“I’ve forced a double check using the redundant scope. Same answer.”
Murray leaned forward to read something on the display, shook his head and turned to face the growing crowd who had joined him.
“Apparently we’ve just travelled forty-nine million miles.”
After a moment, Jose broke the silence. “Again, that’s ridiculous. Like, over how long?”
“Instantaneously, by the looks of it.”
“It’s got to be a mistake.”
“No shit.”
Jose climbed into the co-navigator seat and clicked through menus. Everybody, including Murray, stared at him.
Karen remembered vaguely of a test on parallax shift in training, but even at the time, they were told it was impossible to trigger it. If it happened—which it wouldn’t—it would be a computer error the redundant systems would rectify.
She looked out the thick window on the right side. Below them, she could see the Earth in the distance. It looked to be exactly where it was last time she checked, a couple hours ago. No indication the ship had moved anywhere, except slightly farther away from the home planet on the way to the moon.
Jose stopped tapping the screen and stared at the results. By his expression, Karen could tell he had found the same situation that Murray had.
Forty-nine million miles. That’s halfway from the Earth to the Sun, but they hadn’t left Earth, so that meant they’d gone, what, sideways? That seemed as impossible as anything else.
That’s when they received a call from NASA Headquarters.
When Murray acknowledged the call, Karen heard an excited voice, “Oh my God, you’re back!”
That’s when they found out they’d vanished more than twenty-nine days earlier. They hadn’t experienced as much as a second’s loss, but they’d apparently been gone somewhere for the past month.
Not surprisingly, this was difficult news to accept.
When they found out all the details, and then found out Erika Sabo had taken credit for the vanishing, Karen went back to her sleeping area, away from the others. She had no interest in sleeping. She just needed time and space to think.
God had performed a miracle. Or had He?
Chapter 33
I don’t know how long we sat strapped to the chairs as prisoners of Colonel Lassiter. He seemed to have a lot of patience, just leaving us alone and wandering behind us for quite a while, even though both Erika and I were conscious.
At one point, I had to urinate. I tried to hold on as long as I could, but after a few hours (I think), I couldn’t hold it anymore, and I had to let go. I glanced over at Erika, totally embarrassed, but she didn’t seem to notice.
A lot of emotions ran through me in that short eternity while we were sitting there. Mostly, I was afraid. I knew Lassiter wouldn’t let us leave alive. He wore a determined expression on his face, and I had no doubt he wouldn’t hesitate when it was time to get rid of us. It made me wonder why he bothered keeping Chris and me alive. We weren’t the valuable ones. Maybe he’d use us as leverage to get to Erika? I couldn’t think of any other reason to hold onto us.
On top of the fear, though, was frustration at not being able to help free us, a sense of loss, because this felt like the end of the line for the Church of Saboism. Anxiety, anger, and even boredom covered me like a shroud of emotions.
“Unnn…”
It took me a moment to realize Chris was gaining consciousness.
She mumbled and blinked, trying to lift her head from her chest, but it bounced around as if it were a basketball balanced on an index finger. Her body jerked as she tried futilely to get free of the ropes binding her to the chair.
“Chris, don’t struggle.” Erika’s strong voice soothed Chris immediately, and she stopped exerting her energy in a losing cause.
That’s when I noticed the duct tape that had held Erika’s mouth shut was gone.
She smiled at me as if we shared a secret.
“Have faith in the Lord,” she said.
As unlikely as it seemed, I felt that was good advice, and I closed my eyes and silently prayed for God to help us get out of the situation alive, or at least for Erika to be safe if all three of us couldn’t be.
“We’ve been kidnapped by somebody named Colonel Peter Lassiter,” Erika said to Chris. “He’s going to ask for one hundred million dollars in ransom.”
Chris’s eyes opened wide, and I imagined her asking where in God’s name that kind of money could possibly come from.
I knew the answer, knew the church’s finances were in extraordinary shape. Erika planned for the money to finance her worldwide movement, with churches to be built in every city in every country on every continent. Her vision was to have places for her followers to meet, wherever they were. It would take a lot more than the money the church had already raised, but the vision was astonishing, and I believed she would succeed.
Erika’s sole mission was to encourage every person on Earth to form a relationship with God and also with each other. She wanted there to be peace and happiness. Everywhere.
How could anybody not want to help her with that goal?
I fell asleep at one point. It couldn’t have been for long, and when I woke, Colonel Lassiter was in front of me.
“Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty. I was about to dump a pot of water on your head to wake you. It’s time to get this party going!”
Chris was awake and so was Erika.
“So, here’s the plan.”
Lassiter moved closer to Erika and smiled at her.
“You’re the only one who matters, so you can either agree right away or you can watch while I torture your friends. I really don’t care either way.”
“It’s not too late for you to repent,” Erika said. “God loves you. You have tremendous talents and can use them to help carry His word.”
“Yeah, well that’s not going to happen.”
Erika closed her eyes, and I knew she was praying.
“Pay attention!”
She continued to whisper with her eyes closed. Lassiter closed his fist and punched her in the head as hard as he could. She cried out in pain. Her head lolled on her neck, and blood fell from at least two cuts on her forehead.
I struggled in vain to get loose, but there was no chance. The ropes still constricted and barely let me breathe, let alone move any part of my body.
“Stupid cunt!” He grabbed her chin. “Pay fucking attention!”
Erika looked at Lassiter, but there was no fear in her eyes, no anger. What I saw there was pity.
“Good.” He pointed two fingers at his eyes and then at Erika. “Pay attention.”
He hadn’t commented on the missing duct tape. I don’t know if he asked about it while I was asleep or if he forgot she should have had it on her mouth. I was guessing God made him forget, but that’s a hunch.
It looked like Lassiter was going to say something else, but he stopped in mid-breath. His mouth closed, and he clenched his jaw.
“Uggh…”
He fell to his knees, and then used one arm to stop himself from collapsing. His other hand clutched his chest and he panted.
I think we all had the same reaction. We wanted to find a way to help him, but of course we were all tied up.
Lassiter gasped for breath and glanced behind us. His cronies were not coming to his aid.
“Pray,” said Erika.
Lassiter grunted and looked down, as if the solution to his attack was sitting on the floor in front of him. Then he fell over, grunted one more time and then was still and silent.
Behind me, I heard some shuffling and then loud footsteps. The rats were fleeing the sinking ship.
I never did ask Erika if she caused the massive heart attack that killed Lassiter. Maybe it was his time, but part of me doubts it. I think Erika, or maybe God himself, decided this was not the right time for Erika’s crusade to end.