The Mark: The Beast Rules the World Read online

  David shook his head and carefully sat again. He didn’t want to think what a lightning bolt through her body would have done to vital organs. He now believed Hannah that Annie never would have known what hit her.

  Hannah pulled David’s chair and left him at the foot of the bed. He sat with his head in his hands, unable to produce more tears. He heard Hannah rearranging the sheet and carefully re-covering Annie, almost as if she were still alive, and it struck him as sweet and thoughtful.

  As she wheeled him out, he whispered his thanks.

  “I wish I had known her,” Hannah said.

  Rayford had briefed Buck and Chloe and Tsion the night before, so when a phone woke him at dawn in Montana, he assumed it was one of them. As he reached to answer, however, it was not his cell but the room phone. He had not given out that number, so who would be calling? The desk? Was someone onto them? Should he identify himself as Rayford Steele or Marvin Berry?

  Neither, he decided. “Hello?”

  “Ray,” Hattie said, “it’s me. I’m awake, I’m up, I’m starved, and I want to get going. You?”

  He groaned and glanced at the other bed. Albie was sound asleep. “You’re a little too chipper for me,” he said. “I’m asleep, I’m in bed, I’m not hungry, and there’s no sense leaving so early that we get to Kankakee before dark. We can’t go to the safe house until after that anyway.”

  “Oh, Rayford! C’mon! I’m bored. And I’m dead, remember? I need a new identity, but I’m as free as I’ve been in years, thanks to you! How ’bout some breakfast?”

  “We can’t be too obvious or public.”

  “Are you going to go back to sleep, really?”

  “Back? I never woke up.”

  “Seriously.”

  “No, I probably won’t. Someone in the next room is up banging around anyway.”

  She knocked on the wall. “And I’ll keep banging until I get company for breakfast.”

  “All right, dead girl. Give me twenty minutes.”

  “I’ll be outside your door in fifteen.”

  “Then you’ll be waiting five.”

  Rayford was glad his showering and dressing hadn’t wakened Albie. He peeked out the window and saw nothing and no one. Out the peephole in the door he saw Hattie stretching in the sun, just beyond the shadow caused by the second-floor walkway. He peeked through the curtain. The place was otherwise deserted.

  Rayford stepped out, and Hattie nearly lunged at him. “Let me see, let me see!” she said, staring at him. “I can see yours!” she said. “That means you can see mine! Can you?”

  His eyes were still adjusting to the sun, but as she pulled him out of the shadow by the door, it hit him. His knees buckled and he almost fell. “Oh, Hattie!” he said, reaching for her. She leaped into his arms and squeezed him around the neck so hard he finally had to push her away so he could breathe.

  “Does mine look like yours?” she said.

  He laughed. “How would I know? We can’t see our own. But yours looks like every other one I’ve seen. This is worth waking Albie for.”

  “Is he decent?”

  “Sure. Why?”

  “Let me.”

  Rayford unlocked the door and Hattie burst in. “Albie, wake up, sleepyhead!”

  He didn’t stir.

  She sat on the bed next to him and bounced. He groaned.

  “C’mon, Albie! The day is young!”

  “What?” he said, sitting up. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing will ever be wrong again!” she said, taking his face in her hands and pointing his bleary eyes toward her. “I’m just showing off my mark!”

  CHAPTER 9

  Buck awoke at dawn and made the rounds, checking on everyone. He smiled at Zeke’s domain and was grateful it was private. Zeke had worked until after midnight arranging his area, getting his computer and other equipment set up. Zeke snored loudly, but when Buck peeked in, he found Zeke on the floor next to his bed. Each to his own.

  Leah’s door was shut and locked. She had been up late on a call from Ming Toy, who had returned to Buffer frantic about her parents’ staying in New Babylon until her brother could find a position with the GC.

  Chloe had been on her computer until after Kenny was in bed, coordinating the international co-op. She urged the tens of thousands of members to watch for Tsion’s next missive, wherein he planned to discuss the importance of their readiness when the buying/selling edict would go into effect. He would also be asking volunteer pilots and drivers to bring small planes and vehicles into Israel for a secret mission.

  The only other two Trib Force members were awake and working. Chaim was hunched over a stack of books, several of them open, assigned by Tsion. He looked up with twinkling eyes when Buck poked his head in. Buck seemed to understand his constricted speech better than the others.

  “Miss Rose, the redhead,” Chaim said.

  “Leah.”

  “Yes, she is a trained nurse, you know.”

  Buck nodded.

  “She tells me she can remove the wires when I am ready. Well, I am more than ready. A man my age cannot lose this much weight this fast. And I want to be able to speak clearly!”

  “How is everything else?”

  “On my body, you mean? I am an old man. I’ve survived a plane crash. I should complain? Cameron, this building is a gift from God! What a luxury! If we have to live in exile, this is where to live. And what young Tsion has given me to read, well . . . I call him young because he was once my student, but you knew that. There are times, Cameron, when the Scriptures are like an ugly mirror to me, showing me again and again my bankrupt soul. But then I rejoice at the redemption, my redemption! The story of God, the history of his people, it is all coming alive to me before my eyes.”

