Nicolae: The Rise Of The Antichrist (5 page)

“Piloting Air Force One was a plum assignment,” Earl said, “whether you recognized that at the time or not. How was I to know what would come of it?”

“Let’s stop blaming each other and decide what we’re supposed to do now.”

“Ray, I’m gonna bring you up to speed on this plane, but then I think I’m a dead man.

Would you tell my wife that-”

“Earl, what are you talking about? Why do you think you won’t make it back to Chicago?”

“I have no idea, Ray. All I know is that I was supposed to be in New York with that plane when it got obliterated. I don’t see myself as any threat to the Carpathia administration, but if they cared a whit about me, they would have gotten me out of New York before I had the idea I’d better get out of there.”

“Can’t you get yourself some sort of emergency assignment at DFW? There has to be a huge need for Pan-Con personnel over there, in light of everything.”

“Carpathia’s people have arranged a ride back to Chicago for me. I just have this feeling I’m not safe.”

“Tell them you don’t want to put them out. Tell them you’ve got plenty of work to do at
DFW
.”

“I’ll try. Meanwhile, let me show you this rig. And Ray, as an old friend, I want you to promise me that if anything does happen to me-”

“Nothing is going to happen to you, Earl. But of course I’ll keep in touch with your wife either way.”

Donny Moore fell silent at the tragic news. He sat staring, eyes wide, seemingly unable to form words. Buck busied himself leafing through the catalogs. He couldn’t concentrate. He knew there would be more questions. He didn’t know what to tell Donny.

And he needed this man’s help.

Donny’s voice came hoarse with emotion. “What’s gonna happen to this church?”

“I know this sounds like a cliché,” Buck said, “but I believe God will provide.”

“How will God. provide anybody like Pastor Bruce?”

“I know what you mean, Donny. Whoever it is won’t be another Pastor Bruce. He was unique.”

“I’m still having trouble believing it,” Donny said. “But I don’t guess anything should surprise me anymore.

Rayford sat behind the controls of the Condor 216. “What am I supposed to do for a first officer?” he asked Earl.

“They’ve got somebody on his way over from one of the other airlines. He’ll fly with you as far as San Francisco, where McCullum will join you.”

“McCullum? He copiloted for me from New Babylon to Washington, Earl. When I went to Chicago, he was supposed to go back to Iraq.”

“I only know what I’m told, Rayford.”

“And why are we flying west to go east, as Carpathia says?”

“I have no idea what’s going on here, Rayford. I’m new to this. Maybe you know better than I do. The fact is, most of the war and devastation seems to be east of the Mississippi. Have you noticed that? It’s almost as if it was planned. This plane was designed and built here in Dallas, but not at
DFW
where it might have been destroyed.

It’s ready for you just when you need it. As you can see it has the controls of a seven-

five-seven and yet it’s a much bigger plane. If you can fly a ‘fifty-seven, you can fly this.

You just need to get used to the size of it. The people you need are where you need them when you need them. Figure it out, boy. None of this seems a surprise to Carpathia, does it?”

Rayford had no idea what to say. It didn’t take long to catch on.

Halliday continued, “You’ll fly on a straight line from Dallas to San Francisco, and my guess is you won’t see any devastation from the air, and you won’t be threatened from attack heading that way either. There might be militia people somewhere out west who would like to shoot rockets at Carpathia, but there are precious few people who know he’s heading that way. You’ll stop in San Francisco just long enough to get rid of this copilot and pick up your usual one.”

Buck touched Donny’s arm, as if rousing him from sleep. Donny looked at him blankly. “Mr. Williams, this has all been hard enough even with Pastor Bruce here. I don’t know what we’re going to do now.”

“Donny,” Buck said gravely, “you have an opportunity here to do something for God, and it’s the greatest memorial tribute you could ever give to Bruce Barnes.”

“Well then, sir, whatever it is, I want to do it.”

“First, Donny, let me assure you that money is no object.”

“I don’t want any profit off something that will help the church and God and Bruce’s memory.”

