Andrew’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you think I am out here?” He reached up and pulled the lever down, securing the watertight hatch.
“You are God’s Army, aren’t you?”
Andrew gasped, his eyes widening. How did he know? “Why do you think that?” he asked, his voice shaken. His mind whirled, trying to figure out how this demon… That was it! A demon of Satan confronted him. “God give me strength.”
Taleb laughed. “I say that every day when I run into assholes such as you who think they know better than anyone else how we should live our lives. You should have stayed in the hills of West Virginia sowing your seeds of hatred. You should have let your brother…”
Brother! He knew about Joshua? Andrew’s breathing increased. He was confused. This demon confronting him… Confidence flooded Andrew’s body and mind. This was part of God’s test. Part of God’s plan to see if Andrew was a true prophet for the Lord.
“… Joshua’s death go. If you had, you’d be in West Virginia now, being arrested with your father and his followers.…”
Andrew looked up, his eyes locking onto the eyes of the demon in front of him. Looking at the abomination of the dark skin shaded by white blood. Brown eyes staring at him, Taleb’s face relaxed while Andrew felt his body tensing, ready for the coming battle. Taleb’s words broke through his internal battle with one word bubbling to the top: “arrested.”
“You arrested my father?” he asked. “God will stop you.”
“God is helping us. He doesn’t like you any more than you like me or any other person who wants to live their lives as they see fit. You have been responsible for a lot of deaths, Andrew.” Taleb shook his head. “Not as many as your old man and his cronies, but you are as responsible as they.” Taleb reached forward and tweaked the shirtsleeve of Andrew’s dungaree shirt, jerking it a couple of times. “Until you decided you’d avenge your brother’s death, we had nothing on you.” Taleb laughed. “I’m not even here for you. We didn’t even know about you or that you were coming until you arrived in Hawaii. Department of Homeland Security tipped my Ag — people off about you booking a west Pacific voyage to Sea Base.” Taleb’s lower lip pushed upward into the upper as he nodded a couple of times, looking downward. “You are just an added side benefit.”
Without warning, Andrew lunged forward, pushing Taleb backward. Taleb tripped over a rough spot on the deck and fell hard. Andrew jumped on top of him before he could move. “Die, demon!” he said through clenched teeth. “As God—” Taleb brought his knee up between Andrew’s legs, throwing the bigger man off balance. Andrew rolled to the side. The knee had caught him in the upper thigh, missing his crotch by inches.
Taleb rolled to the left away from Andrew, coming up onto his knees in one smooth motion. Andrew pushed himself upright. Taleb stood, his arms and hands out like some wrestler waiting for his opponent to charge.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Taleb said, flexing his outstretched fingers. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Andrew crouched, spreading his hands out also, preparing to get the smaller man within his grasp. He knew his muscles built from years of farmwork and country living were more than a match for the thin frame of the man circling across from him. He turned his head slightly to the right and left. No one to see him kill this man. God works in mysterious ways.
“There’s no one here but you and I, Andrew. No one to help you and no one to help me. Just you and I.”
“You are a demon. You are my trial sent by God.”
“God didn’t send me, asshole. I come from a much more worldly group and my mission — unlike yours — is to stop assholes such as you from doing stupid things.”
“I will never be arrested.”
“I already told you, I’m not here to arrest you. Bring you back to justice? Why? So you can shout your religious bullshit on television and encourage other nutters? No, if we take you, you’ll disappear from the face of the earth, or in this case, shipmate, from the face of Sea Base.”
“God’s justice is the only justice I recognize.”
“Stand down, Andrew.”
Andrew rushed Taleb, jumping at the last moment to grab the man. Taleb stepped to the side and slammed the back of his hand down on Andrew’s neck, near the shoulder. Andrew fell to the deck, his momentum rolling him forward. He called me by my name, Andrew thought as he hit. The rough nonskid of the gray metal deck scratched along his face, drawing blood and leaving lines of scratches down his cheeks.
“That must have hurt,” Taleb said with a laugh. “I’m so sorry.”
Andrew pushed himself up on one arm. He ran his hand along his face, bringing it away covered in blood. Blood of Christ.
Taleb shifted sideways, stepping nearer the safety lines.
Andrew smiled. Hitting the man square would catapult him overboard. Overboard to where sharks weaved their demonic path back and forth in the shadows of the ships. Would the sharks eat the demon or protect him as one of their own?
“I know what you are thinking,” Taleb said.
“God is protecting me.” Andrew crouched, letting one leg stretch behind him, bending the toe of the boondocker against the deck for traction.
“God didn’t do too good with that face. You got blood all over you. Why don’t you give up, come with me, and let’s get off this contraption they call—”
Andrew launched himself, running at Taleb. He opened his mouth and screamed at the top of his voice. His shoulder caught Taleb on the side, knocking the man against the lines. Taleb used the tension of the line to spin him away from the heavier Andrew. Andrew spun, reached out, and jerked the collar of Taleb’s dungaree shirt. The shirt ripped. Taleb’s elbow came back and caught Andrew in the nose. The crunch of bone seemed loud between the grunts of the two.
Andrew’s grip lessened as the pain of the broken nose roared through his body. Tears streaked from his eyes. He looked up, trying to see Taleb through the red haze of blood and tears.
Taleb stepped back several feet. “Well, look at yourself now, Andrew. The side of your face is ripped and you made me break your nose.”
“You are a demon,” Andrew said, a whistle through the broken nose accompanying the words.
“That’s what my wife says too.”
“You are an abomination in the sight of God.”
“If it’s the God of God’s Army, then I consider that a compliment. You people are as dangerous as Al Qaeda. You go through America and through the world blowing things up and killing people because of some misguided belief that if you kill enough people and blow enough things up, Armageddon will happen. You think a bunch of virgins are waiting on the other side for you also?”
“I will kill you,” Andrew mumbled.
“What was that?” Taleb asked, placing spread fingers on his chest. “You’re going to kill me? Andrew, I think you have the right idea, but I view the scenario differently. I told you, I’m here for another reason. You have drifted into my mission. You complicate it. I could have killed you minutes ago. The choice is yours.”
Andrew walked away from the safety line, shifting to the right, trying to line himself up with Taleb. God wanted him to kill this demon. He must fight the good fight for in God’s eyes, Andrew knew he was the prophet. “I am the prophet,” he mumbled.
Taleb shifted to the left, keeping his distance from Andrew. Every so often, he glanced downward. The aft deck was also the helicopter landing pad. Tie-downs decorated the deck. He had already tripped over one of them.
Andrew never looked down. His gaze was fixed on Taleb. His mind raced trying to figure out how to get a death grip on the demon. Once his hands were around Taleb’s neck, the fight would soon be over. Grace would be his with the death of this Taleb.