Pierced by a Sword (51 page)

The
restaurant was practically empty. This was becoming common at Bruno's, even on weekends. People had long since cut back on luxuries such as dining out. Bruno had been forced to lay off most of his workers.

When good pizza can't cut it, the end is near,
Becky thought sardonically.
Another sign of a world gone mad.

Becky held sleeping Amy in her arms. She looked at her man and Joe looked back at
her. She felt that familiar fire in her belly when she looked at him–familiar, but still plenty hot. He winked at her awkwardly, somberly.

I'm in love with a dork,
she thought without regret.
Why didn't I realize that the first time I came in here? I guess I did...
and
that I was in love with him.
She briefly wondered where the word dork came from. She looked at her wine and realized that she had
barely touched it.
Can't blame it on the booze.

She looked at the baby and realized that she didn't care as much about the world outside as the men in the room did. She cared about Amy. Becky was in from the cold.

Still, Tom Wheat could talk about grass growing and keep an audience in rapt attention. She turned when she heard Joe's name come up.

"...being much too hard on yourself, Joe. You're
wrong if you think the Kolbe Foundation failed in its mission. So what if you didn't reach every single Catholic in six months like you wanted? You reached as many as you could. Millions heard the words of Mary and acted upon them. Nathan's idea of referring everyone who requested CDs to local prayer groups really worked.

"The Quakes were a tragedy beyond words, but in the big scheme of things
they were a blessing. More people are going to listen now. More people are going to turn to God now that their material world is collapsing. You yourself said that requests for CDs hit an all-time high in the first weeks after the Quakes. The depression barely slowed you guys down until recently. You were shipping stuff within days after the explosion, too. Things aren't so bad in that area."

Joe did not seem consoled by Tom's words. The Quakes had hit just as the Kolbe Foundation was getting ready for a media campaign of major proportions. Even though the response from the general public to the test campaigns of the spring was not encouraging, at least they knew the response rates and had the production set up to meet demand. The firebombing of the building had been a severe blow. Joe
felt that he had done too little, too late.
We needed one more year,
he thought dejectedly.

Lee had rented a new warehouse, and arranged for a skeleton computer system to be installed within days of the explosion. But the big jump in demand after the Quakes quickly tapered off as the economic depression and the self-destruction of the Church accelerated.

"The real problem is the schism," Tom continued.
"That's why you feel so helpless. But there's nothing you can do about it except to stay on course."

Joe was disappointed over the way most bishops in the country "rolled over" when the new guidelines came in from Rome regarding accepting women into the seminaries and relaxing the requirements for Sunday Mass. The dream Joe had on the night of the explosion was coming true before his very eyes.
The liberal media hailed the new "modernization" of the Catholic Church as a religious earthquake. The reaction by most Catholics in the country had been: "Well, it's about time."

The bishop of Fort Wayne had been "retired" when he failed to go along with the new guidelines, and over half the priests in the diocese were suspended by the replacement bishop. Confessions were no longer being heard
in nine out of ten churches in the area. Penitents who called on rectories were encouraged to schedule appointments with "lay counselors" to discuss and explore their guilt. Things were changing at dizzying speeds. Liturgies around the South Bend area barely resembled the Mass. Younger priests were being encouraged to make up their own Masses. Some priests no longer consecrated the Eucharist, imitating
the Protestant model. Now that Sunday Mass was optional, church attendance had dropped by over seventy percent.

Father Duffy (Chet's old professor from Notre Dame), now in his eighties and retired, came secretly to Immaculate Conception Church to say Mass on Sundays. The old priest had a heart condition and it was wearing him out. Someone would report him eventually and then even Father Duffy
might be suspended by his congregation, which was rejoicing in the changes.

"What I wonder about is why there have been no encyclicals or official statements from the pope, if he is a pope," Tom Wheat observed wryly. "Everything seems to come in the form of 'guidelines.' It's weird. If I were an antipope, every day I would issue a new encyclical contradicting the teachings of the Church. I just
don't get it."