“Fine. Whatever profit you build in or don’t build in is up to you. I’m just telling you that I need five of the absolute best, top-of-the-line computers, as small and compact as they can be, but with as much power and memory and speed and communications abilities as you can wire into them.”

“You’re talking my language, Mr. Williams.”

“I hope so, Donny, because I want a computer with virtually no limitations. I want to be able to take it anywhere, keep it reasonably concealed, store everything I want on it, and most of all, be able to connect with anyone anywhere without the transmission being traced. Is that doable?”

“Well, sir, I can put together something for you like those computers that scientists use in the jungle or in the desert when there’s no place to plug in or hook up to.”

“Yeah,” Buck said. “Some of our reporters use those in remote areas. What do they have, built-in satellite dishes?”

“Believe it or not, it is something like that. And I can add another feature for you, too.”

“What’s that?”

“Video conferencing.”

“You mean I can see the person I’m talking to while I’m talking to him?”

“Yes, if he has the same technology on his machine.”

“I want all of it, Donny. And I want it fast. And I need you to keep this confidential.”

“Mr. Williams, these machines could run you more than twenty thousand dollars apiece.”

Buck had thought money would be no object, but this was one expense he could not lay off on Carpathia. He sat back and whistled through his teeth.

“
CALL
it a hunch, Rayford, but I put something in here just for you.”

Rayford and Earl were finished in the cockpit. He trusted Earl. He knew that if Earl thought he could fly this thing, then he could. He still was going to insist on his and his temporary first officer’s taking off, staging, and landing before he risked flying anyone else. It wouldn’t have bothered Rayford to crash and kill himself along with the Antichrist, but he didn’t want to be responsible for innocent lives, particularly that of his own wife.

“So, what did you do for me, Earl?”

“Just look at this,” Earl said. He pointed to the button that allowed the captain to speak to the passengers.

“Captain’s intercom,” Rayford said. “So what?”

“Reach under your seat with your left hand and run your fingers along the side edge of the bottom of your chair,” Earl said.

“I feel a button.”

“I’m going to step back into the cabin now,” Earl said. “You mash the normal intercom button and make an announcement. Wait for a count of three, and then push that button under your seat. Make sure your headphones are still on.”

Rayford waited until Halliday had left and latched the cockpit door. Rayford got on the intercom. “Hello, hello, hey Earl yada yada yada.” Rayford counted silently to himself, then pushed the button under his seat. He was amazed to hear through his earphones Earl Halliday speaking in just above a whisper. “Rayford, you can tell I’m speaking in lower than even conversational tones. If I did my job right, you can hear me plain as day from all over this plane. Every one of the speakers is also a transmitter and leads back to only your headphone jack. I wired it in such a way that it’s undetectable, and this plane has been gone over by Global Community’s best bug finders. If it’s ever detected, I’ll just tell them I thought that was what they wanted.”

Rayford came hustling out of the cockpit. “Earl, you’re a genius! I’m not sure what I’ll hear, but it has to be an advantage to know what’s going on out here.”

Buck was boxing up all the pages from Bruce’s printout when he heard the Range Rover in the parking lot. By the time Chloe reached the office, he had packaged pages and Bruce’s computer into one huge carton. As he lugged it out, he told Chloe, “Drop me off at the Chicago bureau office, and then you’d better check with The Drake and be sure our stuff is still there. We’ll want to keep that room until we find a place to live closer to here.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Chloe said. “Loretta is devastated. She’s going to need a lot of help here. What are we going to do about a funeral?”

“You’re going to have to help handle that, Chlo’. You’ll want to check with the coroner’s office, have the body delivered to a funeral home nearby here, and all that. With so many casualties, it’s going to be a mess, so they’ll probably be glad to know that at least one body has been claimed. We’re each going to need a vehicle. I have no idea where I’ll be expected to go. I can work out of the Chicago office in light of the fact that no one will be going to New York for a long time, but I can’t promise I’ll be around here all the time.”

“Loretta, bless her heart, thought of the same thing in spite of all she’s going through.

She reminded me that there’s a fleet of extra cars among the congregation and has been ever since the Rapture. They lend these out for just such crises as this one.”

