It was one thing for the Inisi, who knew nothing of the big bang, evolution, genetics—even electricity, for God’s sake—to believe in ancient myths, no matter how preposterous. It was quite another for this intelligent and reasonably educated woman, who was now living in modern society, to hold such beliefs. But talking intelligently with Abby about her faith required being fully informed of her worldview. That meant knowing the Bible, a source I hadn’t looked at since college. It was an educational pursuit I knew she would gladly engage in.

We adjourned to my home office. I accessed Alistair in visual mode, something Abby hadn’t yet experienced. He appeared in the room’s third chair.

“Good morning again, Alistair.”

“Good morning, Creighton.”

I motioned toward the armchair across from me. “This is Abby.”

He looked at her. “Good morning, Abby.”

She gave a slight laugh. “Good morning, Alistair.”

Alistair looked at me. “Did something humorous happen, Creighton?”

I shook my head. “No, nothing.”

I turned to Abby. “Ray used an unusual phrase in his message. Did you notice how he said, ‘life may soon be withdrawn’?” He didn’t say, ‘life may soon be destroyed,’ or, ‘life may soon be changed.’ Instead he said, ‘life may soon be withdrawn.’”

“So?”

“So if life is withdrawn, someone has to do the withdrawing. Is that the government? Industry? Bryson Nichols? Is there a plot to end all life? Disrupt our way of life?”

Abby ran her hand through her bangs. “But couldn’t you use that phrase if life were being destroyed, especially if you believed in God? If you believe in God’s sovereignty, the destruction of life would be, in a sense, God’s withdrawing life from the earth.”

“Yes, that’s possible. It just seems an odd way to phrase it, especially for someone delivering a message in a hurry.” I leaned back in my chair. “It might be wise to start by eliminating some possibilities.”

She nodded at me. “You’re the research expert.”

Research expert. That meant I was good at asking Alistair questions. “Alistair, can you find any neuroscientific references containing the two words ‘life’ and ‘withdrawn’ or their derivatives?”

He processed through the Grid for a moment. “There are no such references.”

“Can you find any such religious references, including from the biblical text?”

He found four: two Hindu writings, an Egyptian text, and a fourth-century Jewish reference to some obscure extrabiblical story.

We glanced at the writings. None shed much light. “Can you do a general search on all such references across the Grid?”

He found several dozen references. None of them meant much.

I turned to Abby. “Why don’t we go ahead and look in the Bible? The phrase Ray used isn’t found there verbatim, but reading through it might help us understand what he meant.”