Great White Throne (9 page)

“SO WHAT NOW?”

Naomi rose up with her palms flat on the red sheets and her slender arms as support. Her beautiful face was like a gulp of fresh air after staring at Beatriz on the screen.

“He should be asleep for another hour,” Naomi said softly, glancing to the cradle. “We’ll be monitored, but I need a stretch—maybe somewhere outside, in the sun?”

“There’s a courtyard nearby. Can you take stairs? Just two stories.” She’d been walking within the first few days of the birth, but she hadn’t ventured far from her room. No one had said she couldn’t, but the androids’ instructions were to rest as much as possible.

“I think so,” she said, sliding out of bed and stretching her arms. “My body is feeling much better. Stronger.”
 

“Great, let’s go.” We slipped out of the room. The baby didn’t stir, but Naomi paused in the door between the two androids on guard.
 

She whispered to one of them. “Get me immediately if he wakes.”

“Yes, Naomi,” it replied.

She nodded. “Monitor?”

The robot’s stomach slid open, producing a small flat screen from inside. Naomi took it. “This has worked when I shower,” she said. “No reason it won’t work now.” She pressed the monitor’s screen. It showed the baby. A glance back into the room confirmed it was the view from the eyes of the nearest android. Naomi took my arm and smiled faintly.
 

The androids didn’t follow as we left. We made our way down a broad marble staircase, with Naomi seeming to gain confidence with each step. After passing through a long hall, I led us through the open door to an enclosed courtyard. It was immense, half the size of a soccer pitch, and magnificent in the mid-morning light. Paths crisscrossed in perfect geometry through the lush fruit trees and flowers. Small machines scurried around like dogs, watering and pruning the plants. It was hard to believe we were in the middle of a desert.
 

“Let’s sit here.” Naomi pointed to a bench under a tree with round, red apples begging to be picked.
 

“Remember the first time we sat on a bench together?”

She lowered to the bench gently. “I’ll never forget it. You were the arrogant Jewish boy with the dark curls and the darker dreams.”

“And you were the girl clothed with the sun—all beautiful and innocent and ready to make me spill my secrets. How’d you do that, by the way? I’ve never understood how you dragged my dream out of me.”

“I felt like there was something special about you, so I prayed. I asked God to help me, to show what you were hiding.” She grinned. “My prayers usually aren’t answered quite so fast.”

“And look where that led us.”

She studied me quietly. “You think you could’ve avoided all this if I hadn’t dragged you to meet the order?”

“I don’t know.” I hesitated, then smiled. “Either way, you’re worth everything I’ve gone through—the dragon, the desert, Babylon, and now Don’s palace. I’d do it all again. We’re together now.”

She took my hand. “You’ve changed, you know.”
 

“It wouldn’t have happened without you. And maybe Bart, and Chris, and Ronaldo, and ….”

She nodded, but her eyes said she’d moved to the next thought. She was studying the garden around us. She bent over and glanced under the bench, then she leaned close to my ear. “Think we’re being overheard?”
 

“Maybe. There’s a chance everything
can
be heard. Don’s androids are walking recorders, and sensors are everywhere. But this seems at least as safe as your room.” I met her green eyes. They were open wide, a little afraid. “What is it?”

She pressed close to my ear again. “We have to decide about turning on your precept, and I’ve heard nothing from God. It makes me worried. What have you seen?”
 

I hesitated, careful with my words. “I’ve seen myself in Jerusalem, facing the dragon.” Her body tensed, and I tried to assure her. “It’s not much to go on, but I heard God clear as day:
trust and wait
. And before that, in the order’s hideaway, Jesus told me to let my enemies give me quarter and then,
in the moment when the world listens, tell the world I am coming.
Well, here I am in Don’s palace, and how can I speak to the world without my precept? It seems like I should take the opportunity.”

“But this opportunity is from Don.” Her voice dropped to the lowest whisper. “I told you, he doesn’t need your help.”

“Think about why he picked you as his woman clothed with the sun. He’s taking God’s story and trying to corrupt it. So, for whatever reason, if God picked me to see spiritual things and come to believe them, wouldn’t his enemy want to twist that?”

“I guess so. But how?” She paused, fixing her eyes on mine.
 

I thought of how he’d used Charles’s body as a puppet. “I bet he thinks he can tempt me to join him. And if that fails, he probably thinks he can just control me.”

“That’s right. So what are you going to do if you sync up to one of those killing machines and find yourself with no option but to slaughter a bunch of men or be killed?”

My voice came out steady: “I’ll follow the Captain’s path.”

“That’s
not
an option.”

“We know Don will be defeated in the end. There’s no guarantee I’ll be around to see it.” I thought of her son beside me—in
the dragon. “There’s no guarantee for any of us.”

Naomi closed her eyes and breathed deeply. “All who believe in Him have a guarantee. And no one with that guarantee would take his own life. It’s true we might suffer—like being trapped by Don—but I trust God’s plan.” Her eyes opened. “He called you to serve Him at the end.”

