"Are you all right?" she asked.
As Cade said, "Yup," some of the awe-struck people turned to stare at her.
Two men hurried over to her, raving about how she'd handled the two gunmen so
quickly and helping her out of her Kevlar vest.
Another guy pulled open the closures on Cade's jacket and took it, then Cade
left Mandi to her adulation and went to climb back into his shoulder rig and
field jacket, tossing his phony 'press' badge on the bed.
John came in and momentarily joined the group by the console, then went to
stand by Cade and asked, "She's really something, isn't she?"
"Oh, hell, yes, John. Every bit of something. How's your picture-collecting
coming along?"
"I can only tell you what I told her. Our people are working on it. So far
we've recovered five sets at WNN alone."
"It doesn't look good for total containment, huh?"
Shaking his head, John said, "Honestly? No, it doesn't. And if they get to
the internet, we can forget about it."
"No shit. John, do you remember the Marilyn Monroe and Elvis look-alike
contests back in the sixties?"
He shrugged. "Yeah. Vaguely, I guess."
"They happened all over the country. If Mandi's pictures get out, maybe the
thing to do is hold contests in L.A., Vegas, and all the major cities as quickly
as possible. Send up some chaff. Make Mandi Steele-wannabes all over the place
and give her a nationwide crowd to get lost in; otherwise she'll have to hide
between missions in order to have any privacy at all. Now tell me something,
John."
"What's that?"
"Tell me why didn't you just let her buzz into the room and grab all the
guns. I've seen the tape. With a running start from the hallway she could have
zapped them all in half a second or less and been out of there."
With a straight face, John said, "It was felt that we needed a distraction
to minimize risk."
"And I need taller boots. Just tell me you aren't going to tell me, John.
Don't bullshit me."
Nodding, John said, "Okay. I can't tell you."
"That means someone else is in command of this op. Someone I don't know. I
really don't like that, John."
Sighing slightly, John said, "Well, I don't either, but you know it isn't
the first time and it won't be the last."
"Can you tell me who's running the show?"
"Not at this time."
"That sucks, John."
Nodding again, John said, "That's how I see it, too, but that's how it is."
Someo