Tanya as a thank you for her hard work on the next day’s reception. David was seated at the foot of the table facing his boss.
After their drinks arrived, Knox said, “The new office looks great. In the Russian tradition, I’d like to propose a toast to all of you who have made it possible.”
Everyone smiled, touched glasses, and drank.
“And I’d like to thank Ms. Prescott for joining us. Here’s a toast to you and your team. May everything go smoothly tomorrow.”
More smiles and tinkling of glasses. After raising her glass, Tanya said, “I think it will. We’ve planned for almost any problem, but we don’t think there will be any.”
As the toasts and the discussions continued, David found it difficult to participate. His mind was on his children, and Todd, not USNet’s continued success in Moscow. He wrestled with what he should do to help Callie and Rob. And Todd. Maybe tonight in my room I can write out steps for each situation. And maybe even pray about it. If God will listen to someone like me. Figure out what to do and who to call when I get home. What if Todd is right? What has USNet been doing?
Several times during the meal he looked down the table to see Knox staring at him.
Inside Knox’s corporate jet, parked at the far end of the tarmac at Vnukovo Airport, Victor Mustafin manned the control console while an armed guard stood outside on the ramp. The door to the aircraft was closed, and its systems were running on a nearby diesel generator. Mustafin was having an encrypted video conference with General Beleborodov and Simon North, sitting at their own consoles at NovySvet’s eastern base. Mustafin could see and hear them; they only heard his slightly altered voice.
“We tracked the micro repeater all the way across the Atlantic,” Beleborodov said. “until you switched it off over Helsinki.”
Mustafin nodded and smiled. “Well done. And the missile launcher?”
“Its own repeater shows that it’s in transit to the launch position.” This time it was North. “Once it arrives, we expect a coded signal from the team leader declaring the missile to be operational.”
“Good. Less than twenty-four hours.”
Kristen and Callie came out of the café and got into the car to drive back to the motel. Callie pulled her cell phone out of her bag, switched it on, and scrolled through five missed calls. She looked over at Kristen, who was driving. “There are four from Alex, but one is from a number I don’t recognize. I guess I’d better call it.” Kristen nodded.
“Hello. Oh, hi, Mom. Where? The hospital? What? Oh, God. Rob? Listen, we’re just pulling up to a place from where I can call you back and it won’t be so noisy. Yes, I’ll call you in just a minute.” Kristen stopped in front of their cabin. “It’s my brother Rob. He’s been in a bad wreck. They’re at the hospital.”
“What next?”
“I don’t know. I gotta call.”
While Callie listened to her mother on the phone, Kristen changed into walking shorts and shoes. When she finished the call, Callie recounted the details to Kristen while she also changed. She included information on the driver, and Rob’s uncertain prognosis.
“I’m so sorry,” Kristen said, as they headed for the door.
“Those games he plays on the internet.”
Locking the door to the cabin, Kristen said, “I bet your mother wishes your father were home right now. I wonder when he’s due back?”
Fifteen minutes later they had parked in a public lot near a long stretch of open beach, moderately full for early on a Sunday afternoon, and were beginning their walk. As they strode out, Kristen asked, “In all the confusion of those people on Friday, I never asked you. Why was Jane in Mexico when she died? Was she on vacation?”
As they walked side by side, Callie said, “No, actually many of the newer movie uploaders are going to Mexico to spend a few days and get registered with some company or guild. Jane was there to get registered.”
“Move to Mexico? Why would you do that?”
“The instructions on the website told us we had to. The younger actors and actresses. I’m not sure about all the details—something about new taxes or laws or something. Anyway, it’s supposed to be a good deal for us. They’re going to pay us more.”
As Callie finished, Kristen abruptly stopped. “Wait a minute.” Callie stopped and looked at her. “You mean the younger actors are being registered with a guild in Mexico. Like the ones under twenty-one?”
Callie put her hand over her eyes to shield the sun and nodded. “Yes. I guess so.”
“And they’re going to keep making these movies?”
“I don’t know why else they’d do it.”
“So Knox is not planning to comply with the new laws on adult movies, like he promised. All this time I thought you knew the new laws meant that you’d have to quit because you’re only nineteen. And you’ve been expecting to be able to keep shootin
g. What a farce. I wonder if your dad knows. Or if President Harper knows. That man Knox is simply no good.”
