Listening by Dave Mckay Mckay (best big ereader TXT) 📖

Presumably no one else knew of the attack, and so they agreed to say nothing to the authorities or even to other believers. The hideout had, hopefully, not been compromised, and so it could still be used as a place of refuge when things turned worse, as the believers knew they would.

By Thursday morning, Chaim was back in Beijing, and boarding a five-hour flight down the coast to Guangzhou, where he would meet up with David and Charmane.

As Carl had predicted, Ming showed little emotion on hearing of her father's death.

"I want to help people who look for truth," she said. "Now I can do it with less trouble."

* * *

Charmane was waiting for Chaim at Baiyun Airport. She had a truck lined up to meet them at the kerb, but on the way out of arrivals, she received a call on her mobile.

"We gotta stop at a place on the way," she said, both to Chaim and to the driver of the truck as they climbed into the cab.

Guangzhou, perched on the Pearl River, 150 miles from Hong Kong, had been a prosperous city from as far back as the Middle Ages, when Muslim and European traders had all come there to buy and sell. Even at the height of the Cold War, Guangzhou had tended to look more capitalist than communist. Prior to the Asian Games in 2010, the government had poured 25 billion U.S. dollars into upgrades on everything from the New Baiyun International Airport to the eleven underground railway lines that kept its ten million residents in touch with each other.

Food preparation and automobile manufacturing were two of the city's many industries, and both were located near the airport, to the north of the city. The truck had been called to a catering firm there, after which it would drive to Huadu, a working class area near the motor vehicle plants.

"We been cleaning here, and one of the managers axed us to bring the truck by," Charmane explained as they pulled into an industrial compound near the airport.

They parked, went to the office, and were told to back into an adjacent warehouse.

"That's a lot of food preparation!" Chaim remarked as he stepped out of the truck inside the warehouse. Rows of pallets were lined up waiting for delivery.

"They make food for lotsa airlines," Charmane said. "But if a plane doesn't go, Ling Pao calls and gives us the meals. Neat, isn't it?" She gave Chaim a wide toothy grin.

Chaim watched as a forklift loaded a pallet of meal trays onto the back of the truck.

"We don't got enough people to eat all of it," said Charmane, "but we know some orphans out where we live. When we have extra they get it, and they really like it. I like it too, cuz the kids are cute."

They pressed their palms togther and bowed their heads in thanks to Ling Pao for his generosity, and then headed the truck west on the Jing-Zhu highway to Huadu. Huadu was where Christians and Falun Gong members had been detained, and often tortured in years gone by. All of that had ceased now.

"You carry this," Charmane said to Chaim, handing him a piece of plywood that had been behind their seat. They were at the flat now, and about to leave the truck. "Pretend you are just taking it inside, but hold it so it hides your face."

The apartment door was open by the time Chaim reached it, and Lee Chong, the local leader, urged him quickly inside. When Chaim was out of sight, Lee Chong left him to greet David while he went out to assist with Chaim's luggage and with bringing in some of the meals. The driver then drove off to drop the remaining meals at other safe houses and at the orphanage.

"Neighbours can see," Lee explained when they were all in the house. "Many foreigners are in the city, but this is working district. People ask questions."

The Government had declared amnesty for all believers, including Tibetan Buddhists and Muslim Vighurs as well as Christians and Falun Gong practitioners. But this group of believers was still keeping a low profile.

"It's not what I had been expecting," David lamented, when they were seated on the floor and sipping cups of tea. "I thought the underground church would lead the way."

Chaim's whole relationship with David had changed after he stopped reacting to the younger man's Christian faith. He could see now that David's faith was unlike the churchy stubborness that he had come to despise. "They're still leading," Chaim replied. "It's just a smaller underground now."

"They call it 'new era'," Lee Chong said, referring to the amnesty. "Young members leave because they like what the Government is doing. No more prisons, and they get free church buildings too."

"And the older members?" Chaim asked. "What about them?"

David replied, "They remember what happened before, when they were enticed out of hiding with offers of free Bibles. The older people are more suspicious. But they, too, are refusing to work with us because we accept the Falun Gong, Muslims, Buddhists, even some communist atheists."

"No group has a monopoly on love," Chaim replied. "A lot of those joining us were deeply involved in social work, with no religious affiliation. But even in that sub-group, the percentages joining this movement are very small."

"We're being forced to set up new security systems in the old underground network," David continued. "The ones who are leaving know the old locations and the old members. This house belonged to an underground pastor who works with us in Hunan Province now. People here think he sold it to Lee Chong, but Lee came here from an underground church in a different province."

And then David became very serious. "Chaim, how do you see what's happening?"

"Briefly," Chaim answered, "I think God is doing something that is bigger than any religion in the world. It's totally spontaneous... people who are genuinely seeking truth, from all religions, are being brought together... like what happened to us at Macquarie Uni. Remember? Maybe it's not so dramatic now, but it's the same process and it's happening all over the world."

"What I mean is how does that fit in with the Bible? Is it a Christian movement or what?"

