Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

26 JEFF EDWARDS
The president beckoned them into the room and waved them toward the
rectangle of couches and chairs at the end of the room opposite his desk.
“Have a seat in the bullpen. Make yourselves comfortable, I’ll be with
you in a couple of seconds.”
He turned back to his chief of staff. “What else have we got tonight?”
The chief of staff flipped open the lid of her palm-top computer and
scanned the small LCD screen. “At nine-thirty, you’ve got a phone
conference with the assistant secretary of state for Eastern European
affairs. The Russians are asking for increased wheat subsidies. Assistant
Secretary Chernja thinks it’s a bad idea, but she wants your permission
before she shuts the door on this one. You also promised the vice
president you would sit down with him and look at his numbers on the
handgun bill.”
The president nodded. “Move the vice president up to nine-thirty and
bump Assistant Secretary Chernja to tomorrow morning. The Russian
thing isn’t going to self-destruct any time soon, and I’d much rather hit it
when my brain is fresh.”
Doyle nodded and made rapid notes on the input screen of her palmtop.
“Good idea, Mr. President. I’m starting to fade myself, sir.”
Her appearance belied her words. Her short black hair was flawlessly
styled, her turquoise silk business suit was immaculate, and if there was
any fatigue behind her flint-gray eyes it certainly wasn’t visible to mere
mortals.
The president stood up. “All right. Send for the ambassador. Let’s get
this over with.”
The bullpen consisted of two couches and four chairs, laid out in a
rough rectangle around a low-topped French Empire bureau that served as
a coffee table. The table was an authentic piece from the President
Monroe collection, burnished ebony with curving saber-style legs that
were chased with gold leaf. The source of a minor point of contention, the
date of the table’s manufacture could be set at either 1827 or 1830, and a
fairly good case could be made for either date. The chairs and couches—
which appeared to be matching French Empire pieces—were actually
excellent reproductions, crafted by the famed Kittinger Furniture, suppliers
of White House furnishings for nearly a hundred and fifty years.
The president had given the bullpen its name during his first week in
office. In baseball, the bullpen was a designated area of the ballpark
where the pitchers warmed up before they trudged out to the pitcher’s