Busted!

Chapter One

Someone was following her in a car. Vicki clutched her books to her chest and walked toward town. She didn't look back. She couldn't risk letting them know she suspected.

Mrs. Jenness had let her go. That was a surprise. But Vicki would have stayed all night without ratting on her friends. But would her friends be as faithful to her? On the Run

Seeing Shelly and her mother in the principal's office had sickened Vicki. Shelly had been sincere about her faith, hadn't she? Could it have been an act? The sight of Judd, John, and Mark turning away from her down the hall made her heart sink. Didn't they care? Or were they trying to protect her by keeping their distance?

Vicki had a good idea who was following her: someone from school assigned to see where she went. Perhaps Judd and the others had figured that out. They wouldn't have simply abandoned her.

Vicki had to get back to her friends. She had to talk with Pastor Bruce. When Mrs. Jenness discovered she had no parents, all the kids would be at risk. She needed to keep moving and stay away from Judd's house.

Vicki looked in shop windows and followed the reflection of the trailing car. When it stopped, she ducked into a drugstore. She sat at a bench in the back and tapped out a message on the tiny digital system on her wrist that looked like a watch. She asked Judd to meet her at a nearby park. She would try to shake whoever was following her and meet him there.

The front door opened. A man's voice. Loud. "Did a girl with red hair come in here?"

Vicki crouched beneath the prescription window.

"Right there," the cashier said.

Vicki looked up. The overhead mirror ran the length of the wall and angled down. The man behind the counter pointed toward her. Vicki remembered how her little sister, Jeanni, used to play hide-and-seek by sticking her head in the closet, her rear sticking out of the coats.

"Duh," Vicki said as she leapt to her feet.

"Stop!" the cashier shouted.

Vicki pushed open a door that said EMPLOYEES ONLY.

"Hey, you can't go in there!" the pharmacist barked.

"We'll get her," someone shouted.

Vicki locked the door behind her. Footsteps and shouts outside. Darkness inside. Vicki fumbled for a light switch. Keys were jangling, getting closer.

"What did she take?" someone said.

Vicki moved toward a thin strip of light on the other side of the room. The back door! She tripped over a chair and banged her head. The doorknob jiggled behind her.

She leaned against the back door, and it swung open to blistering light. A siren rang just above her head. She staggered out. As the door swept shut she read, "Emergency Exit Only-Alarm Will Sound."

She ran.

* * *

Judd had waited in his car after school, hoping Vicki would walk that way. After twenty minutes he was about to leave for Lionel and Ryan's school when his wrist messenger vibrated and he saw Vicki's message. He quickly sent another to Lionel and Ryan: "Get home and keep watch. I'll be there as fast as I can."

The park had been a late-night teen hangout. With the rise in crime, a lot of kids were afraid to go there. Judd sat in the parking lot looking at the empty swing sets. Before the disappearances, the place would have been full of little kids. Now there were no families at picnic tables or moms and dads with strollers. It was a ghost town.

* * *

"Get the car," the loud man said. "I'll meet you at the end of the alley."

Vicki heard shuffling and then silence. She didn't want to rise up from her hiding place, but the smell was overpowering. She peeked from under the lid of the huge garbage bin. No one. Something furry moved behind her. She bolted.

Vicki ran down the alley. She was halfway to the main street when a car passed. A second later it was back.

"There she is!" a man said, but she didn't see his face. She was running the other way. The alley fence was way over her head-no time to climb. Every door she tried was locked. The car pulled behind her and gunned the engine.

* * *

Judd had been so focused on getting to the park and alerting Ryan and Lionel that he forgot to let Vicki know he was waiting.

He backtracked, slowing to look in shop windows and down alleys. He heard the screech of tires and swerved to miss an oncoming car barreling around a corner. He drove past the drugstore and hung a left. Judd sped past an alley and slammed on his brakes. Vicki ran toward him, the car bearing down on her.

Judd made a U-turn and opened the passenger door. Vicki jumped in. "Go, go, go!" she shouted.

