of the readership.'
David nodded. 'I've spoken to him by phone.'
'You have not!'
He nodded.
'Don't nod with loose staples in your head. And if you lie to me again, I'll twist 'em for you.'
'I'm not lying.'
'I know you're not. That's what makes me so jealous.'
'You know you're going to get to meet him someday.'
'Better bring a mop and bucket. You can just squeegee me off the floor and pour me down the drain.'
'Me too.'
'But you know him already! You're best buds.'
'Just by phone.'
She mimicked him. 'Just by phone. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah, we talk. He calls once in a while. 'How ya doin', Dave? Just finished my message.' '
David had to laugh and quickly realized it was the first time since…
'Anyway,' she continued, pulling the ends of one staple neatly from his scalp. 'See? Good timing, good technique. Uh-oh, do I see brain oozing there? Nope. Must be empty.'
David shook his head. 'The story, Hannah.'
'Oh, yeah. Tsion promises us that if we start reading the Bible, it'll be like a mirror to us and we might not like what we see. Remember that?'
'Do I?'
The other staple came out just as easily. She made a show of presenting it to him, and he waved it away. 'I didn't have a Bible and you don't exactly see them lying around here anywhere. But Tsion had that site where you could call up the whole Bible in your language. Well, not Cherokee, but you know. So I'm reading the Bible on the Net in the wee hours.'
'And couldn't get enough of it?'
'Urn, no. I did it wrong. I didn't read his little guide on where to start and what to look for. I just started in at the beginning and I loved all those stories in Genesis, but when I got into Exodus, and then-what's the next one?'
'Leviticus.'
'Yeah. Ugh! I'm wondering, where's the mirror? I don't like what I'm seeing, all right, but it's no mirror. Finally, I go into his site where you can ask questions. Only a million people a day do that. I didn't expect him to answer personally, of course, and he didn't. Probably was on the phone with his pal Dave. But somebody pointed me to that guide place. I start with John and then Romans and then Matthew. Talk about desperate for more and seeing yourself! My besetting sin, the way Tsion described it, was pride. I was my own god. Captain of my own destiny. I got to that Romans Road thing, taking you down the path of being born in sin, separated from God, his gift is eternal life… man, I was there. Stayed up all night and didn't even feel the effects working a full shift the next day. Wanted to tell everybody, but wanted to stay alive too.'
Hannah doused David's head with disinfectant and dabbed it dry with a clean towel. 'I'm going to cover you with Betadyne now, friend, so you don't look like a skunk with a lateral stripe. You'll still look funny, but not from so far away. And we'd better get out of here before they send in a search party.'
'Just a minute.'
'Hmm?' She was dabbing at his head again.
'Just wanted to thank you. I needed to hear that. Those stories never get old.'
'Thanks, David. Can you imagine how long I've wanted to tell someone that? Oh, and one more thing.'
'Yeah?'
'Say hey to Tsion for me?'
'You don't either,' Buck said.
'I do too!' Zeke said. 'C'mere, look.'
Buck followed Zeke to his room, turning to give Rayford and Chloe a do-you-believe-this? look. Sure enough, just as Zeke had claimed, hanging in his closet were four soiled, wrinkled GC uniforms. 'Where in the world?'
'After that horsemen deal,' Zeke said, 'remember?' Buck nodded. 'Dead GC all over the place. Dad cruised me around in the middle of the night, trying to stay ahead of the recovery teams. I didn't like yankin' clothes off dead bodies, but Dad and me both thought they were gifts from God. I got their IDs and everything, but you can't use the same name as goes with the uniform.'
'I can't?'
Zeke sighed. 'These guys turned up missin'. Unless somebody identified their naked bodies, they're listed as AWOL or unaccounted for. You show up with their name, rank, and serial number, who do you think they're gonna pin the murder on? Or the swipin' of the uni?'
'I get it.'
'Yeah, huh?'
'So, what do you do, put a new name patch on? Make a new ID?'
'Yeah, only I mix and match. Well, here, first see if this one fits. It's the biggest I got.'
'I can see already it's going to be short.'
'But look at the cuffs in the shirt, the pants, and the jacket. They leave lots of hem in 'em so they won't have to make custom-made duds for everybody.'
'You do tailoring work too, Zeke?' 'Not in front of everybody, and I don't brag on it, but yeah. I do everything. Full-service shop.'
Buck found the trousers about two inches short and the waist snug. The shirt was close but needed another inch in the sleeves. Same with the jacket. The cap was way too small. Buck shook his head when Zeke rummaged around and found his sewing kit. It was all he could do to keep from bursting out laughing when the big kid popped a half dozen straight pins in his mouth and knelt to do his work.
'What do you mean, you mix and match?' 'Well,' Zeke said around the pins, 'your ID is probably gonna be from a dead civilian. You've already done your own facial surgery, not on purpose, but you did. I'll dye your hair dark, use dark contacts, and shoot a picture to go with the new papers. You want to find someone you like? You've seen my files before. You pulled Greg North out of that stack. Grab a few. Pick someone about your same size and everything. The less I have to change, the better.'
'Can you give me a rank above Albie's?' 'No can do,' Zeke said. 'See the shoulders and the collar on that jacket? That's your basic Peacekeeper. If your collar had another stripe or two and stuck straight up instead of layin' flat, you could be as high as a commander.'
'And you can't do that much tailoring.'
'That's big-time work. I'd hafta charge you double.'
Buck smiled, but Zeke roared. 'Did you almost check your wallet to see if you could handle it?'
'Almost.'
'Dad says I'm a card.' Zeke was suddenly sober.
'Know where your dad is yet?'
Zeke shook his head. 'Didn't like what I saw on TV, though. Something about startin' that mark thing with guys they've got behind bars already. Use 'em as test cases.' He shook his head.
'Your dad won't take the mark.'
'Oh, I know that. No way. Never. Which means I'll probably never see him again.'
'Don't think that way, Zeke. There's always hope.'
'Well, maybe, and I'm prayin'. But I'll tell ya when there's no more hope, and that's when they line these guys up for the mark. They get a choice, right?'
'That's what I understand.'
'Dad won't even think about it. He's already got a mark. I've seen his and he's seen mine-that's how we know. And he won't start wonderin' if he can have both and stay alive. He'd never do a thing that looks like he's a Carpathia guy. He'll say, 'No you don't,' and they'll thump 'im right there. I don't know how they're gonna kill 'em in jails, whether they've got gill-o-teens or if they just shoot 'em. But that's how Dad's gettin' out of jail. In a box.'
