Executive orders - Tom Clancy [237]
I come here today to speak to you about America Below the President were five Secret Service agents standing in line, their sunglasses shielding their eyes so that those in the audience could not always tell where they were looking, and also because people without eyes are intimidating at a visceral level. Their hands were clasped in front, and radio earpieces kept them in contact with one another as they scanned the crowd. In the rear of the field house were others, this group scanning with binoculars, because they knew that the love in the building was not uniform, or even that there were some who sought to kill the things they loved. For that reason, the advance team had erected portable metal-detector arches at all the entrances. For that reason Belgian Malinois dogs had sniffed the building for explosives. For that reason they watched everything in the same way an infantryman in a combat zone was careful to examine every shadow.
and the strength of America lies not in Washington, but in Indiana, and New Mexico, and in every place Americans live and work, wherever it might be. We in Washington are not America. You are, the President's voice boomed through the PA system-not a good system, the agents thought, but this event had been laid on a little fast. And we work for you. The audience cheered again anyway.
The TV cameras all fed into vans outside the building, and those had uplink dishes to relay the sound and pictures to satellites. The reporters were mainly in the back today, taking notes despite the fact that they had the full text, along with a written promise that the President really would deliver this one. The President's speech today, all would say this evening, but it wasn't really the President's speech at all. They knew who'd written it. Callie Weston had already talked to several of their number about it. They read the crowd, an easier task for them because they didn't have the klieg lights in their faces.
is not an opportunity, but a responsibility which we all share, because if America belongs to us all, so then the duty for running our country starts here, not in Washington. More applause.
Good speech, Tom Donner observed to his commentator/analyst, John Plumber.
Pretty good delivery, too. I talked to the superintendent of the Naval Academy. They say he was an excellent teacher once, Plumber replied.
Good audience for him, mainly kids. And he's not talking major policy issues.
Getting his feet wet, John agreed. You have a team working the other segment for tonight, right?
Donner checked his watch and nodded. Should be there now.
SO, DR. RYAN, how do you like being First Lady? Krystin Matthews asked, with a warm smile.
I'm still figuring it out. They were talking in Cathy's cubbyhole office overlooking central Baltimore. It had barely enough room for a desk and three chairs (a good one for the doctor, one for the patient, and the other for the spouse or mother of the patient), and with all the cameras and lights in the room, she felt trapped. You know, I miss cooking for my family.
You're a surgeon-and your husband expects you to cook, too? the NBC co-anchor asked, in surprise bordering on outrage.
I've always loved cooking. It's a good way for me to relax when I get home. Instead of watching TV, Professor Caroline Ryan didn't add. She was wearing a new starched lab coat. She'd had to take fifteen minutes with her hair and makeup, and she had patients waiting. Besides, I'm pretty good at it.
Ah, well, that was different. A cloying smile: What's the President's favorite meal?
A smile returned. That's easy. Steak, baked potato, fresh corn on the cob, and my spinach salad-and I know, the physician