CHAPTER 17
The peacekeepers asked if they could search Chang’s apartment. “For what?” he said.
“Routine,” they told him.
“You won’t find any routine here. I am studying English words new to me and my current favorite is serendipity. That’s what you’ll find here, the opposite of routine.”
“Funny. We don’t need your permission. We were just being polite.”
“Of course. My clue was your use of a master key to get me to answer the door.”
While they searched the apartment, Lars set up a high-powered laptop on Chang’s small kitchen table. “I’ll be asking a few questions,” he said.
“No, you won’t.”
“Stop being a smart aleck,” Lars said. “This is my assignment.”
“Do the questions relate to finding a leak from the palace to the suspected mole?”
Lars turned ashen. “You’ve already been interrogated?”
“No, but I have my reservation in with another interlocutor—another new word. You like?”
“Computer!” the other Peacekeeper called out. “Looks like his personal laptop.”
“If you had told me what you were looking for, I could have directed you to it.”
“This your only one?”
Chang was tempted to pretend there was another, but the fun of watching them try to locate it wouldn’t be worth their leaving the place in more of a shambles. He nodded.
“Over here with that,” Lars said.
“I’m so glad you’re here, Lars,” Chang said. “I had everything on that hard drive, and I mean everything. Maybe you won’t feel so bad about losing the interviewing assignment to our boss if you have this project to work on.”
“Project?”
“I crashed the hard drive, and I’ve tried everything.”
“Everything you know.”
“That’s right! That’s why I’m so glad you’re here. I must be missing something, and even if it’s something complex, I know you can solve it.”
“You bet your life I can.”
Chang, of course, was betting his life Lars couldn’t. “I don’t want to be up late, Lars.”
“Oh, this shouldn’t take long.”
“I’m just saying maybe you want to call Mr. Figueroa so he can do whatever he has to do with me while you’re retrieving my information.”
“What’re you, serious?”
“He promised.”
“Why?”
“You’ll have to ask him that.”
“He’ll ask you the same questions I would, and you’ll answer into the same mike.”
“Only with him, I’ll answer. With you I won’t.”
“Then you’ll be suspected as the leak, and you don’t want that, guilty or not. You hear what happened to the stewards today?”
Chang didn’t like it when he was asked a question to which he didn’t know the answer. “Shock me.”
“Sentenced to death.”
That did shock Chang. “For what?”
“Subversion. Treason. They flunked the lie detector test. They were feeding information to a mole here. Conversations between the potentate and his people were acted upon before they were through talking.” Lars handed him a lapel microphone. “Put this on.”
“Not for you,” Chang said.
“For Figueroa then.”
Chang applied it to his shirt, praying silently. The key, he knew, was how the questions were worded. In his mind, a mole was an animal; he was a human being. If the questions were too specific and unequivocal, he’d be in trouble. “Start with my computer, will you? I’d really love to see all that stuff I had stored.”
“You don’t back up your stuff?”
Chang shook his head. “Nah. Do you?”
“Not as much as I should, but you gotta know you’re going to fry something—hard drive, motherboard, whatever—every few years.”
“Guess I’ve been lucky.”
Lars dialed, tucked his phone between his cheek and neck, and started pecking furiously at Chang’s laptop. “Yes, Mr. Figueroa, sir. I’m at Chang Wong’s apartment and he says—oh, you did. Well, yes, right now. I’m helping him with a computer problem, so we’ll be here. Thank you, sir.”
Slapping his phone shut, eyes still on Chang’s computer, Lars mumbled, “On his way. My, you have fried this thing.”
“Really, Lars? You can tell already? Wow.”
“Yeah, it won’t let me in at all. Let me try this.” He appeared to try everything. “Nothing. Believe me, Wong, if anything was here, I could get it for you.”
“No doubt.”
“But this acts like it’s been exposed to some super electromagnet.”
“Haven’t heard that term in a while.”
“You know the drive is all about electricity and that a magnet can wreak serious havoc.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah, it’s quite simple.”
“For a brain like yours, maybe,” Chang said. “I just know what buttons to push.”
“Well, there’s a lot more to it than that.”
