Clear and present danger - Tom Clancy [149]
"Capitán…" Morales said.
"One more dead upstairs, and one of mine. Four teams. Getaway cars in the alleys." Garza looked at the blood on his upper arm with annoyance that was rapidly changing to appreciation of his wounds. But there was something more than shock to postpone the pain. The captain looked at the car for the first time in several minutes, hoping that his immediate impression might have been wrong and knowing that it could not be. His handsome, bloody face looked at the American and received a shake by way of reply. Garza was a proud man, a professional soldier dedicated to his country as thoroughly as any man could be, and he'd been chosen for this assignment for his combination of skill and integrity. A man who did not fear death, he had just suffered the thing all soldiers fear more. He had failed in his mission. Not knowing why only made it worse.
Garza continued to ignore his wounds, turning to their one prisoner. "We will talk," the captain promised him just before he collapsed into Morales' arms.
"Hi, Jack!" Dan and Liz Murray had just arrived at the Ryan house. Dan had to remove his automatic and holster, which he set on the shelf in the closet with something of a sheepish look.
"I figured you for a revolver," Jack said with a grin. It was the first time that they'd had the Murrays over.
"I miss my Python, but the Bureau's switching over to automatics. Besides, I don't chase bad guys anymore. I chase memos, and position papers, and budget estimates." A rueful shake of the head. "What fun."
"I know the feeling," Ryan agreed, leading Murray to the kitchen. "Beer?"
"Sounds good to me."
They'd first met in London, at St. Thomas's Hospital to be precise, some years earlier when Murray had been legal attaché to the American Embassy, and Ryan had been a shooting victim. Still tall and spare, his hair a little thinner but not yet gray, Murray was an affable, free-spirited man whom one would never pick for a cop, much less one of the best around. A gifted investigator, he'd hunted down every sort of criminal there was, and though he now chafed at his absence from hands-on police work, he was handling his administrative job as skillfully as all his others.
"What's this sting I heard about?" Jack asked.
"TARPON? The Cartel murdered a guy who was laundering money for them on a very big scale - and doing some major-league skimming, too. He left records behind. We found them. It's been a busy couple of weeks running all the leads down."
"I heard six-hundred-plus-million bucks."
"It'll go higher. The Swiss cracked open a new account this afternoon."
"Ouch." Ryan popped open a couple of beers. "That's a real sting, isn't it?"
"I think they'll notice this one," Murray agreed. "What's this I hear about your new job?"
"You probably heard right. It's just that you don't want to get a promotion this way."
"Yeah. I've never met Admiral Greer, but the Director thinks a lot of him."
"Two of a kind. Old-fashioned honorable gentlemen," Jack observed. "Endangered species."
"Hello, Mr. Murray," Sally Ryan said from the door.
"Mister Murray?"
"Uncle Dan!" Sally raced up and delivered a ferocious hug. "Aunt Liz says that you and Daddy better get out there," she said with a giggle.
"Why do we let them push us warriors around, Jack?"
" 'Cause they're tougher than we are?" Ryan wondered.
Dan laughed. "Yeah, that explains it. I -" Then his beeper went off. Murray pulled the small plastic box from his belt. In a moment the LCD panel showed the number he was supposed to call. "You know, I'd like to waste the bastard who invented these things."
"He's already dead," Jack replied deadpan. "He came into