Read My Spy for Free Online

fax machine beeped twice and Izzy pushed to his feet. “I expect that's for me.” With an easy stride he covered the distance to the machine and scanned the newest sheet.
    Only because she was watching closely did Annie see his jaw tighten. “What is it?”
    Worry flared in his eyes, just for a second. “It's nothing. Sam's holding firm, and everything's on schedule.”
    “What was in the fax, Izzy?”
    “Just transport options. We'd better get to work.”
    Annie noticed that he folded the fax carefully and slid it into his pocket. What she didn't know was that the words, written in code, would have made no sense to her anyway.

    “I WANT ANSWERS NOW. ”
    Admiral Ulysses S. Howe glared at the frightened surgical nurse. “How did an intruder get past my guards?”
    “I didn't see anyone. None of us did, sir. Just an orderly and someone from maintenance, but neither went into any patients' rooms.”
    “I'll have that checked.”
    The nurse shifted uncomfortably. “When the patient woke, he was confused and upset. He'd already torn off his oxygen mask, and his IV was out.”
    “Don't you people have equipment to monitor things like that?” Howe shot back. “This is intensive care, damn it. What the hell went on in here?”
    “The monitor was working, but the attendant had a priority call from the security desk downstairs. That's why it took a few extra seconds for him to notice the problem in Commander McKade's room.”
    And those few seconds could have cost the SEAL his life.
    He'd damn well check out that “priority call,” Howe thought grimly. He was sure he'd find that the call couldn't be traced. “I want to know who was in his room.”
    “I doubt that anyone was.” A graying man with a faint southern accent finished checking Sam's pulse, then stood staring down at his sleeping patient.
    “Are you telling me McKade was hallucinating? We're talking about a man with fifteen years of field experience and a chestful of medals.”
    The surgeon shrugged. “We see it all the time in postsurgical patients. Anesthesia and pain leave them disoriented. They wake up and see …things.” He nodded to his worried nurse. “You can go now, Eileen. You did the right thing, calming him down, then paging me.”
    “What about the cut on his arm?” Howe said after the door had closed. “Did my officer imagine
that,
too?”
    “As the nurse said, he'd been struggling. He could have caught the needle when he tore out his IV.”
    “I don't want guesses, Doctor. You've got one hour to tell me exactly what caused that slash on his arm.”
    “Of course, sir.”
    Admiral Howe looked up at the sound of angry voices echoing down the hallway. He raised a brow at the surgeon.
    “The senator from Montana has been camping out near the nursing station, hoping for news. He's becoming very persistent.”
    Howe chewed angrily on his unlit cigar. “Doesn't the man have legislation to shape, interviews to give? More votes to buy?” he added under his breath.
    “I've put him off, Admiral, but he's getting nasty. He keeps trying to sneak onto the floor.”
    “Trust me, the man has been sneaking around from his first day as assistant to the attorney general of Montana.” The admiral listened to the echo of angry questions. They were soon drowned out by another voice, one that Howe recognized well. So the president's aide had tracked McKade here, too.
    FUBAR was the expression that came to mind.
    There was going to be hell to pay. Unless someone pulled a truckload of strings, Sam McKade was going to become a political football.
    Not on
his
watch, the grizzled officer swore. After flying a desk on the Pentagon's E-wing for the last thirteen years, Admiral Howe knew whose strings to pull.
    The door opened. A Navy guard looked in, his face carefully expressionless. “Sorry to intrude, sir, but Senator Jeffries is making a fuss out here. Also, your son is downstairs in the lobby waiting to take you to your physical.”
    “To hell with