Mission of Honor

Chapter Sixty-five

After Rodgers had placed the call to Aideen, the ventilator died in Hood's office.

"Overworked from all that musk and testosterone we've been pumping out," Herbert deadpanned.

More likely it was something that hadn't been updated when the former Cold War command center was renovated for OpCenter. Hood, Rodgers, Herbert, McCaskey, and Coffey moved into the Tank. The conference room had more space and more phones. Also, it had been renovated. Hood should have shifted there in the first place. But they had all been too caught up in the moment to move. They grabbed sandwiches from the vending machine down the hall and talked about anything else while they waited to hear from one of the three members of the group. Some of them checked E-mail. Knowing that Aideen no longer had the cell phone made it worse. At best, they would hear nothing until the operatives reached Maun. With luck, that would happen around two-thirty.

Hood had received E-mails from his son Alexander. That was how the boy communicated when his father was tied up. They had a separate life together on-line. Different topics and a different language. Even a different relationship than they had when they were together physically. Alexander was more serious on-line, and Hood more flip. It was strange. Hood knocked out some quick responses so the boy would have them in the morning.

The first call that came through to the Tank was from Edgar Kline. Hood put the VSO officer on speakerphone. The Vatican Security officer was calling to inform them that Father Bradbury was located by a Botswana military helicopter. He was safe.

"I wanted to thank you all," Kline said. "Especially you, Bob and Paul. I know we had some disagreements along the way, but I hope that won't stand in the way of future cooperation."

"Every family has its disputes," Hood replied. "The point is, we are still family."

Herbert made a face. He moved both of his fists up and down. He was right. But this was how the game was played, and Herbert knew it. And in the end, the results were what mattered.

"Against the odds, your people secured Powys Bradbury's freedom," Kline went on. "You probably saved his life."

"Thank you, but we don't know that Father Bradbury's life was in danger," Hood cautioned.

"Perhaps he would not have been murdered as the bishop was," Kline acknowledged. "But I am informed that he had been tortured and looked deathlike. We cannot be certain he would have died without you. But we are certain, now, that he will live."

"I'll grant you that," Hood said. "I'll also pass your thanks along to the others."

"I also want you to know that a Botswana patrol has found Leon Seronga," Kline reported. "He is dead."

"By whose hand?" Hood asked.

"He took his own life."

"Are they sure?" Herbert asked.

"They're very certain," Kline replied. "He took a single gunshot wound to the temple. He must have known it was over. Or maybe he was trying to keep the government from interrogating and trying him."

Hood looked at Herbert and Rodgers. Obviously, they were all thinking the same thing. Leon Seronga did that and more. He fell on his sword for Dhamballa. He had given the government of Botswana a fall guy. They could blame this on him and present his death as the end of the threat. There could be an immediate return to normalcy.

Kline had nothing else to say. He asked to speak with the three field operatives as soon as possible. The Vatican wanted to convey their thanks to them personally. He was sure Father Bradbury would like to do that as well. Hood promised to make that happen.

"What about you?" Kline asked. "Do you have any further information on the murder of Bishop Max or about Dhamballa?"

"No," Hood replied. "Not a thing."

There was a short silence. Hood had learned to read the silences of foreign officials. It meant that they did not believe the last thing you had said, but they were too diplomatic to tell you so.

Having made his point, Kline thanked them all again and hung up.

"Yeah, friend. We're gonna tell you that we let Dhamballa walk off into the sunset," Herbert muttered.

"To tell you the truth, I'm not sure we did the right thing there," McCaskey said.

"We established our mission parameters, and we stuck to them. Our people are safe, and they're coming home. We did the right thing," Rodgers declared with finality.

"We also lost an opportunity to establish close ties with the Botswana government," McCaskey pointed out. "In the end, that kind of relationship can prove extremely useful."

"Especially if it turns out that something else is going on in that region," Herbert said.

"Then we would have had to tell them why we were there and how we got in," Hood reminded them.

"That would not be a basis for establishing trust," Rodgers said.

"Trust is not a factor in this, Mike," McCaskey said. "Need is a factor. If they need us, the rest is irrelevant."

"We can go to the Botswanans when this done, make fresh overtures," Hood said. He winked at McCaskey. Things had gotten tense again between the former G-man and Rodgers. Hood wanted to take the edge off. "You can do that when you go to collect Maria. Make it a belated honeymoon."

"That would be nice," McCaskey admitted.

"What would be nice is figuring out where the Japanese fit in all this," Herbert said.

