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by Robert L. Wise

  “I’d say that’s about as disturbing as the news gets,” Graham said to his family.

  Adah Honi and Eldad Rafaeli, their two Jewish friends, nodded in agreement.

  “You know,” Matthew said thoughtfully, “we’ve become so disconnected from the world that we really don’t know what’s going on in many other places. Maybe we ought to venture beyond the Tomahawk area. The town’s so small, it offers nothing but groceries. Rhinelander’s not that far away, and it’s got far more people.”

  “Yeah,” Graham agreed. “Good point. I’d like to get a larger perspective on that eclipse.”

  “But the Scripture it confirms,” Adah added. “No coincidences there. It is absolutely amazing.”

  “Those strange events terrify me,” Jackie said. “I suppose this experience is another one of the ways God is attempting to get the world’s attention, but it’s frightening.”

  Adah turned to Eldad, who had come to America from Israel. “What would you say about such an unexpected sign?”

  Eldad squinted and pursed his lips. “Let me see,” he said slowly. Eldad had worked for years in the Pil Tobacco factory in Rosh-Ha’Ayin, near Tel Aviv. “Rabbi Akibba from Prague once told the story of a sudden freeze that fell in the middle of the summer.” Puffs of white hair shot out from the sides of his otherwise bald head and shook when he spoke. “One day it is as hot as August, and the next day a pond in the middle of the pasture is frozen as solid as if it was the coldest part in winter. His students ask, ‘Why would the Holy One, bless His name, do such a thing?’ Do you know what Rabbi Akibba said?”

  “N-o-o-o,” six-year-old Jeff said with wide-open eyes.

  “Tell us!” George demanded in his high eight-year-old voice.

  Teenage Mary rolled her eyes indifferently as if she could care less, but she leaned forward slightly to hear what the Israeli said.

  “If the blessed One of Israel can’t get your attention when it’s cold, then He will certainly get it when it is hot!” Rafaeli roared. He shook his finger in the air like a professor lecturing in a class. “The Holy One who created the universe will use nature anyway He chooses to make His point! Is that not what has happened yesterday?”

  “Good point!” Graham muttered. “Anything is possible.”

  “Really?” Mary said with more than a hint of disgust.

  “I worry about the people who have been marked on their foreheads,” Matthew said. “They are really in danger. Dad’s foresight kept our family out of that loop, but we’ve already seen how dangerous nanorobots can be. If he hadn’t pushed the red button while we were escaping from Illinois, Jake Pemrose might have killed all of us during that wild chase.”

  “I have been thinking about this strange mark on people’s foreheads,” Adah said. “Of course, the Scripture speaks of the mark of the beast, but I think there is even more we should be aware of.” The Israeli woman picked up a Bible. “Let me read a strange portion of Revelation.” She thumbed through the back of her little black Bible. “I think this is most interesting. ‘And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.’ Isn’t this amazing?”

  “Are you suggesting that the Bible predicted nanorobots?” Jackie said skeptically.

  “No, no,” Adah said. “Predicted is too strong a word, but I find in Scripture that there are amazing similarities of thought. Sometimes the Scripture speaks in general terms, using ancient analogies that we must interpret. Certainly the apostle John wouldn’t have any idea what a nanorobot might be, but this apostle of Christ was on to something with those strange locusts he described. Perhaps, he is painting a picture that today we must interpret in our own special way.”

  “Locusts make a startling analogy for what nanorobots look like,” Matt said. “I saw pictures of those minute things in some of my college classes. A scorpion isn’t a bad image either.”

  “Yes, I will read some more.” Adah continued, “‘The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.’ Fascinating, isn’t it?”

  “That may not be a prediction,” Graham said, “but it’s close enough for me.”

  “I should add this portion,” Adah said. “The section ends with this explanation: ‘They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.’” She stopped. “In English those words mean ‘the destroyer.’”

  “However one concludes these passages fit into a biblical scheme of things, the truth is that the destroyer, the angel from the Abyss, is hard at work in the world today,” Graham said. “Our job is to make sure the force doesn’t land here.”

  “Indeed!” Eldad said. “We must offer no shelter in your home to Apollyon.”

  CHAPTER 7

  THE SUDDEN SNAP ECHOED through the kitchen with the sharpness of an attacker breaking through the door. Jackie jerked away from the sink and stared over her shoulder. The sound of a branch breaking or the crackling of pine needles sent shivers down her spine these days. Her heart started to pound. Maybe the noise was a deer, maybe nothing. But the unexpected noise frightened her.

  Creeping away from the kitchen sink, she inched along the front wall of the cabin until she stood next to the curtains on the picture window. Gingerly, she peeked around the curtains, but saw nothing. Even though the forest appeared empty, she kept looking. Jackie grew up in a family where camping in the trees and nature trails hadn’t been a part of her world. She lived far more on the indoor side of the world. Concerts, art museums, lectures; the sort of things most kids dreaded, she had been weaned on. When Graham came up with the idea of buying a cabin “up north,” the idea hadn’t sat well with her, but she didn’t say anything because she knew secret outings would be good for the family and she would adjust. Jackie didn’t like the possibility of a bear’s wandering by (which never happened), but she did enjoy seeing deer (which happened frequently). It was the occasional “noises” that set her off, but this seemed far more than an occasional noise.