“What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is that tomorrow in Moscow President Harper is going to share a podium with Knox and the Russian president. She’s going to promote Knox’s business and joint trade, all because Knox said that he now supports these new laws. I was even asked to check on Knox’s intentions through your dad, who told me to believe him. But obviously that’s not the case.”
“Kristen, I don’t understand all that stuff. I just know my roommate is dead and I’m pregnant. And when you leave I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Kristen took her hand. “We’ll talk about that in a little while. With eleven hours difference, it’s probably too late to call your dad in Moscow. And he probably couldn’t do anything, anyway. But when we get back to the cabin, let’s call your mom and get his hotel number over there. We can call him tonight.”
“OK. If you think it’s important.”
“I do. Believe me, Callie, I do. Now let’s get some exercise. It’ll do the three of us good!”
Kristen need not have worried about calling her former boss at that hour. It was midnight in Moscow, but David was not asleep. He lay awake in bed, thinking about his family, Todd, USNet, Omid, and the upcoming events of the next day.
After dinner he had returned to his room and tried to write a plan for dealing with each child’s problem, and about USNet. But past a few simple ideas, he drew a blank. How do you make someone want to do the right thing? His mind raced. Seems like it would take a lot of time and discussion—talking about consequences. How to start when each child is in a crisis right now? And do Todd and I just go to the police with all that he has told me? That would be the end of my job. Or do I tell Trevor first and ask if he knows anything?
He tried to stop thinking about his problems. But he couldn’t relax. His mind kept going. I ought to be home. But I need to be here.
So he got up and checked his email. A high priority message came from an unknown address in Europe. There was a link and a one-word message. Omid.
David clicked on the link, and a video started. There was a brief title page written in Farsi, Arabic and English. The latter said Eynali Mountain and 3 July. Then several men were shown standing outdoors in a rocky area at the bottom of a tall cliff. It appeared to be late afternoon; they had their backs to the camera. They had on suits, and one of them, the tallest, was talking on a cell phone. He looked up and waved.
The camera followed his gaze up toward the top of the cliff, several hundred feet above. Suddenly two men came flying off, their arms and legs flailing. The camera followed them until they smashed into the rocks, twenty yards from the men in the suits.
The three men and the camera walked over to the two bodies. A hand reached down and rolled them over. David clearly recognized, despite the shattered face, the lifeless form of his cousin Omid. The video ended.
David stared at the blank screen for almost a minute; then he felt weak and nauseous. He barely made it to the bathroom before he was sick.
Early that Sunday evening Kristen and Callie were sitting around a wrought-iron table on the patio of their cabin, watching the low sun over the Pacific Ocean and eating Chinese take-out.
It had been an intense afternoon of discussion. Kristen had pointedly encouraged Callie to describe what she did in making movies and was glad that verbalizing the descriptions seemed genuinely to embarrass the younger woman. Then Kristen had described several key choices in her life, and how they had impacted her, for good or for ill. Later, and on into dinner, they’d spoken about their childhood experiences, and Kristen had mentioned several occasions when her father had let her down. And, inevitably, they had spoken about babies and abortion.
“I knew someone who was in a situation like yours a few years ago,” Kristen said, as she put down a cardboard box of fried rice and sipped her drink. “Her name was Amy. She was the daughter of Richard Sullivan’s next door neighbor. It’s a long story, but she was in high school and decided to have the baby and let a wonderful couple who couldn’t have children adopt him. Then she went back to school and is now doing well after college. And the couple with her baby are very happy. I’ll be glad to get Amy’s phone number for you.”
Callie looked down at her half-eaten container of sweet and sour pork. “Uh, sure. Yes, I guess I’d like to talk to her.”
They were both silent for a long time, watching the sun move into the ocean. Finally Callie looked at Kristen and spoke. “Kristen, you’ve been wonderful. I don’t know where I’d be or what I’d be thinking if it weren’t for you. I’ve enjoyed today and all the other days. You’ve helped me deal with Jane’s death. You have been like a sister. But the reality is that if tomorrow weren’t the Fourth, you’d be gone, and I’d be nineteen, pregnant, and trying to cope with a lot of bad stuff all by myself.
