The Left Behind Collection: All 12 Books (84 page)

Rayford racked his brain. “Uh, just put me through to Mr. Katz then,” he said.

“Herbert Katz?” the operator said.

“That’s the one.”

After a minute: “No answer, sir. Would you like to leave a message on their voice mail?”

“I would,” Rayford said, “but I would also like to be sure that the message light is lit and that they are flagged down for an urgent message should they visit the front desk.”

“We’ll certainly do that, sir. Thank you for calling The Drake.”

When the voice mail tone came on, Rayford spoke quickly. “Kids, you know who this is. Don’t take the time to do anything. Get as far away from downtown Chicago as you can. Please trust me on this.”

Buck had had innumerable run-ins with Verna Zee in the Chicago office. Once he felt she had overstepped her bounds and had moved too quickly into her former boss’s office after Lucinda Washington disappeared in the Rapture. Then, when Buck himself was demoted for ostensibly missing the most important assignment of his life, Verna did become Chicago bureau chief and lorded it over him. Now that he was the publisher, he had been tempted to fire her. But he had let her remain, provided she did the job and kept her nose clean.

Even feisty Verna seemed shell-shocked when Buck swept into the office late that afternoon. As usual in times of international crisis, the staff was huddled around the TV. A couple of employees looked up when Buck came in. “What do you think of this, chief?” one said, and several others noticed him. Verna Zee made a beeline for Buck.

“You have several urgent messages,” she said. “Carpathia himself has been trying to reach you all day. There’s also an urgent message from a Rayford Steele.”

Now there was a choice for all time. Whom should Buck call? He could only guess what spin Carpathia wanted to put on World War III. He had no idea what Rayford might want. “Did Mr. Steele leave a number?”

“You’re returning
his
call first?”

“Excuse me?” he said. “I believe I asked you a question.”

“His message was simply that you should call your hotel room.”

“Call my hotel room?”

“I would have done it for you myself, boss, but I didn’t know where you were staying. Where
are
you staying?”

“None of your business, Verna.”

“Well, pardon me!” she said and marched away, which was Buck’s hope.

“I’ll be borrowing your office temporarily,” Buck called after her.

She stopped and spun around. “For how long?”

“For as long as I need it,” he said. She scowled.

Buck rushed in and shut the door. He dialed The Drake and asked for his own room. Hearing the fear in Rayford’s voice, not to mention the message itself, made the color drain from his face. Buck called information for the number of the Land Rover dealership in Arlington Heights. He asked for the sales manager and said it was an emergency.

Within a minute, the man was on the line. As soon as Buck identified himself, the man said, “Everything all right with the—”

“The car is fine, sir. But I need to reach my wife, and she’s driving it right now. I need the phone number on that built-in phone.”

“That would take a little digging.”

“I can’t tell you how urgent this is, sir. Let me just say that it’s worth my developing a quick case of buyer’s remorse and returning the vehicle if I can’t get that number right now.”

“One moment.”

A couple of minutes later Buck dialed the number. It rang four times. “The mobile customer you have dialed is either away from the vehicle or out of the calling zone. Please try your call—”

Buck slammed down the phone, picked it up, and hit the redial button. While listening to the ring, he was startled when the door burst open and Verna Zee mouthed, “Carpathia on the line for you.”

“I’m gonna have to call him back!” Buck said.

“You’re what?!”

“Take a number!”

“Dial 1-800-FIRED,” she said.

Rayford was frantic. He forgot any pretense of doing anything but sitting there, and he stared straight ahead into the late afternoon sky, earphones firmly engaged and his left hand pressing the hidden button hard. He heard Carpathia’s aide: “Well, of all the—”

“What?” Carpathia said.

“I’m trying to get this Williams character on the line for you, and he’s told his girl there to take a number.”

It was all Rayford could do to keep from calling Buck again himself, knowing for sure now that he was at the Chicago office. But if someone told Carpathia Buck couldn’t talk to him because he was on with Rayford Steele, that would be disastrous. He heard Carpathia’s reassuring voice again. “Just give him the number, my friend. I trust this young man. He is a brilliant journalist and would not keep me waiting without good reason. Of course, he is trying to cover the story of a lifetime, would you not agree?”

Buck ordered Verna Zee to shut the door on her way out and to leave him alone until he was off the phone. She sighed heavily and shook her head, slamming the door. Buck continued to hit the redial button, hating the sound of that recorded announcement more than anything he had ever heard in his life.

