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Anna Neville winced at the forthright question. Her expression showed all too plainly how confused she was. |
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"I'm sorry, Mrs. Neville," Morgan said. "But what happened to Grau changes all the rules. Simple mistakes and pure accidents begin to be perceived as lies." |
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"There was a submarine, Colonel." |
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Anna Neville's angry tone told him how many times she had heard that skeptical rejoinder. "Yes, Colonel, in Hudson Bay. I took photographs of it." |
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"But your cameras and film were lost, of course," Morgan said. |
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Morgan regarded her steadily. "I believe you." |
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"I believe you were, in fact, shot down by a surface-to-air missile. And I believe you saw a submarine in Hudson Bay last December. I can't blame you for thinking that it was an American boat. But it was not." |
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What exactly was he suggesting here, she wondered. "Whose, then if not American?" she asked. |
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"There are possibilities. Quite a few." |
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"Oh, no. Not the cold war again. Are you saying that it was a Russian submarine?" Disbelief and exasperation showed in her expression. |
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"It is entirely possible, Mrs. Neville." |
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"I thought even the U.S. military had got past that kind of thinking," she said bleakly. |
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"I wonder why it is," he said carefully, "that if there is blame to assign, people like yourself and your friends always choose to assign it to my country." |
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He paused, catching a glimpse of her haunted face, suddenly ashamed of himself, and spoke more calmly. "As it happens, Mrs. Neville, we have satellite images of a Russian submarine leaving the Atlantic approach to Hudson Strait less than one week after your aircraft was brought down. You can believe |
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