'You're pushing for Striker to go in and grab the Pakistanis, aren't you?' 'Hell,' Herbert said, 'I don't want to just drop Mike and his people into the Himalayas--'
'I know that,' Hood assured him.
'But I don't know if we have any other options, Paul,' Herbert continued.
'Whatever we think of what the Pakistanis have done, they have to get out to tell what they did not do.'
'What would we do if Striker weren't headed toward the region?' Hood asked.
Herbert thought for a moment then shrugged.
'What we did in Korea, Russia, and Spain,' Herbert said.
'We'd send 'em.'
Hood nodded thoughtfully.
'We probably would,' he agreed.
'Have you run this past Mike?' 'Not in so many words,' Herbert said.
'But I did tell him to sleep on the flight from Alconbury to Chushul.
Just in case.'
'How long is that leg of the trip?' Hood asked.
Herbert looked at his watch.
'They've got another six hours or so to go,' he said.
'Four and change with a good tailwind and if we don't keep them on the ground in Turkey for more than a few minutes.'
Hood clicked on the Op-Center personnel roster. He opened the file.
'Matt is still here,' he said, looking at the log-in time.
'He's going over the surveillance photos with Stephen Viens,' Herbert said.
'He hasn't left his desk since this started.' 'He should,' Hood said.
'We'll need him to work on any ELINT that we need in the region.'
'I'll have Gloria Gold spot him for a while,' Herbert said.
Gold was the nighttime director of technical affairs. She was qualified to run tech operations though she did not have the same background in analysis that Stoll had.
'We also better get Lowell and Liz Gordon in on this,' Hood said.
Lowell Coffey was Op-Center's international legal expert.
'We need to be up on Pakistani and Indian law in case they get caught.
Psych profiles of the Pakistanis would also help. Did we get a detailed jurisdictional map of the region for Striker's missile search?' 'No,' Herbert said.
'That was going to be pretty tightly localized in Pakistani territory.'
'We'll definitely need that, then,' Hood said.
'We're screwed if Striker stumbles into Chinese spheres of influence and gets caught.'
'If Al George doesn't have those maps in archives I'll get them from State,' Herbert said.
'I've got a friend there who can keep his mouth shut.'
'You've got friends everywhere.' Hood grinned. It felt good to be part of a team that included people like Bob Herbert. People who were professional and thorough and there to support the team and its leader.
It also felt good to smile.
'What about Viens? How many satellites are there in the region?' 'Three,' Herbert said.
'Will he be able to hold on to them?' Hood asked.
'That shouldn't be a problem,' Herbert told Hood.
'No one else is asking for intel from that region right now. Viens also has his entire team on rotation, so the satellite monitoring stations will always be manned. They can run three separate recons at once.' 'Good,' Hood said. He continued to look at the computer screen. There were other people he could call on if needed.
Right now, though, he thought it was best to keep the number of people involved to a minimum. He would call Hank Lewis at the NSA and recommend that he do the same. He hoped that the new appointee would be content to let Op-Center run this as a 'silent operation'--one in which the chain of command stopped short of involving the president.
Herbert left to get his personnel set up and to obtain the map. Hood called Coffey and tore him away from Politically Incorrect. Since Coffey's home phone line was not secure, Hood could not tell him what the late-night meeting was about. All he said was that the title of the TV show pretty well summed it up. Coffey said he would be there as soon as possible.
Hood thanked Coffey. He fished a few more Wheat Thins from the box and sat back. There was still a lot to do before he would authorize this mission. For one thing, Stephen Viens had to find the cell. Without that information they had nothing. Then Hood and Herbert would have to decide whether to land Striker as planned and then
