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

Rayford had walked perhaps a quarter of a mile north from the terminal, easily slipping past men and women clearly younger than he but who shuffled along with the painful gait of the elderly.
"In our effort to keep you totally informed," Fortu-nato announced, "we bring some encouraging news. While it remains true that no light is being emitted in New Babylon, this puzzling phenomenon has not affected telephone or radio transmission. Our heating and cooling systems remain functional. Your stoves even work, unless they are solar powered. Electric and gas stoves will still burn and radiate heat, though you will not see it, so be extremely careful.
"Pilots flying from New Babylon or toward her when this darkness occurred report that it is confined to the city. As we do not know how long this will last, be assured that if you can follow a path that leads you beyond our borders, you will eventually reach light."
From all around, Rayford heard determination on the parts of the sufferers. "I'm going," one said.
"Me too. I don't know where or how, but I'm getting to the light somehow."
"Does anyone have a Braille compass? We'll wander in circles without one."
"Attention," Fortunato broke in again, "all senior command personnel are to meet in the potentate's office at 1500 hours."
Rayford studied his watch. It's one-fifteen. How are they going to pull that off by three in the afternoon?
"Use audio clocks," Fortunato said. "It is now 1315 hours. At 1430 hours we shall turn off all loudspeakers except for the ones on the tower near the west entrance of the palace. Follow the sound there and you should be able to make your way to the meeting. Elevators are operational. The bottom right button is the top floor. Attendance is mandatory but limited to command-level personnel."
"I'm going anyway," someone said.
"So am I. Get to the bottom of this."
"Find out what the deal is."
"He's supposed to be god incarnate; why can't he do something?"
Rayford blinked, then blinked again. In the distance he thought he saw light. He was getting farther from the plane and from where Chang and Naomi and Abdullah were, but if worse came to worst, he could follow com-mand personnel to the palace entrance at two-thirty and find his people from there. For now, he had to investi-gate the light.


Chloe was four clicks into her intermittent scan now, looking due east. As she studied the dark landscape she detected a pair of pinpricks of light. She held her breath as they became larger. Whatever they represented was drawing closer. Soon it became clear it was a car or truck. It rolled to within a block of the compound, stopped, and turned around. Now she saw only the red taillights. And there it sat. For ten minutes, then another five.
Chloe hurriedly scanned the rest of the way around. Nothing. One more click and she was back to the east section and the idle vehicle. No way she was going to wake Buck for this. It wasn't as if those in the compound expected no traffic outside. But there wasn't much else in the area, certainly nothing worth stopping for at this time of the night.
Chloe wished the periscope had a telescope feature so she could home in on the vehicle and see whether anyone was emerging. The compound's hidden vehicle bay, used only at night when they knew the area was clear, opened to the east. Dare she head that way for a closer look? An individual service door, hidden next to the big one, would allow her to peek out if she kept the inside lights off. She would be a hundred yards closer. And it wasn't like she was planning to actually venture outside.
Chloe pulled a black sweat suit with a hood from the closet and put it on over her pajamas and sweatshirt. Over thick woolen socks she laced high-top hiking boots. She took the Uzi but not the walkie-talkie. She didn't want any unintended transmission to give her away. And she did not intend to get herself into a situation where she'd need to call for help. The Uzi was just for peace of mind. So was the prayer: "Lord, help me or forgive me, one of the two."
Chloe quietly opened Kenny's door yet again. He hadn't moved. She felt his cheek. Moist with sleep but comfort-ably warm. She kissed his forehead. Cool and soft.
Shutting his door, she made her way to where Buck slept and planted a knee on the mattress next to his midsection. She leaned to kiss him, holding his head. If he were anything but sound asleep, that would have roused him. In the darkness Chloe was struck by the contrast between her dark clothing and her skin, which hardly ever saw the sun.
She found gloves and a ski mask, and by the time she was in the corridor that led past other underground quarters to the vehicle bay, Chloe was sweating. Their place was in the center of the complex, and four wings led to everyone else's places. She crept past the Sebas-tians', three other families' places, a bank of single men's residences-including Ree Woo's and her own father's-two more family places, then a mixture of family and single quarters, including Ming's.
Everybody knew Big George was on watch tonight and that Buck Williams, in charge when Rayford was gone, was first alternate. That must have been why everyone seemed to be sleeping so soundly.


