Left Behind: Chapter Ten

Dramatis Personae, novae

Bruce Barnes the "visitation pastor" at New Hope Village Church in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Former parish of Irene, location of the post-Rapture explanation video tape. Barnes promises a discussion of the tape. Rayford "[tells] him he and perhaps Chloe would come by that afternoon."

Alan Tompkins "a midlevel operative at Scotland Yard. Puts to lie my theory that characters with first and last names are important to the story, unless there's a need for a resurrected and thoroughly inept "midlevel operative" in the army of the saved in Volume 16.

What passes for action

Buck, "phony passport" in hand, flies from LaGuardia to Heathrow. Meets Tompkins at Scotland Yard. They "[drive] quickly to a dark pub a few miles away." Tompkins proceeds to tell Buck that Dirk's death has to be a suicide (right handed self inflicted gun shot wound on a left handed man), then further relates a harrowing encounter in the offices of Brit puppet-master and Dirk Burton conspiracy fixation Todd-Cothran, wherein: Tompkins is permitted to eavesdrop on a conversation between Todd-Cothran and Tompkins's Scotland Yard supervisor (Sullivan), wherein: he learns that his supervisor will have him killed if he pursues the matter of Dirk Burton's death any further.

Naturally, when a waitress at the pub informs Tompkins (in the midst of relating the foregoing to internationally renowned journalist Cameron "Buck" Williams) that he appears to have left the dome light on in his car, he assumes that he must be "[g]ettin' daft in my old age" and leaves the pub to turn it off. The ensuing explosion draws Buck's attention. Despite having quickly downed his pint, and, noticing that Alan hadn't touched his pint "switched his empty mug for Alan's full one and downed it too," Buck "[knew] his limit" and had ordered a soda. Which doubtless gave him the presence of mind to chuck his real passport into the flaming wreckage in the hopes of faking his death. I'm not an apologist for Scotland Yard but I reckon they should be able to suss out that: (1) that there's only one corpse in the wreckage; and (2) it's one of their employees. Buck manages to escape to Heathrow airport and flies back to the U.S. (via Germany) under the assumed identity of a Polish businessman. And leaves behind all of his notes. Which may be an important plot element that makes him a target of gathering dark forces, or may be a pointlessly wasted detail.

Thinking about events thus far

Time moves either freakishly fast or freakishly slow in this novel. In the amount of time it's taken for Buck to fly to New York, fly to Heathrow, fake his death, fly to Frankfurt, and fly back to New York, Ray has merely managed to think about the Rapture, and make a call to his wife's church. Without leaving his house. I'm starting to think the bottle disposal episode was a dream sequence, and Ray is gripped by a Faulknerian fit of alcohol driven reverie.

Previous posts: Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9
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