knew he was gone. He hesitated, hoping the whir of the chair would cover him if he made the decision.
But Albie turned and motioned Rayford to walk in front of him, behind the fast-moving chair. Even if he could escape, Hattie was history. He had no choice but to stay and play it out.
FIVE
Buck settled on the white Hummer, confirmed it had a full tank, checked the tires, found the keys, checked the engine, and fired it up.
'What shall we name her?' Chloe said.
'This is a big, ol' muscle car,' he said. 'It's got Chloe written all over it.'
It would be hours before dark, and they would be in touch with Zeke frequently to discover what he knew about the positioning of the GC stakeout. They were looking for rebels who gassed up at his dad's station, not expecting Zeke Jr. to even be there. But could Buck get him out of there without their seeing?
Kenny was down for a nap, and Leah was reading when they returned. 'Tsion said you could join him and Chaim,' she said. 'And Chloe was going to involve me in the co-op stuff.'
'I've got to start communicating with everyone,' Chloe said, setting up her computer as Leah pulled up a chair. Buck moved up one floor to Tsion's hideaway.
What a spot he had set up for himself. In a room just big enough for a U-shaped desk, Tsion had what amounted to a cockpit, where he was within arm's length of whatever he needed. With his computer before him and his commentaries and Bible on a ledge above, he was ready. Buck was struck by how few books he had brought with him, but Dr. Ben-Judah explained that most of what he needed had been scanned onto his massive hard drive.
Chaim sat in a comfortable chair looking less than comfortable. He had been hurt worse than Buck in the plane crash, yet he sat weeping tears of apparent joy, as Tsion rushed to teach him.
'Much of this you have heard from your youth, Chaim,' the rabbi said, 'but now that God has opened your eyes and you know Jesus is the Messiah, you will be amazed at how it all comes together for you and makes sense.'
Chaim rocked and wept and nodded. 'I see,' he said over and over. 'I see.'
Buck sat transfixed, hearing in a gush much of what he had learned over the past three-plus years from Tsion's daily cybermessages. At times the rabbi himself would be overcome and have to stop and exult, 'Chaim, you don't know how we prayed for you, again and again, that God would open your eyes. Do you need a break, my brother?' s Chaim shook his head but held up a hand, trying to make himself understood despite the wired-shut jaw. 'God is opening my eyes to so many things,' he managed. 'Cameron, come close. I must ask you something.'
Buck looked at Tsion, who nodded, and he pulled his chair closer to Chaim's. 'I always wondered why you had not come to Nicolae's first meeting with his new leadership team at the United Nations. Remember?'
'Of course.'
'Forgive me for spitting on you, Cameron, but I can- not speak another way just now.'
'Don't give it a second thought.'
'I could not fathom it! The privilege of a lifetime, the opportunity no self-respecting journalist could miss. You were invited. I invited you! You said you would come, and yet you did not. It was the talk of New York. You were demoted because of it. Why? Why did you not come?'
'I was there, Chaim.'
'No one saw you there! Nicolae was disappointed, enraged. Everyone asked about you. Your boss, what was his name?' 'Steve Plank.'
'Mr. Plank could not believe it! Hattie Durham was there! You were the one who introduced her to Carpathia, and yet you were not there when she expected you.'
'I was there, Chaim.'
'I was there too, Cameron. Your place at the table was empty.'
Buck was about to say again that he was there, but he suddenly realized what was happening and why Chaim would bring this up again after so long. 'Your eyes truly are being opened, aren't they Chaim?'
The old man put a quivering hand on Buck's knee. 'I could not understand it. It made no sense. Jonathan Stonagal had embarrassed Nicolae by going after you. Nicolae shamed him into committing suicide, and he killed Joshua Todd-Cothran in the process.'
Buck wanted to say he had seen it and that was not the way it had happened, but he waited.
'None of it made sense,' Rosenzweig whined. 'None of it. But the eyes don't lie. Stonagal grabbed the gun from the security guard, shot himself and his colleague with him.'
'No, Chaim,' Buck whispered. 'The eyes don't lie. But the Antichrist does.'
Rosenzweig began to shiver until his whole body shook. He pressed his hands against his tender face to stop the quivering of his lips. 'Why were you not there, Cameron?'
'Why would I not have been there, sir? What could have kept me away?'
'I cannot imagine!'
'Neither could I.'
'Then why? Why?'
Buck did not respond. He had quit trying to convince the old man. 'I was assigned to be there; my boss expected me to go.'
'Yes, yes!'
'It was the mother of all cover stories for the largest circulation magazine in history. It was the apex of my career. Would I have thrown that away?'
Rosenzweig shook his head, tears falling, hands trembling. 'You would not.'
'Of course I wouldn't. Who would?' 'Maybe you had come to believe Nicolae was Antichrist and you didn't want to be exposed to him?' 'By then I knew, yes, or I thought I did. I would not have gone in there without the protection of God.' 'And you did not have it?' 'I had it.'
'And so why not go? You would have been the only one there with God's hand upon you.'
Buck merely nodded. Rosenzweig's eyes cleared, and it appeared he was studying something a thousand miles away. His pupils darted back and forth. 'You were there!'
'Yes, I was.'
'You were there, weren't you, Cameron?'
'I was, sir.' 'And you saw it all!' ''''I saw everything.'
'But you did not see what the rest of us saw.' 'I saw what really happened. I saw the truth.' Chaim' s hands fluttered beside his head, and through clenched teeth he described what he had once seen and what he now saw anew. 'Nicolae! Nicolae murdered those men! He made Stonagal kneel before him, stuck the weapon in the man's ear, and killed the both of them with one shot!'
'That's what happened.'
'But Nicolae told us what we had seen, told us what we would remember, and our perception became our reality!'
Chaim turned around and knelt, resting his fragile head in his hands, elbows on the seat of his chair. 'Oh, God, oh, God,' he prayed, 'open my eyes. Help me to always see the truth, your truth. Don't let me be led by a madman, deceived by a liar. Thank you, Jehovah God.'
Slowly he stood and embraced Buck, then turned to face Tsion. 'Truly Nicolae is Antichrist,' he said. 'He must be stopped. I want to do whatever I have to do.'
Tsion smiled ruefully. 'May I remind you that you already tried?'
'I certainly did, but not for the reasons I would try today.'
'If you think you know the depths of the depravity of the man,' Tsion said, 'wait till we get to what he has in mind for God's chosen people.'
Chaim sat and reached for a pad of paper. 'Skip to that, Tsion. Please.'
'In due time, my friend. Just a few thousand more years to go.'
