#0083: Left Behind #5: Apollyon, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

[orbitaldiamonds]

Left Behind #5: Apollyon
by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

p.70 And the elder said, 'These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'

p.74-75 With the singsong cadence necessary to keep the interpreters on pace, Fortunato addressed the crowd anew. "As supreme commander of the Global Community and as one who has personally benefited from his supernatural ability to perform miracles, it shall be my pleasure in a moment to introduce you to His Excellency, Global Community potentate Nicolae Carpathia!"
     Fortunato had ended with a flourish, as if expecting cheering and applause. He stood smiling and -- to Buck's mind -- embarrassed and perturbed when no one responded. No one even moved. Every eye was on Fortunato except Tsion's.
     Leon quickly gathered himself. "His Excellency will personally welcome you, but first I would like to introduce the revered head of the new Enigma Babylon One World Faith, the supremem pontiff, Pontifex Maximus, Peter the Second!"
     Fortunato swept grandly back, beckoning to the helicopter, from which emerged the comical figure of the man Buck knew as Peter Mathews, former archbishop of Cincinnati. He had become pope briefly after the disappearance of the previous pontiff but was now the amalgamator of nearly every religion on the globe save Judaism and Christianity.
     Mathews had somehow emerged from the helicopter with style, despite being garbed in the most elaborate clerical garb Buck had ever seen. "What in the world is that?" Chloe said.
     Buck watched agape as Peter the Second lifted his hands to the crowd and turned slowly in a circle as if to include everybody in his pompous and pious greeting. He wore a high, peaked cap with an infinity symbol on the front and a floor-length, iridescent yellow robe with a long train and billowy sleeves. His vestments were bedecked with huge, inlaid, brightly colored stones and appointed with tassels, woven cords, and bright blue, crushed velvet stripes, six on each sleeve, as if he had earned some sort of a double doctorate from the Black Light Discotheque University. Buck covered his moth to stifle a laugh. When Mathews turned around, he revealed astrological signs on the train of his robe.
     His hands moved in circles as if to bless everyone, and Buck wondered how he felt about hearing nothing from the audience. Would Carpathia dare face this indifference, this hostility?

p.79 sartorial

p.126 He didn't consider himself a lunatic, despite his own admittedly unrealistic wishes to be God's hit man.

p.131 magnanimously

p.136 élan

p.167 klieg lights

p.204 "Little spitfire hung up on me. You gotta like her spunk, though. And she is a gorgeous thing, ain't she?"
     Rayford shook his head. "Ritz, you've got to be on the feminists' top ten most wanted list. Man, what a throwback!"

p.249 "You can't see your own, Stefan. Only others can see yours."

p.328 Pentacost?

p.403 You know, Mr. Williams, I heard something on the Condor a few days before the locusts attacked that proved one of Dr. Ben-Judah's points. Remember when he wrote that this period is not just a grand war between good and evil, but also a war between evil and evil? I think his point was that we were to love each other and make sure that the crises don't turn us on each other and spur fights between good and good. But anyway, Mathews and Saint Nick and the ever present Leon-my-whole-Fortunato-is-tied-to-your-Excellency are aboard the Condor 216. (I finally figured out the significance of Carpathia's obsession with that number, by the way. Well, actually, David told me. He thought everybody knew. Your quiz for the week.)

NAMES: Tyrola, Delanty, Lukas, Miklos, Laslos