Tom Clancy's Op-center_ Call To Treason Part 34

"I understand you were looking for me?" Stone said, smiling.

"I was," Rodgers said.

"What can I do for you?"

Rodgers looked around. "First of all, how did you know where I was?" the general asked. He was trying to spot the nearest surveillance camera or a tail.

"General, there was nothing conspiratorial." Stone laughed. "The desk supervisor said you went this way. I knew what you were wearing and got lucky."

Rodgers did not buy that. One of the hundreds of people surrounding them could have been watching him. Perhaps someone in a hotel window.

"So what is it you wanted?" Stone pressed.

Rodgers regarded the younger man. He looked at his posture, at his expression, at his hands. "I spoke with Detective Howell of the Metro Police in D.C.," Rodgers informed him. "He told me he is being blackmailed by someone in your camp. I want to know who and why."

"That's ridiculous," Stone said. "The detective bungled an investigation. He needed someone to blame. He picked us. Maybe someone is putting him up to it; maybe he has a personal vendetta. All I can tell you is that he is wasting our time. Now, if that is all you need to know-"

"No, there's more. I want to know what the endgame is."

"To elect a president," Stone replied. He frowned and looked around. "Where is Kat, by the way? Did you see her?"

"I saw her."

"She's supposed to be with reporters, talking about the campaign."

"She's taking some personal time," Rodgers said. He moved closer. "Talk to me, dammit."

"I am."

"No. You're playing. There's smug in your smile, in your eyes, but you're still lying to me."

"Excuse me?"

"Tension displacement. When you're wound tight, it has to come out somewhere. Your fingertips are white. You're squeezing that walkie-talkie like it's a rubber stress ball. The pressure of all those steaks, is that what it is?"

"Yes, General. Look, I'll have to talk to you some other time-"

"You will talk now," Rodgers said.

"What you're doing makes no sense, do you realize that?" Stone protested. "Think about it. If I were guilty of a terrible crime, would I stand here and confess to you? Do you think you're that good a bully?"

"I can be," Rodgers said.

"Security would have your face pressed to the asphalt in about ten seconds," Stone a.s.sured him. "And I would have you incarcerated for a.s.sault, with no sad sack detective to bail you out."

Rodgers's gaze sharpened. "How did you know that?"

"What?"

"That Howell let the McCaskeys go."

"I didn't," Stone said.

It hit Rodgers a moment before he heard it. Voices were shouting from the walkie-talkie, inarticulate in their shrill and overlapping communiques.

Stone raised the unit. "This is Stone. What's going on?"

"Something happened," someone said.

"What?"

"The admiral," the speaker said. His voice was hesitant, uneasy. "He left the hotel from the back exit, but he never made it to the convention center."

"It's only a mile!" Stone said. "Have you called the driver?" he asked as he reached for his own cell phone.

"We did. There's no answer. The admiral doesn't answer his phone, either."

"Is security on this?"

"They called 911 and asked for an aerial search to see if they can find the limousine."

"Tell security I'll be right there," Stone said angrily. He speed-dialed a number as he started jogging back toward the hotel.

Rodgers followed, also running.

"Kat, it's Eric," he said after a moment. "Something has happened. I need you to get downstairs and run the press."

The men entered the lobby. Word of a possible abduction was spreading. People had stopped whatever they were doing and were looking around, asking anyone with a Staff badge for information. Stone ignored them all as he rushed by. The men walked past the elevators to a corridor lined with shops. The rear entrance was at the end of the carpeted hallway.

As Stone briefed Kat, Rodgers examined the feeling he had experienced just before the walkie-talkie came to life. A sense that had suddenly changed Rodgers's perception of what he thought was beginner's luck, a chaos gambit.

He no longer believed that Stone was an amateur. Neither was his boss, whoever that was. Someone had profiled Rodgers. They had understood exactly how the general would act and react to everything they did. Stone knew that Rodgers would seek him out in San Diego. He knew that, after their first talk, after McCaskey's arrest, Rodgers would tell Kat to stay out of the way for a while. Stone also knew that when he finally presented himself to Rodgers, the general would push for information.

In short, the son of a b.i.t.c.h Stone had been stalling him.

FORTY-EIGHT.

Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. Wednesday, 5:47 P.M.

The sun was sinking low, and there was a chill in the air. The odor of diesel fuel wafted thinly from the aircraft at the base. It reminded Herbert of when he and his wife, Yvonne, used to be at a military airfield in some foreign land, waiting to be airlifted to or from a mission for the Company.

The light, the smell, the taste of the air reminded him in particular of the field at the U.S. air base in Ramstein, Germany. That was where he and Yvonne had their last meal before heading to Beirut, where she died and he lost the use of his legs. They had gone to the base commissary, grabbed a couple of sandwiches and coffees, and took a card table onto the field. It was a little too windy for candles, so they used a menorah the quartermaster had in storage. It was the best grilled cheese and coleslaw Herbert ever had. Yvonne never looked more beautiful and heroic to him. What a role model she had been. Always pus.h.i.+ng him and herself to do a better job. She was convinced that whatever they did in Lebanon could help to bring peace to the region.

It did, to the nearly three hundred U.S. troops who died in the emba.s.sy bombing. Including Yvonne.

