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It was the usual start to what would evolve into a stem-winding one-man
performance, but with that sort of beginning it was notable that they were
still sitting there, still listening.
Eve, John, and the rest knew that because their eyes weren t on the Doctor nor
were their thoughts on what he said. They had plenty of time to learn at his
feet, and to study what he said, because, believing it the truth, it never
varied.
Instead, their eyes and thoughts were on the security channel and on looking
for anything and anyone out of the ordinary.
Like men with guns.
I wish I knew what those men had taken out of that arsenal
, John and many others thought as they studied the crowd. Some of those
missiles could kill an awful lot of people and damage even their sophisticated
defenses. God might protect His people from harm, but He did a much better job
if you were wearing a bullet-proof suit, and He was known to kill hordes of
His own chosen people just to make a point. As the
Doctor was telling the crowd right at that point,  God didn t create us to
have somebody to serve, He created us to serve Him. If you don t like that,
tough.
It was not a message that always went down well, particularly with a poor
populace, but it sure put pragmatism at the heart of the actions of those who
followed these beliefs. None of the Arms of Gideon nor
Tactical spread through the place thought that he or she was immune from harm
just because they were on the side of the angels.
As Eve walked slowly down one aisle and up the other, she couldn t help but
note how many of these people were checking the Doctor out when he threw out
these unconventional notions along with chapters and verses. There was an
exceptionally high literacy rate among these folks for simple cut-off farmers.
You could always sense, though, when the Word was getting through, and she
felt that there was a fairly high percentage of people here who were really
listening and nodding and muttering  That s right! Not everybody, of course,
but a fair number. Of course, they hadn t yet gotten to the hard part of what
God wanted of them
 but that would be for later nights.
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From a security standpoint, it meant that this wasn t an armed populace
sitting there waiting for a chance to open up on their visitors. They were
interested, or skeptical, or bored, but they weren t tense. Whatever
Gregnar and his crew had in mind, they didn t include the village as a whole
in their plans.
Speaking of which, Gregnar, Alon, and Krag were nowhere to be seen in this
crowd, although, of course, they might well be simply swallowed up by it.
 Faith! the Doctor was thundering.  Faith doesn t mean singing hymns and
looking holy! Faith is an action
, it s putting yourself at risk for God s sake! God doesn t expect us to be
like Him or become like
Him that s been tried since Adam and Eve way back when and look how badly that
went! He s had to destroy most of humanity several times, and may have done in
about half of it again if we think the worst of the Great Silence. Try as we
might, we re gonna fail! It s not imitation that God wants, it s trust! Faith
is trust! Look at me! I m as much a sinner as anybody, but I trust the Lord
and hang my body on His promises. I had nothing when I started an itinerant
preacher, living hand to mouth, bumming rides and meals from town to town,
world to world, not a cent to my name. Now look at all this! Because I trusted
Him, God decided that I was one to do His work out here. And here I am, the
latest in a line of reformers trying to reach the unreachable and bring God
back into the lives of people long forgotten by the rest of humanity. And when
we bring the message to you all, then the Silence will be broken, and we who
accept and believe will be taken in the wink of an eye to a new Earth and a
new Jerusalem!
He had been going for an hour and a quarter, and nobody could read a large
audience from beyond the stage lights like Doc Woodward. He was winding up and
leaving them wanting more, and when he was done these people would walk home
or ride home on their animals or be taken home by Mission personnel and they d
be scattered too widely to pull anything.
And then it was over, and the old preacher got a lot of applause, and that was
that. Eve and John met near the back, and he gave her a shrug.  Not tonight,
looks like, he said.
 I don t know whether to be relieved or disappointed, she told him.  If
they re not going to attack us during a service, and they aren t staking us
out, then what s all this about?
 We ve got almost a week left, he reminded her.  And, well, maybe they just
haven t had enough time to get all the weaponry out they need. Don t be so
bloodthirsty. You still might get what you wish for, and worse.
V: THE DESPERATE & THE DEAD
A staff and strategy meeting presided over by Woodward himself was held deep
into the night following the successful launch of the Mission Classes, as he
liked to refer to them.
 We can t afford this kind of distraction, he grumbled.  We ve got the Lord s
work to do, and I sensed we made some real headway tonight. That means we re
going to have to get to the bottom of these people s origins and secrets
whether they want to talk to us or not.
Thomas Cromwell, chief of Tactical Security, was first to speak.  The problem
is, we can t infiltrate them because they ve basically kept to these small
village groups where everybody knows everybody. And while everybody s civil
and friendly enough, at least so far, they volunteer virtually no information. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]