Read Survivalist - 15 - Overlord for Free Online Page A

as I’m sure it could, he’d be master of the earth. Which is what he wants anyway,” Rourke concluded.
    “But the Soviet Underground City would be insusceptible to nuclear attack, as would — “
    “Your mountain in Argentina, Captain?”
    “Yes, Herr Doctor.”
    “Structurally, yes,” Paul interjected. “But if you could never go outside again, never—it wouldn’t be like before. There was always the hope — “
    “Of seeing the sunlight, feeling the wind again,” Natalia interrupted, her voice seeming possessed of a distant quality, a sadness.
    “Yes,” Paul nodded. “That.”
    “But such a rash act — another nuclear war — it might well destroy all life, making the planet forever uninhabitable.” Hartman stubbed out his cigarette.
    John Rourke, exhaling a cloud of gray smoke as he spoke, almost whispered, “There’s a line from Paradise Lost—”
    Natalia said it. “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.”

Chapter Five
    The darkness was something John Rourke could almost feel against his skin as he walked, silently, Paul and Natalia flanking him, toward the waiting German gunship, its main rotor tossing almost lazily, almost totally silent.
    In his left fist, Rourke carried his pack by the shoulder straps. In his right fist, the Steyr-Mannlicher SSG, an M-16 slung cross body, diagonally, muzzle down, across his back.
    Natalia boarded the aircraft first, Paul following after her, John Rourke tossing his backpack inside, staring around him for a moment, studying the night. The rotor speed was increasing, Rourke squinting against the downdraft, feeling his hair caught in it, running his left hand back across his high forehead, the fingers splaying in his hair, pushing it back from his face.
    He jumped aboard, the German pilot looking back toward him as Rourke slid the fuselage door closed. Rourke gave a thumbs-up signal, the rotor speed increased drastically now; then Rourke felt the rise, the change of main rotor pitch, the helicopter sweeping across the snowsplotched rocky landscape, upward, Rourke settling into the bench seat at Natalia’s right, Paul Rubenstein sitting at her left.
    Rourke shrugged out of the arctic parka, the double Alessi shoulder rig with the twin stainless Detonics .45s worn over
    a gray, crew-necked sweater. The temperature inside the German helicopter was quite tolerable and to keep the heavy outer gear in place when it was not necessary was to defeat its purpose when it was necessary.
    Paul was helping Natalia with her parka as well.
    Paul Rubenstein spoke. “I’m worried about Annie. And Sarah too. Ever since—ever since—”
    “Madison,” Natalia supplied.
    “Yeah-ahh-“
    Rourke leaned forward and looked into the younger man’s eyes. “Well be there in time. And Major Volkmer seems to be a competent commander. The Russians won’t have any easy victory out of him. And Annie and Sarah are very good at taking care of themselves.”
    “Ever since Madison died,” Natalia almost whispered, her voice barely audible despite the subdued rotor noise, “I’ve realized that all of us —I suppose I should have realized it before. But we are living on borrowed time.”
    “We always have been,” Rourke told her, told both of them, reaching out and folding his left hand over both of hers. “We survived World War III, we survived the burning of the atmosphere. We’ve survived more batdes than I would have ever thought possible.”
    “Then why, John —why are we still alive—and Madison is dead? There is no justice.”
    Rourke held her hands more tightly. “Did you ever wonder, Natalia, Paul —did you guys ever wonder why we did survive —I mean all of that?”
    “What do you mean?” Paul asked. “You mean—is there some kind of—ahh —some kind of—”
    “Purpose? I don’t know. We did what we did because we had to, didn’t we. And because we wanted to. Maybe that was the most important part —wanting it. I mean, we never wanted the