There was just a strange, not unpleasant sense of drifting. There must be something in the IV. Something that was relaxing him. Then Battat heard something click. It sounded like a gun hammer cocking. He opened his eyes. There was a window to the left of the bed, but it was shut. He glanced toward the foot of the bed. The last time he had looked, the door was ajar. Now it was shut. A doctor or nurse must have closed it.
The room was even quieter than before. It was nice. He shut his eyes again. There were no more visions, only darkness. Battat slipped quickly into a dreamless sleep. There was another click. The sound woke Battat, and he opened his eyes. The door was still closed. But now there was someone in the room. He could see a dark figure standing in front of the door. The figure was black against the darkness behind it.
Battat was not sure he was awake.
“Hi,” he said. He heard his own voice. He was definitely awake.
Slowly, the shadow moved toward him. Someone must have come to check on him.
“It’s all right,” Battat said in a soft slur.
“You can turn on the light. I’m awake.” The figure did not speak.
Battat could not make out whether it was a man or a woman. It appeared to be wearing a medical robe of some kind. And it was holding something long and slender. Battat could see the silhouette low at its side. It looked like a knife.
“Do you speak English?” Battat asked. There was a monitor on the wall behind Battat. The green glow threw a faint light on the figure as it stopped beside the bed. It was a man. And he was definitely holding a knife. The long blade gleamed in the dull light.
“What is this?” Battat asked. It was beginning to penetrate his foggy mind that the newcomer was not a doctor. Battat tried to move, but his arms felt like they were full of wet sand. The man’s arm went back.
“Someone!” Battat said, trying to raise his voice.
“Help me–” And then the man vanished.
A moment later, sounds came from the floor. There were low grunts, chattering, and then a long, slow groan. They were followed by silence.
Battat tried to raise himself on an elbow. His arm shook, and he fell back down. Suddenly, someone rose beside the bed.
“There may be others,” said the figure.
“We have to leave.” The sharp, thickly accented voice belonged to a woman. There were an awful lot of people here.
“I thought this was a private room,” Battat said. With swift, sure movements, the woman lowered the gate beside the bed, unhooked the IV, and raised Battat to a sitting position. She kept her hand on his back.
“Can you walk?” she asked.
“If you let go… I’m not sure I can sit,” he replied. The woman lay Battat back down and stepped away from the bed. She was a tall, lean woman with broad shoulders. He could see now that she was wearing a police uniform. The woman went to the window and pulled the curtains aside. She turned the latch and raised the window. A cool, salty breeze blew in. It made him shiver. The woman looked outside. Then she grabbed a bathrobe from a hook behind the door and returned to the bed.
She sat Battat up again and pulled the robe around his shoulders.
“What are we doing?” he asked. Without the IV in his arm, he was feeling a little more focused. His head was also hurting from sitting up.
“No talk,” she said.
“But wait,” he said.
“They’ve killed your companions, and they’re trying to kill you,” she snapped.
“I was sent to get you out.”
“Killed them?”
“Quiet!” she hissed. Battat stopped talking. His head ached as the woman helped him stand. She grabbed Battat’s clothes, then slipped his left arm around her shoulder and helped him to the window. As they hobbled over, Battat tried to focus on what she had just told him. Were Moore and Thomas dead? If so, it had to be the Harpooner. Maybe he thought they knew more than they did. But if they were dead, who had sent this woman to help him? And how did he know that she was not working for the Harpooner? She might be taking him somewhere so the killer could finish the job. But Battat knew he might as well trust her.
He was certainly in no condition to resist. Besides, the woman was being gentle with him. And if she had wanted him dead, she could have killed him in the bed. Or she could have let the other intruder kill him. When they reached the window, the woman told Battat to lean on the sill. He did, unsteadily. She kept a hand on him, helping to keep him upright as she slipped around him. She landed quietly among the hedges outside the window and then helped him down. She put his arm back around her shoulder and then crouched. They listened for several seconds. Battat was shivering again, his teeth clattering. But at least he was more awake than before. After a moment, they were on the move again. He felt as if he was being carried through the night. They had emerged in back of the hospital and were making their way around to the north side. They stopped at a car. To Battat’s surprise, it wasn’t a police car but a small black Hyundai. She probably was not a policewoman at all. Battat did not know if that were a good thing or a bad thing.
