Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle Of The Ages (34 page)

“Bingo. If you want to risk it.”

“They wouldn’t believe it was us,” George said. “Who’d be stupid enough to make himself that kind of a target?”

“You would.”

Buck had run almost half a mile and was sucking wind when he saw Carpathia’s Unity Army troops coming the other way. Now he was desperate to find Tsion and get him out of the Old City.

Rebels, some shooting over their shoulders, ran past him for their lives, but Buck noticed the GC were not firing. They were moving in a colossal battering ram that looked as if it would make short work of the Wailing Wall. Now that was a tragedy. After millennia of prayer, could such a sacred site be wasted in just moments?

Suddenly, all those rebels who had flooded past Buck turned and came back. Shouts resounded: “Not the Wailing Wall!” “Not the Wall!” “Sacrifice yourselves!” “Fight to the death!”

The word spread throughout the Jewish Quarter and into the center of the Old City, and instantly hundreds became thousands. Buck joined the fray. They charged the GC, shooting, throwing rocks, fighting hand to hand. The rebels overcame those on the battering ram and turned it back toward the Dung Gate.

As more and more rebels joined, at least for that brief skirmish, the Jews had the Unity Army on the run. They pushed the battering ram up to the Dung Gate, chased out the army, and managed to shut the gate with the ram inside. Great cheers rose, and so, it seemed, did the rebellion’s confidence. Someone assigned a large group to guard the gate, while others were sent to the Golden and Lion’s Gates on the east side.

Buck’s phone chirped. “Tsion! Where are you? I tried to call you!”

“My phone is dead. I am borrowing this one. Is it true the rebels turned the army away from the Dung Gate?”

“Yes! I’m here now! Where shall we meet?”

“Do you know the Church of the Flagellation?”

“Near the Muslim Quarter?”

“Just west of there, yes!” Tsion said. “Hurry! I have lost the brothers.”

“You know we’ve always been protected in the airspace around here,” Rayford said as he lifted off.

“I’d rather not test that,” Sebastian said. “Just straight up and give me a three-sixty so I can see if the horses are where I want them. Then straight back down.”

“Oh no!” Rayford said. “Incoming!”

“What?”

A missile was streaking right at the chopper. Rayford tried to evade it, knowing that was hopeless. A whirly-bird simply didn’t have the maneuverability or speed to dodge a missile.

“My idea and a bad one, George. Sorry.”

“Just stay away from the
city,
Ray!”

Rayford had toyed with the idea of dropping onto a high place, but if the missile tracked him, it could injure or kill more than just the two of them.

He banked and let the chopper roll out past where Petra troops were stationed, which only brought him face-to-face with the missile that much faster.

“Sorry, Priscilla,” Rayford muttered, shutting his eyes as the warhead met the chopper.

It didn’t make sense to Buck that he should get to the rendezvous point before Tsion, despite the difference in their ages. Buck figured Tsion had started from at least twice as close. He searched the crowded church, but once again, no Tsion. This was getting old.

“Herod’s Gate!” someone shouted, and hundreds of rebels headed toward the northernmost gate in the city. It was amazing to see the zeal in their eyes when their ancient holy sites were threatened. That had to be where Tsion went too. Buck couldn’t think of another option.

It was just over an eighth of a mile from the church, but there was no running this time. Buck found himself pressed on all sides, wall-to-wall rebels. Maybe it was for the best. He was exhausted already, and his pulse raced uncontrollably.

He couldn’t call Tsion if the rabbi’s phone was dead. All he could think to do was bend his knees occasionally and leap high enough to see over the crowd.

But when he spotted Tsion Ben-Judah, he didn’t like where he found him.

THE
CHOPPER
shuddered and stayed on course. “Thought we were goners,” Rayford said. “I never get used to that.”

“Where’d that missile go?”

“Right through us, as usual.”

“Nothing usual about that,” Sebastian said. He scanned the horizon. “Over there.”

Rayford saw a plume of black smoke about a mile south of Petra.

“They may have hit their own people!” George said and got on his radio. “Big Dog 1 to southern perimeter, over.”

“Mac here, Dog. What was that?”

