Black Ops (Presidential Agent 5)

"Yes, sir."

"Where the hell are you?"

"Sitting in the airplane--we just landed--in Cozumel."

"A fuel stop? Or are you planning to rest from your trip overnight?"

"Both, sir."

"I've given some thought on how to get together--"

"Sir . . ."

"--since your coming to Fort Bragg would be ill-advised. What I've been thinking--"

"Sir . . ."

"--is that I would fly to Rucker, which wouldn't attract any attention, then chopper down to Hurlburt. No one would even know I'd done that. And--I presume you have your German passport--if you went through immigration at Lauderdale--"

"Sir . . ."

"Goddamn it, Charley, stop interrupting me! If you went through immigration at Fort Lauderdale, which makes even more sense now that you'll be coming from Cozumel, since they're both vacation spots, you could fly on to Pensacola--"

"Sir, I'm not coming to see you."

There was a short pause before McNab replied, "Say again?"

"I'm not going to come see you, sir, at least--"

"Your coming to me was not in the nature of a suggestion, Colonel. More like an order. You remember, from your time in the Army, what an order is, right?"

"I'm going to see the President, sir."

There was a long pause.

"He sent for you?"

"No, sir. I'm going to call him and ask to see him just as soon as I get off the horn with you, sir."

There was another long pause before McNab said, "Charley, I don't think the President is going to buy 'I'm sorry, and it won't happen again, sir.'"

"What I'm hoping he will buy, sir, is that there is a chemical laboratory and factory in the Congo."

"You're aware, of course, that the CIA thinks what that is is a fish farm."

"I'm taking Mr. Delchamps with me, sir."

"Ol' Lethal Injection in the Neck Delchamps? You know what the agency thinks about him."

"And Mr. Darby."

"He who sees a Mad Russian bent on world domination behind every tree?"

"And Jack Davidson and Uncle Remus and P. B. DeWitt. They all have--"

"P. B. DeWitt? My P. B. DeWitt? Master Sergeant Phineas Bartholomew DeWitt, Retired?"

"Yes, sir. He's one of the China Post guys I hired to sit on Ambassador Lorimer."