“Behind you are four of my friends. They are all armed with M-15s, and they’d just as soon kill you as anything else, because they’re very nervous about this operation and they’d be happy it was over.
“Understand?”
I couldn’t talk, and I didn’t want to surrender any of the remaining dignity I had by acknowledging what he was saying, so I stared straight ahead.
That’s when he reared back and smashed my left cheek with his fist. I thought he was going to knock off my head, literally. Blood ran down my face and dripped from my chin. It was the worst pain I’d felt in my life, and part of me hoped his henchmen would shoot me and finish this whole thing.
Whatever this whole thing was.
Clearly Erika was the target. Chris and I were peripheral figures who happened to be in the room when they kidnapped her.
Lassiter grabbed my chin and lifted it so I was staring at him.
“You fucking will answer me when I ask a question. Do you understand?”
I nodded.
“Good. We hear each other.”
He started to laugh again, as loudly as he had earlier. “Well, maybe I don’t actually hear you, but you know what I mean.”
I nodded again, not knowing if he wanted a reply, but not willing to take a chance.
“Good boy, buddy.”
I glanced over at Chris. She hadn’t moved at all.
Erika still sat quietly, not reacting.
Later, I wondered why she didn’t roll her eyes or whatever she does and make a miracle happen. I thought she could free us by willing it.
She told me that’s not how it works. She’s totally human, the same as me or Chris or anybody else. She isn’t a magician. All she has is her faith, and when she prays to her Father, the Lord, He always rewards her. Faith was the miracle, not hand-waving.
God would do what God would do. She knew it would be the right thing. So far, that didn’t include freeing her from her captors.
Lassiter moved a few feet away, halfway between Erika and me.
“The thing is, and this is new for you, Ms. Sabo, the reason you’re here is to make me a lot of money.”
He paused, as if this were somehow an amazing secret we would never have imagined ourselves.
“The Founding Church of Saboism is taking in money hand over fist. I gotta hand it to you, Ms. Sabo, you have one hell of a gig going on. My guys estimate you have donations of about $40 million every week. The money goes into a bank and according to you, it’ll be used to further spread the word of God.
“Is that about right?”
I could see Erika nod. It made me wonder if she’d been beaten before I awoke.
“Good. We’re on the same page, then.”
She nodded again.
“So, here’s the thing. You need to have $100 million transferred from your bank to a numbered account in Grand Cayman. I’ll give you the account number when you need it. From there, a series of automated transactions will occur, switching the money into untraceable cryptocurrencies that will be funneled around the world a few times before coming home to roost.”
The more Lassiter spoke, the more I saw in his face that he was single-minded, and nothing was going to stop him from getting the money.
Certainly not me. Probably not Erika.
But, I had more faith in Erika than he did. I didn’t know why, but I knew she was capable of getting us out of there.
I hoped.
Chapter 32
While Erika, Chris, and I were trapped by Colonel Lassiter, the Reverse Miracle happened.
It was after midnight in Asia. Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, and Russia all had clear skies, the same way the east coast of the United States had twenty-nine and a half days earlier.
In the U.S., bright sunshine stopped anybody from noticing the miracle, but the news spread far and wide.
The moon was back.
Thousands of people posted on Facebook and Twitter, along with lesser known social media outlets.
In America, CNN broke the news within minutes. A shaking reporter, who had never been called on before, shouted over Skype to the central news desk and held his jittery camera up to the sky, in case viewers didn’t believe the story.
“The moon literally just popped back in the sky!” he shouted. “By coincidence, I was walking outside my apartment and happened to be looking in that general direction, and, poof, there it was!”
He continued to hold up his camera, proving the moon was back and hadn’t disappeared again.
Within hours, the National Academy of Science released another press article.
Telescopes and other instruments have confirmed that the Moon has returned to its rightful place in its orbit around Earth.
The re-appearance comes exactly one lunar month after it disappeared, so it has appeared in the same position from which it vanished. A lunar month is 29.5306 days. Although we are still confirming, it is believed this is exactly how long the Moon was missing.
At the moment, there continues to be no scientific explanation for the original disappearance, nor for that of the Moon’s return.
The NAS will continue to research this phenomenon, but it is likely to be some time before we have any concrete theories.
However, all of us want to welcome the Moon back. We missed her.
When the moon reappeared, the word most often used was that it “popped” back into existence. There was no associated sound, but even people who didn’t happen to be staring up immediately noticed the bright light cast from the moon, and they were stunned to see Earth’s only natural satellite hanging majestically in the sky.
As the Earth slowly turned on its axis, more and more people were able to see the full moon rise in the eastern sky. Most people were shocked to see the moon back in its familiar place. Because they were looking for the moon, having heard the news, when it did arise, the moon was huge and bright. It seemed much larger than it normally appeared because of the proximity to the horizon.
The questions started immediately.
Did Lady God make the moon come back?
How did she do it?
Why did she bring it back?
And the question that every reporter in New York state was asking: Where exactly was Erika Sabo?
For the first time in many months, the girl who was the self-described daughter of God had vanished herself. Rumors started that she had either been called back to Heaven or she proved she was a fraud, somehow hiding the moon for a month.
The ridiculous nature of that last rumor didn’t stop it from being a trending topic on Facebook.
Even her closest disciples claimed to have no idea where she was.
The nineteen-year-old black girl from upstate New York had vanished.
Aboard the spacecraft Golden Luna, Karen Anderson heard the alarm from the central navigation module. It was a high-pitched chirping sound she only recognized from the intense training sessions the crew had gone through. Everyone had to be able to understand and interpret problems, in case the commander was ill or worse.
Habit kicked in and she grabbed the handrails and pulled her way through the center of the ship toward the front section.
“Murray?”
“Here.”
Murray Thomson sat in the primary command seat. He was staring at the displays in front of him, but he wasn’t doing anything.
“What’s the problem?”
As she asked that, a couple of other crew members reached the area as well. They all floated in zero-g, looking like synchronized swimmers.
“Parallax change.”
The flight engineer, Jose Monteiro, said, “That’s ridiculous. Must be a problem in diagnostics.”