'Hardly a slop job,' said Merger, 'unlike the botched second assassination attempt on Hala Kaniil.'
'A different group entirely,' Brogan added.
Dale Nichols spoke up for the first time in the meeting. 'Which you linked directly to Akhmad Yazid.'
'Yes, the assassins were not very careful. Egyptian passports were found on tke bodies. One, the leader, we identified as a mullah and fanatical follower of Yazid.'
'Do you think Yazid's responsible for the hijacking?'
'He certainly had the motive,' answered Brogan. 'With President Hasan out of the way, he has a clear shot at taking over the Egyptian government.'
'The same goes for President De Lorenzo, Topiltzin and Mexico,' Nichols stated flatly.
'An interesting theory,' said Merger.
'What can we do besides send a few CIA terrorist investigators to Uruguay?' asked the President. 'What are our options in helping with the search for the Lady Flamborough?'
'To answer the first part of your question,' said Brogan, 'very little.
The investigation is in good hands. Uruguayan police and security intelligence chiefs were trained here and in Britain. They know the score and are most cooperative in working with our experts.' He paused and avoided the President's eyes. 'As to the second, again, very little. The Navy Department has no ships patrolling the ocean off South America. The nearest vessel to the area is a nuclear sub on a training exercise off Antarctica. Our Latin friends are doing fine without us.
Over eighty military and commercial aircraft and at least fourteen ships from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have been combing the sea off Punta del Este since dawn.'
'And they haven't found a clue to the Lady Flamborough's fate,' said the President. What little optimism he had before was rapidly eroding into despondency.
'They will,' said Merger tersely.
'Wreckage and bodies most certainly will Turn up,' said Brogan candidly.
'No ship that size can vanish without leaving some trace behind.'
'Has the story broken in the press yet?' asked the President.
'I was informed it came over the wire services an hour ago,' Nichols answered.
The President folded his hands and clenched them tightly.
'Holy hell will cut loose in Congress when they find out one of their members is a victim of a terrorist act. No telling what kind of revenge they'll demand.'
'The purpose of the Senator's mission alone is enough to cause a major scandal if it leaks out,' said Nichols.
'Swinge that terrorists can murder international leaders and diplomats, with an army of innocent victims thrown in, and get off with a few years in prison,' mused the President. 'But if we play their gwne and go after them with guns blasting, we're branded immoral, blood-thirsty avengers. The news media get on our case and Congress demands investigations.'
'It hurts being the good guys,' said Brogan. He was beginning to sound tired.
Nichols stood up and stretched. 'I don't think we have to worry.
Nothing was put down on paper or recorded on tape. And only the men in this room know why Senator Pitt flew down to Punta del Este to confer with President Hasan.'
'Dale's right,' said Merger. 'We can come up with any number of excuses to explain away his mission.'
The President unclasped his hands and rubbed his eyes tiredly. 'George Pitt hasn't been dead a day and already we're trying to cover our asses.'
'That problem is minor compared to the political disasters we're facing in Egypt and Mexico,' said Nichols. 'With Hasan and De Lorenzo dead too, Egypt will go the way of Iran and be irretrievably lost for sure, Then with Mexico - - .' He hesitated. 'We'll have a time bomb ready to go off along our own border.'
'As my Chief of Staff and closest adviser, what measures do you suggest we take?'
Nichols's stomach was attacked by a cramp and his heartbeat quickened.
The President and the two intelligence advisers seemed to be studying his eyes. He wondered if the stress that was twisting his guts came from being put on the spot or the thought of a looming foreign catastrophe.
'I propose we wait for proof the Lady Flamborough and everybody on her lies on the bottom of the ocean.
'And if no evidence is forthcoming?' asked the President. 'Do we go on waiting until Egypt and Mexico, their leaders missing and presumed dead, arr taken over by Topiltzin and
Akhmad Yazid, a pair of crazed megalomaniacs? What then?
What course of action is left to stop them before it's too late?'
'Short of assassination, none.' Nichols's hand nervously massaged his aching stomach. 'We can only prepare for the worst.'
'Which is . . . ?'
'We write off Egypt,' Nichols said gravely, 'and invade Mexico.'
A heavy rain soaked Uruguay's capital city of Montevideo as the small jet dropped from the clouds and lined up on the runway. Soon after touchdown it swung away from the commercial terminal and rolled onto a taxi strip toward a cluster of hangars flanked by rows of fighter jets.
A Ford sedan with military markings appeared and led the pilot to a parking area reserved for visiting VIP
