'I suppose everything depends on your attitude,' Hood replied.
'Knowing you have a job helps,' McCaskey said.
'Elected officials and appointees learn to live with flux,' Hood said.
'I still say it's the inside defines the outside.'
'You mean like us,' Maria said. 'The shell of Op-Center is broken, but we are still functioning.'
'Exactly,' Hood said.
Herbert did not involve himself in the conversation. He busied himself with taking bites from the roast beef club sandwich the McCaskeys had brought, pulling up a map of San Diego County on his laptop, and jacking his borrowed cell phone into the Tank system. As a rule, pep talks bored the intelligence chief. Herbert was self-driven. Usually because there was a throat he needed to get his hands around. That was all the motivation he needed. This particular conversation had a fringe of wide-eyed sanctimony that made him angry. Maria had her spouse alive and well and at her side. Hood still had an organization to run and a resume that would keep him circulating through government employ as long as he wanted. It was easy for them both to be optimistic.
Maybe you really ought to join Mike out there, Herbert thought. Start a consultancy of some kind, maybe for private industry. Security in a non secure age. It was something to think about.
The call from Stephen Viens came before Herbert had to listen to very much more of the chat. He was surprised to hear from the surveillance operations officer so quickly.
'We just got a call from the California Highway Patrol, San Diego Command Center,' Viens told the intelligence chief. 'They found what they think is your missing limousine.'
'What makes them think it's the one?' Herbert asked.
Herbert did not ask why the CHP had called the NRO. The Department of Homeland Security had linked all the nation's highway patrol offices into the NRO's Infrastructure Surveillance System. The ISS gave local law enforcement offices unprecedented access to observe possible terrorist activity through military, weather, and other observation-equipped satellites.
'The limousine was abandoned in a lot off Highway 163, which is just east of San Diego,' Viens said. 'The original driver was found tied up in the trunk. He said he was hit on the head in the hotel parking lot, and that's all he remembers. The kidnappers obviously switched vehicles. The CHP wants the NRO to look through the back- image log, see if they caught a parked vehicle in the area.'
'How long will that take?'
'Not very,' Viens said.
'What do you mean?'
'The satellites that watch Naval Base Coronado and the inland flight training center do not overlap,' Viens said. 'They follow Highway 15 east. It looks like the limousine pulled over in a blind spot. They are double-checking now.'
And who would know that better than a former head of naval intelligence? Herbert asked himself.
'It is possible that the Interceptor-Three border patrol satellite picked something up, but that may be a little too far south to have seen this activity. The FBI monitors that one and is looking into it.'
'I'll let Mike know,' Herbert said. 'Thanks, Stephen.'
Herbert updated the others while he punched in Rodgers's number.
'Why would the admiral organize his own abduction?' Maria asked.
'That's the key, isn't?' Herbert said.
Rodgers picked up the phone. The general said he was just about to board the Apache but waited while Herbert briefed him. Rodgers listened without comment. With the sound of the helicopter pounding in the background, Herbert was not even sure Rodgers could hear.
'Did you get all that, Mike?' the intelligence chief asked when he was finished.
'I did,' Rodgers said.
