Overlord (52 page)

“It’s okay; I think my kidneys are floating anyway. Thanks, though. And yes, we’ve worked together for the better part of fifteen years.” She looked from the bed to Preston. “I don’t know what I would do without him there to guide me through the things we have to do sometimes.”

“Well, Mrs. Hamilton speaks very highly of him … and you. She told me that if you cannot be protected by my constitutional prowess, she would geld me like a worthless horse.”

Virginia laughed for the first time in what she thought was a month. She nodded her head.

“How would you ever come to know a woman like Alice?” she asked.

“Well, I’ll make this short, because I only have to say one name that I am sure you are familiar with. Garrison Lee. I was a young buck on the constitutional congressional hearings on budget restraint, and it was rumored I was close to finding out some rather disconcerting information on a rather large department that was hidden deep in the power base of government.” He looked sideways at Virginia and she only winked. “Well, the rumor got out, I’m afraid, and I got a call from President Clinton at the time. He asked if I would meet with a gentleman who might have some information for me concerning said investigation. Well, being stupid and naïve and thinking the president must mean business—you see, he was going through a rough patch as far as his personal and professional conduct were concerned—so I said yes, as a favor to his office I would meet said gentleman.”

Virginia smiled as she knew just where this story was headed.

“We were to meet at my office, but instead as I was leaving home one morning a rather scary gentleman with a limp, a cane, and an eye patch was sitting in my car that was parked in my garage. Without looking at me he introduced himself. The name, of course, was familiar, as most heroes of the old war years are around this city. Well, he calmly asked if I preferred to go on with my professional life or go for a ride with him.”

“I see. A long ride with Garrison Lee. Not one I would like to take.”

“I thought at the time that he couldn’t threaten a member of Congress like that. Well, my phone rang in the car and he nodded that I should answer it. I did. It was the president; he asked if I had met Mr. Lee and I said yes I had, as I watched him out of the corner of my eye. The president asked if I was going to work or go out riding with the man in the car. I couldn’t believe the offhanded way the president of the United States had just threatened me. Well, I told him I’ll just go to work. The president said good, that was what he would do in my place. Then he said that he suspected that all inquiries regarding the rather large budget of the National Archives would”—he smiled—“just slip by the wayside. I said yes, they would.” Then Lee reached over and pushed my automatic garage door opener. It opened and a lovely older lady walked in the garage as if she owned the place, opened the rear door, and stepped in with a brown paper bag. She handed Lee a coffee, me a coffee, and then smiled at me from the rearview mirror. We sat and had coffee, and Garrison and Alice explained to me a little of what they did for a living. And that’s how I met Mrs. Hamilton.”

Virginia laughed out loud at the story, as it was so much Alice and Lee that she would have had nightmares for a year if it had been her. “I doubt very much if Alice would have harmed you. You see, she, like me, is a rabid constitutionalist.”

Lee Preston turned away and looked at the ceiling of the hospital room.

“I noticed you didn’t mention Garrison Lee in that sentence.” He turned and smiled.

“Yes, I am aware of that.” The smile remained.

“Well, if Mrs. Hamilton is a friend of Dr. Compton’s, he’s a friend of mine.” He turned and looked at Virginia. “And after learning a little bit about what it is you people do, even I can live to be a little light on the constitution.”

Before Virginia could respond, the door opened and a man the acting director of Department 5656 recognized immediately, stepped into the room. He paused at the bed and looked down on Niles Compton and shook his head. He had his hands on his hips and made a
tsk, tsk
sound as he looked. The man turned and walked to the far side of the hospital room and pulled up a chair to face Lee Preston and Virginia. He placed his hands in his lap and smiled.

“Assistant Director Peachtree, what brings you here?” Virginia asked.

The middle-aged man with the perfectly coifed hair looked from the two and then at the darkened screen of the television.

“Oh, well, I guess you’ve missed the news waiting here like you are. It’s
Director
Peachtree now. It seems my old boss, Mr. Easterbrook, has opted for the private life of a country gentleman.” The smile was wide and genuine.

