Hattie evolved from a hesitant newcomer to the vivacious, excited believer she had been that first morning in Bozeman. Rayford enjoyed her spirit, and it seemed Tsion did too. The others' eyes seemed to glaze over each time she exulted over something anew. Something had to give. The Trib Force had plenty of space and privacy, but even in a massive skyscraper, cabin fever set in.
Fresh air was a problem. The building ventilation system worked fine, but other than the occasional slightly opened window that brought in crisp, fall breezes, everyone longed for time outdoors in the daylight. Too risky, Rayford told them, and even Kenny Bruce was taken out only after dark.
One by one his comrades came to Rayford in private, and while they carefully avoided bad-mouthing each other, all had similar requests. Each wanted an assignment, something away from the safe house. They wanted to be proactive, not waiting for Nicolae and the GC to be the only ones on the offensive.
All but Zeke, that is, who seemed content with his role. He inventoried the tools and supplies necessary to outfit the best forgery and phony identification operation possible. "I'm not a book readin' kind of a guy," he told Rayford, "but I can see what's coming."
"You can?"
Zeke nodded. "Dr. Ben-Judah is training Chaim what's-his-name to go back to Israel. That means I gotta work on a new ID for him, and not just on paper. He's gotta look like somebody else, because everybody knows him all over the world."
Rayford could only nod.
"You can't change a guy's height and weight, and I'm no plastic surgeon. But there's things you can do. He's got that Einstein hair thing goin' now, and he shaves. I'd bald him and dye his eyebrows dark. Then have him grow a big bushy beard or maybe muttonchops and a mustache, and make them dark too. He'll look younger and kinda hip, but mostly he won't look like himself. We gotta get rid of the glasses or change 'em drastically. Then I'd give him colored contacts. If he can get along without a prescription, I got plenty he can choose from."
"Uh-huh," Rayford said. "Zeke, what makes you think he's going back to Israel?"
"Oh, he isn't? Well, my mistake then. I just figured."
"I'm not saying you're wrong. I just wondered why you figured that."
"I don't know. Somebody's got to go, and you guys have never wanted to risk Dr. Ben-Judah."
"Somebody's got to go to Israel? Why?"
Zeke furrowed his brow. "I don't know. You can tell me if I'm wrong 'cause a lot of time I am, but Dad says I've got intuition. I try to figure out Zion's messages each day, but like I say, readin's not my thing. I don't think I ever read a book all the way through, except maybe a parts manual and then only over about six years. But Zion makes those daily message things pretty easy to understand for a smart guy. I'm sayin' he's smart, not mo. Most smart guys think they're explainin' something, but they're the only ones who understand it. You know what I mean?"
"Sure."
"Well, what I'm gettin' from Zion lately is that Carpathia is up to somethin'. And it has to do with Jerusalem. Zion says the Bible says the Antichrist is not only gonna pull a fast one on the Jews, he's also gonna brag about it right in their own temple and defile it somehow and break his promise."
"I think you've pretty much got that down, Zeke. How does Chaim play into it?"
"Zion says God's preparin' a safe place for the Jews to run off to, but they got to have a leader. Zion can lead 'em on the Net, but they need somebody there, somebody they can see. He's gotta be Jewish. He's gotta be a believer. He's gotta be popular or at least be able to get people to follow him. And he's gotta know a lot of stuff. The only person that's gonna know more than Zion pretty soon will be Chaim. And no way I think Zion's goin' over there."
"It's just as dangerous for Chaim, isn't it, Zeke?"
"Well, I don't know who'd be worse in Carpathia's mind, the guy who's tellin' the whole world Carpathia's the devil himself or the guy what ran a sword through his brain. But the fact is, we-I mean us believers-could probably get along without Chaim if we had to. But we're in trouble without Zion."
Zeke looked troubled for having said it.
Rayford stood and paced. "Well, Zeke, your dad's right about your intuition. You've hit this nail on the head."
"Then I'm gonna be asked to help send him over there as, what's his new name?"
"Tobias Rogoff."
"Right. As him?"
"You are."
"Don't you think a lot of people will recognize his voice and his body type? People notice hands too. I might have to work on that."
"Yes, there will be people who know right away who he is. And if David is right that there is tape showing him murdering Carpathia, I can see the GC showing that to the world. But Carpathia himself has already pardoned his attacker."
"But Carpathia also said he can't control what other citizens might do to the guy, so Chaim would be livin' on borrowed time, don't you think?"
"If he can get to the safe haven with the Jews, I think he will be supernaturally protected."
"That would be cool."
"You said you weren't a plastic surgeon. Are there less invasive ways to change someone's appearance?"
Zeke nodded. "There's dental gizmos."
"Appliances."
"Right. I used one on Leah, and I've got plenty more. We can really change the look of a man's teeth and jaw."
"How about one whose jaw is wired shut?"
"Even better. Leah's going to take out those wires soon. I think we can make him look like somebody else. Then he has to dress different than he ever has, maybe walk different. I can get him to do that just by adding a little somethin' to one of his shoes. I'll be ready when he is."
David dealt with his grief by working every waking moment and then crashing hard till he had no choice but to sleep. He assigned Mac and Abdullah the task of planning their disappearance, as conceived by Hannah. Meanwhile, he planted far and wide in the complex access numbers that would allow him, with the right keystrokes, to hack into the system and monitor the goings-on as fully as he was able to do now, at least for as long as the current system was used.
David found listening in on Nicolae and Leon and Hickman almost addictive, but he also enjoyed hearing what Security Chief Walter Moon had to say. While it was unlikely Moon would become a believer, who could know for sure? If he did, it would have to be before the initiation of the mark on employees, because, as Tsion taught, Scripture was clear that that was a once-and-for-all decision. But Moon, from what David could gather, shared openly with both his assistant and his most trusted subordinate that he believed he had been overlooked for the role of Supreme Commander. He spent most of his time swearing, ironically, "on a stack of Bibles," that he wouldn't have taken the job if it had been offered. But the opposite was so obviously and patently true that even his confidants felt free to tell him, "Of course you would have, and it should have gone to you."
David daydreamed of having Moon on his side, a grouser within the palace who had the potential for subversion.
The new intelligence director, replacing Jim Hickman, was a Pakistani named Suhail Akbar. A devout Carpathia supporter, he was a behind-the-scenes kind of guy, quiet and slow to voice an opinion but with a resume that far outstripped his former superior's for experience and training. David feared he was bright enough to be a problem. Bright was not an adjective ever applied to Hickman.