“Just missed us. What did it do?”

“Found one of their transports just beyond the equestrian line. Had to have some casualties. They look pretty exercised.”

“Wait till they find out it was friendly fire. Attention all
DEW
operators, open fire immediately!” George ordered.

Within seconds, the black rim of horses and horsemen surrounding Petra disintegrated, and steeds charged away in all directions.

“A masterpiece, George,” Rayford said. “Well done.”

“Some of that horse meat is probably well done. Hey, Ray, did I hear you mention my wife’s name when we were about to buy it?”

“Guilty.”

“What’s that about?”

“I told her I’d look out for you as much as was possible.”

“And that’s your idea of looking out for me?”

“As much as was possible. What say we bounce back up and see if we can get them to shoot at us again, maybe take out some more of their munitions on the other side?”

“Not funny, Rayford.”

Every time Buck leaped over the heads of the crowd, he caught sight of Tsion being borne along on the shoulders of zealots. He wanted to scream at them to put him down, but no one would be able to hear above the din. What were they trying to do, get him killed? Maybe they saw him as a hero. Maybe they thought by getting him to the head of the pack he could inspire the troops. Regardless, it was insanity.

Buck lowered his shoulder and bulled his way through until he was almost up to Tsion. “Hey!” he shouted. “Hey! Put him down!”

“He will lead us to victory!”

“He is our leader!”

“Well, he’s my responsibility, and you’re going to get him killed!”

Buck grabbed Tsion’s ankle, which slowed the crowd, and as they lost their grip, Tsion tumbled headfirst. Buck dived beneath him to break his fall, and now both of them were being trampled. It was providential, however, as Unity Army troops had scaled the wall above Herod’s Gate and opened fire. Rebels fell all around Tsion and Buck, heads slamming the ground, blood spattering.

Buck wrapped his arms around Tsion’s head and buried his own, waiting out the fusillade. With the zing of bullets ricocheting and the explosion of the pavement around him, he tensed for the killing round that would hit his or Tsion’s head or neck or spine.

But they were spared.

When the burst let up, Buck dragged Tsion to his feet and hustled him toward the legendary healing pool of Bethesda. “I was not hit, Cameron! No need for healing!”

Millimeters from death and the rabbi jokes.

Rayford and George landed and were racing down to George’s post via
ATV
. “They’ve got to retaliate,” Rayford said. “What form will that take, and what do we do?”

“They’ve got mortar launchers in range. I want to see if the riders can persuade their horses to return. If they can’t, that’s going to be chaos. The key is keeping them out of the Siq. I don’t want a one of ‘em thinking he can infiltrate this place.”

“You’d think Carpathia would have learned his lesson. Imagine how much money he wasted trying to get at us here,” Rayford said.

“Yeah, but every military commander thinks he’s better than anybody else, so whoever’s in charge of this offensive is going to have to learn for himself.”

“The DEWs and his own missile should have taught him something.”

“Should have,” George said. “But you can bet he’ll try everything in his arsenal before he gives up.”

“What would be the hardest to defend against?”

“Sheer numbers. When they start rolling this way, we’re going to be chased back inside.”

“Where, so far, it’s been safe.”

“True. But retreating is not my idea of warfare. That missile was God’s protection, but wasn’t it fun to attack with the directed energy weapons?”

A young woman gestured frantically from a small cave-like structure near the pools, and Buck hustled Tsion to her. “There is room for two more,” she said.

As they pushed their way in to safety, Buck realized about twenty others were in the echoing chamber. “Is it the rabbi?” someone called out.

“I am here,” Tsion said.

“Praise God. When do you expect Messiah?”

“Actually, I expected him about five minutes ago. Or maybe I should say he should have been expecting me.”

“I want to believe he is coming to save the day and rescue us.

“He is if you are ready,” Tsion said.

“I am ready. I just want to be alive when he gets here.”

“So do I,” Tsion said. “But we did not choose the best place to ensure that, did we?”

“What is this talk of Messiah?” someone grumbled. “We have been waiting for him to rescue us for generations.”

Tsion ran through his teaching as fast as he could. Three of the terrified men and the young woman prayed to accept Jesus as Messiah, but the skeptic did not. “When he comes,” he said, “I will believe.”

