Three Jack McClure Missions Box Set Read Free Page B

afterward?” the president said softly. “What happens in twenty-one days, when I hand the reins of power over to Godless Edward Carson?”
    “Begging your pardon, sir. Intelligence reports tell me that Edward Carson and his wife attend church every Sunday.”
    “A joke, surely.” The president pursed his lips as he did when events ran away from him. “This is a man who has pledged to fund stem-cell research, stem cells from fetuses.” He shuddered. “Well, what do you expect? He believes in abortion, in the murder of helpless innocents. Who’s going to protect them if not us? And it gets worse. He doesn’t understand, God help us all, the fundamental danger same-sex marriage poses to the moral fiber of the country. It undermines the very principles of family we as Americans hold dear.” The president shook his noble head and quoted Yeats, “‘What rough beast … slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?’”
    “Sir—”
    “No, no, Dennis, he might as well be one of those First AmericanSecular Revivalists or E-Twos.” The president gestured. “Those missionary secularists, who have what they call—can you believe this?—a zealous disbelief in God. Where in hell did they come from?”
    Paull tried not to wince. No one else in the Administration was brave enough to tell the president, so as usual it fell to him to deliver the bad news reality was sending the president’s way. Therefore, the guillotine was always hovering six inches above his neck. “I’m afraid we don’t know, sir.”
    The president stopped in his tracks, turned to Paull. “Well, find out, damnit. That’s your new assignment, Dennis. We need to wipe out this cancer of homegrown traitors PDQ because they’re not simply atheists. Atheists, thank the good Lord, have a long history of keeping their traps firmly shut. They know their place, which is outside the clear-cut boundaries of God-fearing society. Are we not a Christian nation?” The president’s eyes narrowed. “No, these sonsabitches can’t stop yowling about the evils of religion, about how they’re engaged in the final battle against theological hocus-pocus. Good Lord, if that isn’t a sign that the devil walks among us, I just don’t know what is!”
    “Time is running out, sir.” As he often did, laboring against the monolithic born-again tide of the Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor, Paull was trying to get the president to focus on reality-based decisions. “So far, E-Two has remained completely invisible, and as for the visible First American Secular Revivalists and other like-minded organizations who aren’t radical—”
    “Not radical?” The president was irate. “All those hell-bent bastards are radical. Goddamnit, Dennis, I won’t countenance a bunch of homegrown terrorists. Find a way to wipe ’em out, find it pronto.”
    The president, hands deep in the pockets of his overcoat, stared up at the ceiling. Paull knew that look only too well. He’d seen it an increasing number of times over the past year as, one by one, members ofthe president’s inner council had left the Administration, as the enemy took over Congress, as opposition mounted to the president’s aggressive foreign policy. No matter. The president stood fast. There were times when Paull forgot how long ago the president had sunk into a bunker mentality, circling what wagons were left, refusing to listen to any form of change. And why should he? He was convinced that the success of his legacy depended on his unwavering belief that he was carrying out the will of God. “I’m like a rock, pounded by the sea,” he’d often say. “Yet steadfast, immovable.” In these latter days, he’d taken to calling himself the Lonely Guardian.
    “To think that it’s almost Christmas.” The president made a noise in the back of his throat. “Time, Dennis. Time betrays us all, remember that.”
    The president gripped the back of the sofa as if it were the neck of his worst