I Minus 72 (3 page)

“I’m your assistant, sir: Sergeant First
Class Samantha Rogers.” She moved into the room, standing just on
the other side of his desk.

Thurmond shook his head, “Uh, uh. No, I
didn’t ask for an assistant and I don’t need one. I don’t even need
a desk. I don’t intend to spend much time here.”

“Yes, sir, I understand what you mean, but I
was assigned to provide you with whatever support you need.” Rogers
was tall, 5’10”, lean, athletically built and, as Thurmond had also
noticed, built. With dark, longish hair, pinned up to meet regs,
and dark brown eyes, she was striking. A good student, she’d played
volleyball all through high school and for two years at the local
community college and she still kept herself fit. She also looked
confident and poised in this first meeting with her new boss.

Thurmond looked at her. She had four rows of
medals on her uniform blouse. He asked, “How long have you been in
the Army?”

“Just under ten years, sir.”

“Ten years and you have four rows of
medals?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I spent twenty-six years in and only have
six medals, total. You must be some kind of hero or something,” the
Colonel paused. “What’s your specialty? Admin?”

Deciding to answer his questions in order,
she said, “Well, sir, in Iraq and Afghanistan they give medals out
pretty freely. You don’t have to be a hero. I’m in
counterintelligence.”

“Sit down.” He said, gesturing to the metal
guest chair. “You were in Iraq?” he asked.

She sat before answering. “Yes, sir. I’ve
done two full combat tours. One in Iraq and another in
Afghanistan.”

Thurmond paused a moment,
then reconsidered, “Counterintelligence, huh? Okay, maybe
you
can
be
useful. Do you know your way around this puzzle palace? Maybe find
out where I can get a good cup of coffee?”

“Yes, sir, I’ll get you a cup.” She rose to
her feet. “You take anything in it?”

“No, I don’t want you to get it for me, just
tell me where I can get one. Is there a Navy unit somewhere? They
always have the best coffee—usually a couple of days old—what I’m
used to. The stuff they have around here is like tea.”

“Yes, sir, just two doors down is where the
Naval Intelligence types hang out. I’m sure they’ll have some.”

“Okay, sit back down.” He said. “I’ll be
right back. Wait here.” He walked past her on his way out the
door.

On his way to get the coffee he decided he
wasn’t sure what he was going to do with Rogers, but he’d give her
a couple of days to work out.

When he returned with his coffee, he sat
behind his battered desk and said, “Well, their coffee is fresh,
but really strong. It’s good. So what do I call you, Sergeant . . .
Samantha?” Before she could answer, he said, “No, I’ll just call
you Sam. Okay, Sam, what do you know about this operation? Oh, by
the way, I assume, being counterintelligence, that you’re cleared
for Top Secret with all the appropriate intelligence tickets?”

“Yes, sir, I’m cleared or I wouldn’t be
allowed in these spaces. But I received only a very sketchy
briefing about the operation. Their assumption is that I’m just
support and won’t be active in the field. I’ve received no training
for that stealth stuff anyway so I wouldn’t really know what to do.
I’d probably just get someone killed.” She smiled at him.

“That’s comforting,” Thurmond responded
without smiling back. Then he stared hard at her. After a full
minute, during which she just looked calmly back at him, he said,
“Okay, as I said, I don’t need an admin. What I can use is someone
I can count on to get me what I need, no matter what it takes. I’ll
need you to go around obstacles and over the head of bureaucratic
desk jockeys who try to get in the way. That includes senior
military officers. Are you up to it?”

“Sounds like fun, sir,” she said, not
smiling this time.

Thurmond nodded. “I don’t think it’ll be
much fun, Sam. And, it might even jeopardize your career. I’m kind
of like a bull in a china shop and the brass doesn’t always like my
approach. Mostly I don’t really give a damn whether they like it or
not, I just want results. As far as the methods used to get those
results, well, whatever it takes.”

“Colonel, I have about three months left on
my current enlistment. I’m not at all sure I’m going to re-up, so
there’s not much to jeopardize. I’m willing to do whatever it
takes.”

