Tom Clancy Op Center 10 Call to Treason

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.There s a proposalon the table.Either you accept it or reject it.There are no hard feelings either way. You mean, sir, I could go work for your think tank? You would be an asset. Think of this another way, Paul, the senator said. If this undertaking isa success, the new president might consider you for a different post.Anambassadorship, perhaps.That should not have been unexpected.Embassies were political coin, themedium for payback.They were the ultimate pedestal for a bureaucrat, and Hoodwas surely that.Still, when he heard the proposal the hypothetical phrasingwas simply the language of barter everything changed.Against Hood s will, hisindignation deflated.He no longer viewed cooperation as capitulation.It waspart of the job.It was business. Let me talk to Darrell when he gets back, Hood said.His voice was low andconciliatory. I ll see what he found out and where he thinks this cango.Then I ll call you, Senator. It sounds as if we have an understanding, Debenport said hopefully.Hood did not want to say yes. I understand, he replied. We can accept that for now, the president interjected. When do you expectto hear from him? I ll call him on the drive back.If he is finished with the interview, Iwill call the senator immediately. Sounds good, the president said.He offered his hand to Hood. Paul, I knowthis is not easy.But I believe we all want the same thing.A prosperous andPage 112ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlsecure United States of America. We do, Hood agreed.He wanted to add, With the Bill of Rights intact.Buthe did not.And he knew, then, that he had agreed to help them.Hood left the Oval Office in something of a daze.Debenport was right.Themen did have an understanding.Not that this plan was perfect or legal, onlythat it would go forward.Maybe it would move by inches at first, but it wouldproceed because there was no clearly defined ethic.In an ideal world, men would fight ideas with other ideas, Hood toldhimself.But this was far from a perfect world.Every weapon in thesociopolitical arsenal had to be used.Including rationalization ? Hood asked himself.Is that what this was?On one level, what the senator and the president had asked him to do waswrong.They wanted him to broaden a legitimate but still very younginvestigation.They wanted him to pepper it with innuendo, to create gossipand not justice.Yet on another level, while their reasons were political,their argument was not wrong.It did not matter whether Donald Orr s visionwas heartfelt or manipulative.It was impractical at best, dangerous at worst.Hood reached his car.It was hot from sitting in the sun.In a way that wasfitting.He had just made a pact with the devil.Hood had been seduced intellectually and professionally.Though he hatedhimself for succumbing, he had to be honest: he was not surprised.Hood hadfelt distant from Op-Center, from friends, from his family for so long that itwas nice to be plugged into something.And there was something else, something the one-time golden boy mayor of LosAngeles did not like to admit.Idealism was great in theory but unwieldy inpractice.In the end, Hood was like the world itself: a compromise; a surfaceof attractive, sun-hungry green and inviting blue concealing a hot, muddyinterior; an imperfect paradox.Hood turned on the car, cranked up the air-conditioning,and set the secure cell phone in its dashboard holder.He slipped on theheadset and auto dialed Darrell McCaskey s number.As he pulled from theparking area, Hood did one thing more.He prayed that McCaskey found just one reason to continue the investigation.TWENTY-FIVEWashington, D.C.Tuesday, 10:44 a.m. How did it go, Darrell?After punching in the number, Hood grabbed a can of Coke from a cooler underthe glove compartment.He always kept one there for emergencies, beside an icepack he replaced each morning.The caffeine helped him focus.Once in a whilehe also reached for the ice pack.That was for meetings that ran too long, gottoo loud, and went nowhere.Presidential meetings were invariably very direct. The interview went all right, McCaskey said. Mike was there, which wasPage 113ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlrough.He is not happy. No one is, Hood said.He could not concern himself with Mike Rodgers rightnow. What about Link? I have to say, Paul, the admiral was pretty forthcoming.The nutshell: Linkdid not like William Wilson and does not care that he s gone. Not a surprise but also not damning, Hood said.He took a long swallow ofCoke.Motives could be elusive and misleading.He wanted to stick to themechanics of the assassination itself. Is there any evidence that Link hasthe assets to carry off these kinds of missions? Evidence? No.Potential? Yes.Link has two former Company people onstaff.One is a guy named Eric Stone, who is running the convention.He wasLink s assistant and supposedly is a very efficient organizer.The otherindividual with intelligence credentials is the senator s executive assistant,Kendra Peterson.It turns out Kendra had medical training in the Marines. That s not in her file, is it? Hood said.His head was still in the OvalOffice, on the decision he had to make.Dossier data was swimming, anchor lessin his memory.He took another hit of Coke. No, it isn t, McCaskey said. Kendra spent several months working in healthcare but left because of tendonitis in her hands.Presumably, the afflictionwas temporary.If a disability had been noted in Kendra s record, it mighthave impacted her career in the military and afterward.The staff sergeantprobably let her transfer without remarking on what was a very brief tenure. Or her medical experiences may have been deleted more recently by a reallyefficient organizer who had access to them, Hood pointed out. It s possible.The point is, one of the first skills Kendra would havelearned over there was how to give an injection, McCaskey said. I ll have Matt Stoll run a comparison on images captured by the securitycamera and at this morning s press conference, Hood said. That may tell usif Ms.Peterson goes on the suspect list.What was your impression of Linkhimself? He s very confident and a bit of a bully, McCaskey said. He also made itclear that he feels extremely inconvenienced by our investigation.It sdifficult to tell whether he s guilty or whether he just resents the hell outof our probe. Or he may just have it in for Op-Center, Hood said.The NSA and the NCMChad experienced a few run-ins over the years, including the exposure of formeroperative Ron Friday as a double agent. If you had to guess, which is it? That s tough to say, Paul.Link definitely views the investigation aspolitically motivated, McCaskey said. He thinks Op-Center is using it to tryto roll back the budget cuts.Truth is, I think we re going to hear a lot ofthat as long as we re involved in the Wilson killing. When have we ever worried about what people think? Hood asked.It wasironic, though, Hood thought.Link could end up being right for the wrongreasons. I m going to get Matt Stoll working on that image comparison.Whatare the codes for the hotel image files? WW-1 and RL-1, McCaskey replied. I m going to call Bob Herbert and pickPage 114ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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