FIFTY-EIGHT
In the condo outside Jerusalem, Esther Kinney was on the phone with her husband, Clint, who was still in the hospital.
Deborah Jordan could see that Esther’s face had suddenly paled, as if she had received the kind of news that takes your breath away. While she held her Allfone to her ear, Esther made a quick movement with the other hand, as if she was about to bring it swiftly to her mouth, but stopped. Then she lowered it. She managed a struggling smile, told her husband she loved him, and ended the call.
She turned to Deborah, Ethan March, and to the tour guide, Nony, and his wife, Sari, who had put them up in their home. She spoke slowly and with a clear, deliberate cadence. “Well … I had thought that with the victory … the great victory with Iran’s nuclear missiles turned around … and Deborah your father’s ingenious Return-to-Sender weapon that seemed to have saved Israel — with all of that … and the reports that the Hamas uprising in Jerusalem had been quelled by police and military … I had thought we were in the clear …” Then she fell silent.
“Aren’t we?” Deborah asked.
Esther shook her head no. She sat down with her hands in her lap, took a deep breath, and said, “Clint said we should try to find some way out of Israel if we can. If not, to find the safest place, a bunker, a basement. Lock the doors. Arm ourselves. Prepare to fight …”
Ethan joined in. “Is this an invasion, Mrs. Kinney, a ground war? Is that what he’s talking about?”
She nodded. “He couldn’t tell me any details except that the intelligence reports indicate a massive assault on Israel … from every direction … overwhelming forces against us …” Then her voice broke.
Nony shrugged and paced, his arms outstretched. “There is no way to leave Israel. No planes. No boats. I have friends with private aircraft, but everything has been shut down since the Iranian attack. I can make some calls …” There was a long pause. Then Nony said, “But that would mean leaving Israel. Leave Israel?” His voice rose higher. “Leave Israel? The land given us by God Himself. No … no … this I will not do. We will stay. We will fight.” Then he turned to Deborah and Ethan. “This isn’t your war. I can call some friends. Perhaps there is a chance for you two to escape …”
Deborah said it before Ethan had a chance, but she spoke for both of them: “This has become our war now.”
Ethan added, “Deb, if you say we stay and fight with our friends here, then I’m in.”
Deborah’s face was pensive, freighted with the weight of what she was about to say. “My father came here for a reason, not just a defense-contracting job. So here it is … I believe God brought my dad — and all of us — here, to this place, at this time. I’m not sure why, but I know this was no accident. So now we make our stand, right here. We just have to remember somehow that the battle belongs to the Lord …”
Esther smiled. She exhaled, then fell to her knees and reached her hands out to the others. “Let’s ask the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the King of the universe … let’s ask Him for victory, for safety, for His divine protection, to see His mighty hand … and let us pray, friends, that the nations of the earth will see that God is truly God …”