by Lewis, Rykar
“Beginning in verse one,” the pastor continued. “The Bible says, ‘Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, Saying, the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered His words, And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.’ Let’s pray for God’s blessing on this service.”
Pastor Wills prayed that the Lord would bless the service on this “Resurrection” Sunday, and thanked Him for sending His Son to die on the cross and rise victoriously on this day some two thousand years ago. He then ended the prayer and went on with the sermon.
“Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. On this day, we should recall His life, death, burial, and ultimately His resurrection. But few on this earth really understand the meaning of this day. Some think of it as a day of Easter egg hunts, rabbits, and candy baskets. Others look at it as a day of resting and eating good food. And still there are some that think of this day for what it really is. They look back and remember what Jesus did for them. They recall and thank Him for coming down to earth, living a perfect, sinless life, and dying on the cross of Calvary. But what Christians ultimately think of on this day, is the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb.”
“I’d like to give a brief outlook on the life of our Saviour, just to familiarize everyone once more,” Wills went on. “Jesus was sent to earth and was born in a manger in a barn in Bethlehem. He lived a seemingly-lowly life of teaching, preaching and helping and healing the sick. He lived on this earth for thirty-three perfect years, doing God the Father’s work. Then, the Romans took Him and brought Him before Pontius Pilot, to have him decide whether Jesus should live or die. Jesus did nothing to deserve that trial. He merely did good things, but the Jewish Scribes and Pharisees were afraid of His power and wanted Him killed. Eventually, Pilot allowed Jesus to be crucified, even admitting that he found no fault in Him.”
Parks was listening intently and so was Solomon.
“Well, Jesus was led up to Mount Calvary and was crucified on a cross. He was put in a tomb, and for fear that His disciples were going to steal His body, Roman soldiers guarded the tomb. Three days later, Jesus Christ rose from the dead.”
Parks saw Solomon’s eyes widen.
“As I read in Luke 24:2-3, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the tomb bringing spices and found the stone rolled away. The Bible says ‘they were much perplexed thereabout.’ But if you look with me back at verses five through eight, it says, ‘And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, Saying the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered His words.’ Jesus could not be conquered. He was crucified and shed His blood for us, but He did not stay dead. He arose from the grave and is living in Heaven, as He said.”
Wills paused for just a moment. “Jesus died on the cross and shed His perfect blood so that we could get to Heaven. You see, there could be no redemption of our sins without perfect blood, and the only blood that could cover our sins was Jesus’. He was the perfect sacrifice and He gave His life for us. The book of Romans, chapter 5, verse 8, says, ‘But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ Jesus died for us so that we can get to Heaven, and that’s His gift to us.”
“Let’s turn to Romans 6:23. That says, ‘For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Our payment for our sins is death, but since Jesus loved us, He died on the cross and gave us the gift of eternal life. But we have to receive that gift if we want to go to Heaven. We all know that at Christmas time, there are gifts under the tree, and some of them may even have your name on them. But for those gifts to be ours, we have to take them from the giver. It’s the same thing with eternal life. Jesus’ gift is waiting with our names on it; all we have to do is receive it. To receive it, all we need to do is realize that we are sinners and our sin stops us from being able to merit Heaven, as stated in Romans 3:10 and 23. Our payment for sin is death. But we need to understand that Jesus died for us on the cross and His blood covers our sins if we ask Him into our heart.”
“Romans 10:9, 10, and 13 say, ‘That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ To accept Jesus’ gift, all we need to do is reach out and take it.”
“We take His gift by calling upon the name of the Lord and asking Him to save us from hell and take us to Heaven when we die. John 14:6 says, ‘Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.’ Jesus is the only way to Heaven and if we don’t accept Him as our personal Lord and Saviour, we cannot go.”
The pastor stared at every face in the crowd. “Many have not received Jesus’ gift of eternal life in Heaven. Many don’t care or don’t believe that Jesus gave His life on the cross for us, and that He wants us to accept His gift. Or perhaps some just have never heard of what I’ve been saying. But you’re here for a reason. God knew you were going to be here today. And I know the Lord will work in your heart.”
Suddenly, Parks’ cell phone vibrated. Then it began playing The Marines’ Hymn quite loudly. He scrambled to shut it off but as he pulled it out of his pocket, he dropped it. As quickly as he could, he picked it back up and silenced the ringer.
Several heads turned in his direction and Parks could feel his face turn red. He looked over at Solomon and saw him turning his phone to vibrate only. Parks discretely did the same, not even bothering to see who had called.
* * *
Half an hour later, the service was almost finished. The pastor was delivering his final words, and he had definitely given God’s message.
“As a final point,” the eloquent pastor continued, “I would like to invite you to accept Jesus’ gift of salvation through Him as the only way to go to Heaven. It’s not a complicated matter. All you need to do is come forward and one of our workers will guide you through the steps of salvation. I pray you do so. Jesus is waiting. Will you come to Him?”