Nobody else did either.

+  +  +

Most married people do the bulk of their talking in bed. Joanie and Nathan were no different. Joanie was glowing. She found herself looking forward to Nathan's comfortable habit of opening up afterwards. Nathan had said nothing during the meeting at Bruno's, which was not unusual for him. He gently rested a hand on her womb, waiting for the occasional
kick from their child.

"I'm joining the Resistance," he said soberly.

"I know," she said. "I saw you talking with Karl after dinner. I guess I don't have much say in the matter."

"It's not that," he said, surprised by the testiness in her voice.

"Then what is it?" she asked, the tension rising in her voice. The baby kicked again.

"This," he said.

"This?"

"The baby kicking in your womb," he explained.
"For the baby. I don't remember everything from the Warning, but I do remember Mary calling me a warrior. It's what I am."

"I don't understand you," she told him angrily, disappointed that the conversation had taken this turn.

"Yes you do," he said after a moment.

"Well I don't think the Blessed Mother meant for you to pick up a gun and go out and start killing people. Maybe she was talking about
being a prayer warrior or something," she said bitterly.

Nathan suddenly remembered Red Bandanna, bleeding. Dead on a street in Bloomfield. After returning home from the harrowing trip to New Jersey, Nathan hadn't known whether to confess the shooting or not. Father Duffy told him it was self-defense. James Sullivan had described the incident to the older priest. Nathan tried to hide the pain
of the memory, but found he couldn't. Since marrying Joanie, he found it harder and harder to keep his thoughts or emotions from her.

She hurt him. She could see it in his eyes. He became distant–something he rarely did anymore.

"Joanie..." he trailed off, not knowing how to finish.

She resisted an urge to turn away and then gave into the urge.

She felt his hand on her shoulder. He didn't force
her to turn around. He was gentle. She could not–would not–listen to his silent, gestured command. But she was not like that. She had never been like that. Selfish. She was Joan Angela Wheat, daughter of Thomas and Anne Wheat, and she had been raised to take the good with the bad. She wrestled with anger and guilt.

The wordless argument continued for a moment longer.

Nathan finally broke the silence,
"The time for talk is over. Now is the time for action." He had said the same thing to her at the Father Sorin statue after their first dinner at Bruno's. In another universe. Then, as now, Joanie did not understand what he meant by it.
Is he defining himself?
Something inside her soul reached out for his soul.

She turned back and looked into his eyes. "Can't you see that I don't want to lose
you to some stinking Revolutionary War Part Two? I fell apart when you flew to New Jersey! I can stand cold showers, depression, poverty, no toilet paper, starvation–anything but not having you next to me."

"Joanie–" he tried to interrupt but she wouldn't let him.

"Now that the tribulations are here I hate it! I hate it! Suddenly all that stuff in Revelation about woe to mothers and pregnant women
isn't just a bunch of words anymore. I love you! I don't want you to die in some damned war! I'm sorry, but I'm not you. I'm not a hero type. I want you here,
with me.
I thought angels would appear and save us when the tribulations came. You're the only angel I see right now.

"I can't even go to confession or Mass when I feel like it. Jesus might not be in the tabernacle next week if they find
out what poor Father Duffy is doing. Don't you understand? You're the only sacrament I have left. You say you're leaving for the baby's sake, and that may be all well and good–but why don't you just admit it–you were made for war. All you damned men are. Daddy was too. That's what you bastards do–spill blood every chance you get. Maybe God's gonna punish–"

"Joanie stop," he said. He held her,
trying to console her.

She let him keep his silence, knowing she had no choice.
Why is everything left unsaid with you, Nathan?
A small voice that was her own answered:
Because that's the way he is. You married a warrior. And war is a punishment for sin.

