Assassins (novel)

infobox Book |
name = Assassins: Assignment: Jerusalem, Target: Antichrist


image_caption = Reissue edition cover using first edition artwork
author = Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
country = United States
language = English
cover_artist =
genre = Christian, Speculative Fiction, Novel
series = Left Behind Series
publisher = Tyndale House Publishers
release_date = August 1999
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback) also Audiobook
pages = 416 pp (hardcover and paperback editions)
isbn = ISBN 0-8423-2920-X (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-8423-2927-7 (paperback edition)
preceded_by = Apollyon
followed_by = The Indwelling

"Assassins: Assignment—Jerusalem, Target—Antichrist" is the sixth book in the Left Behind series. It was written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins in 1999.

Plot introduction

The book begins with protagonist Rayford Steele contemplating killing Global Community Supreme Potentate and Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia.

Plot summary

Rayford, filled with rage over so many losses, contemplates killing Nicolae Carpathia. He is so obsessed with the idea that he becomes stern and short tempered at times. At the New Babylon palace
David Hassid was in charge of delivering 144 computers to Nicolae but diverts the delivery by telling the pilots delivering the computers to go one place but does the paperwork for another location. Hattie Durham is imprisoned and rescued from the Belgium Facility for Female Rehabilitation, or "BUFFER".

Rayford is still wondering if he might be the one to kill Nicolae. David Hassid meanwhile successfully gets the computers incorrectly delivered. He also introduces the Condor (later to become the Phoenix) cargo chief and his love interest, Annie Christopher, to Mac. Hattie (who also wants to kill Nicolae) runs off after an incident with Floyd, who eventually succumbs from the poison he contracted from Hattie while delivering her miscarriage, and Rayford goes to find her, only to be tricked by GC Forces. Rayford and the newest member of the Trib Force, Leah, are trying to retrieve a large quantity of cash from Leah's safe when the Sixth Trumpet Judgement hits - a plague of death by fire, smoke, sulphur and deady strikes carried out by invisible horsemen.

The tribulation hurtles to its mid point as the four murders prophesied in scripture take place. Pontifex Maximus Peter Matthews is murdered by the 10 sub pontentates of the world. Carpathia personally kills the two witnesses who later protagonize a dramatic resurrection as they are taken up into the clouds, which is dismissed by the media as a hoax. Finally, Carpathia himself is assassinated while delivering a speech three days before the midpoint of the tribulation. Rayford is skeptical as to whether he really was the one who did the deed as he planned to. A hole in Carpathia's head is the same size that Rayford would expect his gun to make, but he was bumped from behind a split second before pulling the trigger. And there are several people near him who are just as suspect. In a brief flash-forward to the day before the Pontentate's burial, it is revealed that the assassin was caught on videocamera and David Hassid is clearly surprised by what the tape reveals.

Characters in "Assassins"

*Rayford Steele
*Cameron "Buck" Williams
*Chloe Steele Williams
*Tsion Ben-Judah
*David Hassid
*Annie Christopher
*Mac McCullum
*Nicolae Carpathia
*Leon Fortunato
*Chaim Rosenzweig
*Hattie Durham
*Leah Rose
*Floyd Charles