“`Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,”’ Tsion said.

The gunfire suddenly ceased. Buck peered out past the woman. Was this it? Had Messiah returned and saved the day?

Young men raced by, screaming. “We have won! We have won! They are pulling back! The gates are secure!”

“Wait! It’s a trap! Don’t believe it! They are just regrouping!”

Buck and Tsion’s bunker mates piled out and warily looked around, weapons at the ready. “I don’t like it,” someone said. “They have bombs that could annihilate us. What are they doing?”

“Toying with us.”

“We should go on the offensive! Open the gates and attack! Kill them while they are retreating.”

“They are not retreating. This is a trap. They want us to open the gates. We should regroup while they are regrouping. Be ready for them.”

There was a lull at Petra too, and Rayford took a call from Mac McCullum. “Can you and Razor spare me a minute, George?” Rayford said. “Mac wants me to come and see something.”

It was half an hour’s ride by all-terrain vehicle to get to Mac, and when Rayford arrived, Mac was studying the enemy through powerful field glasses. “You know they can see us plain as day by now, Ray, just like we can see them. What are they waitin’ on?”

He handed Rayford the binoculars. “Looks like they’ve got most of the horses under control. That must have been a mess. And I know, Ray, that our DEWs caused the stampede. But what’s making them squirrelly now? I don’t get it.”

Rayford studied the enemy in the distance. It didn’t appear it was as simple as horses being shy of where they had been burned. They weren’t even close to that. It was more like the riders could not get the horses to do anything they wanted them to.

“It reminds me of a verse, Ray. Something Tsion taught us. What was it?”

“I don’t recall. Want to ask him? I need to check in on him and Buck anyway.”

The silence was more than eerie. Buck and Tsion moved close to the wall by Herod’s Gate. Buck answered the phone and handed it to Tsion.

“Yes, here too,” Tsion said. “I have the strange feeling it is the lull before the storm. Horses? Yes. Zechariah 12:4: “`In that day,” says the Lord, “I will strike every horse with confusion, and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.”’ You know, Mac, that may be what has happened here too.”

As soon as Tsion was off the phone, people around him wanted to know what he was talking about. He told them.

“Let’s check it out,” one said. “The rabbi believes the Unity Army is blind or mad.”

“Could be,” Tsion said. “That is the only explanation I can think of for what is going on.”

Some of the younger men boosted each other and began climbing. Two reached the top of the wall. “I see nothing! They’re hiding, maybe.”

“Rabbi! Teach us some more.”

Buck looked to Tsion, who shrugged. “That is why I came. If they want to listen, I want to preach.”

As soon as he began, curious crowds gathered again. And as Buck watched and listened, he was overcome with the privilege of being where he was and when it was. He sensed he could see Jesus at any time. And Chloe.

To hear God’s man in God’s place at God’s time-what an unspeakable privilege. Scared? Of course he was. Wondering if Jesus would really come when he said he would? Not even a question. Buck couldn’t wait. He just couldn’t wait.

Back with George, Rayford was out of ideas. “Don’t ask me,” he said. “If you want to fire the Fifties, fire them.”

“I know we could kill horses and men from this distance and take out a few of their vehicles,” George said. “But I also know that would bring return fire. I’m not concerned about inside the city. But I’m afraid we’re vulnerable out here at the perimeter.”

“What would be the purpose of going on the offensive when you know you can’t win?”

“Exactly. But I just hate sitting here, waiting for stuff to happen. We need to make something happen.” “Fire a Fifty or two and plenty will happen.”

One of the young men on the wall interrupted Tsion, yelling, “They’re raising some kind of a giant bullhorn. Maybe they want to negotiate.”

“You don’t want to negotiate with the devil,” Tsion said, and the crowd roared.

“Maybe he’s offering a truce!”

“A truce,” Tsion said, “is worth the character of the man on the other side of the table.”

“Attention, people of Jerusalem! This is your supreme potentate!”

“Boo! Boo! Our only potentate is the God of Israel!”

“Shut up! Hear him out!”

“Please listen, citizens. I come in peace.”