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

am honored by your visit and look forward to seeing you here.”
    “Meet me at the airport, Nicolae! I know you can hear me!”
    “I seem to have lost him, Leon. I hope he got my message. It will be good to see him, will it not?”
    “It will!” Leon exulted, covering his mouth.
    A few minutes later Leon’s phone rang, and he answered to Vasile himself.
    “Will you stop at nothing, Mr. Fortunato?”
    Nicolae waved at Leon and pantomimed taping his mouth shut. “He is likely recording,” he mouthed.
    “Who’s calling, please?” Leon said.
    “You know well who this is.”
    “Your voice sounds familiar. You sound like the president of Romania. Is this President Vasile?”
    “You know it is.”
    “What an honor to hear from you, sir. To what do I owe the privilege?”
    “I think you know that too.”
    “Well, just let me say, I’ve been watching the news, and I can’t imagine what you must be going through. Is there anything I or any member of Nicolae Carpathia’s team can do for you? Anything at all?”
    Nicolae was holding his stomach and looked nearly apoplectic with glee, making it difficult for Leon to maintain his composure. He could hear Vasile’s frustrated breathing.
    “I was so sorry—we all were here, Dr. Carpathia included—to hear of the loss at your son’s horse farm. But tell me, are the grandchildren all right? That was horrifying for the whole country, let alone Grandfather, eh? I’ll bet that’ll be a precious reunion.”
    “Let me talk to Carpathia.”
    “I’m sorry, sir?”
    “You heard me, Fortunato. Put him on.”
    “I’m afraid he’s unavailable at the moment, Mr. President.”
    “It is rather urgent. Are you not right there with him?”
    “Oh no, sir, you’ve reached me in my own apartment downtown. You know this is my cell number. You might call his assistant, Ms.—”
    “Give me that number!”
    Carpathia pretended to clap and laugh aloud.
    Fortunato passed along the number, and within seconds, the office phone rang, Viv buzzed Nicolae, and he picked up, indicating that Leon should listen in on the other phone.
    “Yes, sir, Mr. President. A surprise but an honor to hear from you on what must be a very difficult day for you.”
    “You have no idea.”
    “Of course I do not.”
    “Do we have to go through this charade, Carpathia?”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “Oh, I get it. We do. Very well.” And here Vasile’s voice fell into a singsong of script, like a child forced to render an apology he doesn’t own. “Dr. Carpathia, I am about to announce my resignation from the office of president of the Republic of Romania.”
    “Oh no! Sir, surely you are not letting terrorists intimidate you. Even as a man of peace, I would gladly serve on a committee authorized to retaliate against such—”
    “Please, Carpathia. Let me get through this. I’ll make clear to the public and to my colleagues in the houses of government that the crises of last night and this morning have not spurred this action and that in fact I do not believe our worthy adversaries, the People’s Party, would ever have anything to do with something like this.
    “It is simply that the time has come. I am tired. I am persuaded we need new blood. I do not wish to wait until the next election. I am going to go to the people and to my colleagues and urge them to accept you as my choice to first fulfill what’s left of my term and then to be free to run for reelection in the normal course.”
    “Oh, Mr. President, I am honored, deeply flattered, moved that you would think of me in this way—especially given our less-than-amicable history. But I simply could not accept. The legal ramifications, the havoc you would wreak on our constitution, the inability of the people to officially ratify something like this…”
    “You’re going to take it, right? I mean, this is all so much prosti, is it not? You don’t need to do this for my benefit.”
    “Balderdash? Not at all, sir. It is just too much