Line of Control - Tom Clancy [156]
Why Striker had jumped into a military hot zone during the day instead of at night. Why the NRO was involved in the operation but not the CIA or the full resources of the NSA, which had an operative on-site. Hood and Rodgers had gone over to Capitol Hill to explain everything to Lewis and to Fox and her fellow CIOC members.
They might just as well have been speaking Urdu. The CIOC had already decided that in addition to the previously discussed downsizing, Op-Center would no longer be maintaining a military wing. Striker would be officially disbanded.
Colonel August and Corporal Musicant would be reassigned and General Rodgers's role would be "reevaluated."
Hood was also informed that he would be filing daily rather than semiweekly reports with CIOC. They wanted to know everything that the agency was involved with, from situation analyses to photographic reconnaissance.
Hood suspected the only thing that protected Op-Center at all was the loyalty of the president of the United States. President Lawrence and United Nations Secretary-General Mala Chatterjee had issued a joint statement congratulating Paul Hood for his group's nonpartisan efforts on behalf of humanitarian and world peace. It was not a document the CIOC could ignore, especially after Chatterjee's bitter denunciation of the way Hood had handled the Security Council crisis. Hood could not imagine the kind of pressure Lawrence must have applied to get that statement. He also wondered how Chatterjee really felt. She was a pacifistic Indian whose nation had tried to start a nuclear war against its neighbor. Unless she was steeped in denial, that had to be difficult for her to reconcile. Hood would not be surprised to hear that she was resigning her post to run for political office at home.
That would certainly be a good step toward peace in the region.
All of which served to make this a very different time, a very different memorial service. It was the last time Paul Hood and the original Op-Center would do anything as teammates. The rest of them would not know that yet.
But Paul Hood would. He wanted to say something that addressed a new loss they would all soon be feeling.
He reread the opening line of his testimonial.
"This is the second family I have lost in as many months... "
He deleted it. The statement was too much about him. Too much about his loss.
But it did start him thinking. Although he was no longer living with Sharon and the kids, he still felt as though they were together in some way. If not physically then spiritually.
And then it came to him. Hood knew the line was right because it caught in his throat as he tried to say it.
Hood typed with two trembling index fingers as he tried to see the computer monitor. It was blurry because he was blinking out tears over what was supposed to be just a job. "This I have learned," he wrote with confidence.
"Wherever fate takes any of us, we will always be family... "
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
PROLOGUE.
CHAPTER ONE.
CHAPTER TWO.
CHAPTER THREE.
CHAPTER FOUR.
CHAPTER FIVE.
CHAPTER SIX.
CHAPTER SEVEN.
CHAPTER EIGHT.
CHAPTER NINE.
CHAPTER TEN.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
CHAPTER TWELVE.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
CHAPTER TWENTY.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE.
CHAPTER THIRTY.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE.
CHAPTER FORTY.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN.