Tom Clancy's Op-Center_ Divide and Conquer Part 9

"Anything interesting going on?" Ann asked.

"The usual confusion," Hood said. "Only this time, it's happening in Washington, not overseas."

"Is it something really bad?"

"I don't know yet," Hood said. "There seems to be a loose cannon somewhere in the NSA." Hood didn't want to say anything about the president possibly having mental lapses of some kind. It wasn't that he didn't trust Ann, but Megan Lawrence had told him something in confidence. For now, he wanted to keep the number of people with whom he shared that as small as possible. "What's going on in your department?"

"The usual efficiency and expert coordination," she said with a disarming smile.

"You mean nothing's going on."

"Exactly," Ann said. She waited a moment, then asked, "Do you expect to be here long?"

"A couple of hours," he said. "There's no reason to go back to the hotel. I'd just sit there and watch some bad sitcom."

"Can I interest you in dinner?" she asked.

"It may be a long night," Hood said.

"I don't have any plans, either," she said. "My son is staying with his dad this week. There's nothing for me to go home to but a spoiled cat and those same sitcoms."

Hood's heart began thumping a little faster than usual. He very much wanted to say yes to Ann. But he was still a married man, and going out with a divorced female coworker could cause trouble, legally as well as ethically. And Op-Center did not need this distraction. The intelligence team was brilliant at uncovering information. Hood having dinner with Farris would be common knowledge by morning. Besides, if dinner with Ann was in the back of his mind, he would not be focusing on a crisis in the executive branch.

"Ann, I wish I could," he said sincerely. "But I don't know when I'll be finished here. Some other time?"

"Sure," she said with a small, sad smile. She touched the back of his hand. "Have a good meeting."

"Thanks," Hood said.

Ann left, and Hood continued on his way.

Hood felt terrible now. He had not done what he really wanted to do, which was have dinner with Ann. And he had hurt her feelings.

He stopped. He wanted to go after her and tell her he would have the dinner. But once he started down that road, there was no turning back. Hood continued toward his office.

Hood buzzed Rodgers and Herbert when he arrived. Rodgers said he would be right over. Herbert was on the computer and said he would be with them in a few minutes.

Rodgers was alert and professional when he arrived. The general had always wanted to run Op-Center. If he harbored any resentment about having it handed to him and then abruptly pulled away, it did not show. Above all, Rodgers was a good man and a team player.

General Rodgers had spent most of the day overseeing the activities of Op-Center while Paul Hood was involved with the president and the UN initiative. As Hood briefed his deputy director about Herbert's talk with Fenwick, Herbert wheeled in. The intelligence chief was flushed and perspiring slightly. He had hurried to get here.

"How's your relationship with Sergei Orlov at the Russian Op-Center?" Herbert asked breathlessly.

The question surprised Hood. "I haven't spoken to him in about six months. Why?"

"I just received a message that was forwarded from the U.S. emba.s.sy in Baku," Herbert said. "One of the CIA's people over there, Tom Moore, is now convinced that Baku has had a visit from the Harpooner. Moore doesn't know why the b.a.s.t.a.r.d's there-"

"It could have something to do with what you were just telling me about," Rodgers said to Hood. "Bob's conversation with Fenwick-"

"About Iran fearing terrorist attacks from Azerbaijan," Hood said.

Rodgers nodded.

"I agree that that's a possibility," Herbert said. "Paul, if it is the Harpooner, Moore wants to catch him going into or keep him from getting out of the former USSR. He's hoping that the Russian Op-Center can help."

"How?" Hood asked. "Orlov and I shared our files years ago. There was nothing on the Harpooner."

"Orlov's facility was new then," Herbert said. "He or his people may have found something in the old KGB files since then. Something they might not have told us about."

"It's possible," Hood agreed. Op-Center was understaffed, and the situation at their Russian counterpart was even worse. Keeping up a regular flow of information was difficult.

"In addition to intel on the Harpooner," Herbert said, "Moore was hoping that Orlov's people might be able to watch the northern and northwestern sections of Russia. He was thinking that the Harpooner might try to leave the region through Scandinavia."

Hood looked at his watch. "It's about three in the morning over there," he said.

