The Mark: The Beast Rules the World

by Tyndale House

  "You might want to wait until it's official," Buck said. "Rayford will be here tomorrow night and-"

  "Oh, it's all right. Consider it a donation, even if I get voted out or blackballed or whatever."

  "I don't see that happening," Chloe said, burping the sleeping Kenny Bruce on her shoulder.

  "Oh, man!" Zeke said quietly, noticing the baby. He approached slowly and reached carefully toward Kenny's back. "Can I?"

  "You may," Chloe said. "Your hands clean?"

  Zeke stopped and turned his hands before his eyes. "They have to be for my kinda work. Can't smudge the new IDs, you know. They look dirty, 'cause I work on engines and stuff, but they're just stained."

  He bent at the knees before Chloe and gently put his meaty hand on Kenny's back. His fingers nearly stretched from shoulder to tiny shoulder. Zeke lightly touched the boy's feathery hair.

  "Sit and you can hold him," Chloe said, as the others watched. Buck was especially amused by Chaim, whose eyes filled.

  "Want a turn?" Buck whispered.

  "It's been so long," Chaim whispered, trying to make himself understood. "It would be a privilege."

  Somehow Kenny slept through everyone's turn, even Tsion's. He was last and quickly passed Kenny back to Chloe, as he was overcome. "My children were teenagers when they… when they… but the memories…"

  "We need to identify a body," Hannah Palemoon said, pushing David's wheelchair and pulling his IV to the desk just inside the morgue.

  "Sign in," a bored older woman said.

  "Forget it," Hannah said. "The system is behind by several days. Nobody'11 ever check anyway."

  The woman made a face. "Less work for me," she said. "I'm just filling in."

  David's heart raced as Hannah pushed him past rows and rows of bodies as far as the eye could see-on gurneys, in lateral refrigerators, and sheet-wrapped head to toe, shoulder to shoulder on the floor. "She's not one of these, is she?"

  "Next room, around the corner."

  Hannah steered him to the foot end of a covered body on a bed. He took a deep, quavery breath. Hannah lifted the sheet from one foot and peered at the toe tag to make sure she had the right corpse. "You're sure you want to do this?"

  He nodded, though now not so sure.

  She showed him the tag thin-wired to the big toe. It bore Annie's name and rank and serial number all right, plus date of birth and date of death. The foot was swollen and discolored, but no doubt hers. David reached to envelop it with both hands and was struck by the cold stiffness.

  It was the other foot whose shoe had showed lightning damage. David began pulling the sheet from it, ignoring Hannah when she cleared her throat and said, "Uh, David…"

  He recoiled at the damage. The heel was split wide and the big toe mangled. He covered her feet and dropped his head. "You're sure she never felt that?"

  "Positive."

  "Fortunato was given the power to call down fire from heaven on those who didn't worship the image."

  "I know."

  "I could have easily been struck."

  "Me too." "Why her?"

  Hannah did not answer. David tried to wheel himself between beds to the other end of the body. His IV stretched. "Let me," Hannah said, and she pushed him slowly. When he reached for the sheet, Hannah reached over his shoulder and put a hand on his forearm. "You may want to look only at her face," she said. "There was severe cranial trauma." He hesitated.

  "And David? For some reason no one closed her eyes. I tried, but with time and rigor mortis… well, a mortician will have to do that."

  He nodded, panting. His head throbbed, and when he was able to control his breathing again, David lifted the sheet and brought it down to her neck, careful not to look. With another deep breath, his eyes traveled to hers. For an instant it didn't look like Annie. Her eyes were fixed on something a million miles away, her face bloated and purple. Burns on her ears and neck evidenced where her necklace and earrings had been. He sat staring at her for so long that Hannah finally said, "OK?"

  David shook his head. "I want to stand."

  "You shouldn't."

  "Help me."

  She pushed the IV stand around the chair so it was next to him. "Use that to brace yourself. If the room starts to spin, sit again."

  "Starts?"

