Left Behind: The Kids Series Book #7 Busted! Page 2

  "Keep your head low," Judd said as he sneaked a few yards farther.

  "It's her," Ryan whispered. "There's that coach guy and two women."

  A van pulled in with NDC painted on the side. Judd dropped Ryan and dove to the ground. They lay there as a stocky woman climbed out.

  "Looks like a dogcatcher's van," Ryan said. "There's a cage between the driver and the back seat.”

  "This might be our last chance," Judd said. "We have to get Vicki's wrist messenger to her."

  "You've left us no choice, Vicki," Candace Goodwin said. “NDC IS not our first choice, and I'm sure it's not yours.”

  "Listen, deary," the stocky woman drawled, "the kids we're talking about will eat you for lunch. You won't last a day. We try to keep control, but it's tough. Just tell these people what they want to know. No one will think less of you for it."

  "This is your last chance, Vicki," Mrs. Goodwin said.

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  Tell us who you were working with on the newspaper, and we'll take you to The Haven."

  Vicki hated the thought of the detention center. But she hated giving up her friends even worse. She would not give in. Suddenly from the hall came footsteps, then a loud knock. Ryan burst in.

  "Hey, have any of you seen my dog?"

  "Young man, get out of this building!" Coach Handlesman said, standing. "You're not allowed in here-"

  "Whoa, there he is now," Ryan said. Phoenix came bounding in, sliding past Ryan, tripping Coach Handlesman and making him stagger. Vicki laughed. Even Mrs. Waltonen smiled. Coach Handlesman started toward Ryan, who said, "Sorry! We're goin'."

  Ryan had slipped Vicki's wrist gadget to her in the confusion. She slid it into her pocket as Candace Goodwin was filling out a form. "By the authority of Global Community Social Services, I give you over to the Northside Detention Center for a period to be deter­mined by authorities there. I'm sorry about this, Vicki. You seem like a genuinely nice young lady."

  Judd and Ryan watched from their car as Vicki was put in the back of the van.

  "Are we gonna follow her?" Ryan said.

  "We know where she's going. Let's send her a Message.”

  He quickly tapped a few words and pressed the Send Button. Phoenix barked. Someone was standing by their

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  car. Coach Handlesman motioned for Judd to roll down his window.

  "Go home now," he said. "The excitement's over,"

  Vicki scrunched down in the seat so Mrs. Weems couldn't see her. She held her wrist messenger like it was gold. This was her only link with her friends, A message scrolled across the screen: "We're with you, Vicki."

  She looked at the words again and again until she saw the huge chain-link fence with razor wire at the top. A splintered sign read Northside Detention Center.

  The guard at the gate wore a gun.

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  JUDD brought everybody up to date when he got home, and he brought up the subject of finding a new place to live, now that Handlesman was onto them.

  Mark gave Judd an article he had written for the Underground from material by Dr. Marc Feinberg, the rabbi working on the new temple. "It explains why the temple is so important."

  "Great," Judd said, sitting to read it.

  It's important to understand the history of the Jewish temple. King David wanted to build it, but God felt David was too much of a warrior, so he let David's Son Solomon complete it. Solomon's temple was magnificent. God's people would worship God there In Jerusalem. The glory of God appeared in the temple, and it became a symbol of the hand of God protecting the nation. The people felt so secure that

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  even when they turned from God, they believed Jerusalem was impregnable, as long as the temple stood.­

  The temple and the city of Jerusalem were destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C. Seventy years later a decree was given to rebuild the city and eventually the temple. That temple served Israel until it was desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes, a Greco-Roman ruler.

  About 40 B.G, Herod the Great had the temple destroyed piece by piece and rebuilt. That became known as Herod's Temple. Titus, a Roman general, laid siege to Jerusalem in AD. 70. The Jews didn't trust his promises not to destroy it, so they burned the temple rather than let it to fall into the hands of unbelievers.

  Today the Temple Mount, the site of the old Jewish temple, houses the Muslim mosque called the Dome of the Rock. The Temple Mount sits on Mount Moriah, where it is believed Abraham expressed to God his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac.

  Since the birth of Israel as a nation in 1948, millions of dollars have been collected from around the world for the rebuilding of the temple. Many believe it will be even more spectacular than in the days of Solomon.

  "It looks good," Judd said. "But what does this mean to the kids at Nicolae High?"

  That’s where my stuff comes in," John said. “With a little help from Bruce, I show how this whole this was

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  prophesied in the Bible, everything from the disappearances to Carpathia’s covenant signing with Israel."

  “Perfect," Judd said. "Now the hard part. We have to figure another way to get the Underground into their hands.

  At Northside Detention Center Vicki was searched and relieved of her clothes, purse, Bible, and wrist messenger. 'You won't need a watch in here," a matron told her. They gave her a toothbrush, a comb, and deodorant, along with a drab coverall, the uniform of the center.

