Without remorse - Tom Clancy [337]
'Sad about Cas,' the Superintendent observed to his friend.
Maxwell nodded. 'What can I say, Will? He wasn't exactly a good candidate for retirement, was he? Family gone, here and there both. This was his life, and it was coming to an end one way or another.' Neither man wanted to discuss what his wife had done. Perhaps after a year or so they might see the poetic symmetry in the loss of two friends, but not now.
'I hear, you put your papers in, too, Dutch.' The Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy didn't quite understand it. Talk was about that Dutch was a sure thing for a fleet command in the spring. The talk had died only days before, and he didn't know why.
'That's right.' Maxwell couldn't say why. The orders - couched as a 'suggestion' - had come from the White House, through the CNO. 'Long enough, Will. Time for some new blood. Us World War Two guys... well, time to make room, I guess.'
'Sonny doing okay?'
'I'm a grandfather.'
'Good for them!' At least there was some good news in the room when Admiral Greer entered it, wearing his uniform for once.
'James!'
'Nice principal's office,' Greer observed. 'Hiya, Dutch.'
'So, to what do I owe all this high-level attention?'
'Will, we're going to steal one of your sailboats. You have something nice and comfortable that two admirals can handle?'
'Wide selection. You want one of the twenty-sixes?'
'That's about right.'
'Well, I'll call the Seamanship Department and have them chop one loose for you.' It made sense, the Admiral thought. They'd both been close with Cas, and when you said goodbye to a sailor, you did it at sea. He placed his call, and they took their leave.
'Run outa ideas?' Piaggi asked. His voice showed defiant confidence now. The momentum had passed across the street, the man thought. Why not reinforce that?
'I don't see that you have any to speak of. You bastards afraid of the sunlight. I'll give you some!' Kelly snarled. 'Watch.'
He set the phone down and lifted the rifle, taking aim at the window.
Pop.
Crash.
'You dumb fuck!' Tony said into the phone, even though he knew it to be disconnected. 'You see? He knows he can't get us. He knows time's on our side.'
Two panes were shattered, then the shooting stopped again. The phone rang. Tony let it ring a while before he answered.
'Missed, you jerk!'
'I don't see you going anywhere, asshole!' The shout was loud enough that Tucker and Charon beard the buzz from ten feet away.
'I think it's time for you to start runnin', Mr Kelly. Who knows, maybe we won't catch you. Maybe the cops will. They're after you too, I hear.'
'You're still the ones in the trap, remember.'
'You say so, man.' Piaggi hung up on him again, showing who had the upper hand.
'And how are you, Colonel?' Voloshin asked.
'It has been an interesting trip.' Ritter and Grishanov were sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, just two tourists tired after a hot day, joined by a third friend, under the watchful eyes of a security guard ten yards away.
'And your Vietnamese friend?'
'What?' Kolya asked in some surprise. 'What friend?'
Ritter grinned. 'That was just a little ploy on my part. We had to identify the leak, you see.'
'I thought that was your doing,' the KGB general observed sourly. It was such an obvious trap and he'd fallen right into it. Almost. Fortune had smiled on him, and probably Ritter didn't know that.
'The game goes on, Sergey. Will you weep for a traitor?'
'For a traitor, no. For a believer in the cause of a peaceful world, yes. You are very clever, Bob. You have done well.' Perhaps not, Voloshin thought, perhaps not as far into the trap as you believe, my young American friend. You moved too fast. You managed to kill this Hicks boy, but not Cassius. Impetuous, my young friend. You miscalculated and you really don't know it, do you?
Time for business. 'What about our people?'
'As agreed, they are with the others. Rokossovskiy confirms.