by Tom Clancy
“Do we pass?” Brian asked Alexander on the way in.
“Easy, both of you. This isn’t Ranger School, guys. We don’t expect you to try out for the Olympics team, but, out in the field, running away is a nice ability to have.”
“At Quantico, Gunny Honey liked to say that,” Brian agreed.
“Who?” Dominic asked.
“Nicholas Honey, Master Gunnery Sergeant, United States Marine Corps, and, yeah, he probably took a lot of razzing because of his name—but probably not from the same guy twice. He was one of the instructors at the Basic School. They also called him ‘Nick the Prick,’” Brian said, grabbing a towel and tossing it to his brother. “He’s one bad-ass Marine. But he said that running away is the one skill an infantryman needs.”
“Did you?” Dominic asked.
“I’ve only seen combat once, and that was just for a couple of months. Mostly, we were looking down at mountain goats who had heart attacks from climbing those fucking hills.”
“That bad, eh?”
“Worse.” Alexander joined in. “But fighting wars is for kids, not sensible adults. You see, Agent Caruso, out in the weeds you also wear sixty-five pounds on your back.”
“That must be fun,” Dominic said to his brother, not without respect.
“Big time. Okay, Pete, what other pleasant things are on the plan of the day?”
“Get cleaned up first,” Alexander advised. Now that he was certain that both were in reasonable physical shape—though he’d had little doubt of that, and it wasn’t all that important anyway, despite what he’d said—they could look into the hard stuff. The important stuff.
“THE BUCK is going to take a hit,” Jack told his new boss.
“How bad?”
“Just a scratch. The Germans are going to short the dollar against the Euro, about five hundred million worth.”
“Is that a big deal?” Sam Granger asked.
“You’re asking me?” Jack responded.
“That’s right. You have to have an opinion. It doesn’t have to be correct, but it has to make some kind of sense.”
Jack Ryan, Jr., handed over the intercepts. “This guy Dieter’s talking with his French counterpart. He makes it sound like a routine transaction, but the translator says the tone of his voice has some nastiness to it. I speak a little German, but not well enough for that sort of nuance,” the young Ryan told his boss. “I cannot say that I understand why the Germans and French would be in any sort of conspiracy against us.”
“It suits current German interests to cozy up to the French. I do not see a long-term bilateral alliance of any sort, however. Fundamentally, the French are afraid of the Germans, and the Germans look down on the French. But the French have imperial ambitions—well, they always have. Look at their relations with America. Kind of like brother and sister, age twelve or so. They love each other, but they can’t get along very well. Germany and France, that’s similar but more complex. The French used to kick their ass, but then the Germans got organized and kicked the French ass. And both countries have long memories. That’s the curse of Europe. There’s a lot of contentious history over there, and they have trouble forgetting it.”
“What does that have to do with this?” the young Ryan asked.
“Directly, nothing at all, but as background maybe the German banker wants to get close to this guy to make a future play. Maybe the Frenchman is letting him think he’s getting close so that the French central bank can score points on Berlin. This is a funny game. You can’t clobber your adversary too hard because then he won’t play with you anymore, and, besides that, you don’t go out of your way to make enemies. All in all, it’s like a neighborhood poker game. If you do too well, then you make enemies, and it’s a lot less fun to live there because nobody will come over to your house to play. If you’re the dumbest at the table, the others will gang up on you in the nicest possible way and steal from you—not enough to hurt you but enough to tell themselves how smart they are. So what happens is that everyone plays a touch under his game, and it stays fairly friendly. Nobody over there is any farther than a general strike away from a major national liquidity crisis, and when that happens you need friends. I forgot to tell you, the central bankers regard everyone else on the continent as peasants. That can include the heads of the various governments.”
“And us?”
“Americans? Oh, yeah. Meanly born, poorly educated—but exceedingly lucky—peasants.”
“With big guns?” Little Jack asked.
