Previously at 24 College Avenue: Through one way or the other, most of the residents are in Berlin for the World Cup final, along with several new friends they’ve met along the way, including a tour guide named Magdalena, a smuggler named Marcus, the Prince of Mubai, basketball teammates Chardonnay Knight and Camila Brabrickovich and a soccer hooligan for hire named Taliq. Josh, Marcus and Magdalena are convinced there will be a major terrorist attack by a religious fundamentalist group. Due to that possibility Katie Maynard, fresh out of boot camp, has been added to the Berlin security detail and Steve Harrison, photography intern with Stars and Stripes, has also been sent there on assignment. Meanwhile, Nicollette and Ahmed were arrested on trumped up suspicions they were involved in the terror plot. . . . .

The Special Ops agents reluctantly released Nicollette and Ahmed from their interrogation cells just hours before the start of the World Cup final. The President, a State College alumnus and passionate Red Devil fan, had seen the report on the arrest of Nicollette and Ahmed. Certain they were not terrorists planning an attack and fearing they might reveal his membership in Blood and Muscle, he ordered their immediate release along with a profuse apology that included tickets to the World Cup finale. Ahmed, naturally, refused them as a matter of principle – “I will accept no bribe from the corrupt U.S. government’’ – though he had second thoughts when he saw that they were a considerable upgrade over his own tickets in the far reaches of the stadium.

Nicollette, however, had accepted a ticket, along with a police escort to the stadium.

Built for the infamous 1936 Games, Berlin’s Olympic Stadium originally held 100,000 fans but has since been reconfigured to 76,000 seats, each and every once of which was so prized for the World Cup final that scalpers were asking $2,000 a piece – and getting it. Nicollette would have been tempted to sell hers – a couple thousand bucks would come in pretty handy – had the escort not driven her through the security gate and under the concourses without stopping. Anyone who was already at this point didn’t need a ticket.

“Enjoy the game,’’ the agent said with a distinct lack of sincerity when he opened the door for Nicollette.

“Don’t worry,’’ Nicollette repliec. “I will, now that I’m not wearing a black hood over my head.’’

She was in the maintenance area beneath the stadium. She looked around and saw vendors, stadium crews and security guards rushing around as the start of the pre-game festivities neared. She noticed a large group of young men and women wearing soccer costumes and carrying flags from around the globe. She recognized them as the “It’s a Small World’’ singers, the fundamentalist Christian group that traveled the globe entertaining and proselytizing. Great, Nicollette thought, the Super Bowl gets U2 and the Stones. And the World Cup gets “It’s a Small World.’’

“Nicollette!’’

She turned to the direction of the voice and saw Amy and Jessica, the girls she had met during the Yellow Jersey Bike Tour of Berlin. They rushed to her in a panic.

“Nicollette, what are you doing here?’’ Amy asked.

“You have to get out of here,’’ Jessica said. “Now!’’

Nicollette studied the girls’ faces. Were they kidding? It didn’t seem like it. But why would they want her to leave when she had the most coveted ticket in sports?

“What are you talking about?’’ she asked.

“I can’t say but trust us, you gotta leave,’’ Amy said. “We don’t want anything to happen to you.’’

“You’ve gotta tell me more than that.’’

Jessica and Amy exchanged glances/ Amy silently mouthed “Should we tell her?’’ and her friend shrugged her shoulders. Nicollette folded her arms across her chest. “Well?’’ she said. “Are you going to tell me what this is all about? Because I’m not leaving with a perfectly good World Cup ticket until you do.’’

Glancing nervously over her shoulder, Amy took Nicollette by the arm as she and Jessica ushered her out of sight behind a column.

“I shouldn’t be telling you this,’’ Jessica said. “but I will anyway.’’

“Because we became such good friends during that bike tour,’’ Amy added.

Such good friends? What the hell are they talking about, Nicollette thought. She talked to Amy and Jessica for maybe five minutes during the Yellow Jersey Bikes tour of Berlin. As soon as they invited her to a Bible study she moved away from them.

“Don’t tell anyone – we can trust you not to tell anyone can’t we? – but we’re going to release a virus into the stadium during our show.’’

