Tom Clancy's Op-center Balance of Power - Tom Clancy [130]
"That smoke on TV looks awfully close to the courtyard, doesn't it?" Rodgers asked.
"Right where the throne room should be," Herbert said.
"So the Strikers are definitely in there," Hood said. He looked at the clock on his computer. "And on time."
Herbert turned back to the TV and leaned an ear toward the screen. The onsite announcer had nothing to offer but dire superlatives about the event. The usual drone. There was no information about the cause or the nature of the struggle. But that wasn't what he was listening for.
"I'm hearing gunfire," Herbert said cautiously. "Muted-like it's not coming from the courtyard."
"Is that surprising?" Hood asked. "We knew that if the Strikers succeeded in getting Amadori there'd almost certainly be pursuit."
"Pursuit," Rodgers said. "Not resistance. The IA should have prevented that."
"Unless the gunfire's coming at 'em blindly," Herbert said. "People can do some weird stuff when they're choking."
"Could those shots be coming from the firing squad we were told about?" Coffey asked.
Rodgers shook his head. "This is individual fire and much too sporadic."
"The good news," Herbert said, "is if the Strikers had been caught, there wouldn't be any shooting at all."
The men were silent for a moment. Hood looked at the computer clock. "They were supposed to signal Luis's office once they got back into the dungeon." He looked at the phone.
"Chief," Herbert said, "it's an open line from here to there and my people are monitoring it. They'll let us know as soon as they hear anything."
Hood nodded. He looked back at the television. "I don't know where the Strikers get it," he said. "The courage to do these things. I don't know where any of you gets it. In Vietnam, Beirut-"
"It comes from a lot of places," Rodgers said. "Duty, love, fear-"
"Necessity," Herbert added. "That's a big one. When you don't have a choice."
"It's a combination of all of those," Rodgers said.
"Mike," Herbert said, "you know all about famous quotes. Who was it that said you can't fail if you screw your courage up-or words to that effect"
Rodgers looked at him. "I think the quote you're looking for is, 'But screw your courage to the sticking-place and we'll not fail.' "
"Yeah, that's the one," Herbert said. "Who said that? Sounds like Winston Churchill."
Rodgers grinned faintly. "It was Lady Macbeth. She was encouraging her husband to murder King Duncan. He did and then the whole plot came crashing down around him."
"Oh," Herbert replied. He looked down. "Then that's not the quote we want, is it?"
"That's all right," Rodgers said. He was still grinning slightly. "The regicide may have backfired badly but the play was a brilliant success. It all depends how you look at things."
"As I used to tell all my clients while the jury was deliberating," Coffey said, "trust in the system and in the people to whom we've entrusted it." He was still standing by the television, staring at the screen. "Because as another great thinker once said, 'It ain't over till it's over.' "
Herbert looked back at the television. The sounds of gunfire seemed to increase in frequency but not in volume. The announcer made an observation about that.
Herbert still felt alive. And optimistic, because that was his nature. But there was no ignoring the shadow that had fallen over the room. The unhappy truth that what they had all been quietly hoping for had not materialized: a call or broadcast declaring that a coup attempt in Spain had ended with the assassination of its leader.
The realization that the mission had not gone exactly as planned.
* * *
FORTY
Tuesday, 5:49 a.m.
Old Saybrook, Connecticut
Sharon Hood couldn't sleep. She was tired and she was at her childhood home in her old bed but her mind wouldn't shut down. She'd argued with her husband, read one of her old Nancy Drew books until three, then shut off the light and stared at the patterns of moonlight and leaves on the