“I suppose. It’s Greek to me.”
“Thought you were supposed to be some kind of a genius,” Lars said.
“Live and learn. Look what I did to my own laptop. A hundred gigs somewhere in the ether.”
“Should have called me at the first sign of trouble. There had to be warnings.”
“Yeah, I saw a lot of strange stuff, but you know, laptops are temperamental.”
“Not if they’re treated right. Did you defrag and all that?”
“Not often.”
“Obviously not. I don’t think there’s anything here.”
“You can’t help me?”
“If anyone could, I could. But there’s either something on the drive or there isn’t, and in this case, there clearly isn’t.”
“What if it was on a different drive, named something else?”
“You couldn’t do that by accident,” Lars said. “I could do it, but you have to know what you’re doing.”
“Which I don’t.”
“Obviously. Here’s what I can do for you. While you’re being interviewed, I can format your whole drive for you so you can start rebuilding.”
“That’s got to be hard. Complicated.”
“Nah. Won’t take much.”
“You’d do that for me?”
“What are friends for?”
Chloe had sneaked two of her new friends into the Strong Building in the wee hours of the morning. Only Zeke was stirring, and he blanched at the new faces. Chloe introduced the young man and woman with such enthusiasm that she knew he’d understand they were okay, without wondering if she was covering and he should go find a weapon.
Once he heard the story, Zeke offered to help them transfer a serious amount of foodstuffs to their place. Chloe wrote every detail she could remember and e-mailed it to the rest of the Trib Force before collapsing just before dawn and sleeping till almost noon. She assumed she would be scolded for taking such a risk, but she was so excited she was amazed she was able to sleep at all.
No surprise to Chang, Figueroa arrived looking all business and gave him a stare that communicated he should avoid any familiarity in front of Lars.
“Ignore me,” Lars said, taking Chang’s laptop to a couch and settling in with it. “Just making sure this is ready for a whole new protocol.” Chang wondered if Lars could affect his encoded drive with his clumsy efforts.
Figueroa pointed to a chair and sat across from Chang. He dismissed the other Peacekeeper, then whispered, “I didn’t think you were going to hold me to this.”
“I could have let it slide,” Chang said. “Proved you were completely untrustworthy. Mind if I take a peek at that software?”
Looking bored, Figueroa pivoted the machine to face Chang. He sighed. “Newfangled stuff. Supposed to be better than the bulky old hardware.”
Chang knew it wasn’t all that new. He had seen it in China and even played with it. He made a show of tilting the screen so the light was just right. “Interesting,” he said, and as Figueroa leaned closer, Chang added, “Sequoia, ah, I mean, Aurelio.”
Figueroa sat back, obviously peeved. “I’d appreciate your addressing me by my last name.”
“Excuse me, of course,” Chang said.
Figueroa grabbed the laptop and pulled a small notebook from his pocket. “State your name,” he began, then walked Chang through a series of banal, obvious questions. “Is today Sunday?”
“No.”
“Is the sky blue?”
“Yes.”
“Are you a male?”
“Yes.”
“Do you work for the Global Community?”
“I am employed by them, yes.”
Figueroa looked up at Chang. “That’s the answer you want to give?”
“Yes.”
“Are you loyal to the supreme potentate?”
Chang closed his eyes and reminded himself that Jesus Christ was the only person who fit that definition. “Yes,” he said.
“Have you ever done anything that would be considered disloyal to the supreme potentate?”
“Not intentionally, no.”
“Stick to yes or no answers.”
“No.”
“Do you get confidential information from someone who leaks it to you from the inner circle around the supreme potentate?”
“No.”
“Is the supreme potentate risen from the dead and the living lord?”
“Yes.”
“Can His Excellency Nicolae Carpathia personally count on your continuing loyalty for as long as you serve as an employee of the Global Community?”
Chang hesitated, making Figueroa look up again. “Understand the question?”
“Of course.”
“Then your answer is yes?”
“No.”
“Don’t start playing games now, Chang, or we’ll have to do this all over again.”
