Chapter Twenty
Arthur began to come around. He heard voices and noises but his mind was too groggy to recognize any of them. He couldn’t open his eyes. His hands and arms were virtually immobile. He was flat on his back with his wrists and ankles firmly restrained. As his memory began to clear, he remembered Matt and the hypodermic needle just before passing out. The musty smell and unintelligible voices told him he must have been captured. He quit trying to move and decided to wait until all of his senses came around before letting anyone know that the knock-out shot was wearing off.
He thought he heard the sound of someone moving toward him. Whoever it was seemed only inches away. A feminine hand covered his mouth and caused him to flinch involuntarily. He kept his eyes shut. Slowly a slim body lay down on top of him. A soft cheek brushed his and brought with it the familiar scent of vanilla.
“Arthur,” she said, “this is Bea and you have to be very quiet right now. Do you understand?”
Arthur shook his head ‘yes’ and tried to open his eyes, but couldn’t quite do it. He felt her loosening the restraints to his wrists and ankles. She came cheek to cheek again and whispered, “Remember, you’ve got to keep quiet. We’re monitoring the terrorist’s communications and sometimes the reception fades in and out. They’re going mobile sometime today and we’ve got to get a handle on where they’re going, how many and what weapons.”
Arthur shook his head ‘yes’ and smiled weakly. Slowly he twisted his wrists and ankles to help drive the ache away from them. Bea rose up but didn’t move away from him.
As the serum began to wear off, he was able to open his eyes. He looked at her but couldn’t focus his eyes real well. The feeling over the rest of his body was beginning to come around. That’s when the truth dawned on him. His eyes shot open and he looked at Bea as his vision was clearing.
She smiled and knew that he finally realized that he didn’t have any pants on. Back down cheek-to-cheek she went, “It’s a bad side effect of the serum. You lose control of bladder and bowel movements. Don’t worry. I wasn’t the one who cleaned you up. It was the male EMT’s. You couldn’t wear your civilian clothes where we are about to go, anyway. This is something you’ll have to get used to from now until we return to from our mission. There is no modesty in a combat situation. We don’t know what or who we’ll see or what kind of condition any of us will be in at any given time. Steel yourself to that thought from here on out. OK?”
He found his voice, “OK.”
As she slid off of him quietly, she looked him in the face to get his attention. She held up a pair of pants that they had placed on top of his groin and turned her head to the side as if to ask, ‘Do you understand.’
He shook his head, ‘Yes’ again and relaxed to let the serum finish releasing its hold on him. As he closed his eyes, he detected Diego’s voice, someone who was familiar and another almost familiar voice. Bea sat down on the floor at the foot of his cot and laid her hand on his arm to comfort him.
“Communication has stopped,” Diego said to the man beside him. “Let’s compare notes.”
As the two slid next to each other, a tall, familiar looking Filipino got up from the third chair and looked over the shoulders of the other two. The strange American man beside Diego pulled out a folder full of papers and began looking through them as they went through the transcript of the terrorist’s communication.
Bea got up, grabbed a pad of paper and a pen and stood behind Diego. “I’m ready if you need me,” she said.
“Thanks, Bea,” he answered. “Just stay ready.” Diego took out a ruler and slowly slid it down the transcript. “How about that?’ he asked.
The American rifled through the papers, pulled one out. He pointed to one of them and said with a groan, “O-o-o-h, no. It looks like they started yesterday.”
Diego pointed at another line, “This scripture verse he quoted is bogus. There’s only one chapter to Jude. He cites Jude 27:104.”
The American answered, “You’re right. Let’s look at this sheet that has coordinates and locations on it. It should give us a clue.” He pulled out what looked to be a sheet of logistics and ran his finger down one of the columns and stopped at a figure. “That’s it,” he declared. “Section 27, hill 104.”
The three of them looked up at the map of the area. Diego was the first to recognize it. “Good grief, that’s only two mountains away from our village. And, they are headed straight for it,” he agonized as he looked back at Bea and the Filipino.
Arthur had stood up to put on the pants they had for him. Rather, he tried to stand up. The serum still had him a little woozy and he fell back down on the cot. Everyone turned around when they heard the noise.
For the first time, he was able to see everyone’s faces. And, they saw him, too. He was sitting on the edge of the cot but leaning back against the wall. His head was still spinning as he attempted to get up. Indeed, he did sit up straight but fell over sideways on the cot as he tried his best to pull his pants the rest of the way up.
Bea turned around and giggled, “Bull, will you go help our guest, please.”
“Sure, Hon,” he answered as he stepped behind everybody to get to Arthur.
Arthur’s eyes were glued to him as he tried again to stand up but failed. He had no option but to just stare at this tall, muscular, physically fit person that Bea just called Bull. “Bull?” he asked. “You’re Bull?”
Bull helped him to his feet. “Steady, Arthur, steady. Give that stuff time to wear off.”
“But you’re…”
“It was all a costume and an act so that I could be better able to infiltrate those who were trying to infiltrate us,” Bull began. “But, a week ago, a couple of guys had found me out and tried to take me apart with a Bowie knife. One swish at my fake belly and my whole stomach gushed out.”
As Bull helped Arthur stand up to finish putting on his pants, Arthur asked, “How did you get away from them?”
“With these,” Bull answered as he held up the palms of his hands.
As Arthur felt the edges of the palms of his hands he realized the seriousness of Bull’s statement. “Holey-moley, you’ve worked long and hard to get them like that,” he said.
“About fifteen years all together,” he answered.
Bea stepped up and put her elbow on Bull’s shoulder as she added, “His feet are the same way. Like Barney on Mayberry, his whole body is a lethal weapon.”
His ever clearing gaze fell on Bea. Her bosom and her ballast had shrunk and she had cut her hair pretty short. Everybody noticed his stare.
