Michael bent low and thrust the bottle into the current The rushing blood pushed against his arm and soaked his sleeve and filled the bottle. And when he drew it from the river and turned toward Mac, there was no blood on him His robe was dry. His face was clean. His arm was clean. The bottle was full of pure, clean water.

Michael handed it to Mac. "Drink," he said. Mac put the cold bottle to his lips and tipped it straight up. As Mac closed his eyes and drank it all, Michael said, "Jesus said, 'whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."'

Mac opened his eyes and exhaled loudly. Michael was gone. "All due respect, sir," Sebastian said, "but you realize it's just you and me, a couple of guns, and a few rounds of ammunition, and we don't have a clue what we're driving into?"

"I was hoping you'd protect me," Rayford said. "This military stuff is fairly new to me."

"We're not really going to take these people on, are we?"

"I hope not, George. We're hopelessly outnumbered."

"Sorta what I was getting at, sir."

"Let's just play this out and see what we find."

"Uh, hold on. Could you stop a second?"

"You serious?"

"Yes, sir."

Rayford stopped and put the vehicle in park.

"You didn't read that in some military strategy book, did you?"

"What's that?"

"The see what we find gambit?"

"George, listen. Nothing is as it used to be. We improvise every day. You're a living example of that. We have no choice here.

We've got a whole bunch of our brothers and sisters trying to survive out here, and now something could be threatening them. If I went back and got all of them and armed them all, they would be no match for the GC if they decided to advance. So let's see what this is. We shouldn't have to get right into the middle of it before we know we should turn back. Use the binocs. You see armed GC, say the word, and we turn around. Fair enough?" George looked like he was thinking. "Consider this," he said.

"See over there? Over your other shoulder. There's a big group of somebody heading toward the gathering place. Let's go wide around the back way and get into that group. They aren't military and they aren't threatening "

"Makes sense."

"Always does. Make use of your resources."

"Like your mind, you mean?" Rayf ord said.

"Well, I wasn't going to say that."

Mac looked around, his heart stampeding as if he'd run up a mountainside. He scampered down to the rushing river of blood and plunged the bottle into the current. Blood splashed all over him, but when he pulled the bottle out, it was pure freshwater again.

He laughed and shouted and charged back toward Albie and Abdullah and Bihari. But they had apparently never seen Michael and quickly tired of Mac's antics. "You didn't see him! You didn't, did you?"

They looked at him gravely from the trucks.

"Did you see me pour the water out? Well, did you? Bihari, you did, 'cause you told me it was worth its weight in wheat.

Remember? Well, then where did I get this?"

Bihari got out of the truck. "Where did you get that?" he said.

"From that river right there! And do you see any blood on me?" "I don't!"

"Still think you're doomed? The GC is going to leave you alone when they see what's happened to your water source. But you send your people and your equipment

z

down here like usual. G.o.d takes care of the ones he's sealed, amen?"

By now Albie and Abdullah had come to see as well.

"Try a taste of this, gentlemen. You'll want to drink it all, but it's for sharing."

Rayford and George found themselves in the middle of a pilgrimage of some sort. Almost everyone else was on foot. From their clothes they appeared to be both town and country folk, and some peasants. "English, anyone?" George said.

Two more times he said it, and finally a man who appeared to be with his wife and perhaps a couple of other family members came alongside the vehicle. "English? Yes," he said.

"Where are we going?" George said.

"We are going where we have been invited," the man said.

"All of you? Invited?"

"I do not know about the others. We were invited."

"Who invited you?"

"Three men. They came to the door and told us to meet them out here and they would tell us good news. " "But you are not Carpathia loyalists," George said. "I see no mark."

"On you either, sir," the man said. "And yet you seem no more afraid than we do."

"You don't even seem concerned," George said.

"The men told us not to fear."

"why did you believe them? What gave you such confidence? "

"They were believable. What can I say?"

"Ask some others why they are here."

The man spoke to another group in Spanish. Then to another.

"We were all invited by the same men," he said.

"And who are they?"

"No one knows."

"And yet you all risk your lives to be here."