Deceived (3 page)

Judd and Lionel found Peacekeeper Roy Donaldson pacing in front of the GC apartment building. Lionel shook hands with him and said, “So you're a big Z-Van fan?”

Roy smiled. “You bet. I liked him even before he started singing about the potentate, but I can't wait for his new album.”

Judd pulled a slip of paper from his pocket and gave it to Roy. He unfolded it carefully, like it was a priceless artifact. “‘To Roy,'” he read aloud. “‘He is risen.'”

At the bottom of the page was Z-Van's scrawled signature. Judd wanted to tell Roy that the singer's real name was Myron and that he was a jerk, but Judd didn't have the heart or the time.

“How about a little favor?” Judd said.

“Name it.”

“Where are they giving employees the mark?”

Roy pointed to a building behind the apartments. “Building D. Man, I can't wait to get mine. I'm scheduled for this afternoon, but they may not be able to get to me until tomorrow.”

“Could you take us there?”

Roy studied the autograph again. “After this, I'll do anything for you guys. Come on.”

As they walked, Judd asked if Roy had heard anything about a potential employee named Chang Wong.

Roy stopped. “Don't tell me you know him too.”

Judd smiled. “Yeah, he's a friend of mine.”

Roy shook his head. “Kid's just a teenager like us and he's already a celebrity. A friend of mine works in the department looking at him. I hear this Wong kid's a genius with computers.”

“He's a pretty nice guy too,” Judd said.

“He seemed kind of uppity to me.”

“You've met him?”

“I just saw him earlier.” Roy pointed out the entrance and a line of employees snaking through the front door. People on the sidewalk craned their necks to see how much farther until they were inside.

“Wait,” Judd said, grabbing Roy's arm. “You saw Chang?”

“Yeah, I got a look at him walking with Walter Moon and some other guy heading upstairs. I know it sounds like sour grapes and all, and I understand why new hires are getting the mark first, but—”

“Chang already has the mark?”

Roy rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I saw it, even with that stupid baseball cap he was wearing. He got a little
30
next to his eyebrows, nothing like what I'm going to have.”

“Are you sure it was him?” Lionel said.

Roy cocked his head. “You don't see too many Asian kids around here who have the mark before other employees, do you? Of course I'm sure.”

Judd looked at Lionel and cringed.

“You want me to see if I can get you guys in D?”

“Not now,” Judd said.

“Well, don't think you're going to get a mark before us employees. Have you decided which one you're getting?”

Judd shook his head and glanced at the employees waiting to seal their fates. They were like sheep being led to the slaughter, and they didn't even know it.

Judd thanked Roy, and the Peacekeeper walked away clutching Z-Van's autograph.

Lionel sat down hard on a bench. “I don't get it. Tsion said God would give believers the strength they needed to resist taking the mark.”

“Maybe it's not real,” Judd said. “Maybe Chang came up with a fake that convinced everybody.”

“Maybe. But there's another possibility.”

“What's that?”

“Maybe Chang is fake himself.”

Vicki rode with Mark and Shelly toward the farmhouse in McHenry, Illinois. Though the others had put up a fight, everyone finally agreed that it was best for a smaller group to help the teens in Iowa. Vicki felt tired but knew she wouldn't sleep until they were in the van and headed west.

Vicki wept when she saw Bo and Ginny Shairton and Maggie Carlson. They hugged and shared stories. Maggie said she was worried about Natalie and wished the girl would leave the Des Plaines jail.

Vicki greeted Jim Dekker, the satellite operator who had helped her escape the GC chase, then shook hands with Manny Aguilara, the prisoner who had become a believer after talking with Zeke. She handed Colin Dial a letter from his wife.

Mark shook hands with Jim Dekker. “It's a pleasure meeting the guy who came up with The Cube.”

Dekker smiled and thanked him.

“I hate to break up this admiration society meeting,” Conrad said, “but we don't have much time.” He took the others to the basement and fitted them with Morale Monitor uniforms while Jim took their photos and created new ID cards.

Jim provided walkie-talkies and gave Mark a cell phone. “Make sure you keep in contact with us. Natalie will do what she can on her end, but we have to work together.”

The night was still and a wind had come up in the east as the kids loaded supplies and equipment into the van. Everyone gathered and joined hands. One by one they prayed for safety for the rescue group and the believers in Iowa. Manny, who had been part of the group only a short time, prayed, “God, we trust you to help your children. Show them where to go and what to do.”

Mark got behind the wheel for the first leg of the trip as Colin and Conrad explained the plan.

“How do we know they haven't already applied the mark?” Vicki said.

Colin shook his head. “Jim and Natalie diverted a shipment of injector machines. They were going to do the same thing to the guillotines, but for some reason ship- ments have been delayed in North Carolina, Florida, Iowa, and Tennessee. We don't have any idea why.”

Vicki put her head on the seat and pulled a Morale Monitor jacket over her arms. The uniform felt stiff, and Vicki wondered about the girl who had worn it. Was she dead? Did the horsemen get her or perhaps the earthquake?

