trigger and pushed it down. Click. Nothing happened! Click, click, click. Nothing! Damn!
Jake whirled around and gasped. Apparently, not only was Sally’s outfit stealthy, but also quite frightening. “Who-who are you?” Jake asked.
Sally didn’t say a word, in part, because she didn’t want her voice recognized, but she also didn’t know what to say. “What do you want?” Jake asked, his voice shaking.
Sally could see his nervous eyes wandering. He was sizing her up. Looking for anything to make sense of this dark figure that had frightened him. He found it in her eyes. The steely gaze. The penetrating eyes. “Sally?”
Sally froze. He had seen through her disguise. She knew Jake didn’t think fondly of her. She knew he was stronger than she was. And she knew she had to strike first before Jake came to the full realization of what was happening. Sally was going rogue and Jake was the only one in her way. Whack! Sally acted on instinct, punching Jake in the throat. She had taken a self-defense class five years ago and was amazed at how quickly it came back and how well the techniques taught for defense worked just as well for assault.
Jake’s legs crumpled below him and he fell to the floor as his hands clenched his throat. He forcefully sucked air into and out of his lungs as blood rushed to his head. Sally was horrified at what she had done but quickly returned her attention to the task at hand. She turned and looked at the countertop where Jake had been working. She saw two cases and opened them both. The first contained four syringes of what she assumed was the antidote to the robot’s poison. She opened the second case: empty. Though from the impressions made in the protective foam, this is where they had kept the insect robots, four of them. The fact that they were gone meant that Sally was too late. She would have to alter her plans.
After snagging two syringes, Sally put them in her pocket and stepped over Jake, who was still writhing on the floor. Sally smiled. She was going to make it. Getting out should be no problem without the guards at the door.
“GUARDS!” Jake’s throat had opened up momentarily and his lungs managed to take in enough air to get out one loud scream.
Sally glared at Jake and he crawled backward, away from her rage, away from those eyes. His face was two shades of crimson as he struggled to suck in another breath. The door to the office was kicked open as Sean and Chuck burst in, weapons drawn. Sally was caught.
“Freeze!” Sean yelled.
“Move and you’re dead!” Chuck shouted, as his sweaty index finger twitched nervously on the trigger of his gun.
Sally’s mind raced for a solution. She knew it was only a matter of seconds before she would be killed.
Jesus had led the disciples clear out of the region called Judea, where he believed their lives to be at risk. He made it clear that it was not his time to die and the entire group, including Tom and David, retreated to the region of Samaria, just north of Judea. Rather than stay in a city, the group had set up shop under the stars and had been camping for a week.
Tom and Judas lay in the grass, far enough away from the campfire to see the bright stars above. The conversation around the fire that night hadn’t been as jovial as Tom would have liked. In fact, everything since leaving Judea had seemed more somber, more serious. Tom and Judas had tired of the seriousness and left the group to talk about the future.
David joined them soon after, waiting just long enough, Tom suspected, so that it wouldn’t seem obvious that he was keeping tabs on him and Judas. Tom knew the name Judas held negative connotations in the future, something to do with betrayal, but that was about as believable as Jesus being the Son of God. David sat on the grass next to Tom and looked up at the sky.
“They’re beautiful aren’t they? Like sparkling gems floating in the sky,” Judas said with a smile.
Tom chuckled. He couldn’t help himself.
“What’s so funny?” Judas asked. “What do you think they are?”
David cleared his throat and gave Tom a look that said: Don’t you dare.
“I think,” Tom started with a semi-sarcastic tone. “I think they are a gift from God, to light our path at night.”
“The truest words to exit your mouth yet,” Jesus said, as he approached from the campfire. “Are you not cold over here, away from the fire?”
“We’re fine,” David said.
Judas sat up and perched himself on his elbows. “It was getting too hot by the fire.”
“And the conversation was dull,” Tom said with a smirk.
Jesus smiled. “I fear it will be the last dull moment for some time to come.”
“Are we leaving?” Tom asked.
“Not yet,” Jesus answered.
“Jesus!” yelled a voice from the dark.
A single torch light cut through the darkness as an out of breath man ran toward the group. “I’m looking for the one called Jesus. Have any of you seen him?”
Jesus walked to the man. “I am Jesus.”
“Master, I have been sent to you from Bethany, from the home of your friend Lazarus,” the man said.
Jesus’s face sank. “He has fallen ill?”
The man looked surprised, “Yes, his sisters sent me to you so that you might come to Bethany and heal him.”
“Go then,” Jesus said. “Tell them I am coming.”
“Yes, Master,” said the man, who then returned to the darkness from which he came.
Tom had heard the whole conversation and walked to Jesus. He saw the look on Jesus’s face and realized something wasn’t quite right. “We’re not going to Bethany, are we?”
“Not yet.”
“But you just told him-”
“Mary is a strong woman. Do not worry about her.”
“I didn’t say-”
“Your eyes say enough.”
“We can’t just let them wait,” Tom said, trying not to appear overly irritated.
“Thomas, his sickness will not end in death. The glory will be to God when His son is glorified through it,” said Jesus.
David approached Tom as Jesus returned to the fire. “What a load of crap!” Tom said in hushed English.
David pulled Tom further away from the fire and listening ears.
“Can you believe this?” Tom asked, returning to Aramaic.
“I can believe lots of things.” “You’re not worried about Lazarus?”
“No.”
Tom scrutinized David’s face, looking for answers. Then his jaw dropped open as he came to a realization. “You know what’s going to happen. You know everything that’s going to happen. But you’re not just guessing, you actually know. Don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“How?” Tom wasn’t asking. He was demanding.
“It’s all in the Bible.”
“Tonight was in the Bible?”
“Yes.”
“And whatever it is that happens with Lazarus, you know the outcome?”
“Yes.”
“Great. Next you’re going to tell me there was a disciple named Tom in the Bible.”
“Actually…”
“Not funny.”
“And I’m not joking, Thomas,” David said.
