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and has been for a while. We're going to be OK. You doing all right, Mom?
Chloe nodded the perspiring nod of the extremely pregnant.
He's gone?
Cleared out, Leah said. I didn't like him anyway, him or that kid who was
in the same room. He disappeared earlier today without a word, so I should
have known.
We owe you one, Leah, Rayford said.
One?
Touché. Someday we'll make this all up to you.
Yeah, she said. I'm guessing in five years or so.
I wish Daddy could be here, Chloe said.
Maybe he'll be back in time, Buck said. What's your guess on timing, Doc?
I don't want to rush her. Sometimes even a moderate drip will cause fast
action. All depends on mother and child. But we're still doing well, and
that's what counts.
Amen, Tsion said. And Buck thought the rabbi looked as excited as Buck felt.
Do you believe this? Rayford said, shaking his head. Like the idiots they
are, they don't even know they've been followed.
The Rover sat idling in front of the Quonset hut that had housed Ken and now
Ernie and the temporary guest, Abdullah. T parked the jeep back about fifty
feet and turned off his engine and lights. They sat watching. Abdullah can
take care of himself, Rayford said, but he is outnumbered.
T got out. Let's see what they're up to.
When they got to the Quonset hut, they heard conversation. Let the Rover
idle,
Rayford whispered, so they don't know we're here.
They crouched near the curtained window and listened.
Let me get this straight, Abdullah was saying. You'll give me a brick of
gold bullion for flying you to New Babylon.
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That's right, Hattie said.
And this gold belongs to you?
It belongs to my fiance.
This young man is your fiance?
Yes, I am! Ernie said. Soon's I give you this gold. Now take it.
Do you realize, Abdullah said, that this gold is worth ten times the cash I
would charge for the same flight?
But we want to go now, Hattie said. And I know that's worth something.
If you want to go now, you picked the wrong pilot. I cannot fly for
twenty-four hours.
Carpathia rescinded international air laws, Hattie said. I know. I used to
work for him.
You did more than that for him, ma'am. Were you not engaged to him, too? How
many fiances do you have?
One fewer if we don't get going, she said.
Rayford signaled T to follow him about a hundred feet away. He phoned
Abdullah.
Hello, yes?
Abdullah, it's Rayford Steele, but don't say anything. Just repeat after me,
all right?
All right.
Global Community Militia? ... A stolen Range Rover? .. . Gold? .. . Prison? .
. .
Yes, you come and question me, but all the gold is here and the automobile
too. . . .
Yes, I will be here when you get here. . . . No, I do not want to go to
prison.
Abdullah broke in. It's working, Rayford.
Rayford? he heard Hattie scream. Ernie, wait!
But Ernie and Bo were already riding double on the motorbike, leaving a plume
of dust as they hightailed it from the airport.
Rayford and T found Abdullah looking fatigued but proud of himself, sitting
across from Hattie, who sat on the floor with her back pressed against an army
cot. Let's go, Hattie, Rayford said. Maybe we can get you back in time to
see the new baby.
Four hours later, in the darkest hour of the morning, Chloe Steele Williams
gave birth to a healthy son. In tears she suckled him and announced his name.
Kenneth Bruce.
Even Hattie wept.
EPILOGUE
One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.
Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the
golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the
trumpet, 'Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.'
So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and
year, were released. . . .
Revelation 9:12-15
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