Hunted

by Jerry B. Jenkins

  “I hope we’re not keeping you from anything important,” Akbar said with a smile.

  “What you deem important, Director, is of the greatest importance to me,” Chang replied.

  Akbar sat. He was in his early forties, from Pakistan, and gave Chang the impression he meant business. He looked over the screen and checked the stats as the Peacekeeper looked on. Chang wondered why two were needed for this meeting, but he quickly put the thought out of his mind.

  “I suppose you’re wondering why we’ve called you here,” Akbar said, crossing his legs and raising an eyebrow.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You know we’ve been searching for an informant inside the palace. A mole.”

  “Yes, I’ve been questioned about that already.”

  “I know, and you passed. But we’re putting all employees through another interview. We know the mole is still here.”

  “How, sir?”

  Akbar clicked on the computer, and a copy of Buck Williams’s The Truth appeared onscreen. “This, for one.

  Have you read it?”

  “I thought this material was forbidden.”

  “Good man. It is. But we have to keep tabs on the enemy.” He pointed to a section of the first page. “There’s information here that no one could possibly know unless he were here in the palace or had a friend inside.”

  “He tells the truth?”

  Akbar frowned. “He gives an accurate account of things that happen here, conversations, activities.”

  Chang’s stomach tightened. If Akbar hooked him up to a lie detector right now and asked if he had ever had contact with Buck Williams, he was sure he would fail. “And you’re talking to me because … ?”

  Akbar smiled and leaned forward. “How well do you know your boss, Mr. Figueroa? How well do you know your fellow employees, like the one who sits in the next cubicle—” he snapped his fingers at the Peacekeeper— “what is her name?”

  “Rasha, sir.”

  “Have you noticed anything unusual about any of these people and how they act?”

  Chang’s muscles loosened. He could talk all day about his fellow workers. And he would give Akbar as much information as he wanted.

  Judd lay as still and as low as possible in the grass. Mosquitoes buzzed around his head, and he wanted to swat at them but couldn’t.

  “I thought they said nobody ever comes to this place,” Lionel whispered.

  “I guess there’s always a first.”

  The two strangers tromped up the gravel walkway that led to the house. Soon they were on the porch. Judd strained to see their faces, but they were too far away.

  “Full alert everyone,” Luke said. “They’re going inside.”

  11

  JUDD raised his head and stared at the two on the front porch. One leaned down and looked in the windows, putting his hand to the glass and peering inside. The female knocked and yelled, “Anybody home?” Satisfied, she opened the door.

  “No mark of the believer, no uniform, and unarmed,” Judd whispered into the intercom. “What should we do, Luke?”

  “Everybody hold your positions,” Luke said. “Maybe they’ll take some food and leave.”

  Judd heard movement to his left and saw Tom snaking toward the house through the tall grass. He found Judd and Lionel and lay down beside them. “We’ve never had anybody just walk onto the property like that,” Tom said when he caught his breath.

  Judd described the two.

  Tom nodded. “They could be bounty hunters and we’d never know it until they pulled guns out of their back pockets.”

  “Shouldn’t we jump them before they find someone?” Judd said.

  Tom spoke into the intercom. “Luke, we think it might be better to surprise these two rather than the other way around. What do you think?”

  “They’re in the kitchen,” Luke said. “If you can get the jump on them, go ahead.”

  Tom stood. “Lionel, you stick with me. Judd, go around to the back door and wait for my signal. Let’s go.”

  Chang fully answered Director Akbar’s questions about his coworkers. He said Aurelio Figueroa was the most loyal employee he had known. The more Chang spoke, the more frustrated Akbar became.

  “So you haven’t seen anyone in the department who might be funneling information to Buck Williams?”

  Only when I look in the mirror, Chang thought. “I know it would make sense for the person to be fluent in computers and technology, sir, but I can’t say there’s anyone who fits the profile of a Judah-ite near me.”

