8

ON THE PHONE BACK AT the Venito, Paul found Jae unusually chipper. “I can’t help it, Paul. I miss you terribly and it’s hard on the kids, but I’m taking action and making decisions, and we’re going to be all right.”

“That’s great, babe. I miss you too, but I’m keeping busy.” He told her of the initial meeting with the Rome detectives. “The site is ghastly. I don’t envy them that work. So, you’re keeping busy?”

“I soon will be. Paul, I’m accepting a job with Dad, and the kids and I are moving to Washington until you get back.”

Paul closed his eyes. That’s all he needed.

“Paul? Are you there?”

“I’m here.”

“You don’t sound happy.”

“Can’t say that I am.”

“Oh, Paul, I need this. It’ll be something to do all day, and it’ll be in my area of expertise. Mom will help with the kids, and I’ll be able to get to know Aryana better—you know, Berlitz’s wife.”

“I know. But uprooting the kids? Why not just find something to do in Chicago?”

“I just told you. My family being there makes the difference. That’s the real draw.”

“What if I finish up quickly over here? You’re going to have just started with your dad and then leave him in the lurch.”

“He understands that’s a possibility. Frankly, I hope that’s what happens.”

“That’s nice to hear.”

“Well, there’s no question, Paul. Ideally I want you home with us in Chicago, but this is clearly the next best thing.”

It wasn’t so clear to Paul. While Jae had—to his knowledge—never been trained in espionage, he couldn’t know for certain that she herself wasn’t already onto him. He didn’t want to be paranoid, but he had to keep an edge, maintain his equilibrium. Her plan to work not just in Washington but also with the NPO and with Ranold could be part of an elaborate scheme for them to set him up. Maybe they had enough on him already to call him in and put him on trial for treason. But if they played him, he might lead them to a wide circle of the underground. Paul decided he’d rather die than take any part of the underground church down with him.

Again, the tightrope. If he tried to forbid Jae, she would defy him, no question. Plus he would look terrible. If they only suspected him at this point, such an action would tip the scales against him. “No way I can talk you out of this, Jae?”

“I told the kids’ teachers this morning, Paul. They’ll finish out the week and we’ll leave after school Friday. I start work Monday the twenty-first. I so want you to be happy for me and proud of me.”

Paul couldn’t bring himself to say either. January 21 was announcement day, when Chancellor Baldwin Dengler would go on worldwide television and reveal the plan to require a signed expression of loyalty to the international government and its long-standing policy against religion.

Jae had been through a lot with Paul and their rocky marriage, but somehow she had endured with her optimism intact. The rest of the day proved a downer for her because of his response to her plan. She had been disappointed enough at Straight’s initial reaction, but she really wanted Paul to be behind her. Deep inside she believed that if she remained upbeat on the phone with him, once they were in Washington, he’d come around.

Washington. It seemed a respite from her troubled mind. Was it what she was listening to or the frustration of feeling that eyes were on her? The Mother Bear in her wanted to emerge when she worried that if she was being watched, so were the children. Jae had seen no one and nothing concrete . . . yet. She did not recall this paranoia during Paul’s other trips. She was no expert, and Paul had long since assured her that if professionals were trailing her, she would not know it.

When Straight called later in the day, suggesting she volunteer at PSL Hospital with him, she believed Paul had put him up to it in a last-ditch effort to thwart her plan. Straight was even more dead set against her going, telling her he had a very bad feeling about it. On the other hand, he accepted her invitation to dinner on Thursday night and offered to help get her and the kids ready for the trip.

Jae had never read or heard one word from the Bible. Her only exposure to what Christianity was about was from brief conversations with Paul when he was trying to explain what he was learning about the enemy. But he hadn’t said much about that in a while, though she knew he was still frequently listening to the New Testament. She could also tell from the discs and the documentation that came with them that he had taken with him the first four books of the New Testament and that they were called the Gospels.

That afternoon Jae slipped into the player the first of the minidiscs Paul had left and listened to the first chapter of The Acts of the Apostles.

Dear friend who loves God:

The opening salutation told her this was a letter, but what a quaint phrase—“friend who loves God.” Not only did she not love God, but she had also been taught—and had always accepted—that there was no God. She had expected this experience to be strange, but she had not anticipated this. So these people, the writer, and apparently whoever was reading his letter, believed in God. And loved Him.

In my first book I told you about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he ascended to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions from the Holy Spirit.

During the forty days after his crucifixion, he appeared to the apostles from time to time and proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. On these occasions he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.

