State of Siege - Tom Clancy [91]
"And if I don't cooperate, what will you do?" she asked. "If you shoot me, the hostage dies for sure." She made a point of looking at Hood. "Possibly your daughter."
Hood's body stiffened.
She was better than he'd expected, Rodgers thought. The dance had become a quick, duty game of chicken. Rodgers already knew which way this was going. What he needed now was to buy August time. "What do you want?" Rodgers asked.
"I want you to cut me loose and leave the room," she said. "I'll make the call you want, then I go free." "I won't do it," Rodgers said.
"Why not?" Ani asked. "Don't want to dirty your hands cutting a deal with me?"
"I've cut deals with worse than you," Rodgers said. "I won't cut a deal because I don't trust you. You need this operation to succeed. Terrorists don't pay in advance. That's how they ensure loyalty. The situation you're in now, you need your cut of the ransom." The TACSAT beeped a second time.
"Whether you trust me or not," Annabelle said, "if I don't answer the phone, they're going to assume that something has happened to me. They'll execute the girl."
"In that case," Rodgers replied evenly, "you'll either be executed or spend your life in jail as an accomplice." "I end up with ten to twenty years if I cooperate with you," Ani said. "I get life or death if I don't. What's the difference?" "About thirty years," Rodgers said. "It might not matter now, but it will when you're sixty."
"Spare me the recon from the front," she replied. "Ms. Hampton, please," Hood said. "It's not too late to help yourself and dozens of innocent people." "Tell your partner, not me," she said. The TACSAT beeped a third time.
"There will be a total of five rings," Ani said. "Then a girl in the Security Council Chamber will have her head blown open. Is that what you want? Either of you?"
Rodgers took a half step forward. He shouldered between Hood and the woman. He didn't know if Hood would take the bait and order him to comply with her, but he didn't want to risk it. Hood was still the director of Op-Center, and Rodgers didn't want them fighting each other. Especially since Hood didn't know what else was going on right now.
"Let me go, and I'll tell them what you want," she said. "Why don't you say what we want and then we'll let you go?" Rodgers countered.
"Because as much as you don't trust me, I don't trust you," she said. "And right now, you need me more than I need you." The TACSAT beeped a fourth time. "Mike-was Hood said. Though Hood had been there for the planning of the bottleneck, he was obviously hoping the original idea could be adhered to: drawing the terrorists outside. But Rodgers waited. A few seconds more could make the difference between success and failure. "I'm against this," Rodgers said to Annabelle. "And you hate the fact that that doesn't matter," she replied. "No," Rodgers told the young woman. "I've eaten shit before, too. We're all grownups here. What I hate is having to trust someone who has already broken one promise."
The general tucked a gun into his belt, reached into his pants pocket, and pulled out a switchblade. He snapped it open with a flick of his hand and began cutting her free. " The TACSAT beeped a fifth time.
Annabelle reached for the knife. "I'll finish that," she said. Rodgers released the knife. He stood back, in case she decided to use it on him.
"I want you out of here," the young woman said. "I want to see you on my security camera, in the hallway. And leave me my keys." Rodgers took the key case from his pants pocket and tossed it on the floor in front of her. Then he grabbed his jacket from the back of a chair and followed Hood out.
The young woman finished cutting herself loose, then switched the computer monitor to a security view. As Rodgers crossed the office lobby toward the corridor, Ani leaned over and picked up the