Call to Treason - Tom Clancy [55]
Since the children had already left for school, the call ended with a pair of unsentimental good-byes. Hood sat there for a moment, looking at the phone. He wanted to slam his fist on it but did not. The phone was not his enemy. He was. Mr. Cooperative, the mediator, the nice guy.
The idiot.
As with Senator Debenport the day before, an early-morning phone conversation ended with Hood feeling as if he had been someone's stooge. He hoped this did not become a pattern. It might make him insecure, and crises did not yield to men of caution. At the same time, Hood could not afford to become overly bold and push Op-Center deeper into areas where it had no legitimate business.
Both extremes were tested when Darrell McCaskey arrived. McCaskey came to see Hood with something that had been on his mind all morning: the name of the only individual who fit Maria's quick-sketch profile.
"Admiral Kenneth Link," McCaskey said. "He's a former head of covert ops with the CIA, he's got an anti-European agenda, and he knew where William Wilson was staying."
"Okay, so Link did not like the man's policies," Hood said. "What does he gain by removing Wilson?"
"I'm not sure," McCaskey admitted. "But I can't dismiss the possibility."
"Fair enough. Talk it out."
"A prominent Brit dies abroad after a sexual encounter," McCaskey said.
"The Fleet Street tabloids are all over that. Wilson's death not only cripples and probably terminates the new banking venture, it affects the stock price of his company. The tawdriness of what happened hurts the value even more. In short, Wilson's death shuts down a potential threat to the American economy."
"Right," Hood replied. "But doesn't that help the current administration and not Senator Orr?"
"Just the opposite, I would think," McCaskey said. "If the rumors about Orr are true, he is going to come out and effectively promote a strong policy of isolationism. Wilson's death gives the senator a salacious, Eurocentric target, someone the president's endorsed successor can't hit."
"Because, like us, the president has overseas alliances to protect."
McCaskey nodded. "Orr wouldn't care about that. His only concern is the American electorate."
"That might also be a rival's concern," Hood said. "Someone could be looking to frame Link and stop a credible threat to the two-party system."
"It's possible," McCaskey admitted.
Hood shook his head. "One problem I have with your theory, Darrell, is that Wilson was as viable a target for Orr alive as he was dead. In fact, if Wilson were alive, his European banking operation might have won Don Orr even more support."
"But we're not talking about the senator," McCaskey reminded him.
"We're talking about Admiral Link."
"I understand that. But I'm still not clear what he could possibly gain. Why would he want to hurt Orr's rhetoric by eliminating William Wilson?"
"That is the big question," McCaskey said.
"It's also one I'm not sure Op-Center needs to answer," Hood said. "We agreed to stick a finger in this for Scotland Yard. The more I look at it, the more it does not seem like a crisis."
"That depends on your definition of crisis," McCaskey said. "I see a person or persons who were able to move quickly when their killing was exposed. That suggests a conspiracy, one that may involve the office of a United States senator. Give me a little more time to research this, Paul. Let me take a closer look at Kenneth Link and Orr's staff."
"What about Mike?" Hood asked. "Would you involve him?"
"I'm not sure," McCaskey said.
Neither man said what was obviously on both of their minds. Would Mike give his loyalty to the old team or the new? Was it even fair to put him in that position?
A chess game with multiple levels, Hood thought.
Hood called Liz Gordon's office. She was not in yet, and he left a message for her to see him when she arrived. He wanted her to whip up a quick-sketch profile of Link. Then he turned to his computer and brought up the Senate's secure home page. The staff directory was accessible only to government officials. Hood looked