The corners of Thurmond’s mouth lifted
slightly in his version of a smile. Sergeant First Class Samantha
Rogers is gonna be ok, he thought. “Okay, then, let’s get to it.
What do you know about our mission?” He leaned forward with his
forearms on his desk and his hands clasped together.

“A couple of days ago I was briefed that
there was a threat to the President-elect and told it might happen
on or before his inauguration. Other than that, I know only that
you were involved earlier in a network that has lost several assets
and it might be connected to the threat on the President-elect. I
know none of the details about what you did or what the network was
about.” She shrugged.

“Okay, I’ll fill you in on that part a
little later. Now, the first thing we’ll need is the complete list
of names involved in my old network, from the top to the bottom.
I’ll have to reconstruct that myself—there’s no written record. I
destroyed the only printed list years ago and even it didn’t
include everyone. Once I put the high level list together, we’ll
highlight those who’ve been taken out. Then, we’ll go . . . .” For
the next three hours Thurmond talked, first giving Sam the
background, then detailing the next steps for them both. Sam liked
the confident way he spoke and acted. Not just good looking but
really smart, too, she thought. This was going to be interesting.
He may be a little old, but he sure didn’t act like it.

Thurmond finished by outlining their first
steps. “Okay, to put the full list together I need to get to
Krakow, Poland. Some people there I need to talk to. Don’t know how
you want to set it up, but I need to get into the city center by
Thursday morning. See what you can come up with. Feel free to talk
to the CIA types to see if they have any current contacts I can
call on if I need ’em while I’m there. Let’s plan to get back
together in a couple of hours. By the way, if you contact them,
don’t tell CIA what we’re up to, just that I have to get into
Krakow and need someone to contact if I want assistance.” Grant
nodded at her.

“Yes, sir, I’m on it.” Sam left the room
with an air of confidence.

This will be a good test, Thurmond thought.
He wanted to see if Sam was resourceful enough to figure out a way
for him to have people he could call in Poland in case he ran into
trouble. In the past, he’d always had assets in-country to help him
with the logistics, but those contacts were cold. He hoped Sam
could find someone in DIA or CIA that could help. It was a short
timeframe, but the whole operation would be working with short
timeframes. She might as well get used to it from the
beginning.

A half-hour later Sam walked into his office
and said, “Okay, it’s all set. You arrive in Krakow Thursday
morning at 8:30 a.m.”

Thurmond’s jaw dropped slightly. “What? How
did you set that up so quickly? Were you able to get me names of
someone who could help once I’m there?” Who was this Sam
anyway?

Fighting a grin she said. “I logged onto the
Northwest Air Lines website and booked your flight—Business Class
through Amsterdam. I assume your passport is up to date? If not, I
can get it renewed tomorrow. Also, I’ve placed a call to our CIA
counterparts who have responsibility for Eastern Europe. They said
they’ll get back to me with names later today.”

Grant took a beat. “Okay,” he said. “Thanks.
My passport’s current. I no longer have a government-issued
passport, though. You might want to get that set up, just in case.
If you can, make it black. You’ll have to get General Wheeler to
authorize that.” Thinking ahead, Thurmond continued, “You know,
depending upon what I find while in Poland, I may have to get into
several other Eastern European countries. I’m sure they’re also
easy to enter, but I can’t even remember which countries are which.
I’m familiar with the old names, like Czechoslovakia and
Yugoslavia, but not with the countries they became when the Soviet
Union broke up.” Suddenly he felt like an idiot.

“Well, you’ll need a visa to get into some
of them, but tourists go there all the time. It’ll only take a
couple of days, I think. I’ll get right on it,” Sam replied
confidently.

“Go ahead and find out all the details, like
which countries need visas, and stuff, but hold off on applying for
them for a little while. I need to find out how compromised the
network really is and how involved Russia is. I’d hate to fly into
Russia and disappear. Speaking of which, I was told that I’m also
on the elimination list.”

Startled, Sam interrupted, “What? You’re on
the list?”

“
Yeah. That means,
depending on what you’re exposed to, you might make the list, too.
They’re working on a safe house for me to live in while I’m here.
We’re gonna need for you to move in also. We have to make both of
us tough to get to during this operation. Until this thing is over,
you won’t be able to tell anyone where you’re living or where
you’re going. Will that be a problem?” He looked at her without
blinking.