  “Did you remember to eat?”

  “I don’t eat. I drink. Agh! But yes, thank you for asking. I am now drinking in the truth of God.”

  “Carry on.”

  “Oh, I will! Tsion was looking for you, by the way. Did he find you?”

  “No. I’m on my way to him now.”

  Buck moved up a floor and found Dr. Ben-Judah with his fingers flying over the computer keyboard. He didn’t want to disturb him, but the rabbi must have heard him. Without looking up or slowing, he said, “Cameron, is that you? So much to do. I shall be busy all the day, I fear. Dark as the days are, my joy is complete. Prophecy comes alive by the minute. Did you see what Master Zeke did for me? A precious lad!”

  Buck looked again. Tsion had not only a main computer but also two laptops networked to it on each side. “No more switching back and forth between programs,” Tsion sang out. “Bibles on one, commentaries on the other. And I am writing to my people in the middle!”

  “Glad to get back to it?”

  “You cannot imagine.”

  “Don’t let me slow you.”

  “No, no! Come in, Cameron. I need you.” He finally stopped and hit the Print command. Pages began piling in the printer output tray. Tsion swiveled in his chair. “Sit, please! You must be my first reader today.”

  “I’d be honored, but—”

  “First, tell me. What news from our brothers and sisters in the field?”

  “We know little. We haven’t heard from David Hassid, except secondhand through Rayford, since the Carpathia resurrection.”

  “And what did you hear then?”

  “Only that Ray and Albie had trouble raising him. They needed him to pave the way for a scheme they were pulling, trying to get Hattie Durham back from the GC. At the last minute he must have gotten their messages, because the stuff came through and the mission was accomplished.”

  Tsion nodded, pursing his lips. “Praise the Lord,” he said quietly. “She is coming back to us then?”

  “Tonight. We expect Ray and Albie and Hattie after dark.”

  “I will pray for their safety. And we must continue to pray for her, of course. God has given me such a weight of care for that woman.”

  Buck sh
ook his head. “Me too, Tsion. But if ever there seemed a lost cause . . .”

  “Lost cause? Cameron, Cameron! You and I were lost causes! All of us were. Who was a less likely candidate than Chaim? We pleaded and pleaded with him, but who would have believed he would eventually come into the kingdom? Certainly not I. Don’t give up on Miss Durham.”

  “Oh, I haven’t.”

  “With God, all things are possible. Have you taken a close look at this young man you brought home last night?”

  “Zeke? Oh, yeah.”

  “Clearly this was not a churchgoing boy. He is so delightful, so bright! Shy, bashful, uneducated. Almost illiterate. But what a sweet, gentle spirit! What a servant’s heart! And, oh, what a mind! It would take him the next three and a half years to read one of the many books Chaim will finish by tomorrow, and yet he has proclivities for this technical stuff that I could not learn in a lifetime.”

  Buck smacked his palms on his thighs and began to rise. “Don’t let me keep you.”

  “Oh, you’re not! My mouth is keeping me from it. If you are not too busy today, I could use your help.”

  Buck sat back down, and Tsion handed him a sheaf of papers from the printer. “I have many pages to go, but I need a first impression. I will not transmit these until I know they are right.”

  “They are always right, Tsion. But I’d love to get the first look at them.”

  “Then begin! I will try to stay ahead of you. And if I start talking again, feel free to become parental with me.”

  That’ll be the day, Buck thought. He tapped the papers even and settled back to read. Every so often Tsion printed out the next several pages, and Buck idly pulled them from the printer as he read, sitting, standing, pacing. All the while he thanked God for the gift of Tsion Ben-Judah and his incredible mind.

  To: The beloved tribulation saints scattered to the four corners of the earth, believers in the one true Jehovah God and his matchless Son, Jesus the Christ, our Savior and Lord

  From: Your servant, Tsion Ben-Judah, blessed by the Lord with the responsibility and unspeakable privilege of teaching you, under the authority of his Holy Spirit, from the Bible, the very Word of God

  Re: The dawn of the Great Tribulation

  My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

  As is so often true when I sit to write to you, I come in both joy and sorrow, with delight but also soberness of spirit. Forgive me for the delay since last I communicated with you, and thank you each and every one for the expressions of concern for my welfare. My comrades and I are safe and sound and praising the Lord for a new base of operations. And I always want to remember to also thank God for the miracle of technology that allows me to write to you all over the world.

  Though I have met few of you personally and look forward to that one day, either in the millennial kingdom or in heaven, I feel deeply that family bonds have been created by our regularly sharing the deep riches of Scripture through this medium. Thank you for your continued prayers that I will remain faithful and true to my calling and healthy enough to continue for as long as the Father himself gives me breath.

