Man in the middle

She and I shifted to the galley, where we discovered a thick hoard of fresh bologna in the fridge. This struck us both as apropos for the occasion-you know, turkey at Thanksgiving, boiled potatoes for Saint Patty's, bologna after being lied to and fucked. So we made a few sandwiches; I slathered mine with mayonnaise, she loaded hers with mustard, and we adjourned to the big conference table for dinner.

We brought the last four beers with us. It wasn't enough to even get a buzz on, but we already were drunk with powerlessness.

So now we were alone with out first chance to compare notes. Bian kicked it off, asking, "How bad was your lecture?"

"I'll bet yours was worse."

"Waterbury doesn't bother me." She smiled. "He's a big blowhard. Don't let him get under your collar. Do what I always do. Tune him out."

"Seriously, when I told you not to shoot anybody, I didn't mean him."

She held up a forefinger, squeezed the trigger, and laughed.

"They pulled out the rug from under our feet, Bian."

"Why do you sound so surprised? Did you actually believe they'd allow us to take this to full fruition?"

"For all the wrong reasons, yes, I did."

"Well… shame on you."

"What am I hearing here?"

"I mean, I'm upset. I'm disappointed. Of course I am. I just… Look, once we understood what was happening here, the full import, the total scope, the possibilities… I hope this doesn't sound cynical, but I didn't think we'd be allowed to find the full truth."

"Aren't we here because you insisted we had to do this?"

"Was there a choice? You learn that the primary justification behind this war might be a big lie, that the man we sent here to be the next king could be in the pocket of the bad guys, and maybe he exposed to our enemies an invaluable secret. So you have the opportunity to find out and maybe do something about it. Do you say no?" She squeezed my hand and added, "We never had a choice. From the instant we entered Cliff Daniels's apartment, because of who we are, we had to be here, we had to do what we've done, and we had to be told that's enough."

"And you're okay with this?"

"I'm Army. I follow orders."

"That's not what I asked. Are you okay with this?"

"All right… I'm depressed. I'm frustrated. I'm disgusted at my own government." After a moment, she confided, "But I'll deal with it. You'll have to find your own way to handle it."

This submissive babble was the last thing I expected from Ms. Gung-ho. Her stubbornness, after all, was what brought us here in the first place. Well, I had made lots of misjudgments during the past few days, nor, like the three billion other males on the planet, have I ever been particularly good at understanding women.

After a long, thoughtful pause, she asked, "What were Phyllis's instructions to you about Charabi?"

"There is no Charabi. Just a figment of my imagination. What did Waterbury say to you?"

"Yeah, like that. And the intelligence leak?"

"You can't get to one without the other. Besides, Phyllis kept all the relevant e-mail messages."

"Good point. Anything about closing out Cliff Daniels's murder investigation?"

I looked at her.

She looked back and observed with pretended innocence, "I ask only because Waterbury mentioned nothing about it to me."

We both sipped from our beers, and out of nowhere we heard the sound of a loud explosion. The chandelier above our heads actually swayed and shook-a little close to home. The highway from Baghdad to the airport was aptly and horribly nicknamed Suicide Alley, and it sounded like a suicide bomber had just nailed somebody. Maybe it was Waterbury; we should be so lucky.

Without speaking, Bian set up the speakerphone in the middle of the conference table. I dialed the Washington switch, gave the nice operator the number, and a few unanswered rings later heard Detective Barry Enders's voice growl, "Jesus H… Look what friggin' time it is. If this isn't about a murder, there's about to be one."

I identified myself and told Enders that Bian was beside me, listening on the speakerphone, then informed him, "We're calling for an update on the investigation."

There was silence for a moment. Enders then said, "What investigation?"

"Barry, it's me," replied Bian. Sounding slightly annoyed, she said, "Don't jerk us off."

"Who's jerkin' who off? A bunch of Feds came in yesterday. They took everything, jurisdiction, the crime scene log… my files… the lab specimens. They even ripped the pages out of my detective book. Don't even tell me this is a surprise to you."

Bian and I exchanged troubled looks. No wonder Phyllis and Waterbury felt no need to warn us off this venue. Bastards. But smart bastards.

Enders continued, "Now you're calling at this hour to rub it in. What is this, some kind've trap play to see if I'm-"

"Barry," I interrupted, "this is the first we've heard of this."

"Yeah… right."

"Who signed the order?"

"Justice Department. I was also ordered to develop a memory lapse. They were real assholes about it, too."

"Yet this is still an open case for you, is it not? A death in your jurisdiction-isn't it your responsibility to file cause of death?"

"That's not how it works, Drummond. The Feds give the judgment, I write it down, end of story."

I was, of course, familiar with the proper procedures, and we both knew I was testing the waters. The answer was, screw you.

He asked me, "Why do you care? You insisted it was suicide. And you know what? I have a feeling that's what the Feds will conclude: suicide." He laughed.

Bian recognized I had a credibility problem here and said, "I changed his mind. So did you. Now he… actually, we both believe it was something else. Murder."

"Look, I think we're done-"

"What if I offered you insights about why Cliff Daniels was murdered?" I asked.

"Great. I'll give you the number to Special Agent Barney Stanowitz. Big ugly asshole with bad manners. His card's in my office. In fact," he confided, "he warned me that if anybody asked about this case I should call him."

Going on instinct about Barry Enders, I said, "Give me a minute, Barry. One minute. Then make up your own mind about what you're going to do."

He hesitated. Not a good sign.

I nodded at Bian, who is much nicer than me, and she said, "Barry, you're a smart guy. I think you know what's going down. A cover-up. Conspiracy. You don't know why, and maybe you don't care. But I suspect you do care."

Bian and I looked at each other. No reply.

Bian said, "Barry, please."

"Okay… one minute. Drummond, make your case."

This was less than a commitment but more than the phone slamming down.

So I confessed, "Maybe I misled you about the trouble Daniels was in."

"Wow, no shit. Didn't they teach you at law school that it's a crime to lie to the cops?"

"Cut the crap, Barry. One minute. You promised."

"If you want the full minute, speak more clearly."

"Okay. Possibly Cliff Daniels betrayed this country. Possibly he gave enormously sensitive information to the wrong people in Iraq and compromised a very important operation. You wondered why a CIA person and a military policewoman were sent to his apartment. Now you know-espionage."

There was a long, contemplative pause. He said, "My oldest boy-Elton-he's a Marine. First Marine Division. Already been to Iraq once." After another moment he mentioned, "Did my own four years as a Jarhead before I became a cop. Semper Fi."

"Couldn't get into the Army?"

"Hey, I tried. Only the Army recruiter, he said I possessed two irreconcilable issues: My parents were married, and I don't look sufficiently stupid."

"Really? You look stupid enough to me."

We both laughed. He said, "All right, I'll give you more than a minute. Go ahead, blow some more smoke up my ass."