Her voice had risen and strengthened. Though I
The Green Ripper couldn't decide what she was saying, I found it very stirring. It was flattering somehow to be part of a purpose so great that it overlapped all the thousands of years ahead.
She moved back just a little, then gave a smile of apology. '`Now I must ask you once again for pa- tience. We must proceed with the greatest caution or lose the element of surprise on which we must depend. Our many friends in other nations are helping us, just as they promised. You know that perhaps even better than I. Some small arrange- ments have been delayed for the sake of greater safety. The transport of incoming supplies is a delicate problem, and it is being solved every day. And every day more of us are being trained. 11Varehousing, transport, and supply. Everyone is working very very hard on these problems. There is always the danger of penetration of security. Be ever alert. Our technical staff is identifying more pressure points as time goes by. Think of it this way. The longer we have to wait, the greater the blow we can strike. Continue with your training. You are the soldiers of the Lord! You will put him back upon his throne on earth, and you will live all of your days in peace and love and freedom forever."
She closed her eyes, and the lights that shone upon her face and hair were slowly, slowly dimmed until the screen was dark. The Betamaac made a clacking sound, and Chuck leaped to turn it off, then sat again.
Persival said, "Sister Nena, please give the closing prayer."
She was behind me. I heard her stand. "Dear Lord, we thank thee for the privilege of hearing Sister Elena Marie speak your words with her sweet lips. Grant us the patience to endure the waiting, and the skill and the bravery to overcome all odds when at last we march in thy service. Amen."
She rattled it off so quickly I knew * was rote, and I suspected that I was probably the only one in the room who could not say the usual closing prayer.
Someone pulled the blankets away from the windows, and we were suddenly all squinting in the bright afternoon light. I looked at the television set and the tape deck. They were standard consumer items. But the way they were used was very professional. Very effective. These people seemed exalted by what they had heard. They beamed at each other and touched each other in ways of affection. I did an appropriate amount of beaming and touching. They were holding Sister Elena Marie in their hearts. She had come across to each one of us as an individual. She spoke to aloneness, in warmth and comfort.
I asked Brother Chuck if there were any old tapes I could hear.
'Eve don't keep any around. We'll show this one
The Green Ripper again tonight, and everybody will want to hear it again. Then I erase it and put it back in the mailer and send it on back. They dupe the ones for the camps from a master they make at headquarters."
He looked at me with a telltale intentness. It was the game of which hand holds the marble. I got in- stantaneous help from my actress friend of long ago. Tom McGraw would ask.
'where is headquarters anyway?"
"Classified," he said, smiling, whacking me on the arm.
"When do we get the next one?"
"There's no schedule. When she has something to say to us, she makes a tape, and they dupe it and send it out. They cost a lot, those tapes, so they get sent back blank to be reduped."
I wandered on out. I illed an item in the back of my mind. Somewhere in America, Betamax tapes were being sent in to a central place. If they were saving money on tape, they wouldn't be wasting it using couriers. If it were my problem, I'd use the mails. And I would have a permanent filler on the first fifteen minutes of each tape. They would be plainly labeled as church property, and they would have some old duck in a backward collar reading a dissertation on the philosophical impact of Martin Luther on political thought in middle Burope. And then the Sister. I would have them sent to a mail drop for courier pickup and delivery to home
197
John MacDonald base. So if I happened to find the mailing address, it would probably give me no help at ale
I sat through it again that evening, and the impact of her was intensified, if anything. She did not fade. She just seemed to get stronger. And it was difficult to shake the illusion that she was looking directly at me. I could not estimate how big a woman she was. There was nothing to compare her to. She was in perfect proportion and could have been three feet tall or seven and a half. Dark-blue velvety dress with lace at the throat. No jewelry.
After it was over, Persival got me aside and said, 'I want you working out with the group tomorrow. Any objection?"
'spiel No. No objection. Only, what is being done to locate where my little girl is?"
"They're trying to find her, and when they do, they'll let me know immediately. Report to Brother Chuck at eight sharp. Field exercises." swearing what?"
"Ask him now."
Chuck told me we weren't leaving the land the Church owned, one full section of land, mostly up and down and sideways, so we'd wear fatigues, a light pack, and an ammo belt, and carry a weapon. He and Ahman took me over to supply, after Chuck got the key. The biggest fatigues were a little high in the allele and short at the wrist I explained my shoe problem, and they found a pair of size twelve sneakers and some thick nylon-and-wool
The Green Ripper socks. Ahman threw me the weapon, harder than he had to. The light was bad, just the single bulb going inside the warehouse door, and I didn't grab it close enough to the balance point, so the muzzle end tapped me over the ear, drawing a drop of blood.
"Watch it," I told him.
'snatch out for yourself, Brother," he said.
What is this thing anyway?"
"It's an Uzi," Chuck said. 'made in Israel."
"Very small and light. Good weapon?"
Ahman shrugged and said, "You won't be firing it. AU you do is carry it. You'll be glad it's light bee fore the day is over. Some friends picked up a couple of trucldoads of these in Lebanon. So we've got some. Makes for nice confusion. Remember what Aren't said after Camp David? He said there hadn't been any terrorism in the United States, and now they had proved themselves ready for some. For a lot, baby. A big lot. So when they bring down some of the brothers and sisters with Israeli weapons, they'll wonder what the hell, won't they?"
I carried my issue gear back to T-6. The sneakers felt right with two pairs of the socks. I found the right hole for the belt, filled the canteen, and positioned it at a better place on the belt. Chuck had told me I would be carrying twenty pounds of rock in the backpack, so I made careful adjustment of the straps, bringing die padding to the exact place where the straps hit the tops of my shoulders. Then
I inspected the Uziunder the light. It hadn't been built for pretty. It was an ugly, simple, straighfforward little weapon. The empty clip snapped into place easily. It had a good balance, and a simple three-way control for safety, single fire, and full automatic. It looked designed for quantity production. I couldn't give it full approval until I had a chance, if ever, to ilre it. Then I would learn the cycle of fire and whether it would ride up at fun automatic, or whether the gases were diverted just right to make it easy to hold on target. It hung well over the shoulder on its fat little sling and came off the shoulder fast, with your hands faring into the right position. I had heard that since I had been around this kind of hardware they had upped the cycle of iIre, upped the muzzle velocity to practically double, and reduced the weight of the projectile. A man could carry a lot more rounds into a firelight, do just as much damage with each hit, and hit oftener.