Consent To Kill

"What should I do with him?" asked Muhammad.

"I think you should let me deal with him."

Muhammad nodded. This was the answer he had expected. "Keep a discreet eye on him. When the time is right you will know."

20

Rapp pulled into the underground parking garage beneath the Old Headquarters building at Langley, and parked next to Ke

The private elevator that went directly from the garage to the director's office suite helped significantly. Rapp got in and slid his ID into the card reader. No buttons needed to be pressed. The elevator either went all the way up to the seventh floor or all the way back down to the garage. The elevator started to move, and Rapp looked up at the tiny camera mounted in the corner. He held his right hand up in front of his face and flipped the bird. Just before the elevator stopped, Rapp stepped to one side and grabbed the butt of his shoulder-holstered pistol. The doors slid open and Rapp was confronted with a mirror image of what he might look like in another fifteen years. The man was even standing like him with one hand resting on his own holstered pistol. His name was Vince Delgado. He was the head of Ke

"Good morning, Vanessa," Rapp said crisply.

"Good morning, Michelle."

"Is she in her office?"

"No, she's up on the roof having tea and crumpets, ya dumb ass."

"Cranky this morning, you old codger? Still not getting any?"

The fifty-two-year-old Italian American from Philadelphia laughed loudly. "Now that's not true, Mitch." He stepped closer to Rapp, and after looking over both shoulders said, "You should have seen me last night. There's this new gal I met at the club. I was like a rock star. I'm amazed I can walk this morning, because I'll tell you right now she's in traction." He looked once again toward Ke

Rapp's arm shot out like a traffic cop. "Stop." He closed his eyes and shook his head in an attempt to erase the picture big hairy Vince Delgado was attempting to scar him with.

Rapp walked toward Ke

"Hey, are we still shooting this afternoon?" Delgado was a former Recon Marine and phenomenal shot, which was in part how he and Rapp had got to know each other so well.

"Yep," answered Rapp. "I'll see you there at two."

Rapp entered Ke

"Good morning," Ke

"How's Tommy?" Rapp was referring to Ke

"He's busy, but he misses you, of course. He just asked about you last night."

"Does he have a game Saturday?" Tommy was playing his first year of tackle.

"Yes. Eleven a.m."

"I'll be there."

"Good." Ke

"Oh…he's getting to that age now." Rapp raised an eyebrow.

"I don't think he's been the same since he saw her in a swimsuit last summer."

"I don't think I've been the same either."

Ke

With a straight face he asked, "Did you ever think maybe it's your management style?"

"You're a very fu

Rapp shrugged. "All kids go through phases."

"Apparently. What's your excuse?" Ke

"Now you're the comedian," Rapp said.

Ke

Rapp plopped down in one of the side chairs. "I need you to talk me off the ledge."

"Oh no… what now?"

"Ross."

Ke

"Well, you're wrong."

"What did he do?"

"For starters he had one of his people call over to the Pentagon and request Scott Coleman's perso

"And?"

"The Pentagon sent over the sanitized version, and Ross didn't buy it. He or one of his deputies called back and tried to browbeat some captain into handing over the full file, especially anything involving any work he may have done for the CIA. The captain directed them to the Joint Special Operations Command, who in turn kicked it all the way up to General Flood."

"Did Flood give them what they wanted?"

"Are you kidding me? The only people who are more pissed than us about National Intelligence is the Pentagon. Flood told them, in a not so polite way, that unless he got a phone call from the president telling him to release the file they could go to you know where."

Ke

"Not that I know of, and I doubt they'll bother."

"Why would Ross be so interested in Coleman?" Ke

"No. He's clean."

"The timing of this is not good."

"I agree, and there's one more problem. The IRS showed up on Coleman's doorstep yesterday. They want to see all of his books."

Ke

"He's either picked up some intel that we're reconstituting the Orion Team or he's on a fishing expedition."

Ke