Suddenly the intercom came alive. “I’m sorry to bother you,” Verna said in a sickly sweet, singsong voice, “but you have yet another urgent phone call. Chaim Rosenzweig from Israel.”

Buck punched the intercom button. “I’m afraid I’m gonna have to call him back, too. Tell him I’m very sorry.”

“You should tell
me
you’re very sorry,” Verna said. “I’m tempted to patch him through anyway.”

“I’m very sorry, Verna,” Buck said with sarcasm. “Now leave me alone, please!”

The cell phone kept ringing. Buck hung up on the recorded message several times. Verna punched back in. “Dr. Rosenzweig says it’s a matter of life and death, Cameron.”

Buck quickly punched into the blinking line. “Chaim, I’m very sorry, but I’m in the middle of an urgent matter here myself. Can’t I call you back?”

“Cameron! Please don’t hang up on me! Israel has been spared the terrible bombings that your country has suffered, but Rabbi Ben-Judah’s family was abducted and slaughtered! His house has burned to the ground. I pray he is safe, but no one knows where he is!”

Buck was speechless. He hung his head. “His family is gone? Are you sure?”

“It was a public spectacle, Cameron. I was afraid it would come sooner or later. Why, oh why did he have to go public with his views about Messiah? It’s one thing to disagree with him, as I do, a respected and trusted friend. But the religious zealots in this country hate a person who believes that Jesus is Messiah. Cameron, he needs our help. What can we do? I have not been able to get through to Nicolae.”

“Chaim, do me one huge favor and leave Nicolae out of this, please!”

“Cameron! Nicolae is the most powerful man in the world, and he has pledged to help me and to help Israel and to protect us. Surely, he will step in and preserve the life of a friend of mine!”

“Chaim, I’m begging you to trust me on this. Leave Nicolae out of it. Now I must call you back. I have family members in trouble myself!”

“Forgive me, Cameron! Get back to me as soon as you can.”

Buck punched in on his original line and hit redial again. As the numbers sounded in his ear, Verna came on the intercom. “Someone’s on the line for you, but since you don’t want to be bothered—”

Chloe’s cell phone was busy! Buck slammed the phone down and punched in on the intercom. “Who is it?”

“I thought you didn’t want to be bothered.”

“Verna, I have no time for this!”

“If you must know, it was your wife.”

“Which line?”

“Line two, but I told her you were probably on the phone with Carpathia or Rosenzweig.”

“Where was she calling from?”

“I don’t know. She said she would wait for your call.”

“Did she leave a number?”

“Yes. It’s—”

When Buck heard the first two numbers, he knew it was the cell phone. He turned off the intercom and hit the redial button. Verna poked her head in the door and said, “I’m not a secretary, you know, and I’m certainly not
your
secretary!”

Buck had never been angrier with anyone. He stared at Verna. “I’m coming across this desk to kick that door shut. You had better not be in the way.”

The cell phone was ringing. Verna still stood there. Buck rose from his chair, phone still to his ear, and stepped up onto the desk and across Verna’s mess of papers. Her eyes grew wide as he lifted his leg, and she ducked out of the way as he kicked the door shut with all his might. It sounded like a bomb and nearly toppled the wall partitions. Verna screamed. Buck almost wished she’d been in the doorway.

“Buck!” came Chloe’s voice from the phone.

“Chloe! Where are you?”

“I’m on my way out of Chicago,” she said. “I got the phones and went to The Drake, but there was a message for me at the desk.”

“I know.”

“Buck, something in Daddy’s voice made me not even take the time to get anything from our room.”

“Good!”

“But your laptop and all your clothes and all your toiletries and everything I brought from New York—”

“But your dad sounded serious, didn’t he?”

“Yes. Oh, Buck, I’m being pulled over by the police! I made a U-turn and I was speeding, and I went through a light, and I was even on the sidewalk for a while.”

“Chloe, listen! You know the old saying about how it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission?”

“You want me to try to outrun him?”

“You’ll probably be saving his life! There’s only one reason your father would want us out of Chicago as far and as fast as possible!”

“OK, Buck, pray for me! Here goes nothing!”

“I’ll stay on the line with you, Chloe.”

“I need both hands to drive!”

“Hit the speaker button and hang that phone up!” Buck said.

But then he heard an explosion, tires squealing, a scream, and silence. Within seconds the electricity went off in the
Global Community Weekly
office. Buck felt his way out into the hall where battery-operated emergency lights near the ceiling illuminated the doors. “Look at that!” someone shouted, and the staff pushed its way through the front doors and began climbing atop their own cars to watch a huge aerial attack on the city of Chicago.