“Tony?” said Halsey. “Agree or disagree?”
“Irrelevant,” said Hayes. “We have our orders.”
Henry rolled his eyes. He kept feeling as though he had strayed into some kind of current, like a surfer caught in a riptide. He found his mind retreating to the only place where he felt safe: out by himself on the ice with his team of dogs. Amid the purity of that frozen world the affairs of men vanished. He pictured Sadie nipping at the heels of the pack to force them over some obstacle in the ice, her dark eyes always looking back for a sign of approval. He wondered if it was his ego that made life on the deep ice so appealing. Out there it was usual y a matter of just one man ruling a pack of dogs; one man in control of his destiny. There has to be some reason I love that life, he thought. It certainly isn’t the weather. But isn’t it the weather that keeps the world away from the place and ensures the security to be found only in isolation? On the ice he had been total y in charge. Here, in love and up to his ears in an international crisis, nothing was certain any more. Not even his identity. He shot a glance at Sarah, sitting next to him. Then he remembered the story of Adam and Eve.
His mind drifted back to where he was when he heard his name mentioned.
Hayes was speaking.
“Are you listening to any of this, Gibbs? I was saying we still need someone to identify Rudolfo Suarez.
Basically, that means you. Are you willing to help us for a while longer?”
“I have a choice?”
“Not really. You’re still drafted, officially. But I guess what I’m asking is if your heart is going to be in this thing. We may need your full attention.” The general looked back and forth between the two civilians.
“Sure,” Henry found himself saying. “That guy shot my best dog. I’m in it, if you need me.”
“I’d think you’d be more pissed at him that he shot you, Henry,” observed Grimes.
“My dogs, like any other sled team, are a big part of life on the ice,” said Henry angrily. “Not so hard to understand. A lot of ice doggers feel like that. You get to know ’em, all their…”
“I guess it’s like having half your SEAL team wasted,” said the general. “You can understand that, can’t you, Commander?”
“I guess,” said Grimes. “I don’t know much about dogs.”
“And I don’t know much about military matters,” said Henry. “I don’t mind telling you I’d just as soon be back in New England, or anywhere else but here. Or is this the part where I’m supposed to enjoy sticking my neck out?”
Sarah looked at him and he lowered his eyes.
“Just seems to me that by now you should have a pretty good idea about what Suarez looks like without dragging me and Sarah along as spotters.”
“We have to be sure, Henry,” said Hayes sympathetical y. “And, when we act, split seconds count because things happen in split seconds. You know that. If you can help us fix our sights on Suarez our job will be easier, and safer. Lives could be saved.”
“If Suarez sees me again and he’s finally worked out who I am, he’ll kill me for sure,” said Henry.
“We won’t give him the chance,” said Grimes. “Don’t worry, hero.”
At 8am on the morning of October 1, Rudolfo Suarez called Trevor Hodges’s cel phone. It rang three times, and with each ring his anger mounted. He was about to hang up when Trevor answered.
“Yes?”
“Where have you been?” said Suarez, disguising his wrath as best he could. “Why aren’t you here?”
“I can’t talk now,” said Hodges. “I’ll fill you in when I see you.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” answered Hodges. “See you soon.”
He hung up.
Suarez was furious. “Who does he think he’s talking to?” he said to Remo, who stood at the picture window trying to wake himself up with a cup of strong coffee.
“What did he say?”
“He’ll ‘fill me in when he sees me’,” answered Suarez. “What in hell does that mean?”
“Well, at least we know he’s okay,” said Remo, still staring sleepily at the mountains in the distance.
“I’m not so sure. He sounded… weird.”
“Is he on his way here?”
“I guess so,” said Suarez.
Two hundred miles away, aboard the Enterprise, Grimes and his men were congratulating themselves on having fooled Suarez. Their best electronics man, Dan Hoy, had put together an assemblage of computerized dialogue based on Grimes’s interrogation of Trevor Hodges and had been waiting sleeplessly for the inevitable call.
“Not bad,” said Grimes, slapping Hoy on the back.
“You really showed me something that time.”
“Thanks, sir,” said Hoy. “Do you think he bought it?”
“Why not? At least he won’t think Hodges has been caught. Suarez is probably pissed off, but he’s not tipped off. That’s all we care about. Just make sure you don’t answer that line if it rings again.”
A loud gong echoed through the Hacienda, activated by Suarez’s omnipresent laptop. Everyone living there — a support staff of a dozen businessmen and — women, a small security force of twice that many, and a maintenance staff hand-picked from a stable of ex-
Chilean Government workers — knew the signal meant to stop what they were doing and go immediately to the main building’s living-room. It meant their boss had something big to say.
With little conversation they assembled at the back of the very large, arched room, with its panoramic view of the Chilean Andes. The view was seen through almost an inch of clear web-reinforced Lexan laminate.
Though never tested by Suarez on site, the material was said to be able to stop high-velocity armour- piercing shells, even the uranium-cored shells that had turned solid steel into a shower of sparks during the two Gulf Wars. This wall of light, as Suarez called it, spanned about forty by fifteen feet.
All the furniture in the room faced the Andes. The staff, gathered at the far wall, were afforded just as grand a view as their boss. He treated his staff well. He’d made sure that coffee and beer were accessible to them — albeit only at his offering; even his inner circle of henchmen and his own family couldn’t dispense refreshments in here without his approval. When he was not in residence the room was sealed.
Suarez spent most of his time at the Hacienda in front of that Lexan. It made him feel secure, and he loved the view. Today, however, he was standing with his back to the Andes and eyeing each and every one of them as they entered the room. Final y, when they were all assembled, he addressed them.
“My friends, you all know what ‘industrial espionage’ means. That’s when a business competitor tries to put you out of business. This, I fear, is something that grows more common with every passing day.
Corporations can be thrown into ruin with the press of a button on Wall Street.
“But there are other, darker and more physical ways that businesses war with one another. That’s why today I bring you grave news. TransAm Optical is about to be attacked by agents of another corporation, masquerading as military police — perhaps even United States military — or as local bandits acting in support of some junta or another. They are actually agents who are out to steal our patents, our secrets, our plans; anything they can get their hands on to help their greedy ends.
“Many of you signed on to be craftsmen and engineers. But will you also remember that I demanded of you, as a prerequisite to your employment here, a sworn oath of allegiance, and that you take some form of military training. You all know how to handle weapons of war. You know how to hit a target with a military weapon.”