  She locked the wheels and put a hand on his back, guiding as he rose. He pushed with his left hand on the arm of the chair and pulled with his right on the stand. Finally, up and wobbly, Hannah's hand still on his back, David cupped Annie's cheek with his free hand. Despite the cool rigidity, he imagined she could feel his caress. In spite of himself, he leaned over her until he could see past where a tuft of hair had been pushed up in front. Behind that was a silver dollar-sized hole that exposed her brain.

  David shook his head and carefully sat again. He didn't want to think what a lightning bolt through her body would have done to vital organs. He now believed Hannah that Annie never would have known what hit her.

  Hannah pulled David's chair and left him at the foot of the bed. He sat with his head in his hands, unable to produce more tears. He heard Hannah rearranging the sheet and carefully re-covering Annie, almost as if she were still alive, and it struck him as sweet and thoughtful.

  As she wheeled him out, he whispered his thanks.

  "I wish I had known her," Hannah said.

  Rayford had briefed Buck and Chloe and Tsion the night before, so when a phone woke him at dawn in Montana, he assumed it was one of them. As he reached to answer, however, it was not his cell but the room phone. He had not given out that number, so who would be calling? The desk? Was someone onto them? Should he identify himself as Rayford Steele or Marvin Berry? Neither, he decided. "Hello?" "Ray," Hattie said, "it's me. I'm awake, I'm up, I'm starved, and I want to get going. You?"

  He groaned and glanced at the other bed. Albie was sound asleep. "You're a little too chipper for me," he said. "I'm asleep, I'm in bed, I'm not hungry, and there's no sense leaving so early that we get to Kankakee before dark. "We can't go to the safe house until after that anyway."

  "Oh, Rayford! C'mon! I'm bored. And I'm dead, remember? I need a new identity, but I'm as free as I've been in years, thanks to you! How 'bout some breakfast?" "We can't be too obvious or public." "Are you going to go back to sleep, really?" "Back? I never woke up."

  "Seriously."

  "No, I probably won't. Someone in the next room is up banging around anyway."

  She knocked on the wall. "And I'll keep banging until I get company for breakfast."

  "All right, dead girl. Give me twenty minutes."

  "I'll be outside your door in fifteen."

  "Then you'll be waiting five."

  Rayford was glad his showering and dressing hadn't wakened Albie. He peeked out the window and saw nothing and no one. Out the peephole in the door he saw Hattie stretching in the sun, just beyond the shadow caused by the second-floor walkway. He peeked through the curtain. The place was otherwise deserted.

  Rayford stepped out, and Hattie nearly lunged at him. "Let me see, let me see!" she said, staring at him. "I can see yours!" she said. "That means you can see mine! Can you?"

  His eyes were still adjusting to the sun, but as she pulled him out of the shadow by the door, it hit him. His knees buckled and he almost fell. "Oh, Hattie!" he said, reaching for her. She leaped into his arms and squeezed him around the neck so hard he finally had to push her away so he could breathe.

  "Does mine look like yours?" she said.

  He laughed. "How would I know? We can't see our own. But yours looks like every other one I've seen. This is worth waking Albie for."

  "Is he decent?"

  "Sure. Why?"

  "Let me."

  Rayford unlocked the door and Hattie burst in. "Albie, wake up, sleepyhead!"

  He didn't stir.

  She sat on the bed next to him and bounced. He groaned.

  "C'mon, Albie! The day is young!"

  "What?" he said, sitting up. "What's wron
g?"

  "Nothing will ever be wrong again!" she said, taking his face in her hands and pointing his bleary eyes toward her. "I'm just showing off my mark!"

  NINE

  Buck awoke at dawn and made the rounds, checking on everyone. He smiled at Zeke's domain and was grateful it was private. Zeke had worked until after midnight arranging his area, getting his computer and other equipment set up. Zeke snored loudly, but when Buck peeked in, he found Zeke on the floor next to his bed. Each to his own.

  Lean's door was shut and locked. She had been up late on a call from Ming Toy, who had returned to Buffer frantic about her parents' staying in New Babylon until her brother could find a position with the GC.

