Assassins: Assignment: Jerusalem, Target: Antichrist is the sixth book in the Left Behind series, written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins and published in 1999.
Plot Summary
As Rayford Steele feels the growing desire to be the one fated to kill Nicolae Carpathia at the midpoint of the Tribulation, Director of Purchasing David Hassid shows Mac McCullum a new believer and ally, Corporal Annie Christopher, who turns out to be David's girlfriend. Chloe Williams now sets up the new International Commodity Co-op for believers to trade important items with each other for when such trading would be considered illegal by the Global Community. She and Buck are now worried about Rayford's mood when they notice Dr. Floyd Charles hasn't been feeling well and is near death. He has Buck take him to Brigham Young Hospital to be checked out, where they discover that the doctor has contracted the same poison that almost killed Hattie Durham. Leah Rose helps Buck out at the risk of her career, but is unable to save the doctor from death.
After bringing Floyd home and burying him, the Tribulation Force members in Chicago admit Leah as a new member and help her sneak into her house at night to get her stash of money which she hopes to give to the cause. As Rayford and Leah try to do so, however, they not only deal with GC Peacekeeper officers, but also with the mysterious appearing of horsemen that were unleashed to kill a third of the remaining world's population at the sixth Trumpet Judgment. Fortunately, though, the horsemen ignore the believers who can see them as they go after the unbelievers who cannot. Strangely, the horsemen are not limited to being on land, as Mac and his new co-pilot Abdullah Smith find out when they carry Leon Fortunato to a meeting with Mwangati Ngumo in Africa where they almost got killed by an artillery assault, destroying the Condor 216 in the process.
The Tribulation Force discovers that Hattie has gone off with a pilot to New Babylon in the hopes to kill Carpathia. Fearing that the Global Community will capture her and use her to get information about the Tribulation Force whereabouts, the Chicago members send Leah in disguise to Europe as Hattie's aunt in order to find her. Back in New Babylon, Carpathia plans to deal with two problems at the same time -- the Enigma Babylon spiritual leader Peter Mathews, who is seeking to usurp Carpathia's authority as the ruler of the world, and the two witnesses -- and sets up an event in Jersualem called the Global Gala where he will personally see to it that these problems are taken care of.
As the Global Gala kicks off, Rayford joins the members traveling to Jerusalem to see what goes on during the event. Secretly Rayford goes to buy a powerful small handgun called the Saber from Albie, his Middle Eastern contact, which he hopes to use against Carpathia. At the event, the ten subpotentates meet in a private ceremony to honor Peter Mathews with an ice sculpture that they use to murder Mathews. Shortly after, Carpathia confronts the two witnesses at the end of their 1260 days of prophesying and kills them with a Saber in public view of the people, who celebrate their deaths for 3 1/2 days until their bodies are raised back to life and they ascend to heaven in a cloud. In the closing ceremonial speech Carpathia makes at the Global Gala, Rayford waits from a hiding place, ready to make the kill when he struggles with his conscience not permitting him to do so. He finally decides not to make the kill when he is hit in the head, causing him to fire the bullet that strikes the podium and causes Carpathia to collapse in Leon Fortunato's arms, apparently dead. As Rayford makes a run for it, feeling guilty for what he did, the Global Community prepare for the Potentate's funeral, and the Tribulation Force members wait and watch to see what will happen to Carpathia now.
Characters In Assassins
- Rayford Steele, former pilot for Pan-Continental
- Buck Williams, former news reporter for Global Weekly
- Chloe Williams, the wife of Buck Williams and head of the Co-op
- Hattie Durham, former flight attendant and personal assistant to Nicolae Carpathia
- Chaim Rosenzweig, former Israeli scientist
- Tsion Ben-Judah, rabbinical scholar and cyber-pastor
- Mac McCullum, pilot to Nicolae Carpathia
- Abdullah Smith, pilot to Nicolae Carpathia
- Albie, black market dealer
- David Hassid, Director of Purchasing in New Babylon
- Annie Christopher, Phoenix 216 cargo chief
- Floyd Charles, a doctor who helped deliver Buck and Chloe's child
- Leah Rose, former hospital nurse, and member of the Tribulation Force
- Lukas Miklos, underground believer in Greece
- T, owner of an airstrip used by the Tribulation Force
- Gustaf Zuckermandel Jr., master of disguises and fake IDs
- Eli and Moishe, the two witnesses
- Nicolae Carpathia, the Antichrist
- Leon Fortunato, the False Prophet, currently the Supreme Commander
- Peter Mathews, spiritual leader of Enigma Babylon One World Faith