Page 109 - Brokenclaw - John Gardner

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room which the CIA had set up on the carrier. He had been down there for long

periods in the interim, checking on the company called Silver Service. Now
both M and his chief of staff accompanied him, arriving to find Mac hunched
over the equipment, a series of maps spread out before him and headphones
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clamped
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shoulder and asked what was going on.
‘Tell you in a minute, John.’ Mac had pushed back the right side of the
earphones, now he settled the headset back in place. He was repeating
everything being relayed to him from New York.

‘He’s locked on to the Salinas VOR now, okay . . . ? Cleared by 117.3, okay
. . . ? Yes! Yes, I know that’s Salinas tower . . . Salinas tower, Gulfstream 44
landed. Okay, yes. Yes, get back if there’s anything else. I don’t suppose we
have anyone out there to cover it. You might call the tower direct and find out.
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Yes. Good, then do it.’ He pushed the headset back and swivelled his chair
round to face Grant, M and Tanner.
‘Well?’ Grant asked.
‘Clever. Very clever. His flight plan routed him to hit the coastline around

forty miles south of SFO. About an hour ago he complained of turbulence at
31,000 and asked permission to descend to 20,000. Seemed okay, nothing
unusual about that. Then, just before he reached the coast, he Maydayed. One
engine overheating and losing altitude. No way could he make SFO, or so he

said. SFO directed him to the only possible alternative. Salinas. They landed
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about three minutes ago. You heard me tell the boys in NY to contact Salinas
tower direct.’
Grant shook his head. ‘All we can do is get Rushia and a team into a vehicle

with tracking facilities and head out there to search for the homer signals.’
Tanner asked if they yet had information regarding the company with which
the jet was registered.
Grant nodded. ‘I was about to fill you in on that. Very solid little recording

company. Specialise in heavy metal nine-day-wonder bands. A bit of an iffy
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set-up, but they’re not breaking any laws. They’ll sign up some greasy long-
haired group who shove the decibel level to a point where it’ll terminate
pregnancy, then issue a couple of CDs which just make money for the company.

Then they throw away the group, or band, or whatever they want to call it.’
‘Exploitation?’ M was asking if their FBI friends might get Silver Service
on some exploitation law if necessary.

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