  “That’s all,” Akbar said, waving a hand and clicking on the computer for the next person to interrogate.

  Chang went back to his desk, counting the minutes until he could go home and send the information he had gleaned about the bounty hunters to Judd and Lionel.

  Judd moved quietly to the back door and waited for Tom’s signal. The man and woman rummaged inside. The kids had cleaned out the refrigerator and stored supplies behind a false wall near the pantry, so there wasn’t much food left.

  “Okay, Judd, now,” Tom whispered in Judd’s earpiece.

  Judd flew inside the door as Lionel and Tom burst into the kitchen. Tom pointed the advanced weapon at the man and woman. They held up their hands and dropped the food, two rancid apples and some moldy bread.

  “Hands behind your head, on the floor!” Tom yelled.

  Luke ran in and patted them down. “No weapons.”

  Judd had them hold out their right hands and saw they had no mark of Carpathia. He helped them up and pulled out two chairs.

  The man had a week’s worth of beard. He was thin, with dark hair and blue eyes. His forehead was a dark red, sunburned from exposure. The woman also had dark hair and a pretty face. She looked ghostly thin, and her lips were parched.

  “You two look like you could use something to eat,” Luke said. He motioned to Tom who brought fresh bread and cheese from the pantry and put it on the table.

  The two devoured the food in seconds, then drank fresh water. Luke sat beside them and asked where they had come from.

  “Savannah,” the man said. “We were trying to get to a relative’s house in Charleston, but we ran into trouble.”

  “Bounty hunters?” Tom said.

  “I guess,” the man said. “They were looking for anyone without the mark. We hid in a shack on the beach, then traveled at night.”

  “Why didn’t you stop when you saw our warning signs?” Luke said.

  The woman leaned forward. “We were so hungry and tired, we didn’t care. We figured if there was radiation, at least we’d die trying to find food. What is this place?”

  “Not so fast,” Tom said. “How do we know you’re not working with the bounty hunters or the GC?”

  The man shook his head. “I don’t know that we can convince you, other than the fact we haven’t taken Carpathia’s mark.”

  “Why didn’t you?” Lionel said.

  “Why didn’t you?” the man said.

  Luke slammed a rickety chair to the floor and it cracked. “We’re not the ones asking for food. Now stop jerking us around.”

  The man held up both hands. “Okay, we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot.” He wiped his hands on his shirt. “I’m Lee McCarty. This is my sister, Brooke.”

  “And you want us to believe you walked from Savannah with nothing but the clothes on your back and wound up here?” Luke said.

  “You don’t have to believe anything, but it’s the truth. We had enough provisions to make it to Charleston—at least that’s what we thought.”

  “We had to leave our stuff when those guys chased us,” Brooke said. “That was a couple of days ago.”

  Lee pushed back from the table and stood. “Thanks for the food. We’re sorry we bothered you.”

  “We can’t let them go back out there,” Lionel said, turning to Tom and Luke.

  “Sit down,” Tom said. “You’re the first people we’ve seen since we found this place, so we’re a litt
le skittish.

  Tell us something about yourselves.”

  Lee sat and Brooke picked up their story. “Our parents were divorced when we were in high school.”

  “Names?” Luke said.

  “Linda and John.”

  “Where did you go to school?”

  “Milton High in Florida.”

  Tom wrote down the information as Luke asked who her favorite teacher was and the name of the principal.

  Brooke answered quickly, and Judd felt sorry for her.

  “Look, it’s obvious you don’t trust us and don’t want us here,” Lee said. “We’ll head north to Charleston tonight—”

  “And draw every bounty hunter in the county to us?” Luke said.

  “I’d like to hear more about your story,” Lionel said. “Keep going.”

  Brooke nodded. “After the divorce I went to live with Mom and Lee went with Dad. Dad got some kind of religion after the divorce so Mom tried to get Lee back, but that’s when the disappearances happened. We all freaked. A lot of our high school was just gone. Dad disappeared, and Mom started drinking. She got killed in the earthquake.”

