“The ebola virus caused the organs of its victims to turn to mush. They bled to death from every orifice in their bodies—a horrible death. In 1995, more than two hundred people died of ebola in the town of Kikwit in Zaire. Three months later, it broke out a thousand miles away on the Zaire-Zambian border. A strain of the virus had shown up earlier in a holding center for monkeys located in Reston, Virginia, not far from Washington, D.C. In that one place was the biological potential to wipe out the entire population of the nation’s capital.”

As John Edwards was talking, Maria came in with a large tray with coffee, tea, and snacks for everyone. Carl, Lori, Charley, Dave, and John all thanked her effusively, then helped themselves, but continued their conversation without interruption.

As they settled back in their chairs, Carl said, “Jack, you’re really pushing my button, my friend. I’ve read about a lot of this, of course. Let’s face it—it was hardly secret. I even wrote some of those safe-sex condom ads you saw on TV. Most of us in Hollywood pretty much took each piece of news as it came. ‘AIDS is a problem, so use condoms.’ ‘Herpes is a problem, so use condoms.’ We didn’t do any campaigns about TB—we figured there was no way that people in Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, or Laguna Niguel were going to catch it. And as far as the ebola virus was concerned, we just figured that was somebody else’s problem. After all, it was another country.”

He held his coffee mug to his lips and took a slow sip. “If anybody had told us they were prophetic signs, I’m sure we would have called them nuts.”

John Edwards set his own coffee mug back on the table. “You know what I like about you, Carl? Your honesty. You say exactly what you think.” He chuckled. “What you say reminds me of another clear sign of the times. The tip-off this time is in the answer to a question put to Jesus by His religious enemies, the Pharisees. They asked Him what we all want to know: ‘When will the kingdom of God come?’ And if you’ll take a look at Luke seventeen, you can see what Jesus said.”