Her steady faith made me smile. She’d just had the devil’s baby, and yet here she was telling me to trust God. I didn’t want to think about where I’d be without her. “You’re right.” I took her hands in mine. “I’m trying to serve Him, and I think that means connecting my precept. I have to join this fight.”

She looked resigned to it, or maybe just tired. “You have to tell me everything you learn.”

“I already agreed to that.”

“Good.” She yawned, then glanced down at the monitor, at the sleeping boy. “Let’s head back. He’ll be waking up soon.”

“Still not going to tell me his name?”

She shook her head and stood. She began to reach her arms up, yawning again, but winced and dropped them to her side.
 

“You okay?”

“It still hurts a little,” she admitted. “Can you grab one of these apples for me?”

“Isn’t that what Eve said to Adam?”

She laughed. “Something like that, but you’re the one desperate to turn your precept on. I’m just hungry.”

I picked two apples and handed her one. “Here, the forbidden fruit. Let me know what you learn about good and evil.”

She looked up at the palace’s tower looming high above us. “I already know more than I’d like.”

LATER THAT DAY Naomi came to my room while the baby was sleeping again. We sat across from each other in the chairs by the window, overlooking the rocky desert hills. We talked more about Don’s offer and Beatriz’s message. We prayed. We asked God what it meant to trust and wait. We got no clear answer. I had waited for more guidance. I had waited until Don sent the instructions. And now I would trust. I would turn on my precept.
 

Three presses to the wrist and V was back.

My head suddenly felt doused in grease—slippery and tainted. My senses were sharper, but less real.
 

“Good afternoon, Elijah,” V greeted with her cheerful voice. “Twenty-three days and four hours since last shutdown.”
 

Was that all?
I wondered. That had been in Jerusalem, with Brie from the order. She’d told me never to turn my precept on again. Was she right, or had things changed? Too late now.
 

V spoke in my mind. “You have thirty thousand six hundred forty-two messages, nine hundred twenty news briefings, and fifty-seven trainings. You also have—”

“Stop.”
 

V stopped. That shouldn’t have been comforting, but it was. At least V still obeyed. The messages and briefings could wait.
 

“Why did you tell it to stop?” Naomi asked. “You look scared.”

“It was too much at once.” I stared wide-eyed at her. With the influx of information from V, I’d forgotten I would get access to Naomi’s vitals. It felt like so long since we had synced during ISA training. I checked her familiar digital presence in my mind. Her heart rate was normal, but her synapses were firing at 68% of her normal speed. She was exhausted.
 

“You’ve got to get more sleep,” I said.

“I know. But … why are you looking at me like that? You still have my data from our sync?”

I nodded. “It’s still there. Remember, Don’s network keeps the data flowing even when precepts are off. More sleep, okay?”

“You ever try sleeping when there’s a baby waking you up every two hours?” She put on her best attempt at a smile. “I’ll be fine. What about your precept?”

“V auto-connected with the system, and she was about to report on my messages and everything.”

“Stay focused,” she said. “See if there’s something from the order.”

“Okay.” I leaned back and closed my eyes. I instructed V to run a search for the names of anyone in the order. She came up with two results since I’d shut her down.
 

The first was a message from Chris—twelve days ago. V played the video. Chris’s face was covered in sweat, like he’d been running. He was in a dark room. His face looked hollowed, lit by candlelight.
 

We lost Neo
, he said
. Only four of us remain. But we will come for you. Stay safe, protect Naomi, and pray.
 

That was it. The video blinked off. I opened my eyes.
 

Naomi hadn’t moved. “What is it?”

I told her what Chris had said.

Her head fell into her hands. She was quiet, trembling. She eventually looked up. “I can’t believe Neo’s dead.”

My thoughts drifted to the man’s hideaway in Montana, and all the children he sheltered. “Chris didn’t mention the kids.”

Naomi sat up straight, as if willing herself out of pain, out of fear. “God will save them, if not on earth, then in heaven.”
 

“If Chris or anyone tries to come, they won’t stand a chance.”

“Don’t think like that.” She sounded poised, assured—the news had changed something about her. “We must keep praying and keep going. What’s the next message?”

I closed my eyes again. V played the next one.
 

It was Ronaldo, from only a few hours ago. He looked calm, with the same bright eyes as always. The wall behind him was the same color stone as the palace. He started speaking, relaxed.
 

They caught me, mon
.
I’d been bidin’ time, hopin’ to help, and I even got a drone to the palace. But the devil’s watchin’. He followed the sync to my hideout. Maybe he knew all along. He certainly knows it all now. Ain’t no more use tryin’ to hide. They hauled me here. Looks like they’ll be locking me up in the palace’s east wing. Come soon.

“What happened?” Naomi asked as my eyes opened. Her voice reflected the excitement that was surely on my face.