by Tim LaHaye
Mac was right. Rayford and Floyd worked to store as much energy as they could from various sources so they could watch on the smallest TV in the safe house. The whole lot of them huddled to watch and stay warm, Hattie continuing to maintain, “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m only getting what I deserve.”
Tsion said, “My dear, you will find that none of the sealed of the Lord will die due to this judgment. This is an attention-getter aimed at the unbelievers. We suffer because the whole world suffers, but it will not mortally harm us. Don’t you want the same protection?”
She did not answer.
Buck, shivering underground with Stefan and Jacov, could not find the power to watch Carpathia on TV. The group listened on a radio with a signal so weak they had to hold their collective breath to hear him.
In Mount Prospect, Rayford, Tsion, Chloe, Floyd, and Hattie watched as Carpathia came on TV in a bare studio, clapping his mittens and bouncing on his toes as if freezing to death. “Citizens of the Global Community,” he intoned, “I applaud your courage, your cooperation, your sense of loyalty and togetherness as we rise to the challenge of enduring yet another catastrophe.
“I come to you at this hour to announce my plan to personally visit the two preachers at the Wailing Wall, who have admitted their roles in the plagues that have befallen Israel. They must now be forced to admit that they are behind this dastardly assault on our new way of life.
“Apparently they are invulnerable to physical attack. I will call upon their sense of decency, of fairness, of compassion, and I will go with an open mind, willing to negotiate. Clearly they want something. If there is something I can bargain with that will not threaten the dignity of my office or harm the citizens I live for, I am willing to listen and consider anything.
“I shall make this pilgrimage tomorrow, and it will be carried on live television. As the Global Community headquarters in New Babylon naturally has more power reserves than most areas, we will record this historic encounter with the hope that all of you will be able to enjoy it when this ordeal is finally over.
“Take heart, my beloved ones. I believe the end of this nightmare is in sight.”
“He’s going personally to the Wall?” Buck said. “Is that what I just heard?”
Stefan nodded. “We should go.”
“They won’t let anybody near the place,” Jacov said.
“They might,” Buck said. He suggested the three of them bundle up as thickly as possible and find a location with a clear view of the wrought-iron fence. “We can build a shelter there that looks like just a wood box.”
“We’re down to our last few sheets of plywood for fuel now,” Stefan said. “That green stuff in the cellar.”
“We’ll bring it back with us,” Buck said, “and use it for fuel later.”
The plan proved his most foolhardy yet. His face was still tender in spots and numb in others since getting the stitches out several weeks before. He had not expected to have to deal with frostbite in Israel. He and his two compatriots found a stairway that led to an abandoned building with a sealed door, fewer than a hundred yards from the Wall. With Carpathia expected at noon, they built their shelter in the pitch-blackness of the morning. If others ventured out in the howling blizzard, Buck and his friends didn’t see them.
They were raw and cold by the time they climbed into their rough-hewn box with slits for viewing. Buck, ever the journalist, just had to see what the thing might look like to a passerby. “I’ll be right back,” he said.
“You’re going out in this again?” Jacov said.
“Just for a minute.”
Buck jogged a hundred feet from the staircase and tried to make out the box in the blowing snow and low output from a nearby light pole. Perfect, he thought. It would draw no one’s attention. As he trudged back, he squinted in the darkness toward the Wall, knowing the witnesses were there but unable to see them. He detoured to get closer.
From what he could tell, they were not by the fence. He drew closer, confident he could not surprise or frighten them and that they would know in their spirits he was a believer. He stepped as close to the fence as he had ever been, recalling one of the first times he had ever conversed with them from just a few feet away.
A break in the wind allowed him to see the two, sitting, their backs against the stone building. They sat casually, elbows on knees, conversing. They were not huddled, still impervious to the elements. Buck wanted to say something, but nothing came to mind. They didn’t seem to need encouragement. They didn’t seem to need anything.
When in unison they glanced up at him standing there, he just nodded with his stiff neck, like a kid in a binding snowsuit, and raised both fists in support. His heart leapt when he saw them smile for the first time, and Eli raised a hand of greeting.
Buck ran back to the shelter. “Where you been, man?” Jacov said. “We thought you got lost or frozen or something.”
Buck just sat, wrapping his arms around his knees, hunching his shoulders, and shook his head. “I’m fine,” he said.
GC troops kept crowds several blocks away, once the motor coach arrived bearing Nicolae and his entourage. The wind and snow had stopped, but the noonday sun hardly warmed the area.
Carpathia remained on the bus as TV personnel set up lights and sound and cameras. Finally they signaled the potentate, and several of his top people, led by Fortunato, disembarked. Carpathia was the last to appear. He approached the fence, behind which the two witnesses still sat.
As the world watched on television, Carpathia said, “I bring you cordial greetings from the Global Community. I assume, because of your obvious supernatural powers, that you knew I was coming.”
Eli and Moishe remained seated. Moishe said, “God alone is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.”