  Chloe had been on her computer until after Kenny was in bed, coordinating the international co-op. She urged the tens of thousands of members to watch for Tsion's next missive, wherein he planned to discuss the importance of their readiness when the buying/selling edict would go into effect. He would also be asking volunteer pilots and drivers to bring small planes and vehicles into Israel for a secret mission.

  The only other two Trib Force members were awake and working. Chaim was hunched over a stack of books, several of them open, assigned by Tsion. He looked up with twinkling eyes when Buck poked his head in. Buck seemed to understand his constricted speech better than the others.

  "Miss Rose, the redhead," Chaim said. "Leah."

  "Yes, she is a trained nurse, you know." Buck nodded.

  "She tells me she can remove the wires when I am ready. Well, I am more than ready. A man my age cannot lose this much weight this fast. And I want to be able to speak clearly!"

  "How is everything else?"

  "On my body, you mean? I am an old man. I've survived a plane crash. I should complain? Cameron, this building is a gift from God! What a luxury! If we have to live in exile, this is where to live. And what young Tsion has given me to read, well… I call him young because he was once my student, but you knew that. There are times, Cameron, when the Scriptures are like an ugly mirror to me, showing me again and again my bankrupt soul. But then I rejoice at the redemption, my redemption! The story of God, the history of his people, it is all coming alive to me before my eyes." "Did you remember to eat?"

  "I don't eat. I drink. Agh! But yes, thank you for asking. I am now drinking in the truth of God."

  "Carry on."

  "Oh, I will! Tsion was looking for you, by the way. Did he find you?"

  "No. I'm on my way to him now."

  Buck moved up a floor and found Dr. Ben-Judah with his fingers flying over the computer keyboard. He didn't want to disturb him, but the rabbi must have heard him. Without looking up or slowing, he said, "Cameron, is that you? So much to do. I shall be busy all the day, I fear. Dark as the days are, my joy is complete. Prophecy comes alive by the minute. Did you see what Master Zeke did for me? A precious lad!"

  Buck looked again. Tsion had not only a main computer but also two laptops networked to it on each side. "No more switching back and forth between programs," Tsion sang out. "Bibles on one, commentaries on the other. And I am writing to my people in the middle!"

  "Glad to get back to it?"

  "You cannot imagine."

  "Don't let me slow you."

  "No, no! Come in, Cameron. I need you." He finally stopped and hit the Print command. Pages began piling in the printer output tray. Tsion swiveled in his chair. "Sit, please! You must be my first reader today."

  "I'd be honored, but-"

  "First, tell me. What news from our brothers and sisters in the field?"

  "We know little. We haven't heard from David Hassid, except secondhand through Rayford, since the Carpathia resurrection."

  "And what did you hear then?"

  "Only that Ray and Albie had trouble raising him. They needed him to pave the way for a scheme they were pulling, trying to get Hattie Durham back from the GC. At the last minute he must have gotten their messages, because the stuff came through and the mission was accomplished."

  Tsion nodded, pursing his lips. "Praise the Lord," he said quietly. "She is coming back to us then?"

  "Tonight. We expect Ray and Albie and Hattie after dark."

  "I will pray for their safety. And we must continue to pray for her, of course. God has given me such a weight of care for that woman."

  Buck shook his head. "Me too, Tsion. But if ever there seemed a lost cause…"

  "Lost cause? Cameron, Cameron! You and I were lost causes! All of us were. Who was a less likely candidate than Chaim? We pleaded and pleaded with him, but who would have believed he would eventually come into the kingdom? Certainly not I. Don't give up on Miss Durham."

  "Oh, I haven't."

  "With God, all things are possible. Have you taken a close look at this young man you brought home last night?"

  "Zeke? Oh, yeah."

  "Clearly this was not a churchgoing boy. He is so delightful, so bright! Shy, bashful, uneducated. Almost illiterate. But what a sweet, gentle spirit! What a servant's heart! And, oh, what a mind! It would take him the next three and a half years to read one of the many books Chaim will finish by tomorrow, and yet he has proclivities for this technical stuff that I could not learn in a lifetime."

