Executive orders - Tom Clancy [504]
All right. Ryan sighed his surrender to the moment. What else?
Bretano called. The plan is being implemented right now. In a few minutes, the air-traffic system tells all the airliners to stop flying. There's probably a lot of chaos in the airports right now.
I bet. Jack closed his eyes, and rubbed them.
Sir, you don't have much choice in the matter, General Pickett told the President.
How do I get back to Hopkins? Alexandre asked. I have a department to run and patients to treat.
I told Bretano that people will be allowed to leave Washington, van Damm informed the others in the room. The same will be true of all big cities with borders nearby. New York, Philadelphia and like that. We have to let people go home, right?
Pickett nodded. Yes, they're safer there. It's unrealistic to assume that the plan will be properly implemented until midnight or so.
Then Cathy spoke: Alex, I guess you'll come with me. I have to fly up, too.
What? Ryan's eyes opened.
Jack, I'm a doctor, remember?
You're an eye doctor, Cathy. People can wait to get new glasses, Jack insisted.
At the staff meeting today, we agreed that everybody has to pitch in. We can't just leave it to the nurses and the kids-the residents-to treat these patients. I'm a clinician. We all have to take our turn on this, honey, SURGEON told her husband.
No! No, Cathy, it's too dangerous. Jack turned to face her. I won't let you.
Jack, all those times you went away, the things you never told me about, the dangerous things, you were doing your job, she said reasonably. I'm a doctor. I have a job, too.
It's not all that dangerous, Mr. President, Alexandre put in. You just have to follow the procedures. I work with AIDS patients every day and-
No, God damn it!
Because I'm a girl? Caroline Ryan asked gently. It worries me some, too, Jack, but I'm a professor at a medical school. I teach students how to be doctors. I teach them what their professional responsibilities are. One of those responsibilities is to be there for your patients. You can't run away from your duties. I can't, either, Jack.
I'd like to see the procedures you've set up, Alex, Pickett said.
Glad to have you, John.
Jack continued to look in his wife's face. He knew she was strong, and he'd always known that she sometimes treated patients with contagious diseases-AIDS produced some serious eye complications. He'd just never thought much about it. Now he had to: What if-
It won't. I have to be careful. I think you did it to me again. She kissed him in front of the others. My husband has the most remarkable timing, she told the audience.
It was too much for Ryan. His hands started to shake a little and his eyes teared up. He blinked them away. Please, Cathy
Would you have listened to me on the way to that submarine, Jack? She kissed him again and stood.
THERE WAS RESISTANCE, but not all that much. Four governors told their adjutant generals-the usual title for a state's senior National Guard officer-not to obey the presidential order, and three of those wavered until the Secretary of Defense called to make the order clear and personal, threatening them with immediate relief, arrest, and court-martial. Some talked about organizing protests, but that took time, and the green vehicles were already starting to move, their orders modified in many cases, like the Philadelphia Cavalry, one of the Army's most ancient and revered units, whose members had escorted George Washington to his inauguration more than two centuries earlier, and whose current troopers now headed for the bridges on the Delaware River. Local TV and radio told people that commuters would be allowed to go home without inhibitions until nine that night, and until midnight with identification check. If it was easy, people would be allowed to get home. That happened in most cases, but not all, and motels filled up all across America.
Children, told that schools would be closed for at least a week, greeted the news with enthusiasm, puzzled at the concern and even outright fear their parents displayed.
Pharmacies which sold things