“I’ve done sex, drugs, booze—a lot. Now I’m knocked up. You say there’s a baby alive in me that I shouldn’t kill. Alex says it’s a ‘problem’ that we need to take care of. I was embarrassed to tell you about the movies I made. But when I’m, like, doing them, there’s a power, a rush—and a lot of money. And then there’s my friend Jane… Now she’s dead. It could so easily be me.” She started shaking her head. “I just don’t know what to do.”
Kristen reached across and touched her hand. “Callie, first, I’m not leaving until we figure this out. I’ll just be a day or two late for my job.”
“Your new job? You can’t do that.”
“Sure I can. Second, and listen to me, people have to make these kinds of decisions all the time. You’re not alone. Big, tough decisions. Right or wrong. And it’s impossible to make those kinds of decisions in a vacuum. You need a framework, a value system that gives you points of reference for why what seems to be the easiest way is not necessarily the best way.”
“Where do I get that—that framework?”
“From the one who gave it to me—God. From a relationship with him.”
“How? How do I do that? How do I get what you have?”
“By asking him to forgive all that you’ve done, by believing that his son, Jesus, died as the once-and-for-all payment for all that you’ve ever done, and by asking his Holy Spirit to fill you and guide you every day.”
“How do I prepare? When can I do it?”
Kristen smiled. “You don’t have to prepare, other than be honest. When you want to change and start your life over, you can ask him.”
“Can I ask now?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Then I want to ask.”
“Let’s kneel right here and pray. Just talk to God and tell him what you’ve done, and tell him that you want a real relationship with him.”
“Out loud?”
“If you want. Or silently. He’ll hear you either way.”
Callie knelt with Kristen holding her hand, closed her eyes, and prayed.
Five minutes and a lifetime later, Callie wiped her eyes. Kristen reached over and hugged her.
“It’s going to be OK,” Kristen whispered, stroking her hair. “Now you’re back in God’s arms, and he’ll never let you go.”
They cried and prayed for a while longer. Kristen asked out loud for guidance and wisdom for Callie, her father, and their whole family. Finally Callie smiled, wiped her tears, and regained her chair. Kristen sat again, too, and looked at her friend.
“What do I do now?” Callie asked.
Kristen smiled. “You’ve taken care of the most important decision you’ll ever make. Now you need people. With God’s help we’ll ask for advice from other believers who will help you—us—figure out all the stuff you’re dealing with. And then there are family and friends who really care about you, who know you and love you and will give you good advice. That’s how you’ll make the right decisions.”
“You mean my family?”
“Yes, Callie. I’m your friend.” She smile
d. “Almost your big sister. But your mom and dad—even your brother—have known you a lot longer than I have. You need to talk with them.”
“They would never want me back after all I’ve done. Those movies will be around forever. How could anyone love a nineteen-year-old, doped up, pregnant porn actress?”
Kristen squeezed her hand. “Callie, that’s all you were thirty minutes ago. You’re still those things, but now you’re also a child of God. He loves you. I love you. And your parents love you.”
“No they don’t. They couldn’t. I’ve done too much bad stuff.”
“Callie, they raised you. And that’s their grandchild you’re carrying.”
Callie’s eyes widened. “I, uh, hadn’t thought of that.”
“Look, I can tell you what I think God’s word says about each of your problems. His is the only permanent value system that really counts. And how to start getting it inside you. But your family is also key. So many people have parents who don’t care about them—like Jane. You’re blessed with a mom and a dad who love you and want to help you. Don’t turn them away.”
“My mother doesn’t even know. And do you really think my father will want me back? After all I’ve said to hurt him—and all I’ve done?”
“Yes, I do. Let’s call him and ask him.”
“Now?”
“Yes. It’s, let’s see—she looked at her watch—seven in the morning in Moscow. He’s got a big day today. Let’s call him and wish him a Happy Fourth of July.”
“Now?” Callie was smiling and crying.
“Yes. And then we’ll call and get some seats on a flight home in the morning. It will be good for you to be back with your family.”
30
MONDAY, JULY 4TH
After the horrible video of Omid, David had finally fallen asleep about three that July 4th morning. He had asked for a wake-up call at eight, but his phone was ringing, and when he looked at the clock, it was only seven-fifteen.
Enemy In the Room Page 36
