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nodded. Think about it. Mull it over. Somehow I will make it legal enough to
be acceptable even to you, and then I will not take no for an answer. I want
the paper, and I am going to get it. I want you to run it, and I am going to
get you. Freedom, Buck Williams. Total freedom. The day you believe I am
intruding, you may quit with full pay.
Having thanked Earl Halliday for his confidence and promising not to declare
himself just yet though Rayford could not imagine taking the job he stood in
the terminal at an otherwise deserted bank of pay phones. Francine, Earl's
secretary, had confirmed that there was no Jean Garfield working for Pan-Con.
And while there were no fewer than six James Longs, four of them were baggage
handlers and the other two were midlevel bureaucrats. None worked in Dallas,
none was an examiner, and none had a secretary.
Who's out to get you? Earl had asked.
I can't imagine.
Francine reported that the call she took that morning had been traced to New
York.
It'll take them a few hours to get an exact phone number, she said, but
Rayford knew in a flash who it was. He couldn't be sure why she would do it,
but only Hattie
Durham would pull a stunt like that. Only she would have access to Pan-Con
people who would know where he was and what he was doing that morning. And
what was that business about
Air Force One?
He called information and got the number for the United Nations. After
reaching the switchboard and then the administrative offices, he finally got
Hattie, the fourth person to pick up the phone.
Rayford Steele here, he said flatly.
Oh, hi, Captain Steele! The brightness in her voice made him cringe.
I give up, Rayford said. Whatever you're doing, you win.
I don't follow.
C'mon, Hattie, don't play dumb.
Oh! My note! I just thought it was funny, because I was talking to a friend
in Pan-
Con traffic the other day, and she mentioned that my old friend was recerting
on the
757 this morning in Dallas. Wasn't it funny that I had mail waiting for you?
Wasn't that just the funniest?
Yeah, hilarious. What does it mean?
The message? Oh, nothing. Surely you knew that, right? Everybody knows the
new
Air Force One is going to be a 'fiftyseven, don't they?
Yeah, so why remind me?
It was a joke, Rayford. I was kidding you about recertifying as if you were
going to be the president's new pilot. Don't you get it?
Was it possible? Could she be that naive and innocent? Could she have done
something that vapid and have been so coincidentally lucky? He wanted to ask
how she knew he would be offered the job, but if she didn't know it, he
certainly did not want to tell her.
I get it. Very funny. So what was the phony complaint all about?
The phony complaint?
Don't waste my time, Hattie. You're the only person who knew where I was and
what I was doing, and I come back to some bogus charge about religious
harassment.
Oh, that! she laughed. That was just a wild guess. You had an examiner,
didn't you?
Yes, but I didn't
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And you had to give him the big pitch, didn't you?
No.
Come now, Rayford. You gave it to me, to your own daughter, to Cameron
Williams, to Earl Halliday, to just about everybody you've worked with since.
Really? You didn't preach to the examiner?
As a matter of fact, I didn't.
Well, OK, so I guessed wrong. But it's still funny, don't you think? And the
odds were with me. What would you have thought if you had come on strong with
him and then came back to a complaint? You would have apologized to him, and
he would have denied it. I love practical jokes! C'mon, give me some credit.
Hattie, if you're trying to get back at me for how I treated you, I suppose I
deserve it.
No, Rayford, it's not that! I'm over it. I'm over you. If we'd had a
relationship, I
would never be where I am today, and believe me, I never want to be anywhere
else. But this wasn't revenge. It was just supposed to be funny. If it doesn't
amuse you, I'm sorry.
It got me into trouble.
Oh, come on! How long would it take to check out a story like that?
All right, you win. Any more surprises for me?
Don't think so, but stay on your toes.
Rayford didn't buy a word of it. Carpathia had to know about the White House
offer. Hattie's note and that offer, and what her little joke almost did to
scotch the deal, were too coincidental to be her lame attempt at a practical
joke. Rayford was not in a good mood when he returned to the parking garage.
He only hoped Chloe was not still upset. If she was, maybe both of them could
cool down before the meeting that night.
Chaim Rosenzweig put a gnarled hand on Buck's knee. I urge you to accept this
most prestigious position. If you do not accept it, someone else will, and it
will not be as good a paper.
Buck was not about to argue with Chaim. Thank you, he said. I have a lot to
think about. But accepting the offer was not something he was going to
consider.
How he longed to talk about this, first to Chloe and then to Bruce and
Rayford.
When Hattie Durham interrupted apologetically and moved to the desk to speak
quietly with Carpathia, Steve began to whisper something to Buck. But Buck was
blessed with the ability to discern what was worth listening to and what was
worthy of ignoring. Right now he decided it would be more profitable to
eavesdrop on
Hattie and Nicolae than to pay attention to Steve. He leaned toward Steve,
pretending to listen.
Buck knew Steve would be trying to sell him on the job, to assure him that it
was
Steve himself who lobbied for it, to admit that as a journalist it sounded
crazy at first, but that this was a new world, blah, blah, blah. And so Buck
nodded and maintained some eye contact, but he was listening to Hattie Durham
and Carpathia.
I just took a call from the target, she said.
Yes? And?
It didn't take him long to figure it out.
And
Air Force One
?
I don't think he has a clue.
Good work. And the other?
No response yet.
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Thank you, dear.
The target.
That didn't sound good. The rest of it he assumed had something to do with
Carpathia's ride that afternoon on the president's plane.
Carpathia turned his attention back to his guest. At the very least, Buck,
talk this over with the people who care about you. And if you think of more
specific dreams you would accomplish if resources were no object, remember
that you are in the driver's seat right now. You are in a seller's market. I
am the buyer, and I will get
the man I want.
You make me want to turn you down, just to show I cannot be bought.
And as I have said so many times, that is the very reason you are the man for
the job. Do not make the mistake of passing up the opportunity of a lifetime [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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