In one of these meetings as he was eating a meal with them, he told them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you what he promised. Remember, I have told you about this before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit? She had heard the term, also the term Holy Ghost. Both sounded more than bizarre. This crucifixion and resurrection had been referred to in the letter from Paul’s father. This must be a common theme among believers in God: letters expressing their views.

Jae thought this was one of the strangest things she had ever heard. The only thing she could relate to it was the classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, in which ghosts or spirits of Christmas appeared to Scrooge. She found the phrase “baptized with the Holy Spirit” so off-putting that she was tempted to turn off the machine. She decided to give it a few more minutes, mostly to see if it grew even weirder.

And another time when he appeared to them, they asked him, “Lord, are you going to free Israel (from Rome) now and restore us as an independent nation?”

The mention of Rome stopped her. How ironic that Paul was there even now. How old was this text? How different was Rome today from the Rome of the New Testament?

“The Father sets those dates,” he replied, “and they are not for you to know. But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

It was not long after he said this that he was taken up into the sky while they were watching, and he disappeared into a cloud. As they were straining their eyes to see him, two white-robed men suddenly stood there among them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here staring at the sky? Jesus has been taken away from you into heaven. And someday, just as you saw him go, he will return!”

All right, that was more than plenty. She shut it off. Jesus talked about His own death and resurrection then floated up to heaven? Men in white, maybe white coats, said he would return? Now she was reminded of the old movie It’s a Wonderful Life. Now, come on, that had an angel in it and conversations in heaven, but everybody—and she meant everybody—knew that was a fairy tale, a parable.

Did people actually buy this stuff, believe it? Paul had told her that the antigovernment forces believed Jesus was coming back soon, as prophesied in the New Testament. They really, truly believed this enough to risk their freedom and their lives to defy the International Government of Peace. It was as if Jae were suffering sensory overload. It was way too much to deal with. She started packing.

Strangely, the words kept working on her. She shuddered. So peculiar. Why should ancient texts bother her so? Jae turned the machine back on. Words couldn’t hurt her.

According to the disk, after Jesus left, his followers went back to Jerusalem and had a prayer meeting that went on for several days. Several days? The term prayer meeting was self-explanatory, Jae thought. They met to pray for days? Surely that was an exaggeration.

During this time, on a day when about 120 believers were present, Peter stood up . . .

A hundred and twenty people? Jae shook her head, talking to herself. This is told as if it actually happened! Peter talked about a traitor who had died, and then he suggested that he be replaced.

“So now we must choose another man to take Judas’s place. It must be someone who has been with us all the time that we were with the Lord Jesus—from the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken from us into heaven. Whoever is chosen will join us as a witness of Jesus’ resurrection.”

So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they all prayed for the right man to be chosen. “O Lord,” they said, “you know every heart. Show us which of these men you have chosen as an apostle to replace Judas the traitor in this ministry, for he has deserted us and gone where he belongs.” Then they cast lots, and in this way Matthias was chosen and became an apostle with the other eleven.

This Matthias, Jae decided, must be the main character of the rest of this part of the story. He replaced the bad guy, because . . . ? Maybe she would listen to a little more as she worked, just to see if the story got better or there was some kind of character development.

Paul took a call from Alonza Marcello just before dark. “I thought it went well today,” she said.

“Did you? I felt a little chilly.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Listen, one of our men found graffiti in a women’s toilet just outside the range of the damage of the first bomb. I’ll read it to you, but I imagine you’ll want to see it.”

“Yes, or a picture of it.”

“We have that. If that will be sufficient, I’ll have it transmitted as we speak. It was written in English on a stall door in lipstick. Here’s what it says:

“Long live the USSA. Long live the City of Angels. Long live Jonah. European resistance arise.”

“Mm-hmm,” Paul said.

“Mean anything at first blush?”

“Possibly. I’ll study the image. It’s difficult to say whether this group is really connected, but all four references refer to underground religious groups. The USSA is where most of the underground activity has heretofore originated. The City of Angels—”

“Is Los Angeles, of course.”

“Right, and you understand the Jonah reference?”

“Vaguely,” she said. “Wasn’t that your case?”

“Yes.”

“In Reno or some such?”

