Sigma One (30 page)

"I read the paper too," Radcliff replied.

"But it's not about him. Walker has some bad news. Can you meet me in half an hour at my office?"

Pat didn't hesitate. "I'll be right over," he said and then slowly put the phone down. The fact that Walker, the agent who discovered Karmarov and bought a stay of execution for SIGMA ONE, had bad news was all he needed to hear.

Pat was dressed in five minutes and standing at the front door when he called out to the kitchen. "Gotta go," he yelled in the direction where Alice was getting her mother breakfast. "Tell Mommy I'll be back when I can," he added stepping forward half a step and then stopping in the middle of the doorway frozen to the spot with guilt.

No answer.

"Alice," he called again.

Still no answer.

Pat hesitated at the doorway torn whether to go to the kitchen or to
simply turn , get into his car and drive off to meet Radcliff and deal with his daughter's anger later when he got home. His conscience got the better of him, and he turned and strode into the kitchen.

Alice was standing at the counter, her back turned to him when he arrived.

"Punkin, didn't you hear me call?" Pat asked approaching her from behind. When he reached her he put his hand on her shoulder and turned her around.

She stiffened to his touch.

When he finally turned her all the way around so she was facing him, Pat could see new tears streaming down her cheeks. Her face was flushed and a deep frown was set in her young face.

He reached under her chin and lifted it. "Punkin. I'm sorry I've got to leave. But Senator Radcliff just called and he has something important to tell me. You understand, right?"

She didn't. She didn't even know who the Senator was. He was just a name. In all the years that her father had worked for him, he had yet to visit them. Sure, he had sent gifts to her on her birthday and on the holidays, but that was just his way of buying them off. She hated the senator. He always ruined things for her. Now here he was again, ruining the breakfast they had planned for her mother.

Alice spoke up, bitterly. "Why couldn't he just tell you what he wanted to tell you over the phone. (She had no concept of security or espionage or any such thing nor would she have cared about it if she did. She was just hurt.) "Why do you have to leave now? What about Mommy? We were going to make her breakfast. Doesn't that mean anything? Don't you care?"

His daughter's words cut him to the quick. He knew there would be no use trying to explain that there were some things he couldn't talk about. They had gone over all that before, but he had to try once again to set things right. For some reason, he couldn't explain it, it was very important he show his daughter now how much he loved her, and that he wasn't doing anything to hurt her intentionally.

He kneeled down and reached for her. As he did she recoiled, but on further coaxing, came to him begrudgingly.

"Punkin?''

"Uh, huh . "

"You know there are some things I can't talk about, right?"

"Uh, huh."

He hugged her.

She pulled back slightly, still hurt and knowing he was going to desert her no matter what she said.

"And you know there's nothing in the world I would do to hurt you, right?"

She didn't answer him.

Pat saw she didn't like what he was about to do but was unable to stop himself. He had set his priorities and right then, finding out what Radcliff had heard from Walker outweighed any concern he had for Alice. he knew he would just have to let her be and make it up to her when he got back. With this, he got up and moved toward the door and, on reaching it turned back and spoke.              "Well anyway. I won't be gone long. I promise." she moved forward toward him and when close enough, he reached down and gave her a half-hearted, apologetic hug.

Limply, she hugged him back and added, "what about breakfast?"

He cringed not knowing how to respond nor how long he'd be gone, but finally he answered her. "Put things away. When I get back, we'll all go out for brunch. I promise." His voice was as hollow as his promise and Alice knew it, too.

Then he left.

Pat drove toward the Senate office building and the further he drove the angrier he got. His anger was partly directed at Radcliff for having interrupted his Sunday morning, but the other part was directed at himself for having treated Alice the way he had over the past few weeks. When he finally reached the parking lot he was steaming. He shut off his car, got out, slammed his car door and after a brisk walk up the stairs, was standing face to face with the Senator.

"What's so God damned important you had to call me up here on Sunday?" he asked indignantly. "I've been putting in nearly sixty to seventy hours a week since the hearings, and you know today's my only day off!"

Radcliff didn't need to be clairvoyant to see that Pat was peeved. He stepped back a step as Pat approached him. He hadn't expected such an outburst from the normally calm Huxley. In all the years he had known him, he'd never known him to raise his voice--not that Pat never got mad. He did, but never to the point of shouting. This time was different. Pat was infuriated and Radcliff wasn't quite sure how to deal with him given what he had to say. He did know one thing, though, it didn't matter how he told him, the results would still be the same and add fuel to an already raging fire.

Radcliff turned away and mumbled something to himself under his breath. He then turned back around to Pat who was now standing directly in front of him, jaws clinched, waiting for an answer.

"Well," Pat said impatiently. "I'm waiting! What have you got to tell me now that couldn't have waited?" He then folded his arms and glared at the Senator

"Sit down, Pat!" Radcliff ordered. "Now!"

Pat was stunned by his sharpness, but held his ground.

"I said sit down, Pat. And I mean it!" Radcliff repeated sternly. It was a battle of wills now, a battle which Pat easily won.

      "All right! Suit yourself you stubborn son of a bitch," Radcliff admonished and then pulled a chair from out in front of his desk and sat down himself. As soon as he was seated he began speaking while Pat stood in front of him.

"Pat, the reason I called you here is to tell you the bad news. If I had thought it could wait, I would have let it. But there's something regarding the project you should know."

