"LaHaye, Tim - Left Behind 11 - Armageddon" - читать интересную книгу автора (LaHaye Tim)

Kenny shook his head. "I want Mommy."
"She'll be back later."
The boy closed his eyes.
Buck looked at Priscilla, biting his lip and unable to stanch the tears. "This is the part I'm going to hate," he mouthed, his chest convulsing. Kenny roused, but Buck tucked the boy's head under his chin and wrapped both arms around him, rocking. And weeping.
Priscilla pushed Beth Ann toward her dad and leaned close to Buck. "Don't you dare give up, Buck. None of us are."
Chloe wanted to call everybody she knew, but she had little question she'd been set up. It had all been too easy. The global positioning system in her father's phone would tell the GC right where he was. She had assumed Petra, but from the ambient sounds, he was in the air. How long had he and Abdullah been in New Babylon if he was just heading back now? It didn't compute. Of course he would have been informed of her disappear-ance. Maybe he was on his way home. She only hoped he could get rid of the phone before getting close to California. The last thing she wanted was to lead the GC right to the safe house.
Chloe reached as high as she could and pushed the phone through an opening in the cage. It flew about eight feet before landing on the floor and breaking into pieces. "Oops," she said. "And after that nice man entrusted it to me."
Inside a minute Custodian returned, still dressed the same but this time with no props. No bucket, no cleansers, no rags. No smile either. He knelt to pick up the pieces.
"Thanks for the use of your phone. That was most thoughtful. Maybe you could smuggle me in a cake with a file in it or get word to my people. Sorry about the damage."
"That's all right, doll," he said, not looking at her. "We got what we needed. Looks like Daddy's just off the East Coast. Gotta think he's due to refuel by now. Should be able to alert the most likely airports. You wanna do yourself a favor, work with Jock. He's a fair guy. No, he really is. I'm not saying he's got your best interests at heart, but he's a realist. You've got what he wants, and he knows that's going to cost him."
"Well, then by all means, friend, tell Jock I'm ready to wheel and deal. I'll give him everything he wants, now that I know he's fair. I mean, I heard that from you, and I've known you long enough to trust you completely."
"Be as much of a smart aleck as you want, kid. See where it gets ya. Oh, by the way, Nigel's got your energy bar. Should I tell him you're hungry?"
Chloe sat on the metal bed. She was famished but still more proud than desperate. "Nah. I had a big breakfast. I couldn't eat another thing just yet."
"Maybe some television then."
"Spare me. I've heard enough propaganda to last a lifetime."
"But it's time for the news."
"Oh yes, the eminently objective Global Community News Network. Hey, okay, all right! That's plenty loud enough!"
He ignored her, leaving the volume up and heading for the door.
"Turn it down, please! Sir?"
"Can't hear you," he said. "TV's too loud."
Jock must have been choreographing everything. The five o'clock news was just coming on, Anika Janssen anchoring live from Detroit.
"Good evening. Darkness continues to plague Global Community International Headquarters in New Babylon at this hour. It is confined to the borders of the city and is believed to be an act of aggression on the part of dissi-dents against the New World Order.
"GC Chief of Security and Intelligence Suhail Akbar spoke with us by phone earlier from the beleaguered capital. In spite of the turmoil there, he reports good news, constituting our top story tonight."
"Yes, Anika," Akbar said, "following months of care-ful planning and cooperation between the various law -enforcement branches of the Global Community, we are happy to report that a combined task force of crack agents from both our Peacekeeping and Morale Monitor divisions has succeeded in apprehending one of the top -echelon Judah-ite terrorists in the world.
"The arrest was made before dawn today in San Diego after months of planning. I'd rather not go into the details of the operation, but the suspect was dis-armed and arrested without incident. Her name is Chloe Steele Williams, twenty-six, a former campus radical at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, from which she was expelled six years ago after making threats on the lives of the administration."
"Thank you, Chief Akbar. We have further learned that Mrs. Williams is the daughter of Rayford Steele, who once served as pilot for Global Community Supreme Potentate Nicolae Carpathia. He was fired some years ago for insubordination and drinking while on duty, and GC intelligence believes his resentment led to his current role as an international terrorist. He was implicated in the conspiracy to assassinate Potentate Carpathia and is a known associate of former Israeli statesman and now leading Judah-ite Dr. Chaim Rosen-zweig. Both are known to serve on the cabinet of Rabbi Tsion Ben-Judah, head of the Judah-ites, the last hold-outs in opposition to the New World Order.
"Mrs. Williams is the wife of Cameron Williams, for-merly a celebrated American journalist who also worked directly for the potentate before losing his job due to differences in management style. He edits a subversive cyber and printed magazine with a limited circulation.
"Williams, his wife, and her father are international fugitives in exile, wanted for more than three dozen mur-ders around the world. Mrs. Williams herself heads a black-market operation suspected of hijacking billions of Nicks' worth of goods around the world and selling them for obscene profits to others who cannot legally buy and sell due to their refusal to pledge loyalty to the potentate.
"The Williamses, who have amassed a fortune on the black market, have one child remaining after Mrs. Williams apparently aborted two fetuses and an older daughter died under questionable circumstances. The son, whom they have named Jesus Savior Williams, pictured here, is two years old. Acquaintances report that the Williamses believe he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, who will one day conquer Nicolae Carpathia and return the globe to Christianity."
Chloe sat staring at a toddler, clearly not Kenny Bruce, who had a Bible in his lap and wore a tiny T-shirt that read "Kill Carpathia!"
"Chief Akbar reports that his forces traced the leading cell of the Judah-ites in the United North American States to San Diego, where Mrs. Williams was appre-hended today. Local GC operatives there say she is already, quote, `singing like a bird, offering all kinds of information on her colleagues, including her own family, to avoid a death sentence.'
"Here's San Diego GCNN reporter Sue West with Colonel Jonathan `Jock' Ashmore. Sue?"
"Thank you, Anika. Colonel Ashmore, how important would you say this arrest is?"
"It's almost inestimable," Jock said, nervously tugging at his uniform jacket, which came short of covering his middle. "And Mrs. Williams has proved to be the typical terrorist who knows when it's time to bargain. When the reality hit her that she had been positively identified and we informed her of the overwhelming charges against her, it was only a matter of minutes before she began offering various deals to save her skin."
"Are you at liberty to say what some of those might be?"
"Not entirely, though she has already pledged to enroll her son in junior GC as soon as possible. She did reveal the whereabouts of a low-level Middle Eastern black marketer named Al Basrah, after the Iranian city of the same name."
"I believe that's in Iraq, Colonel, but go ahead."
"What?"
"Al Basrah is in Iraq, sir."
"Whatever. Anyway, this character shot himself to death rather than be arrested."
"We are about to show a picture of the dead Al Basrah," Sue West said, "but we warn you that the picture is very graphic."
Chloe stood and stared as the photo was displayed. It showed Albie with a black hole between lifeless eyes, a pool of blood behind his head. It was clearly him. But was it real or doctored?
Chloe shouted, "Jock! Jock! Nigel! Get Jock!" Her screams became sobs, and she demanded, "Is that true? I want to know if that's true! Is Albie dead? Tell me Albie's not dead!"
But no one came. No one responded. As the TV blared, Chloe slid to the floor, wailing, "God, please! No!"


SEVEN


"GOT ME a friend in Florida," Mac said. "Jacksonville. Co-op guy. We can refuel there and avoid the normal spots."