“The Hill,” President John Patrick Ryan ordered curtly.
The ride was quicker than he’d expected. Police had cordoned off all the main streets, arid the fire trucks were already there, probably a general alarm, for whatever good it might do. The Secret Service Suburban–a cross between a stationwagon and a light truck–led off, its lights flashing and siren screaming, while the protective detail sweated and probably swore under its collective breath at the foolishness of their new “Boss,” the in-house term for the President.
The tail of the 747 was remarkably intact–at least the rudder fin was, recognizable, like the fletching of an arrow buried in the side of a dead animal. The surprising part for Ryan was that the fire still burned. The Capitol had been a building of stone, after all, but inside were wooden desks and vast quantities of paper, and God only knew what else that surrendered its substance to heat and oxygen. Aloft were military helicopters, circling like moths, their rotors reflecting the orange light back down at the ground. The red-and-white fire trucks were everywhere, their lights flashing red and white as well, giving additional color to
6
the rising smoke and steam. Firefighters were racing about, and the ground was covered in hoses snaking to every hydrant in sight, bringing water to the pumpers. Many of the couplings leaked, producing little sprays of water that quickly froze in the cold night air.
The south end of the Capitol building was devastated. One could recognize the steps, but the columns and roof were gone, and the House chamber itself was a crater hidden by the rectangular lip of stones, their white color scorched and blackened with soot. To the north, the dome was down, sections of it recognizable, for it had been built of wrought iron during the Civil War, and several of the pie-slice sections had somehow retained their shape. A majority of the firefighting activity was there, where the center of the building had been. Countless hoses, some on the ground, some directed from the tips of aerial ladders and cherry-picker water towers, sprayed water in the hope of stopping the fire from spreading further, though from Ryan’s vantage point there was no telling how successful the effort might be.
But the real story of the scene was the collection of ambulances, several knots of them, their paramedic crews standing with bitter idleness, folding stretchers before them, empty, the skilled crews with nothing to do but look at the white rudder fin with the red crane painted on it, also blackened from the fire, but still hatefully recognizable. Japan Airlines. The war with Japan had ended, everyone thought. But had it? Was this one lone, last act of defiance or revenge? Or just some hideously ironic accident? It hit Jack that the scene was very much like an auto accident, at least in kind if vastly different in scale, and for the trained men and women who’d responded, it was the same story as with so many other calls–too late. Too late to stop the fire in time. Too late to save the lives they were sworn to rescue. Too late to make much of a difference at all.
The HMMWV pulled in close to the southeast corner of the building, just outside the gaggle of fire trucks, and before Ryan could step out, a full squad of Marines had him surrounded again. One of them, the captain, opened the door for the new President.
7
“So, who’s in charge?” Jack asked Agent Price. For the first time he noticed how bitterly cold the night was.
“I guess one of the firemen.”
“Let’s find him.” Jack started walking toward a collection of pumpers. He was already starting to shiver in his light wool suit. The chiefs would be the ones with the white hats, right? And the regular cars, he remembered from his youth in Baltimore. Chiefs didn’t ride in trucks. He spotted three red-painted sedans and angled that way.
“Damn it, Mr. President!” Andrea Price fairly screamed at him. Other agents ran to get in front, and the Marines couldn’t decide whether to lead the group or to follow. There wasn’t an entry in anyone’s manual for this, and what rules the Secret Service had, their Boss had just invalidated. Then one of them had a thought and sprinted off to the nearest ladder truck. He returned with a rubberized turnout coat.
“This’ll keep you warm, sir,” Special Agent Raman promised, helping Ryan into it, and disguising him as one of the several hundred firefighters roaming around. Special Agent Price gave him an approving wink and nod, the first moment of almost-levity since the 747 had arrived at Capitol Hill. All the better that President Ryan didn’t grasp the real reason for the heavy coat, she thought. This moment would be remembered by the protective Detail as the beginning of the management race, the Secret Service vs. the President of the United States, generally a contest of ego against cajolery.
The first chief that Ryan found was talking into a handheld radio and trying to direct his firefighters closer into the flames. A person in civilian clothes was close by, holding a large paper roll flat on the car’s hood. Probably plans of the building, Jack thought. Ryan waited a few feet away, while the two men moved hands left and right over the plans and the chief spoke staccato instructions into his radio.
“And, for Christ’s sake, be careful with all those loose stones,” Chief Paul Magill finished his last command. Then he turned around and rubbed his eyes. “Who the hell are you?”
“This is the President,” Price informed him.
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Magill’s eyes blinked. He took a quick look at the people with guns, then back at Ryan. “This is pretty damned bad,” the chief said first.
“Anyone get out?”
Magill shook his head. “Not from this side. Three people on the other side, all beat up. We think they were in the Speaker’s cloak room, someplace around there, probably the explosion just shot them through the windows. Two pages and a Secret Service guy, all burned and busted up. We’re conducting a search — well, we’re trying to, but so far even the people who weren’t roasted — they had the oxygen sucked right out of them, asphyxia, you’re just as dead.” Paul Magill was Ryan’s height, but a barrel-chested black man. His hands were mottled with large pale areas that gave testament to a very intimate battle with fire sometime in his professional past. His rugged face showed only sadness now, for fire wasn’t a human enemy, just a mindless thing that scarred the fortunate and killed the rest. “We might get lucky. Some people in small rooms, doors closed, like that, sir. There’s a million damned rooms in this place, ‘cording to these here plans. We might get a couple people out alive. I seen it happen before. But most of ’em . . .” Magill just shook his head for a moment. “The line’s holding, ought not to spread much more.”
“Nobody from the chamber?” Agent Raman asked. He really wanted to know the name of the agent who’d been blown clear, but it would not have been professional to ask. Magill just shook his head in any case.
“No.” He stared off at the diminishing glow, and added, “It would have been real quick.” Magill shook his head again.
“I want to see,” Jack said impulsively.
“No,” Magill replied at once. “Too dangerous. Sir, it’s my fire, and my rules, okay?”
“I have to see,” Ryan said, more quietly. The two pairs of eyes met and communicated. Magill still didn’t like it. He saw the people with guns again, and decided, wrongly, that they would support this new President, if that’s what he was. Magill hadn’t been watching TV when the call had come.
“Ain’t gonna be pretty, sir.”
IT WAS )UST after sundown in Hawaii. Rear Admiral Robert Jackson was landing at Barbers Point Naval Air Station. His peripheral vision took note of the well-lit hotels on Oahu’s south shore, and a passing thought wondered what it cost to stay in one of them now. He hadn’t done it since his early twenties, when two or three naval aviators would share accommodations in order to save money for hitting the bars and impressing the local women with their worldly panache. His Tomcat touched down gently, despite the lengthy ride and three aerial refuelings, because Robby still thought of himself as a fighter pilot, and therefore an artist of sorts. The fighter slowed down properly during its run-out, then turned right onto the taxiway.
“Tomcat Five-Zero-Zero, continue down to the end–”
“I’ve been here before, miss,” Jackson replied with a smile, breaking the rules. But he was an admiral, wasn’t he? Fighter pilot and admiral. Who cared about rules?
“Five-Zero-Zero, there’s a car waiting.”
“Thank you.” Robby could see it, there by the farthest hangar, along with a sailor waving the usual lighted wands.