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Page 295
on the face of this earth ever made another weapon, we'd all be the better for it.
She jumped when, across the room, the President exploded. ''Damn it, no, Ian," Caidin shouted, pounding the desk in front of him. "We had to lay it on the line with Cherny. There's no time for waffling." His face was as red as Halloran's now.
Vincent Kellner moved quickly to insert himself physically between Caidin and Halloran. "I agree, Prime Minister, with the President," he said smoothly. "Now I suggest that we tell Mrs. Neville all the facts. I'm sure she'll cooperate."
Behind Kellner's stolid expression Anna thought she could see exasperation, perhaps even anger. The mention of her name brought her out of her haze. She sat up straight. What facts? Why was she, Anna Neville, being mentioned in the same breath as the president of Russia? Possibly now she'd find out why she was here.
The President, the Prime Minister, and Dr. Kellner were bearing down on her. Anna braced herself for what was to come. The three men sat down across the table from her, and Vincent Kellner began to speak.
What he was saying was bald, stripped of the solicitous, almost unctuous, charm both the President and the Prime Minister had tried to display. "We have no Official Secrets Act in this country, Mrs. Neville," Kellner began. "Occasionally, I wish we did. Because of what General Bolton and Mr. Jamison have told you, and what you are about to be told, you will be privy to state secrets of enormous sensitivity. This information is dangerous, explosive. War and peace literally depend on its confidentiality."
Anna drew a hard breath, forcing herself to concentrate, and said firmly, "I am not a believer in government secrecy, Dr. Kellner, for whatever reason, however melodramatic. In fact, I beg that you leave me out of any further deliberations on the state secret level. All I ask, all that I ever asked, is that the United States government explain what part, if any, it may

 
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