Читать книгу Strike Zone - Dale Brown - Страница 21

‘There’s a joint exercise between ASEAN assets planned in the South China Sea, covering about a thousand square miles. More a goodwill exercise than actual combat training,’ Jed explained. ‘B-52s were requested. You’ll go instead.’

‘All right,’ said Dog, listening as Jed filled him in on the arrangements for Brunei. A State Department rep was already en route to help smooth over any protocol matters. It had been suggested than an officer on his staff be appointed to liaise with the government.

‘Brunei is not ideal,’ Dog told him. ‘It’s a long way to operate it.’

‘Yeah,’ said Jed, who obviously agreed. ‘The President wanted you to locate there. It kind of interfaced with some State Department initiatives.’

‘What would those be? Making nice to Brunei?’

Jed gave him an embarrassed laugh.

‘All right. If we have to go there, we will,’ said Dog.

‘Listen, by the way, the Navy’s still kind of pissed at you. There’s a joke going around that an admiral has offered a reward for anyone who accidentally shoots down a Dreamland aircraft. At least I think it’s a joke.’

‘Look, Jed, I have a lot going on over here.’

‘I’m sorry. The, uh, the President authorized this ASAP, so he wants you there, uh, right away. The exercises actually start tomorrow.’

‘Tomorrow?’

‘Well, the time difference, it’s like fifteen hours and that makes tomorrow today here –’

‘We’ll get there,’ said Dog, hanging up.

The phone no sooner hit the cradle than Rubeo walked in.

‘The entire situation is piffle,’ said the scientist between his teeth.

‘Which piffle?’

‘The Colonel Cortend show. Piffle. It’s a witch hunt. They hate scientists,’ continued Rubeo. ‘I’ve seen this before. They railroaded Oppenheimer on trumped-up charges that he was a communist.’ Rubeo snorted. ‘The man wins the war for them and they cashier him.’

Dog didn’t know the particulars about the Oppenheimer case, and he certainly wasn’t going to ask about them now.

‘No one’s getting railroaded,’ he said.

Rubeo shook his head, flustered by his anger. The scientist’s emotion had a strangely calming effect on Dog, as if Rubeo had somehow taken charge of being mad.

‘You know they’re questioning Jennifer Gleason,’ said Rubeo. ‘Questioning her. Her.’

‘I’d heard some scuttlebutt,’ said Dog.

‘You’re supposed to register when you attend a scientific conference where outside government agents may be. They’ve lost the paperwork, and they’re hanging her for it.’

‘They lost the paperwork, or it wasn’t done?’

‘What does it matter?’

‘It’ll make a difference,’ said Dog.

‘Then it was lost. Probably on purpose.’

Dog leaned back in his seat. Rubeo showed exactly how right Danny had been – going off half-cocked made the scientist look like a crazoid, and did nothing for Jennifer.

‘They questioned her for hours, and took away her clearance,’ said Rubeo.

Dog sighed. ‘I’m sure Captain Freah is just following procedure.’

‘Oh please.’

‘Did Jennifer answer their questions?’

‘Of course.’

‘Tell me about the conferences.’

Rubeo waved his hand in the air as if brushing away a fly. Then he sighed and began explaining in some detail the two scientific exchanges. One was on artificial intelligence and was rather broad; the other had to do with compression systems used in communications. The latter would have inevitably had applications for encryption and been subject to special scrutiny, though Rubeo thought it was more the fact that Jennifer might have come into contact with Chinese agents or spies that Cortend was focusing on.

‘Chinese?’ asked Dog.

‘She asked specifically about Chinese. There were five hundred people at one of the conferences – it’d be news if the Chinese weren’t there. It’s all piffle, Colonel. It’s a witch hunt.’