Clear and present danger - Tom Clancy [160]
She was surprised to see what looked like a Bureau car parked across the street from her house, but it might just as easily have been a cheap rental or something else - except for the radio antenna, she realized. It was a Bureau car. That was odd, she thought. She parked against the curb and got out her bags, walking up the sidewalk, but when the door was opened, she saw Frank Weber, one of the Director's security detail.
"Hi, Frank." Special Agent Weber helped her with the bags, but his expression was serious. "Something wrong?"
There wasn't any easy way of telling her, though Weber felt guilty for spoiling what must have been a very special weekend for her.
"Emil was killed Friday evening. We've been trying to reach you since then."
"What?"
"They got him on the way to the embassy. The whole detail - everybody. Emil's funeral's tomorrow. The rest of em are Tuesday."
"Oh, my God." Moira sat on the nearest chair. "Eddie - Leo?" She thought of the young agents on Emil's protection detail as her own kids.
"All of them," Weber repeated.
"I didn't know," she said. "I haven't seen a paper or turned on a TV in - since Friday night. Where -?"
"Your kids went out to the movies. We need you to come down to help us out with a few things. We'll have somebody here to look after them for you."
It was several minutes before she was able to go anywhere. The tears started as soon as the reality of Weber's words got past her newly made storehouse of other feelings.
Captain Ramirez didn't like the idea of accompanying Chavez. It wasn't cowardice, of course, but a question of what his part of the job actually was. His command responsibilities were muddled in some ways. As a captain who had recently commanded a company, he had learned that "commanding" isn't quite the same thing as "leading." A company commander is supposed to stay a short distance back from the front line and manage - the Army doesn't like that word - the combat action, maneuvering his units and keeping an overview of the battle underway so that he could control matters while his platoon leaders handled the actual fighting. Having learned to "lead from the front" as a lieutenant, he was supposed to apply his lessons at the next higher level, though there would be times when the captain was expected to take the lead. In this case he was commanding only a squad, and though the mission demanded circumspection and command judgment, the size of his unit demanded personal leadership. Besides, he could not very well send two men out on their first killing mission without being there himself, even though Chavez had far superior movement skills than Captain Ramirez ever expected to attain. The contradiction between his command and leadership responsibilities troubled the young officer, but he came down, as he had to, on the side of leading. He could not exercise command, after all, if his men didn't have confidence in his ability to lead. Somehow he knew that if this one went right, he'd never have the same problem again. Maybe that's how it always worked, he told himself.
After setting up his two fire teams, he and Chavez moved out, heading around the northern side of the airstrip with the sergeant in the lead. It went smoothly. The two targets were still lolling around, smoking their joints - or whatever they were - and talking loudly enough