Made sacrifices, Ann thought. That's what presidents say when they aren't sure how many people have died and how many were wounded. But she refused to let President Lawrence spoil this moment for her, and hoped Paul would keep plugging for the people who helped. Everything he did seemed to elevate him in her eyes.

"Dear Sharon" she began composing the letter in her head, "I hope you'll forgive me, but I've kidnapped your husband. I'll return him when I'm carrying his child, because I very desperately want a piece of this man to have for my own, forever "

"But," the President was saying, "I didn't come here just to commend and thank you all. When I founded Op-Center six months ago, it was on a trial basis-- what I and a few others like Secretary Colon and Steve Burkow felt might be a useful adjunct, a crisis management team interfacing with our existing intelligence and military operations. None of us had any idea if it would work out." The President smiled broadly. "Certainly, none of us had any idea how well it would work out."

Lowell Coffey applauded softly.

The President continued, "As far as I and my advisors are concerned, Op-Center has earned its wings. You are no longer a provisional operation, and I'd like to formally and finally christen you tomorrow at a private lunch at the White House. After that, Paul, we can discuss what else you think you need to make your operation more effective. Not that Congress will give it to us, but we'll give it a damn good effort."

"Mr. President," Hood said, rising, "we all appreciate the vote of confidence. As long as the past six months have seemed at times, today seemed a whole lot longer and we're happy it all worked out. But as for tomorrow, I'm afraid I can't make the lunch."

For the first time since she'd known the President, Ann Farris saw him recoil in surprise.

"Really?" the President remarked. He scratched his forehead "If it's play-off tickets, I'd like to come."

"It isn't, sir," Hood said. "I'm going to be taking tomorrow off so I can teach my son to play chess and read a few violent comic books with him."

The President nodded and smiled sincerely.

Ann Farris applauded softly.

THE END

Next:

Op-Center Book Two

Mirror Image (c)1995

this eBook's version history:

Original scan by Kislany. v4.0 (fully-proofed and formatted) by nihua, 2002-06-11. v4.0 correction details:

1. fully proofed with a Dead-Tree.

2. corrected word and spelling errors of previous version.

3. added formatting like italics, bold, double-qoutes, etc.

4. changed the 'look' into the standard nihua eBook style.

5. changed e to é as in risqué, résumé, etc.

6. separated incorrectly grouped paragraphs.

7. combined incorrectly separated paragraphs.

8. added missing chapter nine heading.

Original version: Scanned by: Kislany. v4.0 (fully proofed and formatted) by nihua, 2002-06-11.

(fully proofed version's correction details at end of this eBook.)

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10/22/2010