'I repeat. I'm Congressman Evan Kendrick from the ninth district of Colorado and this is an emergency. I'm lost at sea somewhere west or south of Tijuana!'
'Those are Mexican waters—’
'Call the White House! Repeat what I've just told you… Kendrick of Colorado!'
'You're the guy who went to that Oman…?'
'Get your orders from the White House!'
'Keep your radio open, I'll take your co-ordinates for the RDF-'
'I don't have time and I don't know what you're talking about.'
'It's the radio directional finder—'
'For Christ's sake, Coast Guard, patch me through to the Westlake and get your orders! I have to reach that hotel.'
'Yes, sir, Commando Kendrick!'
'Whatever works,' mumbled Evan to himself as the sounds from the console speaker erupted in different tones until there was the hum of a telephone ringing. The switchboard answered. 'Room Fifty-One! Hurry, please.'
'Yes?' cried the strained voice of Khalehla.
'It's me!' shouted Kendrick, pressing the button for transmission, then instantly releasing it.
'For God's sake, where are you?'
'In the ocean somewhere, forget it! There's an attorney, a lawyer Ardis used for herself, and he's got a ledger that spells out everything! Find him! Get it!'
'Yes, of course, I'll reach MJ right away. But what about you? Are you—’
Another voice intruded, the deep commanding tones unmistakable. 'This is the President of the United States. Find that boat, find that man, or all your asses are in a sling!'
The swells tossed the boat like an insignificant bauble in a furious sea. Evan could no longer hold on to the wheel. The mists returned and he collapsed over the body of the fisherman from El Descanso.
The Icarus Agenda
Chapter 43
He was aware of violently swaying weightlessness, then of hands grabbing him, and a harsh wind buffeting him, finally of a deafening roar above him. He opened his eyes to blurred figures frantically moving around him, unbuckling straps… then a sharp puncture in his flesh, on his arm. He tried to rise but was restrained as men carried him to a flat, padded surface inside a huge, vibrating metal cage.
'Easy, Congressman!' shouted a man in a white Navy uniform that gradually came into focus. 'I'm a doctor and you're pretty bashed up. Don't make things more difficult for me because the President himself will officiate at my court martial if I don't do my job.'
Another puncture. He could not take any more pain. 'Where am I?'
'A logical question,' replied the medical officer, emptying a syringe into Kendrick's shoulder. 'You're in a big whirly-bird ninety miles off the coast of Mexico. You were on your way to China, man, and those seas are rugged.'
'That's it!’ Evan tried to raise his voice, but could barely hear himself.
'What's “it”?' The doctor leaned down as a medical aide above him held a bottle of plasma.
'Passage to China—an island called Passage to China! Seal it off!'
'I'm a doctor, not a member of the Seals—’
'Do as I tell you!… Radio San Diego, get planes