Lee Preston crossed one leg over the other and remained silent, as did Virginia.

The attention went to Lee Preston. “I think you should know, Mr. Preston, I have initiated an investigation through my good friends at Homeland Security for your part in the illegal immigrant litigation currently happening in Arizona. It seems you may have received monies from sources on many, many enemies lists of that particular federal agency.”

“I was wondering when you people were going to pull the old ‘security risk’ file out and dust it off. I guess I was bound to become a nuisance when I filed court documents trying to stop the good people of Arizona from putting up an electrified fence around their common border with Mexico, and killing Lord knows how many people in the process. Well, take your best shot, Mr. Director, I’ll be waiting in my office with
my
copy of the Constitution.”

The man nodded and turned his attention to Virginia, then he glanced at Niles across the room.

“Now you, young lady, I need to know where your asset is being held. We would like a chance at debrief.”

Virginia smiled as best she could, but the action never reached her lovely eyes. Preston saw this and leaned back, not wanting to get any venom on his expensive suit.

“I guess you must have missed the part where I told you to go fuck yourself.” She glanced at the dark television screen. “But I guess you were too busy stabbing your boss in the back to have heard.”

“The asset, Ms. Pollock,” he said without his condescending smirk. “The asset known as Mahjtic Tilly—we want him and are going to get him.”

“
Dr.
Pollock,” she said, batting her eyes the way Alice Hamilton had taught her over the years.

“The president of the United States has issued me orders to debrief your asset at the earliest possible time as the security of the United States is at risk—and that,
Doctor,
gives him special powers.”

“Debrief,” Preston said aloud. “An old CIA euphemism for torture in the rough, tough, Cold War days.” He looked at Peachtree. “If I recall correctly.”

“If it comes to that. After all, the asset isn’t really human, is he? He’s one of them,” he said, his eyes rolling toward the ceiling.

“Maybe not,” Virginia said, leaning forward in her chair, “But Lynn Simpson Collins was very much human, wasn’t she?”

The look on Peachtree’s face was priceless as Lee Preston suddenly became very interested in the name just mentioned by Virginia.

“We know more than you ever could fathom, Mr. Director, and someone, someday is going to answer for her murder. I suspect that may end at the White House in the long run, and the man that will explain it to you and the president can get to you anywhere, anytime.”

“I believe you just threatened the president of the United States,” he said as he stood suddenly.

“No, I believe she just made a statement about a murderer being caught, nothing about that murderer being the president. Is that what
you’re
saying?” Preston said as he too stood and buttoned his coat.

Peachtree smiled and then relaxed as he realized he didn’t have the upper hand any longer.

“Very well, Dr. Pollock, a warrant will be issued and delivered to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada at the earliest opportunity. I suggest you heed the warrant when issued, even if your complex is buried beneath the desert. We want the asset, and we will get him.” Peachtree started for the door, stopped and looked at the unconscious Niles Compton, and then turned back to face them. “One way or the other.” He left.

“I hate to say it, but right at this moment that man is holding all the aces in the deck, and even the deck belongs to the White House.”

Virginia knew she had to get Matchstick out of the complex. She shook her head as the door opened once again. It was one of the president’s loyal Secret Service agents; she recognized him from his constant vigil over the comatose president. He walked straight to Virginia and handed her a note.

“This was just passed to us from the president’s private phone system. The first lady asked me to pass it on to you.” He left the room.

Virginia knew that the message had come to her through the official channels that included the president’s laptop and through his close ties with the NSA. She read the note.

“Damn,” she said aloud as she looked at Lee Preston. “Mr. Preston, I thank you for being here and helping me with Peachtree, but I have to ask you to leave me alone with Director Compton for a moment.”

“I understand,” he said and started to leave.

“Mister…,” She stopped and then thought better of her lead in. “Lee, please corner that Secret Service agent in the hallway. Ask him to find General Caulfield and get him here as soon as possible. He should know how to get ahold of him.”