Nicollette laughed at the thought. The ‘It’s a Small World’ singers and dancers releasing a killer virus? The very thought was ridiculous, a punchline to a silly joke. But then she looked at the girls’ expressions and she could tell they weren’t joking. They were serious. Deadly serious.

# # #

Josh sat gloomily at the wheel of the tour bus, gazing ahead toward the lights of Olympic Stadium that were just coming on in the dusk.

With Marcus insisting that his sources in the underworld were reliable and that there was a strong possibility of a terrorist attack at the World Cup, he had recovered his tour bus and started driving out of Berlin. It seemed like the right thing to do when they parted ways and Marcus drove off in his Land Cruiser. But as Josh neared the final exit for the autobahn, something had compelled him to stop and reconsider. He pulled off the road and down a narrow sidestreet and parked near a warehouse.

“Why you stop, Josh?’’ Magdalena asked from the seat behind him. “Marcus warned to get out of town before the game.’’

“I don’t know,’’ Josh replied. “I don’t doubt Marcus but I feel like I’m abandoning my friends.’’

“Is like he said, though. They know the risk, too, and could be with us on way to Prague but choose to stay instead. You cannot help them.’’

“Can’t I?’’ Josh said, getting out of the drivers seat and sitting down next to Magdalena. “They must have thought I was crazy. We show up at the cabaret show and I accuse Taliq of being a terrorist planning an attack when he’s just a soccer hooligan? Why would they believe me that there’s going to be an attack after I was so wrong? It’s like Chicken Little telling everyone the sky is falling.’’

Magdalena looked confused.

“What is this Chicken Little?’’ she asked. “Is it like the Kentucky Fried Chicken? I like the Kentucky Fried Chicken. Original and extra spicey.’’

Josh smiled. “No, it’s just an American thing. Like a parable. If you warn someone too many times and nothing happens, after awhile they stop taking you seriously.’’

“But don’t Americans still take government security warnings serious, yes?’’

“Yes, I guess so. But I think I have less credibility. I just wish they knew Marcus like we do. Then they would know that if he says something is going to happen, it happens. ‘’

“Oh, Josh, you are too gullible.,’’ Magdalena said, nuzzling up next to him. “He is smuggler. He might find your bus and your terrorist/hooligans but I know him very long time and he is usually, how you say, full of manure. Maybe he is right but maybe wrong, too. You should hear stories he tell girls to get them to have sex.’’

Josh looked into Magdalena’s eyes so intently he felt he was falling. “What sort of stories did he tell you?’’

She laughed. “You mean did we ever have sex? I do not know if this is your business. Maybe if you were my boyfriend I could tell you.’’

Josh suddenly found himself too nervous to speak. A minute earlier he worried about a terrorist attack and now all he could think about was whether he should kiss Magdalena. But he hadn’t brushed his teeth since they arrived in Berlin. He wondered whether his breath smelled. He also hadn’t showered in two days. He must stink. Even if she wanted to be kissed, he’d probably completely gross her out.

“Do you have a boyfriend? You probably have a lot. Someone as pretty and smart as you, you must have guys all over you. I mean, I don’t think you’re a slut or anything but well, you know what I mean. You must be very popular.’’

A slut? He had said “I don’t think you’re a slut?’’ Nice. That would really win her over. Magdalena was sitting there next to him, just waiting to be kissed and he was blowing it, BLOWING IT!

“Oh, Josh, you are silly,’’ she said and suddenly leaned forward and kissed him. She slipped her tongue between his lips and they began kissing passionately. A moment later, Josh was pulling off her t-shirt, she was unbuckling his shorts and the fear of terrorists disappeared from his mind.

And then there was a knock on the window.

“Hey there! You are in a restricted security zone! Where’s your pass?’’

Josh looked up and saw an M-16 pointed through the window at his face.

# # #

“Oh, my God. You’re serious, aren’t you?’’ Nicollette said. “You really mean to release a virus during the game that will kill a stadium filled with people.’’