  Judd shook his head as Luke drilled Brooke with another question. “What have you been doing since then?”

  “We went to live with an uncle and then some friends,” Lee said. “We’ve pretty much just tried to exist.”

  “I’ll ask again. Why didn’t you take Carpathia’s mark? It would have been a lot easier for you.”

  Brooke hung her head. Lee glanced at her and sighed. “Dad kept a diary of sorts on his computer. He tried to get me to go with him to church and Bible studies, but I didn’t want any part of it. Brooke and I read the journal or whatever he was keeping. He’d been writing out prayers for us, asking God to save our souls and show us the truth.”

  Brooke looked up. “He said the Lord was coming back for his own and that Satan was going to take control of the earth. My dad wrote that the Antichrist would one day make everyone take a mark and that he hoped his kids would never have to go through that.”

  “I guess your dad’s worst fears came true,” Luke said.

  “If you’ve known all that, why didn’t you believe like your dad?” Tom said.

  “How do you know we haven’t?” Brooke said.

  “We know,” Luke said.

  Lee sighed. “I guess if we have to take the mark, we will. We’ve been avoiding it this whole time—”

  “Even though you know they’ll kill you if you don’t take it?” Luke said.

  “We felt like we’d be betraying our dad to take the mark, and we’d betray Mom if we believed what Dad was saying.”

  “So you’re caught in the middle, just like when your mom and dad split up,” Lionel said.

  “Yeah,” Brooke said.

  Lionel stayed with Lee and Brooke while Judd and the others went into the next room. Carl Meninger joined them and said he had listened to their conversation through the intercom and had looked up the information Lee and Brooke had given.

  “It all checks out,” Carl said. “The high school, the teacher she mentioned. Her mom was arrested for drunk driving twice, and there’s a Linda McCarty listed among the dead after the earthquake.”

  Luke scratched his head. “How did they just happen to stumble onto us out here?”

  “Maybe it was God leading them,” Tom said. “Anyway, all we have to do is explain the truth, and they’ll be part of the group.”

  “You think it’ll be that easy?” Luke said.

  “There’s something else I haven’t told you,” Carl said, handing Luke a piece of paper. “Chang Wong just sent this. It’s a list of the names and locations of every bounty hunter working for the Global Community. With this, Judd and Lionel have a better shot at going north.”

  Luke nodded. “Okay, but first we explain our beliefs to these two.”

  “Let Lionel try,” Judd said. “I think they kind of connected with him.”

  “Good. Judd, take him aside and explain. We’ll see how they respond. Tom, watch the perimeter from the tower. We’re not taking any chances.”

  Lionel pulled the regular chairs from the storage area and sat at the table next to Lee and Brooke. Brooke asked how Lionel had gotten to the South Carolina hideout and he smiled. “It’s a long story.”

  “We’ve got time,” Lee said.

  “Well, I can tell you what happened right after the disappearances.” Lionel began there and described what happened to his family. He told them how he had met Judd, Vicki, Ryan, and Pastor Bruce Barnes. “Bruce showed us a video of the former pastor of the church talking about how believers in Christ would one day be taken away or raptured. That’s what happened to my family.”

  “And our dad,” Brooke said.

  “Right.” Lionel explained what the Bible said about God’s forgiveness and that a person couldn’t work their way to heaven. “God already loves you enough to die for you, and he did that when Christ died on the cross.”

  Lee nodded. “I get it. If we ask God to forgive us, he will, not because of anything we’ve done, but because he sacrificed himself.”

  “Right. It’s a good thing you didn’t take the mark of Carpathia because that would keep you from becoming a believer.”

  “Why is that?” Brooke said.

  Lionel explained that taking the mark and worshiping Carpathia meant you had chosen once and for all against God. When that decision was made, there was no changing your mind.

