Left Behind Series - The Remnant Part 31

"I was wonder if elevator still to not work."

"Yes " "Work?"

"No. "

"Not to work." Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

"Right."

"Okay. Howdy, English, how are you?"

"Fine. Good bye, sir."

"Bye bye to you."

Chloe set her Uzi, gripping it with her right hand, and reached with her left to open the door. As soon as Hannah stopped the car in the shadows of an alley three blocks from Chloe's target, she stepped out and moved quickly.

Tempted to look back or to glance from right to left for GC Peacekeepers, Chloe kept her eyes on the storefront, where earlier that day she had watched the bombing of Petra on television. The place was dark, but in the back were at least two apartments with lights burning.

She banged loudly on the gla.s.s door with the heel of her hand. It would be customary for the locals to ignore such a knock, a.s.suming a drunk was stumbling around at that hour of the night.

So she persisted until she heard someone call out, "Closed!"

She banged and banged some more. Finally a light and a door, and a craggy man in a bathrobe and slippers ventured out. "What is it? Who are you?"

"G!" she stage whispered. "Open up. Just a moment, please."

He came, scowling, but would not open the door. "What do you want?" "I have an urgent message for you, sir, but I don't want to yell it aloud."

He shook his head and unlatched the door but would open it only a couple of inches. "What's so urgent?"

"I wanted to tip you off, sir, about a sweep through this neighborhood tonight, probably later."

"A what? A sweep?"

"A raid."

"Looking for what?" he said, pointing to his forehead and his .

"For that," she said. "You are a loyal citizen, so we wanted to warn you early so you would not be alarmed."

"Well, you alarmed me!"

"I apologize. Good night."

He slammed and locked the door without a word, and Chloe hurried back to the car. "Well, that went well," she said. "Zap anybody?"

Hannah pulled away. "That?"

"With the ray gun."

"Is this how you cover your fear? Banter?"

"Must be. I'm numb all over."

"I saw no one, Chloe. I don't know what that means. Either they're very, very good, or we're paranoid."

"Probably both. We could hang around and see if the GC come looking for the underground."

"I hope you're not serious."

"of course not, but you have to admit it would be fun. Especially when they ask that old guy if he was tipped off about the raid."

"Where to now, Batgirl?" "I feel like we're sitting ducks, Hannah. We can't call Mac unless we know he's somewhere he can talk. Chang will tell us what he can when he can. I say we look for somewhere we can wait without being seen, and watch for Mac and George."

"You're dreaming."

Rayford had been a.s.signed a tent at Petra and was about to settle down for the night. He couldn't imagine sleeping after all he had experienced. As he studied the stars, he heard his phone, rolled up onto his side, and dug it out from his bag. He didn't recognize the calling number.

Rayford affected a Middle Eastern accent he was sure was awful.

"This is Atef Naguib," he said.

" Ray

"Who is calling, please?"

"I memorized two numbers," the caller said. "Yours and Chang's.

But this is not a secure phone, and I didn't want to expose him."

"Sebastian?" Rayford sat up. "They found you?"

"mho's they? I just busted loose. Is there a safe house around here? Somewhere I can crash until I figure a way out?"

Rayford was suddenly on his feet. He gushed the information about the Trib Force contingent in Greece and how Sebastian could get to the local Co op. "I'll get to Chang and have him let the others know."

Chapter.

MAC LAY in the dewy gra.s.s next to the Jeep, overcome with grat.i.tude though aware that neither he nor his team was out of the woods yet. His overheated body arched and drew in the night air, and he thanked G.o.d over and over for having given him the strength to run this far.

He had barely been able to respond when Chang told him all that had gone on, but it quickly became obvious that of the four fugitives in Greece, Chloe and Hannah were now in the most immediate danger.

They had been followed, were in a GC vehicle, were in Ptolemais, and did not dare try to get to the Co op, even on foot. They were heavily armed, but also inexperienced. George Sebastian had gone from most precarious to temporarily most secure, provided he had found the Co op.

Mac painfully sat up and leaned back against the car. He had longed for and yet dreaded this operation. He had wanted to spring George, but the odds were so bad. When it had started, he thrilled to how easy it had seemed to snow the locals. Then it had gone haywire and fallen nearly hopeless. Now, little credit to Mac, the whole multifaceted effort had become straightforward again. Mac now had one job: reunite with the other three and get out of Dodge.

Chang was inconsolable over not discovering the connection between Akbar and Stefanich before the operation started. Mac tried to tell him that the whole Global Community hierarchy was so new and spread out that no one could have antic.i.p.ated that those two would know each other. Chang had redeemed himself by breaking through the security and the ostensibly indecipherable codes. He and Mac now knew more about Stefanich's and the hostage takers' plans than they did. For one thing, Mac knew Sebastian was on the loose. Of Stefanich, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, and Elena, the only one who knew that was dead.

Through his fast yet thorough examination of the interaction between Akbar and Stefanich, Chang discovered they had hatched the plan to draw Mac and Chloe and Hannah into the woods. There they would get them to move to where they would be far outnumbered by GC forces, most of whom had no idea what was going on. Even if the tables had turned and Mac and his people had gotten the drop on the Peacekeepers, few would have known enough to give away the double cross.

The GC expected Mac's people to lead them to the Judah ite underground, then eventually be apprehended themselves. Johnson, Sebastian, Jinnah, and Irene would be reunited at local GC headquarters, then carted off to New Babylon as feathers in the cap of Stefanich, the newest palace member of Akbar's staff.