Saint by Ted Dekker

hadn’t been in a pit since his coming. Perhaps that explained her fear of it.
    â€œNow we wait,” he said. “Please don’t talk.”
    Carl squatted. And waited. Home.
    â€œHOW LONG are we going to stay in here?” Kelly whispered.
    They’d only been in the tunnel for an hour.
    â€œUntil I’ve rested and have the advantage,” he said aloud, thankful for the dirt walls that absorbed the sound of their voices.
    He could hear Kelly moving toward him. Only now had she realized that he’d moved away from her during the last hour so that he could hear above her breathing. It occurred to him that he was her protector here. In the tunnel, he was the master and she was the student. It made him proud.
    Do you believe?
    The soft voice echoed through his mind. Believe in what? In the Group, of course. His belief in everything he’d learned here was the fabric of his survival. He’d actually lowered the temperature in his cell! Imagine that.
    â€œWhy did you move away from me?” Kelly asked, closer now.
    â€œI wanted to be able to hear,” he said, standing.
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œThey entered my pit, walked around, and then left.”
    â€œThis is like your mental tunnel,” she said.
    â€œYes.”
    Her hand felt for him, touched his chest, his neck, and then drew back.
    â€œHow are the bites?”
    He hadn’t given them much thought, but he felt his neck now. “Gone mostly.”
    For a long while they stood in silence.
    â€œWhen do you think you will have the advantage?” she asked.
    He shrugged in the darkness. “A day.”
    â€œA day? That long?”
    â€œPatience is always—”
    â€œI know about patience. I taught you that, remember? But how will a day help you?”
    â€œDo you want to leave now?”
    â€œI’m only the observer. I stay with you.”
    â€œMaybe it’ll be less than a day,” he said.
    He really was in complete control, not only of her safety, but in some ways of how she felt. Kelly settled to the ground, and he joined her.
    For several hours neither of them spoke. Carl was doing what he did best. He didn’t know what Kelly was doing.
    â€œDo you mind if I touch you?” she finally asked. “As much as I hate to admit it, the darkness is a bit disorienting.”
    â€œOkay,” he said.
    She felt for his knee, then found his hand. “Okay?”
    â€œOkay.”
    They held hands in the dark for a while.
    â€œDo you know what’s so special about you?”
    He didn’t answer.
    â€œYour innocence. You’re like a child in some ways.”
    A child? He wasn’t sure what to think about that.
    â€œBut there’s a man inside, waiting to be set free,” she said. “I’m very proud of you.”
    Her statement confused him, so he still said nothing.
    â€œDo you remember Nevada?” she asked.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI’ve always wanted to go to the desert. It’s so vast. Uncaring of the rest of the world. It’s just there, no matter what else happens. Golden sands and towering rocks. Coyotes that roam the land, free. When this is all over, I think I’d like to go to the desert in Nevada.”
    â€œWhen what is over?” he asked.
    She didn’t answer for a while. “It’s just a fantasy,” she said. “Something stuck in my head. I can imagine you and I walking into the desert like this, hand in hand, away from all of this. Do you ever think about leaving?”
    â€œTo the desert?”
    â€œNot necessarily. Just leaving this place.”
    â€œI can’t leave.”
    â€œI know, but if you could. If you didn’t have the implant, would you go?”
    â€œI don’t know. It’s not so bad here.”
    â€œI once lived in the desert,” Kelly said. “In Ethiopia when I was ten. I was born in Israel and sold on the black market. To an Afghan warlord who loved me for my