|
|
|
|
|
|
He was on his way to an emergency meeting at Andrews Air Force Base. The President was due to take off in the substitute Looking Glass plane at nine o'clock, at the same time that Morgan, so many miles to the northwest, went into the water. The Joint Chiefs and a clutch of others vital to the governing of the United States were gathering at Andrews, preparatory to joining the President aloft. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The duty officer at the Pentagon had notified Kellner of the crash at Site X at five in the morning, Washington time, four A.M. at Hudson Bay. At 5:40 the Canadian Major Harris had called personally to report on the tragedy at the airstrip, telling Kellner that Morgan and Anna Neville were all fight, but that Arkady Karmann was missing and possibly killed, along with many in the group of newspeople waiting at the airstrip when the Starlifter crashed. ''Your Colonel Morgan is our last chance. He'll make the attempt to deactivate the nuclear device in the bayalone," Harris had said wearily, the weight of the world on his shoulders. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm on my way to Andrews for the last time, Kellner thought. Everything I do, God willing that Morgan succeeds, will be "for the last time" in the next few days. Here in Washington, the sky was winter blue; the fitful, squalling weather of the last few days had turned into a beautiful cold morning, sharp and clear. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Just minutes before the call from the Pentagon had come the call from the FBI, from Charlie Fisk. Bless Fisk, Kellner thought, for having the kindness to tell me himself that Camilia Varig had been apprehended. I was fight about her, at least in one way. She had come back to her apartment to claim her possessions, Charlie said. They'd found her with suitcases open, throwing everything in her closets into them with abandon, all her jewelry and a large sum of money in her purse. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'll have to see her face to face, he thought, hear her out. I already know what she'll saythat I used her when I needed her, and left her to her own devices when I didn't. That I never loved her, and that she hates me. She's wrong about the |
|
|
|
|
|