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Cameron, I am closer than you think.
 That's what you said last time. I fear you will wait too long.
 My house staff, they are all believers now, you know. Jacov, his wife, her
mother, Stefan. Jonas, too, but we lost him. You heard?
Buck nodded.  Sad.
Chaim had suddenly lost his humor.  You see, Cameron, these are the things I
don't understand. If God is personal like you say, cares about his children,
and is all-
powerful, is there not a better way? Why the judgments, the plagues, the
destruction, the death? Tsion says we had our chance. So now it's no more Mr.
Nice
Guy? There is a cruelty about it all that hides the love I am supposed to
see.
Buck leaned forward.  Tsion also says that even allowing seven years of
obvious tribulation is more than we deserve from God. We did not believe
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because we could not see it. Well, now there is no doubt. We're seeing, and
yet people still resist and rebel.
Chaim fell silent, then clapped his palms to his knees.  Well, he said at
last,  don't worry about me. I confess I am feeling my age. I am fearful,
frightened, home-
bound, you know. I cannot bring myself to venture out. Carpathia, in whom I
believed as I would my own son, has proven fraudulent.
Buck wanted to probe but dared not. Any decision had to be Rosenzweig's idea,
not a plant from Buck or anyone else.
 I am studying. I am praying that Tsion is wrong, that the plagues and the
torments do not keep getting worse. And I keep busy.
 How?
 Projects.
 Your science and reading?
 And more.
 Such as?
 Oh, you are such the journalist today. All right, I'll tell you. My staff
thinks me mad. Maybe I am. I have a wheelchair. You want to see it?
 You need a wheelchair?
 Not yet, but the day will come. The torment from the locust weakened me. I
have blood counts and other test results that show me at high risk for
stroke.
 You're healthy as a hor-as a mule.
Rosenzweig sat back and laughed.  Very good. No one wants to be healthy as a
horse anymore. But I am not. I am high risk and I want to be ready.
 It sounds defeatist, Doctor. The right diet and exercise . . . fresh air.
 I knew you would get to that. I like to be prepared.
 How else are you preparing?
 I'm sorry?
 What are you working on? In your utility room?
 Who told you about that?
 No one who knew anything. Jacov merely mentioned that you spend a lot of time
on projects in there.
 Yes.
 What is it? What are you doing?
 Projects.
 I never knew you to be handy that way.
 There is a lot you don't know about me, Cameron.
 May I consider you a dear friend, sir?
 I wish you would. But do dear friends refer to each other so formally?
 It's difficult for me to call you Chaim.
 Call me what you wish, but you are my dear friend and so I am happy to call
myself yours.
 Then I want to know more about you. If there is a lot about you I don't know,
I
don't feel like a friend.
Chaim pulled a drape back and peered out.  No smoke today. It will come again
though. Tsion teaches that the horsemen will not leave us until a third of
mankind is dead. Can you imagine that world, Cameron?
 That will leave only half the population since the disappearances.
 Truly we are facing the end of civilization. It may not be what Tsion thinks
it is, but it's something.
Buck said nothing. Chaim had ignored his salvos, but perhaps if he did not
press . . .
Rayford hung his head.  T, he said, his voice suddenly hoarse and weak,  I
don't know what to say.
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 You knew what to say to Bo. You played him like a"

Rayford held up a hand.  Please, T. You're right. I don't know what I was
thinking.
 You seemed to enjoy it.
Rayford wished he could disappear.  God forgive me, I did enjoy it. What's the
matter with me? It's like I've lost my mind. At the house I fly off the
handle. Leah, the newcomer I told you about, she's brought out the worst in
me" no, I can't put that on her either. I've been awful to her. I don't
now,
understand myself anymore.
 If you ever understood yourself you were way ahead of me. But don't be too
hard on yourself, bro. You've got a modicum of stress in your life.
 We all do, T. Even Bo. You know, not just tonight, but never ever have I seen
Bo as anything but a scoundrel.
 He is a scoundrel, Ray. But he's also"

 I know. That's what I'm saying. The day I met him he was putting down
believers, and I've had a thing about him since. I want him put in his place
and I was glad for the chance to do it. Some saint, huh?
T didn't counter. Rayford got the point.
 What do I do now, chase him down and start being Christlike to him?
T shook his head and shrugged.  Got me. I'd sooner think your best approach is
to disappear from his life. He's going to suspect any radical change.
 I should at least apologize.
 Not unless you're ready to prove it by paying him for the information he
thought you were buying.
 Now he's the good guy and I'm the bad guy?
 I'll never say Bo's the good guy, Ray. As for you being the bad guy, I didn't
say it.
You did.
Rayford sat slumped for several minutes while T busied himself with paperwork.
 You're a good friend, Rayford said finally.  To be honest with me, I mean.
Not a lot of guys would care enough. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]