Tom Clancy's Op-center Balance of Power - Tom Clancy [7]
Now she'd failed Martha. Her shoulders heaved out the tears and the tears became sobs.
A young, mustachioed sergeant of the palace security guard raised her gently by the shoulders. He helped her stand.
"Are you all right?" he asked in English.
She nodded and tried to stop crying. "I think I'm okay."
"Do you want a doctor?"
She shook her head.
"Are you sure, seńiorita?"
Aideen took a long, deep breath. This was not the time and place to lose it. She would have to talk to Op-Center's FBI liaison, Darrell McCaskey. He had remained at the hotel to await a visit from a colleague with Interpol. And she still wanted to see Deputy Serrador. If this shooting had been designed to prevent the meeting, she'd be damned if she was going to let that happen.
"I'll be fine," Aideen said. "Do you-do you have the person who did this? Do you have any idea who it was?"
"No, seńorita," he replied. "We'll have to take a look and see what the surveillance cameras may have recorded. In the meantime, are you well enough to talk to us about this?"
"Yes, of course," she said uncertainly. There was still the mission, the reason she'd come. She didn't know how much she should tell the police about that. "But-por favor?"
"Si?"
"We were to be met by someone inside. I would still like to see him as soon as possible."
"I will make the necessary inquiries-"
"I also need to contact someone at the Princesa Plaza," Aideen said.
"I will see to those things," he said. "But Comisario Fernandez will be arriving presently. He is the one who will be conducting the investigation. The longer we wait, the more difficult the pursuit."
"Of course," she said. "I understand. I'll talk to him and meet with our guide after. Is there a telephone I can use?"
"I will arrange for the telephone," the sergeant said. "Then I will personally go and see who was to meet you."
Aideen thanked him and rose under her own power. She faltered. The sergeant grabbed one of her arms.
"Are you sure you wouldn't like to see the doctor first?" the man asked. "There is one in residence."
"Gracias, no," she said with a grateful smile. She wasn't going to let the attacker claim a second victim. She was going to get through this, even if it were one second at a time.
The sergeant smiled back warmly and walked with her slowly toward the open gate.
As Aideen was being led away the palace doctor rushed by. A few moments later she heard an ambulance. The young woman half turned as the ambulance stopped right where the getaway car had been. As the medical technicians hurriedly unloaded a gurney, Aideen saw the doctor rise from beside Martha's body. He'd only been there a moment. He said something to a guard then ran over to the mailman. He began opening the buttons of the man's uniform then yelled for the paramedics to come over. As he did, the guard lay his jacket over Martha's head.
Aideen looked ahead. That was it, then. It took just a few seconds, and everything Martha Mackall had known, planned, felt, and hoped was gone. Nothing would ever bring that back.
The young woman continued to hold back tears as she was led into a small office along the palace's ornate main corridor. The room was wood-paneled and comfortable and she lowered herself into a leather couch beside the door. She felt achy where her knees and elbows had hit the pavement and she was still in an acute state of disbelief. But a countershock reflex was going to work, replenishing the physical resources that had shut down in the attack. And she knew that Darrell and General Rodgers and Director Paul Hood and the rest of the Op-Center team were behind her. She might be by herself at the moment, but she was not alone.
"You may use that telephone," the