“I was told you didn’t convince my first sergeant of that,” Remington said.
“My verbal ID isn’t enough?”
“Not for me.”
Cody cursed with enough effort that he turned red in the face. “I helped you, Captain. When no one else would lift a finger to aid you or your men along the border during the attack, I put you in contact with a man who could and did help you.”
“You did.” Remington nodded briefly. “However, that man isn’t a United States citizen.”
“So now you’re suspicious of him?” Cody looked like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“I was suspicious then. At that point, the satellite systems worked to my advantage. Now, when I need them just as badly, I find that I don’t have access to them.”
“He explained the reasons for that. Surely you can understand the position he’s in.”
Remington noted that they carefully skirted around Nicolae Carpathia’s name. “I understand the position he’s placing himself in. I don’t see that he has to be there at all.” The United Nations appearance Carpathia planned didn’t make sense to the Ranger captain.
Cody’s eyes glittered. “There’s an opportunity there. He’s seizing it.”
“Why?”
Cody pursed his lips, then let out a long breath. “I can’t talk about that.”
“But you know.”
“I know some things, Captain.”
“And the U.S. president supports this?”
“He does,” Cody said. “Haven’t you been watching the news?”
“I’ve been busy.”
“So have I.” Cody leveled a finger at the man sitting in the chair inside the security room. “So have my men.”
Remington waited.
“Captain,” Cody said in a softer voice, “I’m as shorthanded as you are. But taking one of my men is like you losing a company.”
“I’m at less than half my strength after the disappearances and casualties,” Remington said. “I’m stuck here, defending a city that is going to fall no matter what I do, with orders to make that loss last as long as possible.” The captain put steel in his voice. “Don’t you dare compare your situation with mine.”
Cody held up his hands in supplication. “Captain, I don’t mean to insult in any way.”
Remington stepped forward between the two privates, emerging from the defense they offered. He stopped when he was almost nose to nose with the CIA section chief. “What is your mission here?”
“You know my mission here. I’m trying to recover a rogue agent.”
“A rogue agent,” Remington growled, “that you had me risk the lives of my Rangers for. You led me to believe we were rescuing someone.” “You were. Your men did. Those terrorists would have killed him. I’m sure of it.”
“Your guy ran. The first chance he got, he ran.”
Cody took a breath.
“The next day in Sanliurfa,” Remington ground on like an M-3 Bradley armored personnel carrier, “two Americans were killed. Your rogue agent was seen entering the building where their bodies were found.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Lie to me,” Remington threatened with slow deliberation, “and things just get harder.” He held up his left hand, his forefinger and thumb an inch apart. “I’m this far—this far—from having you and your junior G-men slapped into custody until I finish my mission here.”
“That would be a mistake.” Cody’s eyes turned icy with menace.
“Mister,” Remington declared forcefully, “just about everything involved with this situation is a mistake. Not one of those mistakes has been mine. And I won’t make one now.”
“My mission here is very important, Captain.”
“Prove that to me.”
Cody blew his breath out. “I can’t.”
“Then you step back out of my face, Section Chief Cody.”
Cody didn’t move. “Captain, we’re working on the same side.”
“I don’t know that.”
“I assure you.”
“Tell me what you’re doing here.”
Cody shook his head. “I can’t.”
“Then we don’t have anything to talk about.”
“Captain, you can’t do this.”
Remington raised his voice. “Corporal Hardin.”
“Yes, sir.” At the other end of the hallway, Corporal Dean Hardin stepped around the corner. Four men flanked him. They all held assault rifles at the ready, butts pulled back into their shoulders.
“Show Section Chief Cody and his men to the front door,” Remington said. “I don’t want to see them in this building again.”
“No, sir, Captain,” Hardin said, moving forward slowly with his weapon leveled on the CIA agents. “You won’t, sir. I’ll make certain of it myself, sir.”
Hardin was lean and wolfish. The Kevlar helmet he wore further shadowed his dark features. Bruises from the violent encounter he’d had with Goose still showed on his face.
Goose had caught Hardin robbing American military corpses after the disappearances caused the air support from USS Wasp to crash into the hills near the Turkish-Syrian border. Remington knew all about Hardin’s self-serving ways. They weren’t noble, and many of them weren’t legal, but they were all useful. As long as Remington maintained control over them.
“Captain,” Cody implored.
Hardin reached the rearmost CIA agent, who wasn’t moving. Quickly and mercilessly, Hardin swung his weapon around and buttstroked the agent in the face.
Blood erupted from the agent’s face, and he dropped to his hands and knees. A silencer-equipped pistol tumbled from inside his jacket.
Hardin shot a foot forward and captured the pistol under his boot. He reversed his assault rifle and brought it to bear. “The next one of you doesn’t listen when Cap’n Remington tells you to hit the road, I’m going to open up and let a little daylight through. Capisce?” He glanced at Cody over his gun sights. “That goes for you too, Chief.”
The agent on the ground groaned in pain. Blood dripped to the floor.
“While we’re at it,” Hardin said, grinning, “why don’t you all just clap your hands to your heads. You know the drill.”
Reluctantly, the CIA agents put their hands on top of their heads.
“Billy,” Hardin said, “help that boy to his feet. But stay out of my field of fire.”
One of the privates came forward and helped the dazed CIA agent to his feet.
“Chief,” Hardin said in an easy conversational tone, “you might want to get your boy to the infirmary. The Sanliurfa citizens are still keeping theirs open. Maybe you can get some joy there. Looks to me like he’s definitely