“Yeah, peasants with guns always make the aristocracy nervous,” Granger agreed, stifling a laugh. “They still have that class crap over there. They have trouble understanding how badly it holds them back in the marketplace, because the big shots rarely come up with a really new idea. But that’s not our problem.”
Oderint dum metuant, Jack thought. One of the few things he remembered from Latin. Supposedly the personal motto of the Emperor Gaius Caligula: Let them hate so long as they fear. Hadn’t civilization advanced any further than that in the past two millennia?
“What is our problem?” he asked.
Granger shook his head. “I didn’t mean it that way. They don’t like us much—they never have liked us, really—but at the same time they can’t live without us. Some of them are starting to think they can, after the death of the Soviet Union, but if they ever try reality will bite them on the ass hard enough to draw blood. Don’t confuse the thoughts of the aristocracy with those of the people. That’s the problem with them. They really do think that people follow their lead, but they don’t. They follow their own wallets, and the average guy in the street will figure things out all by himself if he has enough time to think it through.”
“So, The Campus just makes money off their fantasy world?”
“You got it. You know, I hate soap operas. Do you know why I hate them?” He got a blank look. “Jack, it’s because they reflect reality so precisely. Real life, even at this level, is full of petty bullshit and egos. It isn’t love that makes the world go ’round. It isn’t even money. It’s bullshit.”
“Hey, I’ve heard cynicism in my time, but—”
“Granger cut him off with a raised hand. “Not cynicism. Human nature. The one thing that hasn’t changed in ten thousand years of recorded history. I wonder if it ever will. Oh, sure, there’s the good part of human nature, too: nobility, charity, self-sacrifice, even courage in some cases—and love. Love counts. It counts a lot. But along with it comes envy, covetousness, greed, all the seven deadly sins. Maybe Jesus knew what He was talking about, eh?”
“Is this philosophy or theology?” I thought this was supposed to be the intelligence business, the young Ryan thought.
“I turn fifty next week. Too soon old and too late smart. Some cowboy said that a hundred or so years ago.” Granger smiled. “Problem is, you’re too damned old when you realize it to be able to do anything about it.”
“What would you do, start a new religion?”
Granger had himself a good laugh as he turned to refill his coffee cup from his personal Gevalia machine. “No, none of the bushes around my house burn. The trouble with thinking deep thoughts is that you still have to cut the grass, and put food on the table. And, in our case, protect our country.”
“So, what do we do about this German thing?”
Granger gave the intercept another look and thought for a second. “Nothing, not right now, but we remember that Dieter has earned a point or two with Claude, which he may cash in on in six months or so. The Euro is still too new to see how it’s going to play out. The French think that the financial leadership of Europe will slide to Paris. The Germans think it’ll go to Berlin. In fact, it’ll go to the country with the strongest economy, the most efficient workforce. That won’t be France. They have pretty good engineers, but their population isn’t as well organized as the Germans are. If I had to bet, I’d bet on Berlin.”
“The French won’t like that.”
“That�
��s a fact, Jack. That’s a fact,” Granger repeated. “What the hell. The French have nukes, and the Germans don’t—for now, anyway.”
“You serious?” the young Ryan demanded.
A smile. “No.”
“THEY TAUGHT us some of that at Quantico,” Dominic said. They were in a medium-sized shopping mall that catered to the college crowd due to the proximity of UVA.
“What did they say?” Brian asked.
“Don’t stay in the same place relative to your subject. Try to alter your appearance—sunglasses, like that. Wigs if they’re available. Reversible jackets. Don’t stare at him, but don’t turn away if he looks at you. It’s a lot better if it’s more than one agent on a target. One man can’t track a trained adversary for very long without being made. A trained subject is hard to tail under the best of circumstances. That’s why the big offices have the SSGs, Special Surveillance Groups. They’re FBI employees, but they’re not sworn, and they don’t carry guns. Some guys call them the Baker Street Irregulars, as in Sherlock Holmes. They look like anything except a cop, street people—bums—workers in coveralls. They can be dirty. They can be pan-handlers. I met some at the New York Field Office once, they work OC and FCI—organized crime and foreign counterintelligence. They’re pros, but they’re the most unlikely-looking damn pros you ever want to meet.”
