The Left Behind Complete Set, Series 1-12

by Tim LaHaye

Much bad teaching is going out on the Net, Cameron. I am jealous that believers not be swayed.”

Yeah, the internet is a scary place

“But, Cameron, I came upon some information I wish I had not discovered. Maybe I should have known it was to be avoided. Donny taught Bruce to encrypt personal messages to make anything he wished inaccessible without his own password. As you recall, no one knew that password. Not Loretta; not even Donny.”

“It was not that Donny knew the password,” Tsion said, “but he developed his own code-breaking software. He loaded it onto all the computers he sold you. As you know, during my time in the shelter, I downloaded to my computer—which has astounding storage capacity—everything that had been on Bruce’s. We also had those thousands and thousands of pages of printouts, helpful for when my eyes grew tired of peering at the screen. However, it simply seemed to make sense to also make an electronic backup for that material.”

Not missing a beat to praise the hardware and software we’re working with, even when the clock is ticking

Buck stood. “If you’re about to tell me something that will affect my esteem for Bruce and his memory, be careful. He is the man who led me to Christ and who helped me grow and—” “Put your mind at ease, Cameron. My esteem for Pastor Barnes was only elevated by what I found. I found the encryption-solving files on my own computer. I applied these to Bruce’s files, and within a few minutes, everything encrypted glowed from my screen.

It must have been my old nature that attracted me to other private files. “Cameron, I confess this excited me to no end. I believed I had found more riches from his personal study, but what I found I thought better to not risk printing. It is on my computer in my bedroom. Painful as it will be, you must see it.”

Did Tsion find a secret porn folder on Bruce’s computer? Was it gay porn? That’d probably make the Christians in this series doubly upset. Also, Bruce had a lot of chemistry with the guys back in book 2.

The screen saver bore the message “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth.”

Not even with like a mountain vista behind it?

Buck spoke into the computer’s microphone. “Open document.”

I wish this played out like the scene in Star Trek IV (yeah, the one with the whales) where Scottie uses a 1986 computer. “Hello computer...”

Personal prayer journal. 6:35 a.m.: My question this morning, Father, is what would you have me do with this information? I don’t know it to be true, but I cannot ignore it. I feel heavily my responsibility as shepherd and mentor to the Tribulation Force. If an interloper has compromised us, I must confront the issue. Is it possible? Could it be true? I don’t claim special powers of discernment; however, I loved this woman and trusted her and believed in her from the day I met her. I thought her perfect for Rayford, and she seemed so spiritually attuned. Buck stood, his seat hitting the back of the chair and knocking it to the floor. He bent over the laptop, palms on the dresser. Not Amanda! he thought. Please! What damage might she have done?

Dun dun dun!

“Scroll down,” Buck said, sick to his stomach. As the computer responded, the phone rang in his pocket.

Ooo, what a cliffhanger ending to this chapter!

“Lieutenant Ernest Kivisto here.

Hey! Weren’t you in Star Wars?

Then a guy named Kuntz said he’d seen you earlier too.

Kuntz is such a dick

You want to spell that last name for me?” Kivisto did.

Good thing he did, too, or else Buck would have been in for an awkward conversation later

“In case I have trouble getting through, what are the odds I can drive to Kenosha?” “Got a four-wheel drive?” “Yeah.”

Oh, don’t we know it

The message, from the “interested friend” read: “Suspect the root beer lady. Investigate her maiden name and beware the eyes and ears of New Babylon. Special forces are only as strong as their weakest links. Insurrection begins in the home. Battles are lost in the field, but wars are lost from within.”

How DARE you besmirch the good name of Dorothy Molter?! The Root Beer Lady is a local HERO to Minnesotans, and I will not see her title tarnished by this hideous insinuation that she was in league with the Antichrist. Good day sir!

“Someone was warning Bruce about somebody within the Tribulation Force. We have only two women. The one with a maiden name Bruce might not know would have been Amanda. I still do not know why he or she referred to her as the root beer lady.” “Her initials.” “A. W.,” Tsion said, as if to himself as he righted Buck’s chair. “I do not follow.”

Amanda’s maiden name was Recus, which meant nothing to Bruce and stalled him for a while.” “It means nothing to me either,” Buck said. “Bruce dug deeper. Apparently, Amanda’s mother’s maiden name, before she married Recus, was Fortunato.” Buck blanched and dropped into the chair again.

So the whole reason Leon has been bullying Rayford is because Ray’s sleeping with Leon’s—what, sister?

For the second day in a row, his first officer, Mac McCullum, awakened Rayford.

Bizarre first sentence of this POV section. It’s specific, sure, but too mundane to actually hook the reader. Rayford being awoken by the same person twice in a row doesn’t signal anything to us. You could just as easily start the scene with “For the second day in a row, Rayford woke to discover he hadn’t taken off his shoes” and get the exact same impact. This is the kind of first line that you write as a temp line, because you want to grab the reader’s attention, but haven’t figured out how yet, and then you say, “I’ll fix it in editing, so I can write the rest of this scene.” This line is doubly-wounded, because the next sentence is essentially another introductory line, with no connective tissue to this one. And that makes me think that this scene started with different sentences in two different drafts, but then they were both left in when a later draft was being assembled. (I know this is a long diversion for a single sentence, but it gives a lot of insight into how these books were written, and I find it fascinating.)

A tick past 6:30 Wednesday morning in New Babylon, Rayford heard soft but insistent knocking.

I referenced this sentence in the above note, so I wanted to highlight it as well.

Mac flipped the light on, making Rayford hide his face in the pillow. “I did it, Cap. I did it!” “Did what?” Rayford said, his voice muffled. “I prayed. I did it.” Rayford turned over, covering his left eye and peeking at Mac through a slit in his right. “Really?” “I’m a believer, man. Can you believe it?”

