The Rapture: In The Twinkling Of An Eye by Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins

priceless.”
    “Thank you, sir. I only wish I didn’t have to prove it to you every day.”
    “I am getting the picture.”
    “You may not, however, be so pleased at how far I have pushed Jonathan.” Leon told him of their conversation.
    The younger man cackled and howled. “I love it!” he said. “Perfect! And correct! He wants to see me; I do not want to see him. Excellent. Of course, the fact of the matter is that I do now want to see him. Vasile will crack by the end of the day, and if he does not, it will be time to strike not just his livestock but also his loved ones.”
    “I’m prepared. Now that we’ve taken the first step down this road, there’ll be no turning back.”
    “I could not have said that better myself, Leon.”
    Carpathia told Leon of his contact with the spirit world.
    “That’s wonderful, Nicolae. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”
    “But worth the wait. Your Romanian People’s Party was a stroke of genius, by the way. I will come out strongly against them as soon as I am given the chance. They will, of course, deny any connection with the harassment of Vasile.”
    “Of course.”
    “Let us see how long it takes your scheme to reach the news,” Carpathia said, releasing a screen from within the wall and tuning it to a news channel. Within moments camera-mounted helicopters showed frantic teachers running children out of the school, and the type on the screen read, Romanian People’s Party bomb threat… Securitate link scare with Vasile family horse fire…
    As the men sat chortling, Fortunato grew suddenly serious. “But really,” he said, “should you not try to reach Jonathan? Surely you’re not ready to be independent of him just yet.”
    “Soon.”
    “But still.”
    “No. He will call. And by the time he does, Vasile will have caved.”
    “Look!” Fortunato said, pointing to the television.
    Running text along the bottom of the screen announced: President of the Romanian Republic Gheorghe Vasile announces a press conference for two this afternoon. Resignation rumors flying.
    As soon as technicians had swept the school and reported no explosive, every station moved to minute-
    by-minute coverage of the speculation over Vasile’s press conference.
    The man in line to succeed him immediately put to rest speculation about his own future. “I do not know President Vasile’s intentions,” he said. “But what he has endured in the last few hours would try any man. I have been told nothing, except not to expect to succeed him. I do not know what this means. If he were to step aside, and I pray that he does not, I would be entitled by law to be elevated to his chair, and I would pursue every legal recourse to ensure that.
    “However, Gheorghe Vasile has long been a statesman and leader who has given his heart and soul to our motherland, and I hope he resists to the end any attempt by the cowardly minority party to force him from power.”
    That elicited immediate denials on the parts of the leaders and the rank and file of the Romanian People’s Party, who pointed out that they would never stoop to such tactics, that such acts had never been their hallmark, and that thinking people would realize the lunacy of their even wanting to take credit for such.
    A couple of hours before Vasile’s press conference, Viv Ivins entered the office where Leon and Nicolae sat staring at the TV. “Mr. Stonagal on the line for you, sir,” she said.
    Nicolae pushed the speaker button, dismissed Ms. Ivins, and winked at Leon. “Jonathan! How good to hear from you! How are things in New York?”
    “You know perfectly well I’m not in New York! We’re about to land here, and I want to see you.”
    “I am in my office all afternoon. I will look forward to seeing you.”
    “Come and meet me at the airport!”
    “You are breaking up, Jonathan. I will see you here this afternoon then?”
    “At the airport!”
    “I think I have lost you, Jonathan. If you can hear me, know that I