Read The Mark: The Beast Rules The World for Free Online

him. Holding it before his bleary eyes was almost more than he could bear. Twenty-one hundred hours. It couldn’t be!
    He tried to sit up and was aware of bandages around his head and over his ears. He heard his own pulse and felt pain with every beat. It was dark outside, but a silent TV monitor showed pilgrims still in the courtyard, passing by, kneeling, bowing, worshiping, praying to the gigantic statue of Nicolae.
    On David’s other side was the remote control. He didn’t want to wake the other patients, but the captioning system was in Arabic. He fiddled with it until it changed to English, and the captions merely represented songs piped into the courtyard as people slowly passed by the image. He stared as the camera pulled back to show the immense crowd, seemingly as big as for the funeral, snaking a mile outside the palace.
    David panicked. He had been away from his phone and computer longer than he had been in months. He craned his neck looking for a phone, and the pain nearly

    drove him to his pillow again. He pulled a cord ostensibly connected to the nurses’ station, but no one came. He knew the ratio between nurses and patients was ridiculously low, but surely they knew he was a director. That should count for something,
    However they were hydrating him was working, because he had to relieve himself in a bad way. No bedpan for him. He played with the controls on the side of the bed until one railing lowered. He grimaced as he swung his legs off the side, pausing to let the throbbing subside and catch his breath.
    Finally he put both hands on the edge of the bed and eased himself to the floor. The marble was incongruously cold for such a hot part of the world, but it felt good. He stood, swaying, dizzy, waiting for his equilibrium to catch up. When he felt steadier he stepped toward the bathroom, reminded by a tug at his wrist that he was still hooked to the IV. He stepped back and wiggled the metal stand on rollers away from the wall and the end of the bed, but as he dragged it with him, it caught.
    A monitor cord was plugged into the wall. He tried to remove it, but it wouldn’t budge from the connection or the stand. David knew there had to be some simple trick to it. Maybe it was screwed opposite of normal or you had to push to pull it, or something. All he knew was, he had to go. Painful as it might be, he yanked at the tape, which pulled hairs on his hand, then pulled the needle out with one motion. The sting brought tears to his eyes, and as the solution dripped on the floor, he made one

    feeble attempt to turn the stopper, then just tied the cord and headed for the bathroom.
    Within seconds he heard the alarm informing the nurses’ station that an IV had come loose. He opened the closet on his way back, and though his clothes were there, his phone was not. His mind nearly went blank from pain and fear. Was this the end? Would someone dial back the numbers of Trib Force members who may have tried to reach him? He could have already been discovered. Should he just find Annie and get out of there? What if she was already dead? She would want him to escape and not risk his life in a vain attempt to be sure of her.
    Not a chance. He would not leave without her or without knowing for sure whether she was dead.
    “What are you doing out of bed?” It was not a nurse but a female orderly.
    “Bathroom,” he said.
    “Back to bed,” she said. “What have you done with your IV?”
    “I’m fine,” he said.
    “We have bedpans and-”
    “I already went-now just-”
    “Sir! Shh! I can hear you and so can everyone else on this floor. Your roommates are sleeping.”
    “I just need-”
    “Sir, do I need to get someone in here with restraints? Now quiet down!”
    “I am being quiet! Now-” Suddenly David realized the bandages over his ears made him talk louder.
    “Sorry,” he said. “I’m Director Hassid. I need to
    find-”
    “Oh! You’re the director. Are you a lightning victim?”
    “Yeah, I