wait for them to contact us.'
'Are you crazy?'
'Listen, you can't take this personally. It's just business.
They tried, they missed, so now they'll deal. Nothing has changed.'
'I could have gotten killed!'
'And you still could. But none of this matters. What matters is that
you aren't dead now. You still have something they want, and they are
still going to have to pay to get it. You move on.'
'This is madness,' Morrison said.
'Way of the world. Doctor. If you don't want to get hit, don't step
into the ring. You're here now, so we have to make the best of it.
Think of it as a great story to tell your new friends someday.'
He saw Morrison in the rearview mirror, his face dimly lit by the
instrument lights. The man looked as if somebody had just told him
there was a rattlesnake in his pocket.
Ventura watched the road, his pistol in his lap. Amateurs just didn't
understand how the world worked. They -took everything so personal.
Tuesday, June 14th Quantico, Virginia
'Sir?'
Michaels came out of a shallow sleep, blinking. He was in his office,
on the couch. What--?
One of the night crew--Askins? Haskins?--stood in the doorway. Must
not be time for shift change yet. Michaels sat up.
'Yes?'
'We got a distress signal from General Howard's virgil.
From Alaska.'
'What?' He still wasn't quite awake and tracking yet.
Where was Toni?
'Federal Marshals found him, he's been shot. An Alaska National Guard
copter is on the way; he's up near Gakona.'
He looked at his watch. It was six a.m. He needed to wash his face and
to find Toni. What had John gotten into?
But before he could reach the door, his own com chirped its
top-priority tone. He hurried to the receiver and picked it up.
'John?'
'No, it's Melissa Allison.'
The director. What was she doing up at this hour?
She didn't give him time to wonder: 'I just got a call from Adam
Brickman in the U.S. Marshals office. One of his men was wounded in a
shoot-out in Nowhere, Alaska, attempting to serve an arrest warrant
authorized by your office. So was General John Howard. They are
alive, just barely, on their way to a hospital in Anchorage, but
Brickman isn't happy. I'm not happy, either. Commander, because when
he started chewing me out for not warning his people this was a
shoot-sit, I didn't know what the hell he was talking about.'
Uh-oh.
'I'm sorry. Madam Director, I didn't realize there was any danger.'
'You sent marshals and the head of Net Force's military arm to pick up
somebody--which is outside your charter, unless there are special
