Call to Treason - Tom Clancy [152]
Hood had expected there to be tension between himself and Rodgers, between himself and Herbert. Instead, there was a sense of triumph.
Darrell McCaskey had started an operation that they had seen to the finish line, all of them carrying the load part of the way. Hood was glad that it was Mike who had gotten to carry it home. He deserved to go out with a victory. If Bob Herbert held any bitterness about the downsizing of Op-Center, he had put it aside for now. Or maybe it was forgotten. The Mississippi native was like magnesium: a quick, bright burn, and then it was over. Just a few months before, Herbert had been angry at Rodgers for taking on an intelligence unit after the disbanding of Striker.
Or maybe he is just exhausted from pushing his wheelchair around, Hood thought. Herbert had ordered a spare motor, phone, and computer from the base quartermaster, but they would not be delivered until the next day.
"Detective Superintendent George Daily is a very happy man," McCaskey said as they settled in around the conference table. He looked at Rodgers. "Mike is a hero in the London press."
"Maybe Scotland Yard will give me a job," Rodgers replied.
"Whatever you do, go someplace where there is a window that opens,"
Herbert said. He was fanning himself with an intelligence briefing from Andrews. Until his own division was functioning again, Herbert had to rely on data from other OSARs, offices of surveillance and reconnaissance. "The flyboy engineers said it could be a day or two before they get the motor working again."
"Don't believe them," Rodgers said. "Military engineers always say things will take longer than they should. That way, when everything is up and running, we think they're miracle workers."
"I thought I was cynical," Herbert said. "Someone's been in the military way too long."
"You know, you could always run for president," McCaskey said. "I hear the USF has an opening."
"That is not for me," Rodgers said.
"The job or the philosophy?" Hood asked.
"The mantle of Donald Orr," Rodgers said. "I don't think the USF will survive. If it does, it will be a fringe organization. If what Kenneth Link said about Orr proves correct, he will become a poster boy of the lunatic far right."
"It's very true," Herbert assured him. "Whatever job you take next, Mike, let me handle the due diligence. I looked at the minutes of some of those closed sessions Link told you about, the ones Orr attended. USF should have stood for Under a Serious Fascist."
"Gentlemen, Link is a name I do not particularly want to hear right now," Hood interjected. "Not after what he did here."
"In the name of patriotism, no less," McCaskey said.
"The sick thing is, who can deny that Senator Orr was a threat?"
Rodgers said.
"Me," Herbert said, raising his hand. "Who can deny that William Wilson was a threat to the American economy?"
"No one, but that doesn't justify murder," McCaskey said.
"Why not? We've fought wars over economic issues," Herbert said. "Lots of people died in those, all of it wrapped in flags and served with apple pie."
"So we should just kill people who threaten our wallets?" McCaskey asked.
"That is way too big a thought for me," Herbert said. "I'm in intelligence, not wisdom."
Rodgers smiled.
"Look, I'm not defending Orr," Herbert went on. "If nothing else, he was a coward for sending a gullible kid like Lucy O'Connor to do his crap work and lying to her about what would happen. He was a scumbag for blackmailing Detective Howell. All I'm saying is that this happens routinely as a matter of national policy. In that respect, Orr's mistake was that he was the only member of Congress