Left Behind: A Novel Of Earth's Last Days Read Online Free PDF Page A

him by phone to his home. He was laughed off. “Sorry, Captain, but phone lines are so jammed and phone personnel so spotty that the only hope is to get a dial tone and use a phone with a redial button.”
    Rayford filled the passengers in on the extent of the phenomenon and pleaded with them to remain calm. “There is nothing we can do on this plane that will change the situation. My plan is to get you on the ground as quickly as possible in Chicago so you can have access to some answers and, I hope, some help.”

    The in-flight phone embedded in the back of the seat in front of Buck Williams was not assembled with external modular connections the way most phones were. Buck imagined that Pan-Con Airlines would soon be replacing these relics to avoid complaints from computer users. But Buck guessed that inside the phone the connection was standard and that if he could somehow get in there without damaging the phone, he could connect his computer’s modem directly to the line. His own cellular phone was not cooperating at this altitude.
    In front of him, Harold’s wife rocked and whimpered, her face buried in her hands. The executive next to Buck snored. Before drinking himself into oblivion soon after takeoff, he had said something about a major meeting in Scotland. Would he be surprised by the view upon landing!
    All around Buck, people cried, prayed, and talked. Flight attendants offered snacks and drinks, but few accepted. Having preferred an aisle seat for a little more legroom, Buck was now glad he was partially hidden near the window. He removed from his computer bag a tiny tool kit he had never expected to use, and went to work on the phone.
    Disappointed to find no modular connection even inside the housing, he decided to play amateur electrician. These phone lines always have the same color wires, he decided, so he opened his computer and cut the wire leading to the female connector. Inside the phone, he cut the wire and sliced off the protective rubber coating. Sure enough, the four inner wires from both computer and phone looked identical. In a few minutes, he had spliced them together.
    Buck tapped out a quick message to his executive editor, Steve Plank, in New York, telling of his destination. “I will bang out all I know, and I’m sure this will be just one of many similar stories. But at least this will be up to the minute, as it happens. Whether it will be of any use, I don’t know. The thought hits me, Steve, that you may be among the missing. How would I know? You know my computer address. Let me know you’re still with us.”
    He stored the note and set up his modem to send it to New York in the background, while he was working on his own writing. At the top of the screen a status bar flashed every twenty seconds, informing him that the connection to his ramp on the information superhighway was busy. He kept working.
    The senior flight attendant startled him several pages into his own reflections and feelings. “What in the world are you doing?” she said, leaning in to stare at the mess of wires leading from his laptop to the in-flight phone. “I can’t let you do that.”
    He glanced at her name tag. “Listen, beautiful Hattie, are we or are we not looking at the end of the world as we know it?”
    “Don’t patronize me, sir. I can’t let you sit here and vandalize airline property.”
    “I’m not vandalizing it. I’m adapting it in an emergency. With this I can hopefully make a connection where nothing else will work.”
    “I can’t let you do it.”
    “Hattie, can I tell you something?”
    “Only that you’re going to put that phone back the way you found it.”
    “I will.”
    “Now.”
    “No, I won’t do that.”
    “That’s the only thing I want to hear.”
    “I understand that, but please listen.”
    The man next to Buck stared at him and then at Hattie. He swore, then used a pillow to cover his right ear, pressing his left against the seat back.
    Hattie grabbed a