“Well, Mr. Figueroa, I can certainly say in all sincerity that I will continue to show the same level of loyalty to the Global Community leader that I have shown him since the beginning.”
“So that’s a yes?”
“It merely is what it is.”
“What would he think of this?”
“Probably that you’re wasting your time, and mine.”
“You don’t want to just say yes and be done with it?”
“That’s the last question?”
“Yes.”
“How’m I doing so far?”
“It looks fine,” Figueroa said.
“Then let it ride.”
“That last answer could look evasive.”
“To whom?”
“To anybody who’s got a question.”
“Do you have a question, Mr. Fig—”
“Man, do you ever just give a straight answer?”
“Should I?”
“Agh!” Figueroa swept up the equipment. “Let’s go, Lars.”
“Yes, sir. Laptop’s ready to go, Chang.”
“Find any of my stuff on it?”
“No, but you can rebuild from here with a clean slate.”
“You have no idea how I feel about what you’ve done for me here, Lars.”
“Well, you’re welcome.”
It was time for the Trib Force assignees to Operation Eagle to head for Mizpe Ramon and the flight home. The overflow crowd of Israelis was bivouacking outside Petra, and Chaim was about to be airlifted to a spot where all could see and hear him, from both inside and outside. Rayford, Buck, Mac, Leah, Hannah, and Albie stood in a circle with Chaim, holding hands. Big George from San Diego sat in an idling chopper fifty yards away, waiting to lift Chaim into Petra, then transport the Trib Force to Mizpe Ramon, from where he would also fly his own plane to Greece, then to Chicago, then to San Diego. “Let’s get George in on this,” Rayford said, beckoning him with a wave. “I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing more of him.”
George jumped out and jogged over. “Micah ready?” he said.
“In a minute, George,” Rayford said. “Get in here with us.” As they bowed their heads, Rayford told everyone of George’s assignment in Greece later that night.
“Wish I could go too,” Buck said. “But I’m too hot right now. You’ll love those kids, George.”
“We should pray,” Rayford said.
“One moment, please,” Chaim said, letting go of Rayford’s hand on one side and Hannah’s on the other. He pulled from his robe the miniature urn containing Hattie’s ashes. “We do not worship the remains of those who go to God before us, and my wish is to one day toss what is left of these to the winds from a high place of worship to the one true God here at Petra. I believe that is what our impetuous but sincere young sister would have wanted. But first I want to entrust these to you, Captain Steele, to take back to her new brothers and sisters in the safe house, back to some who knew her and loved her even long before she gave herself to the Christ. Then bring them back with Tsion Ben-Judah, and we will remember her one last time before he addresses the remnant of Israel. And as we think of David Hassid, we wish only that we also had a token by which to remember our courageous brother, who knew so few of us personally but who contributed so much to the cause.”
“I have a token,” Leah said, producing David’s phone.
“Would you take that, too, to our comrades in Chicago for a moment of remembrance, looking forward to the day when we shall see this dear one again?” Chaim said.
Leah handed it to Hannah. “I would like his friend to take it,” she said. Hannah thanked her with a hug.
“And now,” Chaim said as they joined hands again, “to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ: mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.”
Finally alone again, Chang waited a few minutes, then moved a chair to his door, stood on it, and secured a latch he had built in along the top that would keep out even those with a master key. He dropped into his chair with his laptop and typed in “Christ alone.” That brought up a screen with a grid of two hundred dots square. He counted in eighteen rows from the bottom and thirty-seven from the right and clicked on it. A fifteen-digit counter appeared, the numbers ascending at a rate of several hundred a second. Chang keyed in a multiplier, factored in the current date and time, and sent the product hurtling toward a synchronous number ninety seconds away. Four more minutes and three complex, moving targets later, Chang was back in business. He was connected to every Tribulation Force computer, including those at Petra, and anything he wanted at the palace and on the Phoenix 216.