“Hardworking people like that?” Brian asked his brother. “Surveillance, I mean.”
“Never tried it myself, but from what I’ve heard, it takes a lot of manpower, like fifteen or twenty, to work one subject, plus cars, plus aircraft—and a really good bad guy can outfox us even then. The Russians especially. Those bastards are trained pretty well.”
“So, what the hell are we supposed to do?” Captain Caruso asked.
“Just learn the basics,” Alexander told them. “See the woman over there with the red sweater?”
“Long dark hair?” Brian asked.
“That’s the one,” Pete confirmed. “Determine what she buys, what sort of car she drives, and where she lives.”
“Just the two of us?” Dominic demanded. “You’re not asking much, are you?”
“Did I tell you this was easy work?” Alexander asked innocently. He handed over two radios. “The earpieces go in your ears, and the microphones clip to your collars. Range is about three kilometers. You both have your car keys.” And with that he walked away, toward an Eddie Bauer store to buy himself a pair of shorts.
“Welcome to the shit, Enzo,” Brian said.
“At least he gave us a mission brief.”
“It was brief, all right.”
Their subject had walked into an Ann Taylor store. They both headed down that way, each getting a large cup of coffee at the Starbucks as a jackleg disguise.
“Don’t throw the cup away,” Dominic told his brother.
“Why?” Brian asked.
“In case you gotta take a piss. The perversity of the world has a way of impinging on your carefully made plans in situations like this. That’s a practical lesson from a class at the Academy.”
Brian didn’t comment, but it seemed sensible enough. One at a time they donned their radios and made sure they worked properly.
“Aldo to Enzo, over,” Brian called on Channel 6.
“Enzo copies, bro. Let’s switch off on visual surveillance, but we’ll stay within sight of each other, okay?”
“Makes sense. Okay, I’ll head toward the store.”
“Ten-four. That’s roger to you, bro.” Dominic turned to see his brother draw off. Then he settled down to sipping his coffee and looking off the subject—never directly at her, but about 20 degrees to the side.
“What’s she up to?” Aldo asked.
“Picking a blouse, looks like.” The subject was thirty or so, with shoulder-length brown hair, fairly attractive, wearing a wedding band but no diamond, and a cheap gold-colored necklace probably purchased at Wal-Mart on the other side of the road. Peach-colored blouse/shirt. Pants rather than a skirt, black in color, black flat “sensible” shoes. Fairly large purse. Did not appear overly alert to her surroundings, which was good. She appeared to be alone. She finally settled on a blouse, white silk by the look of it, paid for it with a credit card, and walked out of Ann Taylor.
“Subject is moving, Aldo.”
Seventy yards away, Brian’s head perked up and turned directly toward his brother. “Talk to me, Enzo.”
Dominic raised his coffee cup as though to take a drink. “Turning left, coming your way. You can take over in a minute or so.”
“Ten-four, Enzo.”
They’d parked their cars on opposite sides of the shopping mall. That turned out to be a good thing, as their subject turned right and headed for the door out to the parking lot.
“Aldo, get close enough to make her tag,” Dominic ordered.
“What?”
“Read her tag number to me, and describe the car. I’m heading for my car.”
“Okay, roger that, bro.”
Dominic didn’t run to his car, but he walked as fast as circumstances allowed. He got in, started the engine, and lowered all his windows.
“Enzo to Aldo, over.”
“Okay, she’s driving a dark green Volvo station wagon, Virginia tag Whiskey Kilo Romeo Six One Niner. Alone in the car, starting up, turning north. I’m on the way to my wheels.”