The pastor asked everyone to stand with their eyes closed. He gave a few more quick points on salvation and then opened the invitation. At first, no one went forward, but then boldly, and one hundred percent on his own will, Solomon stepped out into the aisle and walked up to the pastor.
Parks opened his eyes in shock and opened his mouth to say something, then he thought better of it. He sealed his eyes and wondered what on earth Solomon was doing. Did he really want to accept Jesus right now? How could he? Parks believed all the pastor had said but he just wanted to make extra sure that this was the right way.
Maybe he’s smart, Parks thought. We’re both running out of time.
Parks decided to do it too. He took a step outward and then stopped himself abruptly. Did this mean that Jesus hadn’t allowed his brother into Heaven? If what the pastor had said was true, then his brother wasn’t in Heaven as far as he knew.
Parks brought his foot back into the pew. How could a loving God not let a guy who selflessly died for his nation into Heaven? he aske
d himself.
Parks resisted his urging to go forward and remained planted in his place. He’d wait for Solomon to finish so they could leave. And then he’d never come back to this church again. Not for a long while anyway.
* * *
Parks and Solomon exited the church building and Parks pulled out his cell phone. “Did you hear my ringer go off in the middle of the service?” he asked Solomon. “Talk about embarrassing.”
“I heard it all right. I don’t think anyone didn’t hear it,” Solomon replied cheerfully.
“I wonder who it was–” Parks stopped as he went onto his recent calls and saw the White House’s number.
“What’s the matter?” Solomon questioned.
Parks showed him the phone number and didn’t say a word.
“I guess that’s off to work with us,” Parks concluded. “The caller left a voicemail. I can only guess what happened.”
The two entered the truck and closed the doors.
“Did they find the warhead, or the mole?” Solomon asked when in the vehicle’s safety.
Parks listened to the message and a bleak look spread over his face.
“Which did they find?” Solomon asked again.
Parks swallowed hard. “The warhead. Trouble is, that shouldn’t be singular. There are three.”
54
Sunday, April 20th – 1300 hours
The Situation Room
The President rested his chin in his hands and looked at the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
“Israeli Mossad found the warhead we’ve been after in Beirut, Lebanon,” the Director said, “and Syria just received two others. They’re all hidden in war bunkers deep underground. The Syrian warheads are being housed in Damascus and Homs. The Mossad didn’t say how they found them and they didn’t know if the two new warheads are MIRVs.”
The National Security Council was gathered. The warheads had been pinned down to precise locations, and now a decision had to be made about what to do with them. The Israeli Mossad had contacted Cummins just that morning, giving him the exact locations of the warheads, and offering their total assistance.
The President had been called from church by the Director himself, and had been rushed to the Situation Room as quickly as possible. It wasn’t the best way to celebrate Easter but no one had any choice in the matter.
The National Security Advisor had called Parks the instant he received the news and had left a message, ordering him to gather his team and prepare to deploy at a moment’s notice.
It had taken over an hour and a half to assemble everyone in the room, but finally everyone arrived and nothing was stopping the D/CIA from briefing the President.
“Mr. President,” the Director went on, “here are the exact global locations of the warheads, as provided by the Mossad. You can believe that they’re highly precise. The Head of the Mossad personally assured me.”
“Okay, okay, they’re precise,” the President mumbled. “I want to know what’s with the whole Syria issue. Are they in on this too?”
Cummins nodded slowly. “They are, Mr. President. One of the Israeli counterintelligence operators working in Syria picked up some very interesting news while he was searching for the warheads. He managed to hack into some highly-classified Syrian intelligence files concerning a major purchase.”
“What major purchase?” the President demanded. “Was it the warhead?”
“No Mr. President. But it’s about on the same scale. You’re not going to believe this, sir.”
“Well I never will if you don’t tell me, Mike.”
“All right.” The D/CIA sighed quickly. “The Lebanese and the Syrians have made a little purchase from the Iranians. They’ve bought the terror groups, Hamas and Hezbollah.”
The President almost fell out of his chair.
“Please let me finish, sir,” Cummins begged. “They purchased Hamas at an astronomical amount, and got Hezbollah at half-price since a great number of Syrians are inside it. It’s very strange, but it makes sense. That would explain why Hamas terrorists started being active again after we closed down Iran. That tells us why there was 1/16 even after Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran were cleaned from terrorism. There was a new manager of the terror groups. Lebanon provided intense training for the terrorists and took them to a new level so they could be more effective than they ever were. They brought in and trained terrorists from everywhere. They weren’t picky. And it worked for them.”
“How much did they purchase the terrorists for?” Danner questioned.
