“More beheadings of believers?”
“No, though that’s happening. He said he wanted to introduce his people to a trio who would help accomplish their goals. Leon Fortunato and the others begged to hear more, but Carpathia wouldn’t tell them. Then when they had their big meeting … well, let me just show you.” Lionel fast-forwarded the video. “I’m showing you this so you know what kind of evil you’re dealing with. Are you ready?”
Judd nodded and prepared himself for the worst.
28
VICKI walked into the tech center and spotted Judd looking over Lionel’s shoulder. Judd still hadn’t been able to talk much about Mark, but she was trying to be patient.
“Hello, Mrs. Thompson,” Chang said with a smile.
Vicki couldn’t get used to hearing the words Mrs.Thompson. It made her feel old. “Please call me Vicki.”
Judd waved Vicki over and explained what they were watching. He seemed more excited than he had for days as he told her what was happening on the screen. Lionel started the video over, and Vicki stared at the surprisingly clear footage.
Vicki had seen news reports about the arrival of the ten regional potentates to Baghdad and the resulting parades, light shows, and stage shows performed in their honor. Stands filled with people cheered each regional potentate. It was more than Vicki could stand to watch the unholy mockery.
Leon Fortunato had introduced Nicolae, and the crowd had interrupted him many times with huge ovations. Most chilling was Carpathia’s pledge to eliminate those who opposed peace, as he put it, within half a year.
Interesting timing, Vicki thought.
“This meeting took place the morning after Carpathia’s big speech about killing their enemies,”
Lionel said. “Nobody saw this except for the people in that room in Baghdad and those who were handpicked by Rayford Steele here in Petra.”
“Amazing,” Vicki said as she studied the video. She saw a nervous Leon Fortunato and several potentates, including the one from the United North American States. She also noticed Suhail Akbar, chief of Security and Intelligence.
“You can see they’re each wearing clothing from their region,” Judd said, pointing to the African and South American potentates who wore colorful outfits.
“Who are those three?” Vicki said. “They look like statues.”
Lionel nodded. “Just wait. You’ll see.”
The three didn’t move an inch. They seemed to be staring at the wall in front of them and didn’t even react when Carpathia walked into the room.
Vicki shuddered. “They give me the creeps.”
“Let me jump to the place where Carpathia begins.” Lionel found the spot, and Judd scooted a chair close so Vicki could sit.
Nicolae thanked the group for coming and told them he was the boss. He reminded them that three potentates from the group had died untimely deaths. His message was clear: Either follow me or die.
“Questions?” Nicolae said. “I thought not. Let us proceed.”
“This is where it gets good,” Lionel said. “I mean, not good, but … you know what I mean.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Carpathia said, “the time has come for me to take you into my confidence. We must all be on the same page in order to win the ultimate battle. Look into my eyes and listen, because what you hear today is truth and you will have no trouble believing every word of it. I am eternal. I am from everlasting to everlasting. I was there at the beginning, and I will remain through eternity future.”
Nicolae stood and began to slowly circle the table.
“It’s as if they’re in a trance,” Vicki said. “Like they’re scared to even look at him.”
“Here is the problem,” Carpathia continued. “The one who calls himself God is not God. I will concede that he preceded me. When I evolved out of the primordial ooze and water, he was already there. But plainly, he had come about in the same manner I did. Simply because he preceded me, he wanted me to think he created me and all the other beings like him in the vast heavens. I knew better. Many of us did.”
Vicki looked at Judd and shook her head. “I can’t believe he’s really saying this.”
Carpathia talked as if he were explaining a math problem to a group of second graders. “He tried to tell us we were created as ministering servants. We had a job to do. He said he had created humans in his own image and that we were to serve them. Had I been there first, I could have told him that I had created him and that it was he who would serve me by ministering to my other creations.
“But he did not create anything! We, all of us—you, me, the other heavenly hosts, men and women—all came from that same primordial soup. But no! Not according to him! He was there with another evolved being like myself, and he claimed that one as his favored son. He was the special one, the chosen one, the only begotten one.
“I knew from the beginning it was a lie and that I—all of us—was being used. I was a bright and shining angel. I had ambition. I had ideas. But that was threatening to the older one. He called himself the creator God, the originator of life. He took the favored position. He demanded that the whole earth worship and obey him. I had the audacity to ask why. Why not me?”
“Because you’re the father of lies,” Judd said under his breath.
Carpathia admitted he had started a rebellion against God. “About a third of the other evolved beings agreed with me and took my side, promised to remain loyal. The other two-thirds were weaklings, easily swayed. They took the side of the so-called father and his so-called son.”
“Is he talking about the angels?” Judd said.
“He has to be,” Vicki said. “In Revelation it talks about a third of the stars being cast down to earth with Lucifer.”
Carpathia continued, saying he would go back to heaven where he was before he was cast out. “We have been mortal enemies ever since, that father and that son and I. He even persuaded the evolved humans that he created them! But that could not be true, because if he had, they would not have free will. And if he created me, I would not have been able to rebel. It only makes sense.