  Buck smacked his palms on his thighs and began to rise, "Don't let me keep you."

  "Oh, you're not! My mouth is keeping me from it. If you are not too busy today, I could use your help."

  Buck sat back down, and Tsion handed him a sheaf of papers from the printer. "I have many pages to go, but I need a first impression. I will not transmit these until I know they are right."

  "They are always right, Tsion. But I'd love to get the first look at them."

  "Then begin! I will try to stay ahead of you. And if I start talking again, feel free to become parental with me."

  That'll be the day, Buck thought. He tapped the papers even and settled back to read. Every so often Tsion printed out the next several pages, and Buck idly pulled them from the printer as he read, sitting, standing, pacing. All the while he thanked God for the gift of Tsion Ben-Judah and his incredible mind.

  To: The beloved tribulation saints scattered to the four corners of the earth, believers in the one true Jehovah God and his matchless Son, Jesus the Christ, our Savior and Lord From: Your servant, Tsion Ben-Judah, blessed by the Lord with the responsibility and unspeakable privilege of teaching you, under the authority of his Holy Spirit, from the Bible, the very Word of God Re: The dawn of the Great Tribulation My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, As is so often true when I sit to write to you, I come in both joy and sorrow, with delight but also soberness of spirit. Forgive me for the delay since last I communicated with you, and thank you each and every one for the expressions of concern for my welfare. My comrades and I are safe and sound and praising the Lord for a new base of operations. And I always want to remember to also thank God for the miracle of technology that allows me to write to you all over the world.

  Though I have met few of you personally and look forward to that one day, either in the millennial kingdom or in heaven, I feel deeply that family bonds have been created by our regularly sharing the deep riches of Scripture through this medium. Thank you for your continued prayers that I will remain faithful and true to my calling and healthy enough to continue for as long as the Father himself gives me breath.

  I ask that all of you who have volunteered to translate these words into languages not supported by the built-in conversion programs begin to do that immediately. As I have been unable to write to you for several days, I anticipate that this will be a longer than usual communique. Also, as always, in those areas where computers or power sources are scarce and this message is reproduced as hard copy, I ask that those responsible feel free to do so free of charge with no credit necessary, but that every word be printed as it appears here.

  Glory to God for news that we have long since passed the one-billion mark in readership. We know that there are many more brothers and sisters in the faith who are wi
thout computers or the ability to read these words. And while the current world system would, and does, deny these figures, we believe them to be true. Hundreds of thousands join us every day, and we pray you will tell more and more about our family.

  We have been through so much together. I say this without boasting but with glory to God Almighty: As I have endeavored to rightly divide the Word of Truth to you, God has proven himself the author over and over. For centuries scholars have puzzled over the mysterious prophetic passages in the Bible, and at one time I was one of those puzzled ones. The language seemed obscure, the message deep and elusive, the meanings apparently figurative and symbolic. Yet when I began an incisive and thorough examination of these passages with an open mind and heart, it was as if God revealed something to me that freed my intellect.

  I had discovered, strictly from an academic approach, that nearly 30 percent of the Bible (Old and New Testaments together) consisted of prophetic passages. I could not understand why God would include these if he intended them to be other than understandable to his children.

  While the messianic prophecies were fairly straightforward and, indeed, led me to believe in Jesus as their unique fulfillment, I prayed earnestly that God would reveal to me the key to the rest of the predictive passages. This he did in a most understated way. He simply impressed upon me to take the words as literally as I took any others from the Bible, unless the context and the wording itself indicated otherwise.

  In other words, I had always taken at its word a passage such as, "Love your neighbor as yourself," or "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Why then, could I not take just as straightforwardly a verse which said that John the Revelator saw a pale horse? Yes, I understood that the horse stood for something. And yet, the Bible said that John saw it. I took that literally, along with all the other prophetic statements (unless they used phrases such as "like unto" or others that made it clear they were symbolic).