'I might be able to find someone who knows someone,' McCaskey said. 'Why?'
'Maria took pictures at the airport right after the shooting,' Rodgers said. 'I want those. We'll need someone in the heart of town who has a computer and Modern that can take Maria's digicam software.'
'I'll look into it,' McCaskey said. 'In the meantime, you might try the local church. They're probably hooked into the Vatican by PC. I'm sure your friend Kline can get you access.'
'Good idea,' Rodgers said. He turned to his computer and immediately sent an instant message to Hood.
'Thanks, General,' McCaskey replied. 'You want another really good suggestion?'
'Sure,' Rodgers said.
'Recall Maria,' McCaskey said.
He was serious.
'Do you think she would bail if I did?' Rodgers asked. 'Or would she know that you put me up to it?'
'I don't care,' McCaskey said. 'At least she'd be back here.'
'Maybe not,' Rodgers said. 'You don't divert a laser gunsight from seven thousand miles away.'
'You do if you're a good gunner,' McCaskey said.
Rodgers didn't like that. But he didn't let it get to him. McCaskey was not thinking. He was reacting. If Rodgers did
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the same, there would be even angrier words and probably worse.
'Look, Darrell,' Rodgers said. 'No one knows that Maria is in Botswana. I'm sure she will not do anything to call attention to herself.'
'I know that,' McCaskey said. He was exasperated, and it showed in his expression, his voice, his posture. 'But hell, Mike. Maria isn't even armed. She turned in her handgun when she resigned from Interpol. Even if she had a weapon, she wouldn't have risked packing it in her luggage. Not without a license. A scanner might have picked it up at the airport. There would have been questions, she would have had to say who she was, there might have been a leak. She's too professional to have let that happen.'
Mike Rodgers did not know what else to say to his friend. Even if he did, there was not a lot of time to say it. Rodgers did not want to spend any more time on hand-holding. He wanted to check in with Bob Herbert and Stephen Viens. Make sure they were doing everything possible to support Maria.
'Darrell, we're going to do everything we can to help her,' Rodgers said. 'But we're in this now, and we have to let it play out.'
'We?' McCaskey said. 'She's the one who's out there on her goddamn own.' He rose and turned to go.
'Darrell?' Rodgers said.
McCaskey turned back.
'I heard everything you said,' Rodgers said. 'I'll get her out of there as soon as possible.'
'I know you will,' McCaskey said. He thought for a moment. 'And I'm sorry if I hit you hard.'
'I can take it,' Rodgers said.
'Yeah,' McCaskey said with the hint of a smile. 'Anyway, you're in the intel-gathering business now. I needed to tell you what was on my mind.'
'Fair enough,' Rodgers said.
McCaskey left the office, and Rodgers immediately phoned Hood. Bugs Benet told him that the boss was still on the phone with Edgar Kline. Rodgers told Benet to make sure Hood
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looked at the instant message before ending the call.
Then he called Matt Stoll. Rodgers wanted to make sure they had conversion software to upload to Botswana. He wanted to be certain Maria's camera would interface with whatever computer they located.
As Rodgers made the call, he had an unsettling whiff of the future. He had the very strong sense that the next wars would be fought this way. Not by soldiers looking for the correct range for their artillery. Not even by massive armies, financial institutions, and diplomats working in tandem, the way they had in the War on Terrorism. Wars of the future would be fought by people behind desks searching for the right software to fire off. A combination of cyber-hits, intelligence, and microsurgical strikes.
Mike Rodgers was not sure he was prepared for that future. A future in which, conceivably, any nation could be a superpower.
Even Botswana.
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FORTY
Okavango Swamp, Botswana Friday, 4:39 P.M.
Father Bradbury had spent nearly twenty-four hours in a small hut in the center of the tiny island. The only
