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Page 39
much a part of the Adviser's surroundings as the gray steel office furniture they both favored. Morgan often had the impression that she faded into the background, leaving only a presence. Sadly, not a pleasant one. She had a broad, ugly face under mouse-colored hair. Her skin was thick and pale, her lips narrow over widely spaced front teeth. Her bone structure was heavy, but her body was too thin in the gray suits she favored on duty. There was a faint Germanic harshness to her voice and speech. Like Kellner himself, Camilla was the child of naturalized Germans, strictly, even severely, raised. Kellner had found her in the ranks of the Berlin station of the CIA during his term as agency director. Varig had served in Counterintelligence, specializing in ex-Stasi agents on the run. She vetted Kellner's calls and his callers, scheduled his appointments, and took precise notes at all of his meetings. You could tell immediately who was on the short list of favorites and who was on the shit list just by watching and listening. If one wanted to do business with the Adviser (Kellner, a tall Ichabod Crane-type man, preferred that title), one dealt with Camilla Varig. It was the only way.
A bell pinged softly on the console and Varig listened attentively to a murmur issuing from it. She looked up and said, "It will be a few minutes yet, Colonel."
Morgan, slightly hungover, frowned. What were Kellner and Charlotte Conroy discussing at such length? Morgan had a Marine's ingrained suspicion of anything involving the United Nations. The Corps' experience with the UN had not been a happy one.
Dr. Conroy was a complex internationalist, puzzling to those parochial politicians who thought that if one drove beyond the Capital Beltway, one would fall off the edge of the world. She was fifty-five and formidable, a handsome, articulate silver-haired woman with degrees and honors stacked high on her desk at the United Nations. The Washington rumor was that she was in line to be the next Democratic senator from California. John Morgan hoped the rumor was true. Con-

 
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