“Look, I’m through, okay? I’ve got nothing you want to hear,” Masters told him, slumping slightly as he turned away again. “Go back to DC. Send my old report up the chain. There’s more in there than you really want to know anyway.”
Sam Karson wasn’t noted for being slow on the uptake, and he took careful note of what had just been said without being said.
He has been working on something on the sly. What does he know?
“What I want to know is the truth.”
Masters laughed, not turning back to him. “It’s like that man in the movie said, Admiral. You can’t handle the truth.”
Karson let out a chuckle, but shook his head. “What I can and can’t handle has very little to do with the execution of my duties.”
“Everyone says that, but damn few mean it.”
Karson sighed. “What can I say to convince you, Lieutenant?”
“Honestly, sir, I can’t think of a damn thing. Just leave me in peace,” Masters told him with finality.
Karson nodded, drawing a card from his pocket. He scribbled his hotel and room number on the back and set it down on a stump, putting a hand-sized rock on top of it to hold it against the wind.
“You change your mind, I’ll be in the area for a couple days.”
Masters just grunted in response, not bothering to turn around as the admiral left.
After he heard the car pull out of the drive, Hawk Masters turned to the stump and plucked the card out from under the stone. He casually drove the maul into a large stump and left it there as he walked around the front of his house and went inside.
He headed immediately for the den, taking a seat in front of the computer there, and opened up a browser window. Calling up the available information on Samuel Karson took only a few seconds, and he leaned back as he pondered the situation.
He opened up the VOIP software on his system, turned on the encryption package, and sat back as he fit the earpiece in place.
“Call Rankin,” he ordered, then waited for an answer.
A few seconds later he had one.
“An admiral just stopped by my place, man,” he said, already wincing in anticipation of his friend’s response.
He wasn’t disappointed. He calmed Rankin down after his explosion, then spoke again. “I know, but he sounds serious. I’m not sure I want to get involved again either. The question is, do we take the easy road…or the hard road?”
Masters laughed bitterly when his old friend answered, but he knew he couldn’t argue.
“Yeah, man. I know. The only easy day was yesterday. I’ll sound him out and get back to you. Keep well.”
Masters rose up, tossing the earpiece to the desk, and shook his head. He suspected that this wouldn’t be the last time he wondered if he were completely insane. The lord above knew that it wasn’t the first.
That night, at the hotel bar, Masters found the admiral nursing a drink and sat down on the stool next to him.
“Change your mind?”
Masters shook his head. “No, I still don’t think you’re ready for this.”
“I was right, then — you’ve been conducting your own investigation.”
It wasn’t a question, and Masters didn’t bother to interpret it as one.
“What did you learn?”
“More than I ever wanted to know,” Hawk Masters said tiredly. “More than you want to know.”
“Ever since I took this job I’ve been learning things I didn’t want to know, Lieutenant,” Karson said quietly. “It’s the nature of the beast. You learn to sleep with it.”
“I sleep in an armored safe room, Admiral, with three guns within reach and a security system so advanced that the Secret Service couldn’t get to me,” Masters told him. “I wouldn’t wish this information on my worst enemy, and there’s only one reason I’m even thinking about telling you.”
“And that is?” Karson asked, processing the man’s words. Masters didn’t seem to be paranoid enough if what he said was true.
“I want a shot at the thing that killed my men. If I do it alone, I’ll die alone. I figure that you might be able to give me a shot at taking that stinking thing with me.”
“Lieutenant, if you can give me a hint about what this thing is and where we can find it, I’ll have a task force on it before the night is out.”
“Oh no, Admiral. It’s not that easy,” Masters said with a tired smile. “Learn to crawl before you try and run a thirty-second mile.”
Masters rose up, dropping some bills on the counter. “Drinks on me. Come by my place in the morning, and I’ll show you a few things. If you don’t think I’m completely loony when we’re done, we’ll see about learning to walk.”
Admiral Karson half turned to watch the former navy man walk out of the hotel bar and frowned as he tried to piece together the puzzle that was Hawk Masters.
Hawk Masters stared at the wall in his house as he considered the situation, trying to see his way through the fog. It all came down to what the government wanted, really. No, it came down to what they were willing to accept.
Telling them everything was out. No way he was going to do that.
It wouldn’t be a practical response, even if it was what he wanted.
He was still trying to map a way through the fogged future when the bell rang and his time was up. He sighed and rose from his chair, walked out to the entryway, and checked who was there. It was just a reflex action, but he confirmed the admiral’s presence before even approaching the door.
“Come in,” he said after opening it, nodding to the older man. He gestured behind him. “Down that hall, door right at the end.”
Karson just nodded, stepping past him and into the house. He noted that he door clicked shut on an automatic lock, and looked questioningly at his host.
“I take security seriously.”
Without another word, Karson nodded and let Masters guide him down the hall and into a room that seemed to be set up as a small conference room. Karson cocked an eyebrow questioningly, but didn’t comment as he set his briefcase down on the long table.
“Doubles as a poker table,” Masters said, knocking on the hardwood. “Felt underneath.”
“I see.” The admiral quirked a smile, then popped his case open. “Why don’t we start with what you’ve been doing for the past ten years.”
“No. Let’s start with what you’re hoping to get out of me,” Masters rejoined, taking a seat at the head of the table.
Karson sat down opposite him and gazed evenly across the table, to depressingly little effect.
“I could get a court order to dig through your life over the past ten years,” Karson said calmly. “Hell, I don’t even need the court order.”
“I expect you already have everything I’ve done that’s been recorded on a computer,” Hawk Masters responded, “but the information you want isn’t on any computer network.”
“Where is it then?”
“You’re not ready to know that, Admiral…and you should be eternally grateful for that fact.”
Admiral Karson grimaced, glaring at his host. “My job is intelligence, sailor. I’m never grateful for ignorance.”
Hawk just smiled crookedly in return. “Here’s a couple of old sayings for you: Ignorance is bliss and what you don’t know can’t hurt you.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“From your perspective. From mine? I’m making perfect sense, and you’re being irrational.”
Karson rose to his feet, snapping down the lid of his case. “If you’re just going to screw around, Masters, we’re done here.”
“I’m not screwing around, Admiral. The fact is, you don’t want the answers you’re looking for,” Masters replied, sitting back with a serious expression. “I was in the same position ten years ago. I thought I wanted those answers, but I found out differently once I got them. The problem is, Admiral, once you’re on this side of the line there’s no going back.”