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No signal at all.
“Benjamin!”
“Yo!”
“Pick up the house phone. Tell me if you’ve got a signal.”
A few seconds pass.
“Not a thing.” Benjamin limps in, sipping from a glass of water.
He stops.
“Hey, Liam.”
“What?”
“We got visitors.”
Liam gets up and looks out the main window of the small farmhouse.
Three black Range Rovers are parked on the dirt driveway, just beyond the gate; armed men with helmets, black jumpsuits, and ballistic vests are jumping out, taking position.
Lin says, “Oh, no.”
“Well?” Benjamin asks.
Liam says, “If you ever wondered what it felt like to be with Davy Crockett at the Alamo, you’re about to find out.”
CHAPTER 122
BUT BEFORE GENERAL Peterson can proceed as ordered, there’s a knock on the door, and another, and the door swings open.
Barrett’s chief of staff, Quinn Lawrence, steps in, looking concerned, his face pale.
“Mr. President, I’m sorry to interrupt you, but you’ve got an urgent message,” he says.
“Quinn,” Barrett says, “Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“I know, sir, but Deputy Secretary of Defense Kim wants to talk to you. He says it’s extremely important.”
“It’ll have to wait,” Barrett says. “I’ll reach out to him when I’m available.”
“Mr. President, I really must insist,” he says. “The deputy secretary is desperate to talk to you.”
“And I’m telling you he’ll have to wait.”
Barrett watches and is stunned as his chief of staff apparently grows a pair.
He walks up to his desk, picks up the phone, and says, “With all due respect, Mr. President, you’ve got to take this call. The Chinese embassy and its consulates are burning their papers. Chinese military forces are on the move. The situation is precarious.”
Barrett watches in amazement as his chief of staff actually puts his hand on one of the telephone handsets at his desk. Barrett gets up from the couch and slaps his hand over Quinn Lawrence’s. It feels soft and flabby and he again wonders why he had placed such a cipher in a position of power.
Because of this day,he reminds himself. Where he had to make this important decision on his own, with no naysayers, no backbiters present.
Barrett says, “Quinn. Take your hand away or I’ll break it. Got it?”
It seems like Quinn Lawrence is about to tear up. Barrett gently lifts his hand a few millimeters and Quinn’s hand follows, and then his chief of staff steps back.