"Can you reach him at home?" Herbert asked. "This is important. You know it is."

Herbert was right. Regardless of the intelligence chief's desire to see the terrorist captured, tried, and executed, the Harpooner was a man who deserved to be out of circulation.

"I'll call," Hood said.

"Before you do, what about President Lawrence?" Rodgers asked. "How did things go over there?"

"I'll fill you in after I talk to Orlov," Hood said as he accessed his secure phone list on the computer. He found Orlov's number. "But from the look of it, we're facing a lose-lose situation. Either the president is suffering from some kind of mental fatigue, or we've got a group of top officials running a black ops action of some kind-"

"Or both," Herbert said.

"Or both," Hood agreed. "I've got Liz Gordon coming in later to talk about what the president might be experiencing."

Before punching in Orlov's home telephone number, Hood called Op-Center's linguistics office. He got Orly Turner on the line. Orly was one of Op-Center's four staff translators. Her area of expertise was Eastern Europe and Russia. Hood conferenced her in to the call. Though Orlov spoke English well enough, Hood wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings, no delays if technical terms or acronyms had to be explained.

"You want to know what my gut tells me?" Herbert said.

"What?" Hood asked as he punched in Orlov's number.

"That all of this is related," Herbert said. "The president being out of the loop, Fenwick dealing secretly with Iran, the Harpooner showing up in Baku. It's all part of a big picture that we haven't figured out yet."

Herbert left the office. Hood didn't disagree with him. In fact, his own gut was willing to go one step further.

That the big picture was bigger than what they imagined.

TWENTY-ONE.

Baku, Azerbaijan Tuesday, 3:58 A.M.

When Tom Moore went down, Pat Thomas ran toward the hospital door. He was halfway out when he saw blood pulsing from the side of Moore's head. Thomas stopped and jumped back just as a shot blew out the gla.s.s in the door. The bullet punched into his left thigh and knocked him down. He landed in a sitting position and continued to scuttle back. A second bullet chewed up the green tile inches in front of his foot. Thomas hurried backward along the floor, propelled by his palms and right heel. The wound burned viciously, and each move was agony. He left a long smear of blood behind him.

It was a few moments before the hospital staff realized what had happened. One of the nurses, a young woman, ran forward and helped pull Thomas back. Several orderlies followed. They dragged him behind the admissions desk. Another nurse called the police.

A bald-headed doctor knelt beside Thomas. He was wearing off-white surgical gloves and shouted instructions in Azerbaijani to other hospital workers who were in front of the counter. As he did, he took a pocket knife from his white coat and carefully cut away the fabric around the wound.

Thomas winced as the khaki fabric came away. He watched as the doctor exposed the wound.

"Will I live?" Thomas asked.

The doctor didn't answer. Suddenly, the bald man started to rise. But instead of getting up, he straddled the American's legs. He sat on the wound, sending fire up through his patient's waist. Thomas wanted to scream, but he could not. A moment later, the doctor slipped a hand behind the America's head, holding it in place, and pushed the knife blade through his throat. The metal entered the skin just behind Thomas's chin and pinned his mouth shut. The blade continued upward until Thomas could feel the point of the blade under his tongue.

Thomas choked as he coughed blood into his closed mouth. He raised his hands and tried to push the bald man back. But he was too weak. Calmly and quickly, the bald man angled the knife back. Then he drew the knife down until it reached Thomas's larynx. He cut swiftly to the left and right, following the line of the jaw all the way to the ears. Then he removed the blade, rose, and allowed Thomas to flop to the floor. The doctor pocketed the knife and walked away without a glance back.

The American lay there, his arms weak and his fingers moving aimlessly. He could feel the warm blood flowing from both sides of his throat as the flesh around it grew cold. He tried to call out, but his voice was a burbling whisper. Then he realized that his chest was moving but no air was going to it. There was blood in his throat.

Thomas's thoughts were confused. His vision swirled black. He thought about flying up to Baku, about meeting with Moore. He wondered how Moore was. And then he thought about his children. For a moment, he was back playing ball with them on the front lawn.

Then they were gone.

TWENTY-TWO.

