Carpenter and Kensington had met a less-generous fate. Carpenter had lied about telling the CNO, leading necessarily to. one of those surprises of which the CNO was not so fond. The two admirals were going to join Sherman on the retired list, each minus a star.
Train looked over at Karen again. Soon to be Commander, USN (Retired) Lawrence-now on preretirement leave until the clock ran out at twenty years. During dinner one nigh4, she had reiterated her intentions to go away for a while, and, after about thirty seconds of serious thought and mental girding of loins, Train had worked up the nerve to ask if she might like some company on her walkabout.
Karen found an unusually expressive way of answering his question, actually managing to embarrass Hiroshi, Kyoko, and even Gutter.
The only loose end was Galantz. Mchale Johnson had called Train two days before they left town to get his version of the story. There were, he said, some utterly fascinating rumors circulating around the various agency grapevines.
But one question caught Train’s attention.
“Did you see a body?” Johnson had asked.
“Never did, actually,” Train replied. “Lots of activity around what I thought was a body, but no, I never did.”
“That sort of confirms what I’m hearing,” Johnson said.
“Oh man. You mean he’s still alive?”
“Well,” Johnson said, “better than that, really.”
“What do you mean? I should think they’d-“
“They’d what? Execute him? Why should they? Don’t you see-now he’s twice dead. Once in-Vietnam, again on Slade Hill. That’s what I would call really deep cover, wouldn’t you? Those people would never waste an asset like that.
Karen stiffed in her seat and made a small noise in her throat. Train reached over and took her hand. If Galantz was still alive, he might be back, although he had achieved what he wanted. Some loose ends will just have to stay out there, he thought. Small faceless terrors back there along the Potomac River, among the many degrees of purple.