“Think of it, Jonathan — true followers of Christ have always dreamed of the Rapture, when in the blink of an eye Christ will snatch them away from the suffering of this life into the glories of heaven. But what if there was a great spiritual awakening first? Would it not be just like God to do something like that first—before the Antichrist is revealed, before the Tribulation begins, before billions suffer and perish forever?
“God doesn’t have to do anything before the Rapture, of course — He could come this very instant — but what if He wanted to give the world one more chance before Satan is unleashed upon the earth? What if that is what we are about to see happen with our own eyes?”
Bennett loved Mordechai’s passion, but his own emotional circuit breakers were about to blow. He wasn’t an evangelist. He was a political strategist without a strategy.
“Bob Corsetti called this morning. The president wants me back in Washington. Something’s up.”
“Good or bad?”
“I don’t know. But you can be sure the president is going to ask me about our time together. And what am I supposed to say? ‘The end is near’? ”
“Tell him the truth,” said Mordechai.
“Yeah, right. You want me to sit down with the president of the United States and the National Security Council and say, ‘Look, I know the situation looks bad right now. The world is on the verge of another Holocaust. Russia is poised to seize two-thirds of the world’s oil supplies. But don’t worry. At the last possible second God is going to supernaturally annihilate the Evil Empire and destroy radical Islam as we know it’? They’ll think I’m nuts.”
Mordechai looked at Bennett for a moment. Then he said, “Here, I have something for you. This may help.”
He handed Bennett a spiral-bound brief and a CD.
“What’s this?” Bennett asked. He took the brief from Mordechai and leafed through the pages.
“It contains everything we talked about last night, plus a list of recommendations — some for the president, some for the prime minister,” Mordechai replied.
“What recommendations?”
“As you know, the Israeli nuclear doctrine is called ‘The Samson Option.’ It says when all hope is lost, Israelis should put their trust in nuclear weapons. What you hold in your hands is my alternative. It says when all hope is lost, Israelis should put their trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I call it ‘The Ezekiel Option.’ ”
“And just what do you want me to do with this? Give it to the president?”
Mordechai looked into Bennett’s eyes, as if silently evaluating him.
“Jonathan, do you know the story of Queen Esther?”
“Vaguely, why?”
“You will know in a minute,” Mordechai said. “Somewhere between 486 BC and 465 BC, most of the civilized world was controlled by the Persian Empire, stretching from India in the East to Ethiopia and Sudan in the West. The ruler of this empire was a king known in Persian as Khshayarsha—King Xerxes in Greek, King Ahasuerus in Hebrew.
“One day the king issued orders to all of his regional commanders, ‘to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old’—men, women, and children — all in one day, ‘and to seize their possessions as plunder.’ What the king did not know was that his beautiful wife, Queen Esther—Hadassah in Hebrew — was Jewish, a fact that she had kept hidden from the king.
“Esther’s uncle secretly sent word to her, urging her to tell the king that she was Jewish and to plead for mercy for her people. But Esther was paralyzed with fear. She sent word back to her uncle that he could not possibly expect her to risk her position, her status — perhaps even her life — by interceding on behalf of the Jewish people.
“The clock was ticking. The day of destruction was near. Esther’s uncle sent back one final message: ‘Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained your royal position for such a time as this?’ ”
40
“Is everything set?” Gogolov asked.
“It is, Your Excellency,” Jibril replied.
“Very well. Proceed.”
On Gogolov’s command, the motorcade departed on schedule. It took a left at the Hotel National and proceeded up Tverskaya Boulevard toward the Sheremetyevo 2 International Airport, catching throngs of Muscovites by surprise in the process.
It was the first time the new czar had left the Kremlin’s protective bubble since the trip to New York. Though the excursion had not been publicly announced, it had been in planning for several weeks.
The occasion was the arrival of a high-level diplomatic delegation from Tehran, led by Iranian president Ifshahan Kharrazi. On Tuesday, Gogolov and Kharrazi would sign a series of economic and military agreements and hold a press conference designed to stun Washington and her NATO allies.
But first there was critical business to conclude.
Gogolov waved to the gawking crowds as Jibril began his briefing.
“Kharrazi says his people are ahead of schedule.”
“How soon can they be ready?”
“The engineers are working in round-the-clock shifts. Kharrazi expects all twenty-five Shahab-3 missiles to be outfitted with our nuclear warheads by October first.”
“Six days ahead of schedule?”
“Yes, and a full sixteen days ahead of the U.N. deadline, should our resolution pass,” Jibril confirmed.
“Then we must be on full alert for an Israeli first strike, Mohammed.”
“Doron will not launch before the first of October, Your Excellency.”
“Why not?”
“It would be suicide. The Americans are pressuring him to accept a diplomatic solution. Bennett passed the word to Doron on Saturday.”
“That hardly seems like a message with which Mr. Bennett would agree.”
“You are quite right, Your Excellency. Our sources say Bennett has been pushing for a major U.S. military buildup, perhaps even a preemptive strike.”
“What kind of support does he have?”
“Almost none. Neither Congress nor the American public wants another war. But Bennett is shrewd. He is not arguing that the U.S. should defend Israel.”
“Then what is he saying?”
“He is arguing that the U.S. cannot allow a Russian-Iranian alliance to seize control of the Persian Gulf and put the Western economies in danger.”
Jibril was right, Gogolov thought. Bennett was dangerous. Perhaps it was time to kill him.
“The Israelis will become desperate when they realize that the White House has no intention of coming to their rescue despite all the president’s talk of being ‘pro-Israel,’ ” Jibril added.
Gogolov nodded. “Then perhaps we must strike first.”
Bennett lay in his own bed, staring at the ceiling.
It was only two in the morning, but his body was still on Israel time, seven hours ahead. There was no way he was going to sleep. In a few hours, after all, he would see the president face-to-face. His stomach churned at the prospect.