Pat didn't understand. "What could be bad about Lassiter being eliminated? I thought you two didn't get along. Personally, I'm glad he's out of the way. He was a loose cannon. I didn't trust him." Radcliff corrected him. "It's not about Lassiter."

Pat wrinkled his brow in disbelief. He was sure it would be. "What then?" He asked, his anger subsiding slightly.

"Pat, you'd really better sit down," Radcliff tried coaxing him again. This time he was successful. Something in the way he asked made Pat feel what he was about to hear should be heard sitting down.

"All right,              seated. Shoot!"

Radcliff reached over to his in basket and pulled out a purple file with the words "Eyes Only" printed on it in red. Pat immediately recognized it as an Intel packet. He watched as Radcliff broke the seal and then reached out as he handed the package to him.

"What's this?" he asked wedging his index finger in the corner of the envelope and ripping it along the top.

Radcliff waited in silence until Pat got the file completely open and saw him looking at the picture of Kamarov, boarding a Pan Am 747. Then he answered. "It's about the Soviet."

Annoyed, Pat replied. "Yeah, I can see that. What about him?"

"He's on his way over to the states."

"I know that, but he won't be here until Christmas eve."

"Not true," Radcliff said woefully. "He's on his way now and will

arrive
tonight."

Pat blanched. "Tonight? How do you know that?"

"One of Walker's men intercepted another communique which said so, and we got that picture verifying it two hours ago at Heathrow. They moved the trip up and he lands tonight in Las Vegas . Don't ask me why. I don't know that, but I suspect it has something to do with Lassiter." He was lying. He knew damn well from the agent's report the Soviet KGB had uncovered their plot. He just didn't want to tell Pat that. It would give him away and link him with Lassiter's death. }sides, there wasn't a whole lot they could do about it. They simply had no time.

"So what are you going to do?" Pat asked, his voice hollow.

"Don't worry, Pat. I've already taken care of it. Or at least, I've done all that I could given the circumstances. Walker is going to handle security for the visit and we're going to have to take him, that's all. We can't let him carry out his plan to visit the missile fields. If we did, SIGMA ONE would be finished when the Soviets announced that they caused the unauthorized launch. The committee would see that they beat us and that we've failed. With all that power concentrated in the Soviet's hands we would have no other choice but to unilaterally disarm. There wouldn't be any stopping them."

"What can I do?" Pat said sheepishly. The full impact of the change in events hadn't sunk in yet, but he knew that if the kidnapping failed, the picture the senator painted would likely come to pass and then they would be powerless to stop it.

Radcliff moved forward in his chair and then replied. "There's not a whole lot you or I can do now. Not about Kamarov anyway. Walker has to take care of that end. It's going to be tight, but I think we've got a chance, even with the compressed timelines. The State Department's still in the dark about the visit. When the announcement is made to them sometime in the next few hours, they'll be scrambling to get security set up themselves, and they will be forced to go with whoever they can dig up who isn't on leave. Naturally, that's where we step in. Our men will offer their support, and even though they don't like quick changes or support outside their own agency, under the conditions, they'll be forced to go along. Besides, they'll have other problems they'll view as more pressing."

Pat interjected, "like what?"

"They'll have to work the media in to cover the visit. Remember, it was their idea to get him over here in the first place to provide support for their nuclear arms reduction initiatives to coincide with the recent changes in the Soviet East bloc countries. If they don't get the media coverage of the visit, they'll have nothing, and trying to get reprogramming now with such short notice will be a bitch. That's what they'll be involved with. They won't balk at a little help from the CIA to handle the security end of things. I'm sure of it. "

"And with Walker working for you and in charge of security, the kidnapping will be a snap, right?" Pat marveled at the simplicity of the plan and admired the elder statesman's ingenuity.

"That's correct. We'll take him within a day or two after he gets to Las Vegas."

Pat slumped in his chair. He knew all along that the Soviet would have to be taken, but the fact that it would occur so soon made him realize the seriousness of the situation. He still didn't see the direct link to his work, though. "So what does all this mean to me?"

Radcliff leaned forward again and then spoke very softly. "When we kidnap Kamarov, we're not even going to try to deprogram him. Walker has been ordered to kill him and make it look like an unnamed terrorist group was responsible. I thought I owed it to you to tell you."

This was all too strange to Pat. First Radcliff tells him the Soviet is coming over early, which means if security isn't fixed, then Kamarov could launch the missile. If he did that...he didn't even like to think of the implications. But security was fixed. Or so Radcliff seemed to think. But why kidnap him and then kill him? It didn't make sense. He had to ask. Even if the Soviet had discovered how to thought program, which he apparently had, if the tapes and pictures were any proof, why kill him? Pat was no longer jealous of the Soviet and had reversed his earlier feelings on that subject since the hearings. Even if Kamarov had beaten him to SIGMA ONE's ultimate goal and even if he wasn't going to be deprogrammed, surely they could keep him alive locked up somewhere where the U.S. would be safe from his power. That way Pat could at least have time to interrogate him and potentially help his own country's research. To kill him without giving Pat that chance seemed ludicrous. They couldn't let the Soviet's secret die with him without his getting a chance to find out how they had been successful where his men had not. If he could just get one day with the Soviet, he might be able to find out enough to break the deadlock his scientists had reached--especially if the new Mr. Grayson proved to be half as powerful as Amanda had alluded to him being.