The sum of all fears - Tom Clancy [305]
"You're both carrying guns?"
Ding almost looked embarrassed. "Yes, ma'am."
With that, the adventurous part of the meeting ended, Cathy thought. Two obviously very tough men were trying to charm her. They had even succeeded. But that didn't change her problem. She was about to say something, but Clark started off first.
"Ma'am, there seems to be a problem between you and your husband. I don't know what it is - I think I know some of it - but I do know that it's hurting the guy. That's bad for the Agency."
"Gentlemen, I appreciate your concern, but this is a private matter."
"Yes, ma'am," Clark responded in his eerily polite voice. He reached into his pocket and pulled out Xerox copies of the Holtzman articles. "Is this the problem?"
"That's not any of your " Her mouth clamped shut.
"I thought so. Ma'am, none of this is true. I mean, the sexual impropriety part. That's definitely not true. Your husband hardly goes anywhere without one of us. Because of where he works and who he is, he has to sign out for every place he goes to - like a doctor on call, okay? If you want, I can get you copies of his itinerary for as far back as you want."
"That can't be legal."
"No, it probably isn't." Clark agreed. "So?"
She so wanted to believe, Cathy thought, but she couldn't, and it was best to tell them why. "Look, your loyalty to Jack is very impressive - but I know, okay? I went through the financial records, and I know about that Zimmer woman, and I know about the kid!"
"What exactly do you know?"
"I know that Jack was there for the delivery. I know about the money, and how he tried to hide it from me and everybody else. I know that he's being investigated by the government."
"What do you mean?"
"A government investigator was here at Hopkins! I know that!"
"Dr Ryan, there is no such investigation at CIA, and no investigation at the FBI, either. That's a fact."
"Then who was here?"
I'm afraid I don't know that," Clark answered. It wasn't entirely true, but Clark figured this lie was not pertinent to the matter at hand.
"Look, I know about Carol Zimmer." she said again.
"What do you know?" Clark repeated quietly. The response he got surprised him.
The answer almost came out as a scream. "Jack's playing around, and she's the one! And there's a kid involved, and Jack is spending so much time with her that he doesn't have any time for me and he can't even -" She stopped, at the point of sobbing.
Clark waited for her to settle down. His eyes didn't leave her face for an instant, and he saw it all as clearly as though it had been printed on a page. Ding merely looked embarrassed. He wasn't old enough to understand.
"Will you hear me through?"
"Sure, why not? It's over, the only reason I haven't just walked out is the kids. So go ahead, make your pitch. Tell me that he still loves me and all that. He doesn't have the guts to talk about it to me himself, but I'm sure he had something to do with this," she concluded bitterly.
"First of all, he does not know we are here. If he finds out, I'll probably lose my job, but that's no big thing. I have my retirement. Besides, I'm about to break bigger rules than that one. Where do I begin?" Clark paused before going on.
"Carol Zimmer is a widow. Her husband was Chief Master Sergeant Buck Zimmer, U.S. Air Force. He died in the line of duty. As a matter of fact, he died in your husband's arms. I know. I was there. Buck took five rounds in the chest. Both lungs. It took him five or six minutes to die. He left behind seven children - eight, if you count the one his wife was carrying. Buck didn't know about that one when he died. Carol was waiting to surprise him.
"Sergeant Zimmer was the crew chief on an Air Force special-operations helicopter. We took that aircraft into a foreign country to rescue a group of U.S. Army soldiers who were conducting a covert mission."
"I was one of 'em, ma'am." Ding announced, somewhat to Clark's