“Las Vegas.” Paul didn’t want to say too much. His superiors and the press and public believed the Jonah character was just another underground Christian. Paul scored major credibility points for single-handedly bringing him down, and the case helped establish Paul as the go-to guy within the NPO. Of course, the real person behind the Jonah pseudonym was as far from a true believer as a man could be. That shed some real light on Styr Magnor, if his suicide bombers were instructed to associate their acts in any way with Jonah’s. It was to Paul’s advantage if the public painted all underground rebels with the same brush. As long as he knew the nuances, it would help his cause.

“Jonah was the leader of that Christian underground, wasn’t he?” Chief Marcello said.

“Right. Now what about the encouragement to the European resistance? Do you know anything about that, ma’am?”

“There’s no real resistance, especially here. Of course, there is evidence of some pockets, but the worst they’ve done is circulate printed material trying to win converts. These show up in public places, but so far no one has been caught putting them there, and frankly, it’s insignificant enough that we haven’t made it a priority.”

“Probably wise,” Paul said. The image had come through on his computer. “You might want to have a handwriting expert take a look at this. It’s printed, but there could be a hint at a nationality here.”

“I had that same thought,” Alonza said. “Something about it just didn’t look Italian.”

“Were you guessing American?” Paul said.

“Seemed logical.”

“Can’t blame you, but I’d wager we’re not going to find Styr Magnor in America.”

“Because he says he’s Norwegian?”

“Partly. I don’t know. Just a gut feeling.”

“You’re known for that, Doctor. But isn’t the northern middle west almost an enclave of Scandinavians in your country?”

“What used to be Minnesota? Yes.”

“That’s where I’d look.”

“You may be onto something, Chief, but if you’re right, Chancellor Dengler has a whole lot of people in the wrong place. I know you don’t need to be reminded of this, but just to cover the bases, don’t allow this to be leaked to the press. Once it’s been publicized, we’ll never know who the real Styr Magnor is.”

The period between lunch and when the kids got home had proved the longest and loneliest stretch of Jae’s day. But this day, despite her less-than-favorable interactions with both Paul and Straight, she was motivated to stay busy. Jae believed in traveling light and was certain she could put everything she and the kids needed into one suitcase each. She was driving the seven hundred miles herself, and she planned to average just under a hundred miles an hour—to be safe and take into consideration the rush hour while trying to get through Chicago after school. She didn’t want a car laden with heavy stuff.

Jae kept half an eye on the front picture window, again unnerved because it seemed that slightly more traffic passed than she was used to—or had been aware of. She shook her head and dismissed her fears. Had she really kept a subconscious tally of the number of cars on her street? How would she really know if there were more . . . even one more?

While she selected what the kids would take to Washington, Jae listened to another chapter of Acts:

On the day of Pentecost, seven weeks after Jesus’ resurrection, the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm in the skies above them, and it filled the house where they were meeting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

There was that reference to Jesus’ resurrection again. These people didn’t consider this just something figurative. Jae would have to ask Paul if he thought the New Testament was supposed to be taken as a historical record. That didn’t make it true, of course—she certainly didn’t believe it—but if modern people bought into this with the same enthusiasm as those of that time apparently did, she could see why they would be so zealous.

The talk about tongues of fire made Jae want to turn off the machine again. How could anybody believe this stuff? Yet each time she heard something strange and disconcerting like that, she was less shaken by it. She was going to hear this out. In some intriguing way it made her feel closer to Paul. They would have something to talk about; she could be a more vital part of his work. For a long time she had wondered why everyone was so upset about underground cells of nuts who still believed in the old ways. Were they essentially harmless, proven by the silliness they believed in? But hearing this persuaded her at least that there was a long history of people who were into the same thing, and this, plainly, was the story of how it all began. But speaking in other languages? Oh, please! What in the world is that all about? The Holy Spirit, this ghost of Christmas past, gave people the ability to speak in other languages? They were probably just drunk.

Godly Jews from many nations were living in Jerusalem at that time. When they heard this sound, they came running to see what it was all about, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. . . .

They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other. But others in the crowd were mocking. “They’re drunk, that’s all!” they said.

Jae started at this, feeling peculiarly affirmed that she was not alone in her conclusion.

Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. Some of you are saying these people are drunk. It isn’t true! It’s much too early for that. People don’t get drunk by nine o’clock in the morning. No, what you see this morning was predicted centuries ago by the prophet Joel:

‘In the last days, God said, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

‘In those days I will pour out my Spirit upon all my servants, men and women alike, and they will prophesy.

‘And I will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below—blood and fire and clouds of smoke.

‘The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon will turn bloodred, before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives.

