Free Tribulation Force: The Continuing Drama Of Those Left Behind by Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins Page A

“But I find myself caring about what happens to her.”
    “I hear she’s taken a thirty-day leave of absence from Pan-Con.”
    “Yeah,” Rayford said, “but that’s just window dressing. You know Carpathia’s going to want to keep her around, and he’ll find the money to pay her more than she’s making with us.”
    “No doubt.”
    “She’s got to be enamored of the job, not to mention him. And who knows where that relationship might go?”
    “Like Bruce says, I don’t think he hired her for her brain,” Buck said.
    Rayford nodded. So they agreed. Hattie Durham was going to become one of Carpathia’s diversions. If there had ever been hope for her soul, it would be remote as long as she was in his orbit every day.
    “I worry about her,” Rayford continued, “and yet because of our friendship I don’t feel I’m in a position to warn her. She was one of the first people I tried to tell about Christ. She was not receptive. Before that I had implied more of an interest in her than I had a right to have, and naturally she’s not real positive about me just now.”
    Buck leaned forward. “Maybe I’ll get a chance to talk to Hattie sometime soon.”
    “But what will you say?” Rayford asked. “For all we know they may already be intimate. She’ll tell him everything she knows. If she tells him you’ve become a believer and that you’re trying to rescue her, he’ll know he had no impact on your mind when he was brainwashing everyone else.”
    Buck nodded. “I’ve thought about that. But I feel responsible for her being there. I am responsible for her being there. We can pray for her, but I’m going to feel pretty useless if I can’t do something concrete to get her out of there. We’ve got to get her back here where she can learn the truth.”
    “I wonder if she’s already moved to New York,” Rayford said. “Maybe we’ll find a reason for Chloe to call her apartment in Des Plaines.”
    As they separated and made their way out of the church, Rayford began wondering how much he should encourage the relationship between Chloe and Buck. He liked Buck a lot, what little he knew of him. He believed him, trusted him, considered him a brother. He was bright and insightful for a young guy. But the idea that his daughter might date or even fall in love with a man on speaking terms with the Antichrist … it was too much to fathom. He would have to be frank with them both about it, if it appeared their relationship was going anywhere.
    But once he joined Chloe in the car he realized that was not something he needed to fret about just yet.
    “Don’t tell me you’ve invited Buck to join us for lunch,” she said.
    “Didn’t even think of it. Why?”
    “He’s treating me like a sister, and yet he wants me to drop in and see his place tomorrow.”
    Rayford wanted to say “So what?” and ask her if she didn’t think she was reading too much into the words and actions of a man she barely knew. For all she knew, Buck could be madly in love with her and not know how to broach it. Rayford said nothing.
    “You’re right,” she said. “I’m obsessing.”
    “I didn’t say a word.”
    “I can read your mind,” she said. “Anyway, I’m mad at myself. I come away from a message like that one, and all I can think about is a guy I’ve somehow let slip away. It’s not important. Who cares?”
    “You do, apparently.”
    “But I shouldn’t. Old things are passed away and all things have become new,” she said. “Worrying about guys should definitely be an old thing. There’s no time for trivia now.”
    “Suit yourself.”
    “That’s just what I don’t want to do. If I suited myself I’d see Buck this afternoon and find out where we stand.”
    “But you’re not going to?”
    She shook her head.
    “Then would you do me a favor? Would you try to reach Hattie Durham for me?”
    “Why?”
    “Actually, I’m just curious to know whether she’s already moved to New York.”
    “Why