Line of Control - Tom Clancy [105]
"You did not outline the specifics of the danger," she replied, "only the gravity of the threat."
"We did not know the specifics until we were in the middle of this,"
Hood pointed out.
"Which is exactly my point," she replied.
"You sent resources into this situation without adequate intelligence.
And I mean that in every sense of the word, Mr. Hood."
The interoffice line beeped again.
"Do you want me to pull the remaining assets out?" Hood asked the senator. Hell, he thought. If she was going to criticize his judgment he might as well leave the rest of the mission in her hands.
"Is there another way of resolving the crisis?" she asked.
"Not that we've come up with," Hood replied.
"Then unfortunately we are married to the scenario you've mapped out," the senator said.
Of course. Hood thought. It was now a no-lose situation for the politician. If it worked she would grab the credit for involving the CIOC at this juncture, for saving the lives of the rest of the Strikers as well as countless Indians and Pakistanis.
If the mission failed Hood would take the full hit.
This was not the first crisis the two had been through together.
But it was the first one of this magnitude and with this high a price tag. Hood was disappointed that she was looking for a scapegoat instead of a solution.
Or maybe he was the one looking for someone to blame, he thought. What if the senator was right? What if he had fast-tracked this operation simply because Striker was enroute and it seemed relatively risk-free at the onset? Maybe Hood should have pulled the plug when he learned how risky the jump itself would be. Maybe he had let himself become a prisoner to the ticking clock he feared instead of the things he knew for certain.
The interoffice line beeped a third time.
Years before. Chad Malcolm, the retiring mayor of Los Angeles, gave Hood some of the best advice he had ever received. Malcolm had said that what any good leader did was take information in, process it, and still react with his gut.
"Just like the human body," the mayor had said.
"Goes in through the top and out through the bottom. Any other way just isn't natural."
Senator Fox informed Hood that the CIOC would take up this "fiasco" in an emergency session. Hood did not have anything else to say. He clicked the senator off and took the call.
"Yes?" Hood said.
"Paul, we've got him," Herbert said.
"Brett spoke with Mike."
"Is he okay?" Hood asked.
"He's fine," Herbert replied.
"He landed in the valley at the foot of the plateau."
"Bob, thank you." Hood wanted to shout or weep or possibly both. He settled for a deep sigh and a grateful smile.
"While I was waiting for you to pick up the phone I called Viens,"
Herbert told him.
"Instead of searching for Mike I've got him looking to see if the cell broke off. The way I read my map, there's a point between where Ron Friday joined the cell and where Colonel August is now that would have been perfect for the Pakistani group to split. If one team headed straight toward Pakistan, they would have had a relatively short distance of about nine or ten miles to cross. The two barriers they would face there were the line of control and the Siachin Glacier. But if Indian soldiers have been moved from the LOC to this new forward line, that would leave the border relatively clear."
"Which makes the glacier the big impediment," Hood said.
"Right. But that makes stamina instead of greater numbers the big obstacle," Herbert pointed out.
"Under the circumstances, that's the challenge I'd choose to face."
"I agree," Hood said.
"The good news is, Mike is at the foot of the glacier," Herbert went on.
"If we find a second group of Pakistanis, he has a good shot at intercepting them."
Hood brought up the map on his computer. He studied it for a moment.
"Who's in touch with Mike?" "Brett is," Herbert said.
"Bob, we're going to have to have Mike move out of the valley now," Hood said.
"Whoa," Herbert said.
"You want him on the glacier before we know for sure that