"We also have to get that information out somehow," Coffey said. "Let people know that the Brush Vipers did not kill the bishop. I don't know if I sympathize with Dhamballa and Leon Seronga. I certainly don't like what they did. But they should not take the rap for something they did not do."

"I agree with you one hundred percent," Hood said. "We have to try to clear them and at the same time gather evidence about how and why the Japanese are tied to this."

"What a time to not have a press department," Herbert remarked. "Ann would have come up with some good ways to leak this."

"My staff can handle whatever needs to be presented to the media," Coffey remarked.

"Yeah, but Ann Farris had panache," Herbert said. "She presented things to the media from ten different directions. From here, through the newspapers, on radio talk shows. It was a coordinated assault."

"Bob, we'll figure out how to do it," Hood said.

"Maybe Ann will consult," Herbert suggested.

"We'll get it done," Hood assured him. He looked away. He did not want to think about Ann Farris. That was both a personal and a professional issue. He had no time for it right now.

The phone beeped. Hood grabbed it. "This is Hood," he said.

"Paul, it's Aideen."

'Talk to me, Aideen!" Hood said.

"We made it," she told him. "We are in Maun."

Hood did not realize how tense his shoulders were until they relaxed. The others in the room cheered.

"Did you hear that?" Hood asked.

"I did," she said.

"How are you?" Hood asked. "Where are you?"

"Paris dropped us at a hotel-the Sun and Casino. There are rooms. We're taking one."

"Be our guest," Hood said.

"We will be," Aideen replied.

"Everyone come through all right?" Hood asked.

"We're tired, but that's it," she said. "Hold on. Maria would like to talk to her husband."

Hood punched off the speaker. He transferred the call to McCaskey's station. The other men rose. They left the Tank to give McCaskey some privacy.

Coffey and Herbert left to go home. Rodgers turned to go. Hood lay an arm on his shoulder.

"You did a great job, Mike," Hood said. "Thank you."

"They did it," he said, pointing to the Tank. "The people overseas."

"You picked them, you sold them on it, you ran it," Hood said. "You did a helluva job. This is going to work. The human intelligence team is going to knock some heads together out there."

"I believe you're right about that, anyway," Rodgers replied.

"Go home," Hood told him. "Get some rest. We'll need it for the wrap-up tomorrow."

Rodgers nodded and left. Hood noticed that, tired as Rodgers was, his shoulders were strong and straight, just as they must have been when he was a recruit at the age of nineteen.

As Hood was about to leave, McCaskey emerged. He looked like a kid on the night before Christmas.

"Good talk?" Hood asked.

"Yeah," McCaskey said. "Real good. Maria sounds absolutely drained but satisfied."

"She should be," Hood said. "They did an amazing job over there."

"She wants to come home as soon as possible," McCaskey went on. "I'm going to fly to London and collect my wife."

"Great," Hood said. He felt a stab of sadness. He was going to go home to an empty apartment.

McCaskey's eyes became wistful. "Listen, I'm sorry about the way I've been acting since this started. It hit a primo sore spot-"

"Don't apologize," Hood said. "I've got 'em, too. We all do." He smiled. "The important thing, Darrell, is that we learned something very important."

"What's that?" McCaskey asked.

"How not to engage HUMINT operatives in the future," Hood replied.

McCaskey smiled and left. Hood went back to his warm office. He took an old fan from the closet, set it on the floor beside his chair, angled it up, and turned it on. It felt good. If he shut his eyes, he could imagine he was on the beach in Carlsbad, California, where he used to go with young Harleigh and Alexander. They would stroll along the miles-long concrete seawall, occasionally going down to the beach to sit, drink, or watch for dolphins.

Where did those breezy, innocent days go? How did he end up alone? How did he land in the windowless basement of an old military building, leading a team of military officials, diplomats, and intelligence officers, trying to put out fires around the world?

You wanted to get out of politics but still do something important, he reminded himself.

Well, Paul Hood got that. He also got the pressures and demands that came with that challenge.

Yet there is also deep, deep satisfaction, he had to admit. And this moment was one of them.

But now it was time to get back to work. Before Hood left for the night, he wanted to send Emmy Feroche an E-mail to thank her for her help and tell her not to worry about Stiele, for now. Then, after a long night's sleep, there was a conversation he had to try to have. A chat with the man who probably knew much more about this situation than he had let on: Shigeo Fujima. Hood suspected that, at best, the conversation would go something like the talk with Edgar Kline. On topic without being particularly illuminating.

Only this time, it would be Paul Hood generating those carefully measured pauses.