“Once I figured that out, I began enjoying my role as the outcast. I found humans, the ones he liked to call his own, the easiest to sway. The woman with the fruit! She did not want to obey. It took nothing, mere suggestion, to get her to do what she really wanted. That happened not far from right here, by the way.”
Carpathia walked around the group, lecturing them and giving his spin on the Bible. This was the gospel of the Antichrist, and the people in the room seemed to drink it in.
“And the first human siblings—they were easy! The younger was devoted to the one who called himself the only true God, but the other … ah, the other wanted only what I wanted. A little something for himself. Before you know it, I am proving beyond doubt that these creatures are not really products of the older angel’s creativity. Within a few generations I have them so confused, so selfish, so full of themselves that the old man no longer wants to claim they were made in his image.
“They get drunk; they fight; they blaspheme. They are stubborn; they are unfaithful. They kill each other. The only ones I cannot get through to are Noah and his kin. Of course, the great creator decides the rest of history depends on them and wipes out everyone else with a flood. I eventually got to Noah, but he had already started repopulating the earth.
“Yes, I will admit it. The father and the son have been formidable foes over the generations. They have their favorites—the Jews, of all people. The Jews are the apples of the elder’s eye, but therein lies his weakness. He has such a soft spot for them that they will be his undoing.
“My forces and I almost had them wiped out not so many generations ago, but father and son intervened, gave them back their own land, and foiled us again. Fate has toyed with us many times, my friends, but in the end we shall prevail.
“Father and son thought they were doing the world a favor by putting their intentions in writing. The whole plan is there, fro
m sending the son to die and resurrect— which I proved I could do as well—to foretelling this entire period. Yes, many millions bought into this great lie. Up to now I would have to acknowledge that the other side has had the advantage.
“But two great truths will be their undoing. First, I know the truth. They are not greater or better than I or anyone else. They came from the same place we all did. And second, they must not have realized that I can read. I read their book! I know what they are up to! I know what happens next, and I even know where!
“Let them turn the lights off in the great city that I loved so much! Ah, how beautiful it was when it was the center for commerce and government, and the great ships and planes brought in goods from all over the globe. So it is dark now. And so what if it is eventually destroyed? I will build it back up, because I am more powerful than father and son combined.
“Let them shake the earth until it is level and drop hundred-pound chunks of ice from the skies. I will win in the end because I have read their battle plan. The old man plans to send the son to set up the kingdom he predicted more than three hundred times in his book, and he even tells where he will land! Ladies and gentlemen, we will have a surprise waiting for him.”
Lionel stopped the recording. “See what I mean?”
“He actually thinks he can beat God,” Judd said. “Incredible.”
Lionel went forward on the recording and hit Play.
“We rally everyone—all of our tanks and planes and weapons and armies—in the Plain of Megiddo,” Nicolae said. “It is in the Plain of Esdraelon in northern Israel, about twenty miles southeast of Haifa and sixty miles north of Jerusalem. At the appointed time we will dispatch one-third of our forces to overrun the stronghold at Petra.
“The rest of our forces will march on the so-called Eternal City and blast through those infernal walls, destroying all the Jews. And that is where we shall be, joined by our victorious forces from Petra, in full force to surprise the son when he arrives.”
Vicki sat, stunned at the shameless way Nicolae was talking about Jesus.
Carpathia’s next plan was to use the nuclear weapons stored at Al Hillah. “Needless to say, we do not want or need to destroy the planet. We simply want your soldiers to have more than what they need to wipe out the Jews and destroy the son I have so long opposed. So once I tell you how we will get your military leaders on board, your next assignment will be to get them to Al Hillah, where our Security and Intelligence director, Mr. Suhail Akbar, will see that they are more than fully equipped.”
When the Russian potenate asked how to persuade troops that were discouraged, sick, and injured, Nicole rose. “The time has come to introduce you to three of my most trusted aides. No doubt you have been wondering about the three at the end of the table.”
“Wondering why they seem not to have so much as blinked since we sat down,” the British potentate said.
Carpathia laughed. “These three are not of this world. They use these shells only when necessary. Indeed, these are spirit beings who have been with me from the beginning. They were among the first who believed in me and saw the lie the father and son were trying to perpetrate in heaven and on earth.”
Nicolae and Leon walked to the end of the table.
Lionel sat straight in his chair. “I hope you two have strong stomachs.”
“What’s going to happen?” Judd said.
“Wait a minute,” Vicki said. “Revelation says something about this.”
Lionel smiled. “Chapter 16, verses 13 and 14. Good job, Vicki. Dr. Ben-Judah recognized it the first time he saw it too.”
“What’s that say?” Judd asked.
Lionel stopped the video and pulled up the verses. “ ‘And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.’ ”
Lionel started the video again.
Nicolae and Leon leaned toward the robot-like creatures and opened their mouths. Out came ugly, slimy, frog-like beasts that leaped into the mouths of the three, one from Leon and two from Nicolae.
