Mel Odom - Apocalypse burning

What People Are Saying
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This is the most successful Christian-fiction series ever.

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Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins are doing for Christian fiction what John Grisham did for courtroom thrillers.

TIME

The authors style continues to be thoroughly captivating and keeps the reader glued to the book, wondering what will happen next. And it leaves the reader hungry for more.

Christian Retailing

Combines Tom Clancylike suspense with touches of romance, high-tech flash and Biblical references.

The New York Times

Its not your mamas Christian fiction anymore.

The Dallas Morning News

Wildly popularand highly controversial.

USA Today

Christian thriller. Prophecy-based fiction. Juiced-up morality tale. Call it what you like, the Left Behind series now has a label its creators could never have predicted: blockbuster success.

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Tyndale House products by
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

The Left Behind book series
Left Behind
Tribulation Force
Nicolae
Soul Harvest
Apollyon
Assassins
The Indwelling
The Mark
Desecration
The Remnant
Armageddon
Glorious Appearing
Coming Soon: Prequel and Sequel

Other Left Behind products
Left Behind: The Kids
Devotionals
Calendars
Abridged audio products
Dramatic audio products
Graphic novels
Gift books
and more

Other Tyndale House books by
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
Perhaps Today
Are We Living in the End Times?

For the latest information on individual products, release dates,
and future projects, visit www.leftbehind.com

Tyndale House books by
Tim LaHaye
How to Be Happy Though Married
Spirit-Controlled Temperament
Transformed Temperaments
Why You Act the Way You Do

Tyndale House books by
Jerry B. Jenkins
Soon
Silenced

Visit Tyndales exciting Web site at www.tyndale.com

Discover the latest about the Left Behind series at www.leftbehind.com

Copyright 2004 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph of tank by StockPhoto US. All rights reserved.

Cover photographs of missile and explosion by Alamy Images. All rights reserved.

Author photo by Michael Patrick Brown. All rights reserved.

Written and developed in association with Tekno Books, Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Designed by Dean H. Renninger

Edited by James Cain

Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.

Published in association with the literary agency of Sterling Lord Literistic, New York, NY.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

Left Behind is a registered trademark of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

Odom, Mel.

Apocalypse burning Mel Odom.font>

p. cm.(Apocalypse series)

ISBN 1-4143-0033-6 (sc)
1. Rapture (Christian eschatology)Fiction. 2. End of the worldFiction. I. Title.
PS3565.D53A853 2004

2004010711 813.54dc22

Printed in the United States of America

07 06 05 04
5 4 3 2 1

Table of Contents

United States 75th Army Rangers Temporary Post
Sanliurfa, Turkey
Local Time 1422 Hours

Help me! Please, God, send someone to help me! My wife! They took my wife!

The agonized and fearful cry jerked First Sergeant Samuel Adams Goose Gander from the mental paralysis that had gripped him for the last several moments. The early afternoon sun blazed over Sanliurfa, beating down on the city with an unrelenting heat. Shimmering blasts of ovenlike air radiated from the shattered buildings surrounding him and the hard-baked asphalt beneath his boots. Sweat soaked Gooses BDUs and ran down his face from beneath his Kevlar helmet. The helmet shaded his eyes and would deflect most bullets and shrapnel, but right now it felt like a stewpot slowly parboiling his brain. Sand stuck to his chin and burned his eyes. The coppery taste of his own blood still lined his mouth, a souvenir from the fight hed just had with Icarus.

Goose still stood in the alley where minutes ago he had first fought, then talked with the man he knew only as Icarus, the rogue CIA agent that Special Agent-in-Charge Alexander Cody and Ranger Captain Cal Remington had scoured Sanliurfa to find. Despite their desperate efforts, neither had been able to locate their target.

Goose, however, had encountered the fugitive on three different occasions. On two of those occasions, Icarus had sought Goose out. The rogue agent had staged the circumstances of those events so that Goose had had no choice but to let him walk away. The third time, at their meeting in this place, Goose had discovered by accident where Icarus was hiding. Hed forcibly taken the rogue agent into custody. But he hadnt remanded Icarus over to Remington, Gooses commanding officer.

Though he and Remington disagreed on the matter of Icarusas they had on many other things over the long years of their association in the militaryRemington was Gooses good friend and a brother in arms.

But in the end Goose hadnt held Icarus. Hed allowed him to slip free. Now Icarus was gone, once more loose to pursue whatever mission drove him to remain within Sanliurfas boundaries despite the dangers of the Syrian army, poised to attack the city, and the presence of his hunters Remington and Cody. If any of his pursuers caught up with him, Icaruss odds of survival, Goose knew, were essentially zero.

Goose also knew that he should be in hot pursuit of the rogue agent. But it appeared that chasing Icarus wasnt an option just now. Something else was going down, and Goose couldnt ignore the plea for help. He was a soldier, and soldiers defended those who couldnt defend themselves. In Sanliurfa, there were a number of defenseless.

Help me! Someone help me! For the love of God!

Goose stared toward the mouth of the alley, tracking the plea for help. He automatically slid his M-4A1 assault rifle from his shoulder and canted the weapon so the barrel pointed down and the butt rested on but not against his right shoulder under his chin. Four inches shorter than the M16s that infantrymen had carried in past wars, the M-4A1s design lent itself to close-quarter combat. Todays battlefields moved increasingly in the direction of urban warfare rather than open terrain. The weapons the Rangers carried reflected that.

A man in brown khaki shorts, hiking boots, and a gray shirt staggered in front of the alley mouth. He appeared thirty-something, balding and sunburned. Blood poured down the side of his face from a wound at the top of his head. Crimson lines ran down his chin and neck, disappearing into his shirt. His battered features were red and raw. Swollen bruises almost closed one eye.

Sir. Goose kept his voice strong but neutral. The man jerked away and covered his head with one arm.

Peering fearfully under his forearm with his one good eye, the man looked at Goose. You are American.

Yes, sir, Goose replied. The wounded man stood partially behind Gooses Humvee, hiding as well as he could. Goose had driven into the alley to have his confrontation privately with Icarus. But right now the man was using the Humvee as cover. Goose cleared his throat, searching for the right words to get through to this man. Im First Sergeant Gander. With the United States Army 75th Rangers from Fort Benning, Georgia. His words were tinged with a southern accent, acquired courtesy of Waycross, Georgia, where Goose had been born and raised.