Soul Harvest: The World Takes Sides (39 page)

The day finally came when Rayford received from Buck a long, tentative message.

It concluded, “Our patient has rallied enough to be able to share troubling secrets of the past that have kept said patient from taking a vital step with the Creator. This information is most alarming and revealing. Only face-to-face can we discuss it, and so we urge you to coordinate a personal meeting as soon as feasible.”

Rayford felt as low as he had in ages. What could that message mean other than that Hattie had shed light on the charges about Amanda? Unless Hattie could prove those charges bogus, Rayford was in no hurry to meet face-to-face.

Just days before the rescheduled departure of the Tribulation Force for Israel, the
GCASA
again detected a threat in the heavens. This object was similar in size to the previous burning mountain but had the consistency of rotting wood.

Carpathia, eager to turn the attention from Christ and Tsion Ben-Judah to himself again, pledged to blast it from the skies.

With great fanfare, the press showed the launch of a colossal ground-to-air nuclear missile designed to vaporize the new threat. As the whole world watched, the flaming meteor the Bible called Wormwood split itself into billions of pieces before the missile arrived. The residue wafted down for hours and landed in one-third of the fountains, springs, and rivers of the earth, turning the water a bitter poison. Thousands would die from drinking it.

Carpathia once again announced his decision to delay the Israel conference. But Tsion Ben-Judah would not hear of it. He posted on the Internet bulletin board his response and urged as many of the 144,000 witnesses as possible to converge on Israel the following week.

“Mr. Carpathia,” he wrote, purposely not using any other titles, “we will be in Jerusalem as scheduled, with or without your approval, permission, or promised protection. The glory of the Lord will be our rear guard.”

The list of encrypted files from Amanda’s hard drive evidenced extensive correspondence between her and Nicolae Carpathia. Much as Rayford dreaded it, his desire grew to decode those files. Tsion had told him of Donny’s program that unveiled material from Bruce’s files. If Rayford could get to Israel when the rest of the Tribulation Force was there, he might finally get to the bottom of the ugly mystery.

Wouldn’t his own daughter and son-in-law put his mind at ease? Every day he felt worse, convinced that regardless of the truth or anything he could say to dissuade them, his own loved ones had been swayed. He had not come right out and asked their opinions. He didn’t have to. If they were still standing with him—and with the memory of his wife—he would know.

Rayford believed the only way to exonerate Amanda was to decode her files, but he also knew the risk. He would have to face whatever they revealed. Did he want the truth, regardless? The more he prayed about that, the more convinced he became that he must not fear the truth.

What he learned would affect how he functioned for the rest of the Tribulation.

If the woman who had shared his life had fooled him, whom could he trust? If he was that bad a judge of character, what good was he to the cause? Maddening doubts filled him, but he became obsessed with knowing. Either way, lover or liar, wife or witch, he had to know.

The morning before the start of the most talked-about mass meeting in the world, Rayford approached Carpathia in his office.

“Your Excellency,” he began, swallowing any vestige of pride, “I’m assuming you’ll need Mac and me to get you to Israel tomorrow.”

“Talk to me about this, Captain Steele. They are meeting against my wishes, so I had planned not to sanction it with my presence.”

“But your promise of protection—” “Ah, that resonated with you, did it not?”

“You know well where I stand.” “And you also know that I tell you where to fly, not vice versa. Do you not think that if I wanted to be in Israel tomorrow I would have told you before this?”

“So, those who wonder if you are afraid of the scholar who—” “Afraid!”

“—showed you up on the Internet and called your bluff before an international audience—”

“You are trying to bait me, Captain Steele,” Carpathia said, smiling.

“Frankly, I believe you know you will be upstaged in Israel by the two witnesses and by Dr. Ben-Judah.” “The two witnesses? If they do not stop their black magic, the drought, and the blood, they will answer to me.”

“They say you can’t harm them until the due time.”

“I will decide the due time.”

“And yet Israel was protected from the earthquake and the meteors—”

“You believe the witnesses are responsible for that?”

“I believe God is.”

“Tell me, Captain Steele. Do you still believe that a man who has been known to raise the dead could actually be the Antichrist?”

Rayford hesitated, wishing Tsion was in the room. “The enemy has been known to imitate miracles,” he said. “Imagine the audience in Israel if you were to do something like that. Here are people of faith coming together for inspiration.

If you are God, if you could be the Messiah, wouldn’t they be thrilled to meet you?”

Carpathia stared at Rayford, seeming to study his eyes. Rayford believed God. He had faith that regardless of his power, regardless of his intentions, Nicolae would be impotent in the face of any of the 144,000 witnesses who carried the seal of almighty God on their foreheads.

“If you are suggesting,” Carpathia said carefully, “that it only makes sense that the Global Community Potentate bestow upon those guests a regal welcome second to none, you may have a point.”

Rayford had said nothing of the sort, but Carpathia heard what he wanted to hear. “Thank you,” Rayford said.

“Captain Steele, schedule that flight.”