Preston nodded his head and then left. Virginia went to the bedside of Niles Compton. She saw him sleeping but leaned over and spoke.

“Niles, wake up, it’s happening. Operation Overlord is going to be attacked. Niles, please wake up.”

Virginia looked around the room in despair as Compton remained out.

With the president’s men going after Matchstick, and the Gray situation going critical, she was faced with having to go directly through the official chain of command. That meant dealing with Giles Camden’s new staff, where she knew a sympathetic ear was going to be impossible to find. She looked at Niles and frowned as he seemed to be dreaming in his sleep. She turned away as the door opened once again. She was disappointed that it wasn’t General Caulfield or another friendly face, but two men she had seen on television standing behind the new man in office.

“Look, assholes, I’ve had enough threats for today, so you can kiss my—”

“Dr. Pollock, we’re not here to threaten you,” said the smaller of the two with his briefcase held tightly in his grip. “I think we’ve come to help. We want to know if there is anything we can possibly do to assist you and whoever it is that you work for.”

Virginia was stunned as she remembered the two young faces from the news reports.

It was the two young public relations experts for the new president of the United States, and they looked very frightened.

14

SOUTH ORKNEY ISLANDS

A thousand Argentinean and British soldiers watched as the
Pyotr Veliky
was towed into port by the two frigates of the U.S. Navy. The men gathered at the large dock were amazed at the damage incurred on the giant missile cruiser that looked as if she was about to succumb to the calm waters off Orkney. The sight even curbed the historic hard feelings between the two nations that had battled two decades before over the Falkland Islands. No man wanted to be witness to the scene of the proud warship as she was assisted into port.

Two of the men who had joined the crowd of onlookers were Admiral Carl Everett and former Master Chief Jenks who, with their men and materials, had just arrived by C-130 Hercules transports and now awaited their transfer to Camp Alamo. Carl had sent his remaining fifty-two men onto the large airstrip to load what gear they had remaining after the Gray strike on the Space Center.

Everett had explained to Jenks that Sarah McIntire and Jason Ryan, along with a woman he knew, was supposedly onboard the
Pyotr Veliky
—although he still didn’t know if the trio were alive or dead. The report had filtered through the soldiers waiting at the dock that the cruiser had suffered catastrophic losses in her brief engagement with the Grays. Everett saw the men who had saved the missile cruiser from going under start to line the decks as she was finally tied off and technicians ran aboard her like ants swarming a wounded elephant. They all saw the men of the battle-hardened ship wave as the vessel that had saved them moved quickly back to sea after escorting her in. The strange shape of the USS
Zumwalt
moved slowly past her damaged charge and blew her horn in salute to the proud Russian vessel. The men on the cruiser’s deck waved and hollered their thanks at the American seamen lining her stealth-designed angled decks.

“Glad to know the goddamn navy can get something right from time to time,” Jenks hissed as he puffed his cigar.

“Damn thing looks too small to fight a battle,” Everett said as he watched the stealthy frigate leave the small bay.

“Yeah,” Jenks said as he looked at the taller Everett, “well, everything tough doesn’t have to be big, does it, Toad?”

Carl laughed as he knew the master chief was referring to himself. “No, but it sure helps sometimes.”

Jenks cleared his throat and spit and then glared at Everett.

The men on the dock watched as a large Royal Navy shipboard crane started to lift a large object off the fantail of the listing cruiser. Technicians were screaming at the operators to lift it slowly. It was eventually placed down on a large transport awaiting its delivery. It was being taken to the hold of the large C-5a Galaxy waiting for it on the airstrip.

“I guess they’re in a hurry before all of this activity attracts prying eyes from up there,” Jenks said as he looked skyward into the crisp, cold air.

Carl joined Jenks in looking apprehensively into the sky. The combat air patrols by a squadron of Sea Harriers of the Royal Navy had ceased two hours before the damaged
Pyotr Veliky
had entered the bay. Too much attention to the area was the reason he figured.