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“Shoot.”
“I have to talk to him personally.”
“Might as well talk to me,” said Mack. “Shit rolls downhill.”
“You sound tired, Mack.”
“Didn’t get much sleep last night, Colonel. Or the night before. Or any night. So what can I do for you?”
“You can get the general on the line.”
“Yes, sir.”
“SO WHAT THE HELL IS SO DAMN IMPORTANT THAT YOU GET
me out of a meeting with my science department?” said Samson, his snarling voice snapping onto the line. There was no visual; he was using the encrypted phone in his office.
“The CIA has developed an asset who knows where the guerrillas are hiding in Moldova,” said Dog calmly. “As part of the deal to get the information, they want us to fly the source out of the country.”
“What?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And they came to you directly?”
“It happens that I’ve worked with the CIA officer before,”
said Dog.
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“You have?” Samson asked, this time without the sharp note of surprise. “Yes, of course you have. But can we trust him? Does he really have the information?”
“I met the asset. I think we can.”
“You met the asset? Who authorized you to do that?”
“I didn’t realize that was going to happen,” said Dog. “In any event, General, I wouldn’t have come to you with this unless I was thoroughly convinced it was both real and a benefit to our mission here. I wouldn’t waste your time, General.
I know you have better things to do than hold my hand.”
“Hmmmph.”
Dog outlined the plan that he and Da
“How do you want me to proceed?” he asked when he’d concluded.
“Do nothing until you hear from me.”
“Not a problem. Also, the Romanians are asking for more support. The defense minister said he would go through the embassy, but I thought I’d give you a—”
Dog stopped speaking, realizing Samson had already hung up.
White House Cabinet Room
1206
ROBERT PLANK WAS A RICH MAN, BUT HE HAD A CERTAIN
air of nervous danger about him.
Maybe, thought Jed Barclay as he watched him speak in the Oval Office, the millions he’d made had been seeded by some criminal activity that he would do anything to keep from being exposed.
Plank’s sharply tailored suits showed off his wide shoulders and thick chest, and he looked to be strong enough to take on REVOLUTION
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any two or three men who confronted him. His speech occasionally betrayed the urban landscape he’d grown up in; as a very young boy, he had lived only a few blocks from the White House, in one of the poorest and at the time most dangerous sections of Washington, D.C.
For most government officials—especially those whose appointment had been so blatantly political—Plank’s occasional and unconscious sprinkle of four-letter words along with his habit of speaking bluntly would be serious defects.
But in his case, they were assets, enhancing his reputation as a no-nonsense, seat-of-the-pants CIA director.
Plank was also a skilled politico, even if he’d never spent a day as an elected official. As he continued to brief the President on the CIA’s successful recruitment of a guerrilla turncoat, Jed was impressed by the director’s ability to subtly insert himself into the story. Jed knew the details as well as Plank—he’d gotten them from Stoner himself. So he knew that the guerrilla had initially offered contact, not the other way around, and that Stoner’s primary interest lay in getting more information on the deaths of his comrades. But Plank packaged up everything as if finding the guerrilla base was his idea in the first place. He all but said that he knew the guerrilla movement was ready to crack, and had therefore handpicked one of his best international agents, plunking him down at just the right time, in just the right circumstance, to achieve a breakthrough.
It was difficult to judge how much of the act the President actually bought. Certainly Martindale, who had appointed Plank, knew that he’d gotten the job not because he was an excellent spymaster—Plank had worked on the analysis side of the Agency before going into private business. And given that he’d known Plank for many years, Jed assumed that he appreciated the CIA director’s ability to put himself in the spotlight as well as anyone.
The only hint that Martindale might not be paying com-
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plete attention was the pen he twirled in his fingers—a sign, Jed knew from two years of observation, that he was getting bored and wanted the speaker to get on with it.
“The Russian co
“That’s a wonderful theory,” said Freeman, the National Security Advisor and Jed’s boss. “But the only thing that’s going to stop their fighting is a reduction in the price of natural gas. The futures have gone up another twelve percent in the commodities markets over the past day even though the last guerrilla attack wasn’t aimed at the pipeline.”
“Once we expose the Russians’ involvement, the attacks will stop,” said Plank.
“Once the Romanians expose it,” said Secretary of State Jeffrey Hartman. “If we do it, no one will believe it.”
“One thing I’m concerned about are these Russian aircraft,” said the President. He leaned forward on his desktop to look at Jed, who was sitting at the end of the row in front of him. “Recap that for us, Jed.”
“Very briefly, Russian planes have shadowed the Dreamland Megafortresses on every flight,” said Jed. “They’ve stayed roughly 250 miles away, as if they don’t want to be detected. That’s the published range of the radar, although depending on the circumstances, it can see a bit farther.”
“We’d do the same if they were operating in our area,”
suggested Hartman.
“I think what they’d like us to do is go over the border,”
said Secretary of Defense Chastain. “The Russians have a defense treaty with Moldova. They could contend they were coming to their aid.”
“I don’t see what that gets them,” said Hartman.
“Another twenty point bump in the price of natural gas,”
said Martindale.
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“I agree,” said Plank. “That’s why we have to move on this.
The agent would accompany the Romanians on the raid. This way he would gain information relating to the deaths of our people in Romania.”
“Assuming the information is to be had,” noted the President.
Plank gave Martindale a little smile, acknowledging that he’d been caught exaggerating, or at least polishing the apple.
“The price of natural gas in Europe is now double what it was last winter,” said Freeman. “If the attacks on the pipeline continue and the supply is cut down completely, it will triple.
And there’ll probably be shortages.”
“Urging the Romanians to go into Moldova is going to send alarms throughout Europe,” said Hartman. “We ca
“If we simply give the information, but keep our aircraft on the Romanian side of the border, what’s the problem?”
asked Chastain. “You see what beasts these guerrillas are.
Killing children.”
“That incident gives the Romanians some cover,” said Freeman. “But I wouldn’t send our people over. Not even the spy.”
“If he doesn’t go, he can’t get the information,” said Plank.
“All right,” said Martindale. “Give the information to the Romanians. Our people stay out of Moldovan territory. They don’t engage in the fight. That is an absolute order. No one crosses the border, or fires over the border.”