  "You don't have anything in navy, do you?" Vicki said.

  The guard didn't smile. She led Vicki through a series of musty rooms to the residence wing. Six beds filled each room.

  "Breakfast is at seven o'clock sharp," the guard snapped. "Get up late, you don't eat. Chores every day, before and after classes. Free time in the afternoon before dinner at five. Lights out at nine. Got it?"

  "I guess," Vicki said. "Can I make a phone call?"

  "No calls," the guard said. "We have recreation on Saturday afternoons. That's where everybody is now. Be In the dining hall in half an hour."

  Vicki sat on the bed. Paint chips littered the floor. A wasp buzzed at the grimy window. She opened the top drawer of a rickety nightstand and found a Bible. It was in bad shape. Probably stolen from some motel, she thought.

  She found Psalm 91 and read:

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  "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; My God. In Him I will trust. . . .' A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. . . . No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways."

  When Vicki awoke the next morning the rest of the girls were asleep. They had been up late talking after lights-out. She was excited about the "religious service" she'd seen advertised on the bulletin board near the dining hall, so she quietly dressed and found the chapel.

  Fifteen girls scattered around a tiny room. They sat on folding chairs. The leader was Chaplain Cindy, a young woman with a forced smile. She looked down most of the time, perhaps because most of the girls were nodding off.

  Vicki couldn't believe what she was hearing.

  "God is love, and love comes from God. He is in each of you, and if you want his light, you must embrace him. I encourage you to search for God in your own way. Become yourself as much as you can, and you will grow ever closer to the Divine."

  When Chaplain Cindy finished, she asked if anyone had a question or comment.

  Vicki raised her hand. "I don't think God is really in all of us," she said.

  A murmur spread among the girls.

  "If God had been in us, we wouldn’t still be here. The

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  truth is, Jesus came back for his own, and we all got left behind, “ Vicki continued.

  "Shut up.

  "Yeah, stupid, sit down."

  "Quiet," Chaplain Cindy said. "What's your name?"

  "Vicki.”

  "What we try to accomplish here, Vicki, is oneness. This is not church per se. We come together in unity as part of the new movement of faith around the world."

  "You mean Nicolae Carpathia's new religion."

  "He's an inspired and wonderful leader," Chaplain Cindy gushed. "He follows the tenets of all the great reli­gious teachers, including the one you mentioned."

  "Jesus said that he was the only way to God," Vicki said. She tried to look up John 14:6, but before she could find it, she was hooted down.

  Chaplain Cindy asked for order. "It's clear to me that Nicolae Carpathia is a Christian man," Chaplain Cindy said.

  "You've got to be kidding," Vicki said.

  "Of course! He lives by Christian principles. He's always concerned for the greater good."

  Vicki was angry. She tried to steer the conversation back to Jesus, but there were more hoots as Vicki finally left the chapel.

  She returned to a commotion in her room. Her room­mates stood around Alice Weems, the director of NDC.

  “I can smell it," Mrs. Weems said. "One of you confesses right now, or you all get punished. What's it gonna be?"

  One of the girls pointed at Vicki. "It was her! She brought the weed with her when she came in yesterday."

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  Mrs. Weems looked at Vicki. "Well?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about," Vicki said.

  "Where did she stash it, Janie?" Weems said.

  "In the top drawer," Janie said. "She was pretending to read some book in there."

  Mrs. Weems grabbed the Bible and rifled through it until four crudely rolled cigarettes fell from a hole cut in pages in the back. She held the cigarettes up gingerly and sniffed at them.

  "Come with me," she said to Vicki.

  After church Sunday, Judd met Bruce in his study.

  "Do we need to move?" Judd said. "If Handlesman knows where we are, I don't want to stick around the house."

  "Stay put," Bruce said.

  "That's it? Just stay put? After the stuff he said to you the other night?"

  "Don't worry about me," Bruce said. "I can take care of myself. And you'll have to trust me. Now I have some urgent news.

  Bruce told Judd that his friend Rayford Steele had become the pilot of Air Force One, the plane now used by Nicolae Carpathia, the United Nations secretary-general.

  Accordinmg to Steele, Carpathia planned to claim the plane as his own, and the pilot with it. In addition to that, Global Weekly writer Buck Williams had been trying to set up a meeting with the two witnesses at the Wailing Wall.

  "I'd love to be there," Judd said. "The media mostly

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  ignores them now. I wish we could get the word out about the witnesses.

  You just may have your chance," Bruce said.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I'll tell you later," Bruce said. "The other urgent news concerns Vicki. I found out where she was taken and tried to see her, but they don't allow visitors in the first few days.”

  "I've tried to send her messages," Judd said, "but I don't think they're getting through."

  "Keep praying for her," Bruce said. "I've heard disturb­ing things about that center."

  Janie stared at the floor as she and Vicki sat in Mrs. Weems's cluttered office.

