The Teeth of the Tiger - Tom Clancy [39]
"Okay, go to Brooks Brothers and dress better," Pete Alexander told Brian. "Your cover mainly will be as a businessman or a tourist. So, you'll have to dress neatly, but not like the Prince of Wales. You'll both let your hair grow out, especially you, Aldo."
Brian rubbed a hand over his head stubble. It marked him anywhere in the civilized world as a United States Marine. It could have been worse. Army Rangers were even more radical in the hair department. Brian would look like a fairly normal human being in a month or so. "Damn, I'll have to buy a comb."
"What's the plan?"
"For today, just relax and settle in. Tomorrow we wake up early and make sure you two are in decent physical shape. Then there's weapons proficiency-and the sit-down classwork. You're both computer-literate, I presume."
"Why do you ask?" This was Brian.
"The Campus mainly works like a virtual office. You'll be issued computers with built-in modems, and that's how you'll communicate with the home office."
"What about security?" Dominic asked.
"The machines have pretty good security built in. If there's a way to crack them, nobody's found it yet."
"That's good to know," Enzo observed, dubiously. "They use computers in the Corps, Aldo?"
"Yeah, we have all the modern conveniences, even toilet paper."
"And your name is Mohammed?" Ernesto asked.
"That is correct, but for now, call me Miguel." Unlike with Nigel, it was a name he'd be able to remember. He had not begun by invoking Allah's blessing on this meeting. These unbelievers would not have understood.
"Your English is-well, you sound English."
"I was educated there," Mohammed explained. "My mother was English. My father was Saudi."
"Was?"
"Both are dead."
"My sympathies," Ernesto offered with questionable sincerity. "So, what can we do for each other?"
"I told Pablo here about the idea. Has he filled you in?"
"Sí, he has, but I wish to hear it directly from you. You understand that I represent six others who share my business interests."
"I see. Do you have the power to negotiate for all of them?"
"Not entirely, but I will present what you say to them-you need not meet with them all-and they have never rejected my suggestions. If we come to an agreement here, it can be fully ratified by the end of the week."
"Very well. You know the interests I myself represent. I am empowered to make an agreement, as well. Like you, we have a major enemy nation to the north. They are putting ever-greater pressure on my friends. We wish to retaliate, and to deflect their pressure in other directions."
"It is much the same with us," Ernesto observed.
"Therefore, it is in our mutual interests to cause unrest and chaos within America. The new American president is a weak man. But for that reason he can be a dangerous one. The weak are quicker to use force than the strong. Even though they use it inefficiently, it can be an annoyance."
"Their methods of intelligence-gathering concern us. You also?"
"We have learned caution," Mohammed replied. "What we do not have is a good infrastructure in America. For this we need assistance."
"You don't? That's surprising. Their news media is full of reports about the FBI and other agencies busily tracking your people within their borders."
"At the moment, they are chasing shadows-and sowing discord in their own land by doing so. It complicates the task of building a proper network so that we can conduct offensive operations."
"The nature of those operations does not concern us?" Pablo asked.
"That is correct. It is nothing you have not done yourselves, of course. " But not in America, he did not add. Here in Colombia the gloves were all the way off, but they'd been careful to limit themselves in the U.S., their "customer" nation. So much the better. It would be entirely out of character with anything they'd done. Operational security was a concept both sides fully understood.
"I see," the senior Cartel man noted. He was no fool. Mohammed could see that in his eyes. The Arab was not going