The Veritas Conflict (31 page)

“What does their business actually do?”

“It’s some kind of a holding company, I think. I don’t really know, quite frankly. They have a lot of different business lines.”

Ian balanced the magazine on the stack of handouts he was holding. He kept his voice low as Mansfield laid out his notes for that day’s class. “The article isn’t much help: According to leaks on the street, multinational conglomerate Pike Holdings is this year’s front-runner for the annual Excellence Award, arguably the most prestigious award in the industry. The Excellence Award typically has the same effect on a business that the Best Picture Academy Award has on a movie—it can propel a little-known business into prime time, quadrupling both their profits and their stock values. Pike Holdings, however, is one of the largest privately held companies in the country, and its stock is not yet offered for public sale. With rumors of the award now circulating, speculation is rampant that the closely held conglomerate may be planning an initial public offering, finally giving other investors a bite of the pie. Mouths are watering on Wall Street.’ ”

Ian closed the article and sighed. “It’s like Psalm 73 where Asaph laments that exactly the wrong people always seem to win.”

Mansfield wagged a finger at his protégé. “You don’t know that. Be fair. Maybe Victor Pike and his company are completely different from Anton.”

Claire yawned, stretching in her seat as the class broke up. She looked around, watching for Alison and the other HCF students who had arranged to meet her and Sherry for lunch.

“Hey, Sherry.” Claire waved to her roommate, two seats in front of her. “There’s no rush. They’ll meet us here in about five minutes.” When Sherry didn’t look at her, a cold knot formed in her stomach. “Aren’t you coming to lunch?”

Sherry slung her backpack over her shoulder. “Can’t. I’m meeting Stefan. We’ll probably grab some pizza at Loker Commons.”

“Hey, you’re standing me up! I was looking forward to introducing you to Brad, and Alison, and—”

“Some other time, okay?”

“No, it’s not okay. You said you’d come.”

“Look, Claire, don’t push, all right? I’ve got things going on, too, you know. Stefan’s going to help me study for that accounting exam.”

“How’s he going to do that? You said yourself he wasn’t an accounting whiz.” Something in her roommate’s face made Claire grow still, the tension forgotten. “No. He doesn’t have the questions from the test … does he?”

Sherry’s eyes flickered away.

“Don’t do it, Sherry. Don’t. I know that people sometimes share tests, but it’s
cheating
. Come on! You are
so
much smarter than I am. You’re smart enough to whiz through anything if you study!”

Her roommate hesitated for just a moment.

“Sherry, I’m sorry I snapped at you. Look, why don’t you come to lunch with the gang? It’s a great group of people, and you’ll love hanging out with them.”

“But Stefan’s meeting me”.

“Call and leave a message on his voice mail. He’ll understand.”

“There you are!” Stefan was bounding down the steps at the side of the room. “I was on my way to Mem Hall to meet you and realized your class was right on the way.”

Sherry straightened and smiled at Stefan as he scooted down the row of seats toward her. He pulled her to him and gave her a quick kiss.

“Ready to go?”

Claire smiled. “Stefan, Sherry and I were just talking about our previous lunch plans. There’s a group of us from the HCF meeting in a few minutes. Want to join us?”

“No thanks. Not my kind of crowd, honestly.” As he turned away, Claire caught Stefan sharing a private smirk with Sherry and rolling his eyes in her direction.

“I’m so
terribly
sorry to hear that such nice people are not your kind of crowd.”
Claire’s voice was biting, even as she knew she was going too far. “But they
are
really great, and they were looking forward to meeting Sherry.”

Sherry lowered her head and glared at the floor. A small smile appeared on Stefan’s lips. “Looks like they’ll have to meet her another time, then.” He put his hand against the small of Sherry’s back, guiding her out of the row and out of the room.

Sherry didn’t look back.

Claire collapsed on her chair and put her head in her hands.
Lord
,
please forgive me. I want Sherry to like me and trust me, and I just screwed that up so badly. Please, dear Lord … make up for my mistake. Your strength is made perfect in my weakness
—

She heard the soft sounds of someone approaching behind her. A gentle hand was laid on her shoulder.

“Claire? You okay?”

She sniffed quickly and wiped her eyes against her sleeve before turning around. Brad’s face was concerned, his eyes gentle. She started crying again.

“I’m so awful, Brad, so unlike how God wants me to be. I totally lost my cool, and now Sherry’s not coming.…”

As Claire poured out the story, she could see several others quietly gathering around her, their eyes gentle and concerned.

“… so now I may have turned her off from HCF completely. When what she needs
most
is to get connected to Christian friends.” She wiped her eyes on her sleeve again, fresh tears threatening to overflow.

Brad fished in his satchel and handed Claire a pack of tissues. “Claire,” he said gently, “you’ve got such a good heart.”

Claire’s lip quivered. “Brad, please! I—”

“No, I mean it. The only reason you’re so sensitive to what you did is because God has given you such a soft heart and such a burden for Sherry. We all get angry sometimes. So did Jesus. How we handle it is the important thing.”

Alison crouched down to eye level with Claire. “You can’t make someone walk a straight path. You can only hold someone accountable to the extent that they’re willing to be held accountable. And you’re trying, aren’t you?”

Claire looked up at Alison and nodded.

Alison smiled. “All God wants from you is for you to be faithful to Him. You’re his servant; you do what you think He’s telling you to. But the results are up to Him. Only the Holy Spirit can change someone’s heart.”

“But I’m so worried that she’s not listening to Him.”

Brad touched her arm. “And you can’t really make her listen, can you? You can only try to model Jesus for her. Why don’t we take a minute to pray, okay? That’s what Sherry needs most right now.”

Without a word, the others sank into nearby seats and began lifting up Sherry—and Claire—before the Lord.

