The sum of all fears - Tom Clancy [255]
"I checked. He'll be flying a JAL 747. The upper deck behind the cockpit is laid out as his conference room.
"They put in beds, too. That's where he'll be. Their PM likes to kibbitz with the drivers. He's pretty smart about traveling, sleeps as much as he can to handle the jet-lag."
Clark nodded. "People have to wipe the windows. Not like he's got an air force base to handle all the ground-service requirements like we do it. If JAL flies into there regularly, they'll have Mexican ground crews. I'll check out data on the 747 Like I said, that's the easy part. I can probably talk my way there. Might even get Ding to head down with a good set of papers and get a job. That would make it easier. I presume this has executive approval?"
"The President said "find a way." He'll have to approve the final op-plan."
"I need to talk to the S&T guys." Clark referred to the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology. "The real problem is noise How fast, Doc?"
"Fast, John."
"Okay." Clark rose. "Gee, I get to be a field-spook again. I'll be over in the new building. It may take me a few days to figure if it's possible or not. This means I can't go on the U.K. trip?"
"Bother you?" Jack asked.
"Nope. Just as soon stay home."
"Fair enough. I get to do some Christmas shopping at Hamley's."
"You know how lucky you are to have 'em little? All my girls want now is clothes, and I can't pick girl clothes worth a damn." Clark lived in horror of buying women's clothing.
"Sally has her doubts now, but little Jack still believes."
Clark shook his head. "After you stop believing in Santa Claus, the whole world just goes downhill."
"Ain't it the truth?"
CHAPTER 23
Opinions
"Jack, you look bloody awful." Sir Basil Charleston observed.
"If one more person tells me that, I'm going to waste him."
"Bad flight?"
"Bumpy as hell all the way across. Didn't sleep much." As the even darker than usual circles under his eyes proclaimed.
"Well, we'll see if lunch helps."
"It is a pretty day." Ryan noted as they walked up Westminster Bridge Road towards Parliament. It was a rare early-winter English day with a blue, cloudless sky. A brisk wind swept down the Thames, but Ryan didn't mind. He had on a heavy coat and a scarf around his neck, and the frigid blast on his face woke him up. "Trouble at the office, Bas?"
"Found a bug, a bloody bug, two floors down from my office! The whole building's being swept."
"Things are tough all over. KGB?"
"Not sure." Charleston said as they crossed the bridge. Trouble with the facade, you see, bloody thing began crumbling - same as happened to Scotland Yard a few years ago. The workers replacing it found an unexplained wire, and followed it Our Russian friends have not cut back on their activities, and there are other services as well. See anything like that in your shop?"
"No. It helps that we're more isolated than Century House." Jack meant that the British Secret Intelligence Service was in so densely populated an area - there was a nearby apartment block, for example - that a very low-power bug could get data out. That was less likely at the Agency's Langley headquarters, which sat alone on a large wooded campus. In addition to that, the newer construction had allowed installation of elaborate protections against internal radio sources. "You should do what we've done and install waveguides."
"That would cost a bloody fortune, which we do not have at the moment."
"What the hell, it gives us a chance to take a walk. If anyone can bug us