“Nonetheless, I am here on behalf of the citizens of the earth to determine what course we might take to gain respite from this curse on the planet.”
The witnesses stood and stepped forward. “We will speak to you alone.”
Carpathia nodded at his minions, and Fortunato, clearly reluctant, led them back to the motor coach.
“All right then,” Carpathia said, “shall we proceed?”
“We will talk with you alone.”
Carpathia looked puzzled, then said, “These people are merely television technicians, cameramen, and so forth.”
“We will talk with you alone.”
Nicolae cocked his head in resignation and sent the TV crew away as well. “May we leave the cameras running? Would that be all right?”
“Your quarrel is not with us,” Eli said.
“Beg pardon? You are not behind the darkness, the resultant global chaos?”
“Only God is omnipotent.”
“I am seeking your help as men who claim to speak for God. If this is of God, then I plead with you to help me come to some arrangement, an agreement, a compromise, if you will.”
“Your quarrel is not with us.”
“Well, all right, I understand that, but if you have access to him—”
“Your quarrel is not w—”
“I appreciate that point! I am asking—”
Suddenly Moishe spoke so loudly that the sound meters had to have maxed out. “You would dare wag your tongue at the chosen ones of almighty God?”
“I apologize. I—”
“You who boasted that we would die before the due time?”
“Granted, I concede that I—”
“You who deny the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?”
“In the spirit of ecumenism and tolerance, yes, I do hold that one should not limit his view of deity to one image. But—”
“There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.”
“That is a valid view, of course, just like many of the other views—”
“It is written, ‘Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, aft
er the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.’”
“Do you not see that yours is such an exclusivisti—”
“Your quarrel is not with us.”
“We are back to that again, are we? In the spirit of diplomacy, let me suggest—”
But the two witnesses turned away and sat down again.
“So, that is it, then? Before the eyes of the world, you refuse to talk? To negotiate? All I get is that my quarrel is not with you? With whom, then, is it? All right, fine!”
Carpathia marched in front of the main camera and stared into it from inches away. He spoke wearily, but with his usual precise enunciation. “Upon further review, the death of the Global Community guard at the Meeting of the Witnesses was not the responsibility of any of the witnesses or any member of Dr. Ben-Judah’s inner circle. The man killed by GC troops at the airport was not a terrorist. My good friend Dr. Chaim Rosenzweig was at no time and in no way holding Ben-Judah or his people at our behest. As of this moment, no one sympathetic to Dr. Ben-Judah and his teachings is considered a fugitive or an enemy of the Global Community. All citizens are equally free to travel and live their lives in a spirit of liberty.
“I do not know with whom I am or should be negotiating, but I assure whoever it is that I stand willing to make whatever other concessions would move us closer to the end of this plague of darkness.”
He turned on his heel, sarcastically saluted the two witnesses, and reboarded the motor coach. As the TV crew rushed to gather their equipment, the witnesses spoke in unison from where they sat, clearly loud enough for anyone, even Carpathia, to hear.
“Woe, woe, woe unto all who fail to look up and lift up your heads!”
Two days later, the sun rose bright and full and the earth began to thaw. Buck made plans to fly home freely under his own name. “I can’t fly directly to Chicago commercially,” he told Rayford, “even with the reconstruction of Midway. I have to go through Europe.”
“Any connections through Athens?”
“I’ll check. Why?”
Rayford asked that he check on Lukas Miklos. “I’ll see if he can greet you at the airport. It won’t delay your trip home, and it’ll really encourage him.”
In Mount Prospect, Tsion told Rayford he was working on what would be his most dramatic and ominous warning yet. Meanwhile he broadcast worldwide over the Internet: “Because of the proven truth of Luke 21, I urge all, believers and unbelievers alike, to train your eyes on the skies. I believe this is the message from the two witnesses.”
Doc Charles dug out and cleaned up Donny Moore’s telescope, and with millions around the world, began monitoring the heavens. But when Tsion announced in one of his daily messages that he was planning to build a Web site that would allow others to watch the skies through the same telescope, Rayford received a frantic call from David Hassid in New Babylon.
“Glad I caught you,” he said breathlessly. “How far along are you on that telescope Web site idea?”
“Couple of days yet. Won’t take our people long.”
“You don’t want to do that. A little software and a bright astronomer could just about pinpoint where you guys are.”
Rayford put a hand atop his head. “Thanks for that, David. I never would have thought of it.”
“Anyway, the potentate himself has authorized the purchase of a colossal telescope, and I get to work with the guys who will man it. Several can monitor it at once through various computers.”
“Well, David, you know what we’re looking for.”
“I sure do.”
CHAPTER 16
The following week, news programs reported that stargazers from around the globe were tracking what appeared at first to be a shooting star. But this one, first seen during nighttime hours in Asia, did not streak across the sky for a second or two and disappear. Neither was this hurtling object in an orbital trajectory.
Astronomers were fond of explaining that, due to the distance from the earth of even the nearest stars, much of the activity seen from earth actually occurred years before and were just being seen now.