Chang transmitted hundreds of pages of instructions encoded for the Petra machines, checked the locations of reporting gadgets from phones to computers to handhelds, and let everyone know he was up and running. Then he checked Rayford’s specifications for the man he called Big George and planted GC credentials in the main palace database. They had decided to use his real name in case his prints or other details were cross-checked. George Sebastian of San Diego, California, in the United North American States, would be transporting a teen male prisoner and a teen female prisoner from Greece to the States. He would fly a high-speed, transatlantic, four-seat Rooster Tail and would be traveling WOP—without papers—due to a recent undercover mission, but for identification purposes he was six feet four and weighed two hundred forty pounds, dark complexion, blue eyes, and blond hair. He had level–A-minus clearance and reported directly to Deputy Commander Marcus Elbaz. Chang entered a six-digit code that George was to memorize and recite if asked.
Chang understood that Rayford had planned all this with Lukas Miklos, who would inform Mr. Papadopoulos, who would inform Georgiana Stavros. Lukas was to use his own contacts and resources and be responsible for making sure that the two young people rendezvoused with George.
Chang then located the newest Phoenix 216 recording since last he had listened in. He put on his headset.
The bug first picked up Akbar. “I assume you are pleased with the new pilot, Excellency.”
“All I care about is getting out of this godforsaken country, Suhail. Can he accomplish that?”
“Oh, Supreme Potentate,” Fortunato sang out, “Israel is no longer godforsaken. It is now truly the Holy Land, because you have been installed as the true and—”
“Leon, please! You have conferred upon your underlings the power I have imbued you with, have you not?”
“I have, Your Worship, but I prefer not to refer to them as underl—”
“Have any of them, one of them—you, for instance—come up with a thing to match the oceans-to-blood trick?”
“Well, sir, besides the calling down of fire from heaven and the, uh . . . I’d like to think I played some small role—whether just the influence of my presence in part of the meeting with Mr. Micah or . . . anyway—in the healing of the sores.”
“I do not believe you realize, Leon, the scope of the tragedy on the high seas. Do you?”
“Enough to hope it’s not a permanent thing, Excellency.”
“You hope? Think, man! Suhail, does the right-reverend-whatever get the cabinet briefings? Does he read the—”
“Yes, sir, he’s on the list.”
“Leon, read the reports! Our ships are dead in the water! Our marine biologists tell us every creature in the water is surely dead by now! If this is temporary and the water turns pristine tomorrow morning, do you think all the fishies will come flopping back to life too?”
“I certainly hope so!”
“Imbecile,” Carpathia muttered, and Chang assumed Fortunato didn’t hear him. The potentate tended to murder people he referred to that way, and Leon would have been pleading for his life. “Suhail, can we not get this plane off the ground?”
“We’re waiting for Ms. Ivins, sir.”
“Where is she?”
“If I may speak to that, Potentate,” Leon said.
“Of course, if you know where she is.”
“She wanted one last visit to the temple. She wants to be the first woman to go into the main part and see where you went, worship your image in the Holy of Holies, sit on the, uh, in the—”
“What?! You are not saying she would dare sit on the throne of god!”
“No, sir, I misspoke there, sir. I’m certain she wanted only to see it, to perhaps touch it, take a photograph.”
“Why are you not there with her?”
“She wanted only security. She plans to walk in alone and, I believe, just violate a few traditions.”
“I like that.”
“I thought you might. She thought you might too.”
“Find out if she is en route.”
“In the meantime, Potentate,” Akbar said, “we have received the software for lie detection.”
“Yes, get that started now and begin with the stewards.”
Chang heard dread in the voices of the Indians. They answered with conviction and earnestness. “You both test entirely truthful,” Akbar concluded. They wept, expressing their gratitude.
“Been tested, have you?” Carpathia said, as the sounds of their bustling about and serving came through the system.
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
“Indeed.” Carpathia sounded skeptical and dismissive. “Test the pilot, Suhail.”
“Ms. Ivins is on the tarmac, sir.”
“There is time. First him, then Leon, then her. And here is a question I want added to her session.”
The pilot sounded unconcerned, almost bored, answering quickly and matter-of-factly. “He’s clean,” Akbar reported. “Reverend Fortunato, are you ready?”
“I have nothing whatever to hide,” Leon said. But when he was asked the day of the week, he asked if it was a trick question. His answers became more whiny and pensive, but of course, he was cleared too.
