“In Las Vegas the aforementioned Ms. Barger reappears and works closely with Paul on the infamous Jonah case. The outcome of that investigation is one of the feathers in Agent Stepola’s record. However, as these pictures show, if he was not involved with Ms. Barger, the relationship was clearly overly familiar.
“I personally met Paul in Las Vegas and scolded him on that very issue. He insisted that he merely used her as a means to an end—an end we were pleased with. And there has been no evidence of continued contact with her. He accompanied me to Los Angeles, and you all know the outcome there. My suspicions of Agent Stepola crescendoed there, when I first feared he had flipped allegiances, then decided that he had merely pretended to flip as a bold, undercover move. He did this, however, without the knowledge of Ms. Balaam, his immediate superior, or me, whom it would have been logical to inform.”
Jae wondered how much longer she could take this. On one hand, of course, she was ready to throttle Paul. On the other, she was finding it excruciating to give up the promise his new attitude had given her for the future of their lives together. She had never even heard of Trina Thomas, yet who knew what her and Paul’s history—or future—might include? Desperate to hold out some hope in the far reaches of her imagination, Jae tried to tell herself that these encounters with other women, though clearly within the last year, predated the change she had detected in Paul. And yet, perhaps they were the reason for his new behavior, at least in front of her. For all she knew, he was seeing both these women regularly and feeling guilty enough about it to treat Jae with more deference and respect than she had enjoyed for years.
Of one thing she was certain so far: the NPO had little on Paul in the matter of flipping. He would appear the same either way. If he had switched allegiances, he would spend time interacting with the zealot underground. If he was still the best espionage man in the world in the area of religious rebels, he was likely to do the same. How would anyone ever know unless he declared himself or was found to aid and abet the enemy?
“The best we can determine,” Ranold concluded, “is that Agent Stepola is in familiar form in Europe. He very much impressed Chancellor Dengler in Bern, and unless and until we are ready to bring him in and file charges, we want to keep it that way. Stepola’s fall from grace will be noisy and embarrassing to the NPO and to the USSA. He continues to make initial contacts with local authorities, make cursory investigations of the affected sites, and begin his own investigations independently.”
“That’s always been his modus operandi,” Jae said, knowing she sounded defensive and sensing pity on the parts of others, who had to believe she was in denial.
“True,” Bia Balaam spoke up. “But we’re about to shadow him much more closely. If he is becoming too familiar with the underground, for purposes other than setting them up for apprehension, we’ll know. And while his personal indiscretions are none of our concern—other than if they affect the quality of his work—those will become obvious to us as well. And thus to his father-in-law. And thus to you.”
“Which will make me all the more eager to help nail him on the NPO side,” Jae said.
“That is a very healthy attitude in the midst of a most unfortunate set of personal circumstances,” Chief Balaam said.
Jae almost thanked Bia out of habit but caught herself. What was she thinking? Was she in denial? She couldn’t argue that part of her wanted to defend Paul, to find him innocent on every front. If whatever happened between him and Trina or Angela was in the past, why should he be expected to dredge it up and lay it on her? Best-case scenario, something had happened that made him clean up his act, and he was doing everything in his power to be a good citizen at home and on the job.
Yeah, and I’m the tooth fairy.
“I know how this sounds,” Jae said, “so let me assure you all in advance that I am neither blind, nor have I lost my mind. But indulge me. Let’s say I deal with the domestic issues. They’re my business anyway. Putting those aside, is there any scenario in which Paul might prove that you have misjudged him? What would exonerate him and convince you that he is a patriot, that he has not flipped? His methods may be unorthodox, not by the book, not the way they were done in your day, Dad. But in many of the instances you cited, he was successful.”
“If I may jump in here again, General Decenti,” Bia said, irritating Jae but clearly impressing Ranold by using his military title.
“Please,” he said.
“This is just my personal opinion, but I daresay it is shared around this table. The only way Agent Stepola could redeem himself within the NPO and the international intelligence community now would be to personally bring down Styr Magnor.”
17
CHAPPELL RAISON’S COMPATRIOTS BEGAN ARRIVING singly over the next few hours, and by nightfall five more men and three women had joined him and Paul in the tiny meeting room. Meanwhile, Paul had taken a call from Enzo Fabrizio in Rome.
“I have good news and bad news,” Paul’s new friend reported. “The good news is that my people were most encouraged since your visit. While there may be a holdout or two here or there, the vast majority consider you a brother and are glad to have you where you are.”
“I appreciate that,” Paul said, “but they realize that is only temporary, do they not? I cannot imagine my staying in place with the NPO long after Monday’s announcement.”
