Hazardous Duty (Presidential Agent 8)

WE WILL BE FLYING THERE TOMORROW.

DAY SIX—JUNE 15, 2007

LEAVING ¦¦¦¦¦¦ THE ¦¦¦¦ AND ¦¦¦¦¦¦ BEHIND IN BUDAPEST TO ARRANGE THEIR SURREPTITIOUS ENTRY INTO SOMALIA, THIS REPORTER FLEW THIS MORNING WITH LIEUTENANT COLONEL ¦¦¦¦¦¦ AND THE MERRY OUTLAWS ON THE GULFSTREAM V TO A PRIVATE AIRFIELD NEAR ¦¦¦¦¦¦, GERMANY.

THERE WE WERE MET BY ¦¦¦¦ ¦¦¦¦¦¦ MANAGING DIRECTOR OF ¦¦¦¦¦¦ ¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦, G.M.B.H., WHICH OWNS THE ¦¦¦¦ ¦¦¦¦¦¦ NEWSPAPER CHAIN. HE IS A HESSIAN, BUT HE LOOKED LIKE A POSTCARD BAVARIAN. HE IS A TALL, HEAVYSET, RUDDY-FACED MAN.

¦¦¦¦¦¦ TOLD ¦¦¦¦¦¦ THE ¦¦¦¦ ¦¦¦¦¦¦ CORRESPONDENTS HE HAD ORDERED TO COME FROM MOGADISHU TO ¦¦¦¦¦¦ HAD BEEN DELAYED IN ¦¦¦¦¦¦, ¦¦¦¦¦¦ AND HAD NOT YET ARRIVED. THEY ARE EXPECTED TOMORROW OR THE NEXT DAY. IN THE MEANTIME, ¦¦¦¦¦¦ AND HIS TEAM HAVE BEEN GIVEN ACCESS TO THE FILES OF THE NEWSPAPER CHAIN.

MORE TO FOLLOW

“Will there be a reply, Madam Secretary?”

“Martha, we’ve known each other ever since the UN, and you can’t bring yourself to call me Natalie, even when we’re alone?”

“Oh, I couldn’t do that, Madam Secretary.”

“There won’t be a reply right now, Martha, thank you. If Charlene is out there, would you ask her to come in, please?”

Charlene Stevens, the former Secret Service agent who headed Secretary Cohen’s security detail, came into the office and announced, “Anytime you’re ready, boss.”

“We can’t leave until I deliver this to the President,” Cohen said, holding up the messages.

“I’ll tell them to stand down,” Charlene said. “Any guess as to when we can go?”

“Let’s find out,” Cohen said, and pressed the buttons on her red White House switchboard telephone that would connect her with the President and put the conversation on loudspeaker.

A male voice was on the line in less than ten seconds.

“The President’s line. May I ask who’s calling?”

“Secretary Cohen.”

“Madam Secretary, the President is not available at the moment, and has asked not to be disturbed in less than a Category Two Situation. Would you like me to put you through to the President?”

“No, thank you. Please tell the President I have information for him and that I would like to see him at his earliest convenience.”

“Yes, ma’am. I will pass on to the President that you would like to see him at his earliest convenience.”

“Thank you,” Secretary Cohen said, and broke the connection.

“Well, while obviously important,” Charlene said, “whatever that message says, it doesn’t pose as much of a threat to the nation’s security as getting the First Mother-in-Law back in the loony bin does.”

Natalie shook her head, but didn’t reply.

“You knew he wasn’t there, right?” Charlene asked. “That he’s in Biloxi?”

“I didn’t tell you that.”

“Some of my boys were talking.”

“See if you can get some of your boys to let you know when they have an ETA for him at Andrews. I’d like to be at the White House when he gets back.”

“Done. Anything else?”

“Not unless you want to sit here and listen to me tell my boys that our golf at the Greenbrier will have to be delayed for a while.”

“I’ll pass, thank you,” Charlene said.