“Good,” Buck said. “Let’s get you fixed up with one of those. And remember, we’re going to need to get this material reproduced for members of the congregation.”

“You’re not going to have time to go through all that, are you, Buck?”

“No, but I’m confident that anything in here will be profitable for all.”

“Buck, wait a minute. There’s no way we can reproduce that until someone has read all of it. There’s got to be private, personal stuff in there. And you know there will be direct references to Carpathia and to the Tribulation Force. We can’t risk being exposed like that.”

Buck had an ego crisis. He loved this woman, but she was ten years his junior and he hated when it seemed as if she was telling him what to do, especially when she was right.

As he lay the heavy box of pages and the computer in the back of the Range Rover, Chloe said, “Just entrust it to me, hon. I’ll spend every day between now and Sunday poring over it line by line. By then we’ll have something to share with the rest of New Hope, and we can even announce that we might have something in copied form for them within a week or so.”

“When you’re right, you’re right. But where will you do this?”

“Loretta has offered to let us stay with her. She’s got that big old house, you know.”

“That would be perfect, but I hate to impose.”

“Buck, we would hardly be imposing. She’ll hardly know we’re there. Anyway, I sense she’s so lonely and beside herself with grief that she really needs us.”

“You know it’s unlikely I’ll be there much,” Buck said.

“I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

They were in the Range Rover now. “Then what do you need me for?” Buck said.

“I keep you around because you’re cute.”

“But seriously, Chloe, I’ll never forgive myself if I’m in some other city or country and the war comes right here to Mt. Prospect.”

“You’ve forgotten the shelter under the church.”

“I haven’t forgotten it, Chloe. I’m just praying it’ll never come to that. Does anybody else know about that place except the Tribulation Force?”

“No. Not even Loretta. It’s an awfully small place. If Daddy and Amanda and you and I had to stay there for any length of time, it wouldn’t be much fun.”

Half an hour later, Buck pulled into the Chicago area office of Global Community Weekly magazine. “I’m going to get us a couple of cell phones,” Chloe said. “I’ll call The Drake and then get down there and get our stuff. I’ll also talk with Loretta about a second vehicle.”

“Get five of those cell phones, Chloe, and don’t scrimp.”

“Five?” she said. “I don’t know if Loretta would even know how to use one.”

“I’m not thinking of Loretta. I just want to make sure we have a spare.”

The Condor 216 was outfitted even more lavishly than Global Community One had been, if that was possible. No detail had been missed, and the latest communications devices had been installed. Rayford had bidden farewell to Earl Halliday, urging Earl to let him know that his home was intact and his wife was safe, as soon as he knew. “You’re not going to like what’s happened to our airport,” Rayford had told him. “You won’t be landing at O’Hare.”

Rayford and his temporary copilot had irritated Carpathia by making a trial takeoff and fly-around before letting the others board the plane. Rayford was glad he had. While it was true that everything in the cockpit was identical to a 757, the bigger, heavier plane behaved more like a 747, and it took some getting used to. Now that the loaded and airborne Condor 216 was streaking toward San Francisco at thirty-three thousand feet and at more than seven hundred miles per hour, Rayford put the craft on autopilot and urged his first officer to stay alert.

“What are you going be doing, sir?” the younger man asked.

“Just sitting here,” Rayford said. “Thinking. Reading.”

Rayford had cleared his flight path with an Oklahoma tower and now pushed the button to communicate with his passengers. “Potentate Carpathia and guests, this is Captain Steele. Our estimated time of arrival in San Francisco is 5:00 P.M., Pacific Standard Time. We expect clear skies and smooth flying.”

Rayford sat back and pulled his earphone band toward the back of his head, as if pulling the phones off. However, they were still close enough to his ears so that he could hear and his copilot, because his own earphones were on, could not. Rayford pulled from his flight bag a book and opened it, resting it on the controls before him. He would have to remember to turn a page occasionally. He would not really be reading. He would be listening. He slipped his left hand under the seat and quietly depressed the hidden button.

The first voice he heard, clear as if she were talking to him on the phone, was Amanda’s. “Yes, sir, I understand. You need not worry about me, no sir.”