I’ll be bringing in younger and more aggressive menlike you.”
“Sir, I don’t know what to say,” Peake told him, which was as true as it
was evasive.
As intently as Peake watched the road ahead, Sharp watched Peake. “But
the men I’ll have around me must be totally reliable, totally committed
to my vision for the agency. They must be willing to take any risks,
make any sacrifices, give whatever is required to further the cause of
the agency and, of course, the welfare of the country. At times, rarely
but predictably, they’ll be in situations where they must bend the law a
little or even break it altogether for the good of country and agency.
When you’re up against the scum we’ve got to deal with-terrorists,
Soviet agents-you can’t always play strictly within the rules, not if
you want to win, and our government has created the agency to win,
Jerry. You’re young, but I’m sure you’ve been around long enough to
know what I’m talking about. I’m sure you’ve bent the law a few times
yourself.”
“Well, sir, yes, a little, maybe,” Peake said carefully, beginning to
sweat under the collar of his white shirt.
They passed a sign, LAKE ARROWHEAD 10 MILES.
“All right, Jerry, I’m going to level with you and hope you’re the
solid, reliable man I think you are. I haven’t brought a lot of backup
with us because the word’s come down from Washington that Mrs. Leben and
Benjamin Shadway have to go. And if we’re going to take care of them,
we need to keep the party small, quiet, discreet.”
“Take care of them?”
“They’re to be terminated, Jerry. If we find them at the cabin with
Eric Leben, we try our best to take Leben prisoner so he can be studied
under lab conditions, but Shadway and the woman have to be terminated,
with prejudice. That would be difficult if not impossible with a lot of
police present, we’d have to delay the terminations until we had Shadway
and Mrs. Leben in our sole custody, then stage a fake escape attempt or
something. And with too many of our own men present, there’d be a
greater chance of the terminations leaking out to the media. In a way,
it’s sort of a blessing that you and I are getting a chance to handle
this alone, because we’ll be able to stage it just right before the
police and media types are brought in.”
Terminate? The agency had no license to terminate civilians. This was
mad. But Peake said, “Why terminate Shadway and Mrs. Leben?”
“I’m afraid that’s classified, Jerry.”
“But the warrant that cites them for suspected espionage and for the
police murders in Palm Springs.
well, that’s just a cover story, right? Just a way to get the local
cops to help us in the search.”
“Yes,” Sharp said, “but there’s a great deal about this case you don’t
know, Jerry. Information that’s tightly held and that I can’t share
with you, not even though I’m asking you to assist me in what may
appear, to you, to be a highly illegal and possibly even immoral
undertaking. But as deputy director, I assure you, Shadway and Mrs.
Leben are a mortal danger to this country, so dangerous that we dare not
let them speak with the media or with local authorities.”
Bullshit, Peake thought, but he said nothing, just drove onward under
felt-green and blue-green trees that arched over the road.
Sharp said, “The decision to terminate is not mine alone. It comes from
Washington, Jerry. And not just from Jarrod McClain. Much higher than
that, Jerry. Much higher. The very highest.”
Bullshit, Peake thought. Do you really expect me to believe the
president ordered the cold-blooded killing of two hapless civilians
who’ve gotten in over their heads by no real fault of their own?
Then he realized that, before the insights he had achieved at the
hospital in Palm Springs a short while ago, he might well have been
naive enough to believe every word of what Sharp was telling him. The
new Jerry Peake, enlightened both by the way Sharp had treated Sarah
Kiel and by the way he’d reacted to The Stone, was not quite so gullible