Read The Rig 3: Eye of the Hurricane for Free Online Page B

but then stepped back. She came to stand right in front of the senator and bent down to run a slender finger along the senator's temple. “But maybe you could buy me dinner tonight?”
    The senator involuntarily licked his lips.
    “Of course. I'll let you know when and where?”
    “Of course.”
    Elly walked away and looked back at him from the door. She winked and blew a kiss. Then she walked out.
    Back at the car she shuddered and made as though she were brushing herself off.
    “Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!” she exclaimed to the cameraman who was waiting for her. “What a slimy, disgusting piece of shit. How I managed to ask him to take me to dinner, I will never know!”
    The cameraman grinned.
    “Went well then?”
    She sat down in the passenger’s seat and shuddered again.
    “Yeah. Seems Portis himself is involved in this, so are Stryker and the FBI. At least, that's what Jacobs flubbed just now.”
    “That's interesting... very, very interesting...”
     
     
    Chapter Nine
     
    Of course, the FEMA man filed a complaint with the commander of the United States Coast Guard station on San Clemente. Commander Lovell himself was the subject of one complaint, but it was Lieutenant James who bore the brunt of the man's anger. There was good reason for it; Lieutenant James had hit him hard in the face and broken his nose. Even so, apart from the punch, Lieutenant James had not done much to aggravate the man and it was really Commander Lovell that he was angry at. But Commander Dan Lovell had not technically done anything worthy of complaint. So the complaint lodged against him was for him being uncooperative.
    Commander Lovell was not surprised to hear Lieutenant James was suspended forthwith, pending an official investigation. Lovell was in a different boat. He was one of the few commanders there, so it was virtually impossible to relieve him of his duties. But losing Lieutenant James would be a pain if he had to head to sea again. And that was what he wanted to do. He wanted to head out to sea, to figure out whether there was any way to help those people who might still be alive aboard that rig.
    But that did not seem to be in the cards right now. It did not seem to be in the cards at all. There was a direct order at the station from the Secretary for Homeland Security, Charles Palermo. No cutters to head out, especially not to inspect or patrol ‘The City’. FBI helicopters would be sent out to keep any nosey buggers away. The Coast Guard was being completely cut out of the equation now.
    It was obvious that did not only sit badly with Commander Lovell; the station commander was clearly displeased with it, too. It was their work to patrol the water there, to help people there, and to make sure the laws were upheld. But FEMA and DHS had just taken away their purpose and their authority.
    The note, then, did not come as a surprise. The note in which Commander Lovell was ordered to sea again, this time without the FEMA man marshalling him. The station commander would take all the blame and Commander Dan Lovell would be free of prosecution when DHS found out about the deliberate circumvention of their orders.
    They could not sail until the storm had passed, but Commander Lovell was determined to be out again as soon as they could. He kept a close eye on the stormy clouds as he let his men take charge of the refueling of his cutter. She got a new load of diesel and her stores were replenished, allowing her to stay at sea for a longer period of time. Maybe he needed to stay out at sea for a month more, until the commotion had died down.
    He used the VHS phone to call his niece again. He told Elly about FEMA taking over and about the orders from the Secretary of Homeland Security. He somehow fell into a rant about the name, Homeland Security. The United States of America had never been called ‘the Homeland’ before 9/11, he said. He had disliked the name from the get-go. It sounded too pompous, too imperial.
    He caught himself then