Cloud Invasion: R-D 2 (R-D #2)(22)

"Because former President Phillips doesn't know very much," he frowned. "We think Merle may have been secretly in charge of the Program, and signing off on everything without President Phillips' knowledge."

"Get in here," Auggie appeared in his office doorway. "There's only one way I know to get to the truth of this."

Corinne, James and I walked into Colonel Hunter's office. James shut the door behind us, then took a seat next to Corinne. That left him between us. I didn't care-I think he felt safer that way.

Colonel Hunter pointed a remote at the screen hanging on the wall. Images of the current President were shown while she spoke with Former President Phillips on a screen inside the Oval Office.

"Hello, Madam President," President Phillips' image said.

"Holy, f*cking hell," Corinne exclaimed.

"What?" Colonel Hunter demanded, hitting pause on the player.

"That's not President Phillips," Corinne stood and hugged herself. "That's the real Hal Prentice."

*

Corinne

"I'm on the most secure line available," Madam President assured us. "What do you have? Was he not telling the truth?"

Warily I watched Madam President as she did the same-she had no idea what was going on. I was almost as confused. "Madam President, the person you spoke with earlier isn't former President Phillips."

"You're joking."

"No, ma'am, I'm not," I assured her. "That's Hal Prentice. He's been posing as President Phillips since before Phillips officially left office. One of Hal's clones, made before the extensive surgery Hal had to look like President Phillips, was acting as the Hal Prentice you hired as your Chief of Staff."

"Where the hell is the real President Phillips?" the President snapped.

"No idea," I said, "but now I think we can put a name to the enemy."

*

"Madam President didn't tell Phillips-or the one posing as Phillips-what she was really calling about," Auggie informed us later, after we'd ended our call with the White House. "She told him it was about foreign policy instead, in case anyone was listening. She caught him off guard when she casually asked him about the Program."

"Should we bring the real Hal Prentice in?" Rafe asked. I watched his hands-they were fists and his knuckles were white. He was furious.

So was I.

"That will only tip our hand," Auggie said. "I think we should let him believe we still don't know. Instead, I suggest we have him followed and monitor any communications. That call was placed from Northern Ireland-Madam President had it tracked. Now, I don't need to tell you who else we've seen in Ireland, recently. Granted it was Ireland and not Northern Ireland, but it wouldn't be difficult to travel from one to the other."

"Mary Evans," Rafe growled.

"Do you think Hal Prentice has control of the Mary Evans clones?" James asked.

"It's possible," Auggie agreed. "At this point, I'm not prepared to rule anything out."

"Hal has enough political experience to accurately predict every move made by the White House," I said. "His clone was likely feeding information to him all along, with important information being passed along to whatever President Phillips is now."

"What do you mean?" Auggie whirled in my direction. "Fucking hell," he said when he understood what I meant. "He saw the Program as a way to live forever, didn't he?"

"Maybe," I shrugged. "I imagine he saw the possibility of becoming more than what he already was, too. All the survivors of the drug are special in some way."

"So he wanted to be a superhero," Auggie huffed. "Instead, he's public enemy number one."

"When he was in office, his detractors would have said the same thing while he was still himself," I pointed out. "What I can't get a handle on is what's keeping him hidden from all of us. I can't figure this out."

"If he has allies in the armed forces, or is still in bed with the Joint Chiefs or Merle Askins, then it could have been easy to get those survivors away from Nevada," Auggie muttered.

"Under the cloak of official government business," James agreed. "Nobody would have asked questions. I'll look into military transports, ground and air, in Nevada," he added.

"This gets worse as it goes along," I said. Rafe unclenched a fist and reached out to hold my hand. I understood what he was thinking-he'd refused to approach the former President while he was in office-instead, he'd held on, hoping his disease wouldn't take him until Phillips' successor came to the White House.

He hated President Phillips. If we learned that Phillips was acting as puppeteer in all things governmental in the U.S., Rafe would be furious. Truthfully, I'd be just as furious. Phillips' every move while President had been made with a cavalier attitude, regardless of who or what was damaged or destroyed in the process.

"Do we have any word out of Russia?" I asked. "Have they announced Baikov's disappearance?"

"I believe they'll sit on that, since they're expecting a newsbreak any day from Ukraine, announcing that they captured or killed Baikov while he was attempting to start a war. For now, I don't believe they know what actually happened in that bunker."