But after several hours of every amateur and professional telescope jockey in the world tracking it, it was becoming clear that this was no ordinary star. Neither was this an event that had happened years before. Experts unable to identify it agreed it was tiny, it was falling straight, and it had been descending a long time. It radiated little heat but seemed to emit its own light as well as reflecting light from stars and the sun, depending on the time of day.
The more closely it was studied, the less a threat it appeared to Earth. The head of GCASA said it had every chance of burning up as it hit Earth’s atmosphere. “But even if it remains intact, it has a high probability of landing harmlessly in water. From what we are able to speculate about its mass and density, if it was to hit land, it would suffer far more damage than it could inflict. In all likelihood, it would be vaporized.”
Still, none seemed able to turn their telescopes from it. Eventually the unidentified falling object was projected to land somewhere in an uninhabited region of the Fertile Crescent, near what many believed was the cradle of civilization.
GC scientists reached the projected touchdown point in time to see the impact, but they reported that it appeared to slip past the earth’s surface into a deep crevice. Aerial studies of the area showed the impossibility of vehicular or foot traffic to more closely evaluate the object and its effect or lack thereof on the earth’s crust.
As planes circled and shot still pictures and videotape, however, a geological eruption registered high on the Richter scale of seismology sensors all over the world. This thing that fell to earth, whatever it was, had somehow triggered volcanolike activity deep beneath the earth’s surface.
The shock wave alone blew the surveillance planes off course and forced their pilots to fight to stay airborne and escape the area. Astounding scientists, the first evidence of what happened beneath the earth was a mushroom cloud a thousand times bigger and launched with that much more power and speed than any in history produced by bombs or natural phenomena. Also unique about this eruption was that it came from the crevice below sea level rather than from the typical volcanic mountain.
Cameras a thousand miles from the source of the cloud picked up images of it within twelve hours. Rather than being carried on indiscriminate winds, this cloud—massive and growing, fed from the belching earth—spread equally in all directions and threatened to block the sun all over the globe.
And this was no smoky cloud that thinned and dissipated as it traveled. The thick fumes that gushed from the ground were dense and black like the base of a gasoline fire. Scientists feared the source of the smoke was a colossal fire that would eventually rise and shoot flames miles into the air.
Early the following Monday afternoon in Jerusalem, Buck was devastated to learn that his flight to Athens and then on to the States had been cancelled. The billowing cloud of smoke that blanketed the earth had affected daylight again. Buck had looked forward to a two-hour layover during which he would meet Lukas Miklos. He was then to switch planes and fly nonstop the rest of the way to Chicago’s Midway Airport. He was to proceed from there to Mount Prospect only after determining that he would not lead any enemies to the safe house. He and the Stateside members of the Tribulation Force had developed options to misdirect tails and shake them free.
Instead Buck hurried to Chaim Rosenzweig’s home under the cover of darkness. “Be wary of Carpathia’s claim that you are not still a suspect,” Chaim said. “Nicolae is not speaking to me. Leon is fuming. While they cannot casually renege on their agreement, they will soon find some justification.”
“Don’t worry. I’m so eager to see Chloe, I may fly under my own power.”
“Be careful of Enigma Babylon.”
“What’s Peter up to now?”
“You haven’t heard?”
Buck shook his head. “Too busy getting ready to go.”
Chaim turned on the TV.
“I could quote this by heart, I’ve heard it so many times today. It’s the only thing in the news outside the smoking volcano.”
Mathews, in full clerical regalia again, spoke to the camera. “The Global Community may have a tacit agreement with black-magic religious terrorists, but the time has come to enforce the law. Enigma Babylon One World Faith is the accepted religion for the whole world. As much as it is in my power—and a careful reading of the Global Community charter reveals that this clearly falls within my purview—I will prosecute offenders. So that all may be clear, I consider exclusivist, intolerant, one-way-only beliefs antithetical to true religion. If, because of misplaced diplomacy, the Global Community administration feels it must allow diversions from cosmic truth, Enigma Babylon itself must go on the offensive.
“To be an atheist or an agnostic is one thing. Even they are welcome beneath our all-inclusive banner. But it is illegal to practice a form of religion that flies in the face of our mission. Such practitioners and their followers will suffer.
“As a first initiative in a sweeping effort to rid the world of intolerance, it shall be deemed criminal, as of midnight Tuesday, Greenwich Mean Time, for anyone to visit the Web site of the so-called Tribulation Force. The teachings of this cult’s guru, Dr. Tsion Ben-Judah, are poison to people of true faith and love, and we will not tolerate this deadly toxin pushed like a drug.
“Technology is in place that can monitor the Internet activity of any citizen, and those whose records show they have accessed this site after the deadline shall be subject to fine and imprisonment.”
A Global Community reporter interrupted. “Two-part question, Supreme Pontiff: One, how does imprisoning people for what they access on the Web jibe with tolerance, faith, and love? And two, if you can monitor everyone’s Internet activity, why can’t you trace where Ben-Judah transmits from and shut him down?”
