Amid the Shadows (15 page)

28

Oh
boy.
 
Christine
thought to herself.
 
These guys have
gone off the deep end!

Rand watched Christine take a
step backward.
 
“You’re not a
believer,”
 
he said matter-of-factly.

“In God?” she said.
 
“Oh sure I am, of course.
 
Although, I haven’t been to church in a
while.”

“But you don’t believe me?”
Rand asked.

She looked over her shoulder
at Avery and stepped away toward the other wall so she could see them
both.
 
“Look, maybe you have some special
genetic thing going on here, but I think that’s quite a leap from, you know,
being
sent by
God
.”

 
“I see,” Rand said.
 
“Are you sure about Sarah’s gift?”

“Her gift,” Christine said, a
little taken back. “Meaning what, the aura thing?”
 
She shrugged.
 
“I can only believe what she tells me, but she saved our lives by
keeping us off an elevator that fell eight stories.
 
And she knew what was about to happen in that
McDonald’s.
 
She also tried to save my
cat.”

Rand lowered his head
slightly but kept his eyes on her.
 
“Christine, I think you need to prepare yourself for the possibility
that what Sarah sees is something entirely different than what you think.”

“What do you mean?” She
watched Rand and Avery exchange looks again.
 
They were doing that a lot.

“What Sarah sees,” Rand said,
“is not an aura or some energy field.
 
What Sarah is able to see is a person’s
soul
.”

Christine did not reply.
 
She simply stood there, stunned and staring
at Rand.
 
Eventually, she blinked and
looked at Avery who made it clear that she was the only one startled by what he
said.

“What did you say?”

“It’s not an aura,” Rand
repeated.

“You said it’s their
soul
?”
she asked slowly.

“That’s right.”

Christine continued to stare
at him.
 
She didn’t know what to think,
but she was coming around to the conclusion that even though these men came to
her rescue, they were nutty, to put it mildly.
 
She felt her brain shift into a different gear.
 
How do I get out of here?

Rand watched her calmly.
 
He expected this was going to be difficult
for her.
 
It sounded like she was not
religious which didn’t help matters.
 
She
was going to need some extra convincing.

“Can I,” she started, “just
chat with Sarah for a few moments?”

“Of course.”
 
Avery took a small step to the side and
opened the door.
 
“Sarah!” he
called.
 
“Can you please come here for a
minute?
 
Christine’s eyes opened wide.
 
That was not what she had in mind.

A moment later, small
footsteps could be heard coming down the hall.
 
When she reached the door, Avery opened it up wide, and when Sarah
looked at everyone, she seemed less surprised to see Rand than Christine was.
 
Instinctively, Sarah crossed the room and
stood in front of her.

“You okay?” Christine asked
and patted her shoulder.

“Mmm…hmm.”

“Sarah,” Rand began, “do you
recognize me?”

Sarah looked up at Christine
with her big eyes.
 
“What does recog-nice
mean?”

Christine smiled.
 
“It means, do you remember him?”

Sarah nodded.
 
“He came to the safe-” she wrinkled her
nose.
 
“What did you call it again?”

“The safe house.”

“Oh yeah,” said Sarah
 
“He came there.
 
And to McDonald’s too.”

Rand smiled.
 
“Sarah.
 
We wanted to talk to you, about how you can see people in your special
way.”

Sarah tilted her head,
unsure.
 
“My mommy said I wasn’t supposed
to talk about it to other people.”

Rand nodded.
 
“We understand.
 
But we think this is a time when your mom
would have wanted you to share with us.”

Sarah silently looked up at
Christine who put her second hand on Sarah’s shoulder and nodded back.

“Okay,” was all she said.

This time Rand looked at
Christine.
 
“Sarah, what do you see when
you look at Christine?”

“A yellow shadow.”

“Can you show us where?” he
asked.

Sarah turned and looked at
Christine.
 
“It’s all over, but mostly
here,” she said, circling her hand in front of Christine’s chest.

“And what do you see when you
look at Mr. Avery?” Rand asked.

Sarah looked over at Avery.
 
“He’s yellow too.”

“And yellow is good?” Rand
asked.

“Yes.”

Rand spoke to Sarah again but
was still looking at Christine.
 
“And
Sarah,” he said.
 
“What do you see when
you look at me?”

Sarah’s expression became
nervous.
 
She looked at Rand but quickly
turned back to Christine.

Christine looked down at
Sarah supportively.
 
“It’s okay Sarah,
you can tell us.”

Sarah slowly turned back to
face Rand.
 
“He doesn’t have one at all.”

29

The cabin abruptly bounced as
the jet’s wheels touched the runway, and the high pitch of the engine’s reverse
thrust shrieked loudly outside, slowing the aircraft.

 
As the plane slowed and began to taxi, Aaron
Bazes remained slouched in his leather seat, looking out the window at the
bright lights of Tel Aviv.
 
The last several
days had painted a grim picture, and he was now the unfortunate messenger.
 
This was a trip home he was not looking
forward to making.

