Executive orders - Tom Clancy [509]
CLARK AND CHAVEZ had their blood drawn by an Army medic who also ran the screening test. They watched it with morbid fascination, especially since the medic wore thick gloves and a mask.
You're both clean, he told them, with a sigh of his own.
Thanks, Sarge, Chavez said. It was very real now. His dark Latino eyes were showing something other than relief. Like John, Domingo was putting on his mission face.
With that, they bundled into an official car for the drive to Andrews. The streets in the Washington metropolitan area were unusually empty. It made for a swift passage that didn't assuage the sense of foreboding they both felt. Crossing one of the bridges, they stopped and had to wait for three other vehicles to pass a checkpoint. There was a National Guard Hummer in the middle of the eastbound lanes, and when Clark pulled up, he showed his CIA picture-pass.
Agency, he told the MP.
Pass, the Spec-4 replied.
So, where we going, Mr. C.?
Africa, via the Azores.
* * *
51 - INVESTIGATIONS
THE MEETING WITH THE Senate leadership went predictably. Issuing them surgical masks had set the tone of the evening for them-again, van Damm's idea. General Pickett had been to Hopkins to review procedures there, then flown back to give the main part of the briefing. The fifteen senators assembled in the East Room listened gravely, only their eyes showing above the masks.
I'm not comfortable with your actions, Mr. President, one of them said. Jack couldn't tell which one.
You think I am? he replied. If anybody has a better idea, let's hear it. I have to go with the best medical advice. If this thing is as deadly as the general says, then any mistake could kill people in the thousands-even millions. If we err, we have to err on the side of caution.
But what about civil liberties? another one demanded.
Does any of those come before life? Jack asked. People, if anyone wants to give me a better option, I will listen-we have one of our experts here to help evaluate it. But I will not listen to objections that are not based on scientific fact. The Constitution and the law cannot anticipate every eventuality. In cases like this, we're supposed to use our heads-
We're supposed to be guided by principle! It was the civil liberties Senator again.
Fine, then let's talk about it. If there's a balance between what I have done and whatever else will keep the country moving-and safe!-let's find it. I want options! Give me something I can use! There followed a silence and a lot of crossed looks. Even that was hard. The senators were spaced out in their seating.
Why did you have to move so fast?
People may be dying, you jackass! another senator snarled at his good friend and distinguished colleague. He had to be one of the new crop, Jack thought. Someone who didn't know the mantras yet.
But what if you're wrong? a voice asked.
Then you can hold your impeachment trial after the House indicts me, Jack replied. Then somebody else can make these decisions, and God help him. Senators, my wife is in Hopkins right now, and she's going to take her turn treating these people. I don't like that, either. I would like to have your support. It's lonely standing up by myself like this, but whether you support your President or not, I have to do the best I can. I'll say it one more time: if anybody here has a better idea, let's hear it.
But nobody did, and it wasn't their fault. As little time as he'd had to come to terms with the situation, they'd had less.
THE AIR FORCE had managed tropical uniforms for them out of the Andrews Post Exchange-a medium-sized department store-since their Washington clothes were a little too heavy for a tropical environment. It made for good cover, too. Clark wore the silver eagles of a colonel, and Chavez was a major, complete with silver pilot's wings and ribbons donated by the flight crew of their VC-20B. There were, in fact, two sets of pilots. The backup crew was sleeping in the two most-forward passenger seats.
Not bad for a retired E-6, Ding noted, though the uniform didn't fit all that well.
Not