The Teeth of the Tiger - Tom Clancy [112]
"Okay, what are they doing about it?"
"Airport security is going to be a little tighter starting today. The FBI is going to set people at some departure gates."
"Nothing on TV about it?"
"Well, the boys and girls at Homeland Security may have gotten a little smarter about advertising. It's counterproductive. You don't catch a rat by shouting at him. You do it by showing him what he wants to see, and then breaking his goddamned neck."
Or maybe by having a cat spring on him unexpectedly, Hendley didn't say. But that was a harder mission.
"Any ideas for us?" he asked instead.
"Not at the moment. It's like seeing a front move in. There may be heavy rain and hail in it, but there's no convenient way to stop it."
"Jerry, how good is our data on the planning guys, the ones who give the orders?"
"Some of it's pretty good. But it's the people who convey the orders, not the ones who originate them."
"And if they drop off the table?"
Rounds nodded immediate agreement. "Now you're talking, boss. Then the real big shots might poke their heads up out of their holes. Especially if they don't know that storm's coming in."
"For now, what's the biggest threat?"
"The FBI is thinking car bombs, or maybe somebody with a C-4 overcoat, like in Israel. It's possible, but from an operational point of view, I'm not so sure." Rounds sat down in the offered chair. "It's one thing to give the guy his explosives package and put him on a city bus for the ride to his objective, but, as applied to us, it's more complicated. Bring the bomber here, get him outfitted-which means having the explosives in place, which is a further complication-then getting him familiar with the objective, then getting him there. The bomber is then expected to maintain his motivation a long way from his support network. A lot of things can go wrong, and that's why black operations are kept as simple as possible. Why go out of your way to purchase trouble?"
"Jerry, how many hard targets do we have?" Hendley asked.
"Total? Six or so. Of those, four are real, no-shit targets."
"Can you get me locations and profiles?"
"Any time you say."
"Monday." No sense thinking about it over the weekend. He had two days of riding all planned out. He was entitled to a couple of days off once in a while.
"Roger that, boss." Rounds stood and headed out. Then he stopped at the door. "Oh, there's a guy at Morgan and Steel, bond department. He's a crook. He's playing fast and very loose with some client money, about one-fifty worth." By which he meant a hundred and fifty million dollars of other people's money.
"Anybody on to him?"
"Nope, I ID'd this guy on my own. Met him two months ago up in New York, and he didn't sound quite right, and so I put a watch on his personal computer. Want to see his notes?"
"Not our job, Jerry."
"I know, I shorted our business with him to make sure he didn't dick with our funds, but I think he knows it's time to leave town, like maybe a trip overseas, one-way ticket. Somebody ought to have a look. Maybe Gus Werner?"
"I'll have to think about that. Thanks for the heads-up."
"Roger that." And Rounds disappeared out the door.
"So, we just try to sneak up on her without being noticed, right?" Brian asked.
"That's the mission," Pete agreed. "How close?"
"Close as you can get."
"You mean close enough to put one in the back of her head?" the Marine asked.
"Close enough to see her earrings," Alexander decided was the most polite way of putting it. It was even accurate, since Mrs. Peters wore her hair fairly long.
"So, not to shoot her in the head, but to cut her throat?" Brian pressed the question.
"Look, Brian, you can put it any way you want. Close enough to touch her, okay?"
"Okay, just so's I understand," Brian said. "We have to wear our fanny packs?"
"Yes," Alexander replied, though it wasn't true. Brian was being a pain in the ass again. Who'd ever heard of a Marine with conscience