Hazardous Duty (Presidential Agent 8)
Page 46
Aleksandr Pevsner’s Mercedes SUV took Naylor and Koshkov back to the airport, where they fired up Castillo’s Mustang and flew back to Bariloche.
[FOUR]
Office of the Director
The Central Intelligence Agency
Langley, Virginia
1910 7 June 2007
As A. Franklin Lammelle, the CIA director, removed a dart from the right ear of the photograph of Vladimir Putin he used as a target and was in the process of removing a second from Mr. Putin’s nose, his CaseyBerry buzzed.
He shoved the dart back into Putin’s left nostril, took the CaseyBerry from his shirt pocket, looked to see who was calling, and then inquired, “And how may the CIA be of service to the Queen of Foggy Bottom?”
Natalie Cohen, the United States secretary of State, got right to the point.
“I have an URGENT from Buenos Aires,” she said.
“Junior called to say he was at the embassy,” Lammelle replied.
“What do I do with it?”
“Unless memory fails, Madam Secretary, we were agreed that you would now dispatch a member of your security staff to make the other addressees familiar with it. ‘Eyes Only’ means you can’t send them a copy as it is one of those quote Duplication Forbidden end quote documents.”
“You’re an ‘other addressee,’ Frank.”
“Well, you can skip me. I know what it says. I wrote it.”
“And Truman Ellsworth is in Budapest, looking for Castillo. What do I do about him?”
“I’ve given that some thought, as a matter of fact. When you see the President, you can tell him where ol’ Truman is. One more proof that his faithful staff is carrying out his orders.”
“Faithfully carrying out his orders is not what we’re doing, Frank, and you know it.”
“Consider the alternative, Natalie.”
She didn’t respond to that directly. “And what do I do with General Naylor?”
“If the President convenes another meeting, you can show the message to General Naylor when he shows up.”
“And what do I do if I call the White House and he is available?”
“The last I heard was that Senator Foghorn and the other Good Ol’ Boys have already shown up at the White House for a little white lightning and two-bit-limit poker. I don’t think he will be available tonight.”
“And what if he decides to take Senator Fog… Forman into his confidence about this?”
“I think that’s unlikely; he knows what a loud mouth Forman has. But we’ll just have to wait and see.”
“I’m very nervous about this whole thing.”
“Well, so am I. That’s why I’m paid the big bucks. You have to have nerves of steel to be the DCI.”
“Oh, God!” she said, and broke the connection.
He immediately called her back.
“What?”