Read Online Apollyon: The Destroyer Is Unleashed by Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins - Free Book Online Page B

put the other over her as soon as I get her in there.”
    He wrestled Hattie into the car, her head near the far rear door. When Rayford draped the other blanket over her, Floyd got in and lay her feet across his lap. Rayford jumped into the front seat, and Floyd said, “Don’t hold back, Ken. Get us there as fast as you can.”
    Apparently that was all Ken needed to hear. He gunned the engine and backed out the way he had pulled in. He slid to a dusty stop, then spun over the ruts in the torn-up road in front of the house. They bumped and banged and nearly rolled a couple of times as he set a course for Palatine.
    “Am I bouncin’ too much?” he asked.
    “You’re not going to do either of them any more harm. Speed is more important than comfort now!” Floyd said. “Ray, help me.”
    Rayford twisted in his seat and grabbed Hattie’s wrist as the doctor wrapped both arms around her ankles. They steadied her as Ken pushed the car to its limits. Only one short stretch of paved road existed between the house and the hospital. Ken opened the Rover all the way over that quarter mile, and when he hit dirt at the end of it, the vehicle nearly went airborne.
    When the hospital came into view, Floyd said, “Find Emergency.”
    “Can’t do that,” Ken said. “I don’t know the woman’s name. I just saw her mark, and she works up front near Reception, not in Emergency. I say we pull up there and let me run in and find her. If she can get us an operating room, the fastest way would be to take Hattie right through the front door.”
    Floyd nodded, and Ken steered up onto the sidewalk near the entrance. “Go, Ken. Ray, help me with her.”
    Rayford jumped out and opened the door near Hattie’s head. She was unconscious. “I don’t like this,” the doctor said.
    “Let me take her,” Rayford said. “Just push her toward me, and then you lead the way in and talk to the woman if Ken’s found her.”
    “I’ve got her, Ray.”
    “Just do it!”
    “You’re right,” Floyd said, and he pushed as Rayford pulled and gathered Hattie to him. She felt as light as a little girl, despite her pregnancy. He wrestled with the blanket and charged up the steps behind Floyd. The woman with the mark of the cross on her forehead followed Ken toward the door, terror on her face.
    “You brothers are going to get me in trouble,” she said. “What have we got here?”
    “She’s about to miscarry,” Floyd said. “Are you certified in the OR?”
    “Years ago. I’ve been behind a desk since―”
    “I can’t trust anyone else. Lead us to an OR now.”
    “But―”
    “Now, dear!”
    The receptionist, a teenager, stared at them. The woman said, “Point those eyes elsewhere and keep your mouth shut. Got it?”
    “Didn’t see a thing,” the girl said.
    “What’s your name, ma’am?” Floyd said as they followed her down a corridor.
    “Leah.”
    “I recognize your risk, Leah. We appreciate it.”
    Leah peered at Hattie as she opened the operating room door and pointed at the table. “I’m not her sister, apparently.”
    Floyd stared at her. “So we let her die, is that it?”
    “I didn’t mean that, Doctor. You are a doctor?” He nodded. “I just meant, you’re going to a lot of trouble and danger for someone who isn’t, you know―”
    “One of us?” he said, rushing to the scrubbing area. He grabbed a gown from a stack and headed to the sink. “Scrub with me. You’re going to assist.”
    “Doctor, I―”
    “Let’s go, Leah. Now.”
    She stepped beside him at the sink. Ken stood near the still unconscious Hattie. Rayford felt useless, waiting between the table and the scrub room. “Are we messing up the sterile environment in here?” he asked.
    “Try not to touch anything,” Floyd said. “We’re breaking a lot of rules.”
    “I wasn’t implying―,” Leah began.
    “Faster,” Floyd said, scrubbing more quickly than Rayford imagined it could be done. “We want to give this girl every chance to