David's cell phone vibrated and he excused himself. "Moon's people now say he's in with Carpathia," Tiffany said.
"Alone?"
"David, I'm sorry. I didn't ask. I'll find out whatever you want, but I have to know in advance what I'm looking for."
"My fault. Did they happen to say whether Walter is still bringing Chang at 0900?"
"Yea! I know one! Yes."
"Really?"
"Honest."
"Is Chang with him and Carpathia now?"
"Sorry. No idea."
"I'm on my way back."
David used his cell phone as he walked and tried the Chang apartment again. This time Mr. Wong answered. Encouraged, David asked for Chang. "He not available right now. He see you at nine, yes?"
"That's right. Is he OK?"
"Better than OK! Very excited! Missah Moon come get us to bring to see you."
"You're coming too?"
"If OK. May I?"
David sighed. "Why not?"
"No?"
"Yeah, sure."
Back in his office, with fifteen minutes to spare, he patched in to Carpathia's office. The first thing he heard was Nicolae's voice. "Hickman was a buffoon! I'm better off without him. I don't know what Leon was thinking."
"Probably that he was going to have your job and Jim would be easy to manage."
Carpathia laughed. "You're a good judge of character, Walter. It came down to you and Suhail. He has an impressive resume, but he's so new to his current position."
"And can you trust a Pakistani? I don't understand those types."
"Who can you trust these days, Walter? Now listen, I don't know how you stand on pomp and circumstance, but I don't want to make a big deal of this. You'll have an appropriate office you won't have to share with anyone, but I just want to announce your appointment and not get into a lot of ceremony."
"Perfect," Walter said. "I don't want to take any attention from you, sir."
David thought Walter sounded disingenuous and almost palpably disappointed. He was right, though, in pandering to Carpathia's ego. No one was going to steal that thunder anyway.
"Walter," Carpathia said, "how are we coming with the GCMM?"
Moon sounded surprised. "Sir, the Morale Monitors have been in place for a long time. I get input from them every day, and I know Suhail counts on their intelligence briefings."
It was clear Carpathia was impatient. "Mr. Moon, surely you caught my drift recently when I spoke of mobilizing a great enforcement throng from every tribe and nation who would-"
"Of course, Potentate. I am working with Chief Akbar now to-"
"I don't believe it! You missed it! Walter, I am determined to surround myself with people who understand me intuitively!"
"I'm sorry, Excellency. I-"
"For all of Leon's foibles and idiosyncrasies, he is a man who stays with me, anticipating my needs and desires and strategies. Do you kn-"
"That's the kind of subordinate I want to b-"
"Don't interrupt me, please!"
"I apologize."
"Do you know where Leon is now?"
"I heard he had flown to the United European Sta-"
"He is in Vatican City, Walter! He has called together the ten regional potentates and has asked each to bring his most trusted and loyal spiritual leader to join them in that former great bastion of Christianity."
"I don't underst-"
"Of course you don't! Think, man! At this very moment I imagine Reverend Fortunato is kneeling in the Sistine Chapel, the sub-potentates and the spiritual leader from each region who will represent Carpathianism throughout the globe laying hands on him and committing him to the great task before him."
"I should like to have been there, Excellency."
"You're my chief of security and you didn't even know this! I'm going to make you Supreme Commander, but you have to get in step!"
"I'll do my best."
"Leon called me at dawn, telling me with great relish that he had ordered destroyed every Vatican relic, every icon, every piece of artwork that paid homage to the impotent God of the Bible. There were those among the potentates and even among the Carpathianists who suggested that these so-called priceless treasures at least be moved here to the palace to preserve their worth and to remind us of history. History! I don't know when I've been prouder of Leon. Before he returns, the Vatican will be left no vestiges of any sort of tribute to any god but the one my people can see and touch and hear."
"Amen, Your Holiness. You are risen indeed."
"Of course, and the whole world was watching! Now when I spoke the other day of a host of enforcers, I wanted you to gather that I meant the very core of my most loyal troops, the GCMM. They are already armed. I want them supported! I want them fully equipped! I want you to marry them with our munitions so their monitoring will have teeth. They should be respected and revered to the point of fear."
"You want the citizenry afraid, sir?"
"Walter! No man need fear me who loves and worships me. You know that."
"I do, sir."
"If any man, woman, young person, or child has reason to feel guilty when encountering a member of the Global Community Morale Monitoring Force, then yes, I want them shaking in their boots!"
"I understand, Excellency."
"Do you, Walter? I really need to know."
"I absolutely do, sir."
"I don't care whom you replace yourself with as chief of security. All I want you to know is that I hold you personally responsible for carrying out this wish."
"Of giving more muscle to the GCMM."
"The understatement of the century."
"Any budget for this?"
"Walter, you report directly to me. I control the globe politically, militarily, spiritually, and economically. I have a bottomless sea of resources. Spare not one Nick in your effort to make the GCMM the most powerful enforcement juggernaut the world has ever seen."
"Yes, sir!"
"Have fun with it! Enjoy it! But don't dawdle. I want a full contingent, at least one hundred thousand fully equipped troops, in Israel when I return there in triumph."
"Sir, that is but days away."
"Do we not have the personnel?"
"We do."
"Do we not have the armaments?"
"We do. Are you lifting the embargo against showing military-style strength in the form of tanks, fighters, bombers, and other such?"
"You're catching on, Walter. I want to crush resistance in Israel before it even arises. From whom should I expect opposition?"
"The Judah-ites and-"
"You've already told me they are unlikely to show their faces. They take their potshots from behind the trees of the Internet. From whom shall I expect flesh-and-blood opposition within, say, Jerusalem itself? You know my plans."
"Not totally, sir."
"You know enough to know who will be outraged."
"The Orthodox, sir. The devout, religious Jews."
David heard chairs squeak, and it was obvious Carpathia had stood and Moon followed suit. "Now, Walter. I ask you. How dangerous to me will be the funny-looking men with their beards and their braids and their skullcaps once they have seen one hundred thousand heavily armed troops, there to protect me and those who worship me?"
"Not very, Excellency."
"Not very indeed, Walter. Good day to you."
David guessed Walter still had time to make their appointment. His goal was to schmooze Walter, flatter Mr. Wong, and somehow get rid of them so he could plot with Chang how to get out of there with the other four believers. He sat, earphones in place, ready to shut down his computer. But then he heard Carpathia humming, then singing, as if he were writing a song, trying a line, improving it, starting over. David listened, transfixed.
Finally perfecting it, to a military-sounding tune Carpathia softly sang:
Hail Carpathia, our lord and risen king; Hail Carpathia, rules o'er everything. We'll worship him until we die; He's our beloved Nicolae. Hail Carpathia, our lord and risen king.
Just before midnight in Chicago only Rayford and Tsion were awake. All were excited about the expected return of Buck and Albie and their next new member, Ming Toy. Chloe and Leah asked to be awakened as soon as the chopper arrived.