"I don't mean to be rude," Judd said, speeding away, "but you look awful."

"Thanks," Vicki said, panting. "Just get me out of here!"

Judd sped through a yellow light. The car behind had a red, but it ran through the light, swerved to miss oncoming traffic, and kept gaining.

"Who is that?" Judd said.

"It's gotta be Handlesman or somebody he told to follow me. They want us bad."

Judd turned at the next light, then into an alley. They careened around another corner and through an empty parking lot.

"Hang on," Judd said as he crossed a patch of grass and turned into a tree-lined subdivision. He flew across a bridge, spun in the entrance to a park, and came to a halt behind some shrubs. The trailing car was nowhere in sight.

"Better stay here awhile just to make sure," Judd said. "Who gave you the shiner?"

"A filing cabinet, I think," Vicki said.

Through gasps, Vicki told Judd about her interrogation at school. Judd told her they had listened to Shelly and her mother through the bug in Mrs. Jenness's office.

"What did Shelly say?" Vicki asked. "How much were you able to hear?"

"We heard Shelly crying and her mother yelling at her to give you up," he said. "Not much more."

"Then maybe they pushed her into it," Vicki said. "At least that's what I hope."

Judd sniffed. "Is it me, or is there an odor in here?"

Vicki blushed. "I hid in a garbage bin."

Judd pulled a blackened piece of banana peel from her hair. "Pretty resourceful."

"And gross," Vicki said, shuddering and rubbing her arms. "I hate goose bumps."

"Are you cold?"

She shook her head. "Judd, they told me to bring my parents tomorrow."

"They don't know about your mom and dad?"

"If they do, they're not letting on."

Judd paused. "Uh, I want to thank you. We couldn't hear the interrogation, but we could tell you handled yourself well. We were all impressed."

"You would have done the same for me."

"Mark wanted to rescue you. Said we should give ourselves up."

"He didn't think I could handle the pressure?"

"He didn't think it was fair to put you through it."

"I could've choked Handlesman," Vicki said. "He treated me like some dumb little girl, like I'd never have the brains to put two sentences together, let alone a newspaper."

"Don't worry," Judd said. "You'll get your chance to show him Monday morning."

"You're not going through with it again, are you?"

Judd nodded. "Why not? If Bruce is right, the treaty between Israel and Carpathia will be headlined around the world. We can't pass this up. We have to tell people what's ahead."

"Bruce says the treaty signals the beginning of the Tribulation, right?"

"Exactly," Judd said.

"But how are you gonna get the Underground inside? You've got the guard checkpoint, cameras, and every teacher in the school on the lookout."

Judd shrugged. "We've got God on our side."

Vicki ran through all her options, and none seemed very good. Judd waited until dusk to start the car.

"Can we stop and see Bruce on the way home?" Vicki said. "I want to see what he thinks."

"He could pretend to be your father," Judd said.

"That'd be lying," Vicki said. "He'd never do that."

A few cars lined the New Hope Village Church parking lot. Maybe the Tribulation Force is meeting, Judd thought. He parked in front and kept the engine running. He waited while Vicki dashed inside. He flipped to a news station on the radio.

"Not a day has passed without some major development with new UN Secretary-General Nicolae Carpathia," the reporter said. "And today was no exception. Cincinnati Archbishop Peter Cardinal Mathews, who some see as successor to the vanished pope, announced a new cooperative religion that would incorporate the tenets of all major religions. He calls it the Global Community Faith."

"Our religions have caused much division and bloodshed," Cardinal Mathews droned. "From this day forward we will unite under the banner of the Global Community Faith. Our logo will contain sacred symbols from religions that represent all, and from here on will encompass all. Whether we believe God is a real person or merely a concept, God is in all and above all and around all. God is in us. God is us. We are God."

Judd shook his head. What a pack of lies.

