The congregation broke out in thundering applause, taking their feet, to the last man and woman.
Paradise did indeed love Johnny.
He stepped up to the microphone and stared at them through the shades. “Thank you.” But the applause drowned him out.
“Thank you . . .”
“Okay, let the man speak!” Claude Bowers thundered.
They settled and began to sit.
“Thank you, it's good to be . . . home.”
He put his hands on the podium and looked down at them. For a long time he just stood there. He swallowed hard and a tear leaked past his black glasses. Silence smothered the room.
But he still didn't move, didn't apologize, didn't lift his hand to signal he needed a moment. He just stood there, hammered by emotion.
Somewhere a woman started to cry softly. Then another.
Kat glanced over at Paula and saw tears streaming from her eyes. There was a bond among the people in this room that Kat couldn't begin to understand.
But she could, she realized. She could! She'd stepped into the kingdom of light and been washed away with tears.
She wished he would take off his glasses and show all of them his eyes. Not the pain but the light. Show them the light!
Instead he just stood there, frozen by emotion.
There couldn't possibly be a dry eye in the room, and Kat was crying with them. Johnny had said he was blind, like Samson. She could only wonder at all the times this blind man had encountered the truth with those eyes of his. What memories were rushing through his mind.
Gradually he seemed to relax, and finally he lifted his head.
No apology. “The light came into the darkness, but the darkness did not understand it,” he said. “It tried to crush the light. We've all seen the face of that darkness. We've all felt the horror.”
Paula began to cry silently, shaking beside Kat. Kelly sat still, hands folded.
“But the light prevailed. It revealed to us the true reality that we now live in, a world crackling with power and light and more love than any one of us could dare ask for. Do you know this?”
“Yes! Yes, yes.” The room filled with hushed yeses.
“Then you know why we can't now turn our backs on that love or deny that the light is our sole hope. Do you know this?”
“God, yes!” Father Yordon stood from his seat behind the podium that had blocked Kat's view of him. His face was wet and his eyes blurry. He stood there shaking. “Yes.”
He seemed to come to himself, then eased back down out of her view.
“I've come back to Paradise to stand in the face of the darkness. They are telling us that we must hide our faces and our voices, that if we speak of the love that has rescued us from darkness we are guilty of hate and will be put in dark cells.”
“Black!” someone in the back cried. A murmur rushed through the crowd. So they knew too.
Johnny let the statement stand.
“But I can't turn my back on the one who has saved me, nor on the kingdom of light, which he's led me into. For me, it is the source of life. I would have to die before I denied the truth, even with silence.”
Johnny took a deep breath.
“I've come back to Paradise to ask you to stand with me, to stand in the face of the new law that our government has passed prohibiting us from following the teachings of Jesus.Willâ”
Paula stood. “We will!”
“They're trying to do that?” Claude demanded.
“He's saying they've done it,” Paula said. “And yes, we will stand with you, Johnny.We're not letting darkness back in this valley, never again!”
Father Yordon was out of his seat again, stepping forward. “What are you suggesting? Each denominational leader has posted Net bulletins, urging calm. They say the new act will be tested in the Supreme Court and overturned. And until then we should just worship in private.”
“Well, you know where they can put that bulletin, and their new law,” someone said.
“No!” Johnny stepped out from behind the podium.“No, Ben, this isn't about resistance or harsh words. This is
only
about staying faithful to the Way. The Truth. The Light that crushes darkness. I'm sure that millions of people of faith are screaming foul at this very moment, arming themselves to the teeth with legal briefs and signatures to force a repeal of the new law.Muslim clerics all over the world will condemn it,Mormons will march,Christians churches all over the country will denounce the law and work against their elected officials.And all of that will only satisfy the bitter while they
wait
for change.”
He scanned the people. “But we will do none of that. We will simply hold up the light for all to see. And they will see it. The whole world will see the light shining out of this one small valley in the Colorado mountains. Paradise will be a beacon of truth, and they will see it above all others because they will see us, living in the light.And I will show it to them.”
They weren't shouting their support, but at a glance Kat could see that to a man, woman, and child they were pinned to his every word, and the look in their eyes was resolute.
“We will use the Net and boldly announce our love of Jesus, our only hope. And they will know that Johnny Drake and the people of Paradise will not be muted.”
His breathing had thickened.
“Our stand will grow beyond the Net. Others will come.”
Dead silence filled the room.
“And then . . . then the darkness will come, like a torrent, to crush this light shining so brightly in the land.”
Okay. That was the challenge, wasn't it? Kat wanted to jump up and tell them why they had to do what Johnny was suggesting. If they'd seen what she'd seen, felt what she'd seen.
“How?” Johnny's mother, Sally, asked in the small voice of one who'd faced too much suffering.
He faced her. “I don't know, Mother. But it could get bad.”
What if they wouldn't support him? Kat couldn't sit a moment longer. She jumped to the stage next to Johnny and spun around.
“You can't let them shut us up! Two weeks ago I didn't know that this kingdom even existed, but then my eyes were opened and I saw it!”
The moment of her conversion swept through her again and she began to tremble. She hadn't been prepared for the emotion, and she couldn't stop the tears.
“It's like magic!”No, that wasn't quite right, but she couldn't think of a better way to put it. “The whole world has to see! How can we not scream out the truth from the tops of these mountains? We've found life! They have to know!”
Her voice rang out in the auditorium, greeted by silence.
Slowly, Sally stood, smiling. “But we will, Katrina. We wouldn't even consider turning our backs on the truth.We're in already.”
Kat blinked. She'd misjudged them?
They began to stand, one by one, then in groups, then all.
