'A secret, open sesame passage?
Superman's Fortress of Solitude?' 'Mr. Friday, you're pushing me,' Rodgers said.
'We're in a big, cold shooting gallery thanks to the bureaucrats but I'm pushing you?' Friday said.
'This is a freakin' joke!'
The cell phone buzzed in Rodgers's pocket. The general was grateful for the interruption. He had been getting ready to end the conversation by knocking Friday on his ass. It was not a logical Hegelian solution but it would have worked for Rodgers. Big time.
The general pulled the phone out and shielded it with his high collar.
'Rodgers here!'
'Mike, it's Brett,' August said.
'Have you reached the coordinates?'
'Just got here,' he said.
'Are you okay?'
'So far,' August replied.
'You?'
'Surviving.'
'Stay warm,' August replied.
'Thanks,' Rodgers said.
The general closed up the phone and put it back in his left pocket. His fingers were numb and he kept his hand there.
Friday and Samouel had stuck the torches in a narrow fissure and were warming themselves around it. Both men looked up when the phone call ended.
'That was short,' Friday said.
'Op-Center needed to confirm that we're here,' Rodgers said.
'We'll get the rest of the plan ASAP.'
'Does Op-Center already have the plan or are they getting it from somewhere in Pakistan?' Friday asked.
'I don't know,' Rodgers admitted.
'We're being set up,' Friday said.
'I can feel it.'
'Talk to me about it,' Rodgers said. The man might not be likable but that did not mean he was wrong.
'Jack Fenwick used to have a word for operatives who accepted partial codes or portions of maps,' Friday said.
'The word was 'dead.' If you can't control your own time, your own movements, it means that someone else is.'
'In this case there's a reason for that,' Rodgers reminded him.
'Security issues.'
'That reason serves Islamabad and Washington, not us,' Friday said.
'Fenwick would never have cut this kind of deal with a hostile government.'
All covert operatives were cautious. But there was something about this man that seemed paranoid. Maybe the strain of the trek had worn them both thin. Or maybe Rodgers's earlier impression was right. The son of a bitch was distracted.
Maybe his distrust of Washington went further than he had admitted.
Fenwick was like that too.
'Did you have a lot of contact with Director Fenwick?' Rodgers asked.
The question seemed to surprise Friday. It took him a moment to answer.
'I didn't work closely with Jack Fenwick, no,' Friday said.
'He was the director of the NSA. I'm a field operator.
There is not a lot of overlap in our job descriptions.'
'But you obviously had some contact with him,' Rodgers said.
'You were stationed in Azerbaijan. That was where he worked his last operation. He had some personal, hands-on involvement with that.'
'We talked a few times,' Friday acknowledged.
'He asked for intelligence, I got it for him. There was nothing unusual about that. Why do you ask?' 'You put a lot of faith in your instincts,' Rodgers said.