But as she laid him across the backseat and climbed behind the wheel, he knew one thing for certain. If he remained conscious, he would find out very soon.
Washington, D.C. Monday, 10:03 p.m.
The red-haired man sat behind his large desk. The office was dark, save for the glow of a green-shaded desk lamp and the red light on top of the phone. That meant the scrambler function was engaged.
“People are asking about Fenwick’s trip,” said the red-haired man.
“What people?” said the man on the other end of the line.
“The intelligence unit at Op-Center.”
“Op-Center is well removed from the president,” the other man said.
“They don’t have the same clout as the CIA-”
“I’m not so sure about that,” the red-haired man interrupted.
“What do you mean?”
“I was told that Director Hood asked for and received a private meeting with the president a few hours ago,” said the red-haired man.
“I know.”
“Do you know what they discussed?” asked the redhaired man.
“No. More fallout from the United Nations affair. I’d guess. Do you have reason to believe otherwise?” the man asked.
“Paul Hood spoke briefly with the First Lady last night.” the red-haired man said.
“I checked his file. They knew each other in the past.”
“Knew each other in a way we can use?”
“No,” said the red-haired man.
“It was platonic. Anyway, she might have seen a change in the president. Maybe she said something to Hood. I just don’t know.”
“I see,” said the other. There was a long silence. The red-haired man waited. He was concerned about the unexpected presence of Op Center The other agencies had all been covered. He and his partners had been counting on the transition period between Paul Hood and General Rodgers to keep Op Center eyes looking inward. Unfortunately, that had not happened. But with H-hour approaching on the foreign operation, they could not afford to have anyone watching. Harpooner had seen to it on his end. They must see to it on their end.
“Is the other documentation ready?” the other man finally asked. The red-haired man looked at his watch. He really needed glasses to read this close, but he was fighting that. He was fighting a lot of things.
He moved his wrist back slightly.
“In another hour or so,” he replied.
“All right,” said the other man.
“I don’t want to move against Op-Center directly. There isn’t time. And without careful planning, we might do more harm than good.”
“I agree,” said the red-haired man.
“Let’s continue with the plan,” said the other man.
“If Op-Center is watching Fenwick or the president without any real idea what we’re up to, that should keep them busy enough. Just make sure Fenwick doesn’t do or say anything that might give them more information.”
“Understood,” said the red-haired man.
“I’ll let Fenwick know.” The other man thanked him and hung up. The red-haired man placed the receiver in the cradle. He would call Fenwick in a minute. This was serious, unprecedented business. He needed a moment to remind himself that this was all being done for a good reason:
to make sure that the United States survived the new millennium. Despite this small setback, everything was still working the way they had planned. Reporters had been calling his office to find out about the new UN initiative, an initiative that only the president seemed to be aware of. Members of the CIOC and even people at the UN apparently had not known about it. One very dogged TV reporter had called this evening to ask if the president had imagined “this whole thing, too.” And Red Gable, the president’s chief of staff, had answered off the record, “I honestly don’t know, Sam. I do not know what is wrong with the president.” Though the quote would be off the record. Gable knew that his sentiment would be mentioned in the broadcast. The reporter reminded Red that this was the third time in a week the president had gotten something seriously wrong. The first time was at a breakfast with reporters. The president commented about farm subsidy legislation that was supposedly before congress. It was not. The second time, just two days ago, was at a press conference. The president’s opening remarks included comments about a civil rights case that was supposedly before the Supreme Court. No such case existed. What Gable did not tell the reporter, of course, was that the set of documents the president had been given during his daily briefings was different from the set of documents that he should have seen. The real ones. Gable had slipped those documents into the president’s files after he made the public misstatements. When the president had the files brought to him, he did not understand where the misinformation had come from.