The plane took off; then Suhail could be heard talking with Ms. Ivins. “I’m assuming, ma’am, that you are willing, just as a matter of procedure, to submit to the truth test.”
She chuckled. “And what do we do if I am revealed as the leak to the mole?”
“Please clip this on, ma’am.”
“Ready.”
“State your name.”
“Ms. Vivian Ivins.”
“Is today Sunday?”
“No, but I would like to know if I got the first question right.”
Akbar laughed. “Is the sky blue?”
“Yes.”
“Are you a male?”
“No.”
“Do you work for the Global Community?”
She hesitated. “Yes.”
“It showed okay, ma’am, but just out of curiosity, why the hesitation?”
“I have never really considered myself an employee of the Global Community. I serve Supreme Potentate Nicolae Carpathia, and I have most of my adult life. I would, even if I were not compensated, but yes, I also actually am part of the personnel of the Global Community.”
“Are you loyal to the supreme potentate?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever done anything that could be considered disloyal to the supreme potentate?”
“No.”
“Do you leak confidential information from the supreme potentate to anyone at GC headquarters?”
“No.”
“Is the supreme potentate risen from the dead and the living lord?”
“Yes.”
“Can His Excellency Nicolae Carpathia personally count on your continuing loyalty for as long as you serve as an employee of the Global Community?”
“Yes, and beyond.”
“Did you sit on his throne in his temple in Jerusalem today?”
“I—no.”
“Thank you, Ms. Ivins.”
Chang heard Akbar unbuckle and leave, but it was clear Viv Ivins immediately followed. “Director Akbar, wait, please. Before you share the results with His Excellency, let me have a word with him.”
“Certainly.”
“My lord,” she said quietly.
“Yes, dear one,” Carpathia said.
“May I kneel and kiss your hand?”
“That depends. How did you do on the little test?”
“I don’t know, but regardless of the results, I answered truthfully until the very end.”
“You were deceitful in your answer to my question?”
“I was, sir, but I immediately regretted it and have come to beg your forgiveness.”
If Carpathia responded, Chang couldn’t hear it.
“I told Reverend Fortunato what I intended to do,” she said, “and he advised me against it.”
“Did he? Did you, Leon?”
“I did, sir.”
“Good for you! But it should not be only the Most High Reverend Father of Carpathianism who knows what a defilement it would be to presume to sit on the throne of god!”
“I am so sorry, Nicolae,” and Chang got the impression she said his name the way she had when Carpathia was a small boy. Nicolae again fell silent.
“I did not do it as an act of insubordination, I swear. I merely envied your moment and felt a deep need to share it. I would like to think I earned the right with—”
“Earned the right? To sit on my throne? To take my place?”
“—with my years of service, with my uncompromising devotion, with my love for you. Oh, don’t dismiss me, Your Worship. Forgive me. Please! Nicolae!”
Chang heard her weeping. Then Nicolae: “Suhail, let us administer the test to each other.” Ms. Ivins’s crying faded as she must have moved back to her seat.
Akbar was brief and confident, and when it was Carpathia’s turn, of course the questions were slightly revised. But Carpathia was in a testy mood.
“State your name,” Akbar began.
“God.”
“Is today Sunday?”
“Yes.”
“Is the sky blue?”
“No.”
“Are you a male?”
“No.”
“Do you serve the Global Community?”
“No.”
“Are you loyal to the citizens under your authority?”
“No.”
“Have you ever done anything disloyal to the Global Community?”
“Yes.”
“Do you leak confidential information to someone inside GC headquarters that undermines the effectiveness of your cabinet?”
“No. And I would personally kill anyone who did.”
“Did you rise from the dead and are you the living lord?”
“Yes.”
“Can the Global Community count on your continuing loyalty for as long as you serve as supreme potentate?”
“No.”
“You astound me, Excellency.”
“Well?”
“I don’t know how you do that.”
“Tell me!” Carpathia said.
“Your answers all proved truthful, even where you were obviously sporting with me and saying the opposite of the truth.”
“The truth is what I say it is, Suhail. I am the father of truth.”