They all chuckled, as Bea continued, “Yeah, I’ve lost some weight since the last time we were together. That was all costume, too. Notice that I gave you a sideways hug? My front and back were listening devices that we used to scan conversations for terrorist communications on board the plane. In seven years, and on the different flights I went on, we were able to stop some attacks.”
She paused and sighed real deeply before she continued, “I guess we need to introduce ourselves before we get ready to go. Maybe that will clear up a few things, like when you saw Pedro kissing me on the lips at the airport.”
Arthur smiled real big, “Well, if there was something to it, I figured…..”
She interrupted, “Pedro is my father-in-law.”
Arthur’s smile vanished as a solemn fact began to play in his head.
Bea’s smile was gone too, as she explained, “I was married to his son, Ramil. He was killed by the terrorists a couple of years ago. That’s when I joined Pedro’s band of merry men. Like Pedro, Diego and Bull, I have a vested interest in the lives of the people in the village.”
She smiled as she nodded to the American and smiled, “But, Matt, on the other hand was sent to us by the CIA, or so he says. Let’s hope he knows more about Central Intelligence than he does fighting.”
Matt stood up so Arthur could see him in the dim light of the room. He pointed to the bruise on the side of his fac
e. “Thanks for the memory, pal,” he said with a smile.
Arthur stammered as he fought for words, “I’m sorry. I... I... didn’t…”
Diego explained, “Matt was a successful plant that we had made into the terrorist organization. He was able to find out a lot of valuable info for us. For example, he found out that the leader was preparing for a strong and sudden move on the day of the final fight.” He held up the papers they had written the communications on and continued,
Diego continued, “Apparently that was correct. Matt was just supposed to stun you and then we would rush in to tell you to act passed out and unable to move. They wanted you out of commission in the worst way. But, I guess you had a different plan in mind.”
“I had seen him do that move before and figured that ducking and flipping over behind him was the safest thing, that’s all,” Arthur commented. Then he questioned, “Why would they want me out of commission?”
Diego answered him, “Because you were Tom’s great-grandson. When he came back several years ago, he was able to strengthen the villager’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The villagers have always believed that when a man dies, his sons, or in this case, his great-grandson would step in and take over where he left off. The villagers are comfortable enough with you and the things that you helped Tom to do to accept you as his replacement.”
Arthur looked around at the troubled faces and knew that something ominous was about to be revealed. Diego took a deep breath before he continued, “The latest terrorist threat that is beginning to sweep the mountain villages of Manila is led by a false prophet who calls himself, Jah Shaphatga’el, which means the lord judge and the avenger of blood. He claims to be the returning Lord Jesus who is building his army to bring God’s vengeance on the earth. He uses several Old Testament scriptures to prove his point. There’s not a whole lot of explaining of scripture going on. Before people get a chance to question his theology, he declares that he is there to bring blood vengeance on all who do not bow. At his command, he and his gang of thugs begin to beat all those that do not bow with canes in the still legal fashion of canning. The false prophet has the most lethal rod. It is laced with razor blades and he declares it to be the ‘rod of iron’ that the returning one will rule by.”
“Oh, dear God,” Arthur exclaimed, “that’s awful.”
Matt added soberly, “The main idea is to beat the village elders to death in front of everybody. If there is a pastor or a Christian leader in the crowd that refuses to worship him, he has them and their family brought to the middle of the village where he slices them to death with his rod. I heard one of his broadcasts where he bragged about opening up the pastor’s entire midsection with one swipe. As the pastor bled to death, he ordered three of his henchmen to beat his wife to death as they shouted ‘Jah Shaphatga’el ay diyos’. In other words, Jah Shaphatga’el is god. Their five small children were just sliced on their legs to where they could hardly walk. Then they marched the rest of the villagers away from the area to a slave encampment while the children were left screaming and helpless in the middle of the camp. To say the least, they were easy prey for any predators or vultures.”
“And the government can’t stop them,” Arthur moaned lowly.
Diego spoke up, “The villages are so far away from any means of communication. The raids come so fast that by the time help arrives, the people are gone and there’s nothing left but carcasses.”
All eyes were looking to him and waiting for the inevitable. He looked at his watch and finally spoke the words, “You have fifteen minutes to prepare yourself to go in there. I have no idea what we’ll face or whether any of us will return. But, I’m not going to stand still while my loved ones get slaughtered or are forced to serve some heathen. When you hear the truck pull up, you’ll have the choice to walk out that door or stay here. No one will blame anyone for staying. If in fifteen minutes your heart does not command you to go, then God needs you here and you will be a hindrance to those who want to go. No hard feelings either way.”
Diego went back to his chair and sat with his head in his hands. Without waiting to see what the others were going to do, Arthur turned his face to the wall, raised both of his hands and leaned against it. He prayed for wisdom and strength for the journey. He prayed for protection. He prayed for Godly wisdom to fight if they were forced to. He prayed for protection for the villagers. He prayed for confusion in the camp of the enemy.
When they heard the truck pull up out front, no one looked around to see who was going to be the first one to move. They all quickly made their way to the door and filed out without a word spoken between them.
They climbed into the back of a transport truck. There were five piles of weapons, clothing and supplies. There was a piece of paper attached to each stack. The initial on each piece of paper identified whose stack it was. With no modesty, they silently began undressing and donning their war clothes.
As they got closer to the bottom of the stack, and differing articles began to appear, Diego began giving orders as to what part each person would play in this engagement.
The truck stopped on the back side of the International Airport. A lonely helicopter cranked up and they all climbed aboard. After a thirty minute ride, they found themselves on the outskirts of Cabanatuan where they once again climbed aboard another transport truck and headed for the bottom of the first mountain they would have to climb to reach their final destination.