  "What's your last name?" Vicki asked the girl.

  "What's it to ya?"

  "Look, we both know I didn't hide those joints in the Bible. But either way, I'm going to be blamed for it. I just like to know who I'm up against."

  Janie scowled at Vicki. "McCanyon," she said finally.

  "How long you been here?"

  "A year, I got sent here for gettin' drunk. Now I'm into drugs. Go figure."

  Mrs. Weems's heels clacked on the tile as she entered and cocked an arm against her hip.

  “Janie, you know what happens if I find out these are Yours."

  "yes, ma'am."

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  "You," she said to Vicki, "what do you have to say for yourself?”

  Something made Vicki hold her tongue.

  "I'll take that as an admission," Mrs, Weems said. "Since it's your first offense, I'll go easy. Five days in soli­tary confinement."

  Mrs. Weems told them both to sit tight while she left to take a call.

  Janie glanced sheepishly at Vicki. "Look, we do what we gotta do to get by," Janie said. "Better you than me in solitary."

  "You've been there?"

  "A few times." Janie squirmed. "Why didn't you put up a fight?"

  "Who'd believe me? Weems knows I was searched when I got here."

  "You mad at me?" Janie said.

  Vicki was stunned that Janie was worried about that. "Of course, but I can let it go,"

  "You're strange, Vicki."

  Mrs. Weems's heels clacked again.

  "Someday I'll tell you why," Vicki said.

  "Maybe tonight," Janie said. "I've got kitchen duty this week. I'll see if I can bring your plate."

  "Back to your room, McCanyon," Mrs. Weems said.

  "Byrne, you're this way."

  Before Bruce began their Bible teaching for the evening, Chloe Steele gave an update about her father, pilot

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  Rayford Steele. Rayford's first assignment was flying Nicolae Carpathia to the treaty signing in Israel.

  "Does Carpathia know your dad's a Christian?" Ryan said.

  "He does now," Chloe said. "He met Carpathia in New York. When my dad had the chance, he told Carpathia straight-out that he was a believer in Christ."

  "Wow," Ryan said. "I hope that doesn't get him in trouble.”

  Chloe asked everyone to pray for Buck Williams as well. All she would say was that Buck was traveling and would be in a very dangerous situation in the next few days.

  As Bruce began his teaching, Judd felt his wrist messenger buzz. "Meet me tonight at nine at school" the message read. "Don't ask questions."

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  BRUCE seemed excited but cautious as the meeting continued. Lionel, Ryan, John, and Mark soaked in every word as Bruce taught more about prophecy.

  When the teaching time was over, Judd handed Bruce a fresh copy of the Underground. Bruce scanned the small print and gave a low whistle. "Can I share more about Buck?" Bruce asked Chloe. She nodded.

  He said Buck Williams had met with Rabbi Tsion Ben-­Judah, a brilliant Jewish scholar who had searched various holy books for the identity of the Messiah. Buck's aim was to get an interview with the two witnesses, and the rabbi got them through the tight security around the Wailing Wall.

  As they neared the crowd, Buck realized that each person present was hearing the witnesses in his or her own language!"

  "Just like in Acts," Ryan said, "where all those tongues things came down and hit them in the head."

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  Bruce smiled. "Buck says a man suddenly raced through the crowd with an automatic weapon, yelling that he was on a mission from Allah. When he was within five feet of the two witnesses, he fell back like he had hit an invisible wall. One of the witnesses shouted that no one was to come near the servants of the Most High God. The other breathed fire from his mouth that killed the man instantly."

  "Was Buck all right?" Judd said.

  "More than all right. Dr. Ben-Judah actually talked to the witnesses. He and Buck met with them alone later that night."

  "Wow," Lionel said. "What did they say?"

  "Listen to this," Bruce said, turning on his answering machine. "Buck recorded the entire conversation and played it to me over the phone. The first one is Moishe, and the other is Eli."

  "Many years ago," Moishe said, "there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Like you, this man came to Jesus by night."

  Rabbi Ben-Judah whispered, "Eli and Moishe, we know that you come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him."

  Eli spoke. "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

  "How can a man be born when he is old?" Rabbi Ben­-Judah said.

  "This is straight out of the Bible," Ryan said. "I remember it from one of our studies. Cool."

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  "Shhhh," Lionel said.

  Moishe answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unlessone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.”

  Eli spoke up again: "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

  Right on cue, the rabbi said, "How can these things be?”

  "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?" Moishe said. "Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. If we have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if we tell you heavenly things?"

  The voices sounded like prophets right out of the Old Testament. "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven," Eli said, "that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

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  The kids sat shaking their heads as Moishe concluded his message.

  "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who

  does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

  Rabbi Ben-Judah sounded animated now. "And what is the condemnation?"

  In unison the witnesses said, "That the light has already come into the world."