The Left Behind Collection: All 12 Books (150 page)

“If Amanda wasn’t a believer, she probably
was
working for Carpathia,” Rayford spat. “Mac, I don’t think I could handle that.”

“Think of David,” Mac said. “He’ll be looking to us for leadership and guidance, and I’m newer at this than
he
is.”

When plummeting tongues of fire joined the hailstones, Rayford just stared. Mac said, “Wow!” over and over. “This is like the ultimate fireworks!”

Huge hailstones plopped into the river and floated downstream. They accumulated on the bank and turned the sand white like snow. Snow in the desert. Flaming darts sizzled and hissed as they hit the water. They made the same sound when they settled atop the hailstones on shore, and they did not burn out right away.

The chopper lights illuminated an area of twenty feet in front of the craft. Mac suddenly unclipped his belt and leaned forward. “What is that, Ray? It’s raining, but it’s red! Look at that! All over the snow!”

“It’s blood,” Rayford said, a peace flooding his soul. It did not assuage his grief or take away his dread over the truth about Amanda. But this show, this shower of fire and ice and blood, reminded him yet again that God is faithful. He keeps his promises. While our ways are not his ways and we can never understand him this side of heaven, Rayford was assured again that he was on the side of the army that had already won this war.

Tsion hurried to the back of the house and watched the flames melt the hail and set the grass afire. It burned a few moments, and then more hail put the fire out. The entire yard was black. Balls of fire dropped into the trees that bordered the backyard. They burst into flames as one, their branches sending a giant orange mushroom into the air. The trees cooled as quickly as they had ignited.

“Here comes the blood,” Tsion said, and suddenly Hattie sat straight up. She stared out the window as blood poured from the skies. She struggled to kneel on the bed so she could see farther. The parched yard was wet with melted hail and now red with blood.

Lightning cracked and thunder rolled. Softball-size hailstones drummed the roof, rolling and filling the yard. Tsion shouted, “Praise the Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth! What you see before you is a picture of Isaiah 1:18: ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’”

“Did you see it, Hattie?” Chloe asked.

Hattie turned and Buck saw her tears. She nodded but looked woozy. Buck helped her lie back down, and she was soon asleep.

As the clouds faded and the sun returned, the results of the light show became obvious. The bark on the trees had been blackened, the foliage all burned off. As the hail melted and blood seeped into the ground, the charred grass showed through.

“The Scriptures told us that one-third of the trees and all of the green grass in the world would be burned,” Tsion said. “I cannot wait until we have power so we can see what Carpathia’s newsmen make of this.”

Yet another clear movement of God’s hand had moved Buck. He longed for Hattie to stay healthy so she could pursue the truth. Whether Bruce Barnes had been poisoned by Nicolae Carpathia or had lost his life in the first volley of bombs in World War III made little difference in the larger scheme of things. But if Hattie Durham had information about Amanda that could confirm or deny what Tsion had stumbled onto in Bruce’s computer files, Buck wanted to hear it.

Mac left the chopper running, but Rayford was cold. With nothing green to scorch in that part of the world, the fire and blood had been overcome by the hail. The result was the chilliest night in the history of the Iraqi desert.

“Stay put,” Mac said. “I’ll get the stuff.”

Rayford reached for the door handle. “That’s all right, I’ll do my share.”

“No! Now I mean it. Just let me do this.”

Rayford wouldn’t admit it, but he was grateful. He stayed inside as Mac sloshed in the melting hail. He stored the scuba equipment behind the seats. When he reboarded he had Amanda’s waterlogged laptop computer.

“What’s the point, Mac? Those things aren’t waterproof.”

“True,” Mac said. “Your screen is shot, your solar panels are ruined, your keyboard won’t function, the motherboard is gone. You name it, that much water had to kill it. Except for the hard drive. It is encased and waterproof. Experts can run a diagnostic and copy any files you want.”

“I don’t expect any surprises.”

“I’m sorry to be blunt, Rayford,” Mac said, “but you didn’t expect to see her in the Tigris. If I were you, I’d look for evidence to prove Amanda was everything you thought she was.”

Rayford wasn’t sure. “I’d have to use someone I know, like David Hassid or someone else I can trust.”

“That narrows it to David and me, yes.”

“If it’s bad news, I couldn’t let a stranger discover it before I do. Why don’t you handle it, Mac? In the meantime, I don’t even want to think about it. If I do, I’m going to break your confidence and go straight to Carpathia and demand he clear Amanda’s name with anybody he ever talked to about her.”

“You can’t do that, Ray.”

“I might not be able to help myself if I have exclusive access to that computer. Just do it for me and give me the results.”

“I’m not an expert, Ray. How about if I supervise David, or let him run me through it? We won’t look at one file. We’ll just find whatever is available.”

Nicolae Carpathia announced a postponement of travel due to “the strange natural phenomenon” and its effect on airport reconstruction. Over the next few weeks, as the expanded Chicago contingent of the Tribulation Force grew closer to their departure date for Israel, Buck was dumbfounded at the improvement in Chloe. Floyd Charles took her casts off, and within a few days, atrophied muscles began to come back. It appeared she might always have a limp, residual pain, and a slightly cockeyed face and frame. But to Buck, she had never looked better. All she talked about was going to Israel to see the incredible mass rally of the witnesses.

The first twenty-five thousand to arrive would meet with Tsion in Teddy Kollek Stadium. The rest would gather at sites all over the Holy Land, watching on closed-circuit television. Tsion told Buck he planned to invite Moishe and Eli to join him in the stadium.

Following God’s shower of hail, fire, and blood, remaining skeptics were few. There was no longer any ambiguity about the war. The world was taking sides.

Rayford’s head healed quickly, but he still had an aching heart. He spent his days mourning, praying, studying, following Tsion’s teaching carefully on the Internet, and e-mailing Buck and Chloe every day.

He also kept his mind occupied with route plans, mentoring David Hassid, and discipling Mac. For the first few days, of course, their roles had been reversed as Mac helped Rayford through the worst period of grief. Rayford had to admit God gave him just enough strength for each day. No extra, none to invest for the future, but sufficient for each day.

Nearly a month from the night Rayford had discovered Amanda’s body, David Hassid presented him with a high-tech disk with all of Amanda’s computer files listed. “They’re all encrypted and therefore inaccessible without decoding,” David told him.

Rayford was so quiet around Carpathia and Fortunato, even when pressed into flying them here and there, that he believed they had become bored with him. Perfect. Until God released him from this assignment, he would simply endure it.

He was astonished at the progress of rebuilding around the world. Carpathia had troops humming, opening roads, airstrips, cities, trade routes, everything. The balance of travel, commerce, and government had shifted to the Middle East, Iraq, New Babylon, the capital of the world.

People around the world begged to know God. Their requests flooded the Internet, and Tsion, Chloe, and Buck worked day and night corresponding with new converts and planning the huge Holy Land event.

Hattie did not improve. Dr. Charles looked into a secret medical facility but finally told Buck he would take care of her where she was while Buck and the others were in Israel. It would be risky for them both, and she might have to occasionally be alone longer than he was comfortable with, but it was the best he could come up with.

Buck and Chloe prayed for Hattie every day. Chloe confided in Buck, “The only thing that will keep me from going is if Hattie has not received Christ first. I can’t leave her in that state.”

Buck had his own reasons for wishing she would revive. Her salvation was paramount, of course, but he needed to know things only she could tell him.