Loose Cannon: The Tom Kelly Novels Read Online Free

Iron Curtain in a couple weeks,” Redstone continued, “a conference in Algiers. That’s his chance and our chance—and it’s the only chance we’re going to get. If Vlasov’s as crazy as the reports say—” Follett and the admiral winced, but Redstone plowed on obliviously—“then the Sovs aren’t going to leave him loose very long, even if they don’t know we’ve contacted him.”
    “The conference on nuclear power?” said the Secretary’s aide, speaking almost for the first time that evening. “The one in Algeria? We’re boycotting it because it threatens still wider proliferation of nuclear weapons in the non-advanced world.”
    “That’s right,” agreed the soldier, “and there you’ve put your finger on the fucking rub. On both of them, I ought to say.”
    You ought to have said something else entirely, thought Follett; but the Secretary appeared to have been caught up in Redstone’s enthusiasm, so the DIA chief did not interrupt. Not the sort of candor you ran into a lot in Foggy Bottom, he supposed. Or the Pentagon, come to think.
    “Because the Algerians are just as red as the Chinks and the Russkies,” the brigadier was continuing, “what with them and the Libyans carrying on a war against us in the Western Sahara—”
    Here Follett had to interrupt. “Against our ally, the King of Morocco,” he corrected.
    “Right,” Redstone went on. “That’s the sort of people we’d be dealing with. They’ll take our dollars for natural gas quick enough, but they’re not about to help a top scientist escape from one of their Communist buddies. And the other thing is”—Redstone paused to take a deep breath, fixing the Secretary with his eyes during the pause—“we don’t have a delegation to the goddam conference to plant a team in. The Canadians do, but they won’t play ball—all that new flap with their security force scared them shitless.”
    “Ah, Red,” Follett said, “I don’t think the Secretary is—”
    “Oh, right, right,” the brigadier said. “Well, if it weren’t for the agent who made the touch to begin with, we still wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance of extracting the Professor. But he’s there in place. And if you can keep the lid on at the UN—and the White House—if there’s a flap, we’ll get Vlasov out.”
    The civilian gave Redstone a scowl of dawning concern. “What sort of flap?” he demanded. “You don’t have some wild-hare notion about going in with a battalion of Marines, do you?”
    “Huh?” said Redstone. “Oh, hell, no. Not Marines—”
    “Let me take over here, General,” Follett said loudly. Brigadier General Redstone had wanted to use elements of the 82nd Airborne Division for the snatch; Follett was sure that he was about to blurt that fact. To anyone outside the military community, that would have appeared to be a distinction without a difference.
    “Mr. Secretary,” Follett continued, “we will—our agents will be operating in what must for the purpose be considered a hostile country. And Professor Vlasov, despite his desire to flee to freedom, will be escorted by KGB personnel who will stop at nothing to prevent him from doing so. It may well be necessary to take”—the general drew a deep breath; his Air Force background permitted him to be queasy when discussing murder from less than 40,000 feet up—“direct action to save the Professor’s life. Furthermore, while the operation will be under the control of a DIA operative, the—heavy work—will be carried out by local agents. It is simply a fact of life that one cannot expect perfect . . . discretion from, ah, freedom fighters in a situation of this sort.”
    The Secretary of State turned away with a look of distaste. “You mean,” he said, “that it’s going to be World War III in downtown Algiers if you go ahead with this.”
    “No, Mr. Secretary,” said Rear Admiral Wayne. “It’s going to be World War III if we don’t go ahead with this. And