Sam took just a moment to reply, “No, sir. I
can be ready to move tonight. I’ll just tell my roommate that I’m
going TDY for a while.” She gave him a level gaze.

“Is this going to be okay with him?”
Thurmond said, figuring he might as well know if she was living
with some guy. It could make a difference during the mission.

“
My roommate’s a she and
she’s used to it. There is no he,” Sam replied.

Thurmond nodded. “Then go find out the
status of the safe house. Start with General Wheeler’s office. He’s
the one setting it up. And don’t tell anyone, including your
roommate where you’re going.”

After Sam left, Thurmond started thinking
about the old days, the people he’d recruited, the people who’d
been taken out and what a devastating loss of intelligence the US
would suffer with the disbanding of this network. Russia was still
so unstable. The US had to know what they were planning to do. He
wasn’t just worried about the network falling apart. He also had a
nagging uncertainty about his ability to solve this crisis before
the inauguration. He had so little to work from and there just
wasn’t that much time. Right about now, he was also feeling a
little rusty. He sat so deep in thought he didn’t notice the man
who stood leaning against his doorway, watching him for a few
minutes.

“Well, if it isn’t Colonel Grant
Thurmond.”

Startled, he answered, “Yeah, what can I do
for you?” Looking up he immediately recognized the man standing
there. “Garcia. What the hell are you doing here?” Thurmond wasn’t
particularly pleased to see him.

Marty Garcia was a career CIA operative that
Thurmond had interacted with in the past. There had been a few
joint operations when Garcia was just beginning his career in the
intelligence community and Thurmond was nearing the end of his. The
ops had been tentative outreaches by each agency to the other. From
the beginning there’d been a natural competitiveness between them,
as there was between their agencies. Thurmond thought of Garcia as
young, daring and, in some cases, reckless. An agent with little
respect for anyone else’s abilities. But, in the time since
Thurmond had retired, Garcia had risen in the hierarchy of the CIA.
He was intelligent, quick, politically astute and driven to
succeed. He had been recruited by the CIA in his senior year at
Cornell and went from graduation to the Farm for training. He stood
about six feet tall and weighed over two hundred pounds, with
little fat. He had brown eyes and black hair. His grandparents had
emigrated from Argentina eighty years ago and, although his parents
were of South American heritage, both were born in the United
States.

“Ah, it’s great to see you, too, Thurmond.”
Garcia said with obvious sarcasm. “I’m your CIA liaison. You’re
supposed to work with me and I’m supposed to make sure you get all
the CIA assistance you need to be successful. Including the request
your assistant just phoned in.” Thurmond started to reply, but
Garcia, standing on both feet now, held his hand up and continued,
“Look, Thurmond. Before we get started, I’ve got something I need
to get off my chest and I’m just going to lay it out on the table.
I’m not deliberately trying to offend you, but I just don’t see the
merit in bringing an old fart like you out of retirement to tackle
such a sensitive problem. I sure as hell wouldn’t have done it, but
it wasn’t my call. Just wanted to say that.” Garcia paused and
looked at Thurmond.

Thurmond said nothing, just stared back at
him.

Garcia continued, “Yeah, I know you were a
hotshot when you were active, but it’s been years since you’ve been
involved. Just to let you know, I filed a brief suggesting this be
a CIA operation, not led by DIA. I think DIA, and maybe you, caused
the problem. Just wanted you to know where I stand.” He leaned back
into the door frame, his shoulders blocking the doorway. “Ahh, nice
digs, by the way,” he said grinning and looking around the small
office.

“Well, at least you’re frank, even if you
are some kind of asshole. What do you know about what we’re doing?”
Thurmond was beyond annoyed. He had some respect for Garcia, but
didn’t personally like the man.

Without being invited, Garcia walked over
and sat down in the guest chair. Crossing his arms and leaning back
on the back two legs of the chair, the front legs raised about six
inches off the ground, he said, “I’ve received a full briefing from
General Wheeler. I know as much as you do. However, I know nothing
about the network that’s fallen apart. Unless they need help to
save their ass, like now, DIA doesn’t exactly keep us up to speed
on their networks.”