Three Jack McClure Missions Box Set by Eric Van Lustbader Read Free Book Online Page B

of his disability. He shuffled the papers as if scanning them for the second time.
    “The reports contain no pertinent information, let alone leads or conclusions as to which direction the investigation should go,” he said. “What about the private-security people, any last-minute changes in the night watchmen, and have you reviewed the CCTV tapes for last night?”
    “We’ve interviewed the security personnel.” Nina took the file from him. “No one called in sick, there were no sudden personnel substitutions. Neither the men on duty nor the tapes showed anything out of the ordinary.”
    Had Nina read off sections of the report to help him? Had she somehow found out about his secret? Bennett wouldn’t have given him up, no matter the pressure, so how?
    Garner said, “Edward Carson prevailed on the president to haveyou reassigned to us. I’m not one to beat around the bush, McClure. I think his interference is a mistake.”
    “A moron could understand president-elect Carson’s line of reasoning,” Jack said with a deliberate lack of edge to his voice. “I’m intimately familiar with the college grounds and the surrounding area. And because my daughter was Alli Carson’s roommate, I’m familiar with her in ways you or your people can’t be.”
    “Oh, yes,” Garner sneered. “I have no doubt Carson considers those assets, but I have another take. I think this intimacy is a personalization, and will play as a detriment. It will distort your thinking, blur your objectivity. You see where I’m going?”
    Jack glanced briefly at Nina, but her face was as closed as a fist.
    “Everyone’s entitled to his opinion,” Jack said carefully.
    The narrow smile appeared like a wound. “As the head of this task force, my opinion is the one that counts.”
    “So, what?” Jack spread his hands. “Have you brought me here to fire me?”
    “Have you ever heard of ‘missionary secularism’?” Garner continued as if Jack hadn’t spoken.
    “No. I haven’t.”
    “I rest my case.” Garner flipped the file onto the carpet. “That’s about all those reports are good for—floor covering. Because they’re built on old-school assumptions, we have to give those assumptions the boot or we’ll never get anywhere on this case.” He perched on the edge of the sofa again, linked his fingers, pressed the pads of his thumbs together as if they were sparring partners about to go at it. “It can be no surprise even to you that for the past eight years the Administration has been guiding the country along a new path of faith-based initiatives. Religion—the belief in God, in America’s God-given place in the world—is what makes this country strong, what can unite it. Move it into a new golden age of global influence and power. But then there are the naysayers: the far-left liberals, the gays, thefringe elements of society, the disenfranchised, the deviants, the weak-willed, the criminal.”
    “The criminal—?”
    “The abortionists, McClure. The baby killers, the family destroyers, the sodomites.”
    Again, Jack glanced at Nina, who was flicking what appeared to be a nonexistent piece of lint off her skirt. Jack said nothing because this argument—if you could call it that—was nonrational, and therefore not open to debate.
    “There’s a Frog by the name of Michel Infra. This bastard is the self-proclaimed leader of a movement of militant atheists. He’s on record as claiming that atheism is in a final battle with what he terms ‘theological hocus-pocus.’ He’s far from the only one. In Germany, a so-called think tank of Enlightenment, made up of Godless scientists and the like—the same dangerous alarmists proclaiming that global warming is the end of the world—are promulgating the devilish notion that the world would be better off without religion. The president is beside himself. And then there’s the British, who haven’t had a God-driven thought in their heads in centuries. The God Delusion is a