Executive orders - Tom Clancy [520]
Thank you for your help. Perhaps someone will be back to speak with you.
I regret that I could not tell you more. He was sincere enough about it. For five thousand dollars in cash, he thought he should do more. Not that he'd return any, of course.
The two men walked back toward the car. Chavez joined up, looking pensive, but not saying anything. As they approached, the cop and the attaché shook hands. Then it was time for the Americans to leave. As the car pulled off, John looked back to see the dealer take the envelope from his pocket and extract a few bills to hand over to the friendly chief constable. That made sense, too.
What did you learn? the real colonel asked.
No records, John replied.
It's the way they do business here. There's an export fee for those things, but the cops and the customs people usually have an-
Arrangement, John interrupted with a frown.
That's the word. Hey, my father came from Mississippi. They used to say down there that one term as county sheriff fixed a guy up for life, y'know?
Cages, Ding said suddenly.
Huh? Clark asked.
Didn't you see, John, the cages! We seen 'em before, just like those in Tehran, in the air force hangar. He'd kept his distance in order to duplicate what he'd seen at Mehrabad. The relative size and proportions were the same. Chicken coops or cages or whatever in a hangar with fighter planes, remember?
Shit!
One more indicator, Mr. C. Them coincidences are piling up, 'mano. Where we goin' next?
Khartoum.
I saw the movie.
NEWS COVERAGE CONTINUED, but little else. Every network affiliate became more important as the name correspondents were trapped in their base offices of New York, Washington, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and the news devoted a great deal of time to visuals of National Guardsmen on the major interstate highways, blocking the roads physically with Hummers or medium trucks. No one really tried to run the blockades there. Food and medical supply trucks were allowed through, after each was inspected, and in a day or two, the drivers would be tested for Ebola antibodies, and given picture passes to make their way more efficiently. The truckers were playing ball.
It was different for other vehicles and other roads. Though most interstate highway traffic went on the major highways, there was not a state in the Union that didn't have an extensive network of side roads that interconnected with those of neighboring states, and all of these had to be blocked, too. That took time to accomplish, and there were interviews of people who'd gotten across and thought it something of a joke, followed by learned commentary that this proved that the President's order was impossible to implement completely, in addition to being wrong, stupid, and unconstitutional.
It just isn't possible, one transportation expert said on the morning news.
But that hadn't accounted for the fact that National Guardsmen lived in the country they guarded, and could read maps. They were also offended by the implied statement that they were fools. By noon on Wednesday there was a vehicle on every country road, crewed by men with rifles and wearing the chemical-protective suits that made them look like men (and women, though that was almost impossible to tell) from Mars.
On the side roads, if not the main ones, there were clashes.