Page 185 - TruthAboutLyingFinal

Nicholas Boothman
I’ve white-listed the Situation Room through a legacy node. Mercy buffer for the global stage. Door’s open. They have to walk through it.
President Matthews sat at the head of the long table. On the screens: maps. Red dots moving across the Pacific. Her throat tightened. The override was already there.
General Graves slammed his fist on the table.
“They’ve crossed the exclusion zone. We have to go to DEFCON 1. Tell Premier Volkov we will turn his country into glass.”
The President looked at the screen. Premier Volkov appeared. He looked tired.
“Madam President,” Volkov said. “My submarines are in position. I am preparing to seize the island.”
Bailey Matthews looked into the camera. She needed to bluff. She needed to say, Go ahead, make my day.
Her throat locked. The biological override kicked in.
“I see them,” she said.
“If you intervene,” Volkov said, reciting his script, “I will authorize a nuclear strike.”
“I don’t believe you,” the President blurted out. “You have a dacha in Sochi. A mistress. A yacht.
“You don’t want to die. You aren’t a martyr. You’re a politician.”
Volkov tried to deny it. He gagged.
“I do enjoy the yacht.”
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