THE SCRAPE OF THE CABIN’S FRONT DOOR PULLED MARCUS out of the world he’d lost himself in. He rolled over on the couch and looked up. Reece was back. His breathing was slow and rhythmic, but something in Reece’s face made the big man look like he’d just sprinted one hundred meters. It was flushed. He held what looked like a USA TODAY and a white coffee cup in one hand, the other held an old piece of wood, bleached almost pure white by the seasons.
“Welcome back.” Marcus sat up and set down his book.
Reece nodded at him.
“Was your excursion enjoyable?”
“It was good.” Reece set the newspaper and cup on the kitchen counter and peeled off his coat. “Time well spent.”
“You appear winded.”
Reece stared at Marcus for five seconds before answering. “I’m not.” He turned the piece of wood over in his hands and rubbed its surface. “Where are Dana and Brandon?”
“They confiscated your SUV and set out for Denver.”
The hint of a smile passed over Reece’s eyes, but his mouth stayed stoic. “Wonderful. They wanted to spend a little alone time together? That’s good. We need a team that’s unified.”
Marcus stared at Reece as the man spread honey on a slice of wheat bread, then took it and a glass of milk to the small round oak table near the windows. Something in the equation of the moment was off. And it felt like it should be obvious as to what it was.
The thought niggled at the back of Marcus’s mind, so he waited. After years of studying anomalies in the world of physics and trying to find answers where the questions hadn’t been formed yet, he’d learned to trust his brain and give it time to unearth answers.
That’s it!
The newspaper. Where had Reece gotten the newspaper? Marcus rose from the couch, walked over to the kitchen counter, opened the paper, and glanced at the date, then at Reece, then back to the paper. Impossible.
“May I inquire as to where you were?”
“I already told you.” Reece tilted his head forward and stared at Marcus from under his eyebrows. “Out.”
“Where?”
“I had to do something.”
“And what was that something?”
“Drop the verbal ping-pong, Marcus, it grows tedious quickly. If you feel you’ve discovered something and want to ask me about it, say it. Clearly.”
Marcus pointed to the newspaper. “The date says June 6.”
Reece took off his hat and tossed it across the room onto the couch. “And that’s a problem why?”
“Unless you’ve discovered a method of rearranging the laws of physics, that cannot be today’s newspaper.”
“Explain.” Reece cocked his head.
“Your SUV has remained in the same spot since you left, and the distance between us and the nearest town is thirty-seven miles.” Marcus folded his arms. “It would fascinate me to understand how you covered seventy miles in the past hour and a half, unless you were given transportation from here to Buena Vista and back by the Blue Angels. And I didn’t hear any F/A-18 fighters taking off.”
“Well done, Marcus.” Reece slapped the top of the table and the hint of a smile returned. “If anyone would notice, it would be you.”
“Well done what?”
“Find the others. Then gather them at the listening post.” Reece stuck the last of his bread into his mouth and chewed slowly. “Bring your Bible. Tell Dana and Brandon to do the same.”
“What for?”
Reece took a long drink of milk. “Let’s do it now, shall we?”
When Brandon reached the listening post, Reece was already there sitting down. His eyes were bright as he handed Brandon a cup of coffee.
“It’s vanilla. I had to heat it again. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Where did you get this?” Brandon stared at the cup.
“That’s what we’re going to talk about right now.”
Brandon took a sip of the coffee. Not bad. He hadn’t seen an espresso machine in the cabin. Reece must have one up in one of the smaller cabins.
“I was kidding about the latte. I didn’t know you had a machine around here.”
“It was no effort.” Reece lifted the Bible from his side onto his knees.
A few seconds later Dana and Marcus arrived. Once they were settled, Reece lifted his head. “Holy Spirit, I invite you into this. Give them ears to hear and a heart to understand.”
He glanced around the circle, his blue eyes on fire. “It’s time for your first lesson, thanks to the eye for detail the professor has as part of his unique makeup.” Reece opened his Bible. “But first I need to ask each of you something. Do you think the Bible is from the mouth of God?”
They nodded.
“Do you think the stories in it are real? That they happened?”
They nodded again.
“Excellent. Then this should be simple.” He turned a few more pages in the Bible on his knees. “Turn to Acts chapter 8. Read verses 26 through 40. Come get me when you’re finished and we’ll talk about it. It should be very stimulating.” He stood and walked the fifty yards down the stone path back toward the cabin and sat in a chair right outside the nine-foot sliding glass door. For a few moments the only sound was the river racing around and over the boulders and stones that covered the stream bed.
“He seems pretty pumped up about this,” Brandon said a few minutes later.
“Almost animated.” Dana looked at Marcus. “Did you do this to him?”
“All I did was notice he had today’s paper.”
“That got him all excited?”
Marcus nodded. “His explanation should be mesmerizing.”
“Why does he have to explain having a newspaper? There are other times in recent recorded history when people have had a newspaper,” Brandon said.
“This is either an extraordinary newspaper or our leader has a very remarkable talent.”
“Can you just spit it out, Prof?” Brandon said.
Marcus pointed to Reece’s SUV and then to the dirt road leading toward Buena Vista and raised his eyebrows. “It’s today’s paper. Consider the implications for a moment.”
“Why can’t he have today’s paper?” Brandon asked.
“Duh.” Dana tapped the side of her head. “There was no time to get to Buena Vista and back. And we would have heard his SUV fire up.”
“Precisely.” Marcus crossed his legs and wrapped his hand around his knee.
“So how’d he get the paper?” Brandon glanced at them.
“Exactly.”
Brandon opened his Bible. After he finished the section in Acts, he looked at Dana. “Why has your face turned a whiter shade of pale?”
Dana blinked, closed her Bible, and let it slide from her hands into her lap. “Because I think I know what Reece’s explanation will be when we call him back over here.”
“I think I know as well.” Marcus smiled.
Brandon continued to stare at Dana. “And that’s freaking you out?”
“Yeah, a little.”
“Because?”
She massaged her lower lip with her thumb and forefinger. “If I’m right, we’re either dealing with a man who has an extremely serious connection with God, or a religious lunatic who has misplaced his brain and wants us to do the same.”