“Oh, they know,” Enzo said. “In fact, that’s the bad news. We have not yet decided what to do when the announcement comes. Those few who are still suspicious of you concede that they will find you entirely credible if the announcement is made as you predicted. But they, and the rest, agree that such an eventuality would give the entire global underground church sixty days’ worth of marching orders. Unless we do something drastic, true believers who would never denounce their faith will face death.”
Of course Enzo was right. But . . .
“Here’s the rest of the bad news, brother,” Enzo said. “None of us here has any connection whatever to Styr Magnor or any underground in Norway—or anywhere in Scandinavia for that matter, not that we doubt there is one, maybe a real one. Even those few here who laud what Magnor has accomplished have no ties with him or anyone who knows him.
“I presented to our people your idea of helping to draw him out, and I have to tell you, Paul, it was soundly voted down. And not just by the majority against Magnor. Fortunately I didn’t have to vote, but I’ll tell you, brother, I must agree that the threat of this International decree Monday hangs over us like Damocles’ sword. I’m not inclined to go against the wishes of the body and put our efforts into a dangerous mission when we have so much on our plate already. If and when the announcement comes, as you can imagine, we will feel the pressure of time like never before.”
“I understand,” Paul said, unable to hide the disappointment in his voice.
“Do you? That is a great relief to me.”
“I didn’t want to burden you, Enzo. I just need help, that’s all.”
Paul heard his friend sigh. “There are few things as important as bringing Styr Magnor to justice, Paul. But I have to agree with my people that we are already engaged in two of them. One is to get the message of Jesus to the masses while we still can. The other is finding a way to unite and fight this decree. The only possible way of surviving it is to show the International Government that there are enough of us that we should be heard. Our very act of not signing is a declaration for the Lord. I have to believe He will honor that and protect us.”
“But, Enzo, you all have been living underground for years. It has been like this for decades already.”
“Yet the government feels this need to put us on the spot. We have made inroads, Paul. Why else would there be this stepped-up effort to force our hand? Do you think this is entirely attributable to Magnor? Yes, we have lived under the shadow of being lawbreakers and answering to a higher authority all our lives. But now, if you are right, not only would we lose our jobs and homes and any privileges
that come with citizenship, but we would also lose our freedom and likely our lives.”
“True.”
“What will you do, Paul? This has to be even worse, more dangerous for you.”
“No question. And I have no idea. But I know this: Nothing will make me sign.”
“Praise the Lord. But what about the disposition of your wife and children?”
Paul hesitated. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about this; he simply had never articulated it. “I have already put them in God’s hands,” he said. “If the only thing within my power to save them was renouncing my faith, I would not do it. I could not. I would only pray they be drawn to God through my example.”
“We’ll pray with you, but you know what often happens in those situations, especially if your stand comes as a surprise to loved ones.”
“Of course I know. Jae would be shocked and assume I was crazy. I am trying to live in such a way that she will at least be sorry to lose me.”
“Brother,” Enzo said sadly, “I have a passage for you. May I read it?”
“Please.”
“It’s from the first chapter of Ephesians:
So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure. And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago. God’s purpose was that we who were the first to trust in Christ should praise our glorious God. And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.
It had been years since Jae was in her father’s office, and she was frankly surprised that he had been reassigned the one he had left when first he had retired.
“Yes,” he said, “they bring back an old dog and give him the same house, bone, and bowl.”
“Some house,” she said, admiring the deep, rich woods, the marble floor, the tasteful decorating that he, obviously, had had little to do with. “They let Mom in here, or did you have professionals decorate?”
“Doesn’t look like my handiwork?” he said, smiling. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“Exactly.”
“I hardly notice it. Too busy. But yes, if you must know, your mother worked with inside people.”
Jae felt superficial even commenting on it. She didn’t care and it was hard to pretend she did. But anything to keep from talking about the elephant in the room. Eventually, of course, she had to. “Dad, even you have to know how excruciating that was for me in there.”
He sat behind his desk in a high-backed judge’s chair, leaning on his elbows. For the first time in a long while he didn’t have an immediate answer. He looked at her with what she took as sympathy and pity, and in spite of herself, she was buying it. He actually looked sincere. He shook his head. “I can’t imagine. And I’m sorry, honey.”
She wasn’t so sure of that. Much as he loved her in his own way, nothing was more exciting or fulfilling to him than nailing someone. Even if that someone was her husband, his son-in-law. Things looked bad for Paul, and much as Jae told herself to avoid creeping toward denial for her own selfish reasons, she couldn’t allow herself to totally turn her back on him.
But why not? Look at what Paul had done to her in the past. And those pictures! They didn’t lie. The other stuff was thin and circumstantial, but her dad and the others clearly had some plan whereby they could confirm or deny where Paul stood on his loyalty to the USSA and the International Government. The question was where she came in.
“Can you hide what you know from your conversations with Paul, Jae?”
“I have to.”