“Roger that. Enzo is in pursuit.” He got around the Sears department store that anchored the east end of the mall as quickly as traffic allowed, and reached in his coat pocket for his cell phone. And called information to get the number of the Charlottesville FBI office, which the phone company dialed for him for an additional charge of fifty cents. “Heads up, this is Special Agent Dominic Caruso. My creed-o number is one six five eight two one. I need a tag number run, right now, Whiskey Kilo Romeo Six One Niner.”
Whoever was on the other end of the phone typed his credentials number into a computer and verified Dominic’s identity.
“What are you doing this far from Birmingham, Mr. Caruso?”
“No time for that. Please run the tag.”
“Roger, okay, it’s a Volvo, green in color, a year old, registered to Edward and Michelle Peters, at Six Riding Hood Court, Charlottesville. That’s just inside the city line on the west side of town. Anything else? Do you need backup?”
“Negative. Thank you, I can handle it from here. Caruso out.” He killed his cell phone and relayed the address to his brother over the radio. Both then did the same thing, and entered the address into their navigation computers.
“This is cheating,” Brian observed, smiling as he did so.
“Good guys don’t cheat, Aldo. They just get the job done. Okay, I have eyeballs on the subject. She’s heading west on Shady Branch Road. Where are you?”
“About five hundred yards back of you—shit! I have a red light.”
“Okay, sit it out. Looks like she’s heading home, and we know where that is.” Dominic closed his target to within a hundred yards, keeping a pickup truck between himself and the subject car. He’d rarely done this sort of thing before, and he was surprised at how tense it was.
“PREPARE TO TURN RIGHT IN FIVE HUNDRED FEET,” the computer told him.
“Thanks, honey,” Dominic grumbled.
But then the Volvo turned at the corner suggested by the computer. So, it wasn’t so bad after all, was it? Dominic took a breath and settled down some.
“Okay, Brian, looks like she’s going right home. Just follow me in,” he said over the radio.
“Roger, following you in. Any idea who this broad is?”
“Michelle Peters, so says the DMV.” The Volvo turned left, then right, into a cul-de-sac, where it pulled into a driveway that ended at a two-car garage attached to a medium-sized house of two stories and white aluminum siding. He parked his car a hundred yards up the street and took a sip of his coffee. Brian showed up thirty seconds later, doing the same half a block up.
“See the car?” Dominic called
.
“That’s affirmative, Enzo.” The Marine paused. “Now what do we do?”
“You come on down for a cup of my coffee,” a female voice suggested. “I’m the broad in the Volvo,” the voice clarified.
“Oh, shit,” Dominic whispered away from the microphone. He got out of his Mercedes and waved to his brother to do the same.
Upon joining up, the Caruso brothers walked to 6 Riding Hood Court. The door opened as they came up the driveway.
“Set up all the way,” Dominic said quietly. “Should have figured that one out from the beginning.”
“Yep. Color us dumb,” Brian thought.
“Not really,” Mrs. Peters said from the door. “But getting my address from the DMV really was cheating, you know.”
“Nobody told us anything about rules, ma’am,” Dominic told her.
“There aren’t any—not very often, anyway, not in this business.”
“So, you listened in on the radio circuit the whole time?” Brian asked.
She nodded as she led them to the kitchen. “That’s right. The radios are encrypted. Nobody else knew what you were talking about. How do you boys like your coffee?”
“So, you spotted us all the way?” This was Dominic.
“Actually, no. I didn’t use the radios to cheat—well, not all that much.” She had an engaging smile, which helped to soften the blows to her visitors’ egos. “You’re Enzo, right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You were a little close, but only a really sharp-eyed target would have noticed, given the limited time frame. The make of the car helped. A lot of those little Benzes in this area. But the best choice of car would be a pickup—a dirty one. A lot of the yokels never wash them, and some of the academics at the school have adopted the same sort of behavior to fit in, like. Out on Interstate 64, well, you’d better have an aircraft, of course, and a Porta-Potti. Discreet surveillance can be the toughest job in the business. But now you boys know that.”