Soul Harvest: The World Takes Sides by Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins Read Free Book Online Page A

But when he caught sight of the craft, he was astounded to see it was just one, big as a bus. The only other he’d seen like it was in the Holy Land during an air attack years before.
    But this one, setting down just a hundred or so yards away, resembled those old gray-and-black Israeli transport choppers only in size. This was sparkling white and appeared to have just come off the assembly line. It carried the huge insignia of the Global Community.
    “Do you believe this?” Buck asked.
    “What do you make of it?” Tsion said.
    “No idea. I just hope they’re not looking for you.”
    “Frankly, Cameron, I think I have become a very low priority to the GC all of a sudden, don’t you?”
    “We’ll find out soon enough. Come on.”
    They dropped their axes and crept back to the upturned pavement that had served as Loretta’s street not that many hours before. Through a gouge in that fortress they saw the GC copter settle next to a toppled utility pole. A high-tension wire snapped and crackled on the ground while at least a dozen GC emergency workers piled out of the aircraft. The leader communicated on a walkie-talkie, and within seconds power was cut to the area and the sparking line fell dead.
    The leader directed a wire cutter to snip the other lines that led to the power pole.
    Two uniformed officers carried a large circular metal framework from the helicopter, and technicians quickly jury-rigged a connection that fastened it to one end of the now bare pole. Meanwhile, others used a massive earth drill to dig a new hole for the pole. A water tank and fast-setting concrete mixer dumped a solution in the hole, and a portable pulley was anchored on four sides by two officers putting their entire weight on its metal feet at each corner. The rest maneuvered the quickly refashioned pole into position. It was drawn up to a forty-five degree angle, and three officers bent low to slide its bottom end into the hole. The pulley tightened and straightened the pole, which dropped fast and deep, sending the excess concrete solution shooting up the sides of the pole.
    Within seconds, everything was reloaded into the helicopter and the GC team lifted off. In fewer than five minutes, a utility pole that had borne both electrical power and telephone lines had been transformed.
    Buck turned to Tsion. “Do you realize what we just saw?”
    “Unbelievable,” Tsion said. “It is now a cellular tower, is it not?”
    “It is. It’s lower than it should be, but it will do the trick. Somebody believes that keeping the cell areas functioning is more important than electricity or telephone wires.”
    Buck pulled his phone from his pocket. It showed full power and full range, at least in the shadow of that new tower. “I wonder,” he said, “how long it will be before enough towers are up to allow us to call anywhere again.”
    Tsion had started back toward the garage. Buck caught up with him. “It cannot be long,” Tsion said. “Carpathia must have crews like this working around the clock all over the world.”

    “We better get heading back soon,” Mac said.
    “Oh sure,” Rayford said. “I’m going to let you take me back to Carpathia and his safe shelter before you tell me something about my own wife that I’ll hate worse than knowing she’s dead?”
    “Ray, please don’t make me say any more. I said too much already. I can’t corroborate any of this stuff, and I don’t trust Carpathia.”
    “Just tell me,” Rayford said.
    “But if you respond the way I would, you won’t want to talk about what I want to talk about.”
    Rayford had nearly forgotten. And Mac was right. The prospect of bad news about his wife had made him obsess over it to the exclusion of anything else important enough to talk about.
    “Mac, I give you my word I’ll answer any question you have and talk about anything you want. But you must tell me anything you know about Amanda.”
    Mac still seemed reluctant. “Well, for one thing, I do know