The new Learjet 85 passed the
terminal’s main gates and proceeded to a smaller private section of the
airport.
 
When the doors opened, Bazes
reluctantly stood and walked down the empty aisle to the front of the cabin
where the attendant handed him his bag.

“Is there anything else I can
get you, sir?”
 
the attendant asked.

Bazes never heard him.

The private gate afforded him
a distinctly better experience traveling in and out of the country.
 
To begin with, it was spacious and plush and
void of any security personnel whatsoever.
 
In fact, the entire building was designed for and dedicated to just a
handful of people, and Bazes was one of them.
 
He passed only one person on his way to the driver waiting for him
outside, and that one person was the sole customs agent who sat at the desk as
more of a formality than anything else.
 

The agent bowed his head
slightly as Bazes approached and stopped on the other side of his desk.
 
He withdrew and swiped his Ambassador
passport under the scanner.
 
He then
placed his hand on the small, brightly lit screen as it passed up and down,
capturing a high resolution image of his hand print.
 
With that, he quietly walked down a long,
well-decorated and immaculate hallway into the chilly air outside.

The dark underground corridor
was very old and lined in rough limestone with a finer limestone serving as the
exterior finish.
 
It was the same stone
used to construct the Egyptian pyramids.
 
And while the stonework were of similar age, the difference was that
everyone had seen the pyramids, but only a handful of people on the entire
planet knew this hallway and the chambers ahead had ever even existed.

Bazes’ footsteps echoed as he
walked calmly down the dimly lit corridor.
 
At the end, it opened into a larger room.
 
In the middle of the room was a giant,
six-pointed star carved into the floor and emblazoned with gold.
 
Bazes stopped before the circle and closed
his eyes.
 
After a short prayer, he
stepped inside and smoothly slid down onto his hands and knees.
 
Without interrupting the motion, he continued
down until his lips touched the cold floor.
 
He silently rose and rocked back onto his knees before falling forward
and pressing his lips to the floor again.
 
His twelfth time was as slow and deliberate as his first, symbolizing
the original Twelve Tribes.

Bazes slowly raised his head
and looked at the glass structure before him.
 
Standing at nearly ten cubic feet and made of thick, clear glass, it was
vacuum sealed and maintained at a perfect temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit
and zero percent humidity.
 
Before the
structure, engraved in the stone floor and also lined in gold was a single
sentence in Hebrew.

“…for my house will be called a house of
prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:7)

Behind the glass stood a
large, cube-shaped, wooden box and behind it a thick canvas fabric made of
cotton, layered neatly atop dozens of long, wooden staves bundled on the
floor.
 
Beside the folded cloth was a
chest made of ancient acacia wood with a bronze cover, and next to that, sat a
heavier cover made of solid gold with two angelic statues at either end.

Bazes stared at the artifacts
and finally closed his eyes once more, dropping down and touching his forehead
to the golden lettering.

What stood before Bazes was
one of the most sacred artifacts in all of human history, moved when necessary,
but hidden and protected for thousands of years.
 
Together the pieces made up the fabled
Tabernacle
of Moses
.
 
The sacred place where God
chose to meet his people during their forty-year wandering in the desert.
 
On the floor behind the glass was the
legendary Atonement Cover on which Moses stood to communicate directly with God
and which served as the lid to the Ark of the Covenant.

Bazes sat in a chair with his
hands folded on an ancient wooden table before him.
 
Around him were twelve men dressed in
Techelet blue, hand woven Talliths with golden tassels along the arms.
 
They were seated in a semicircular arc around
Bazes, six on each side.
 
Few people knew
who these men were, yet they were secretly some of the most powerful men on the
planet.
 
Their faces were just barely
recognizable in the dim candlelight, but it didn’t matter; Bazes knew each
voice and seat position by heart.

“We are happy to have you
back,” the man in front of him began.

“Thank you,” Bazes replied in
a low voice.

“What did you find?”

Bazes lowered his head
gently, dreading what he was about to say.
 
“It is him.”

All twelve men looked at each
other grimly.

“Are you certain?”

Bazes nodded.
 
“I am certain.”

“How do you know this?”

“Inscriptions were left in
the cathedrals.
 
They were not difficult
to find.
 
I believe they were left for
us.
 
A message, to mock us.
 
I also had some traces analyzed and they all
matched.
 
The type, issuance, and grade
are all the same.”

“What did the inscriptions
say?”

“
Prepare
,” Bazes
frowned.

“What about the written
records?”

Bazes nodded.
 
“It took some time and the records appeared
to be altered, but the details and signatures are unmistakable.”

“Does anyone else know?”

“I don’t believe so,” Bazes
said shaking his head.
 
“We are the
first.”

An old man to the speaker’s
right lamented,
 
“What do you think he
will do?”

“I do not know for
certain.
 
I only have fears.”

The old man nodded.
 
“Then what do you fear he will do?”

Bazes glanced around at some
of the other men before looking forward again.
 
“Something very terrible.”
 
If
they didn’t like what he just told them, they were going to like what he said
next even less.