CHAPTER 6
Tess paused, gazing at Rachel. “Rachel is safe now, but Daniel still intends to kill Moishe and Eli. Unless he can be persuaded to stop, he will be dead by sunrise. We’ve got work to do, right now, and the Father wants you to help us carry it out.”
Rachel bit her lower lip. “His soul’ll be in Hell, right?”
Tess nodded. “If he doesn’t accept God’s mercy now, yes, he will be.”
Ryan stepped forward. “I, for one, don’t want to see that happen.“ He scratched his left arm, then looked Tess in the eye. “What does God want us to do, Tess?”
Fingering her brooch, Tess glanced toward the front door. Rachel looked the same way; all she could see through the open doorway was a dark building across the street, softly illuminated by moonlight. She yawned, then rubbed her eyes. Tess glanced toward the ceiling, then nodded; evidently, she’d been receiving instructions from the Lord. “First, we’ve got to go to the Temple Mount, and find Moishe and Eli. Since this plot is aimed against them, we must consult with them. Then we will look for Daniel and take action to stop him.” The angel supervisor turned around. “Let’s go.”
Half an hour later, the group arrived at the Temple Mount. Climbing out of the Cadillac and the rental car, the adults and a yawning, sleepy-eyed Rachel followed the angels up the gently rising hill toward the corner of the Wailing Wall, back of it, where Moishe and Eli spent their nights. A full moon shone overhead, and stars glittered all over the sky.
As the group approached the spot, where the two witnesses sat, heads drooping, Tess called out, “Moses! Elijah! You’d better get up, because the Father has work for us to do.”
The two bearded men rose to their feet and approached the group, barefoot. The scent of ashes wafted toward Richard’s throat as they drew near. “Hello, Tess.” Moishe extended a large, bony hand; Tess clasped it. Eli nodded toward her, then turned toward the other three angels.
“Hello, you two.” Monica smiled at the two witnesses warmly. “It’s good to see you again, Moishe. Eli. The Father is pleased with your preaching; He told us to tell you that.”
“Yes, He did. And it is good to see you again.” Andrew raised his hand and smiled, then shook hands with Eli. Turning toward Gloria, he added, “This is our newest angel, Gloria; she was just created a little over a year ago.”
Gloria beamed her friendly smile. “Hello. Tess and the others have told me so much about you!” Moishe and Eli inclined their heads in acknowledgement.
Tess turned toward the adults. “Moses, Elijah, this is Richard and Christina Daly, and Ryan and Kristen Whittaker. And this is the Dalys' adopted daughter, Rachel. These Americans are visitors to this nation, and the Father has involved them in our latest assignment. There’s another American tourist--a Jew--who wants to kill you, and has already put together the materials for doing so. His name is Daniel Rosen, and he’s from America, too.”
Elijah nodded. “He will not succeed. He will die if he tries.”
“Yes.” A sad expression creased Tess’s face. She clasped her hands in front of her waist. “And the Father does not want that to happen to him, which is why He’s sent us angels to minister His love to him. But time is short, and the hour is growing late, so we must confer and learn how the Father wants us to approach this.”
A yawn startled the others; Monica turned toward Rachel, who stood rubbing her eyes. Biting her lip, Rachel said, “I heard him say that he had the ma--materials all together. He said he would try to fix it so that nobody else got hurt. He--he was talking to himself. When he was going up the cellar stairs.”
Andrew strolled toward the child; he gently put his hand on her shoulder. “Rachel, did you get a glimpse of any of those materials when he took you to the warehouse?”
Rachel scrunched her face. “Yeah,” she said slowly. “I think I did.” She looked up at him. “I saw a big can there--it said nitro-nitro-something.”
“Nitroglycerin,” Andrew guessed. Rachel nodded. “It’s one of the ingredients used in bombs and other explosives. Did you see anything else?”
With a nod, Rachel described, as well as she could, the other materials she had seen in passing. The adults and angels surrounding her nodded in recognition, knowing expressions on their faces. “It’s a bomb, all right.” Tess pursed her lips. “And unless I miss my guess, he’s setting it up tonight.”
Gloria cocked her head. “But why? Why would he want to kill these two men?” She waved toward Moishe and Eli. “I mean, what threat are they to him, that he should want to murder them?” She furrowed her eyebrows in evident bewilderment, then pushed her glasses up her nose. A cool breeze ruffled her thick dark hair. She dug her right shoe into the dirt at her feet, forming a tiny hollow in the ground.
“What threat are they?” Andrew touched her shoulder. “As far as he’s concerned, they have committed an unforgivable breach--they have proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah the Jews have waited for, these past several thousand years.” He put his hands in his pockets. “And he’s not alone in his hatred toward them. There are numerous other devout Jews who, at present, feel the same way. Many of them would murder Moses and Elijah if they could. Some of them have already tried, only to meet untimely deaths by fire. So have a few Moslems. Moses and Elijah have the power to withhold rain and to turn water into blood. Since they have started preaching, there's been no rain in Israel.”
Monica and Tess exchanged glances; Monica approached Gloria. “Gloria, you have learned so much during the past year--about life, about death, about love, about many things. I think the Father wants to add to your store of learning now,” she said slowly. “He wants you to stay here, with Moses and Elijah, until we come back.” She touched Gloria’s arm. “Think of it as an opportunity to learn their importance, both in the past and in the present. You will need that knowledge in the time to come.”
Gloria looked at the two witnesses, then nodded acquiescence. “All right.”