5

From
Dark Years History
(New Rome Press, 31 R.E.)
by Rebecca Macadam Jackson

...Indiana finally joined a loose confederation with Ohio, Western
Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kentucky, and West Virginia and seceded from the United States, refusing to take part in the new monetary system. They called themselves the Midwest Confederation. Their economies were in a shambles. Minor rebellions
against
joining the Confederation broke out in the capitals of Indiana and Michigan–but were eventually quelled. Rumors abounded that the World Union would
crack down on the Confederation as soon as the Nation of Texas was brought to heel...

...Indiana and Ohio became the breadbasket of the new Nation of Texas, exchanging foodstuffs for oil and meat. Michigan hurriedly retooled its auto plants so it could provide much-needed military vehicles, including tanks...

...The Fall of Chicago rocked independent free states and regional confederations. The
surprise invasion from Canada, across Lake Michigan, brilliantly conceived and led by General Blatovsky, was one of the more spectacular World Union victories. Illinois's efforts to remain neutral had failed, cutting the industrial center of the United States in half. Blatovsky brutally suppressed all opposition to the World Union, and will forever be known as the first foreign leader to authorize
and construct concentration camps in North America. Special Psychological Warfare battalions worked hand-in-hand with CNI Media correspondents to broadcast what was happening in Chicago and Illinois around the world. It was obvious that Illinois was being made an example of the fate planned for states which rebelled against the World Union. Nevertheless, regional battles with Iowa, Nebraska, and
Missouri lasted until...

6

Thursday Morning
12 December
Mishawaka, Indiana

Joanie Payne gave birth to Jonathan Thomas Payne while Nathan was out training with the Indiana Resistance.

The baby was delivered at home by Sarah Brown, a midwife. Sarah was Huey Brown's wife. The maternity ward at Saint Joseph Hospital had been closed due to lack of funding. Rioters had set fire to one wing of the hospital.
The few doctors and nurses who showed up for work did so without pay. There was very little medicine available. Many professionals had fled to the western confederacies–which seemed to have better economies–or to the east, where they were promised jobs in the universal health care system of the World Union. Some had gone to Texas. Health insurance companies based on the East Coast had long
since ceased doing business in non-World Union Territories.

Nathan joined the Indiana Resistance, and was assigned to Jimbo Sullivan's staff. (Jimbo had moved his wife Doris and his three sons to Mishawaka when Virginia went along with the World Union. Slinger had introduced Jimbo to Chip Williams at a secret meeting in Texas two months earlier. Jimbo agreed to try to set up a citizen's army in
Indiana.)

Jimbo gave Nathan the low-profile but important responsibility for coordinating materiel and supply lines. Nathan's genius for numbers was his primary asset for the job–but he had little experience and did not really know what he was doing. Jimbo didn't have any choice. There were not many men from whom to choose. The Resistance had not received much support from the general population.
The Governor of Indiana was all for the World Union, the state legislature was against it, and the people of the Hoosier state generally wanted to remain neutral.

The World Union and the various free states vied for Indiana's industrial and agricultural resources. Terrible weather had played havoc with harvests in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and other western agricultural states–and getting food to
the cities was no longer a certainty, given the chaos of the railroad and trucking infrastructure. Hijacking and corruption were rampant. The mighty economy of the United States had more and more come to resemble that of the former Soviet Union. The black market was becoming a significant part of everyday life.

+  +  +

Joe Jackson didn't join the Indiana Resistance. He remained at the Kolbe Foundation
instead. Slinger had run out of money, donating the bulk of his wealth (in the form of gold) to Texas to help set up reserves for the new nation's banking system.

The Kolbe Foundation shrank in size. Postal systems were in disarray and there was no money to purchase supplies even if supplies had been available. No shipments could be sent to the World Union states, and service was expensive and
spotty west of the Mississippi.

The Kolbe Foundation now faced many problems: Most of the CDs they used had come from China or Europe before the tribulations began. There were no suppliers in the Midwest Confederation. There were laser printers but no toner cartridges. There were no Japanese replacement parts for computers that broke down. And so on for a hundred other kinds of business goods.