"We will elect a pope," Mathews said. "And we expect that other major religions will continue to appoint leaders in their usual cycles. But these leaders will serve the Global Community Faith and be expected to maintain the loyalty and devotion of their parishioners to the larger cause."

The reporter continued. "United Nations Secretary-General Nicolae Carpathia said the move toward one religion is a welcome change."

"'We clearly are at the most momentous juncture in world history,'" Carpathia said. "'With the consolidation to one form of currency, with the cooperation and toleration of many religions into one, with worldwide disarmament and commitment to peace, the world is truly becoming one.'"

"Another incredible development came when Nicolae Carpathia answered questions regarding the rebuilding of the Jewish temple and the future of the Islamic Dome of-"

Vicki jumped in the car and slapped the radio off.

"Go!" she shouted.

"What's going on?"

"Look," Vicki pointed.

Running toward them was an angry Coach Handlesman. Judd sped away.

"What's he doing here?" Judd said.

"Bruce's office door was kinda open, so I knocked. All of a sudden Coach Handlesman starts yelling! He accuses Bruce of crimes, says he'll have him thrown in jail. I was outta there."

"How could Coach Handlesman know about Bruce?"

Vicki shook her head. "Maybe Shelly gave them his name. Bruce went with me to her house."

"Great," Judd said. "I didn't want to drag Bruce into the middle of all this."

Judd parked near his house and watched for Coach Handlesman. When he was sure they had eluded him, Judd pulled inside the garage and lowered the door.

Lionel and Ryan peppered them with questions until late.

"No lights tonight," Judd told them. And the four would take turns watching the street.

(Continues.)

Jerry B. Jenkins describes himself as the “most famous writer no one’s ever heard of.” With the success of his Left Behind series, he has become the leading contemporary evangelical novelist. He is the author of six New York Times best-selling books, including three Left Behind titles -- Left Behind, Apollyon and Assassins.

A writer with a wide range of interests, Jenkins has had great success writing biographies for sports heroes and Christian leaders. His other New York Times best-sellers include Out of the Blue with Orel Hershiser and Miracle Man with Nolan Ryan. He also assisted Billy Graham with his best-selling memoir, Just As I Am. Jenkins specializes in three genres: biographies, marriage and family topics, and fiction for both children and adults.

A former vice president for publishing for the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, Jenkins served for many years as editor of Moody Magazine and is now Moody’s writer-at-large. His work has appeared in publications as varied as Reader’s Digest, Parade, in-flight magazines, and many Christian periodicals.

His most successful novels have been his apocalyptic titles from Tyndale House Publishers: Left Behind, Tribulation Force, Nicolae, Soul Harvest, Apollyon and Assassins –- co-authored with Tim LaHaye. More than 18 million copies have been sold in the product line thus far. The highly anticipated seventh book in the series, The Indwelling, hits bookstores on Tuesday, May 23, 2000, with a record two million books in the first printing.

Jenkins is the novelist for the series, while co-author LaHaye, a former pastor, provides the outline of prophecy based on biblical text. The duo’s teamwork has resulted in a series that has broken all precedents for Christian fiction. As the Dallas Morning News writes, “It’s not your mama’s Christian fiction anymore.”

Two of Jenkins’ novels are being developed into Hollywood productions: ‘Twas the Night Before as a CBS television movie for Christmas 2000, and Left Behind as a feature film.

Jenkins and his wife Dianna live in Colorado and have three sons—one married, another in college, and one in high school.

Dr. Tim LaHaye is a noted author, minister, counselor, television commentator and nationally recognized speaker on family life and Bible prophecy. Co-author of the Left Behind series, it was LaHaye’s idea to fictionalize an account of the Rapture and the Tribulation.

LaHaye is the founder and president of Tim LaHaye Ministries and the founder of the PreTrib Research Center. Currently, LaHaye speaks at many of the major Bible prophecy conferences in the United States and Canada.