It was difficult for Herbert not to crash, burn, and smoulder for hours whenever that day came upon him-typically by surprise, like a mugger. It could be a song Yvonne might have been listening to on the trip over. It could be a feeling in the air, like now. Even the smell of grilled cheese took him back. All Herbert could do was swallow the awful lump, concentrate on what he was doing, and get the h.e.l.l out of that bittersweet place. Yesterday's EM explosion made the feeling even more immediate.

Stopping bad guys usually worked. That was what Herbert was trying to do now. The problem at the moment was not just wrestling down memories of Yvonne but fighting off the desire to hurt Paul Hood. As his grandfather used to put it back in Mississippi, he wished he could "sock him in the snot box and shake loose some intelligence." The firing of Mike Rodgers offended him like nothing else in the past quarter century. When this was over, Herbert would have to decide if he could still work with the man. The way he was feeling, maybe he and Mike should open their own version of Murder, Inc. Something like, Revenge, Inc. He even had the slogan. "You pay, then they they pay." That would give them both a chance to act out in grand style. pay." That would give them both a chance to act out in grand style.

For now, though, he had to find out what he could about Lucy O'Connor. Darrell had called to say that he and Maria were headed to her apartment. If she was not there-and McCaskey did not expect her to be-he needed to know where she could have gone.

"There is one thing about her you should know," Herbert told him.

"What is that?" McCaskey asked.

"She was busted while she was a student at Carnegie-Mellon," Herbert informed him.

"For what?"

"Riding the horse," Herbert said.

"Lucy was a heroin addict?"

"That's what the Pittsburgh PD records say," Herbert said. "Did six months in the pokey, where she went through rehab."

"Impossible. That would have showed up on her background check," McCaskey said. "She never would have been allowed near Congress."

"Unless someone had the file buried and told her one day there would be payback," Herbert said. "A real-life Don Corleone."

"Orr or Link," McCaskey said. "So how did you find the record?"

"I didn't," Herbert said. "Routine check of her college years turned up a bust at the frat house where Lucy lived. Her name wasn't mentioned. I called one of the kids who did time. She said, h.e.l.l, yeah, Lucy was with her in the clink."

"She would have known how to give the injections," McCaskey said. "That's one more reason to believe she is the killer."

"Most likely. You're an aspiring journalist who screwed up, someone rescues you, gives you all kinds of access-there are people who would kill to protect that," Herbert said. "There are people who have killed for less."

"True, though I'm not going to sign on to that until I talk to the woman," McCaskey said.

"I agree."

"Speaking of which, if we don't find her at home, you have any suggestions where we should try next?" McCaskey asked.

"I sent Stephen Viens over to the NRO," Herbert said. "He's got an hour on the Auto-Search program in the Domestic Surveillance Platform."

The DSP was a new Homeland Security satellite. It was located in a geostationary orbit and kept pointed on the metro D.C. area. It had the ability to pinpoint cars by shape, weight, and the specific configuration of the dashboard electronics. Once spotted, the onboard camera could zoom in to read the license number. If suspicious individuals were seen getting into a particular vehicle or renting a specific car, the DSP could find and track them with relative ease.

"How did Viens swing time on that?" McCaskey asked. "The DSP is Homeland's baby."

"All I know is that Paul made a call," Herbert told him. "He got us the hour."

"Impressive," McCaskey said.

"I guess someone figured they owed us one or else felt sorry for us," Herbert said. "Anyway, Ms. O'Connor drives a red Mustang convertible. If she is on the road, we will find her."

As Herbert was talking with McCaskey, he got an instant message on his borrowed laptop.

Viens1: We have your car. It is just crossing the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge headed west.

"Darrell, we've got your perp," Herbert said. "She's on 95 crossing the river. She could be headed to the airport." The irony of Lucy O'Connor being on a bridge named W. Wilson was not lost on him.

"We're on 395 east now," McCaskey said. "I'll turn and go for an intercept. Can Viens stay with her?"

Herbert forwarded the question to Viens, who wrote back that the NRO's Homeland Security liaison, Lauren Tartags, said he could take the time, barring a crisis. Herbert told Viens to thank Ms. Tartags for her generosity. Op-Center's imaging expert wrote back:

Viens1: It's not kindness. She says she has no choice.

That was odd, but Herbert did not worry about it now. The intelligence chief told McCaskey to remain on the line. He said he would forward any new information immediately.

Through the open line Herbert could hear McCaskey and his wife conferring. The mutual respect he heard in the exchange made him smile. Maria was a tough, swashbuckling, headstrong, old-school law officer. She was the kind of cop who did not knock on doors but kicked them in. She was a perfect counterbalance to the more meticulous McCaskey.

He was happy for them. And he envied them.

Despite receiving data from the new satellite, Herbert felt as if he were back in the technological Stone Age. Before the electromagnetic blast, he would have been sitting in his office looking at the images being forwarded directly from the DSP. He could do that in the Tank, but that would mean hanging with Paul Hood. That was something he did not want to do right now.

Especially when he could still do his work out here and let the mechanized odor of the parking lot transport him to another time and place. To a point in his life when he had the best team a man could have, a wife who was his devoted personal and professional partner.

Maybe that was why Paul Hood did not understand the bad judgment call he had made. He never had an Yvonne in his life. He did not understand the meaning of partners.h.i.+p partners.h.i.+p. Maybe that was why Herbert had judged Hood so harshly. Because he did have that perspective.

And here, in the breezy quiet, where memories took form in the dark shadows beside the buildings, he had her still.

FORTY-NINE.

Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. Wednesday, 6:06 P.M.