Saint Petersburg, Russia Tuesday, 4:01 A.M.

General Sergei Orlov was standing in the snow in the small town of Nar'yan Mar on the Arctic Ocean when a peeping bird caused him to start. He turned to look for it and found himself staring at his alarm clock.

He was back in his one-bedroom apartment in Saint Petersburg.

"d.a.m.n you," Orlov said as the phone rang again. The former cosmonaut did not often dream of the town where he grew up. He hated being taken away from it and from his loving parents.

"Sergei?" his wife Masha said groggily beside him.

"I have it," Orlov told her. He picked up the receiver of the cordless phone. He held it to his chest to stifle the ringing. "Go back to sleep."

"All right," she said.

Orlov listened enviously to the cozy rustle of the sheets as his wife curled up on her side. He got out of bed, pulled a bathrobe from the edge of the door, and pulled it on as he stepped into the living room. Even if this were a wrong number, Orlov would have trouble getting back to sleep.

He finally answered the telephone. "h.e.l.lo," Orlov said with a trace of annoyance.

"General Orlov?" said the voice on the other end. It was a man.

"Yes?" Orlov said as he rubbed his eyes vigorously with his free hand. "Who is this?"

"General, it's Paul Hood," said the caller.

Orlov was suddenly very much awake. "Paul!" he practically shouted. "Paul Hood, my friend. How are you? I heard that you resigned. And I heard about what happened in New York. Are you all right?"

Orlov walked over to an armchair while the woman translated. The general had a decent command of English, the result of the years he spent as a goodwill amba.s.sador for the Russian s.p.a.ce program after his flying days were finished. But he let the woman translate to be sure he didn't miss anything.

Orlov sat down. Standing just under five-foot-seven, he had the narrow shoulders and compact build that had made him an ideal cosmonaut. Yet he had presence. His striking brown eyes, high cheekbones, and dark complexion were, like his adventurous spirit, a part of his Manchu heritage. He walked with a significant limp due to a left leg and hip badly broken when his parachute failed to deploy in what turned out to be his last s.p.a.ce mission.

"I'm fine," Hood said in reply. "I withdrew my resignation."

While Turner translated, Orlov turned on the lamp beside the chair and sat down. He picked up a pen and pad he kept on the small end table.

"Good, good!" Orlov said.

"Listen, General," Hood went on, "I'm very sorry to be calling you so early and at home."

"It's no bother, Paul," Orlov replied. "What can I do for you?"

"The terrorist who calls himself the Harpooner," Hood said. "You and I once spoke about him."

"I remember," said Orlov. "We've been looking for him in connection with the terror bombings in Moscow several years ago."

"General, we believe he is in Azerbaijan."

Orlov's full lips tightened. "That would not surprise me," he said. "We thought we had him located in Moscow two days ago. A guard near Lenin's Tomb was very confident in his identification. He summoned police a.s.sistance, but by the time it had arrived, the suspect had disappeared."

"Do you mean the police lost him, or the suspect knew he was being watched and managed to get away?" Hood asked.

"The police are generally good at surveillance," Orlov replied. "The subject went around a corner and was gone. He could have changed clothes somehow-I don't know. The Kievskaya metro stop is near where he was last seen. It is possible he went down there."

"It's more than possible," Hood said. "That was where one of our emba.s.sy people spotted him."

"Explain, please," Orlov said.

"We had heard that he was in Moscow," Hood said. "The emba.s.sy person followed the man he thought was the Harpooner onto the metro. They went to a transfer station, and the Harpooner got off. He boarded another train, left it at the Paveletskaya stop, then he literally vanished."

Orlov was now very interested. "You're sure it was Paveletskaya?" he asked.

"Yes," Hood asked. "Is that significant?"

"Perhaps," Orlov said.

"General Orlov," Hood said, "however the Harpooner left Moscow, it's possible that he may be headed back there or toward Saint Petersburg. Do you think you could help us try and find him?"

"I would love to capture that monster," Orlov replied. "I will contact Moscow and see what they have. In the meantime, please send whatever information you have to my office. I will be there within the hour."

"Thank you, General," Hood said. "And again, I'm sorry to have wakened you. I didn't want to lose any time."