Tom Clancy's Op-center Balance of Power - Tom Clancy [94]
Probably not very good. Not with twenty or so soldiers between here and there. Somehow, she had to get in there legitimately and talk to the general. Tell him something that would slow him down. Then get back to Luis and help figure out some way of toppling the bastard.
The captain returned before María had finished her cigarette. He strode through the doorway of the Hall of Columns and stopped. He smiled sweetly and she knew then she'd won.
"Come with me, María," he said. "You have your audience."
María thanked him-always thank the messengers in case you need a favor later-and lifted her shoe. She extinguished the cigarette on her sole. As she walked toward the captain she slipped the cigarette back in the pack. He gave her a curious look.
"It's a habit I picked up in the field," she said.
"Don't waste your resources?" he asked. "Or don't risk starting a fire, which can attract attention?"
"Neither," she replied. "Don't leave a trail. You never know who's going to come after you."
"Ah," the captain smiled knowingly.
María smiled back, though for a different reason. She'd just tested the officer with a heads-up and he'd failed. She'd hinted that she was schooled at infiltration, that she knew more than he did, and the captain had let it go. He didn't stop and take a second look at her. He was leading her right to the general.
Perhaps Amadori had made a few other mistakes in getting his coup underway. With any luck, María would be able to find them.
And then somehow, some way, get out to report them.
* * *
TWENTY-SIX
Tuesday, 8:11 a.m.
Zaragoza, Spain
The C-141But transport set down heavily on the long runway at the Zaragoza Airbase, NATO'S largest field in Spain. The four twenty-one-thousand-pound Pratt and Whitney turbofans howled as the aircraft rolled to a stop. The plane had made a refueling stop at the NATO base in Iceland before completing the eighthour trip against daunting headwinds.
During the flight Colonel August and his Striker team had received regular updates from Mike Rodgers, including a complete rundown on the White House meeting. Rodgers said that Striker's orders vis-ŕ-vis General Amadori would be given to them by Darrell McCaskey. Receiving them face-to-face wasn't so much a security issue as an old tradition among elite forces: if you were sending a team on a hazardous mission, it was customary to look the leader in the eyes. A commander who couldn't do that did not have the mettle, and thus the right, to send anyone into danger.
Colonel August had also spent a few hours going through NATO'S dossier on General Amadori. Though Amadori had never participated in any NATO maneuvers, he was a top-ranked officer of a member nation. As such, his file was short but complete.
Rafael Leoncio Amadori had been raised in Burgos, the one-time capital of the kingdom of Castile and the burial place of the legendary hero El Cid. Amadori Joined the army in 1966, when he was twenty. After four years he was moved to Francisco Franco's personal guard, the result of a longtime friendship between Franco and Amadori's father, Jaime, who was the Generalissimo's bootmaker. By the time Amadori was made a lieutenant in 1972, he was one of the top men in charge of Franco's counterintelligence team. That was where he met Antonio Aguirre, ten years his senior, who was to become his top aide and most trusted advisor. Aguirre was Franco's advisor on domestic affairs.
Once he had joined the inner circle, Amadori was personally responsible for sniffing out and eliminating opponents of Franco's regime. With the death of Franco in 1975, Amadori moved back into the general military. However, his years in intelligence had not been wasted. Amadori rose quickly. More quickly than his accomplishments would suggest. If August had to guess, his promotions were probably the result of having collected compromising data on everyone who had been