  I ask that all of you who have volunteered to translate these words into languages not supported by the built-in conversion programs begin to do that immediately. As I have been unable to write to you for several days, I anticipate that this will be a longer than usual communiqué. Also, as always, in those areas where computers or power sources are scarce and this message is reproduced as hard copy, I ask that those responsible feel free to do so free of charge with no credit necessary, but that every word be printed as it appears here.

  Glory to God for news that we have long since passed the one-billion mark in readership. We know that there are many more brothers and sisters in the faith who are without computers or the ability to read these words. And while the current world system would, and does, deny these figures, we believe them to be true. Hundreds of thousands join us every day, and we pray you will tell more and more about our family.

  We have been through so much together. I say this without boasting but with glory to God Almighty: As I have endeavored to rightly divide the Word of Truth to you, God has proven himself the author over and over. For centuries scholars have puzzled over the mysterious prophetic passages in the Bible, and at one time I was one of those puzzled ones. The language seemed obscure, the message deep and elusive, the meanings apparently figurative and symbolic. Yet when I began an incisive and thorough examination of these passages with an open mind and heart, it was as if God revealed something to me that freed my intellect.

  I had discovered, strictly from an academic approach, that nearly 30 percent of the Bible (Old and New Testaments together) consisted of prophetic passages. I could not understand why God would include these if he intended them to be other than understandable to his children.

  While the messianic prophecies were fairly straightforward and, indeed, led me to believe in Jesus as their unique fulfillment, I prayed earnestly that God would reveal to me the key to the rest of the predictive passages. This he did in a most understated way. He simply impressed upon me to take the words as literally as I took any others from the Bible, unless the context and the wording itself indicated otherwise.

  In other words, I had always taken at its word a passage such as, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” or “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Why then, could I not take just as straightforwardly a verse which said that John the Revelator saw a pale horse? Yes, I understood that the horse stood for something. And yet, the Bible said that John saw it. I took that literally, along with all the other prophetic statements (unless they used phrases such as “like unto” or others that made it clear they were symbolic).

  My dear friends, the Scriptures opened to me in a way I never dreamed possible. That is how I knew the great Seal Judgments and Trumpet Judgments were coming, how I was able to interpret what form they might take, and even in what sequence they would occur.

  That is how I know that the Bowl Judgments are yet to come, and that they will be exponentially worse than all those that came before. That is how I knew that these plagues and trials were more than just judgments on an unholy and unbelieving world. That is how I knew that this whole period of history is also one more evidence of the long-suffering, loving-kindness, and mercy of God himself.

  Believers, we have turned a corner. Skeptics—and I know many of you drop in here now and then to see what we zealots are up to—we have passed the point of gentility. Up to now, while I have been forthright about the Scriptures, I have been somewhat circumspect about the current rulers of this world.

  No more. As every prophecy in the Bible has so far come to pass, as the leader of this world has preached peace while wielding a sword, as he died by the sword and was resurrected as the Scriptures foretold, and as his right-hand man has been imbued with similar evil power, there can be no more doubt:

  Nicolae Carpathia, the so-called Excellency and Supreme Potentate of the Global Community, is both anti-Christian and Antichrist himself. And the Bible says the resurrected Antichrist is literally indwelt by Satan himself. Leon Fortunato, who had an image of Antichrist erected and now forces one and all to worship it or face their own peril, is Antichrist’s false prophet. As the Bible predicted, he has power to give utterance to the image and to call down fire from heaven to destroy those who refuse to worship it.

  What’s next? Consider this clear prophetic passage in Revelation 13:11-18: “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beas
t who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

  “Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”

  It won’t be long before everyone will be forced to bow the knee to Carpathia or his image, to bear his name or number on their forehead or right hand, or face the consequences.

  Those consequences? Those of us without what the Bible calls the mark of the beast will not be allowed to legally buy or sell. If we publicly refuse to accept the mark of the beast, we will be beheaded. While it is the greatest desire of my life to live to see the Glorious Appearing of my Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ at the end of the Great Tribulation (a few days short of three and a half years from now), what greater cause could there ever be for which to give one’s life?

  Many, millions of us, will be required to do just that. While it conjures in us age-old self-preservation instincts and we worry that at that hour we will be found lacking courage, loyalty, and faithfulness, let me reassure you. The God who calls you to the ultimate sacrifice will also give you the power to endure it. No one can receive the mark of the beast by accident. It is a once-and-for-all decision that will forever condemn you to eternity without God.

  While many will be called to live in secret, to support one another through private markets, some will find themselves caught, singled out, dragged into a public beheading, to which the only antidote is a rejection of Christ and a taking of the mark of the beast.

  If you are already a believer, you will not be able to turn your back on Christ, praise God. If you are undecided and don’t want to follow the crowd, what will you do when faced with the mark or the loss of your head? I plead with you today to believe, to receive Christ, to envelop yourself with protection from on high.