As the conversation continued in the front, Vicki felt sleep come over her. She thought of the kids in Iowa. They had to be terrified. And how long would it take the GC to realize that Commander Blakely was really Colin Dial, a Judah-ite in disguise?

Vicki prayed for the believers behind bars and asked God to help them. She also remembered Natalie and the shock she had gone through witnessing Zeke's death. When Vicki had prayed for all the names and faces she could think of, she thought of Judd. She always kept him last. Sometimes she fell asleep praying for him and thinking of what he might be doing. She wondered if he missed her as much as she missed him. There were nights when she would dream of Judd standing up to Carpathia or telling strangers about God. Once she dreamed about his speech in front of Leon Fortunato at Nicolae High, and she woke up in a cold sweat.

Now, as she drifted in and out of sleep with the droning of the van's engine, she prayed that God would protect Judd from the evil forces loose in New Babylon and the rest of the world. She knew from reading Tsion Ben-Judah's letters that they weren't just fighting against the Global Community.

Tsion had often quoted a verse from Ephesians, chapter 6 which said, “For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.”

When Vicki thought of doing battle with those wicked spirits, another verse from Ephesians came to mind. “Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil.” Carpathia's mark was a deadly trick of the devil himself.

Mark tuned the radio to a news station and kept it low. The reporter repeated several stories about mark application sites in the United North American States being behind in their application of the mark on prisoners.

The cell phone rang and Mark picked up. After a few moments he hung up and slowed the van.

“What's going on?” Vicki said.

“That was Jim Dekker. He's changing our route.”

“Is something wrong?”

Mark shrugged. “Maybe it's a roadblock.”

Vicki laid back and prayed again that God would protect them until they could help their friends in Iowa.

3

VICKI
wanted to ask Jim Dekker why they were turning, but Mark shook his head. “Dekker said we'd understand when we got there.”

“But the kids in Iowa are going to die if we don't get there in time!”

“I understand. Jim does too. But he still told us to take a different road.”

Headlights flashed on downed trees and an open field. Crude crosses rose from mounds of earth. Vicki guessed it was a graveyard filled with bodies of people killed by the earthquake, the horsemen, or some other disaster.

Mark had planned on taking back roads, concerned that a GC squad car might stop them, but Jim Dekker's call had taken them onto an interstate. They passed an 18-wheeler and a few cars but saw no GC.

They had been driving on the interstate a half hour when they came to the mile marker Dekker had given. Mark pulled into the entrance of an abandoned weigh station and stopped.

“What now?” Vicki said.

Mark took out the cell phone. “I don't like this any more than you. I'm calling Dekker.”

Mark had the phone opened and was dialing when Vicki noticed headlights behind them. Colin Dial told everyone to get down.

“He led us into a trap,” Conrad said.

“Just stay calm,” Colin said.

Air brakes whooshed behind them. Mark stayed behind the wheel, ready to pull away. Colin got out of the van and walked back toward the truck.

“Can you see who it is?” Shelly whispered to Vicki.

Vicki crawled to the rear of the van and peeked over the equipment and uniforms stacked on the backseat. She shielded her eyes but couldn't see anything because of the glare. “I think it's the truck we passed a few miles back.”

Colin's footsteps crunched in the gravel by the road. He wore his commander's uniform, and Vicki thought he played the part well. He walked confidently toward the truck, shielding his eyes, and yelled, “Cut your lights!”

A man yelled something to him, and Colin approached the driver.

“I don't like this,” Shelly said.

Colin trotted up to Mark's window and told him to move farther into the weigh station. Colin stood on the running board and stuck his head in Mark's window. “Vicki, I need you out here.”

Judd and Lionel found a film crew and several security personnel clogging the hallway in front of Z-Van's hotel suite. When they finally made it to the door, a man held up a hand. “Move along. This is a closed set.”

Judd scowled. “We're staying here.”

“Right.” The man spoke into a walkie-talkie and two burly men approached.

“Westin, are you in there?” Lionel yelled.

The man at the door clamped a hand over Lionel's mouth. “You want to make this easy or hard?”

Lionel struggled free, but the two men were on him. “Escort these gentlemen outside,” the man at the door said.

“Hold it,” Westin said, pushing his way through the crowd. “Those guys are with me.”

Judd and Lionel shook free of the men and stepped over cords and cables as they entered the room. Bright lights were set up near the piano, and a man with a handheld light meter moved around the room.

“What's going on?” Lionel said.

“Ever heard of Lars Rahlmost?” Westin said.

Judd nodded. “I've seen a couple of his movies.”

Westin pointed to the corner where a blond-haired man in a leather jacket stood stroking a stubbly beard. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail that swished as he talked. Z-Van was next to him, smiling and laughing. “That's him. He's doing a documentary about Nicolae called
From Death to Life
. They're interviewing Z-Van and are going to film some of his appearances in Israel.”

Judd took Westin into the next room and explained what they had seen and heard about Chang.

Westin sat on the bed. “I'm new to this. You've been telling me you can't take this mark and still be a believer. What gives?”

“I don't know,” Judd said. “Maybe we'll clear the whole thing up when we talk to Chang.”