“One billion for Hamas, five hundred million for all of Hezbollah,” the D/CIA answered.
The President was almost more excited than upset. “Mike, now we’ve got the enemy. Now we know who to attack in retaliation for all of the American deaths on 1/16. We’ve got it. You know how long we’ve been waiting for this?”
The Vice President was a bit calmer and was still wondering about some issues. “Mike, when did this purchase happen?”
“Merely months after the Israelis socked out Lebanon in March of 2013,” Cummins responded. “Lebanon was upset and wanted to get revenge. So they forgot all about common sense and grabbed for ways to destroy Israel, and us.”
“What about UNON – the plan to unite with Israel and destroy their nuclear weapons?”
“It was a fake. The Lebanese merely wanted to disarm Israel. We knew that and so did Aziza. I don’t know who the Lebanese thought they were fooling. Maybe they wanted to make Israel look bad in the U.N.’s eyes, and they thought they could if UNON was shot down. I don’t know. But you see, Mr. Vice President, Lebanon hates Israel and us. They want us gone, and they’ll do everything to see that we are obliterated.”
“The Russians know about this, don’t they? Why else would they sell the Lebanese three nuclear warheads unless they knew their plan?” Anders pointed out.
“I don’t know if Russia knows, and right now I don’t care,” the D/CIA stated. “We have work to do in two countries that have nuclear weapons. I’d say that’s enough to worry about at one time.”
* * *
Parks entered the Situation Room and stood at attention. He was instantly summoned inside, and told to take a seat.
The D/CIA briefed him on the entire crisis and as he did, Parks couldn’t help but wonder if he was the mole. The mole was present, and the thought made Parks sick to his stomach. If the Directors and NSA knew all this, and one of them was the mole, then the enemy knew that the U.S. was on to them and was sending in a strike team. That would make Parks’ mission almost impossible if not completely impossible. Unless the President had something worked out to where the mole couldn’t make contact with the enemy without being caught.
The Director finished his briefing by saying, “That’s what’s going on. Now for the plan of attack.”
The room was given over to the National Security Advisor. “Keith, we know you’ve already been briefed on basically what you’re going to have to do, but just to make sure, I’ll run over it again,” the NSA said.
Parks felt a lump form in his throat in anticipation.
“The Air Force will be sending three light bombers above the three warheads,” Smith began. “They’ll be equipped with our newest line of bunker busters. But here’s the thing. We need someone to paint the bunkers so that we can be sure the bombs hit the precise place we need them to. That someone will be you and your team.” The NSA ate a breath mint. “Allow me to backtrack a bit. Your team will be expanded a bit. We’ll break off your usual team into three groups, and then give you CIA agents to bring the three teams up to five-man strength. Your entire team will get on BIG BIRD, and will be flown to three different locations. The first team will be led by you and will HALO jump into a desert location somewhere near Beirut. Those are gold jump wings you have on, right?”
“Yes sir,” Parks confirmed.
Parks had a set of gold Navy/Marine Corps jump wings symbolizing that he had jumped from an airplane at least ten tim
es, and had been attached to a jump billet – the 1st ANGLICO. He had performed many High Altitude Low Opening jumps and he actually thought them quite fun.
“I thought so,” the NSA told him. “Anyway, you can assign the remaining two teams to whichever location you feel’s right. It doesn’t really matter. But here’s what will be done. The CIA from the U.S. Embassies will meet your teams not far from where they land, and will give each of them a nondescript van with which to travel to the war bunkers. Now the teams will have to lay low until it’s the right time, and the team leaders will have to use their own discretion with that situation. On Monday, April the 21st, 1700 Lebanese time, I want your teams to move in. One man will paint the bunker’s entrance, one will be ready as a backup painter, two will be guards, and the leader will be in charge of everything. At 1700 sharp, the bombers will drop their bunker busters. The bombs will fall until they reach the lasers. When they do, they’ll follow them right into the bunker’s entrance and blow open the bunker. One minute after that, three Los Angeles Class Attack submarines from the Navy’s Second Fleet will launch two TLAMs per boat at the warheads, the second missile delayed by thirty seconds. Those Tomahawks will explode the warhead with no problem. But since the warheads will be blown up underground there will be no damage to the surrounding Middle Eastern nations.”
Parks took down every detail mentally and burned them into his mind.
“The second after the bunker busters explode, your teams need to run for it,” Smith explained. “There’ll be a helicopter hovering close by, ready to pick you up and take you all back to safety. And don’t worry; gunships will be escorting the transport helicopter, ensuring the teams’ safety.” The National Security Advisor tapped his fingers on the table. “Your equipment has already been lined up by your logistics officer, Major. Everything has been taken care of.”
I would hope so, Parks thought to himself. If we’re going on an almost-sure death mission, then we’d better have all the equipment we need.
* * *
