Sidney Sheldon’s Reckless. Сидни Шелдон

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       CHAPTER FOUR

      WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ‘HE RAN’?”

      President Jim Havers held the phone away from his ear in disbelief.

      “He ran, sir,” General Teddy MacNamee repeated. “Drexel refused to get into the helicopter.”

      There was a long silence.

      “Fuck,” said the president.

      “WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘HE RAN’?”

      The British prime minister rubbed her eyes blearily.

      “I don’t know how many other ways to say it, Julia,” the President of the United States snapped. “He wouldn’t get in the chopper. He ran into the fucking forest. We’re screwed.”

      Julia Cabot thought, You mean you’re screwed, Jim.

      Her mind raced as she tried to figure out the best way to play this.

      “I’ve already had the Bratislavan president on the line, screaming blue murder,” President Havers ranted on. “The UN secretary General’s asked me for a statement as a matter of urgency.”

      “What did you tell him?”

      “Nothing yet.”

      “What will you tell him?”

      “That Drexel wasn’t there. He’d been moved. But that they successfully took out a bunch of terrorists.”

      “Good,” Julia Cabot said.

      “I can count on your support?”

      “Of course, Jim. Always.”

      President Havers exhaled. “Thank you, Julia. We need a joint intelligence meeting. To figure out where we go from here.”

      “Agreed.”

      “How soon can your guys be in Washington?”

      “I think, under the circumstances, Jim, it makes more sense for your guys to come to London. Don’t you?”

      Julia Cabot smiled. It felt good to have the upper hand with the Americans for once. Right now she was the only friend Jim Havers had in the world and he knew it. She must play her cards for all they were worth.

      “I’ll see what I can do,” Jim Havers said gruffly.

      “Wonderful.” Julia Cabot hung up.

      EXACTLY ONE WEEK LATER, FOUR MEN sat around a table in Whitehall, eyeing one another warily.

      “Good of you to come, gentlemen.” Jamie MacIntosh rolled up his shirtsleeves and leaned forward, smiling amiably at his American counterparts. “I know you must both have had a difficult week.”

      “That’s an understatement.” Greg Walton of the CIA looked desperately tired. He resented being summoned to London, especially at a time when his beloved agency was being ripped to shreds by Congress back home. But he made an effort at politeness. Unlike his FBI colleague, Milton Buck.

      “I hope you have something important to add to this operation,” Buck snarled at Jamie MacIntosh. “Because frankly we don’t have time to waste on handholding you Brits.”

      Sitting beside Jamie MacIntosh, Frank Dorrien stiffened. “Well, quite,” he said sardonically. “After the mess you made of what should have been a perfectly simple rescue mission, based on our entirely accurate intelligence, I imagine you want to devote as many man-hours as possible to training your own men. Heaven knows they need it.”

      Milton Buck looked like he was ready to throw a punch.

      “All right, that’s enough.” Jamie MacIntosh glared at Frank Dorrien. “None of us have time for chest beating. Let’s leave that to the politicians. We’re here to combine our resources and share information on Group 99 and that’s what we’re going to do. Why don’t I start?”

      Greg Walton leaned back in his chair. “Great. What have you got?”

      “For starters, we’ve got a name for Captain Daley’s killer.”

      Walton and Buck looked at one another in shock. “Seriously?”

      Frank Dorrien pushed a file across the table.

      In the top left-hand corner was a photograph of a handsome, dark-skinned man with a strong jaw, long aquiline nose, and hooded, distrustful eyes. There was a detached air about him and a certain watchful hauteur, like a bird of prey.

      “Alexis Argyros,” Jamie MacIntosh announced. “Codenamed Apollo. One of Group 99’s founder members and a thoroughly unpleasant piece of work. Grew up in foster care in Athens. Possibly abused. A high school dropout but brilliant with computers and obsessed with violent video games from his early teens. Hates women. Sadist. Narcissist. All this is from his social worker’s reports.”

      “Criminal record?” Greg Walton asked.

      “Oh yes. Petty theft, vandalism, arson. Two years in youth custody for rape. And he was suspected in a hideous case of animal cruelty where a cat and kittens were burned alive.”

      “You only get two years for rape?” Greg Walton asked.

      “The Greeks can’t afford to run their prisons,” Jamie MacIntosh said matter-of-factly. “Not since austerity. Anyway, we believe Argyros was the man who pulled the trigger in Daley’s execution video. He was running the СКАЧАТЬ