Call to Treason
Jeff Rovin
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London we2R 0RL, England Penguin Group (USA) Inc, 375 Hudson Street, New York New York 10014,
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Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell Victoria 3124 Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd 10 Alcorn Avenue Toronto, Ontario Canada M4V3B2 Penguin Books India (P) Ltd 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd Registered Offices 80 Strand London we2R ORL, England www.penguin.com First published in the United States of America by Berkley 2004 First published in Great Britain by Penguin Books 2004 Copyright Jack Ryan Limited Partnership and S&R Literary Inc, 2004 All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has been asserted op-center1m is a trademark of Jack Ryan Limited Partnership and S&R Literary, Inc
TOM CLANCY'S OP CENTER CALL TO TREASON
This is a work of fiction Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments events or locales is entirely coincidental Printed in England by Clays Ltd, St. Jves plc Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge the valuable assistance of Martin H. Greenberg, Ph.D.; Larry Segriff; Denise Little; John Heifers; Brittiany Koren; Victoria Bundonis Rovin; Roberta Pieczenik, Ph.D.; Carl La Greca; and Tom Colgan, our editor. But most important, it is for you, our readers, to determine how successful our collective endeavor has been.
-Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik
ONE
Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Sunday, 9:22 p.m.
Combat was not easy. But it was easier than this.
General Mike Rodgers stood with a Scotch in his hand, wishing it were a double and that he were free to slug it down. If he were in a dark saloon with Colonel August or one of his buddies from the Department of Defense, he would. Then he would nurse the sweet buzz with a beer chaser. But he was not with his colleagues. He was at a black-tie party in a three-story town house on N Street in the exclusive Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. The first-floor ballroom was crowded with nearly two hundred politicians and socialites, attorneys and foreign dignitaries, business leaders and television news executives.
They were all gathered in small groups. Though actively engaged with the people nearest them, each individual was also listening to what was being said in the groups around them. Rodgers could see it in the way their eyes moved. They always shifted slightly in the direction they were listening. Some of these silver-haired blue bloods possessed recon skills that would be the envy of CIA field ops.
On the battlefield, a man knew who the enemy was. At a party like this, alliances could be made and remade during the course of an evening. That was true throughout Washington, but the density of power brokers from so many arenas made it more likely here. In combat, a soldier knew when the fight was over. In Washington, the conflict never ended. Even at Op-Center, where Rodgers was deputy director, friendships were routinely tested by strong differences of opinion over high-stakes operations. Trust was frayed by competition for assignments. And loyalties were challenged and often destroyed by downsizing and bureaucratic squabbles.
The conditions at Op-Center were the reason Rodgers had come to this party. Since the disbanding of Striker, Op-Center's rapid-deployment force that had been commanded by Rodgers, the general had been organizing an in- house human intelligence unit. He was not enjoying the work as much as he had hoped. Rodgers was a man of
