Chapter 29, Fill-Ups Summary

Ever since the President warned him to check that his closing down of the covert operations is going all right, Admiral Cutter has been suspicious that something is wrong. He gets a curiously detached response from DDO Ritter and decides to fly, first to Florida and then to Howard AFB in Panama, where he eventually discovers that the CO is off base with his wing.

In Colombia, the Pave-Low helicopter is making the last pick up when it comes under heavy fire from a large number of ground forces. Colonel Johns executes a "hot" pick up, and Jack Ryan, filling in on the port mini gun, does sterling work suppressing the rifle fire which is raking the helicopter. With power failing on one of its engines, the Pave-Low is guided to a Shell refueling station by Larson in his Beech. The...