Left Behind Series - The Remnant Part 4

I have to think few believers would risk frequenting this place."

The women sipped their c.o.kes and glanced at their watches. No one but the two GC had left since they arrived, and no one had entered either. The young man from the chair walked lazily back and forth in front of the door twice. .fit least two pa.s.sersby saw the women in uniform and apparently chose not to enter.

Chloe and Hannah stood and wandered out, looking for another entrance that could lead downstairs. "English?" Chloe asked the young man out front. He shrugged, staring at her. "Is there another entrance to this place? "

He shook his head.

"Not around back? Not through the alley?"

He shook his head again.

"I heard there was a laundry here," she said. "I need some cleaning done."

He stared at her. "I see no laundry." His accent was Greek.

"We don't carry it around," she said. "How do I get downstairs to the laundry?"

"Past the toilet," he said, his voice husky. "Back door

this side." He nodded toward the exit the GC had used. He tilted his chair back until it b.u.mped the wall. "But they're closed. "

"In the middle of the day? Why?"

He shrugged, pulling his cap lower and turning back to his magazine.

"Oh, well," Chloe said, sighing. Hannah followed her to the corner and out of sight. "I give hint thirty seconds," she said.

After a beat, Hannah peeked around the corner. "You're right, as usual," she said. "Gone."

The women hurried back to the pub, went in the back door, past the washroom, and down rickety wood steps. A thin, middle-!aged woman wearing a bulky gray sweater and a bandanna that covered her hair and much of her face stood terrified in the light from the window.

"Laundry?" Chloe said.

The woman nodded, a fist pressed under her neck.

"We can bring laundry here?"

She nodded again. Through the edge of a thick curtain hanging in a doorway behind the woman, Chloe spotted the young man. His eyes were wide. She pointed at him and beckoned with a finger.

"No ! " the woman said desperately, backing against the wall.

The young man ventured out, a weapon showing under his shirt.

"Uzi?" Chloe said.

"Yes, and I'll use it," he said.

"Take off your cap," Chloe said.

"I'll shoot you dead first," he said, reaching for his weapon.

The woman moaned. "Costar, no."

As he brought the ugly weapon into view, Chloe and Hannah reached not for their guns but for their caps. Revealing their foreheads, they whispered in unison, "Jesus is risen."

The boy closed his eyes and exhaled loudly. The woman slid down the wall to the floor. "He is risen indeed," she managed.

"I almost killed you," Costas said. He turned to the woman. "Are you all right, Mama?"

His mother had buried her face in her hands. "You come disguised as GC?" she said, her English labored. "What are you doing here?"

"I am Chloe Williams. This is my friend, Han "

"You are not!" the woman said, wiping her face and struggling to her feet. She rushed to Chloe and embraced her fiercely. "I am Pappas. I go by Mrs. P."

"This is my friend Hannah Palemoon."

"You are in the Co-op too?" Mrs. P. said.

Hannah shook her head.

"You are front India?"

"No. America."

"You disguised in disguise?"

Hannah smiled and nodded and looked to Costas. "Are we safe?"

"We should move," he said, leading them through the curtain to a huge concrete-walled storeroom full of supplies from all over the world. "The Co-op works as well

here as anywhere," he said. "But we are suffering. Only a few of us are left."

"The people upstairs don't bother you?"

"We give them things. They ask no questions. They have their own secrets. Someday, when it serves them, they will turn us in."

"Head of the Co-op in my place," Mrs. P. whispered, her hand over her heart. "No one will ever believe."

"You can't stay long," Costas said. "How can we help you?" Two young GC Peacekeepers flashed an obscene gesture at Mac as they flew past in a small van; then Mac noticed the look on one's face when the uniform must have registered in his mind. The vehicle skidded off the asphalt and threw gravel as it backed toward him. "We waved! " the pa.s.senger hollered as the van stopped. He jumped out. "We waved at you, sir! Did you see us?"

"I did, and I thank you very much." The driver tumbled out as well, and Mac returned their salutes. "My support staff had an errand headin' the other way, and I have business at the airport."

"We can drop you. Do you need us to drop you? We'll drop you."

"I appreciate it," Mac said, as he shoved his bags ahead of him and climbed in back. "What's goin' on in Petra? "

"We got 'em, sir," the driver said, turning up the

radio. Mac rested his forehead in his hand as if trying to listen carefully. He prayed desperately for his comrades. "Smoked 'em all. There'll be nothing left to bury."