And that one was a crook who'd enriched himself hugely on the government payroll. That one had a little confusion about his sexual preference. That one there, he had a mistress only nineteen years old. Arnie had told him that-that he only needed to be liked, not loved, by half-plus-one of the voters in America-but there had to be more to the job than that, didn't there? He knew all of his fellow chief executives by name and sight, and he'd been briefed in on each man's character.

How did you do the job honorably? How did you look after the needs of every citizen? Ryan knew that he couldn't reasonably expect to be universally loved. He was President of the United States of America, by far the largest and most powerful country of the NATO alliance-until tomorrow, anyway, he corrected himself-and he wanted to take them all aside and ask each one how the hell he (they were all men at the moment) reconciled his self and his duties. Looking around the room, he could see the chiefs of government of more than fifteen countries, from little Iceland to the Netherlands to Turkey. The rain forest had always fascinated him. Which was where he'd be going eventually. The Project enclave in Kansas is pretty damned insecure, Barb, the man assured her. I will forget for the time being that a screwball scheme hatched by the OSS and carried out by the CIA went awry, almost killing the head of the NUMA Special Assignments Team and an innocent bystander and placing the speaker of the House in jeopardy. So I hear, Sandecker said lightly.Tell you what I'm going to do, Erwin. Mantle's complexion turned a strange ashy gray, and her face shrank until the skin was stretched tight against the bones. He walked through the fires fearlessly, knowing these visions could do him no harm only wanting them more. Fires sprang up around him, in which pages of books seemed to be burning. That vision gave way to another this less peaceful. All she could do was stay where she was, her mind filled with feverish explanations for what she'd just seen. Even though Caputo wasn't looking directly at her, there was a better than even chance that he'd catch sight of her if she broke cover. Still hugging the heart he crumpled, plopped down on the floor, curled up into an almost foetal position with the heart lost in the curl of his body. Major Stokes had levelled his telescope at the gate where the thick smoke had at last dissipated.

Firealpaca