Angels of Vengeance

appeared to be a music room opening onto the lawn through French doors. They were closed against the chill of the night, but through them she could still hear the soldiers.

The house was not what she had expected. Unlike his office, his private living space was quite restrained. He didn’t hide himself away within a compound, nor was his residence the finest property available within Fort Hood. A simple, two-storey home, it stood on the edge of a golf course on the eastern end of the small city.

‘I’m sorry, Ms Monroe, am I boring you?’

She turned her attention back to the old man in the dressing gown.

‘Yes.’

He smiled. ‘That’s too bad. You are a captive audience, after all. And it’s important you understand this, Agent Monroe. I think it’s important that we all understand it. Especially well-intentioned liberals like your President Kipper.’

‘He was your President too, last time I checked.’

‘Touche. You are correct. We respect the office, if not the man. Would you answer a question for me, Caitlin? I hope you don’t mind me calling you that. I feel that after a rocky start, we’ve come to know each other so much better this evening.’

It was her turn to shrug.

‘If I do not care about race - and truly, I don’t - what is it you think that separates my politics, my beliefs, from the President’s? No, don’t answer - it’s a rhetorical question. Allow me to answer. It’s culture. Like President Kipper, like most thinking people, I do believe all men are born equal. But they do not end their lives that way, do they? And the difference, Ms Monroe, is culture.’

He seemed to spot something of interest on the bookshelf.

‘Could you get me that copy of Ambrose, please, Ty? On the third shelf, next to Davis Hanson.’

McCutcheon was careful to keep his gun trained on Caitlin and to stay well away from her while he retrieved the book, which he passed to Blackstone. The old man searched for the passage he wanted. It didn’t take very long. The copy was well thumbed and dog-eared.

She had endured many forms of torture over the years, but had never been read to by a pompous blowhard while being held prisoner. For a moment, Caitlin thought she was about to log another unique personal experience in her long and varied career, until Blackstone merely smiled and closed the book up again. As though he had needed to remind himself of something.

‘This is an excellent book,’ he said. ‘Have you read it? Band of Brothers.’

‘No, but I think we have the video somewhere at home.’

‘Of course you do. The thing I like about Ambrose is the facility he has with both the big things and the little. Nowadays, I imagine we would say something like “the macro and micro”. Which is part of our problem. Brothers is a particularly fine piece of work because of the effort Ambrose took to follow those men from their first moments as soldiers through to the end of the war. It’s at the end of the war that he tells us a profound truth.’

Caitlin watched McCutcheon in her peripheral vision as he circled around to stand over by the French doors. She couldn’t keep an eye on him while Blackstone expected to have her full attention.

‘These men, from Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, had jumped into Normandy, toughed out the siege of Bastogne and muscled their way into Adolf Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. They had been tested. They had been scourged. They had reason to respect the Germans’ fighting abilities, but no reason to admire them as a people. They had suffered too much for admiration. And yet, when they found themselves in Germany at last, they also found themselves admiring the spirit and tenacity of the German volk.’

The Governor was warming to his topic now, reminding her of an eccentric professor rather than an ego- driven homicidal maniac. Caitlin had the impression that this was a lecture he had delivered many times before. She would’ve liked to have checked whether McCutcheon’s eyes were glazing over.

‘Their army defeated,’ continued Blackstone, really beginning to sound as though he was quoting himself, ‘their Reich in ruins, their most treasured myth of the Aryan superman torn apart by a mongrel alliance, the Germans nevertheless wasted no time in applying themselves to the mission of rebuilding and recovery. It was in such stark contrast to the French civilians the paratroopers had encountered earlier in the war that, in some ways, the men of Easy Company found the Germans to be more like them than the people they were fighting for.’

‘So, you’d like to be a good German?’ she asked.

‘No, I’d settle for being a good American. I’d settle for us all being good Americans. And I do believe that anyone can be a good American, as long as they commit to it. A commitment that asks more of us than simply memorising a cheat sheet for a citizenship test and learning how to fill in a welfare form.’

‘Look, I can see this is important to you, but it’s not to me.’

‘WELL, IT SHOULD BE!’

A few droplets of milk from the bottom of the glass splashed on his dressing gown as he roared at her. He brushed them off as he recomposed himself and the dog fled from the room.

She’d actually flinched a little bit when Blackstone exploded. But Caitlin used the opportunity to steal another glance at McCutcheon … Still standing by the windows. Still training his pistol on her.

‘I apologise,’ said Blackstone. ‘But it’s that sort of attitude which came so very close to laying us low before the Disappearance. The Germans, and for that matter the Japanese, whom we once considered to be an inferior race, did not create the miracle of their postwar reconstruction because of some genetic superiority. They did it because of cultural superiority. Some cultures, Miss Monroe, are meant to succeed. And some are meant to fail. Some cultures - and take a deep breath now, because I’m going to be controversial - are better. And that is where I part company with President Kipper. He will not acknowledge this basic truth. I do not believe he can even see it. And his policies are leading us into perdition because of that. I cannot control what happens in Seattle, or anywhere Seattle holds sway. Not yet. But by God, I can control what happens down here. And I will not allow this country to go down the toilet because of the weakness and self- indulgence of a man who cannot recognise a simple truth. Some cultures are strong. And some cultures are weak. And he is rebuilding this country from the wretched, cast-off failures of some of the most benighted cultures on the face of this planet. He will bring us to ruin.’

‘I really wish you’d mentioned that this morning,’ said Caitlin. ‘When I had my Spy Girl outfit on. That was quite a rant. It’d go viral on MSN.’

*

‘Do we have any idea where she is?’ Culver asked, wondering if there might be a chance to avoid a second civil war. His head was completely clear. He felt absolutely wretched and sick, but his mind, at least, was moving.

‘If she’s with her personal data unit,’ said Larrison, ‘I’m afraid she appears to be at Governor Blackstone’s residence.’

Okay, thought Jed, we probably just crapped out on avoiding that whole second civil war thing.

‘Any way of confirming that, Mr Director?’

‘Not unless we can get eyes on the target. And right now we have none. Agent Monroe does have an extraction plan. Overwatch is attempting to open a secure comm channel to an effector, a Ranger non-com by the name of Milosz.’

‘Why can’t you get him now?’ asked Jed. ‘Surely he’s got a cell or something.’

‘I said we were trying to open a secure channel, Mr Culver. There’s no point telling Milosz to attempt a hostile extraction if they know he’s coming.’

Hostile extraction? Oh, sweet Jesus.

Jed tried to think it through. To calm the black panic gnawing at him. The situation wasn’t entirely bleak. Caitlin Monroe, it seemed, had done an extraordinary job. She had somehow obtained the entire contents of a computer used by Blackstone’s principal aide and delivered them safely to Echelon. Larrison’s people were going to be days unravelling the treasurer trove of data and documents, but already there were indications they had enough to charge Blackstone with everything from violation of federal occupational health and safety laws up to and including treason.

In that sense, it was all hookers and blow from here. Even the most shell-backed conservative could not