gla.s.ses on tripods at the high place north of the Siq."

"Shall I warn the people?" Naomi said.

Tsion thought a moment. "Just tell them," he said,

"to not be alarmed by an explosion within when

would you say, Abdullah?"

"Fifteen minutes."

"This is not a surprise to the drilling crew," Abdul lah said a few minutes later, bent to look through high

powered binoculars.

"They have moved," Tsion said. "Quite a ways, actually. More than a mile. Maybe two. And the drill rigging has been disa.s.sembled. That tells me that they don't want it destroyed by the missile. It is probably programmed internally for a specific coordinate. "

Chaim sat on a rock, breathing heavily. "Is it Just my age or is it particularly warm today?"

"I am perspiring more than usual myself, my friend," Tsion said.

Abdullah pulled up from the binocs and shaded his eyes with his hand. "Now that you mention it, look at the sun. "

It seemed larger, brighter, higher than it should have been.

"What time is it?" Tsion said.

"About ten."

"Why, that could be a noonday sun! You don't suppose..."

Abdullah heard a whistling sound in the distance. He looked north. A white plume appeared on the horizon. "Missile," he said.

"It will be hard to follow with the gla.s.ses, but you could try."

"I can see it with the naked eye," Tsion said.

"I am warm," Chaim said.

They watched as the winding missile streaked into view and began to descend. It appeared aimed for the original drilling site. It soared past the disa.s.sembled drilling rig on the desert floor, then slammed a hundred yards south of it, raising a huge cloud of sand and soil and digging a deep, wide crater. The rumble of the explosion reached them in seconds, and the cloud slowly dissipated. Abdullah readjusted the binoculars to study the crater. "I cannot imagine it went nearly as deep as the hole they had already been drilling," he said. "Regardless, so far it has produced nothing. "

"I am amused," Tsion said, "but I wonder what they thought they might accomplish. If they were hoping to strike water, would they not have simply produced a geyser of blood anyway?"

Chapter.

CHANG TOOK an unusual risk and surrept.i.tiously followed the missile for water effort from his desk at work. He listened through headphones but kept an eye out for anyone walking by.

Nicolae swore. "What did that little project cost, Suhail? "

"It wasn't cheap, Excellency, but let's not a.s.sume failure just yet."

"a.s.sume? The Lance we sent to Tetra immediately produced a gusher that flows to this day! This is a disaster plain as day!"

"You may be right."

"I am always right! Face it. You are going to have to attack this water thing another way."

Chang heard a knock and Krystall's voice. "Pegging your pardon, sir, but we are getting strange reports." "What kind of reports?"

"Some kind of a heat wave. The lines are jammed. People are "

Chang heard shouting and realized it came from his office and not from the surveillance. He quickly exed out and removed his earphones. He followed his coworkers to the windows, where they crowded to look outside.

"Get back!" Mr. Figueroa screamed as he burst from his office.

"Get away from the windows!"

But like toddlers, these people wanted to do whatever they were told not to, and anyway, they were curious. What was causing all the explosions outside? Fortunately for the crowd around the window Chang peered out from, it wasn't the first to go. But two of their coworkers the c.o.c.ky, condescending Lars and a young woman were impaled with shards of gla.s.s when the window before them gave way.

As they lay writhing, pale and panicked, the steamy desert air blew in. The first woman who knelt to aid the injured immediately reddened from the heat, and as she surrendered and tried to evade it, her hair curled, produced sparks, burst into flames, and was singed off.

Others tried to drag the first two to safety, but they too had to scamper from the heat.

"What is this?" someone shrieked. "What's happening? "

Those in front of Chang quickly backed away from the window, and he saw what was going on below. Car tires exploded. People leaped from their cars, then tried to get back in, burning their hands on the door handles. Wind shields melted, greenery turned brown, withered, then became torches. A dog yanked loose from its leash, raced in circles, then dropped, panting, before being incinerated.

"To the bas.e.m.e.nt!" Figueroa shouted, and to people who seemed reluctant to leave the fallen injured, "It's too late to help them!"

People watched over their shoulders as they hurried away, and by the time they reached the door, they saw Lars and the young woman flailing at flames that would soon consume them.

Chang was one of the last out of the room, because he was only faking the effects of the heat. He saw the results, but aside from being aware that the temperature outside seemed higher than normal, he was impervious to the killing force.

He was glad to reach the elevator just as the doors were closing.

"I'll catch the next one," he said and ran to his quarters instead.

At midnight in San Diego, Rayford was awakened by insistent tones from his computer. He dragged himself out of bed and turned on the monitor. Tsion was informing his cyberaudience around the world that the terrible fourth Bowl Judgment had struck, as prophesied in the Bible, and would affect every time zone on the earth as the sun rose. "Here in Petra," he wrote, "by ten in the morning, people out in the sun without the seal of G.o.d were burned alive. This may seem an unparalleled opportunity to plead once again for the souls of men and women, because millions will lose loved ones. But the Scriptures also indicate that this may come so late in the hearts of the undecided that they will have already been hardened.

"Revelation : says, 'Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire.

And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of G.o.d who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory."'

Rayford keyed in a request to interact privately with Tsion or Chaim; he did not care which. "I know both of you will be terribly busy just now, but if either can spare a moment for the sake of the Tribulation Force, I would appreciate it."

Three Quonset huts away, Ming Toy had been awakened by a call from Ree Woo. Ree had promised to look up her mother, so maybe this was his update, but Ming was alarmed at the hour. She rested in the promise Christopher had given about her and her mother surviving until the Glorious Appearing, but that she knew was no guarantee that her mother might not live out her days imprisoned.

"Is everyone all right?" she said.

"Better than all right," Ree said. "Although I was not so sure when I arrived. I was warned to stay away from the underground shelter, because rumor had it that the GC had found them out and were planning a raid. The believers were busy packing and were going to sneak away in the night. They were praying the GC would raid them later as is the custom when they were supposed to be sleeping.

"But as the sun rose, they realized they heard very little noise from the street. Some ventured out and saw the damage from the sun. Everything is scorched, dried up, burned, melted, wasted. No one was on the street, though charred remains were scattered. The believers are protected, but the GC and the Carpathian loyalists cannot face the sun. The underground moved by the light of day, and if the GC come for them in the night, they will be disappointed. The believers did not move far away, but it is a better hiding place.

"Something they saw along the way would have been amusing, had it not been so sad. A small faction of GC had apparently tried to use fireproof suits and boots and helmets to protect themselves from the enormous heat. They lasted long enough to travel about a hundred yards; then they split up as their suits caught fire.