Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM
WASHINGTON, DC
SUNDAY; 13 MAY
9:16 PM EDT
CHAPTER 14
President Chandler laid both palms flat on the polished mahogany
tabletop and let his eyes travel down one side of the long conference table
and back up the other. The seven men and five women gathered around
the table ranged in age from thirty-four to sixty-eight. Some were in
military uniform, and some were not. A few wore suits, but most were
dressed casually, in whatever they’d been wearing when the call had gone
out for an emergency meeting. The single visible characteristic common
to all of them was the grim expression they shared.
Seated directly across the table, Vice President Dalton Wainright
nodded once when the president’s eye caught his.
Veronica Doyle sat to the president’s immediate left, in the spot
traditionally reserved for the White House chief of staff. She leaned over
next to him and whispered. “SecState is still shuttling back and forth
between Beijing and Taipei, trying to nip the China situation in the bud.
She’s got Undersecretary Mitchell covering for her.”
The president nodded and said quietly, “I don’t see SecNav either.”
“Secretary Larribee called from his car,” Doyle said. “He’s stuck in
traffic on the beltway. I’ve got police escorts in route, trying to make a big
enough hole to get him out of there, but it’ll probably be at least an hour.”
She nodded toward the Chief of Naval Operations. “In the meantime, the
CNO is ready to cover the Navy angle.”
“Good enough,” the president said. He looked at the CNO and said in a
louder voice, “Bob, I understand that your boss probably isn’t going to
make it. Are you ready to proceed?”
Admiral Robert Casey stood up and nodded toward his commander in
chief. “Yes, Mr. President.” He picked up a small remote control and ran
his thumb across a dial. The room lights dimmed and, at the far end of the
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