“Wait just a doggone minute,” Rayford said slowly.

Rayford held Mac by the shoulders. “Mac?” he said solemnly. “You know those 3-D images that look like a complicated pattern until you stare at it—” “Yeah, and you can make out some sort of a picture.” “Yes! There it is! I can see it!” “What?!” “It’s a cross! Oh, my word! It’s a cross, Mac!” Mac wrenched away and looked in the mirror again. He leaned to within inches of the glass and held his hair back from his forehead. “Why can’t I see it?” Rayford leaned into the mirror and held his own hair away from his forehead. “Wait! Do I have one too? Nope, I don’t see one.” Mac paled. “You do!” he said. “Let me look at that.”

Well here’s a gift of the Spirit I’ve never heard of before: seeing hallucinatory crosses on other Christian’s foreheads

The caravan to nowhere finally crossed into Wisconsin,

Buck stood silently in the Wisconsin wasteland with the phone pressed to his ear.

Lol

He ignored several huge bodies and didn’t waste time on people with gray or white hair. If anyone looked small or thin or feminine enough to be Chloe, he took a good look.

“Yes, but she was unable to communicate.” “She couldn’t speak?”

We may never have another “Shut up Chloe!” moment again

“Thanks so much,” Buck said. He hurried down the hall, then stopped and turned around. “Mother Doe?” “We have been through the alphabet several times with all the unidentified Does. By the time your wife arrived, we were into descriptive terms.” “But she’s not.” “Not what?” “A mother.” “Well, if she and the baby survive this, she will be, in about seven months.”

Congrats, Buck

“These guys get more like Keystone Kops all the time.

What a weird reference. Was this a more known duo back in the 90s?

A moment later he was saying, “Minneapolis! That’s got to be over three hundred miles from here.”

Pack you bags, readers; we’re headed to my home state! Let’s see what fresh hell Jenkins and LaHaye have waiting in store there.

I understand the foothills that make that western edge of Wisconsin so beautiful around Tomah were turned into mini mountains in the quake.”

Camp Snoopy had better be intact when we get there!

Rayford and Mac were on their way to board the Condor 216 and confirm she was flightworthy. Rayford threw an arm around Mac’s shoulder and drew him close.

Awww

Buck did a couple of jumping jacks to loosen up and get the blood pumping.

It had been a long time since Buck had jogged more than a mile, especially scared to death.

Buck raced over the open spaces, bouncing and banging but on pace to intersect with Tsion. The rabbi began trotting, and the GC men now sprinted. Buck was doing about thirty miles an hour, much too fast for the uneven ground.

A very stilted foot chase

The door swung back and smacked Tsion in the rear, sending him across the seat and nearly into Buck’s lap. Tsion laughed hysterically.

He put such distance between himself and the GC men that they would not have been able to see even the color of the vehicle, let alone the license number.

Because of what? Does the doppler effect work differently in this universe?

Buck had to laugh himself. He had wondered if he would ever smile again.

I camouflaged my Hebrew accent and did not say much, hoping they would get bored and walk away.

Rosenzweig was his usual enthusiastic self, an elflike septuagenarian with broad features, a deeply lined face, and wisps of curly white hair independent of his control.

This is my favorite character description so far.

This is like one of those puzzles that looks like a bunch of sticks until you sort of reverse it in your mind and see the background as the foreground and vice versa.

Not a great description of those, but I know what you mean.

Tsion seemed to stare desperately at Buck. Suddenly he said, “Yes! Cameron! We have the seal, visible to only other believers.” “What are you talking about?” “The seventh chapter of Revelation tells of ‘the servants of our God’ being sealed on their foreheads. That has to be what this is!”

“At the hospital! A black doctor in charge of the morgue had the same sign.

Just say "doctor" next time, Buck

Rayford quickly filled Buck in on the fiasco with Rosenzweig. “I love that old buzzard,” Buck said, “but he sure is naive. I told him and told him not to trust Carpathia. He loves the guy.”

The rabbi understood the danger of going to Minnesota,

“And you are?” a candy striper said.

A what?

Tiffany shook her head. “She’s always had a thing for blonds.” She walked Buck to the ward.

Buck is blond? I don't think we knew that til just now. Edit: scratch that. It got a single mention back in book 1 chapter 2.

“The danged earthquake hit while I was in the air. I circled and circled waitin’ for the thing to stop, almost crashed when the sun went out, and finally put down over here at Palwaukee. I didn’t see the crater. In fact, I don’t think it was there until after I hit the ground. Anyway, I was almost stopped, just rolling a couple miles an hour, and the plane fell right down into that thing. Worst of it is I was OK, but the plane wasn’t anchored like I thought it was. I jumped out, worrying about fuel and everything and wanting to see how my other aircraft were and how everybody else was, so I hopped up top and ran down the wing to jump out of the hole. “Just before I took my last step, my weight flipped that little Piper right over and the other wing conked me on the back of the head. I was hanging there on the edge of the hole, trying to get all the way up, and I knew I’d been sliced pretty deep. I reach back there with one hand and feel this big flap of scalp hanging down, and then I start getting dizzy. I lost my grip and slid down underneath that plane. I was scared I was gonna make it fall on me again, so I just stayed put till somebody pulled me out. Dang near bled to death.”

Ken says "dang" so the book remains PG, but is totally fine with the floppy scalp bit

“You want to see it?” “See it?” “My wound!” “Sure, I guess.”

Boys will be boys amiright?

Buck filled him in on his dilemma and that he needed to get to Minneapolis before the GC did something stupid with Chloe.

Like allowing her to talk

“The heck I’ll recommend somebody else,” Ken said.

“Good. ’Cause I figure if what the globe just went through was the wrath of the Lamb, I better make friends with that Lamb.”