The man didn't rise to the barb. Ariel tried another tack. "Maybe I can talk to my boss about you. Would you be interested in working with me?"
The man turned and carefully spit into Ariel's face. In a fit of fury the Israeli pulled out his pistol and cocked it. The copilot in the right front seat had been following the conversation and now yelled, "Put that away! What do you think you're doing? You can't fire that in here. Besides, the Ring Man wants the American alive."
Ariel slowly regained control of his temper. He pushed the muzzle of the pistol into the man's temple. "You will pay for that. Maybe not now, but later."
The American looked at Ariel and smiled. "Fuck you. Fuck your mother. Fuck your father. Fuck your—" The rest of the tirade was lost as Ariel tore the headset off the man. That didn't stop the American, though. He rocked in the web seat as much as the restraints would let him and shouted profanities at the top of his lungs.
Ariel spent the rest of the flight pressed up against the door, as far as he could get from the crazy American, thinking of things he would do to him if the Ring Man let him.
Westland looked across the desk at Lieutenant Colonel Turrel, the army military attaché to Colombia. Turrel returned her stare with a look that ranged somewhere between amusement and concern.
His amusement came from having watched Westland fight off Jameson. The CIA man had nearly had a fit when Westland appeared in the Marine Corps' guard post in the embassy, demanding to see the army military attaché. Jameson had hustled her into the embassy and tried to steer her into his office. Westland had sabotaged that plan by the simple tactic of not getting on the elevator with Jameson and watching the door shut in his surprised face. She'd then climbed the stairs to the second floor and presented herself to Turrel. Before she could talk to him, Jameson had stormed into the room, ordering her to his office. Westland had stubbornly refused, and Jameson had just left in a huff, threatening her, telling her he was going to call Virginia and ship her ass back on the first thing flying.
Turrel's concern stemmed from his knowledge that something fishy was going on. Putting the cache in three nights ago had alerted him to that fact. This young woman seated across from him must be involved somehow.
Westland sighed deeply and tried to figure out how to begin. Riley had told her to be up front with Turrel. She decided to be as truthful as she could without giving away any classified information on the mission. She was already in enough trouble.
"My name's Kate Westland. As you can tell from the last couple of minutes, I work for the agency. I'm down here on an operation and I need to use your STU-III line to call someone in Washington."
Turrel leaned back in his chair. "Why don't you use Jameson's? He's got an even higher priority line than I do."
"He wouldn't let me. I'm not supposed to even be here."
"I gathered that much. If you're operating with a cover you've probably blown it."
"I had no choice. I have to get in contact with someone in the Pentagon."
Turrel raised his eyebrows. "Anybody I might know?"
"Do you know General Pike?"
"Mike Pike?" Westland nodded. "I didn't know he'd been promoted. I know him by reputation. Anybody wearing these crossed arrows on their collar from Special Forces branch knows about him." Turrel seemed to consider this for a few seconds. "I assume you want to talk to him privately?"
Westland nodded. "It's highly classified."
"Does this have anything to do with the cache I put in the other night?"
"I can't answer that." Westland looked him in the eyes. "Please, I need to make this call."
Turrel relented. "All right. I'll stand guard outside. Do you know how to work that thing?" He pointed at the bulky phone with a line of buttons over the normal telephone keypad.
She nodded. Turrel removed the activating key from the string around his neck, turned on the phone, and left the room.
Westland punched in the number Riley had given her. She'd feel really stupid if no one answered, after going through all this trouble. She waited anxiously as the phone buzzed twice on the other end. She let out a deep breath when it was picked up and a familiar voice came on.
"Pike here. This line is unsecured."
Westland didn't give her name, hoping her voice would be recognized. "We need to go secure."
"Roger. You ready on your end?"
"Yes."
"All right. I'm on now."
Westland punched two numbers on the top row of buttons. She heard a beep and then a hiss. A red light came on her set. "I'm showing red."
Pike's voice came back. "I've got red too. I assume that's you, Kate."
"It's me, General. Riley told me to call you. I'm in Colombia with him."
"I know that."
Westland looked at the phone in surprise. How did Pike know that? "Do you know why we're here?"
"Yeah. Some bozo from your outfit figured that Riley could take out the Ring Man."
How the hell did he know all this? Supposedly the only people in on the whole thing were at Langley or down here. Was there a leak in Langley? Then it occurred to her. "Riley called you from the airport, didn't he?"
"Of course. He figured he might need some help and he thought I was the one who might be able to do that for him. What did he tell you to relay to me?"
The son of a bitch, she thought to herself. I wonder what the hell else he's done that I don't know about. Westland shook off her surprise and proceeded to relate the information Riley had given her. She concluded by asking about the possibility of a Hammer strike on the villa.
Pike's bitter laugh wasn't distorted by the phone. "Hell, no. You got a better chance of the Ring Man having a heart attack than you do of this government taking any action. The video has caused people to head for the hills. They're still denying everything at State and here at the Pentagon.
"If Alegre falls there's going to be some hard questioning. This most recent wave of assassinations and bombings has people here running scared. The feeling is that the drug cartel is going to make a big push against the government and that the Hammer missions may have been the spark. And no one wants to admit publicly that they were part of that."
Then what am I doing talking to you then? Westland thought. "Is there anything you can do?"
"I'm working on something. I'm flying down to Bragg in an hour for the memorial service for those guys. If I come up with something useful, how can I get a hold of you?"
"I don't know."
"Whose office are you calling from?"
"The army attaché’s."
"What's Riley doing?"
"He's got surveillance on the Ring Man's villa."
"Good. Tell him not to take any action before midnight tomorrow night. I know he'll be keeping pretty tight surveillance on the target. If I can do anything, I'll get back to him somehow."
Westland was confused. How the hell could Pike contact Riley? And it was obvious that Pike also knew the deadline for the hit. "How will you contact him?"
"I'll get a hold of the attaché down there and relay a message through him to you, and you pass it on. If he's letting you use his phone he should be willing to pass a message. Will that work?"
"Yes. The attaché here is a Lieutenant Colonel Turrel."
"I know. I'll talk to him later today. Is there anything else?"
"No."
"Good luck."
Westland heard the click on the other end. She hung up and turned off the phone. When she opened the door Turrel was standing there with Jameson in front of him and an air force full colonel next to him. They all turned at her appearance in the doorway.
"What were you doing in there?" Jameson demanded.
"Nothing." Westland sidled up next to Turrel.
"Bullshit." Jameson turned to the air force officer, who was probably the ranking attaché. "Your man here has made contact with this woman despite my protests. I demand that you discipline him."