'What do we do with Striker if we abort now?'
Rodgers took a long, deep breath. 'The Mosquito goes in anyway,' he said. 'The nearest Agent-in-Place who could possibly sneak them out of Asia is in Hegang, Heilongjiang, about two hundred miles away, and I won't have them make that trip.'
'In China?' Coffey said. 'No one in Russia?'
'Our people in Vladivostok became repatriated when the Iron Curtain came down,' Rodgers said. 'We haven't had the resources to recruit others.'
'What about lying low until things quiet down,' Phil Katzen asked. 'The terrain is survivable—'
'The Russians know Striker's there, dammit!' Rodgers said. 'They've got satellites too, and they'll find them!' He looked at Hood. 'Paul, the best way out of this is straight ahead, as planned.'
'Straight ahead,' said Martha, 'to a showdown with Russian soldiers at a time when the country's a tinderbox waiting for a match.'
'The only way you'd keep that quiet,' Coffey warned, 'is to kill everyone on the train.'
'Is it better to let a war happen,' Rodgers countered, 'one that would suck in Europe and probably the Chinese? Why do I feel like I'm back in 1945, listening to all the arguments about why we shouldn't use the A-bomb to save American lives?'
Hood said, 'Mike, the issue here is American lives. Striker lives—'
'Don't lecture me about Striker lives, Paul,' Rodgers said through his teeth. 'Please.'
Hood sat quietly for a moment. 'Fair enough.'
Rodgers's hands were folded on the table. His thumbs were red and pressing down hard.
'You all right, Mike?' Liz asked.
He nodded and looked at Hood. 'Sorry, Paul. I was out of line.'
'Forget it,' Hood said. 'You and I could both use a movie and popcorn.'
'Whew!' said Coffey. 'Who's the family man here?'
Hood and Rodgers both smiled.
'All right,' said Hood. 'An R-rated movie.'
'Hey, the guy's out of control,' Coffey said. 'Someone call the excitement police!'
Everyone but Ann was chuckling, and Hood tapped a finger on the table to bring them back. 'What I was about to say a moment ago,' he continued, 'is that the diplomats haven't given up on solving this, and no one knows what President Zhanin will do. Do we jeopardize that by going ahead with the mission?'
'Whatever they do,' Rodgers said evenly, 'the crates on that train represent a lot of power for corrupt people. Even if it doesn't start a war, the cargo places influence in the hands of gangsters. Don't we have a responsibility to try and take that away?'
Coffey said, 'Our first responsibility is to Striker and the laws we're all supposed to live by.'
'Laws passed by your friends on the Hill,' Rodgers said, 'not moral law. You did what was necessary up there, but like Benjamin Franklin said, 'Necessity never made a good bargain.' ' Rodgers looked at Hood. 'You know me, Paul. Striker is dearer than my own life, but doing what's right is more important than both. And stopping that train is right.'
Hood listened carefully. Rodgers and Coffey were coming at the problem from two directions, and neither of them was wrong. But the call was his, and he hated the fact that he was sitting here in comfort and security deciding the fate of seven people on a frozen cliff on the opposite side of the world.
He input Bugs's code on the computer, and his assistant's face appeared on the monitor.
'Yes, Paul?'
'Signal Striker on the TAC-Sat, see if Lieutenant Colonel Squires is free to come on. If not, when it's convenient.'
'Will do,' Bugs said, and his image winked off.
Rodgers didn't look happy. 'What are you going to do, Paul?'
'Charlie's the commander in the field,' Hood said. 'I want his input.'
'He's a professional soldier,' Rodgers said. 'What do you think he's going to say?'
'If he can take the call, let's find out.'
'You don't do that to a soldier,' Rodgers said. 'That's not leadership, it's management. The only question we should be asking is, are we behind Striker or aren't we? Can we make this commitment and stick to it?'
'We can,' Hood replied coolly. 'But after your Korean mission, I went back and read the white papers you wrote as part of the ad hoc joint task force planning the rescue of our hostages from Khomeini's Revolutionary Guards. You were right about our forces being ready on paper and not in practice. And you were also right to be very concerned about extracting the advance party of Special Forces soldiers that would infiltrate Teheran a few days before the Eagle Claw mission. Without your prompting, the agents wouldn't have had a plan to get them out of the Mehrabad International Airport on Swiss Air if things went wrong. Why did you come up with that?'
'Because sneaking them out, one at a time, from the safe house would have given the Iranians more time to find them,' Rodgers said. 'It made more sense to buy commercial airline tickets and get them the hell out together.'
'Who did you work that out with?' Hood asked.
'Ari Moreaux, who set up the safe house for us.'
'Your man on the site,' Hood said as Bugs's image reappeared. 'Yes, Bugs?'
'I beeped Honda's helmet phones. We'll just have to wait.'
'Thanks,' said Hood. He looked at Rodgers again. 'This isn't Vietnam, Mike. We're not withdrawing moral or tactical support from our personnel in the field. If Squires wants to go ahead, I'll back him and take the butt- whipping from Congress later.'
'It's not your call,' Rodgers quietly reminded him.
'Striker is yours to command,' Hood agreed, 'but going outside the parameters established by the Intelligence Committee is my call.'
Bugs came back on. 'Lieutenant Colonel Squires is minding the headphones, Paul. I have him on the line.'
Hood punched up the volume on the phone link. 'Lieutenant Colonel?'
'Yes, sir!' said Squires, his voice clear despite the crackling caused by the snowfall.
'What's your disposition?' Hood asked.
'Five Strikers are nearly down the cliff. Private Newmeyer and I are about to descend.'
'Lieutenant Colonel,' Rodgers said, 'there are Russian soldiers on top of the train. We make out ten or eleven, the all-NEWS network.'
Facing north, east, west, and south, Hood knew. 'We're concerned about letting you go ahead with the mission,' Hood said. 'What does it look like to you?'
'Well, sir,' Squires said, 'I've been standing here looking at the landscape—'
'The landscape?' Hood said.
'Yes, sir. This looks doable, and I'd like permission to proceed.'
Hood caught the glint in Rodgers's eye. It was a flash of pride, not triumph.
'You understand the mission parameters,' Hood said.
'We don't break any Russians,' Squires said. 'I think we can manage that. If not, we'll abort and head for the extraction point.'
'Sounds like a plan,' Hood said. 'We'll keep an eye on the train and update you if necessary.'
'Thank you, sir? General Rodgers. As they say in the foothills, 'Dosvedanya.' See you later.'
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Peggy stopped at the coin-operated telephone just above the Griboyedora Canal. After looking around, she pushed two kopeks into the coin slot. She answered George's mystified look by saying, 'Volko. Cellular phone.'
Right, he thought. The spy. With everything else that was going on, George had forgotten about him. One of