  As Lionel explained more, he got the feeling that they had already been exposed to the message. They both said it was new to them, except for what their father had written, but they seemed to understand things quickly and didn’t ask as many questions as others who had become believers. It almost felt too easy when they asked Lionel if he would pray with them.

  “Sure,” Lionel said. He closed his eyes and began. Lee and Brooke prayed out loud with him. At one point, Brooke choked up and had to whisper the words. When Lionel finished, he looked at them and they both smiled.

  “I feel a lot better, don’t you?” Brooke said to her brother.

  “Yeah. I’d never have believed just saying a prayer could change things so much. Mom was wrong and Dad was right.”

  Lionel shook hands with Lee and hugged Brooke. He was about to take them into the next room to tell the others when he noticed something that made his heart drop.

  “You guys wait here,” Lionel said. “I want to bring Judd and the others in so you can tell them the good news.”

  “Great!” Brooke said.

  Lionel closed the kitchen door behind him and found Judd, Tom, and Luke in the next room talking to Carl.

  “How’d it go in there?” Tom said.

  Lionel took a breath. “They listened, then prayed. Everything was fine until I looked at their foreheads. They don’t have the mark of the believer.”

  12

  JUDD moved toward the room where Lee and Brooke sat, but Lionel stopped him. “We have to figure out what we’re going to say.”

  “Maybe they didn’t understand,” Judd suggested. “They might be mixed up.”

  “They understood,” Lionel said. “The way they acted after they prayed seemed calculated.”

  “But if it’s a trap,” Judd said, “wouldn’t they know about the mark of the believer?”

  “Maybe they think that’s a hoax and we don’t have any mark,” Tom said.

  “I’ll bet you anything they have some kind of transmitter,” Lionel said.

  “We should take care of them now,” Luke whispered.

  “What do you mean?” Judd said.

  “What I said.”

  “We can’t kill these people. I don’t care if they aren’t who they say they are. We can’t take the chance that they’re two innocent—”

  “All right. Then we tie them up until we figure out what to do,” Luke said.

  “We have to go back in soon or they’re going to get suspicious,” Lionel said.

  “Play it like th
ey’re part of our family now,” Judd said. “We’ll keep the others hidden.”

  “I’ve got an idea how we can stall whoever they’re working with,” Lionel said. “Follow my lead.”

  As the four walked into the room, Lionel beamed and gestured with a hand. “I want you guys to meet our newest members. They’re true believers now.”

  Judd, Luke, and Tom shook hands with Lee. Brooke hugged Judd and said, “I’m so glad we found this place. I can feel the Lord working in my heart already.”

  “Are there other believers here?” Lee said.

  “No, we’re the only ones,” Luke said quickly.

  “But there’s something we need to tell you,” Lionel said. “A group of believers is supposed to show up in the next couple of days. We’ve been in contact with them.”

  “How many?” Lee said.

  “A dozen, maybe more. We’ll be in touch tonight.”

  “How do you guys contact each other?” Brooke said.

  Judd was sure the two were searching for information, and he was glad Lionel had thought of his plan. The others could get away while the GC or whomever Lee and Brooke were working with got ready to pounce.

  “We have a cell phone,” Lionel said. “We try to limit our calls to make sure the GC doesn’t track us.”

  “That’s smart,” Brooke said. “I hate the way the GC operate.”

  “Me too,” Lee said.

  “I’ll show you around the place,” Lionel said. “Let me take you outside first.”

  Judd, Tom, and Luke quickly met with the others in the cellar while Lionel kept Lee and Brooke occupied. Carl got in touch with Chang Wong in New Babylon with his hastily constructed communications center and asked if there were any GC programs using agents without the mark.

  I’m not aware of any, Chang wrote, but I wouldn’t put it past that Kruno Fulcire guy. Let me check it out.

  When Carl asked Chang for a place to escape, Chang suggested talking with Chloe Williams. “She has a better idea of the safe houses and Co-op facilities in your area.”

  “Vicki can help us,” Judd said. “She talked with Chloe a few days ago.”