A Death in Geneva (42 page)

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Authors: A. Denis Clift

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“Drop it, Renfro, goddamnit!” Sweetman burst onto the landing, snapping off two warning shots, the 9mm ASP trained on her. She spun, flipping the Skorpion to automatic with the first flash of his pistol. A spitting line of bullets tore along the wall, closing to stop his charge. Her foot turned in Starring's stomach. The Skorpion flew from her hands; she plunged back first over the railing. The machine pistol rattled to a stop at the base of the second floor stairs.

Sweetman pressed four fingers against Starring's neck. The heart was pumping. He had fainted, saved his own life. From the third floor of the Octagon, the agent could see by the twist of the form on the marble below that Leslie Renfro was dead.

At first light, the helicopter came in low toward the
Towerpoint Octagon,
rippling the water around one of the two Coast Guard patrol boats lying off the catamaran. In the night, the
Towerpoint Partner
had been lost at sea. A second explosion, with no loss, had churned the waters of the bay. The
Mayan,
well up-bay, had been halted. A Navy SEAL team was conducting an urgent inspection of the enormous hull. Sweetman was met on the flight deck by the
Octagon
's captain, cleared through the Coast Guard checkpoint, and escorted to the main deck center well.

Head's body was the first to emerge from the habitat. Shrouded in a rubber bag and lashed to a wire basket stretcher, it was taken to the ship's reefer to await shipment ashore. The rich July orange of the sun's upper curve had broken the horizon by the time the ship's doctor had Oats Tooms ready for the trip to the surface. Details of the terror had been kept from him. Still fully conscious, he was buoyed by the knowledge that Starring had survived. The questions that dogged him would soon be replaced by the impact of the attack's shocking magnitude.

With scuba gear on, he was lowered through the trunk, strapped to the same wire stretcher, and lifted to the main deck. The face mask and tanks were eased from him. Flat on his back awaiting transfer to the medevac flight, his eyes traveled first to the white and blue flag with its swallow tails snapping from the ship's yard, then to the powerful bald agent peering down at him, to the dull black of the wristwatch identifying him as a member of the underseas fraternity.

He squinted at Sweetman, “Got some patching to do on . . . be back . . . tell the skipper not to strike the diver's flag.”

About the Author

A. DENIS CLIFT is a former naval officer, editor of the
Proceedings
magazine, and president emeritus of the National Intelligence University. He served in eleven administrations, including tours as National Security Council senior staff member for Soviet Union and Eastern and Western Europe, national security adviser to the vice president, and chief of staff, Defense Intelligence Agency. His books include
With Presidents to the Summit.

The Naval Institute
Press is the book-publishing arm of the U.S. Naval Institute, a private, nonprofit, membership society for sea service professionals and others who share an interest in naval and maritime affairs. Established in 1873 at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where its offices remain today, the Naval Institute has members worldwide.

Members of the Naval Institute support the education programs of the society and receive the influential monthly magazine
Proceedings
or the colorful bimonthly magazine
Naval History
and discounts on fine nautical prints and on ship and aircraft photos. They also have access to the transcripts of the Institute's Oral History Program and get discounted admission to any of the Institute-sponsored seminars offered around the country.

The Naval Institute's book-publishing program, begun in 1898 with basic guides to naval practices, has broadened its scope to include books of more general interest. Now the Naval Institute Press publishes about seventy titles each year, ranging from how-to books on boating and navigation to battle histories, biographies, ship and aircraft guides, and novels. Institute members receive significant discounts on the Press's more than eight hundred books in print.

Full-time students are eligible for special half-price membership rates. Life memberships are also available.

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