Tyndale House - The Mark - The Beast Rules the World

Suddenly she rose and stepped to Rayford. She bent and kissed the top of his head. She turned and did the same to Albie, cupping his face in her hands. "Don't worry about me tonight," she said. "I'll be here in the morning."

"You have no reason not to be," Albie said. "You are not really in our custody. In fact, you are dead."

"Anyway," Rayford said, standing and stretching, "where would you bolt to? Where would you be safer than where we're taking you?"

"Thanks for saving my life," she said as she turned to head for her room.

When she shut the door, Rayford said, "I just hope this wasn't for nothing."

They heard her door open and shut and her moving about in her room.

"It wasn't," Albie said.

Rayford was bone weary, but as he disrobed for bed he thought he heard something over the sound of Albie's shower. From the adjoining room he thought he heard voices. He moved closer to the wall. Not voices, just one. Crying. Sobbing. Wailing. Hattie, muffled, apparently with her face buried in a pillow or blanket.

As he drifted off to sleep half an hour later in the bed across from Albie's, Hattie's laments still wafted through the wall. Rayford heard Albie turn and pat his pillow, then settle back. "God," the little man whispered, "save that girl."

Buck drove straight past the little filling station, pretending to not notice the GC stakeout car amidst a small grove of trees across the road. He didn't even slow, so as not to attract attention. If he had to guess, he thought just two GC guards were in the car. He phoned Zeke. "Any more activity?" "Nope. Was that you what just passed? Nice rig." "I'm going to circle way around and see if I can come in from the back with my lights off. Might take ten minutes. I'll call you when I'm in position."

Buck drove until he couldn't see even the outline of the station in his rearview mirror, assuming the GC could no longer see him either. He cut his lights and took a right, slowly feeling his way over rough ground. He was a couple of miles from the station, and he wanted to be sure he didn't find a hidden fence or culvert that would mess up the Hummer.

At one point, after taking two more rights and thus heading in the general direction of the back of the station, he felt the vehicle dip and hoped he hadn't found a hole too deep to pull out of. When the front grille hit something solid, he hit the brakes and briefly turned on the headlights. He shut them off again quickly, hoping the GC hadn't seen anything in the distance. Buck saw that he needed to back up and swing left around a five-foot-high or so mound of dirt and boards.

He wanted to turn on his brights and be able to see if anything else obstructed his path to the back of the station, but he didn't dare. By the time he could make out the shape of the place, he slowed to just a few miles an hour and crept along in the uneven dirt, bouncing, jostling, and-he hoped-not sending up too much dust. It was a starry night, and if the GC noticed anything blocking the sky, they were sure to come nosing around the back. Buck phoned Zeke. "I hear you," Zeke said.

"You hear me? From inside? That can't be good." "That's what I was thinking. You ready for me?" "Better come quick. Carrying anything?" "Yeah, one more bag. Figured I might as well not leave anything I could bring."

"Good thinking. Come on."

"Gotta open the spigot and turn on the timer."

"For how long?"

"Five minutes."

"Anything on the monitor?"

"They're just sittin'."

"Good. Let's go."

Buck knew he could come back the way he came, and though the ride would be pretty rugged, he estimated he could do as much as 40 mph. But in case the GC could hear the Hummer as well as Zeke could, he jumped out and started loading the car to save time.

The inside light stayed dark as he opened the door to get out, and he left it open. He opened the back door on the far side and crept around to start lifting. The first box was almost too heavy, and it was all he could do to not cry out under the weight. He heard Zeke coming up the stairs.

Buck lugged the box onto the backseat from the car door farthest from the station's back door, feeling every sore fiber from his recent ordeal. When he got back around the car to grab the other box, figuring Zeke could load the bag he was carrying and the one on the ground at the same time, he nearly ran into the young man, startling him.

Zeke grunted. Buck tried to shush him, but Zeke dropped his bag and lurched back inside, slamming the door. Buck heard him lumbering down the stairs. Now they were making way too much noise.

Buck yanked open the station door and called out desperately, as quietly as he could, "Zeke, it's just me! C'mon, man! Now!"

"Oh, man!" Zeke hollered. "I thought it was them! The timer's goin', the gas is spittin'. And they're comin', Buck! I can see 'em on the monitor!"

Buck turned and opened the back door nearest the station. He picked up the bag that had been waiting and the one Zeke had dropped and hurled them across the backseat. He left the door open and jumped behind the wheel, slamming his door and putting the Hummer in gear. Zeke barreled out and dove into the backseat, knocking one of the bags out the other side, where Buck had left the door open.

Buck floored the accelerator, but Zeke yelled, "We can't leave that bag! It's got lots of stuff we need!"

The door had started to close when Buck took off, but when he hit the brakes, it swung the other way and creaked against the hinges. "Get it!" he screamed, and Zeke scrambled over the stuff and out onto the ground, his foot dragging a bag out too. And here came the GC mobile around the station in front of Buck.

"Go! Go!" Zeke yelled, forcing himself into the backseat with both heavy bags tucked under his arms.

The door was still open, but Buck had to move. He gunned the engine and slammed into the GC car, driving it back against the station as his back door shut. The guards had weapons out and appeared to be reaching for door handles. Buck knew he couldn't outrace bullets, so he threw the Hummer into Reverse, floored it, and the monstrous vehicle climbed the hill of debris near the door.

Buck stopped at the top as they teetered some twelve feet above their pursuers. He shifted into Drive, and when the GC saw the vehicle start to move, they lowered their weapons and dove out of the way. The Hummer dropped almost vertically, ramming the hood of the little car and blowing both of its front tires. The engine gushed water and steam, and Buck could tell he had rendered the GC vehicle useless.

Rather than look for the guards, he merely backed up six feet, whipped the wheel right, and sped off into the night. Zeke had somehow gotten the door shut, but neither he nor Buck had time to buckle in. As the Hummer lurched across the plains at high speed, both men were thrown around like rag dolls, their heads hitting the ceiling, their shoulders banging the doors.

Buck skidded to a stop.

"What?" Zeke demanded.

"Buckle up!"

They both did and off he flew again. Fewer than five minutes later, as Buck found a route that would lead them back to Chicago, the sky behind them went from night to day in a massive orange ball of flame. A few seconds later the sound and the shock rocked the car anew. Buck, high from the adrenaline, knew how close they had come to dying.

Zeke, laughing like a child, kept turning in his seat and looking back at the flaming horizon. "Well," he said, cackling, "so much for that job!"

Mac and Abdullah sat sullenly in David's hospital room, whispering. "Thirty days?" Mac said over and over. "Hard to believe."

"No way of staying around here," Abdullah said. "Not that I'll miss it. Well, in some ways I will."

"I know I will," David said, coming to full attention whenever he heard footsteps in the corridor. "So much we can do from the inside that we'll never be able to pull off from the outside."