Assassins: Assignment: Jerusalem, Target: Antichrist Read Online Free PDF Page A

about Leah?”
    “I can only hope.”
    Buck’s phone chirped.
    “Where are you?” Chloe asked.
    “Running an errand with Floyd. Didn’t want to bother you.”
    “It bothered me to hear you take off and not know where you were going. Errands in broad daylight? Daddy’s not happy. He was supposed to go see T at the airport today.”
    “He can use Ken’s car.”
    “Too recognizable, but that’s not the point. No one knew where you guys went. Tsion’s worried.”
    Buck sighed. “Floyd’s not well and time is crucial. We’re on our way to Young Memorial. I’ll keep you posted.”
    “What’s―”
    “Later, hon. OK?”
    She hesitated. “Be careful, and tell Floyd we’ll pray.”

    “We shouldn’t be seen together a lot,” Mac said, and David and Annie nodded. “Except what would be normal. Anybody know you’re here now?”
    Annie shook her head. “I’ve got a meeting at ten tonight.”
    “I’m clear,” David said. “But there’s no normal workday anymore, in case you hadn’t noticed. You’ve got to wonder when Carpathia sleeps.”
    “I want to hear you guys’ stories, David,” Mac said. “I know you still have family in Israel. Where you from, Annie?”
    “Canada. I was flying here from Montreal when the earthquake hit. Lost my whole family.”
    “You weren’t a believer yet?”
    She shook her head. “I don’t guess I’d ever been to church except for weddings and funerals. We didn’t care enough to be atheists, but that’s what we practiced. Would have called ourselves agnostics. Sounded more tolerant, less dogmatic. We were tight. Good people. Better than most religious people we knew.”
    “But you weren’t curious about God?”
    “I started wondering after the disappearances, but we became instant devotees of Carpathia. He was like a voice of reason, a man of compassion, love, peace. I applied to work for the cause as soon as the U.N. changed its name and announced plans to move here. The day I was accepted was the happiest of my life, of our whole family’s life.”
    “What happened?”
    “Losing them all happened. I was devastated. I’d been scared before, sure. Knew some people who had disappeared and some who had died in all that happened later. But I had never lost anyone close, ever. Then I lose my mom and dad and my two younger brothers in the earthquake, not to mention half our town, while I’m merrily in the sky. We wind up landing in the sand at Baghdad Airport, see other planes go down. I find out GC headquarters is demolished, finally report to the underground shelter, and see the ruins of my little suburb on CNN . I was a mess for days, crying, praying to who-knows-who, pleading with Communications for word about my family. They were slower than I was on the Internet, so I just kept searching. I finally found dozens of names I knew on the confirmed dead list. I didn’t even want to look under C, but I couldn’t stop myself.”
    Annie bit her lip.
    “You don’t have to talk about it if―”
    “I want to, Mr. McCullum. It’s just that it seems like yesterday. I checked into un-enlisting, going back for memorial services, looking into claiming the bodies. But that wasn’t allowed. Mass cremations for health reasons. There wasn’t even anyone left to commiserate with. I wanted to kill myself.”
    David put a hand on her shoulder. “Tell him what you found on the Net.”
    “You must know,” Annie said, looking up with moist eyes. Mac nodded. “I first saw all the rebuttals of Dr. Ben-Judah coming from the shelter. That was even before I found his Web site. When the GC made noises about making it illegal to even access that site, I had to see it. I was still a blind loyalist, but Carpathia preaches individual freedom even while he’s denying it. The whole praying thing scared me. I had never given God a second thought. Now I wished he were there for me. I had no one else.”
    “So you found Tsion.”
    “I found his home page. I couldn’t believe it.