‘And anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

Jae had heard Paul mention something about how the zealot underground put a lot of stock in ancient prophecies, but again, that only made her think less of them. With the death of religion and spirituality and the onset of a healthy, new brand of humanism, no thinking person really believed in Nostradamus or fortune-telling or even horoscopes anymore. They were fun and people dabbled in them, and sure, money was to be made by charlatans at the hands of the gullible.

But couldn’t these prophecies of the Bible be debunked? Weren’t they vague and couldn’t they mean anything a person could read into them, much like those of Nostradamus? Jae had to admit that she didn’t know. Here were references to the prophecies and even the recitation of one of the them. If they were not credible, at least to the writers and readers of the New Testament, how had the Bible lasted for so long? Would it not have been cast aside as fanciful thinking long before World War III?

The best part of this, Jae decided, was that something about it reminded her of her good days in college and grad school. She had not been the type of student who hangs on for dear life. She would grab onto a subject, especially one like this—something not in her area of expertise—and not let go until she had thoroughly researched it.

Jae had to chuckle at herself. No way was she going to all of a sudden become a New Testament buff, the way her father was a Civil War aficionado. Puzzling and crazy as listening to this was, it was sort of fun. When was the last time she had been exposed to something so wholly outside her realm of experience, not to mention her comfort zone?

People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus of Nazareth by doing wonderful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. But you followed God’s prearranged plan. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to the cross and murdered him. However, God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life again, for death could not keep him in its grip.

This must have been a known, historical event, Jae decided. She had quit packing and was just sitting and listening now.

King David said this about him: “I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.

“No wonder my heart is filled with joy, and my mouth shouts his praises! My body rests in hope.

“For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.

“You have shown me the way of life, and you will give me wonderful joy in your presence.”

King David? Jae didn’t know much about the Bible, but she knew David was not a contemporary of Jesus. He had died long before the New Testament was written, hadn’t he?

David was looking into the future and predicting the Messiah’s resurrection. He was saying that the Messiah would not be left among the dead and that his body would not rot in the grave. This prophecy was speaking of Jesus, whom God raised from the dead, and we all are witnesses of this.

We? Who’s we? The apostles saw Jesus after His death?

Now he sits on the throne of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today.

So Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. Jae was still in the dark, but certain things were coming together. Jae found herself saying with the people who heard Peter, “What should we do?”

Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you and to your children, and even to the Gentiles—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this generation that has gone astray!”

That’s what Paul Stepola Sr. had been talking about. That’s what he had done. And he wanted Paul Jr. to do the same. Paul had to have seen that letter. What did he think? How had he responded to it? What would he do if he knew Jae was aware of it? A wave of guilt washed over her, but she was in too deep. If she ever revealed to Paul that she had the letter, it would be on her own terms and in her own time.

Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church—about three thousand in all. They joined with the other believers and devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord’s Supper and in prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders.

They must have been as confused as I am, Jae decided. Now if I could only see some miracle! Paul said the believers in Los Angeles claimed the drought was a miracle. Was it possible? The underground had survived, maybe even flourished. But was that God’s idea of a miracle? Something that hurt and killed so many people?

And all the believers met together constantly and shared everything they had. They sold their possessions and shared the proceeds with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.

Jae wondered if that had happened within the underground. They didn’t enjoy anyone’s “goodwill,” not that she knew. Were they having any impact on the public at large? And if they were, who would risk their lives by admitting it?

Jae called Straight. “Can you talk?” she said.

“For a minute. What’s up?”

“Do you know anything about the Bible?” she said, noticing a man on the other side of the street, striding as if he knew where he was going. He did not look toward her or even at the house, but she did not recognize him. Stranger Danger? She chuckled to herself. But it would be no laughing matter if he was still around when the kids got home.

Straight didn’t respond at first and she wondered if he had heard her or if they had a bad connection.

“The Bible?”

“Yes, you know. Old Testament, New Testament.”

“Know anything about it? I know Paul used the New Testament to bring himself up to speed on the thinking of—”

“Yeah, but do you know anything about it?”

“Like what?”

“Like Old Testament prophecies about the birth and death and resurrection of Jesus.”

“Oh, boy.”

“Don’t worry, Straight. I won’t get you in trouble if you do.”

“Thanks.”

“But I thought maybe when you were a professor, you know, you studied ancient texts or something.”

He hesitated again. “Well, yes, I’ve had some exposure to such things. Why?”

Jae told him she had been listening to Paul’s discs and how puzzling yet fascinating she found them. “I just have a lot of questions, that’s all.”

“Try me. What do you want to know?”