river.
Both men were thinking about other times, times when they trusted and relied on each other, when there was an unwritten, unspoken bond between them that went beyond duty and orders and was an almost psychic link between thought and action. Los Boxes had struck that bond and shattered it.
Now they were skirting the issue, neither of them willing to lay it out to deal head-on with the problem. Sloan didn’t want to make a verbal commitment, he never did. In the past, he had always left the dirty words unsaid.
‘What this is really about is protecting the general’s reputation, keeping the old man from being embarrassed,’ Hatcher repeated.
Sloan’s eyebrows made little half-circles. ‘There could be more to it than that.’
‘Like what’s Cody been up to for the past fifteen years?’ said Hatcher.
‘That enters into it.’
‘That wasn’t part of the deal.’
‘Christ, Hatch, you’ve been doing this kind of thing for almost twenty years. Do I have to draw pictures for you?’
‘Yeah, draw me some pictures,’ Hatcher whispered. ‘Seems pretty simple to me,’ Sloan said.
‘You’re asking me to make a very heavy judgment call here,’ Hatcher said.
‘You’ve made them before. What’s the problem? Seems to me you’re leaning over backwards to give your old school chum the benefit of the doubt.’
‘We’re not just talking about an old school chum, we’re talking about Buffalo Bill’s son.’
‘That’s the whole point,’ said Sloan.
‘Why don’t you just come right on out with it,’ Hatcher’s tortured voice asked. ‘You want me to dust Cody, don’t you?’
He’s done it again, thought Hatcher, that slick- talking bastard has done it again.
‘I want you to find out if he’s alive, and if he is, why he hasn’t turned up,’ Sloan said slowly and distinctly. ‘And if he’s mixed up in something — unsavory . .
He let the sentence fade out.
‘Unsavory? Unsavory? Aren’t we getting a little cute here,’ Hatcher snapped.
‘We never had to talk about this kind of thing before,’ said Sloan, his eyes narrowing.
The tickling sensation in Sloan’s gut turned sour. What had happened to Hatcher? he wondered.
‘Why 4on’t you just lay it out for me,’ Hatcher said. Sloan still wouldn’t commit. He stared into space, puffing on his cigar.
‘You’re telling me you want Cody hit,’ Hatcher said, and there was genuine surprise in his voice.
‘I’m telling you, you have options, like you always did.’
‘Well,’ growled Hatcher, ‘I don’t want the option. I didn’t come over here to kill anybody. I came to find out whether Murphy Cody is dead or alive, period. Now you’re throwing a lot of new rules at me.’
‘No rules—’ Sloan said.
‘I’m not going to make that kind of decision,’ Hatcher whispered.
‘Then call me,’ Sloan said flatly. ‘I’ll make it for you.’
‘This guy was a war hero, Harry.’
‘So was Benedict Arnold.’
‘What do you know that I don’t?’ Hatcher demanded.
‘Not one fucking thing,’ Sloan snapped back.
‘Then it seems to me you’re drawing some pretty harsh conclusions.’
‘Well, what the hell conclusion would you draw?’ Sloan appealed. ‘You sized it up yourself a minute ago. The guy is missing for fifteen years. Then he apparently turns up alive in Bangkok and doesn’t want anybody to know it, and now Windy Porter’s dead and this Wol Pot is on the run. Supposing the two Chins who wasted Porter were running interference for Wol Pot. Suppose he and Cody are in something together.’
‘Suppose, suppose, suppose,’ Hatcher said angrily. ‘Hell, we’re not even sure Cody’s alive. This Wol Pot could be pulling some kind of a scam on all of us.’
‘Hey, I buy that, okay,’ Sloan agreed. Then he said, almost offhandedly, ‘If that’s the way it is, dust the little bastard off, too.’
‘Is it really that easy for you, Harry?’ Hatcher asked. ‘Dust off Cody, dust off the Thai.’
Sloan sighed. His shoulders drooped and he suddenly seemed ten years older.
‘We’ve been fighting these shadow wars for too many years to change now,’ Sloan said wearily.
‘And if Murph’s clean?’
‘Then set up the meeting with Buffalo Bill. Look,’ he sighed, ‘you do what you have to do, I do what I have to do. You start looking for answers to a lot of questions, you’re gonna be dead, Hatch. That’s basic and you know it. You don’t have time for that. All we got is clicks and reflexes. You got two choices on any given day — do it or don’t do it. If you don’t know the options going in, if you haven’t made the decision, they’ll get you. Have I ever told you