  Boom! The loud thumping nose ricocheted through the cabin, coming from somewhere on the other side of the bedroom wall. No animal ever caused a reverberation with such a solid thud. Only a man’s foot could create such a booming noise. Instantly, she remembered Graham had taken the children and their Jewish friends into town for groceries. The realization of their absence was more than unnerving. Jackie was completely alone.

  She grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen drawer and dropped below window level. Days had passed since they had seen anyone around their place, and the chances were high the intruder wasn’t a friend.

  Crawling on her hands and knees, Jackie scooted across the living room floor and inched into the bedroom. The second-story windows would allow her to look down on anyone prowling around the side of the house the noise had come from. At that moment she heard another sound. Quieter, but equally terrifying—the crunching of pine needles under an adult foot . . . right below the window.

  Clutching the knife with an iron grip, Jackie pressed against the wall and slowly inched up to peek out the window. With her head barely showing, she stared through the windowpane. If a deer had been there, the animal would still be standing by the house, but there wasn’t anything; not a squirrel, not a rabbit—nothing. Jackie choked. A cold, frightening sensation crawled across her mind. Graham had warned her that it was possible for their adversaries to catch them off guard electronically and sneak up on the house. If that happened, they must be prepared to protect themselves to the death. These assailants had already proved themselves to be killers, and no chances could be taken.

  Dropping below the windowsill, Jackie crawled across the floor and into the closet. Shortly after they arrived in W
isconsin, Graham had purchased a pistol and a rifle that he kept concealed in the closet. When the family debated whether it was appropriate to have guns, Eldad Rafaeli argued the Scripture supported self-protection. Not to defend themselves was paramount to surrendering to murderers. Today she wasn’t worrying about that debate. Jackie wanted a gun!

  She quickly found the holster containing a 9mm pistol that Graham had hidden behind one of the shoe racks. He had always instructed that the clip stay loaded because time could be a factor. Jackie yanked the pistol out of the leather holster and slowly, cautiously, pulled back the slide, chambering a live round. Her hand shook so badly she feared accidentally firing the weapon. Jackie pulled her finger off the trigger and tried to catch her breath, but her furiously pounding heart made it difficult. Turning around, she started crawling back across the floor. Leaning against the bed, Jackie tried to pull her thoughts together, but the all-absorbing panic swallowed her. Graham always said she overreacted. Well, she wouldn’t admit it, but he was right. Noises always got bigger inside her head than they were to her ears. Maybe she was only being overly sensitive to some normal sound. She took another deep breath and lowered the gun.

  A crack echoed from the other side of the house.

  Jackie’s heart stopped. She had heard it! No animal could have made that sound; only a human could make such a noise. Raising the gun, she started a crouching walk toward the door that led out to the veranda. Leaning up against the large glass door, she listened carefully. Her hand started shaking again.

  There might be one man out there . . . there might be several! Whatever. She didn’t want to be caught inside the cabin by an attacker. She had to get outside where the assailant couldn’t corner her. The man probably already knew there was only one woman in the house, and that made her a prime target for attack. Jackie’s mouth went dry, and for a moment she thought she might faint.

  Lying on her stomach, Jackie reached up to make sure the door was still unlocked. The door wouldn’t move! Gingerly, she ran her hand down the side until she felt the small lock release. With a flip of her thumb, she popped open the lock. Taking a long, deep breath of air, Jackie jumped up, pulled the door open, and dashed outside.

  “I’m going to kill you!” she screamed. “Blow your ugly head off!” Aiming the gun at the trees, she fired madly in every direction until the chamber clicked, signaling it was empty. The roaring blasts echoed through the trees.

  Jackie suddenly realized she not only didn’t have any more bullets, but she’d left the knife on the floor in the closet. Once more her hand started shaking.

  Jackie listened intently and thought she might have heard someone running on the other side of the house, but she couldn’t be certain. For five minutes she waited for another noise, but none came. Finally, she crouched down next to the house and waited with her gun outstretched, ready for an instant response, even though the gun remained empty. She was too exhausted to move.

  Nothing. Nothing at all followed.

  An hour later, Jackie heard the family car winding its way down the gravel road to their house. For the first time, she lowered the depleted gun and carefully eased her cramped finger off the trigger. She wanted to cry in sheer relief. Should she tell them her story and risk being laughed at?

  There was no choice. She had to. That sound wasn’t her imagination.

  CHAPTER 8

  THE MORNING AFTER the eclipse, Graham sat on the veranda and thought about their discussion the day before and Jackie’s fears that someone was lurking outside. Graham knew his wife had a tendency to overreact, but then again, maybe she didn’t. It gave him something important to ponder. Regardless, Matthew had been right. The family needed to move from beyond the narrow confines of the summer cabin. After months of seclusion, getting back in touch with the larger world might prove profitable. Possibly a larger circle of contacts would allay some of Jackie’s fears. Undoubtedly, the intensity of the search by the mayor and his cronies had eased. After all, who was he that they should so relentlessly pursue him and his family?

