Jack Chalker - The Messiah Choice

They sat around the living room in the warm, comfortable island resort nation of Aruba and MacDonald could not think of a less likely looking group in a more incongruous place. He wished he knew why these three, particularly the darkly attractive woman, had volunteered for such a mission, knowing only that it was against some great evil and would cost them their lives. With them, too, were Whitely, Frawley, and Maria.

“We have only ten days to work this all out,” Frawley told them. “There can be only a small amount of practice, and I’m sure that they have agents here and possibly already know that we are gathered together. There’s no way to keep it secret here, I fear, but I believe they will allow us to keep going. It’s in character for them to let the enemy try, so when he fails he will know it. You should know that because there is, I believe, not the slightest chance of any of us coming out of this alive, win or lose. Still, the armies of the world are at their beck and call, not ours. Only a very small, expert force, will be able to get onto that island and do damage. I say this because this is your last chance to back out. Replacements are still possible, but not after this afternoon. After this, you will know too much. After this, anyone who backs out, or hesitates, will be killed. There is no other way around it. The enemy can hear and see far more than we can, though they lack, I hope, the details of the plan. Therefore, anyone who still wishes to back out now should do so at this time. I will ask you one at a time. Shadrach?”

“It is my moral imperative to go, for I understand the nature of the enemy you fight,” said the Sikh, in Indian-accented English. “I wish you to understand that the Indian government years ago wiped out my entire family in their pogrom, yet I did not lose my faith. It sustained me, as I sought to discover the reason for such events. It is because of this, I feel, that I was spared. I am ready to join them, but my death must have meaning. I will go.”

The Bishop and the Rook nodded absently to themselves. “Very well,” said Frawley, “you are in and welcome. We need you desperately, for you are our mountaineer. The bravery and greatness of your people’s fighting skills are well known and taken for granted. Meshach?”

This was the dark Lebanese woman. “I will go. Since they butchered my children I have been nothing but a madwoman, a killing machine, but it is endless. It will be good to have meaning, to have an end.”

“Excellent. One of your experience will be invaluable. Abednego?”

The dark Nigerian in tennis whites shrugged. “It seems we are in a confessional stage. I leave that to the others. I am a professional without ties whom Allah has called to this purpose. I will do the job. The rest is in the hands of Allah.”

Frawley nodded. “My Lord Bishop, I’m not too keen on taking you along on this, although I understand that some were not too keen on me so I have to reserve judgment. You are determined?”

Bishop Whitely nodded soberly. “I am.”

“All right, then. You all know, or should know, that is unlikely that I will see another Chrismas, nor do I want to. It’s a good thing this is in ten days, for if it were thirty, as much as we need the time, I might not be able to manage it. I will manage it now, though. And that leaves us with our two younger folks here. I ask the newcomers not to judge the young lady. She is older, I suspect, than the three of you and a victim of their powers.”

Maria smiled, welcoming that. She had dressed informally for this, but had kept her made up face and manner.

MacDonald had swallowed both his pride and his inhibitions and had spent most of the previous evening with her, mostly, as Whitely had suggested, making her feel like an adult woman. Nothing serious—he’d arranged a candlelight dinner for the two of them at a small private beach house, including champagne, and they had just talked and then walked on the beach, discussing everything but the situation at hand or her own limitations, and he’d found, just as he had with Angelique, that it was possible for him to remember who and what she really was and look beyond the physical. Ultimately, when they had returned to the house, he had told her that they were going back, and soon, and that they needed guides for the island itself.

“You’re going with them?” she’d asked him.

“I may have to. There’s no one else who knows the island as well in our group.”

“And—it’s one way, isn’t it? They’ll either kill or capture everybody in the end no matter how much damage you do.’’

“Yes,” he’d admitted.

“Then I’ll be the guide. I’m small, light, and I know the places you never found. I—appreciate tonight, more than you can ever know, but I don’t have any future. I have nothing to live for, really, and I’d love to get back at them. You— they’ll be looking for you, expecting you. What they’ll do to you will make what they did to Angelique and me seem like nothing. You can have a future.”

“But you’ll die.”

She’d whirled and faced him. “Don’t you see? All my life I’ve made the wrong choices. All my life I’ve messed up everything and everyone I’ve come in contact with. It’s my last chance. I want a chance as my instructors in the convent put it, to redeem myself. This is it. I can wipe the slate clean if I do this right. Besides—who knows if I die or not? Anything’s possible the way this thing’s been going.”

He hadn’t been able at that point to really go through with it. He just wasn’t that much of a heel. “Don’t think you have to for me.”

“No, if they’ll let me, I’m going. Oh, I know why you’re doing all this, but that’s O.K. You’re the only one who’ll ever treat me like this, though, so I’m going to enjoy it and pretend it’s all real as long as it lasts, but I’m not just going for you. I’ve got to go—for myself.”

“As you may know, Miss, I’m not too keen on having you along,” Frawley was saying. “It’s neither a matter of age or size or any sort of gallantry. I simply do not consider you reliable under pressure. Still, I have been overruled on this, and I accept it, but you must understand this. I do not believe in the life beyond and I do not believe we are dealing with anything not somehow explainable by science, but if you betray us or fail us in the slightest way at all, I will come out of my grave, if need be, to make certain that you will do no more harm.”

She nodded grimly. “I understand, sir. I won’t fail anyone this time. I betrayed my church and my god, I betrayed my charge, and I betrayed you all. It’s only right I should share what you have to go through because of me.”

“She’ll do just fine, Pip. I’ll see to that,” the Bishop said confidently.

“My name’s Greg MacDonald,” the younger man interjected. “I’m the chief of this operation but, as it stands, I’ll not be actually with you through to the end. I will, however, be working with you all the way and it’s on my shoulders to get you in there safe and undetected. I’ll be with you all the way to the landing, so I’m not risk free. First, I want to fill you in on the entire story so far, in as much detail as I can, so you can understand what sort of power and madness we’re really dealing with here. After that, we’ll go in and look at the model, diagrams, and photographs and see what our major problems are and what our objectives have to be…”

He took them through it, sparing nothing, occasionally throwing it to Maria or the Bishop or Frawley for confirmation and elaboration. He was impressed that none of the three newcomers seemed particularly shocked or dubious about it all. They did, of course, ask questions, but they tended to be of the practical sort and involved, in the main, understanding the powers that they were facing.