Tess turned to Moishe and Eli. “Gloria’s only been around for a year, and she still has much to learn,” she told them, nodding toward Gloria. Her brooch sparkled in the moonlight. “The Father wants you to educate her while we go and find Daniel. Don’t worry; she learns quickly and forgets nothing. She has the mind of a computer, and she’s been in the process of learning how to use her heart.”
Moishe inclined his head. “We will talk with her until you return.”
Ryan glanced at his watch, exposing it to the moonbeams gleaming down on them. “Good thing the moon is full. I couldn’t read this otherwise,” he commented. “We only have a few more hours to find Daniel and talk some sense into him.” Rubbing his left hand on his jeans, he shook his head. “At 6 a.m., Kristen and I have to report to Puccini for duty, so we’d better hurry.” He led the way, as the group left Gloria with the 2 witnesses. Their footfalls faded into the distance.
Moses patted a nearby stone bench. “Have a seat.”
Smiling at him, Gloria perched on the bench; shifting position on its cold, rough surface, she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose a second time. The scent of ashes, faint when they’d approached the group, seemed overpowering now; she forced herself not to make a face at the smell.
“I’ve read about you in the Old Testament, but I’ve never had a chance to meet you.” She fingered her glasses as she spoke, then dropped her hands into her lap. “There are so many people from the Old and New Testaments I’ve never had a chance to meet, as I spend so much of my time down here, helping Monica and Tess and Andrew. As Tess told you, I was only created a little over a year ago. Tess and Monica are caseworkers, and Andrew’s an angel of death.”
Moses nodded. “Yes, we know all about them. And since you’ve read our stories in the Old Testament, you already know what the Bible teaches about our histories.” He raised his large, bony hand to scratch his wrinkled neck. Gloria nodded back; she did, indeed, know what the Bible taught about them. “You know that God used me to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt and to the Promised Land, and that He used Elijah to stand up to a Israelite king who had led the nation of Israel into apostasy.”
Gloria nodded again. “He also used you to make the Ark of the Covenant, didn’t he?” She smiled. “I saw it, just a few weeks after I was created. In one of the caves on Mount Nebo. An angel named Micah guards it.”
“Yes.” Moses inclined his head; his long beard slid down the front of his robe. “And it will stay there, until God is ready for it to be used, once more.”
“When will that be--during the Millennium?” Gloria tilted her head.
“Yes.”
Leaning toward him, Gloria touched his arm. The sackcloth sleeve felt rough to her hand. “It must have been hard--leading the Hebrews to the borders of the Promised Land, only to be forbidden to enter it yourself.”
Moses nodded, a sad expression on his wrinkled face. “Yes, it was, but it was my own fault that it happened. I failed to glorify God in my actions when He commanded me to speak to the rock in the Desert of Zin--my only excuse is that I was angry at the people. But in the Father’s eyes, that was, in truth, no excuse.” He straightened his back. “However, I am here now, so God has finally let me in. I am not only within the boundaries of Israel, I am sitting in His Holy City--Jerusalem! So God is letting me finish the work that was cut short so long ago.”
Elijah nodded agreement. “Yes. That is something Moses and I have in common--our ministries were cut short, and now we are finishing them. God used me to bring Israel out of apostasy and idol worship then, and to return to the worship of the true God. And now, He is using me to do the same thing with modern Israel.”
“Why was yours cut short?” Gloria gazed at him quizzically.
“Because I gave up,” Elijah explained. “Wrongly, I thought I was the only God-fearing Jew left in all Israel; I thought I had spent my efforts in vain. I asked God to kill me. Well, in His mercy, He didn’t take me then--He sent one of your fellow angels to give me food and drink. That gave me the energy to travel for 40 days, until I reached a mountain where God, at last, spoke to me.”
Gloria nodded. She remembered the account from the Book of 1 Kings. “Then God had you anoint Elisha to take your place as His prophet.“ Elijah nodded. Gloria smiled. “I have so much to learn from you. Both of you.” She looked from one to the other; the moonlight made their features come into focus. “Please tell me all about yourselves--as much as you have time for.”
As Moses and Elijah positioned themselves to tell Gloria their stories, she leaned forward in eager anticipation. This was going to be most educational!
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Tess pulled the convertible up to the curb in front of the warehouse; the other car parked behind hers. Only the moon brought the deserted street any light. Craning her neck to look back at the others, she said, “If he’s here, we’ll talk to him. If not, we’ll return to the Temple Mount.”
Christina glanced at Rachel, asleep in the back seat. The sleeping child’s head rested against the cool windowpane. “One of us should stay here with Rachel.” She bit her lip. “It’s past her bedtime, and I don’t have the heart to wake her now. Especially for this.” She frowned at the looming warehouse.
Andrew nodded. “I agree. Christina, Richard, you two stay with your daughter, and the rest of us will go inside and look for Daniel.”
Climbing out of the Cadillac, the three angels led the way, followed by Ryan and Kristen. Cautiously, Andrew pushed the front door inward, then crept inside. For the next 15 minutes, the three angels and two adults searched the storeroom, the office rooms, and the cellar. They found no sign of Daniel, nor of the materials Rachel had seen. When they returned to the cars, Ryan shook his head.
“He must have already left for the Temple Mount,” Kristen said. “We’ve got to hurry!”
“Yes.” Tess glanced at the moon. “Time’s wasting even as we speak, so let’s be on our way!” The groups climbed back into the cars and sped off.
END OF CHAPTER 6