Jake refused to panic. He backed up and made a running leap across the gap. His body slammed into the rocky roofline on the other side, but at least he was safe. Dair grabbed his arm and lifted him to his feet.
Jake never looked back. He didn’t hear the giant anymore. Did the monster man not make the jump?
“Dair, I’ve got to take care of these,” Jake said, holding up the money bags.
“Okay, but we have to move quickly. That guard in the vault—Vi—let us escape. Ka’nah will send more men to hunt us down. And trust me, we don’t want to get caught.”
Dair led Jake across a few more rooftops and down a handful of winding stone stairways until they had successfully escaped the compound. Jake saw the man whom he had taken the money from, sitting in the dirt in front of the same stone structure.
“Here’s what I took, plus interest.” Jake put both bags in front of the man. “Forgive me, but it helped me find my friend. Thank you.”
The man yelled something Jake couldn’t understand, but as he picked up both money bags, the anger in his voice faded.
Dair urged Jake to move.
Jake left the man to his money and took off after Dair. When they came to the city gate, Dair stopped.
“It’s late, and you need rest. I’ll keep watch while you sleep, and then you can do the same for me.”
Jake looked around. They were in the wide-open entryway to the city. It was the same part of town where Jake had first seen his new friend. “Can we go to your house?”
“Not yet. That’s the first place Ka’nah will check for us. We’ll hide here in the open. You have to trust me. Get some rest, and we’ll come up with a plan to rescue Levi.”
Jake nodded. He sat down against the stone wall and tried closing his eyes. At some point sleep took over, and Jake let it.
The next morning, after a little sleep and a long night of keeping watch while Dair slept, Jake opened his eyes and found Dair having a conversation with a group of boys who appeared to be teenagers. Another long trumpet blast rattled through the air. Jake looked around on the ground and grabbed a small stone to add to his collection of two. The Israelites were on their third march around the city of Jericho.
Four more to go.
“Jake, hopefully you are rested. These are my brothers Rehu, Jez, and Sebbi. They have offered to help us get Levi out.”
Jake didn’t understand why he was in this place. The only thing he had to hold on to was his sense of purpose. First, it was Dair. Then it was returning the blind man’s money. Now it was the old man Levi who was on Jake’s heart. He rubbed the stones in his pocket. He had no idea what was going to happen, but he trusted the Bible to be true. This whole city was going to be a gigantic pile of rubble soon.
“Let’s go,” Jake said.
Dair looked at him. “What’s the plan?”
Jake put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Come here.” The two walked away from Dair’s brothers to a section of the wall that provided a beautiful view of the plain. The morning sun rose strong and warm in the east, lighting up the land in brilliant shades of yellow.
“Dair, I want to be honest with you. I don’t really have one. What I do know is that God’s in charge, and I couldn’t get you or Levi off my mind. So, just like I don’t know why I’m here, I don’t know how we will outwit Ka’nah, but I do know God will provide a way.”
“No one gets off the ledge alive.”
Jake didn’t know where it came from, but he felt a sudden surge of boldness. “We will try.”
Dair frowned. “Jake, you will be sent to the ledge for good. No turning back.”
Jake had a thought from last year’s social studies class. Harriet Tubman. After she had escaped, Harriet went back to the South and helped more people escape the bonds of slavery. It wasn’t much, but if Jake could go back and get Levi out, it would feel like an accomplishment. “Dair, my God will go before us. We just need to trust.”
“You are very odd, but I do feel there is something special about you. Let’s get our plan worked out, and then we’ll go for it.”
Jake showed Dair how to high-five. “Amen.”
Dair smiled. “You are strange, Jakehenry. But I like you.”
All five boys walked through Jericho, keeping their eyes peeled for any signs of Ka’nah’s men. When they were almost back to the compound, Dair held up a hand.
“Hold on. I have an idea.”
Jake was listening. “What?”
“There’s something about you that I can’t figure out, but I’m starting to believe what you say about your God and what you believe about this Bible story. If this place is really about to be destroyed, then let’s help it along.”
Jake stared at Dair, still not understanding what the other boy was thinking.
Dair continued. “Let’s cause a massive distraction that will get Ka’nah’s men out from the compound. Then we’ll hurry in and grab Levi.”
“Okay,” Jake said. “Like what?”
“We’re going to set the compound on fire.”
Jake didn’t want to hurt anybody. “How?”
“On the side where the ledge is, there are tons of storage rooms. Where Ka’nah keeps most of the things he steals. We will get in and set it on fire. Once the fire gets going, Ka’nah will pull Yod from the ledge and Vi from the vault to help put the flames out.”
Jake still wasn’t sure. “How are we going to start the fire? His men will stop us.”
Dair pointed to a corner of the compound that was closest to them. “We can go in from the outside. That little hole over there in the corner leads to the back side of the storeroom. Ka’nah leaves it open on purpose. He said it’s just big enough for a man his size to squeeze through. It’s an escape route if he ever needed to leave the compound unnoticed.”
Dair explained that they had to wait until night to go in, so the boys stayed in the shadows, biding their time.
When evening came and the sun set over the massive walls of Jericho, one of Dair’s brothers headed for the hole in the compound wall. Jake and the others watched as Jez crossed a dirt path, got down on the ground, and crawled into the tiny opening that led into the compound.
“I told him to just check if anyone’s in the room. If not, we will all go in and start the fire,” Dair said.
A few minutes after Jez disappeared into the wall, he reappeared. A look of worry covered his face. “There are two men. I don’t recognize either one of them.”
“Okay, we will wait,” Dair decided.
Hours passed as Jake and the others waited. At some point, he fell asleep and had a bizarre dream.