Each thought of Rickets reminded her of pain and redemption. As amends for risking her life while breaking a sex slave ring and subjecting her to a rapist who gave her HIV, he had assured her choice assignments for her advancement. But guilt had limits.
“If you mean Gerry, he’s busy running for president,” she said. “And I’m running out of favors he owes me.”
“If you have one favor remaining with him, I recommend that you exercise it now.”
“Say that I do. There’s no guarantee that Gerry wins the election.”
“You and I share the good fortune of being respected by his opponent. I saved his friend’s life, and we’ve both proved instrumental in keeping Jake alive for years. You can secure the promise from both sides.”
Rickets’ opponent, Admiral John Brody, had mentored Jake Slate as a submarine officer prior to his rise to Chief of Naval Operations. He now held the position as his party’s frontrunner to face Rickets in the national election. In Olivia’s reckoning, Brody owed both her and Renard a debt for preserving Jake’s life in past conflicts, but she questioned Brody’s perspective on the matter.
“You’re asking a lot of me.”
“You can be convincing.”
“I’ll give it a shot. This is no time for me to be timid.”
“You can call them from the plane. You’ll need to charter a flight immediately to Buenos Aires.”
Despite her liver’s efforts churning alcohol into acetate, she felt the room spinning.
“This is happening so fast.”
“You must make haste. You must move immediately. There is no other way. I fear that the invasion force may leave at any hour.”
“I’ll check satellite reports for activity,” she said. “But I had an alert set to warn me if anything abnormal happened on troop movement. So nothing yet.”
“Why would Gomez wait?” Renard asked.
Suspecting that the military veteran president had a concrete reason, she pondered his apparent delay.
“Morale,” she said.
“Morale?”
“Yeah. He doesn’t want the foot soldiers to head toward the islands until they see the pilots return.”
“Interesting,” Renard said. “Go on.”
“The last time their fathers’ generation tried invading, they underestimated the British resolve and got beaten badly. Gomez doesn’t want to just send them on his orders. He wants the pilots to return and share their spirit and confidence. He wants the foot soldiers buying beers for a bunch of swaggering, triumphant aviators and wishing they could taste their success.”
“That’s brilliant.”
“Well, it’s just a theory.”
“No, it’s not. I am sure that if you see where the Argentine air forces have landed, you’ll see a massing of ground troops. It will not be a coincidence.”
“I’ll check.”
“Regardless, you do need to hurry.”
“I’ll get moving.”
“One more thing,” Renard said. “You’ll need to convince Ramirez that you are committed to assuring his support from both U.S. presidential candidates.”
“Should I get signed notes from both of them?”
“That would be splendid, but don’t see you achieving that. I had something more subtle in mind.”
She feared the conversation’s climax.
“Like what?” she asked.
“Do as you were trained. You are an analyst, you are a field officer, but first and foremost, you are a seductress. Use your wiles, woman, and save your career.”
“You want me to jump on a CIA-chartered plane, fly to Buenos Aires, and then jump on a man until he agrees to overthrow his country by force?”
“I’d rather call it agreeing to save his country from disaster.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Indeed. And if any woman is capable of such a deed, it is you. He respects your intelligence and power.”
“You’re giving me too much credit.”
“Don’t be modest. Every world leader with an interest in the international intelligence community knows who you are.”
“Even if that’s true, then I’m just a paragraph and a headshot in a dossier for him.”
“No. I imagine that he’d find a fair-skinned red-haired beauty such as yourself to be a cherished prize. The CIA trained you to be irresistible, and this is an ambitious man you will find easy to manipulate. You must and will place him into the mood to conquer.”
“And you want me to get him revved up by letting him conquer me?”
“No, not letting him conquer you. Making him conquer you. Force the issue. Confuse him. Relax him. Enthrall him. Control him. It’s a two-day trip to the islands for the invasion force. You’ve got tomorrow to outline a plan with him, charm him, and make him feel like a king before he must turn that force back.”
“You expect him to roll off me in the middle of the night, pound his chest, and call a general or two before midnight?”
“I’m trying to respect your privacy by not picturing it in my mind, but yes. Isn’t that how they taught you to manipulate men?”
She reflected on how easy it would be. She reflected on how it would salvage and re-launch the career she had lost at the beginning of the conversation. She reflected on how powerful she would feel, and how wanted she would feel by the handsome, successful man she knew Ramirez to be.
Before she could let morality or cowardliness turn her, she needed to set her adventure in motion. But first, she owed Renard a jab.
“Have you lost count, Pierre?”
“Of what?”
“Of how many times you’ve used sexy women as tools against men?”
“I’ve never kept count, but since you ask, I would guess that it’s somewhere around. Well…”
“You’ve lost count.”
“Touché.”
“You knew I’d agree to this, didn’t you?”
“After my miscue with Gomez, I’m unsure of anything. But I was optimistic, yes.”
“Why?”
“Fear, desperation, ambition, challenge, and lust for both power and hedonistic pleasure. I think that covers all bases.”
“Did you ever consider that he would do it if I just asked him nicely?”
“No I hadn’t” Renard said.
“Well?”
“I imagine it’s possible that he’d agree without seductive pressure, but why take the chance?”
“Damn you for being so manipulative,” she said. “But I must admit that it’s okay for a girl to mix business and pleasure.”
CHAPTER 13
Commander Gutierrez pounded his fist on the console.
“Damn!”
“You knew this was a desperation shot, sir,” Fernandez said. “Long range against a target that was already evading at flank speed. You couldn’t have expected a hit.”
Gutierrez agreed with his executive officer, but he had allowed himself to hope.
A week and a half earlier, President Gomez had been clear with him and Commander Martinez during a private conversation in his wardroom. Although the Frenchman had professed a surgical campaign of restraint designed to engender a favorable negotiation with the British, the Argentine military leaders were to deviate from this path.
From the moment the Specter deloused the Santa Cruz, the Frenchman, his plans, and his agents were expendable. From that moment, every British vessel became a target of opportunity, including the Ambush and including every warship that the Royal Navy would send toward the Malvinas.
Gutierrez appreciated his president’s style. Warriors set history’s course by winning campaigns in battle — not politicians by yammering at bargaining tables. Sinking the Ambush would take his nation one step closer to military success, and it would assure his status as a hero.