"da Cruz, Daniel - Republic of Texas 02 - Texas on the Rocks" - читать интересную книгу автора (Da Cruz Daniel)

10. MR. SECRETARY CASTLE
24 FEBRUARY 2005



THE CONVERTED F-15 TOUCHED DOWN WITH A SHRIEK OF burning rubber at Dulles International Airport at five past eleven, and taxied to the far end of the strip. There a helicopter, its rotors turning lazily, waited. ROR President Randy Gustafson, a hard-bellied man of middle age with chalk-white hair, hooked the aluminum ladder to the side of the plane as the Plexiglas canopy lifted up and back.

Jennifer Red Cloud punched the release button of the shoulder harness and pulled off her helmet. She stood, hiked up her skirt so she could extend a sculptured leg over the side of the cockpit, and climbed down.

She disregarded Gustafson's proffered hand and flounced across the tarmac to the Sea Drift helicopter, heels clicking on the pavement, white sharkskin dress molded against her body by the propwash, long black hair streaming in the wind. She climbed up the five steps, and moments later they were airborne for downtown Washington.

"I'm listening," said Mrs. Red Cloud, taking her seat before a bank of mirrors and a cabinet containing a complete array of the made-to-her-order powders, creams, ointments, lip rouge, unguents, blushes, and other magic substances waiting at her every port of call, in a futile

attempt, in Gustafson's view, to improve on nature.

As her Filipino makeup artist Ernesto went about repairing the ravages of the trip, Gustafson told her apologetically that he had waited all the previous day for her telephone call, and only when none had come had he instructed Adamus to get in contact with her.

"Just tell me why I'm here."

"President Turnbull created a new Department of Water Resources Tuesday night and named David D. Castle as secretary."

Mrs. Red Cloud regarded Gustafson coldly in the mirror.

"Why wasn't I informed immediately?"

"Your phones are disconnected between 5 P.M. and 9 A.M.--company policy," he reminded her. "Yesterday, I figured you had must have already got--"

"You could have flown down."

"Your personal orders are--"

"I know my personal orders, Mr. Gustafson. You must learn when to disobey."

"I'll have to tell Dan Adamus that--if I ever see him again," said Gustafson wryly.

"Never mind Adamus. Did you make an appointment for me with Castle?"

"Yes, ma'am. It's for eleven-thirty."

"Well, at least you're not completely useless, Randy."

Randy Gustafson sighed. When she wanted to murder him, it was Mr. Gustafson. When she loved him, it was Randy. On the other hand, when he thought about her, he was Randy all the time.

"I did the best I could, Mrs. Red Cloud, but I'm afraid somebody got there before us. Brill tells me Ripley Forte has been in conference with Castle since ten-thirty."

At the mention of Forte's name, her head jerked as if she had been stabbed in the small of the back. The lipstick Ernesto was applying made an ugly smear across her cheek.

"Terribly sorry, ma'am," said the Filipino, wiping off the lipstick with a tissue. Under his fingertips he could feel her jaw muscle tighten.