True Blue

CHAPTER 84

THIS WAS a nice surprise.” Karl Reiger’s wife, Wendy, kissed him on the cheek as her husband flipped another burger on the grill.

“Kids had the day off so I thought what the hell. Nice, sunny day, summer around the corner.”

“Well, I’m glad you did. You’ve been working such long hours lately, sweetie.”

Reiger looked at his wife. She was in her mid-thirties, four years younger than him. She still possessed the classic beauty she had when they’d met in college. She wore jean shorts, a white sleeveless blouse, and a Washington Nationals ball cap over her shoulder-length light brown hair.

“Yeah, work is a real bitch right now.”

“Oh look, Don and Sally are here.”

Reiger glanced over at the driveway of his two-story brick house in Centreville, Virginia. Lots of federal agents lived out this way because everything inside the Beltway was far too expensive if your job was to merely risk your life in serving your country. Don Hope, his wife, and three kids were climbing out of a Dodge mini\van, hauling platters of food along with a baseball and several gloves. Hope’s two sons put down the food on a wooden picnic table set up in the backyard and joined Reiger’s two boys in throwing the ball around. The Hopes’ daughter, a ten-year-old, went into the house with Tammy Reiger, who’d just turned eleven. Sally gave Reiger a hug and then she and Wendy busied themselves getting the meal ready.

Don Hope shut the doors of the van, grabbed two beers from a cooler he’d brought, popped the tops, walked over to Reiger at the grill, and handed him one.

Reiger took a long pull of the drink, finishing half of it.

“Cookout?” said Hope. “Little surprised to get the call.”

“Why not? Normalcy. It’s been a while.”

“Guess you’re right about that. No orders yet?”

“Why I’m flipping burgers instead of the other thing.”

“You think Burns is setting us up to take the fall?”

“Every op I’ve gone into I’m prepared to be killed by the guys on the other side and screwed by the guys signing my paychecks.”

“Hell of a way to make a living, Karl.”

“I thought I’d be career military. See the world, good pension when you pull your time. Even do some good.”

“Me too. Then-”

“We were too good at what we did, Don. That’s why they came calling. They don’t pick the dregs, they go for the cream.”

“Feeling more like soured milk now.”

Reiger slid a burger onto a platter and slapped another piece of raw meat on the grill. “Why, because we keep missing Perry?”

“Dumb luck.”

“I’m not so sure about that. I’ve read up on her after Burns gave us the ‘Rome is burning’ lecture. Lady is good at what she does. No question. Hell, I’m surprised Burns didn’t try to recruit her at some point.”

Hope took a swallow of beer and watched the boys throwing the ball. “Sterilized weapons, cocked and locked. What bullshit. I’m a dad. I got a mortgage. I’ve been married fourteen years and I still have the hots big-time for my wife. I’m not some damn machine.”

“To them we are. That’s all we are. Fungible. Use up some shells, they got more where we came from. We’re just rounds in a magazine.”

“How many more do you figure?”

“Never really thought about it, because I could never verify my guess.”

“But why meet at the Pentagon? Especially since no one else there knows what we’re up to.”

Reiger prodded a burger with a long fork. “DNI isn’t like the spider at the center of the web. It’s more like the snake slithering through the backyard. A mandate to go everywhere, see everything. Pentagon is as big an intelligence player as they come. Used to going its own way, sucking down dollars and data. We saw that when we were in uniform, Don.”

“For sure we did.”

“But even it has to kowtow to DNI. And so Burns makes the rounds, has offices everywhere, Langley, NSA, National Geospatial.”

“And the Pentagon?”

“I know two- and three-star generals who hate the DNI’s guts for all the good it’ll do them. Sam Donnelly does the daily presidential intelligence briefings now instead of the DCI. Locked tight. You got the man’s ear and trust, you can’t lose. You’re golden.”

“Yeah, but Burns is a piece of work. Half of me wishes he’d drop from a stroke.”

“And the other half?” Reiger said grinning.

“Nothing you haven’t thought about.”

Reiger put some cheese on top of an almost done burger. “Read up on him too when we were recruited for this. Vietnam vet. One hard-ass guy. Medals out the ying-yang. Guy was as brave as they come, did his thing, laid it all out there for the Stars and Stripes. Flipped to the intelligence side soon as Saigon fell. Wounds made him unfit for active duty.”

“The leg.”

“Right. He’s in his sixties. Could have got out before now, but apparently he’s got nothing else in his life.”

“Wife? Kids?”

“Wife left him, apparently his two kids did too.”

Hope looked impressed. “Where’d you get that scuttlebutt?”

Reiger cracked a smile. “Your security clearance isn’t high enough.”

Hope finished his beer. “The hell you say.”

“A hardass,” Reiger said again. “Loves his country, though. Do anything to protect it. And he expects us to do anything to protect it too. And anything covers a lot.”

“Piece of paper, Karl. That’s what we need. Our get-out-of-jail-free card.”

The ball flew toward them, landing a couple feet from the grill. Reiger snagged it and threw it back to his oldest son.

“Thanks, Pop.”

Reiger pointed at the black sedan that had just pulled into the driveway next to the minivan. The man who got out wore a plain suit that did not stand out in any way. It was the sort that Reiger and Hope wore while on duty, allowing them to just blend in. In the man’s hand was an equally plain white envelope.

“Well, here it comes right now, Don. I guess we’re back to killing Americans.”

“I don’t like this any better than you, but don’t get cold on me now, Karl.”

“I’ve been cold ever since I put a round in Jamie Meldon’s brain.”

He slapped another piece of raw meat on the grill and watched it sizzle.