The local Gadites greeted the arriving convoy with the sound of shouts and slinging of arrows into the air.
"What's all the fuss?" Deker asked Salmon.
"They're just blazing off for the hell of it," Salmon said. "An annoying waste of ammunition. I've come to my wit's end trying to explain to them that Kane's smiths aren't working night and day to manufacture arrowheads so they can shoot them off whenever they feel like it. But they consider themselves wild men of the mountains."
As they came down into the camp, more Gadites ran along beside them to take their camels. A fire burned in the center of the earthen floor, around which the arriving Gadites had clustered.
"Food!" Achan declared.
Deker saw that the Gadites had spread a rug on the ground in front of the fire for him and Elezar. A young Gadite offered him what looked like seasoned lamb sausage on a stick. The aroma, however, smelled foul to Deker and he politely declined.
"You insult them," Elezar said, joining the others in helping himself.
Deker sat down and looked around the circle at the rough faces and curious eyes fixed on him. He decided to pretend he was back at Pink's in Los Angeles and this lamb sausage was just a hot dog.
Gingerly he took the stick on which the sausage was speared and bit off one end. The first sensation was his tongue burning from the heat, but then the fat and spices exploded in his mouth and he realized these Gadite chefs could take on any Top Chef. Eagerly he devoured the sausage and accepted another.
He wasn't even halfway finished with his second before the Gadites peppered him and Elezar with questions.
"What's Bin-Nun doing down at Shittim?"
"When is the invasion coming?"
"Are you really angels of the Lord?"
Elezar cleared his throat. "Tomorrow we will cave in the banks of the Jordan to dam the waters. Then you will see the power of Yahweh."
At that moment a sullen Salmon marched up with the detonators in his fist. He held them over the fire as if he were about to drop them into the flames.
"Surely an angel of the Lord doesn't need trinkets like these to work a miracle," he said, his voice trembling.
Deker glanced at Elezar, who neither approved nor disapproved of what was happening. In Deker's mind, he was only encouraging the foolish Salmon. Slowly, Deker rose to his feet and faced Salmon.
"No," Deker told him, and then showed off his command of ancient Hebrew after a week of total immersion. "But apparently you do, big man, to stand up to an angel."
Salmon's hand wavered over the flames. Any second Deker expected to see blisters forming on the skin.
An alarmed Achan said, "Give the angel his flints for his magic mud bricks, Salmon! We're under orders from Bin-Nun, under whom your father served."
"My father served Moses and the Lord God Yahweh!" Salmon cried out. "Moses needed no magic mud bricks, nor any angels to work miracles! He spoke to Yahweh face-to-face, and he parted the Red Sea with a stick!"
Deker eyed Salmon's white-red knuckles, looking for the first sign Salmon might let go. "Elezar, talk to me. What's going on?"
"Salmon is the son of Nahshon bin-Amminadab," Elezar said in ancient Hebrew, so Salmon could understand the angels knew his family well apart from Bin-Nun. "He is a direct descendant of Judah and the brother-in-law of Aaron, brother of Moses. When Moses stretched out his staff on the banks of the Red Sea and the waters did not part, Salmon's father entered the waters up to his nose and then the sea parted. This was more than twenty years before Salmon was born."
Deker now understood that Salmon had wanted to emulate his late father's exploits and place of honor among the Israelites, but that he and Elezar had preempted that dream with their arrival.
Salmon said, "Tell me, angel, is it true?"
"Is what true?" Deker asked.
"Everything our fathers told us," Salmon said. "The Exodus-the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea."
Elezar said, "Of course it's true, Salmon. Everything happened as your father said."
"Not you," Salmon said. "I'm asking the bad angel."
The bad angel.
Deker empathized with the young soldier. Everything Salmon had seen in the last few days-the bridge, the stones, the magic mud bricks, suspicious spies dubbed "angels"-was nothing at all like the Sunday-school stories Salmon, and Deker himself, had been taught growing up. Salmon's world as a refugee in the desert was so paltry and brutish compared to his father's big-budget Exodus, it was only natural for him to wonder if anything he had been taught ever happened.
"I wasn't there, Salmon," Deker said. "Elezar is your angel of ancient history. I know only the future-or did. Everything is a bit up in the air right now."
Deker in that instant dove over the fire and tackled Salmon, slamming the back of Salmon's hand with the detonators against the ground until the fist opened and they spilled out for Elezar to grab.
"I serve Yahweh, the God of my fathers!" Salmon screamed. "We all serve Yahweh! We need no angels!"
A fire log came down on Salmon's head, knocking him out. Holding it at the other end was Achan. Deker got the distinct impression this wasn't the first time Salmon had gone out like this.
Deker sighed, looking sadly at the poor man sprawled in the dirt. Deker could relate to Salmon. After all, he himself had been questioning reality ever since his escape in Madaba. How could he fault Salmon for doubting his own reality?
"Poor Salmon cannot compromise," Achan explained. "That's what makes him a warrior in battle but a fool around the fire."