damage now?'
'We're looking at just upwards of twenty percent,' Debenport replied.
Hood felt sick.
'The night crew is going to have to cut its staff by fifty percent. I know that's a lot, but we had no choice,' Debenport went on.
'What are you talking about? You're the head of the damn committee.'
'That's right, Paul. And as such I have a duty that transcends my personal feelings about the value of Op- Center's work,' Debenport said.
'It will be my call where to make the cuts, though I want your input and I will rely heavily on it. We would prefer you work backwards.
Make your way back to Op-Center's original configuration.'
'Our original configuration had a military component,' Hood pointed out. 'That's already been cut.'
'Yes, and those funds were reallocated to General Rodgers's field personnel,' Debenport said. 'That's an area we feel should undergo de operation We looked closely at the internal breakdowns of the other intelligence groups. The Company and the Feds have those areas covered. Merge that post with the political officer.'
'Senator, how much are you taking from the CIA, the FBI, and the NRO?'
Hood asked.
'Paul, those are all older, established '
'You're not cutting them, are you?' Hood asked.
Debenport was silent.
'Senator?'
'If you really want to know, Paul, they're getting a small bump,'
Debenport told him.
'Amazing,' Hood replied. 'How much time did they spend lobbying the committee?'
'They did the usual Power Point dance, but that wasn't the key to the increase,' Debenport said. 'Those boys grabbed a lot of Homeland Security detail out of the gate. We can write those budget request entries in ink.'
'Because of a buzz phrase,' Hood said. 'We might have been in a position to reorient ourselves if our attention hadn't been on stopping nuclear war between India and Pakistan.'
'Yes, and frankly your success is part of the problem. You've shifted the majority of your operations from the United States to other countries '
'At the president's request,' Hood reminded him. 'He asked us to augment Op-Center's domestic agenda after we stopped a leftist military coup in Russia.'
'I know the history,' Debenport said. 'I also know the future. The voters don't much care whether Moscow turns Red again or Tokyo is nuked or Spain falls apart or France gets hijacked by radicals. Not anymore.
Foreign aid resources are being downsized across the board.'
'Your constituents may not care, but we know that what happens there affects what happens here,' Hood said.
'That's true,' Debenport said. 'Which is why the mandate the president gave you is not being changed.'
'Only our funding. We're supposed to do the same job but with eighty percent of an already stretched budget.'
'American households are having to do more than that,' Debenport said.
