by GM Ford
Craig opened the car door for her. She slid inside, and then looked up at him and smiled. “See you at the airport Tuesday night,” she said.
He stood on the asphalt and watched as the black Lincoln slid noiselessly into traffic and disappeared.
61
Dan Rosen’s secretary Marlene Stanwick handed him an untidy stack of paperwork and started her usual one-foot-in-front-of-the-other swoosh toward the office door. Rosen dropped the folder onto his desk with an annoyed slap.
“Is this everything?” he demanded.
She stopped swooshing and turned to face him.
“In all probability, there’ll be more on the machine before I get back to my desk,” she predicted.
Rosen wanted to curse, something crude and multi-syllabic. But, in deference to Marlene’s old-fashioned sensibilities, he swallowed it.
“Thanks,” he growled.
Marlene shot Bobby Duggan a quick ‘my.. aren’t we crabby today’ glance and then resumed her exit. They waited for the door to hiss closed behind her.
“Goddamn it,” Rosen groused. He rifled through the paperwork and grabbed a handful. “Book offers: Random House. Harper Collins. Little Brown.” He tossed a handful of pages to the floor and pulled out another handful. “HBO wants to do a mini-series.” He flicked the pages with his fingernails. “Six parts.” Another page waffled to the carpet. “ABC wants to buy exclusive rights in all media.” More pages made the trip to the rug before he slammed a hand on top of the remaining pile. “There’s even one in here somewhere for the rights to Action Figures,” he said with an annoyed shake of the head. “Action Figures!” He looked at Bobby Duggan in amazement. “What the hell is going on here? We’re supposed to be a clandestine governmental agency. Secret! Like in Secret Service. We can’t be on the front page of the frigging newspaper every day.”
Bobby shrugged. “They’re celebrities, Dan. Wednesday they’re doing Good Morning America in New York. Then it’s the talk show circuit. Leno on Friday. Joy Behar the day before.” He pointed his palms at the ceiling. “Somebody opened a Facebook account for ‘em. They got three and a half million hits in the first twenty-four hours.”
Rosen was in full denial. “We need to put a stop to this,” he insisted. “This is ridiculous.”
“Actually, it’s a hell of a strategy. Just the kind of thing I’d expect Jackson to come up with if he found himself backed into a corner.” Bobby threw a hand in the air. “He knows we can’t touch either of them as long as this hoopla is goin’ on. They’re going to play this out in the media.” He absent-mindedly brushed at his cowlick and grinned. “They’re national heroes,” Bobby said. “The deadly duo who saved Harvey Winter. No way we want to be on the other side of this. We probably better jump on board. Ride the lightning while we’ve got the chance.” Bobby wandered across the room. “And to make matters worse, they were good. Credible. Telegenic.”
Rosen made a rude noise. “I’ll suspend both of them pending an internal investigation of their conduct. That’ll put an end to this foolishness.”
Bobby brushed the notion to the ground. “I spoke to the AG’s office this morning. We can’t order them not to appear on television. If they were on duty, we could assign them to the hinterlands, arbitrarily classify their assignments and be done with it. But they’re not. They’re on leave. She’s on medical leave and he’s on personal leave, both of which are legitimate. What they do with their own time is strictly their business. As long as they don’t reveal state secrets or otherwise run afoul of the classification system, they’re pretty much entitled to do whatever they damn please, so there’s just no point in suspending either of them. All it would accomplish is to make us look petty and stupid and small.”
Dan Rosen cut the air with an angry hand. “Those two cowboys can’t possibly become the face of this agency. Can’t happen. Not on my watch anyway.”
“It’s a done deal, Dan,” Bobby drawled. “It’s already happened. You and me…we’re just sitting around the cracker barrel talkin ‘bout yesterday’s news. We’re lockin the barn after the horse already done been stole. Next thing you know those two are going to have their own reality TV show.”
“Where are they now?” Rosen asked.
“Jackson’s getting his family’s life back in order. Finding a new facility for his father and such and sundry. Williams ran up to Ventura to be with her mother, who, I’m given to understand, went apoplectic at the sight of her only daughter on the Harvey Winter show. They’ve got reservations flying from LAX to JFK on Tuesday evening. Aisle seats, across from each other.”
“And there’s no way we can put a stop to this?”
“Nothin’ legal,” Bobby assured him.
Rosen cursed at some length and then folded his arms so tightly across his chest that his thick torso began to vibrate.
“Shakin’ like a hound dog tryin’ to pass a peach pit,” Bobby thought.
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