Tartarus: Kingdom Wars II by Jack Cavanaugh

the curtains I hadn’t yet opened. I’d kept them closed to shut out the distraction of Jerusalem. I half-feared I’d see angels. If that were the case, I’d never get any chapters written.
    “Do you mind?” Jana said, pulling the curtains back, letting the sun in.
    A glance out the window revealed a sky clear of angels.
    With an inward sigh over lost momentum I tidied up the table, shuffling my notes to one side and closing the laptop. To hope that this would be a short conversation was a fool’s wish. This was Jana.
    I righted the second cup on the serving tray and poured Jana some coffee, setting it in front of the chair opposite mine along with the sugar packets and miniature crème pitcher. Jana had always doctored her coffee heavily.
    She pulled out the chair and pushed the crème and sugar aside, sipping her coffee black. “I want to know where I stand with you.” Holding her cup in both hands, she peered at me with serious brown eyes.
    I sat and topped off my own cup. “I saw your video clip on the news. Your producer must be ecstatic.”
    “You tried to ditch me yesterday. Why?”
    I didn’t have a good answer for her, so I offered the only answer I had. A lame one.
    “You caught us by surprise. We had no idea you were in Jerusalem.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “We—is this about Sue Ling?”
    I set my coffee cup down with a purposeful clink. “Why don’t you tell me, Jana? If you and Sue Ling have something to work out, do it on your own. I don’t appreciate the two of you putting me in the middle.” I matched her gaze with my own.
    “You saw the angels before anyone else yesterday, didn’t you?”
    “Yes.”
    “You were going to the Mount of Olives when you ran out of the hotel.”
    “Yes.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me? After all we’ve been through, certainly you must have known I’d want to know.”
    “Like I said, we were in a hurry, you caught me by surprise. I wish I had a better explanation than that, but I don’t.”
    “You tried to ditch us.”
    “That wasn’t my call. I admit I do a lot of dumb things, but this wasn’t one of them. I wasn’t driving, and it wasn’t my call. If I had something to apologize for, I would.”
    She thought about that a moment. Sipped her coffee. Then said, “True, you have been known to do a lot of dumb things.”
    She offered a half-smile. A good sign.
    “So where does that leave us?” she asked again.
    “You tell me. If I continue working with the professor and Sue Ling, can we still be friends?”
    Her smile faded. She became Jana the reporter. “I have to ask the hard questions. It’s my job.”
    “I would expect nothing less.”
    “But can you live with it? I won’t be anyone’s press secretary. Not yours, not the professor’s.”
    “The professor was wrong to try to use you like that,” I said.
    My answer surprised her. “Sue Ling wouldn’t agree with you.”
    “At times Sue Ling’s feelings for the professor cloud her judgment.” I paused. “You want to know where you stand. I’ll tell you. I am your flawed but devoted friend. Nothing between us has changed.”
    Her smile was full. The reporter was gone. My friend Jana was back.
    She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “Thank you.”
    She sat back.
    “Now,” she said, pulling a pad from her purse, “where did you go after you left Mt. Olivet yesterday?”
    The reporter didn’t stay away for long.
    I told her of our trip to Hebrew University and how, based on the text, Professor Serrafe had dubbed the Jesus of the manuscript Joker Jesus. Jana chuckled and nodded. She wrote that down.
    “And what were your impressions of the Jesus on the mountain?” she asked.
    “Same as everyone else, I guess. Dumbfounded.”
    “Did you recognize any of them?”
    I sat back in my chair. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
    So now I did. I replayed what I saw in my mind, scanning the faces of the angels. “No.” I shook my head. “I didn’t recognize any of them,