“Don’t be silly, of course not,’’ Amy said, punching Nicollette lightly on the bicep. “We don’t want to kill anyone. Our virus will just make them sick. Like that stuff they give alcoholics? If they drink alcohol, they throw up over and over the next morning? Same thing with this. It will just make them sick. Well, really, really sick.’’

“And while they’re throwing up,’’ Jessica said, “they’ll reflect on their shallow lives and the need to embrace the lessons Jesus taught before it’s too late.’’

The two said this so earnestly that Nicollette couldn’t quite believe it. The girls were in their early 20s. Amy had freckles. Jessica had pigtails. They looked like they should be back in Kansas serving Blizzards at the drive-thru. Why would they plan such a horrible thing?

“Is this some sort of fundamentalist plot to trigger Revelations and the Rapture or whatever those Left Behind books are about?’’ Nicollette asked.

“No way! That’s exactly what we’re trying to PREVENT before it gets too late,’’ Jessica said. “Look around, Nicollette. Jesus taught us to live simply and love everyone and judge not. In Matthew 6:25-29 he warns us against materialism.’’

She and Amy began to recite in unison.

“ ‘This is why I tell you: do not be worried about the food and drink you need to stay alive, or about clothes for your body. After all, isn’t life worth more than food? And isn’t the body worth more than clothes? Look at the birds; they do not plant seeds, gather a harvest and put it in the barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren’t you worth much more than birds? Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it? And why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow; they do not work or make clothes for themselves. But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers.’’’

“Isn’t that a wonderful lesson?’’ Jessica asked. “And yet we’ve become a culture of materialism. From the moment we leave the womb, we receive nothing but endless propaganda that we must spend our entire lives acquiring things we don’t need. Did you know that children watch 40,000 TV commercials a year, all designed to get her to want something she never knew existed before?’’

Amy nodded. “Sugar-coated cereals with toy surprises. Barbie dolls. American Girl dolls. Video games. Credit cards and cell phones for children. Tennis shoes. Bling-bling. SUVs that get 12 miles to the gallon.’’

“And as soon as we get them,’’ Jessica said, “they tell us, ‘No, what you really need is something else.’ Not a record player, but a walk-man. No, not a walk-man, a CD player. No, not a CD player, an iPod. No, not that iPod, this much smaller iPod that you’re sure to forget about and leave in your pocket when you wash your clothes.’’

“And replica jerseys,’’ Amy complained. “God’s Ten Commandments instruct us to worship no false idols but that’s essentially what we do everyday when we wear replica jerseys that cost $150 and honor a chemically-enhanced athlete who is paid 200 times what a schoolteacher makes. You even see people wearing these jerseys to Church! Can you imagine – entering God’s house while wearing a jersey that praises Terrell Owens?’’

Jessica peered around the column to make sure the rest of the “It’s a Small World’’ performers hadn’t taken the field yet. They hadn’t.

“People complain that the media is biased to the left or the right but that’s not it at all. The media is biased to never question our materialist culture,’’ Jessica said. “If you do question it, you’re a radical. Unpatriotic. Even the so-called evangelical Christians – they push for tax cuts for the wealthiest American while fighting against a livable minimum wage for the poor. It’s like they believe that the first thing Jesus will do when he returns is repeal the estate tax.

“And what does this need for material things it lead to? Nothing but unhappiness. Unhappiness and our own destruction.’’

“Yes. God gave us a beautiful world and we’re destroying it,’’ Amy said. “Last year’s hurricanes were a warning. Global warming is melting the ice caps. Emissions are destroying the ozone. The rain forests are shrinking. Species are dying. And our dependence on oil has created crisis after crisis in the Middle East. We’re repeatedly taught to fear everything – that there are pedophiles and terrorists lurking behind every street corner – but the thing we must fear most is what we’ve become.’’

Jessica nodded. “Satan isn’t the root of evil -- our need for oil is. Our oil dependence has made the Holy Land a battleground. How awful is that, Nicollette? Hummers are turning Christian.against Muslim against Jew.’’

Nicollette was mesmerized. As crazy as the two were – how insane did you have to be to think you could convert someone by making them puke in the toilet all day? – some of what they said made sense. Hell, Nicollette often made some similar arguments to Katie during their many debates at the house.