The three creatures suddenly opened their eyes wide and looked around the room. A camera angle switched, showing their faces, and the three sat back, smiling and nodding to the potentates around the table.
“Please meet Ashtaroth, Baal, and Cankerworm. They are the most convincing and persuasive spirits it has ever been my pleasure to know. I am going to ask now that we, all of us, gather round them and lay hands on them, commissioning them for this momentous task.”
“This is so sick,” Vicki said.
“Everything Carpathia does mocks God,” Judd said.
With the potentates and the others touching the three, Nicolae said, “And now go, you three, to the ends of the earth to gather them to the final conflict in Jerusalem, where we shall once and for all destroy the father and his so-called Messiah. Persuade everyone everywhere that the victory is ours, that we are right, and that together we can destroy the son before he takes over this world. Once he is gone, we will be the undisputed, unopposed leaders of the world.
“I confer upon you the power to perform signs and heal the sick and raise the dead, if need be, to convince the world that victory is ours. And now go in power. …”
A huge bolt of lightning flashed on-screen, and the recording went black. When the image returned, Ashtaroth, Baal, and Cankerworm were gone, and Lionel quickly turned the volume down before a noisy peal of thunder erupted.
Nicolae beamed at his audience. Vicki wondered if showing this video would convince some people who Nicolae really was, but she knew most of the world was blind to the truth.
“Farewell, one and all,” Nicolae said. “I will see you in six months in the Plain of Megiddo on that great day when victory shall be in sight.”
Vicki shuddered as Judd muttered, “I’ll be there, Nicky. And I’ll see you thrown into hell.”
29
OVER the next several weeks, Judd noticed a flurry of activity in Petra. Nicolae’s war plans were in full effect, and his persecution increased. There were more beheadings and more torture of prisoners, and the hunt for Judah-ites continued. News had come of a GC raid in France. A chateau filled with suspected Judah-ites had been discovered, and all the occupants had been beheaded.
Darrion and the others in Illinois wrote that they had moved with Lenore into a hiding place run by a man who had been discovered by Chloe Williams.
“His name is Enoch Dumas,” Darrion said over a scratchy phone line. “He was head of a group living in downtown Chicago. That’s where Chloe found them and then brought them into the Strong Building.”
“Where are they now?” Judd said.
“They split up after they left the Strong Building. Now Enoch and a bunch of his friends are here in Palos Hills. It’s a pretty rough group. Lots of former prostitutes and druggies. Sweet people, actually. They know what it means to be forgiven.”
Judd explained the persecution they had seen over the past few weeks. “Is it safe there?”
“We’re in the basement of an abandoned house. Others are scattered through the neighborhood. There are more than seventy, and Enoch says we’ll probably reach a hundred before Jesus comes back.”
“You should be careful of newcomers. Never know what the GC will try.”
“I know, but what can we do, turn them away? People actually go out and try to find more converts every day. Enoch says we’re trying to ‘get more drowning people onto the life raft.’ ”
“Do you have meetings?”
Darrion chuckled. “Yeah, and they’re nothing like the Young Trib Force meetings. People come in here, sing, and tell their stories. One man yesterday told how he had kept from taking Carpathia’s mark. Not because he was a believer—he was just scared of getting a disease through the tatto
o. His name is Adrian, and a GC Peacekeeper found him one day in a stairwell of some old apartment building. Before the Peacekeeper could react, Adrian hit him over the head with a pipe. Knocked him out cold.”
“What did Adrian do then?”
“He went through the Peacekeeper’s pockets looking for Nicks or food. You have to understand what it’s like on the streets now. There’s so much crime, but the GC only seems to be interested in getting people without Carpathia’s mark.”
“They don’t report it on GCNN, but we’ve heard how bad it’s getting.”
“Well, guess what Adrian finds in the Peacekeeper’s pocket? A pamphlet explaining the gospel. We think the Peacekeeper found it in some church or on a believer.
Anyway, this Carpathia follower was actually a missionary because Adrian took the pamphlet, read it, and gave his heart to God.”
“Incredible.”
“He was so glad to find our group, not just because we have food and can give him protection, but to be near other believers. He didn’t know he had the mark of the believer until he got here.”
Darrion told him more stories, and Judd asked about Shelly, Conrad, and the others.
“We’re doing pretty well. Mark’s death shook all of us. I don’t know that any of us have gotten over it.”
“I know the feeling,” Judd said. “But we’ll see him again. You know that.”
“I can’t wait to see my mom and dad and Ryan Daley too.”
The mention of Ryan took Judd’s breath away.
When he hung up with Darrion he went outside and watched people gather their evening meal. It had been years since Ryan had been with them. He had missed so much of the Tribulation. What would Ryan be like when they saw him again? Would they really be able to recognize him? Would he be the same age as when he died, or would God somehow change his body to be older but still recognizable?
No matter what Ryan looked like—or Mark or Pete or John or the others who had died—Judd knew there was a great reunion ahead.
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