'Do you feel betrayed by Paul Hood or Op-Center?'
'I wouldn't go that far,' Rodgers replied.
'How far would you go?'
That was a loaded question, Rodgers thought, though he was not sure what exactly it was loaded with. He knew at once that this was not idle chat.
'I don't feel good about the way things happened, but this was an assignment, a tour of duty,' Rodgers replied. 'For whatever reason, that job is over. I'm ready to move on.'
'That's a healthy attitude,' Link said.
'Thanks. Now I'd like to ask you a question, Admiral.'
'All right.'
'Does it matter how I feel about Op-Center?'
'Not in terms of your working with us,' Link said. 'It's more a question of helping them.'
'I'm not following.'
'Paul Hood is moving them into a very dangerous place, not just for him but for us,' Link said.
'Why us?'
'It's a question of appearances,' Link told him. 'If the NCMC is ham-fisted about their investigation, it's going to slop all over us, all over our guests, and all over our convention.'
'Why do you assume it will be handled badly?'
'Because Op-Center is suddenly very shorthanded,' Link said. 'Let's say that Individual X has taken on this assignment. He still has to perform his other duties, plus whatever new duties he inherits due to the cutbacks. I don't have to tell you that in a reduced-personnel environment in the military, standard operating procedure is to shoot every door in a house and see which one groans. If Individual X is forced to take that approach here, we may suffer unwarranted hits.'
'Possibly. But the hits should not be serious.'
'When you're launching a new political party, any stain on your credibility is serious,' Link said. 'It scares away donors. Also, I've spoken to a number of people on the Hill. They wonder if Hood may be using this action to try to retrench, to fold the idea of international criminal investigation into crisis management. He did something like that before.'
'Actually, we backed into that one by stopping a missile attack on Japan,' Rodgers said. 'The president asked us to take on additional responsibilities.'
'I understand that the situations are different,' Link said. 'So are the times. The CIA was moving from human intelligence to electronic intelligence. Data was falling through the digital cracks. Op-Center was there to catch it. The Company won't let that happen this time.'
'Okay. Even if that is true, why is it our concern?' Rodgers asked.
'Because the perception is that Paul Hood may have manufactured a situation,' Link replied.
'Horseshit,' Rodgers snapped. He hoped this perception was not something Link had whipped up. It was contemptible. 'I know the people at Op-Center. They would never do that.'
'Other people aren't so convinced,' Link said.
'What people?'
'Influential people,' Link replied. 'People who have the ear of the CIOC and the president. What I'm saying, Mike, is that it is a bad situation all around.'
'Okay, it's bad. Why share that insight with me?'
'I think you should talk to Hood,' Link said. 'Tell him that the way to help Op-Center is to soft-pedal this.'
