Armageddon - By James Patterson Page 0,14
couple of carrot stalks and sugar cubes stuffed in down the sides to make it a gourmet gift basket.
“So, Daniel,” said Dana, “aren’t you going to introduce me to your new… friend?”
Okay, this was going to be a wee bit awkward.
How does a guy introduce his dream girl to the girl of his dreams—or vice versa?
Dr. X? I mentally checked in with my trusted steed and advisor.
But all he did was chuckle. Heh, heh, heh.
I had to handle this one all by myself.
Welcome to the joys of being a teenage boy.
Chapter 19
WHILE MEL AND Emma fed apples to the horses and Joe and Willy brushed them down, Dana and I slipped away to have A Conversation.
I hate Conversations.
“Come on, Dana. Go easy on Mel. She’s nice.”
“Oh, yes. She’s swell.”
“Wait a second,” I said. “Are you jealous?”
“Of course. NOT!”
Fortunately, Joe came to my rescue.
“I’m starving,” he said. “Where’s the nearest Kentucky Fried Chicken?”
Mel heard that and laughed.
“What?” said Joe. “This is Kentucky, is it not?”
“We don’t eat fried chicken every day,” said Mel.
“No chicken for me,” said Emma. “I don’t eat anything with a face.”
The six of us swept into the kitchen through the back door and I was all set to materialize our finger-lickin’ good feast when Agent Judge stormed into the room.
“You need to see this, Daniel. Now.”
He snapped on an under-the-counter TV set. A horrific news report from Washington, D.C., filled the screen.
The time for R and R was officially over.
As I watched I was sickened by the image of the gleaming marble sides of the Washington Monument appearing to crackle with spidery fissure lines, like a shattering sheet of ice.
Giant marble slabs slid down the sides of the obelisk, like the walls of a crumbling glacier. The deafening roar of the thunderous rockslide rumbled across Washington, D.C., as Number 2 brought down the world’s tallest stone structure. Five hundred and fifty-five feet of marble, granite, and sandstone crumbled before his glowering red eyes, sending up a billowing cloud of dust and destruction that blotted out the sun and darkened the sky.
As if this weren’t sickening enough, I heard a voice from the newscast that was all too familiar. And it was talking to me.
“See this and know who I am, Daniel X!” Number 2 whispered, unfurling his enormous black wings. “This is all for you!”
Chapter 20
IT WAS THE Fourth of July, and the second-deadliest alien in the universe was enjoying the most spectacular “fireworks” display the nation’s capital had ever seen.
He had already torched the White House, charring its ruins black.
He had laid waste to the Lincoln Memorial, rolling the sainted president’s sculpted head into a rat-infested sewer.
He had crushed the Capitol Building, flattening its Great Rotunda as if the cast-iron dome were nothing more than an aluminum Coke can.
Meanwhile, his alien army was sweeping like a plague of locusts across the metropolitan area to usher survivors down into the abyss.
His name was Abbadon.
Hoping to enslave millions, he quickly assumed the guise of a concerned newscaster and infiltrated the earthlings’ television broadcasts, as well as their Internet, cell phones, and encrypted National Security networks. His face filled video screens everywhere.
“People of Washington, D.C., if you wish to live, flee your homes and join me underground. The world as you have known it is nearing its apocalyptic end. Come to me and survive. Refuse me and die.”
Everywhere, flecks of debris drifted down from the ominous sky like mammoth gray snowflakes. Those who wished to survive stampeded toward the underground entrances to Washington’s Metro system, where Abbadon had stationed his minions, all of whom, as had been decreed ages ago, now appeared with locust wings and scorpion tails.
As more monuments and landmarks and office towers collapsed, riots erupted among those clawing their way toward the subway entrances. A few of the greediest humans took advantage of the chaos and leaped through shattered shop windows to loot the shelves.
Two brothers fought each other over the last loaf of bread in a convenience store. Abbadon reveled in the sight. He delighted in the depraved indifference these terrified creatures now showed to those they had once considered their fellow men.
Now it was every man and woman for him- or herself.
The human animals were viciously turning on one another in their Darwinian pursuit of survival.
All is as it was always meant to be, thought Abbadon. My time is at hand!
Chapter 21
I COULD NOT believe my eyes.
Washington, D.C., looked worse than it did in the movie Independence Day.
All across the capital, buildings were imploding—coming