"Tim LaHaye & Jerry Jenkins - Left Behind Series 1 - Left Behind" - читать интересную книгу автора (LaHaye Tim)

The first stop was the Des Plaines Police Department, where Hattie disembarked.
Rayford advised her to ask for a ride home with the police if a squad car was
available. Most had been pressed into service in more congested areas, so that was
unlikely. “I'm only about a mile from here anyway!” Hattie shouted above the roar
as Rayford helped her from the chopper. “I can walk!” She wrapped her arms
around his neck in a fierce embrace, and he felt her quiver in fear. “I hope
everyone's OK at your place!” she said. “Call me and let me know, ok?”
He nodded.
“OK?” she insisted.
“OK!”
As they lifted off he watched her survey the parking lot. Spotting no squad cars, she
turned and hurried off, pulling her suitcase on wheels. By the time the helicopter
began to swing toward Mount Prospect, Hattie was trotting toward her
condominium.


Buck Williams had been the first passenger from his flight to reach the terminal at
O'Hare. He found a mess. No one waiting in line for a phone would put up with his
trying to plug his modem into it, and he couldn't get his cellular phone to work, so
he made his way to the exclusive Pan-Con Club. It, too, was jammed, but despite a
loss of personnel, including the disappearance of several employees while on the
job, some semblance of order prevailed. Even here people waited in line for the
phones, but as each became available, it was understood that some might try faxing
or connecting directly by modem. While Buck waited, he went to work again on his
computer, reattaching the inside modem cord to the female connector. Then he
called up the messages that he had quickly downloaded before landing.
The first was from Steve Plank, his executive editor, addressed to all field
personnel:


Stay put. Do not try to come to New York. Impossible here. Call when you can.
Check your voice mail and your Email regularly. Keep in touch as possible. We
have enough staff to remain on schedule, and we want personal accounts, on-the-
scene stuff, as much as you can transmit. Not sure of transportation and
communications lines between us and our printers, nor their employee levels. If
possible, we'll print on time. Just a note: Begin thinking about the causes. Military?
Cosmic? Scientific? Spiritual? But so far we're dealing mainly with what happened.
Take care, and keep in touch.


The second message was also from Steve and was for Buck's eyes only.


Buck, ignore general staff memo. Get to New York as soon as you can at any
expense. Take care of family matters, of course, and file any personal experience or
reflections, just like everyone else. But you're going to head up this effort to get at
what's behind the phenomenon. Ideas are like egos—everybody's got one.
Whether we'll come to any conclusions, I don't know, but at the very least we'll
catalog the reasonable possibilities. You may wonder why we need you here to do
this; I do have an ulterior motive. Sometimes I think because of the position I'm in,