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"What do you recommend?"
"Chopper."
"You up for it, George?"
"You don't have to ask twice."
Buck had seen vapor appear above the water inlets on cool mornings, but he had
never seen the Pacific emit steam as far as the eye could see. "Do you believe
this?" he said.
"I'll believe anything now," George said.
Buck was reduced to silence as fires broke out all over what was left of San
Diego. The closer it got to midday, the brighter the sky became. Houses and
buildings no
longer began smoking and smoldering and finally kindling. Now they shimmered
and shook, windows bursting, roofs curling, then whole structures exploding
and sending flames and sparks showering about.
George cruised back over the ocean, where Buck saw the sand change colors
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before creeping carpets of flame began dancing about. The waves brought the
bubbling water in, and it hissed and boiled as it touched the blistering
shore. Without warning, the entire ocean reached the boiling point and became
a roiling cistern of giant bubbles, sending a fog of steam that blocked
Buck's view of the sky and sun. The chopper was engulfed in white so pure and
thick that Buck feared Sebastian would lose control.
"Totally on instruments now, friend," George said.
The helicopter bounced and shook in the soup as they thwock thwock thwocked
toward the shore. Sebastian was half a mile inland before they escaped the
steam cloud and peered down on the burning grasses and neighborhoods.
"What's the boiling temperature of blood?" Buck asked.
"Not a clue," George said, but he immediately banked and headed toward the San
Diego River.
"Whatever it is," Buck said, "we've reached it." He gawked at the huge crimson
bubbles that formed and burst, emitting a fine spray that rose with the steam.
"Agh! " he said, grimacing and holding his nose. "Let's get out of here."
The Tribulation Force was free to come and go, as long as they were careful to
plan their travel into time
zones that kept them in daylight as long as possible. The only relief for the
Global Community forces and citizens with the mark of loyalty was to stay
inside below ground level and invent ways to take the edge off the suffocating
heat. Even then, hundreds of thousands died when their dwellings burned and
fell in on them.
Homes and buildings were largely allowed to burn themselves out, as
firefighters could not venture out until well after dark.
Gardens, crops, grasses died. The polar ice caps melted faster than at any
other time in history, and tsunamis threatened every port city. Shores and
coastlines were buried under floods, and the dump of dead sea creatures washed
miles onto land. Had it not been for people having moved inland to avoid the
stench and bacteria in the first place, more lives would have been lost.
In the midst of such turmoil and grief, Rayford and Chloe worked harder than
ever to rearrange their storehouses of goods and products traded through the
International Commodity Co op.
Knowing their time was limited, they took advantage of everyone's obsession
with finding shelter and relief from the sun. They strategized with Chang to
move equipment and aircraft around and created new warehousing and
distribution centers, preparing for the last year of existence on a wounded
planet.
In New Babylon, Carpathia himself insisted the heat did not bother him. Chang
overheard people in maintenance repeatedly ask whether he wanted draperies
over the
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second story of his penthouse office. Even the ceiling was transparent. The
sun was magnified through the glass and roasted his office for hours every
day, making the entire rest of the floor uninhabitable. Krystall was relocated
deep in the bowels under Building D and had to communicate with him via
intercom all day. No meetings could be held in his conference room or office,
but he spent most of the day there, ordering people about via telephone or
intercom.
Executives on lower floors had their windows replaced, then taped and coated
and even painted black, and most other employee offices were moved to the
basement of the vast complex. Chang's department worked only at night, so he
was often able to listen in as Nicolae hummed or sang softly as he worked in
his office all day.
"I will sunbathe in the courtyard while the mortals eat," he told
Krystall one day at noon. Chang snuck to a corner window where he scraped a
hole in the coating. He was appalled to see the potentate strip to his
trousers and undershirt and lie on a concrete bench, hands behind his head, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]