An hour later, Caliel glared across the room at the spirits drooling over his charge. Sherry sat at Stefan’s desk, nervously flipping through a textbook. While two demons smirked in the corner another was perched on the desk. From time to time he reached out a hand as if to caress her face. Each time, Caliel barked an order and the spirit withdrew his hand until the next attempt, looking at him with bold eyes.

Caliel longed to draw his sword and wipe the smiles off all their faces, but he was under restraint from heaven. He could carry the message, could urge her to obey, could fight if Sherry herself allowed it—but it must be her choice.

He had heard the deep longing of his Master for this little one, the yearning of a Father for a restless child to be safe and at peace in His care. But Sherry was putting herself in danger. Caliel looked across the room. She didn’t know the half of it.

Stefan was half in and half out of the closet, banging through boxes. A dark figure lolled nearby, gazing at Caliel. From hard experience with Katoth over the last few months, the angel sensed another challenge coming. He returned the gaze of his high-ranking opponent, continuing his silent prayers for strength and wisdom. Unlike the mischief makers, or even the lustful Prach over there on the desk, Katoth was an experienced agent of the enemy. And his assignment was generational.

There was a lot of history over there by the closet, with a great deal of Satan’s power behind it.

“Found it.”

Sherry jumped as Stefan slapped a file down on the desk.

“I knew I had it here somewhere. One of my buddies took accounting with old Parkinson last year. He never changes his tests—too set in his ways. They’ve taken to calling it Parkinson’s disease.”

Sherry smiled briefly then stared at the closed folder. She didn’t move.

“What’s the matter, Sher? Afraid there’s an electric shock when you open it? Hidden cameras? Whooo …” He circled her chair, waving his fingers and making a cartoonish ghost sound. “Afraid a lightning bolt is going to come down through the ceiling and
get ya?”

“Stop it.” She turned her back to him. “You’re bein’ ugly.”

Stefan bent down, brushing her hair aside. “I just love it when you talk Southern to me.” He buried his lips in the nape of her neck.

Sherry’s annoyance fled as tingles ran up and down her spine. She could feel small kisses working their way up her neck and to her ear, feel his hands working their way—

She stiffened and grabbed his hands in hers, lifting them away.

“Still aren’t ready, Sher?”

“We talked about that. You know that. Besides, I have to study for this test—” Her eyes flashed back to the file on the desk.

Stefan crouched beside her chair, took her hands, and looked into her face. “Why is this bothering you so much, Sher?” He pushed a wayward lock of hair from her eyes. “I’ve been worried about you since midterms began. Your tough schedule really seems to have caught up with you. Now, you know how much I admire your guts, but you
are
only a freshman, and it just takes a while to figure out how to juggle it all. By next semester you’ll be cruising, and you won’t need the help.”

He brought her hands to his lips, kissing them gently. “But now you
do
need the help. This way, at least, you won’t be unfairly penalized for taking such a demanding schedule.”

Sherry’s forehead wrinkled suddenly. “I’ve tried to stay on top of all my classes, but every professor gives so much homework it’s like—”

“It’s like they each think theirs is the only class you’re taking? So they each assign so much work it’s impossible to keep up with all of it?”

“Exactly! I mean, it’s been driving me crazy that—”

Stefan captured her hands again, and his fingers caressed hers. “Sher, there’s no way your professors can expect you to do all this without help. You’ve got to understand. This is truly commonplace.
Everyone
knows that Parkinson never changes his tests. I’m sure everyone else went out and found their copies weeks ago.”

Caliel’s face grew hard.
Lies, Sherry
.

He felt her spirit quiver, her senses attuned solely to the fingers moving slowly along her hands.
Sherry, resist
.

Was she even hearing him?

Suddenly, Caliel felt her spirit pull back from Stefan, saw the doubt flicker in her eyes. He lunged toward his charge … and was slammed back by a dark wall. As he stumbled and righted himself, Caliel’s eyes bored into those of Katoth, who smiled slowly and whispered to Stefan. The young man kissed Sherry’s hand again.

Caliel’s face grew fierce. He drew his sword.

Instantly he felt the restraint of the Holy Spirit. Arm poised to strike, he quivered, straining to remain still. It must be her choice to make. Her choice. He expelled a tight burst of frustration.

Katoth’s eyes narrowed at the angel’s tension, the drawn sword. His lips drew back in a derisive smile. He turned his back on Caliel and his attention to Sherry.

Stefan’s eyebrows were raised. “I’m not kidding, Sher. I’ve run into, oh, half a dozen people in that class, and
all
of them already have the old test.”

“But if it’s not allowed.”

“Look, you can take some invisible high road on this if you want, but it would be pretty stupid. Everyone else is going to know the questions ahead of time; why shouldn’t you? Especially since you’re taking much harder courses than they are and have had less time to study. But, hey, it’s up to you.”

Sherry fiddled with the file folder, running her fingers up and down the edge. “Stefan, I just don’t know.”

Caliel saw his opening and burst through the dark wall, swinging his sword toward the desk.

“Ahh!” Sherry jumped as the thick manila edge sliced across her skin. The file tumbled to the ground as she popped her bloodied finger in her mouth.

Katoth jerked around and glared at Caliel. He growled an order, and Prach and the other demons came at him from every direction, clawing and cutting. Caliel felt his sword hit its mark many times, but each time his adversaries swarmed back. He gasped as a powerful blow ripped across his side, then another across his face. They were stronger than he had expected.

He was being backed up, slowly, slowly, away from his charge.
Sherry, flee from evil!
Caliel shouted.
The Lord is your light and your salvation. He makes the weak strong. He gives grace to help in time of need
.

His adversaries winced at the words. Katoth growled.

Sherry turn your ear from lies. Recognize the Lord’s voice. He yearns to rescue you. Choose Him!