The Teeth of the Tiger - Tom Clancy [175]
"Take a guess," Tony suggested.
"Not bad, for the kid." Bell looked very closely at his guest. "How much does he suspect?"
"At Langley, he'd sure as hell be getting people nervous."
"Like you are?"
"You might say that," Wills replied. "He makes good leaps of imagination, Rick."
Bell made a face this time. "Well, it's not exactly the Olympic long-jump competition, is it?"
"Rick, Jack puts two and two together about as fast as a computer tells the difference between one and zero. He's right, isn't he?"
Bell took a second or two before replying. "What do you think?"
"I think they got that Sali character for sure, and this is probably mission number two. How are they doing it?"
"You really do not want to know. It's not as clean as it looks," Bell answered. "This Atef guy was a recruiter. He sent at least one guy to Des Moines."
"That's a good enough reason," Wills judged.
"Sam feels the same way. I'll turn this over to him. Follow-up?"
"This MoHa guy needs a closer look. Maybe we can track him down," Wills said.
"Any idea where he is?"
"Italy, looks like, but a lot of people live on the boot. Lots of big cities with lots of ratholes. But Italy is a good place for him. Centrally located. Air service everywhere. And the terrorists have let Italy alone lately, and so nobody's hunting down the dog that isn't barking."
"Same in Germany, France, and the rest of Central Europe?"
Wills nodded. "Looks that way. They're next, but I don't think they fully appreciate it. Heads in the sand-like, Rick."
"True," Bell agreed. "So, what do we do with your student?"
"Ryan? Good question. Sure as hell, he's a quick learner. He's particularly good at connecting things," Wills thought out loud. "He makes big leaps of imagination, sometimes too far, but, still, it's not a bad quality for an analyst to have."
"Grade to this point?"
"B-plus, maybe a low A, and that's only because he's new. He's not as good as I am, but I've been in the business since before he was born. He's a comer, Rick. He'll go far."
"That good?" Bell asked. Tony Wills was known as a careful conservative analyst, and one of the best Langley had ever turned out, despite the green eyeshade and the garters on the sleeves.
Wills nodded. "That good." He was also scrupulously honest. It was his natural character, but he could also afford to be. The Campus paid far better than any government agency. His kids were all grown-the last one was in his final year at the University of Maryland in physics, and, after that, he and Betty could think about the next big step in life, though Wills liked it here and had no immediate plans to leave. "But don't tell him I said so."
"Big head?"
"No, that wouldn't be fair. But I don't want him to start thinking he knows it all yet."
"Nobody with half a brain thinks that way," Bell said.
"Yeah." Wills stood. "But why take the chance?"
Wills headed out, but Bell still didn't know what to do with the Ryan kid. Well, something to talk with the Senator about.
"Next stop, Vienna," Dominic informed his brother. "We got another subject."
"You wonder how steady this job will be?" Brian wondered aloud.
His brother laughed. "Man, there's enough mutts in America to keep us busy for the rest of our lives."
"Yeah, save money, fire all the judges and juries."
"My name ain't Dirty Harry Callahan, you jarhead."
"And I'm not Chesty Puller, either. How do we get there? Fly, train-maybe drive?"
"Driving might be fun," Dominic said. "I wonder if we can rent a Porsche ?"
"Oh, great," Brian grunted. "Okay, log off so I can download the file, willya?"
"Sure. I'll see what the concierge can set up for us." And he headed out of the room.
"This is the only confirmation we have?" Hendley asked.
"Correct." Granger nodded. "But it tallies exactly with what our guys on the ground told us."
"They're going too fast. What if the other side thinks, 'Two heart attacks in less than a week' ? Then what?"
"Gerry, the nature of this mission is recon-by-fire, remember? We halfway want the other side to get a little nervous, but