“Yes, you do. And can you do whatever is necessary to help us, if he’s turned on us?”
“To be perfectly honest, Dad, you haven’t proved that to me yet. But if you could, of course I would do whatever was necessary. What kind of a person, citizen, mother would I be if I wouldn’t?”
“That’s my girl.”
My biggest fear: I’m Ranold B. Decenti’s girl—no more, no less.
Paul found Chappell Raison’s leadership team supportive from the get-go, as explained by his right-hand man, Lothair Manville. A short, stocky, soft-spoken man in his midtwenties, Lothair had come to faith through the persistent influence of Chappell. “His selling the rest of us on you reminded me of those days,” Lothair said with a smile. “He argued his case from all angles, shooting down our arguments before we could raise them.”
“But you weren’t simply beaten down till you had to concede, were you?” Paul said. “Because I am willing to field any questions. And we have a saying in America: ‘A client sold against his will remains unsold still.’”
Lothair laughed with the others, and a woman said, “You should know this about the French, Doctor. We love to debate, and at high decibels. If we conceded that Chapp was right about you, we had to have been genuinely convinced. For one thing, the time is short and we cannot waste it continuing to debate your veracity. If you are a wolf in sheep’s clothing, we are all dead anyway. So let us assume the best and move on.”
“The time is shorter than you know,” Paul said. And he told them of International’s announcement due in two days. He did not see another smile the whole evening. Naturally, it had to be hard for them to concentrate on anything else while imagining the ramifications. They were already leading dual lives, hiding the truth about themselves to most others in their spheres. Now their rebellion against the government, against atheism, could be hidden only through overt deceit and a denial of their faith.
Before they continued—and Paul had much he wanted to discuss—they insisted on praying. Everyone knelt in the drafty little room, and for more than an hour they pleaded with God for wisdom and direction. Paul lost track of how many times he heard someone admit, “We don’t know what to do, Lord.”
On the way back to the house, Ranold asked Jae the question she dreaded but knew had to be coming. “Is there anything else you can tell me that will help? Anything at all?”
She didn’t want to lie to her father, but she wasn’t ready to cave on Paul just yet either. Silently she chastised herself. Why protect him? What cause has he given me? Even his new attitude—his loving, caring, listening, others-oriented personality—could be just a ruse to cover what he’s really been up to.
But what if he was for real? What if he had really changed? Did that mean he had flipped? Had all this nonsense from the New Testament reached him somehow? Was he a victim of Stockholm syndrome? And would that be so terrible?
What was she saying? Would it be so terrible if he had become a believer in God like his own father? Well, yeah. It would make him a turncoat. A traitor. A liar. A double agent. Worthy of death. Was it possible? Could the very thing that made him a better husband have also made him an international felon?
“Dad,” she heard herself say, as if from a hollow room somewhere deep in her soul, “I do have something you need to see.”
After prayer, as they returned to their chairs, it was getting late and Chappell’s people were glancing at their watches. “I don’t want to keep you,” Paul said, “but there is an urgent matter. Chapp and I have discussed his exposure to Styr Magnor. If we can work together to capture this man, imagine the several-pronged benefits to the cause.�
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Paul had already almost lost them; he could tell. They paled, looked at each other, gazes darting. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I would no more expose you people than—”
“Expose us?” someone said. “If you’re right about Monday, we’ll already be exposed. Once the sixty days are up, what will we do? Live here?”
“There’s no perfect scenario, but consider this: Magnor needs to be brought to justice. Even if we weren’t looking at this as Christians, he’s still a murderer, a coward. The international community may make strange bedfellows for us, but on this we must agree. Regardless the offense, regardless the differences, the answer is not the obliteration of innocent people.”
“Which is what they’re planning for us,” a woman said. “Are you sure it’s not the answer?”
“We’re disagreed on Magnor?” Paul said with incredulity.
“No,” she said. “Not at all. We’re just talking. It’s how we think. Aloud.”
“Then consider this: If somehow I can be central in apprehending him, I once again eliminate suspicion about me with the very agency I serve.”
“That’s the benefit to you,” someone said.
“Besides that, he gets to stay alive,” another said.
“I get to keep working under cover in an agency devoted to destroying you,” Paul said.
“But for how long? You could bring in Magnor and still be required to sign the decree, right?”
“Of course. And as I’ve said, there’s no scenario I can imagine in which I would do that. Now I live a covert lie. By what I don’t say and what I imply, they think I’m with them. If I am asked outright to deny God, to deny faith, no.”
“So you’ll also have sixty days from Monday, regardless. Even if you bring in Magnor.”
Paul thought a moment. “Right. And during that time, while I do everything in my power to evade the issue, I’ll remind myself of the value of seeking justice for the innocents and protecting the future from Magnor.”
Silenced Page 19
