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."It's the new embassy.Just completed.Canadian presidentJeanLuc was thereto dedicate it.They've been having a huge parry there all night."The room fell silent."I'm afraid that's not all, sir."Mitchellnow directed everyone's attention to a second video screen.It was worst than the first."This is a live feed.BuckinghamPalace inLondon is also on fire, apparentlyhit by a barrage of mortars and RPGs less than ten minutes ago."Everyone in the room gasped."London Station reports machine-gun fire can presently be heard in thestreets around the palace.I'm trying to get more on that right now, sir."Is the queen there?" askedFBI DirectorHarris."It seems she is," saidMitchell."Our embassy reports she's OK, but she'sbeing airlifted to a military hospital as a precaution."On the video screen, an aide could now be seen handingMitchell a note."What've you got now, Jack?" asked the VP."Holy.is this confirmed?.are you sure?.Mr.Vice President, I'vejust been handed a report that a 747 has just crashed into theRoyalPalaceinSaudi Arabia.""What?""One of my guys was actually driving to the palace when it happened.Sawthe whole thing.Just sent a flash traffic email to the U.S.Embassy inRiyadhwhich was immediately forwarded here toLangley.Our agent started takinghigh-eight video footage.We should be getting that uplinked to usmomentarily."Page 54ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Sir, this isBurt at the Pentagon.""Yes,Burt ?""Sir, I have to say I now think we're looking at a coordinated globalattack on our allied leaders.We need to go to DefCon Two immediately, notThree.And I'm sorry, I think now we've got to shut down the air trafficcontrol system.""A full ground stop-no planes up or down-on the day before Thanksgiving?"asked the Deputy Treasury Secretary fromJapan."I don't think we have any choice, sir," Trainor replied, directing hisremarks to the vice president."Jack, do we have any reason to believe we're going to see attacks oncivilians? Or isBurt right, this is a series of assassination attemptsdesigned to decapitate governments friendly to us?""Well,Bill , I can't rightly say, for sure.I can't go on record about whatelse might be coming.You got a bunch of lunatics out there right now tryingto undo Western civilization.But, yes, for the moment, the initial evidencesuggests a concerted campaign of assassinations, targeted at friendlygovernments-mostly NATO governments-rather than widespread civilian terrorism.But, sir, you know as well as I do that that could change very fast."The vice president took a deep breath and took a sip of fresh coffee, justpoured and prepared to his liking-heavy cream, three sugar cubes-by a FilipinoNavy steward."All right.Look, here's what we're going to do.Marsha , put a full groundstop on private planes immediately.But hold off a bit on a full commercialground stop.At least until I can talk to the president.I'll get you ananswer soon.Burt , take us to DefCon Two.The president will definitely concuron that and I'll get it written out atCrystalPalace in the next few minutes.Tuck, send out a flash traffic alert to all of our embassies worldwide.Explain what's happening.Tell them to be in immediate contact with theleadership of their host countries that a wave of assassination attempts isunder way.Then you get a conference call set up immediately with the foreignministers of the G-8.Find out what they know and what they're doing aboutit.""From here, or State?""Good question.I don't know.Bud ?""Sir, I don't think any of you should leave that bunker right now, not withwhat we're seeing unfold," saidNorris."I think he's right, sir," Kirkpatrick agreed."We've got the facilities inthe next room over.Tuck, you can run your diplomatic track from ConferenceRoom Two while we coordinate with the president and the Task Force from here.""Good, do it," said the VP."Jack, anything else? Tell me some good news.""Sorry, sir," saidMitchell."I'm afraid I don't have any."Page 55ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlFIVEBennettslipped hisU.S.passport and American Express Gold Card to the Deltaticket agent behind the bulletproof glass.He'd already been in line for nearly half an hour, and the line behind himnow stretched out the door.He began to think he'd never get out.Butmembership does have its privileges.Nine minutes later he got lucky-the lastseat on the last flight that could get him to New York before the day's end,and it just happened to be first class.The attractive young Israeli woman with the slicked back dark hair andsmoky dark eyes smiled seductively and slid him back his passport, credit cardand a nonstop ticket.Delta Flight 97, leavingTelAviv at1:30 P.M.local timeand landing atKennedy at 6:45 P.M.Eastern.That would be the easy part.Getting toColorado would be the headache.DIA, of course, was shut down indefinitely.The last flight fromKennedytoColorado Springs -via American through Dallas-Fort Worth-left at 6:10 P.M.Eastern, more than a half hour before he'd even be on the ground inNew York ,much less cleared through Customs and able to get to the domestic terminals.And even if the American flight left late, it was completely booked anyhow.The next commercial flight toColorado Springs didn't leave until5:50 the nextmorning.But that wasn't the worst of it.The FAA had just ordered a fullground stop in Colorado-nothing was flying in or out of the state-so all ofthis was now moot anyway.Bennettpicked up his bags and glanced back at the Delta agent, who caughthis eye and winked [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]