“I’ll see him again,” Delroy said. “I’ll see Terry again.”
“Want to try for tonight?”
Delroy yanked his right hand free and drove a punch into the thing’s face, catching it off guard. When the creature shifted, he rolled, getting over on top of it. But the thing slithered away, scrabbling up another mirror shard. Losing was only a matter of time. Dying lay an inch behind that.
“Die tonight, Chaplain, and you get to see your boy earlier, right?”
“I can’t,” Delroy said. “God has a purpose here for me.” He shook his head. “I’m not done yet.” And suddenly he believed it. Believed it right down to the core. He found the will to pray, really pray, for help. God, help me, in Jesus’ name.
And the bathroom door opened. Looking over the thing’s shoulder, Delroy saw General Todd Cranston’s jaw drop in surprise.
The creature hissed like a scalded cat, curled in on itself, and faded away into the shadows.
Gasping for air, Delroy struggled to his feet. Chest heaving, he stared at Cranston. “You saw that.”
“No.” Cranston shook his head.
“Then what did you see?”
“You,” Cranston said. “I came in. You must have fallen. That’s all.” The general reached for the door.
“No.” Throwing out a big hand, Delroy caught the door and shut it. “You saw it. There are no aliens, General. No mystery weapons that the Russians dreamed up.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Those people that are missing were taken by the Rapture,” Delroy went on relentlessly.
“No.”
Delroy leaned into the man, invading Cranston’s personal space the way he had seen his father do with reluctant parishioners. “Do you know what we’re up against, General?”
Pounding sounded on the door. “General. General Cranston. Are you all right, sir?”
Delroy recognized the voice of the young Marine. He ignored the demands. “If you don’t recognize what is before you, General, if you don’t help curb the DEFCON 2 status we’re at, you’re going to help the enemy win.”
“The enemy?”
“The Antichrist,” Delroy said. “He’s coming. You just saw one of his minions. Now that the Rapture has occurred, the Antichrist will rise and take everyone and everything he can in the next seven years before the Glorious Appearing of Christ.”
More pounding hammered the door. “General!”
“We’re soldiers, General,” Delroy implored. “We’re supposed to be good soldiers. The first line of defense for civilians and those who are too weak or unable to defend themselves.”
“General!” The door jumped as someone tried to force his way in.
“You took an oath,” Delroy reminded. “You took an oath before God to serve this country. God is part of every military creed and duty we have. You can’t turn your back on him, General.”
The door flew open as Marines boiled into the room. Delroy didn’t know how many of them there were. They hit him and knocked him down, driving him to his knees and pinning his arms behind his back. One of the Marines held a Colt .45 to the side of Delroy’s head.
Cranston stared back at him with an unaccustomed pallor.
“God put me here tonight,” Delroy said. “I came a long way to be here. And the only reason I’m here is to get you to do something that you can do.” He breathed hard, twisted painfully by the Marines. “I heard Him and I believed Him and I came. And He put you through that door at that moment to see what you saw, General. If you don’t believe that, then you’re lost. And if you’re lost, that thing wins.”
Cranston shook his head and wiped his mouth.
“What did you see, General?” Delroy asked. “You’ve got a third of the people missing around the planet. Countries armed with nuclear weapons pointed down each others’ throats. Doesn’t that sound like Armageddon to you?”
“General,” the lance corporal said. “Why don’t you get out of here and let us handle this? We’ve got him.”
“No,” Cranston said. “Let him up.”
“Sir?”
“Get off him, Marine. That’s an order.”
“Sir, yes, sir.”
The Marines released Delroy. Weakly, the chaplain tried to get to his feet.
“Here, Chaplain Harte.” Cranston extended his hand. He still looked uncertain.
Delroy took the man’s hand and let Cranston help him up.
“I don’t know what I saw, Chaplain Harte,” Cranston said, “but whatever it was, I’m willing to listen.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Grab your coat and hat,” Cranston said, “and let’s go find out if I’m as influential as you seem to think I am.”
“It wasn’t me thinking that, sir,” Delroy said. “I just carried the message.”
34
Turkish-Syrian Border
40 Klicks South of Sanliurfa, Turkey
Local Time 0217 Hours
Pillars of fire leaped up from the ground in front of the ridge overlooking the Turkish-Syrian border.
Goose drove the Hummer flat out, feeling the vehicle claw over the broken ground, then go airborne a couple times. Less than a hundred yards from the ridge, a SCUD missile slammed into the front of the hill where the Rangers, the U.N. troops, and the Turkish army had pulled back to holding positions. Rock and dirt rained down over Goose, peppering his helmet and his body armor. His face and hands took hits as well, but those were more annoying and scary than damaging.
The battlefield, less than a day old from the previous morning’s attack, only hours older than the disappearances that had caused helicopters and planes to rain from the sky, erupted again as the new wave of devastation tore into the area. Smoke and dust occluded the landscape in less than a minute, forming a thick, drifting acrid fog.
Goose flipped through the headset frequencies, tuning in to the com channel set aside for the Marine wing survivors. He jerked the wheel as a large boulder smacked into the ground ahead of him, but he wasn’t able to entirely avoid the mass. The right front end of the Hummer kissed the boulder and the headlights on that side shattered. The sudden jarring rocked Goose in his seat, but the belts kept him in place till he regained control over the Hummer.
The Marine Harrier and Sea Cobra gunships leapt up from the LZ that had been
