'I'm budgetary fat,' Rodgers said.
'You're saying that Paul signed off on that?' McCaskey asked.
'He signed off on it and delivered the message personally, without offering to resign in protest,' Herbert said.
'That would not have accomplished anything,' Rodgers said.
'It would have made me respect him more,' Herbert replied.
'It also would have been easier,' McCaskey pointed out.
Herbert wheeled around. 'Are you sticking up for him?'
'I didn't realize we were taking sides,' McCaskey said.
'We're not,' Rodgers said with finality.
Herbert continued to brood.
'It may be a stupid question, Mike, but how are you with this?'
McCaskey asked.
'I'm a soldier,' he said. 'I go where I'm told.'
That was what McCaskey had expected Rodgers to say.
The general let you know what he was thinking. But with rare exception, he did not let you know what he was feeling.
'Will you stay with the army?' McCaskey asked.
'I don't know,' Rodgers said.
'Jesus!' Herbert said. He was no longer brooding. 'I can't believe we're hanging here, calmly discussing the screwing of a friend and coworker.'
'We're not,' McCaskey said. 'We're talking about his plans.'
'Darrell, the man has no plans; he was just fired,' Herbert said. 'As for you, you're a company boy, you've always been a company boy, and you'll always be a company boy.' Herbert pushed on the hard-rubber wheels of his chair and turned. 'You may be next. You need to grow a pair, my friend,' the intelligence chief added as he maneuvered around McCaskey.
'Really?' The former FBI agent dropped a strong hand on Herbert's shoulder. He gripped it hard and stopped the intelligence chief from leaving. 'Yeah, I'm a team player. Always have been, always will be.
Battles are won by artillery working in tandem, not by loose cannons.'
'What is that, a quote from the FBI manual?'
'No,' McCaskey replied evenly. If they both got angry, this would get ugly. 'That's a personal observation from twenty years of stakeouts, undercover stings, field work, and saving the asses of rogue warriors who thought they could handle entire operations by themselves.'
Herbert thought for a moment. 'Okay. I deserved that. Now, take your hand off my shoulder before I go rogue warrior on it.'
There was a disturbing absence of levity in Herbert's voice. He knew he had been the target of McCaskey's remark and did not like it.
McCaskey let go and stepped to one side. Herbert wheeled away.
McCaskey would try to talk to him when he got back. Herbert's temper had a way of subsiding as quickly as it flared.
Other Op-Center personnel had maintained a discreet distance from the three men. They moved through the corridors in silence, their eyes down or facing straight ahead. But this was an intelligence-gathering organization
