Read Red Alert for Free Online Page B

traffic on the Avenue de Bourdonnais. He was a 44-year-old Kenyan with sharp, angular features tempered by the neat moustache he had worn since his university days. After graduating with a BA (Hons) from Oxford he had returned to Kenya where he spent a short time with the army before joining the Intelligence Corps, remaining there for ten years and rising to the rank of Colonel. He had been one of Philpott's first recruits in 1980.
    There was a knock at the door.
    Til get it,' Carmen said.
    Jacques Rust smiled at her when she opened the door. He activated his mechanized wheelchair and entered the room. He handed her the bouquet of red roses he was carrying. 'Freshly picked from thejardin du Luxembourg,'
    40
    he said with a smile. 'Well, I hope not. I bought them from a vendor I've known for years.'
    She kissed him lightly on the cheek, the anger suddenly gone from her eyes. 'Thank you, Jacques, they're beautiful. I'll put them in some water.'
    'Where's C.W.?'
    'He's on the balcony,' she replied. 'I'll get him for you.'
    Rust put his attache case on the floor. He was a handsome 4 3-year-old Frenchman with pale blue eyes and short black hair. He had spent fourteen years with the French Service de Documentation Exterieure et de Contre-Espionage before joining UNACO in 1980. He and Whitlock had worked as a team until the Secretary General had given Philpott permission to increase the field operatives from twenty to thirty. Sabrina, because of her age and relative inexperience, had been put with them to form the original Strike Force Three.
    A year later he and Sabrina were on a stakeout at the Marseilles docks when they came under fire from the drug smugglers they had been watching. He was hit in the spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. He was given a senior position at the Command Centre after his release from hospital, and was promoted to head the European operation when his predecessor was killed in a car crash. He was widely tipped to become the next UNACO Director when Philpott retired in four years' time. That had already given rise to speculation that Kolchinsky would replace him in Zurich with Whitlock taking over as deputy director when he was retired from the field, also in four years' time.
    'Hello, C.W.,' Rust said when Whitlock entered the room.
    'Jacques,' Whitlock replied, his handshake formal rather than friendly.
    41
    'I'll leave you two to it,' Carmen said, emerging from the kitchen where she had put the roses in some water.
    'Where are you going?' Whitlock asked.
    'Does it matter?' she retorted.
    'Of course it matters,' Whitlock shot back. 'I don't want you walking the streets by yourself at this time of night.'
    'He's right, Carmen,' Rust said to her. 'This part of the city's crawling with pickpockets and bag-snatchers.'
    'Don't worry, I don't intend to walk the streets by myself.' She looked at Whitlock. 'You know where I'll be. If, of course, you remember our honeymoon.'
    'You know where she's going?' Rust asked once Carmen had left the room.
    Whitlock nodded. 'There's a small bistro not far from here on the rue de Crenelle. We ate there most nights when we were here on our honeymoon. It's ironic, isn't it? We started our marriage in this room, now it looks like we're going to end it here as well.'
    'Don't talk like that, C.W. - '
    'Like what?' Whitlock cut in sharply, his eyes blazing. 'You know damn well why our marriage is in such a mess. She wants me out of the firing line at UNACO, I want to stay because I know I have a future with the organization. We chose Paris as neutral ground. No fights. No UNACO. Three weeks to try and save our marriage. What happens? Three days after we get here you call to say that I'm on a Code Red standby. All leave's been cancelled. She's got every right to be mad, Jacques. Every right.'
    Rust nodded sombrely. 'I know what you're saying, C.W., but we have to use Strike Force Three. More to the point, we have to use you.'
    Whitlock sighed deeply and patted Rust on