Deker felt an ominous wind blow in through Rahab's cellar window, and a chill ran up his back as what he had been waiting for came a second later with the force of a desert storm.
The war cry of the Israelite army.
Elezar had left him with an unwinnable dilemma: blow himself up with Rahab and her family in order to open the city to the Israelites, or risk the defeat of General Bin-Nun and the Hebrews as they smashed themselves against the impregnable wall.
Rahab sensed trouble. "What's wrong, Samuel?"
Deker moved to the window and looked out at the Israelite troops rushing toward them. He then ran his fingers down the scarlet cord hanging in the window.
Bin-Nun doesn't know his thirty-six-member special-ops team is dead, Deker thought. He thinks they're going to open the main gate from the inside.
Another voice said, "Deker?"
This time it was Salmon talking.
Deker turned to him and said, "My plans have failed, Salmon. I did not trust Yahweh like Rahab or you or Bin-Nun. But there may yet be a way to accomplish the divine plan. You must see to it that Rahab and her family are spared."
Salmon tried to exude confidence before Rahab, but there was a cloud of doubt behind his eyes. "Where are you going?"
"To blow the main gate," Deker said as he packed the C-4 in his bag.
"You'll be slaughtered as soon as you walk out the front door," said Ram as he entered the cellar, out of breath. "We're holding them off, but you'll never get past them alive. And you'll never take out the contingent at the gate, even if we all joined you."
"I know," Deker said, and grabbed the coil of rope and moved to the window. "That's why I'm going to blow the gate from the outside."
"It's still suicide," said Ram. "If the Reahn archers don't kill you, your own advancing troops might."
"It's the only way," said Deker, suddenly calm as he gazed into Rahab's dark eyes. "It's the right way."
"There must be another way," Rahab begged him. "Yahweh has a plan."
Deker felt the throb in his throat. He never wanted to leave her. But he remained resolute. "I'm sorry, Rahab, but I believe I am the plan."
Rahab's eyes unlocked from his and darted over his shoulder. "Ram!"
Deker turned in time to see Ram at the window, about to climb out.
"I can no longer protect us from our own people if the Israelites fail," Ram told them. "And if the Israelites succeed, I cannot protect you from them. But these Hebrews can."
And then Ram vanished into thin air.
Deker rushed to the window and looked down to see Ram land on the ground and pull out his sword. With a shout, Rahab's big brother ran out alone against the thousands of oncoming Israelites.
"He's drawing the attention of the Reahn archers on the ramparts!" Salmon yelled, shoving his way next to Deker. "Now is our chance!"
"My chance," Deker told him. "You have to stay here with Rahab and keep Israel's promise."
Salmon began to protest, but Deker cut him off. "There's no time, Salmon. If you fail, her blood is on our hands, and the hands of all the kings of Israel."
Rahab rushed to him and threw her arms around him as if to keep him from leaving.
There was no time for proper good-byes, so Deker removed his IDF tag from his neck and gave it to Rahab. "This is the token of my promise to you," he said. "Your family will be safe at Gilgal tonight, and you can return it to me then." She put it on over her heart and clutched the star in her hand, as if she were willing herself to believe him.
With one last look at her, Deker sprang out the window.