  Jackie often got emotional and overstated the issues. After all, the Peck family had been virtually invisible, and Frank Bridges surely had bigger fish to fry these days. Since the petroleum magnate and politician, Borden Carson, was pushing Bridges for some sort of national office, the mayor probably had lost interest in chasing Graham. And Carson couldn’t have any interest in him.

  A cold wind swept across the porch and sent a shiver down his spine. It was spring, but it could still get chilly out in the woods. For a fleeting moment, Graham thought maybe the weather was sending him a warning, but he dismissed the idea.

  He thought again about Adah Honi’s discovery that Borden Camber Carson’s anglo name, and the Arabic name Hassan Jawhar Rashid, each had six letters that when put together stood for the biblical number 666 of the Antichrist. Her insight had changed Graham’s point of view about everything. He certainly didn’t like the charismatic leader, but Peck hadn’t dreamed he could have the influence and significance that the Scripture attributed to the Antichrist. Carson, or Rashid, had grown explosively, beyond any presuppositions about evil Graham might have.

  A highly intelligent man, Graham Peck had always been unusually creative and innovative. His inventive talents had propelled him to the top of the political world. While he actually preferred to stand in the shadows, most Chicagoans had known he was Bridges’ right-hand man, and probably his backroom brains. In the last several years, Chicago had climbed the ratings ladder in its standing in national politics, surpassing even New York City and Los Angeles with the big-league politicos. Whoever stood on this ladder couldn’t help but become well known in a wide circle, and Graham had placed a foot in that circle.

  Those days had vanished like a mirage on a hot highway. What Graham had once believed was “normal” everyday life had completely disappeared. Never religious, the murder of Maria Peck, Graham’s mother, radically shifted the family’s ultimate commitments. Matt’s involvement with a secret group at Northwestern University had brought them into contact with an emerging form of what had once been called Christian faith. Everyone except his daughter, Mary, had been deeply affected by this new biblical faith, and that was one of the reasons Graham got into so much trouble with Bridges and the front office. He could no longer go along with their schemes and manipulations, and if there was anything the mayor’s political circle didn’t want, it was people asking moral, ethical questions.

  The passing months had not lessened Graham’s grief over his mother’s death. The discovery that her shooting was one part of Bridges’ diabolical plans to test Graham’s loyalty infuriated him. It also kept him aware of how deadly the intentions of Bridges and Carson remained. These men weren’t playing games, and they’d do whatever was necessary to achieve their purposes.

  Maria’s influence on Graham’s life remained constant even after her death. While the family hadn’t gone to church, she had tried to instill positive values and enduring hopes in his life. A good woman, Maria’s major interest unequivocally had been her family. Graham, Jackie, and the three children remained the singular focus of her dreams. Her untimely death had ripped away the barriers the Peck family used to negate the Christian message and forced them to seek the truth about the meaning of life and death. From this grim scene had come the spiritual discoveries that sent the Pecks down a very different road . . . except for Mary. She remained closed to the family’s new faith.

  When Matt brought Adah Honi and Eldad Rafaeli home from college, a needed dimension had been added to their spiritual lives. Much older than college students, the two Israeli immigrants brought a knowledge of the Old Testament that turned into a graduate education for the Peck family. Forced to leave with the Pecks when Bridges’ men closed in on the meeting of Christians in Graham’s home, the two Jews became the family’s tutors, vastly widening their knowledge of the entire Bible.

  But months had passed. Possibly the seasons really had changed things. Jackie’s fear
s aside, Graham was certain the pursuit was more lax. Going beyond the narrow perimeters of the town of Tomahawk would certainly prove good for the children, and the family might learn some important insights about what was happening outside. Yes, a trip to Rhinelander was definitely a good idea.

  CHAPTER 9

  THE MAYOR OF CHICAGO stood in his large conference room, watching his advisers gathered around the table. Since Jake Pemrose’s death, Bridges had lost two of the most important cogs in his political machinery. Pemrose had always been his most trusted confidant, and Graham Peck his most insightful strategist. He was minus two badly needed associates as the political struggles intensified. Borden Camber Carson had hurled him into the fray up to his neck, and he required the best brains available. The “best” wasn’t out there. These days the supply of talent was proving to be highly limited.

  Bridges knew political chips had been falling his way, but he couldn’t chance doing anything that might offend Carson. Meachem had to take over responsibilities to minimize any fuss over Pemrose’s death. The mayor had been forced to do top-drawer business with Al Meachem, Jack Stratton, and Bill Marks because they already knew most of his backroom secrets, and they were all that was left of Bridges’ inner circle. While appearing far more sinister than either Peck or Pemrose, Meachem had stepped into the role of Bridges’ right-hand man. Bill Marks didn’t say much, but Bridges knew he could count on him. The mayor needed these men sitting around the table to function on a more professional level.