Read Online The Mark: The Beast Rules The World by Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins - Free Book Online Page B

I invited you! You said you would come, and yet you did not. It was the talk of New York. You were demoted because of it. Why? Why did you not
    come?”
    “I was there, Chaim.”
    “No one saw you there! Nicolae was disappointed, enraged. Everyone asked about you. Your boss, what was his name?” “Steve Plank.”
    “Mr. Plank could not believe it! Hattie Durham was there! You were the one who introduced her to Carpathia, and yet you were not there when she expected
    you.”
    “I was there, Chaim.”
    “I was there too, Cameron. Your place at the table
    was empty.”
    Buck was about to say again that he was there, but he suddenly realized what was happening and why Chaim would bring this up again after so long. “Your eyes truly are being opened, aren’t they Chaim?”
    The old man put a quivering hand on Buck’s knee. “I could not understand it. It made no sense. Jonathan Stonagal had embarrassed Nicolae by going after you. Nicolae shamed him into committing suicide, and he killed Joshua Todd-Cothran in the process.”
    Buck wanted to say he had seen it and that was not the way it had happened, but he waited.
    “None of it made sense,” Rosenzweig whined. “None of it. But the eyes don’t lie. Stonagal grabbed the gun from the security guard, shot himself and his colleague with him.”
    “No, Chaim,” Buck whispered. “The eyes don’t lie. But the Antichrist does.”
    Rosenzweig began to shiver until his whole body shook. He pressed his hands against his tender face to stop the quivering of his lips. “Why were you not there, Cameron?”
    “Why would I not have been there, sir? What could have kept me away?”
    “I cannot imagine!”
    “Neither could I.”
    “Then why? Why?”
    Buck did not respond. He had quit trying to convince the old man. “I was assigned to be there; my boss expected me to go.”
    “Yes, yes!”
    “It was the mother of all cover stories for the largest circulation magazine in history. It was the apex of my career. Would I have thrown that away?”
    Rosenzweig shook his head, tears falling, hands trembling. “You would not.”
    “Of course I wouldn’t. Who would?” “Maybe you had come to believe Nicolae was Antichrist and you didn’t want to be exposed to him?” “By then I knew, yes, or I thought I did. I would not have gone in there without the protection of God.” “And you did not have it?” “I had it.”
    “And so why not go? You would have been the only one there with God’s hand upon you.”
    Buck merely nodded. Rosenzweig’s eyes cleared, and it appeared he was studying something a thousand miles away. His pupils darted back and forth. “You were there!”
    “Yes, I was.”
    “You were there, weren’t you, Cameron?”
    “I was, sir.” “And you saw it all!” ’”‘“I saw everything.”
    “But you did not see what the rest of us saw.” “I saw what really happened. I saw the truth.” Chaim’ s hands fluttered beside his head, and through clenched teeth he described what he had once seen and what he now saw anew. “Nicolae! Nicolae murdered those men! He made Stonagal kneel before him, stuck the weapon in the man’s ear, and killed the both of them with one shot!”
    “That’s what happened.”
    “But Nicolae told us what we had seen, told us what we would remember, and our perception became our reality!”
    Chaim turned around and knelt, resting his fragile head in his hands, elbows on the seat of his chair. “Oh, God, oh, God,” he prayed, “open my eyes. Help me to always see the truth, your truth. Don’t let me be led by a madman, deceived by a liar. Thank you, Jehovah God.”
    Slowly he stood and embraced Buck, then turned to face Tsion. “Truly Nicolae is Antichrist,” he said. “He must be stopped. I want to do whatever I have to do.”
    Tsion smiled ruefully. “May I remind you that you already tried?”
    “I certainly did, but not for the reasons I would try today.”
    “If you think you know the depths of the