"Oh it's all there in the Bible, like you said, David. Just not like most Christians expected."

"Not what I expected either," David confessed.

Chaim went on. "In Australia there seem to be only a handful coming from the churches. There are probably more atheists than church people who are joining us."

"See, that's hard for me to accept," David said.

Lee, too, looked shocked.

"The key seems to be sincerity," Chaim went on. "Religion has turned into an excuse not to be sincere, for most people. They lean on the organisation and let it destroy their conscience."

"What about Quakers?" David asked.

"We have more Quakers by percentage than the churches, but even amongst Friends, it's becoming clear that most are not really hungry for more truth. Their commitment to love is pretty lukewarm too. It happens like that in any organisation."

"Why?" David asked. "Why is it happening in the underground church here?"

"Genuine seekers are rare," Chaim said. "I reckon only about one in 50,000 is joining this movement. But in the underground church and in the Falun Gong the rate would be at least a hundred times greater than that. So you shouldn't really be discouraged about what's happening here."

"Even with all of our differences, it seems like everyone who joins likes the idea of working for free," David pondered.

"I like free work," said Charmane, who had been wanting to be part of the conversation. "We meet lotsa nice people."

"And what did you do today?" Chaim asked.

"Today we folded letters and put 'em in envelopes," Charmane said. "It was easy; but I like it better when we do garden work mostly."

"People like it when we help them too," Chaim said, smiling at Charmane while addressing it to the others as well. "Just remember that it's not going to last. Our lifestyle is a threat to the values of the world. It comes down to why we're here. Were we made to make money? Or were we made to help others... without worrying about our own material needs?

"I see it even in Quakers," he said. "We're more accepting than any religion I know of. We try to see the good in everyone. But frankly, most of my friends are scared of me now. It comes down to our differing attitudes to money."

The discussion moved to talk about what was happening in the West, where Rayford Strait was leading a similar movement. Together, there were twelve main leaders, or judges, six working with Chaim and six working with Rayford. They were now referring to themselves as the "Twelve Tribes".

"It's a Jewish concept," Chaim said. "We had tribes, led by judges, before we had kings. God never liked the idea of kings, because power always corrupts people."

"How will it finish?" Lee Chong asked.

"We win, in the end," Chaim promised, with a smile and a wink. "But first, we lose.

"The message of The Revelation is one of love. Love is stronger than all the empires of history. The Lamb that was slain..." he quoted from The Revelation, in the Bible. "The Lamb that was slain is the one who is prepared to die for love. When we have that kind of faith, nothing can stop us. They can kill us, but there will always be others to take our place. So we win; but first we lose. Are you ready for it?"

"I think that's why we're here," Charmane answered thoughtfully. "I think God knows we'll die for him. It's why he picked us." She finished with a firm set to her jaw and a nod of her head for emphasis.

Chaim thought briefly of Sheree, and her problems with his leadership. "I hope so," he said. But he was also thinking of something even more serious than that. "I certainly hope so," he mumbled to himself.

Lee Chong rose to fetch the meals, which had been heating in the kitchen. "So the Twelve Tribes are the new underground church?" he asked, knowing the answer.

"That's right," Chaim replied, loudly enough to be heard in the kitchen. "The new underground church is a lot bigger than China now."

"And what about people who not come with us? Are they all lost?" Lee called back as he stacked four trays to bring to the table.

"No, I don't think so," Chaim replied. "I think there'll be others... many others, who will join us later, when it becomes clearer."

"I'm terribly sorry," Chaim said abruptly, when Lee started to set a tray in front of him. "Do you mind very much if I skip this and lie down for a while? Things are catching up with me, and I need some rest."

He was given a pallet in an adjacent room, and the others turned to whispering so that he could get some sleep. In fact, he was only slightly jet lagged. What was really eating at him was what he had just said to the others about loving enemies, and dying for love.

How did that fit in with what happened in the cave in Yutang? he thought. There, he had seen three men consumed by fire because they had tried to fight against... and at that point, Chaim could not be sure in his own mind about exactly what it was that the men had been fighting against. Was it him? Was it God? Was it the movement? One could be seen simply as a father who was concerned about his daughter's welfare.

Chaim himself had always been a loner. He was an only child. He never married. In fact, in his younger days, he had thought that maybe he was gay. Apart from a few teenage fantasies, his interest in sex had been minimal, and so he had withdrawn from intimate relationships. He was close to his parents, and had lived on his own ever since they were killed in a car crash more than twenty years ago.

Keeping his thoughts to himself had always been easy for him; so when it was decided in the cave that nothing would be said about the three men, except to Ming Lee, that made perfect sense. It did not, however, exempt Chaim from the need to discuss it with himself.

While he was still in the cave, it had all seemed clear. God had simply protected them. But now, after less than two days away from the scene, it was harder to accept that explanation so casually. Chaim definitely knew the men were going to die, before it happened. He had felt some compassion for them during those few brief moments. But what if the force that killed them was not loving, and what if it was not from God? That was how his Quaker friends would see it, and it was how he himself would have seen it as recently as a year ago. A loving