Rayford broke away from the tentative crowd and headed toward the light. Was it his imagination? Past twenty feet all was foggy anyway, and no one near him seemed able to see anything, let alone what he saw. The closer he got, the more the light appeared to be the silhouette of a person, but he saw nothing else and guessed it was still fifty yards away. When he had worked at the palace and lived nearby, the garages and motor pool had been in that area.
Had someone figured a way to produce light? Rayford had passed through small groups of limping people, and now it appeared nothing stood between him and this ... this what? Apparition? It looked merely bright from a distance, but soon the color became more distinct. First red, then yellowish, and finally, a deep burnt orange. Yes, clearly a person, specifically a man, tall and lithe. And moving.
Others were within a few feet of the man, using his light to work on vehicles. They seemed in pain like every-one else, but they worked with dispatch, as if invigorated by the light. The glowing man appeared to be able to see as far as he radiated, about three feet. Anyone who needed light had to be that close to him.
Rayford realized it was Carpathia. Dr. Ben-Judah had often taught that this same person came first as a lying snake, then as a roaring lion, and finally as an angel of light. Rayford had to stifle a chuckle. The devil in Nicolae surely wished he could emit more than this pathetic glow that allowed him to identify only those within a few feet of him.
Rayford moved until he was among a small crowd just outside the circle of mechanics trying to ready several vehicles for some purpose he did not yet understand.
"All systems are functional?" Carpathia said.
"Yes, Potentate. The jeep is operational."
"Turn on the lights."
The mechanic did. "You can hear the drain on the electrical system, so juice is flowing, Excellency, but as you can see-"
"As we can all see or not," Carpathia said, "no lights. Well, if I must, I will walk ahead of the convoy until we pass through the darkness on the way to Al Hillah. I do not care how long it takes."
What kind of a strategy was this? The brass will meet in Carpathia's office, and then he will lead them to Al Hillah? For what? And what about the thousands remaining in New Babylon? Wouldn't they want to follow, to find relief?
"What's in Al Hillah?" Rayford said.
"Who is asking?" Carpathia said. "And why do you not address me with a title of honor?"
Nicolae was looking in Rayford's direction, but it was obvious he could see no farther than anyone else within range of his hellish aura. As Nicolae moved forward, Rayford moved back and to his left, then circled around behind Carpathia.
"Yeah," Rayford said in a slightly different tone. "What is in Al Hillah, 0 Great One?"
Nicolae whirled around, and Rayford slipped away again. "I was speaking to the original questioner! Who is asking?"
"Perhaps he fled in fear," Rayford said with a gravelly voice, "Excellency."
This could be fun.


Chloe had known the long passageway to the vehicle bay to be cold and damp most of the time, and perhaps it was now. But in her getup and in her state of mind, mov-ing quickly up the incline past the vehicles and toward where the doors opened to ground level, she had grown uncomfortably warm. She removed her gloves and ski mask, chiding herself for having them on before she needed them anyway. Chloe lowered the zipper on the sweatshirt, then squatted to cool down and catch her breath with her back against the dirt wall between the bay door and the service door.
Being that close to the surface and the outside gave Chloe a delicious feeling of freedom. Less than a year to real freedom.
Her knees soon burned, so she slid to the earthen floor and straightened her legs. Setting her weapon aside, she reached for the toes of her boots, alternately stretching her right and left sides. Despite her many serious injuries, she was proud that her duties in Greece had proved she was still in remarkable shape. She zipped her sweatshirt to her neck, pulled the ski mask over her face, raised the hood over that, tugged on her gloves, put the strap of the Uzi over her head so the weapon rested on her right hip and in her right hand, then stood and turned to the service door.
There could be no slight opening of the bay door. That was an all or nothing deal. The glued-on sand and dirt and greenery moved as one, and the thing was either fully open or shut. But the service door, though camouflaged the same way, she could open as slowly and slightly as she wanted. She flipped off the light and gripped the doorknob.