"Clancy, Tom - Op-Center 07 - Divide and Conquer - with Jeff Rovin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Clancy Tom)

10 987654321 Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Martin H. Greenberg,
Larry Segriff, Robert Youdelman, Esq., Tom Manon, Esq." and the
wonderful people at Penguin Putnam, including Phyllis Grann, David
Shanks, and Tom Colgan. As always, we would like to thank Robert
Gottlieb of The William Morris Agency, our agent and friend, without
whom this book would never have been conceived. But most important, it
is for you, our readers, to determine how successful our collective
endeavor has been.

--Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik

PROLOGUE

Washington, D.C.

Sunday, 1:55 p.m.

The two middle-aged men sat in leather armchairs in a corner of the
wood-paneled library. The room was in a quiet corner of a Massachusetts
Avenue mansion. The blinds were drawn to protect the centuries-old art
from the direct rays of the early-afternoon sun. The only light came
from a dull fire that was smoldering in the fireplace.

The fire gave the old, wood-paneled room a faintly smoky smell.

One of the men was tall, stout, and casually dressed with thinning gray
hair and a lean face. He was drinking black coffee from a blue Camp
David mug while he studied a single sheet of paper resting in a green
folder.

The other individual, seated across from him with his back to the
bookcase, was a short bulldog of a man with a three-piece gray suit and
buzz-cut red hair. He was holding an empty shot glass that, moments
before, had been brimming with scotch. His legs were crossed, his foot
was dancing nervously, and his cheek and chin bore the nicks of a quick,
unsatisfactory shave.

The taller man shut the folder and smiled.

"These are wonderful comments. Just perfect."

"Thank you," said the red-haired man.

"Jen's a very good writer." He shifted slowly, uncrossing his legs. He
leaned forward, causing the leather seat to groan.

"Along with this afternoon's briefing, this is really going to