Dark Star. Don Pendleton

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СКАЧАТЬ “Agamemnon,” Brognola muttered, for some reason suddenly feeling the urge for a cigar, even though he had given them up years ago.

      Nodding, the Marine looked at him much closer now. “Wife’s maiden name?”

      Puzzled, Brognola tilted his head slightly, only to notice the other men dressed like him at the other planes doing exactly the same thing. Damn, they could even copy his body language? Damn, the Secret Service was good.

      “The name, sir?” the Marine repeated in a more insistent tone.

      Brognola provided the required information, now very eager to get out of the open and inside the waiting 747. The sky was a clear blue, with scarcely a cloud in sight, yet he felt oddly vulnerable.

      Easing his stance slightly, the big Marine motioned toward the air stairs. “Right this way, sir.”

      Nodding, the big Fed quickly walked up the portable staircase, his sharp eyes checking in every direction. There were snipers lying on the rooftops of the terminal buildings, and several Harrier Jumpjets parked on the grassy strips between the runways, the air in front of them blurry from the heat of the idling turbo engines. What in hell had happened that he didn’t know about yet? There had been nothing on the news. But these were the sorts of safeguards normally reserved for a shooting war, not a tense peacetime.

      As he reached the top of the stairs, a pretty female Secret Service agent checked his ID again, and Brognola gave the proper answers to her questions as a full delta formation of F-15E Strike Eagles streaked noisily by overhead, the deadly fighters leaving misty contrails behind from the sheer speed of their passage. There seemed to be a lot of contrails up there, crisscrossing in every direction, enough to almost make a smoke screen above the busy military base, which was probably the general idea. Entering the cool interior of the 747, Brognola forced himself to stop making wild guesses. Soon enough he would know the truth.

      “Welcome aboard Air Force One,” a smiling flight attendant said politely, an Uzi machine gun hanging at her side. “If you’ll just hold for a second, sir…”

      Standing still, Brognola waited while another Marine used a handheld EM scanner to check him for weapons and explosives. Nobody got close to the President without being scanned, and then scanned again. As part of his job, the big Fed usually carried a 9 mm Glock pistol in a shoulder holster, but that had been left behind in the limo. Over the years, he had created a lot of enemies, but most of them were buried six feet under the ground. However, no visitors got this close to the President caring anything that could be used as a weapon. End of discussion.

      “Clear,” the Marine announced crisply, tucking away the device.

      “Welcome to Air Force One,” the flight attendant said, smiling briefly. “If you’ll please follow me…” Without waiting for a response, the woman turned to briskly walk down the main aisle of the jet toward the passenger section.

      As the Marine closed and locked the hatch, Brognola proceeded down the main aisle of the jetliner, as always marveling that the rich carpeting and polished mahogany panels of the sumptuous interior masked enough state-of-the-art military armor for the plane to be driven through a brick wall.

      Catching a movement outside the window, he saw one of the other 747 jumbo jets taxi into position for an immediate take-off. But that was to be expected. The President always traveled in a three-on-three defensive formation, whether it was a 747 or a limousine. Any potential assassins would not know exactly which vehicle he was traveling in.

      Passing the stairs to the second level, Brognola reached the passenger section and noted the unusual assortment of people sitting in the comfortable seats. Normally the craft carried a host of government aides, cabinet members, news reporters, along with the occasional member of Congress or the Senate. But this day there seemed to be only grim Secret Service agents, several key members of the Joint Chiefs and a score of Air Force Rangers openly carrying M-17 assault rifles and wearing full body armor.

      “Please have a seat, sir,” the flight attendant said, a touch of urgency in her voice. “We’ll be taking off in just a moment.”

      Knowing it would be useless to ask about their destination, Brognola took the only empty seat in sight. He barely had time to buckle the seat belt when there came a low rumble of controlled power and the 747 started moving forward, the pressure increasing on him as the front of the jet lifted and he felt the telltale tingling sensation in his gut that meant they had just left the ground. Wow, that was fast. Things had to be a lot worse than he had imagined if the pilot pulled a stunt like that with Eagle One on board. It was almost as if the pilot was taking off under combat conditions and trying to avoid enemy fire.

      The angle of assent, maintained for a lot longer than Brognola would have thought necessary, finally leveled out and the rumble of the massive engines faded to a subdued murmur as the colossal plane reached cruising altitude. A light above his seat flashed that it was safe to remove his seat belt. The flight attendant returned.

      “Please follow me, sir,” the woman said with a smile.

      Brognola stood and followed her to the rear of the aircraft.

      Walking up to a plain door, the woman tapped a code into a keypad set into the burnished steel frame, then pressed her hand against a glowing plate. There was an answering beep, a light above the door turned green and the flight attendant stepped aside as electromagnetic bolts disengaged and the door slid into the wall with a hydraulic sigh.

      “Good to see you, Hal,” the President said from behind a large wooden desk in the corner of the room. “Glad you could make it on such short notice.”

      “No problem, sir,” Brognola replied, stepping into the office. “The fish weren’t biting worth a damn.” Softly, the door closed behind him and resoundingly locked into place.

      “Fishing…” the President said with a wan smile. “I haven’t done that in ages. You’re probably using the wrong type of bait again, my friend. Can’t catch catfish with a pop fly, you know.”

      “As you’ve mentioned once or twice before.” Brognola grinned as he took a seat.

      “I’ll get you to switch from lures to flies yet.”

      There was a soft beep from the door. The President pressed a button on the intercom set into his desk and the door opened again, admitting a steward pushing a wheeled cart holding a steaming coffee urn, stacks of cups and saucers and several serving trays piled high with an assortment of sandwiches. Both men nodded politely to the steward as he departed, then completely ignored the food.

      “All right, what’s so important that we couldn’t talk at the White House?” Brognola asked, crossing his legs at the knee. “Has there been an assassination attempt?” He paused in consternation.

      “Nothing that simple, I’m afraid,” the Man said with a grimace. “And I will not be returning to Washington until further notice. My double is sitting in the Oval office while I stay at Cheyenne Mountain. The Veep is heading for Camp David.”

      That was unsettling news.

      “Okay, what happened?” the big Fed demanded bluntly. “Are we at war with somebody?”

      “You tell me,” the President replied, pressing a button on the intercom.

      Silently an oil painting of President John Adams rotated on the wall to display a plasma-screen monitor. There was a brief strobing effect as the room dimmed, СКАЧАТЬ