Johnny reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder. By her, with her. To the congregation: “Remember the darkness and remember that it is dispelled by the light,” he said to them. “Hold your children close. Love your wives. And pray, Paradise. Pray that the light will illuminate the world.”
Day Eighteen
FOUR DAYS had spun by in a frantic buzz since their monumental victory in the Senate, and Darcy was feeling exceptionally pleased with herself. Pleased with Billy. With the power she'd used to bring justice to millions of people. Like a surgeon, she'd wielded a scalpel to cut out a life-threatening cancer. Not just any surgeon, but a specialist who alone could operate and alone could change history.
She couldn't have done it without Billy; he was the CAT scan, revealing layers of truth hidden beneath the skin so that she could apply her skill to rid the tissue of disease. To bring wholeness. However crucial he was, she had received most of the praise, as it had been her speech that convinced minds and secured votes.
Prior to the Senate vote, half of the lawmakers in Washington knew she could be very persuasive, flexing logic and leveling coercion in a kind of manipulation that they understoodâthey all practiced the same form of control, minus the uncanny gift. After the Senate vote, Washington knew without a doubt that Darcy Lange was also a supremely gifted orator. Maybe the best ever.
The notion that there was a supernatural component to the compulsion they felt to follow her suggestions was beyond the reach of most, but many surely sensed that there was more to her words than persuasive articulation. She'd given them all something to keep them awake at night.
She, on the other hand, was sleeping like a baby. The potential danger to their well-being had been drastically elevated in the last weekâas Kinnard put it,“You don't coerce half the U.S. Capitol and then not expect these power-mongers to plot ways to eliminate you; you're a threat.”
But Billy had done a good job identifying those whose minds were filled with nasty thoughts, and Kinnard was already working behind the scenes to discourage them from taking their thoughts too far.
The president signed the National Tolerance Act into law the day of the Senate resolution, before Congress had made its landslide vote to appropriate funds official.
The president addressed the country that night, promising instantaneous judicial response to any person, party, association, or denomination caught actively infringing upon the federal statute. Net-broadcasted sedition, even disguised as dissent or protest, would be subject to federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI. Prison time would be administered; due process would be expedited from Maine to Maui. It wasn't just an amendment now, it was the law of the land, from the top down.
Knowledge that even ethnic slang could mean incarceration for a minimum of ninety days spread through the country like the ripples of a shockwave.
After sixteen days of social mayhem, the United States woke to an eerie calm on Wednesday morning.
In Darcy's mind the results were tantamount to liberating Poland at the end of World War II. The entire operation was a smashing success.
Even the Net was quiet as the talking heads took extra precautions not to violate the new laws with their blogs and editorials. There had been the rash of outcries and denouncements from the expected sources, naturally. Saber rattling that would eventually find its way into the courts.
But at least it was all off the streets.More importantly, Caucasians were no longer calling Arabs towel-heads, and if anyone was calling Christians bloodsuckers, they were doing it behind closed doors.
Peace had come to America.
Saturday Darcy rode the elevator to their penthouse suite, holding in both hands a box containing the $40,000 titanium Rolex she'd purchased for Billy. Her first major purchase. Kinnard had said no limit, and Darcy intended to test his words.
They'd celebrated late last night over a lobster dinner catered by Rosario's, an exclusive Italian restaurant that Annie insisted they try. Too dangerous to go into such a public place, Kinnard insisted, so they ate by candlelight, overlooking the city. It had been a perfect evening.
Better still, Billy didn't know she'd made arrangements with Kinnard to pick out the watch for him.With any luck, he was still asleep. She'd pounce on his bed, smother him with kisses, and pull him from under the covers before presenting him with her token of appreciation.
Just because Billy was Billy. And because she loved him, loved him desperately.
She nodded at the guard, slipped though the front door, and tiptoed through the vestibule.
“I will.” Billy's voice sounded from the kitchen and she stopped. He was up. Change of plans. She'd slink in with the watch behind her back and kiss him hard before presenting it.
“This isn't good.” A pause. “Right.”
Darcy only half heard. She walked around the corner and saw that he had his back to her. He must have sensed her, because he turned and stared, eyes wide, and not because of the Rolex behind her back. Something was wrong.
“What?”
“Johnny called Kinnard an hour ago,” he said.
“Johnny?”
“He's in Paradise.”
“So? Good for him.” She took another step, but there was more, wasn't there? Johnny going to Paradise wasn't the bad news.
“He's making a stand against the National Tolerance Act.”
Her heart slogged through one heavy beat.
“Is that right?”
“He says the town has decided that they can't or won't deny their truth with silence.”
Darcy's past came back to her at once, as if the monastery itself had been dropped from the sky to crush her. Johnny was defying them again. In Paradise.
“Making a stand, how?”
“By publicly claiming that Jesus is the only way to God.”
She lowered the watch to her side and swallowed. “He can't do that. That defies the law. Right?”
“The attorney general thinks so. Hard not to interpret it that way.” Billy's eyes dropped to the Rolex.“He posted a blog on the Net this morningâhe's made his position very clear.”
“His position?” She wagged her head. “Listen to him.
His position.
What position? And who cares? Just what does he think he's doing?”
But she knew that Johnny could make plenty of people care.
“Read it yourself.”
Darcy saw that the large Net screen was open to a document. Not that it mattered; she already knew what he'd written. Light into darkness, blah, blah, blah. She could
kill
him for pulling a stunt like this!
She set the watch on the counter and crossed to the couch in spite of herself. Grabbed the remote and scrolled down the one-page statement, noting by the counter that the site had already been hit eight thousand times. After only a couple of hours, at most.
The blog was exactly what she'd expected, a run-on about the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Light of the World, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.