The Teeth of the Tiger - Tom Clancy [134]
Hendley's eyes swept over the two-page document. "Sure wiggles like a fish, doesn't he?" Then his phone buzzed, and he picked up the receiver. "Okay, Helen, send them in Rick Bell is bringing in those two guys we talked about," he explained to Wills.
The door opened, and Jack Jr.'s eyes popped somewhat.
So did Brian's. "Jack? What are you doing here?"
Dominic's face changed a moment later. "Hey, Jack! What's happening?" he exclaimed.
For his part, Hendley's eyes twisted into a hurt expression. He hadn't thought this all the way through, a rare error on his part. But the room had only one door, unless you counted the private washroom.
The three cousins shook hands, momentarily ignoring the boss, until Rick Bell took control of the moment.
"Brian, Dominic, this is the big boss, Gerry Hendley." Handshakes were exchanged in front of the two analysts.
"Rick, thanks for bringing that up. Well done to both of you," Hendley said in dismissal.
"I guess it's back to the workstation. See you, guys," Jack said to his cousins.
The surprise of the moment didn't fade immediately, but Brian and Dominic settled into their chairs and filed the happenstance away for the moment.
"Welcome," Hendley said to them, leaning back in his chair. Well, sooner or later they'd find out, wouldn't they? "Pete Alexander tells me that you've done very well down at the country house."
"Aside from the boredom," Brian responded.
"Training is like that," Bell said in polite sympathy.
"What about yesterday?" Hendley asked.
"It wasn't fun," Brian said first. "It was a lot like that ambush in Afghanistan. Ka-boom, it started, and then we had to deal with it. Good news, the bad guys weren't all that bright. They acted like free agents instead of a team. If they'd been trained properly-if they'd acted like a team with proper security-it would have gone different. As it was, it was just a matter of taking out one at a time. Any idea on who they were?"
"What the FBI knows to this point, they seem to have come into the country through Mexico. Your cousin ID'd the source of their funding for us. He's a Saudi expatriate living in London, and he may be one of their backers. They were all Arabian in origin. They've positively ID'd five of them as Saudi citizens. The guns were stolen about ten years ago. They rented the cars-all four groups-in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and probably drove independently to their objectives. Their routes have been tracked by gas purchases."
"Motivation was strictly ideological?" Dominic asked.
Hendley nodded. "Religious-their version of it, yes. So it would seem."
"Is the Bureau looking for me?" Dominic asked next.
"You'll have to call Gus Werner later today so he can fill out his paperwork, but don't expect any hassles. They have a cover story all cooked up already."
"Okay."
This was Brian: "I assume that this is what we've been training for? To hunt down some of these people before they can do any more bad things over here?"
"That's about right," Hendley confirmed.
"Okay," Brian said. "I can live with that."
"You will go into the field together, covered as people in the banking and trading business. We'll brief you in on the stuff you need to know to maintain that cover. You'll operate mainly out of a virtual office via laptop computer."
"Security?" Dominic wondered.
"That will not be a problem," Bell assured him. "The computers are as secure as we can make them, and they can double as Internet phones for times when voice communications are required. The encryption systems are highly secure," he emphasized.
"Okay," Dominic said dubiously. Pete had told them much the same, but he'd never trusted any encryption system. The FBI's radio systems, secure as they were supposed to be, had been cracked once or twice by clever bad guys or by computer geeks, the kind who liked to call