'I'm sure you are fine,' agreed Lyons, nodding. 'It's just routine and won't take more than a couple of minutes… It really is an honour to meet you, Congressman.'
'Thanks very much… Go on, Manny. Do you want one of the nurses to assist you, Doctor?'
'It doesn't really matter—’
'So she can wax lascivious over my naked chest?' protested Weingrass, interrupting. 'Come on, Doc. You tap around my ribs and go out and buy yourself a Cadillac.'
'At least a Ferrari,' countered Lyons, smiling at Kendrick.
Emmanuel Weingrass and his new doctor walked down the stone hallway towards the bedroom.
The Icarus Agenda
Chapter 30
It was ten minutes past one in the morning, and exhaustion hung like circles of dead, heavy mist throughout the house in Mesa Verde. The CIA field agent, his eyes dark with fatigue, walked on to the enclosed porch, where Evan and Khalehla sat on the leather couch diagonally across from Manny in his reclining chair. The three nurses had left, each to her own room, each having been dismissed from duty for the rest of the night; the presence of armed guards patrolling the grounds outside had stretched their nerves. Their patient would survive sleep without being looked in on every half-hour. Dr Lyons had guaranteed it.
'Washington's anxious,' announced the weary intelligence officer. 'The schedule's been moved up, so I'm going down to the airport for the van now. The plane should be here in about an hour which means we don't have much time. They want that bird to come in and get out.'
'The tower down there doesn't operate all night except by prearrangement,' said Kendrick. 'Have you thought about that?'
'Hours ago, in time for your flight from the Bahamas. The Air Force flew over a team of controllers from Colorado Springs. The cover's an AF training manoeuvre cleared through your office. Nobody objects and no one questions.'
'How come?'
'Because you're you, sir.'
'Is there anything we can do here?' asked Khalehla quickly, before Evan could make a comment.
'Yes, there is,' answered the field agent. 'If you wouldn't mind, I'd rather not have anyone up when I get back. We've got this thing worked out by the numbers, and I mean fractions, so the fewer distractions the better.'
'How are you going to handle those cowboys from the park outside?' said Weingrass, grimacing but obviously not from the question he asked. 'I put my head out the door a couple of times before these two got here and they rushed up to me like I was a runaway bear.'
'They've been told a foreign VIP is arriving to see the Congressman—in fact, that's the reason they're here. And since the meeting is highly confidential… and in deference to the visitor who wants to keep it that way, all patrols will remain out of sight. They'll be on the sides of the house and down at the gazebo.'
'They bought that nonsense?' interjected Weingrass.
'They have no reason to question it.'
'Because he's him,' agreed Manny, nodding.
'And because they're being paid three hundred dollars apiece for losing a night's sleep.'
'Very pro, Mr. Containment. You're better than I thought.'
'I have to be… Well, if I don't see you again, it's been a real pleasure meeting you, Congressman. Some day I'll be able to tell my kids about it… No, please don't get up, sir, I've got to run. You, too, Miss Official, as Mr. Weingrass would say… And you, Manny, I tell you, it's been an experience. I think I'm glad you're on our side.'
'You should be, you need all the help you can get… Ciao, young man. Have a good track-down and if the odds are only five to one against you, you'll win.'