For 25 years, LaHaye pastored one of the nation’s outstanding churches in San Diego, California, which grew to three locations. During this time, he also founded two accredited Christian high schools, a school system of 10 Christian schools, and Christian Heritage College, and assisted Dr. Henry Morris in the founding of the Institute for Creation Research, the nation’s foremost exponent of creationist materials.

LaHaye has written 47 books on a wide range of subjects, such as family life, temperaments, and Bible prophecy. One of his best-sellers from Tyndale House Publishers is The Spirit-Controlled Temperament. His current novels, co-authored with Jerry B. Jenkins, is the all-time best-selling Christian fiction series. With six titles in the series, Left Behind, Tribulation Force, Nicolae, Soul Harvest, Apollyon and Assassins, the books have reached as high as number two on The New York Times best-seller list. Sales have exceeded eighteen million copies. The highly anticipated seventh book, The Indwelling, releases May 23, 2000.

LaHaye came up with the idea of a novel about the Second Coming. “Sitting on airplanes and watching the pilots,” he told People Magazine, “I’d think to myself, ‘What if the Rapture occurred on an airplane?’” LaHaye looked for a co-writer for several years and was then introduced to writer Jerry B. Jenkins through their mutual literary agent, Rick Christian, president of the Colorado Springs agency, Alive Communications, who also negotiated the book deal.

LaHaye holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Western Conservative Theological Seminary and has been awarded the Doctor of Literature degree from Liberty University.

LaHaye and his wife Beverly, who is founder and chairman of the board of Concerned Women for America, have been married for 52 years. They have four grown children and nine grandchildren.

BOOK ONE: The Vanishings

In one shocking moment millions around the globe disappear. Those left behind face an uncertain future—especially four kids who now find themselves alone. As the kids search for help and for answers, they are told the truth behind the disappearances. But are they ready to believe it?

BOOK TWO: Second Chance

Faced with the truth behind the disappearances, Judd, Vicki, Lionel, and Ryan have decisions to make. Will they accept Christ’s forgiveness, or will they blame God for abandoning them and taking away their families?

BOOK THREE: Through the Flames

To prove his worth to the others, Ryan sneaks around associates of Lionel’s Uncle Andre to find out what he can about Andre’s fate. What he learns puts his friends in grave danger. Judd and Lionel narrowly escape with their lives in a harrowing rescue attempt in an apartment fire set by a murderer.

BOOK FOUR: Facing the Future

Bruce Barnes has been teaching Judd, Vicki, Lionel, and Ryan about the coming events during the Tribulation. They are sure Christ will return for them, but one question remains: Who is the Antichrist? Bruce thinks he knows. The kids aren’t so sure. Until a man who has met the Antichrist shares his nightmarish story.

BOOK FIVE: Nicolae High

A new challenge faces Judd, Vicki, Ryan, and Lionel. They must take their newfound faith to the classrooms of Global Community Middle School and Nicolae Carpathia High. Danger awaits them. Should they obey the authorities, who outlaw carrying Bibles or even talking about God? Should they risk everything and speak the truth to their friends? Who can they trust?

BOOK SIX: The Underground

The Young Trib Force unleashes the power of the printed page through an underground newspaper at Nicolae High. School authorities are enraged after only a few copies of the first edition are distributed. After Judd devises a plan to distribute a copy of it to every student in the school, the authorities search with a vengeance for the kids responsible.

BOOK SEVEN: Busted

Pursued by authorities from Nicolae High, Vicki and Judd attempt escape. A friend’s betrayal puts Vicki on trial. With Old Testament prophecies coming true before their eyes, the Young Trib Force struggles to spread the truth no matter what the cost. But the noose is tightening. Will the group stick together? Who is the insider at the school helping them?

BOOK EIGHT: Death Strike

A horrifying future awaits the Young Trib Force. As Vicki fights for her life in a detention center, Judd sets a new goal that could put the group in the greatest danger yet. With conflict arising, Judd faces a decision that will affect the rest of his life. The rise of a rebel group, a global catastrophe, a disappearance, and the death of a friend give the kids a heartbreaking challenge.