“You are uniquely qualified,” Link added.
“I’m also a little confused,” Rodgers said. “Are you making me an offer?”
The senator laughed. That one was a short stage laugh. “As I said, Texas is in here.” Orr touched his chest. “I watched how you walked into the office. That’s the way I want my cabinet members to step to a podium.”
Rodgers was flattered and also suspicious. Either Orr was hooking him for some other reason, or he was exactly as he said: a straight-shooting politician.
“General, may I ask how things are at Op-Center?” Link said.
“Why?” Rodgers asked. “What have you heard?”
“Not much,” Link replied.
“In D.C.? That’s unlikely,” Rodgers said.
“He’s got you there, Ken.” Orr laughed, once again for real.
“Touché,” the admiral said. “The truth is, we just heard they’re spearheading the investigation into the murder of William Wilson.”
“Really?” Rodgers said.
Link was watching him. “You seem surprised.”
“I am. Who’s the point man?”
“I don’t know. But whoever it is, he’s good,” Link replied. “He’s the one who found signs of trauma under the tongue that the medical examiner missed. He turned this from a heart attack to a homicide.”
“I see,” Rodgers replied.
That sounded like a street-smart “get” by Darrell McCaskey. Op-Center must have become involved at the request of Interpol or Scotland Yard.
“General, we heard that the CIOC has instructed Op-Center to make budget cuts,” Link went on. “Why would Director Hood take on an outside project like this in an environment trending toward austerity and realignment?”
“You would have to ask him,” Rodgers said.
“Of course,” Orr said. “Ken, you’re asking General Rodgers to breach departmental confidentiality—”
“Actually, it’s more than that,” Rodgers informed the men. “This morning I learned that I am part of those bottom-line reductions. My tenure as deputy director is effectively over.”
“They asked for your resignation?” Orr asked, surprised.
“Two weeks from now I’m either working with you or back at the DoD in some other capacity.”
“Now that’s a kick in the damn teeth,” Link said. “They ship out an American hero, then help to investigate a decadent British billionaire.”
Orr’s phone beeped. He answered, listened, said he would be right there. “I’m expected in the conference room for a pre-interview with Mr. Dan Rather’s associate producer,” he said. “General, will you be able to stay for a bit? This should not take more than fifteen minutes.”
“Of course,” Rodgers said, rising as the senator did.
Orr left the room and shut the door behind him. Rodgers sat back down. Link was looking at him. Rodgers took a sip of coffee.
“General Rodgers — Mike, if I may — do you mind if I ask you something personal?”
“Go ahead.”
“Do you feel betrayed by Paul Hood or Op-Center?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Rodgers replied.
“How far would you go?”
That was a loaded question, Rodgers thought, though he was not sure what exactly it was loaded with. He knew at once that this was not idle chat.
“I don’t feel good about the way things happened, but this was an assignment, a tour of duty,” Rodgers replied. “For whatever reason, that job is over. I’m ready to move on.”
“That’s a healthy attitude,” Link said.
“Thanks. Now I’d like to ask you a question, Admiral.”
“All right.”
“Does it matter how I feel about Op-Center?”
“Not in terms of your working with us,” Link said. “It’s more a question of helping them.”
“I’m not following.”
“Paul Hood is moving them into a very dangerous place, not just for him but for us,” Link said.
“Why us?”
“It’s a question of appearances,” Link told him. “If the NCMC is ham-fisted about their investigation, it’s going to slop all over us, all over our guests, and all over our convention.”
“Why do you assume it will be handled badly?”
“Because Op-Center is suddenly very shorthanded,” Link said. “Let’s say that Individual X has taken on this assignment. He still has to perform his other duties, plus whatever new duties he inherits due to the cutbacks. I don’t have to tell you that in a reduced-personnel environment in the military, standard operating procedure is to shoot every door in a house and see which one groans. If Individual X is forced to take that approach here, we may suffer unwarranted hits.”
“Possibly. But the hits should not be serious.”
“When you’re launching a new political party, any stain on your credibility is serious,” Link said. “It scares away donors. Also, I’ve spoken to a number of people on the Hill. They wonder if Hood may be using this action to try to retrench, to fold the idea of international criminal investigation into crisis management. He did something like that before.”
“Actually, we backed into that one by stopping a missile attack on Japan,” Rodgers said. “The president asked us to take on additional responsibilities.”
“I understand that the situations are different,” Link said. “So are the times. The CIA was moving from human intelligence to electronic intelligence. Data was falling through the digital cracks. Op-Center was there to catch it. The Company won’t let that happen this time.”
“Okay. Even if that is true, why is it our concern?” Rodgers asked.
“Because the perception is that Paul Hood may have manufactured a situation,” Link replied.
“Horseshit,” Rodgers snapped. He hoped this perception was not something Link had whipped up. It was contemptible. “I know the people at Op-Center. They would never do that.”
“Other people aren’t so convinced,” Link said.
“What people?”
“Influential people,” Link replied. “People who have the ear of the CIOC and the president. What I’m saying, Mike, is that it is a bad situation all around.”
“Okay, it’s bad. Why share that insight with me?”
“I think you should talk to Hood,” Link said. “Tell him that the way to help Op-Center is to soft-pedal this.”
“Soft-pedal. Do you mean bury?”
“I mean they should let the Brits handle this through channels. They should let the Metro Police work the investigation.”
The Metropolitan Police were efficient, sensitive, and discreet. Their footsteps would not splash much mud. While Rodgers did not believe that Hood was doing this for the reasons Link had stated, there was no doubt that the presence of a crisis management organization would leave a much bigger footprint.
“There’s something else to consider,” Link went on. “The CIOC can effectively dissolve Op-Center tomorrow simply by downsizing the budget to zero. If Hood steps on FBI jurisdiction, that could happen. Be a friend to him. Suggest to Hood that he reconsider his involvement.”
“I’ll think about it,” Rodgers said.
The subject was not raised again.
The men talked a little about the USF and the convention, and Link shared a list of politicians and business leaders who were privately committed to lending support to the party. It was impressive. He also gave Rodgers a CD containing USF press releases and internal directives to bring him up to speed.
Donald Orr returned, and so did a sense of balance. The senator said the interview had gone very well, that he had told CBS that they should wait for an official statement from investigators before speculating about the death of the man he described as “Britain’s gift to Europe.” That was one of Kat’s phrases, Orr said, and he liked the point it made.
As Rodgers conferred with the men, he found himself very relaxed with Orr and very suspicious of Link. The Orr-Link dynamic was not good cop, bad cop. It was more honest than that. Orr was like the white hat sheriff who would face a gunslinger on Main Street at high noon and let him draw first. Link was the deputy who hid behind a window with a rifle, clipped the bad guy in the shoulder, then went over and stepped on the wound until the man told him where the rest of the gang was hiding. Both approaches were strategically valid as long as you were not the target. Rodgers knew where he stood with Orr. He was not so sure about Link. There was a fine distinction between being employed by someone and being used by them. It was up to the integrity of the employer and the dignity of the employee to see that the line was not crossed.