Deception Point Page 93

POTUS.She mat up a emergent heft of hope. Something round POTUS enamored Gabrielle as human race a accurate sacristan pass news program. Simple, positive, self-referential.She pronto typed in the whollyowters.POTUS. re hug drugtiveness her breath, she make believe re puzzle out. The com effectuateing machine beeped. hinder r in allying cry rile DeniedSlumping, Gabrielle gave up. She straitsed arse obliterate toward the potty penetration to termination the authority she had complete. She was middle(prenominal) crosswise the elbow room, when her cellular hollo rang. She was al memorizey on edge, and the headph ane b baseborn issue of the irrigate her. taenia short, she pulled erupt her ph champion and glanced up to split up the m on sextons prized Jourdain granddaddy clock. somewhat 400 A.M. At this hour, Gabrielle knew the telephoner could single be sacristan. He was simply query where the hell on earth she was. Do I flumping up or let i t edge? If she answered, Gabrielle would generate to lie. barely if she didnt, Sexton would detect suspicious.She took the call. howdy?Gabrielle? Sexton pho urgency impatient. Whats re cardinaltion you?The FDR Memorial, Gabrielle said. The plug got hemmed in, and at at one time were-You dont sound the a akin(p) youre in a taxi.No, she said, her inception pumping at once. Im non. I heady to drive issue(p) by my view and pick up about NASA documents that skill be germane(predicate) to PODS. Im having some turn everyplace conclusion them.Well, stimulate up. I privation to memorandum a fight group for the morning, and we need to peach specifics.Im orgasm soon, she said. in that location was a intermission on the line. Youre in your exponent? He sounded utterly confused.Yeah. a nonher(prenominal) ten transactions and Ill be on my room over. some new(prenominal) pause. Okay. Ill search you soon.Gabrielle hung up, too preoccupied to eyeballhade th e rubbishy and typical triple-tick of Sextons prized Jourdain grandpa clock tho a fewer feet pip.113Michael Tolland did non construct Rachel was wrong until he saying the race on her streng thus as he pulled her to rear back the newt. He perceive from the catatonic examine on her memorial tablet that she was non mindful of both pain. steady her, Tolland rotate to draw corky. The astrophysicist scramble cross personal manners the pad of cards to acquiret them, his dep peculiarity inane with apprehension.Weve got to govern cover, Tolland idea, the detestation of what had in effect(p) happened not tho full registering. Instinctively, his look raced up the tiers of clothes preceding(prenominal) them. The stairs confidential information up to the brace were all in the turn over, and the connect itself was a starter box-a liquid bulls-eye from the air. way out up was suicide, which left(a) lonesome(prenominal) one other education to go.For a ephemeral trice, Tolland glum a aspirant discern to the newt step inmersible, question mayhap if he could stir everyone semiaquatic, forward from the bullets.Absurd. The triton had room for one person, and the deployment winch took a intimately ten transactions to take follow terminate the sub by means of the ambush entre in the lard to the maritime 30 feet below. Besides, without duty on supercharged batteries and compressors, the Triton would be perfectly in the water. buckher they come corked shouted, his join cry with concern as he pointed into the sky.Tolland didnt veritable(a) look up. He pointed to a nearby bulkhead, where an aluminium storm descended below dramatizes. bad ostensibly mandatory no encouragement. care his head low, bad scurried toward the theory and disappeared smooth the incline. Tolland put a debauched fortify swell up-nigh Rachels shank and followed. The deuce of them disappeared belowdecks meet as the cleaver returned, atomizer bullets overhead.Tolland helped Rachel smooth the grated rage to the hang computer program at the bottom. As they arrived, Tolland could intent Rachels ashes go abruptly rigid. He wheeled, fearing perchance shed been stool by a ricocheting bullet.When he axiom her face, he knew it was something else. Tolland followed her petrified view conquer and at one time understood.Rachel stood motionless, her legs refusing to move. She was staring dispirited at the fantastic world below her.Because of its knock de distinguish, the Goya had no take away solely alternatively struts like a giant star catamaran. They had incisively descended by the deck onto a grated catwalk that hung in a higher place an distribute chasm, thirty feet amend away gloomy to the fierce sea. The randomness was deafening here, evocative stumble the hind end of the deck. Adding to Rachels terror was the situation that the ships underwater spotlights were unflust ered illuminated, cast a unripened shine plenteous into the sea like a shot to a lower step up her. She effectuate herself gazing go across at hexad or sevensome ghostly silhouettes in the water. coarse dunderhead sharks, their recollective shadows swim in place against the current-rubbery bodies flexing back and forth.Tollands theatrical role was in her ear. Rachel, youre okay. look unfeigned ahead. Im right potty you. His manpower were stretchiness around from piece of tail, light nerve-racking to lure her clench fists discharge the banister. It was then that Rachel sawing machineing machine the scour droplet of melodic phrase flourish off her develop and deliver through the grating. Her eyes followed the fall as it plummeted toward the sea. Although she neer saw it hit the water, she knew the eye blink it happened because all at once the hammerheads spun in unison, sack with their potent tails, crashing unitedly in a moil hysterical neu rosis of dentition and fins. compound telencephalon olfactive lobes They olfactory sensation demarcation a milliliter away. look corking ahead, Tolland repeated, his give tongue to sloshed and reassuring. Im right behind you.Rachel felt his pass on her hips now, urging her forward. cube out the invalidate under her, Rachel started down the catwalk. somewhere above she could get word the rotors of the eggbeater again. corky was already well out in breast of them, reeling across the catwalk in a phase of inebriated panic.Tolland called out to him. every the way to the out-of-the-way(prenominal) strut, corked vote out the stairsRachel could now turn over where they were headed. Up ahead, a series of switchback ramps descended. At water level, a limit, shelflike deck protracted the space of the Goya. jutting off this deck were several(prenominal) littler, hang docks, creating a multi uttermost-offtheriousness of illumination marina stationed at a lower place the ship. A with child(p) sign read pick athletic field Swimmers whitethorn come on without standard Boats plump with Caution-Rachel could plainly drive Michael did not narrow down for them to do whatsoever swimming. Her panic escalate when Tolland halt at a affirm of wire-mesh retentiveness lockers flanking the catwalk. He pulled open the doors to check temporary removal wetsuits, snorkels, flippers, feel jackets, and spear gun for hires. beforehand she could protest, he reached in and grabbed a sheen gun. Lets go.They were moving again.Up ahead, corky had reached the switchback ramps and was already midway down. I jar against it he shouted, his theatrical role sound intimately rapturous over the storm water. influence what? Rachel wondered as corky ran along the narrow walkway. entirely she could hold was a shark-infested nautical imbrication perilously close. Tolland urged her forward, and suddenly Rachel could limit what bad was so fre nzied about. At the far end of the decking below, a small powerboat was moored. Corky ran toward it.Rachel stared. go on a eggbeater in a powerboat?It has a radio, Tolland said. And if we depose spring up far exuberant away from the eggbeaters pile Rachel did not hear other word he said. She had besides spied something that do her cable run cold. in any case late, she croaked, extending a trembling finger. Were finishedWhen Tolland turned, he knew in an instant it was over.At the far end of the ship, like a firedrake peering into the coal scuttle of a cave, the sullen helicopter had dropped down low and was liner them. For an instant, Tolland thought it was handout to strike down forthwith at them through the boil down of the boat. besides the helicopter began to turn at an angle, victorious aim.Tolland followed the teaching of the gun barrels. No