“I never thought I’d be saying this to a bunch of right-wing fundamentalist Christians,’’ Nicollette said, “but I agree with part of what you’re saying.’’

“Thanks, we’re not a right-way fundamentalist Christian group,’’ Amy said. “We’re a left-wing fundamentalist Christian group.’’

“And we can’t take full credit for these arguments. We’re just repeating the lessons of Reverend Rainbow.’’

“Yes,’’ Jessica said. “Reverend Rainbow is our teacher.’’

“Reverend Rainbow?’’ Nicollette asked. “Who is Reverend Rainbow.’’

Jessica and Amy pointed toward tall, wirey man emerging from the “It’s a Small World’’ performers. He was wearing dreadlocks dyed in a rainbow of colors and handing out similarly styled wigs to each singer.

“That’s Reverend Rainbow,’’ Amy said. “Just don’t tell him we told you about the virus. He gets kind of angry sometimes.’’

# # #

“Jesus, Katie, you scared the hell out of me,’’ Josh said when he recognized the soldier was his old housemate.

“Josh?’’ Katie Maynard said, lowering her weapon. “What are you doing here?’’ She glanced at Magdalena, who was pulling her t-shirt back on. “I mean, what are you doing in Berlin? I can guess what you’re doing in the bus.’’

“Trust me, it’s a long story,’’ Josh said. “But basically I’m here as a tour guide for Europe in a Backpack travel company.’’

A sudden flash blinded him. “Smile!’’

Josh blinked several times until he was able to make out the figure in front of him. “What the %@&$, Steve!’’ he yelled. “You scared the hell out of me.’’

“Sorry about that,’’ Steve replied, shooting off several more photos of his friend. He pointed the lens at Magdalena. “Who’s your friend? Did someone finally get you to stop moping about Nicollette?’’

“Uhhh, this, this is Magdalena. I met her in Prague. Magdalena, this is Steve, one of my housemates. He’s interning with the U.S. military paper here, Stars and Stripes. And she’’ – he pointed at Katie as she boarded the bus – “is another housemate. Katie is in the Army.’’

Magdalena grabbed Josh’s hand. “How many people live in this house? I thought Americans all had big mansions to themselves, not have to crowd in a slum. And who is this Nicollette I keep hearing your housemates mention?’’

“Nicollette! Oh, my gosh – I didn’t tell you,’’ Katie said. “Nicollette and Ahmed were suspected of being part of a terror group planning to attack the World Cup. They were cleared but that’s why we’re here – to beef up security so no one tries anything.’’

Josh felt a chill. “You mean someone is really planning a terrorist attack?’’

“I don’t know but we aren’t taking any chances. Why, did you hear something?’’

Josh looked at Magdalena, who shook her head slightly.

“C’mon, Josh. If you heard something, you have to let me know. Lives could be at stake.’’

“Well,’’ he said. “I don’t know how reliable it is but someone told us that he’d heard there definitely was going to be an attack by religious fundamentalists.’’

Steve chuckled. “Yeah, that’s pretty helpful. No one would be expecting any religious fundamentalists. We’ll get right on that.’’

“He is just repeating what he hears,’’ Magdalena said, defending Josh. “That is not a reason to make fun.’’

“You’re right, it’s not,’’ Katie said. “Steve’s just a little on edge. We all are.’’

“So now what do we do?’’ Josh asked. “Just sit here and wait?’’

“You’ll have to,’’ Katie said. “I’m not sure how you got this bus past the perimeter zone but now that we’re 60 minutes inside of game time, no one else is allowed in or out. I’ll take you two inside where our security base is. You can watch the game on one of the monitors.’’

She led them over to the warehouse, where a handful of soldiers sat around a bank of TV monitors that showed multiple views of the stadium and the security perimeter.

“Please Josh,’’ Magdalena said, holding his hand as they sat down. “Who is this Nicollette? And why does everyone say her name as if they would like to do something with her?’’

“Who’s Nicollette? Just look at that monitor,’’ Steve said. “She’s right there.’’

Josh stared at the screen in disbelief as he saw Nicollette marching onto the field with the “It’s a Small World’’ singers.

Next: Sudden Death