The Threat

Sebold said mildly, “If that’s true, I’m sure Tony knows it. I heard part of what you were putting out in there. I know tempers get close to the surface in politics. But that was really over the line.”

Dan looked down the hall. He should go back. This time, get his hands on the traitor. But Sebold was gripping his biceps so hard his arm was going numb. Muscling him down the steps, to the ground floor. Passing staffers glanced at them, then away, snapping back to their own concerns. “I want you back in your office. Stay there till you hear from me,” the general said.

“I’ve got some—”

“In your office.” They were both in civilian dress, but it was the tone of command.

He said unwillingly, “Right.”

* * *

The call came after the windows had turned black and the lights had come on in the quadrangle. The assistant NSA wanted to see him. Dan said to Lynch, to Harlowe, “Ed, Marty, I’m off to see Gelzinis. If I don’t come back, carry the torch. Keep Bry focused. And keep pushing the Threat Cell idea.”

“Will do.” They nodded. Looking, he was encouraged to note, worried.

The assistant’s office was on the third floor. He went down the cool echoing hallway feeling as if he were going to his execution. He pushed the gloom away. Martin W. Tallinger and his kind didn’t belong here. To acquiesce in that … he just wasn’t going to do it.

“Dan. Come in.”

Sebold was with Clayton’s second in command. Gelzinis shoved aside a pile of folders and laced his fingers. “Commander Lenson. I’d ask you to sit down, but you’ve seriously embarrassed us today. I just heard about this from Holt. What the hell was that performance about?”

Dan explained whom Tallinger had represented and what he’d done. The two senior staffers exchanged glances. “That was a long time ago,” Gelzinis observed.

“He never paid for it. And I have no doubt in my mind he’s still raking the same shit pile.”

“Maybe you ought to remember something. You’re military. Not in the inner circles of this administration.”

“I know that. But it’s part of my job, if I see a mistake being made, to point it out. Associating with scum like that is not going to make the president look good.”

“So you had his best interests in mind,” Gelzinis said with that dry tone he was the master of. “That’s good to hear. Because it so happens Dr. Tallinger ran one of the biggest political action committees supporting his campaign.”

“Representing who?”

“That’s not yours to ask. The point is he’s a friend of the administration and we treat him as such.”

“You let pricks like him dictate policy? Because they donate money?”

Gelzinis said in a flinty tone, “He dictates nothing. I shouldn’t have to explain basics. There are a lot of interests who have access, or have to be reassured they have access. Who have to be listened to, but who don’t necessarily affect policymaking. That’s a given. The point I’m making is, we expect the military staff to stay out of that loop. Force yourself into it and you’ll be on the way back to your service before you can log off.”

“What I’m saying, sir, is that any face time you’re giving this fucker’s direct access for the Chinese government.”

“Let me set you straight on a couple of items, Lenson. We’ve got the biggest national debt this country has ever had. Thanks mainly to the previous administration, but we’ve done our part. Who do you think bought our securities? If the Chinese want a word with us, they’ve paid the going rate. We need to forge linkages, not perpetuate cold war enmities.”

Dan recognized the same weaseling bullshit Tallinger had given him once. “Building trust.” “Profitable linkages, not competing interests.” The rationale he’d used to steal information to pass to China, and through China to North Korea, and Iran, and the other rogue regimes that were metastasizing into a new generation of threats around the world.

“Are we clear here, Commander?”

Dan stood with fists clenched. He saw the military-civilian divide, all right. But dipping yourself in shit for campaign contributions wasn’t right. He said in a tight voice, “I guess that’s where I belong. Back at sea. Believe me, I’m ready to go.”

“Now, Dan,” Sebold said.

“Don’t make the mistake of thinking you get fired out of here, you go back to any kind of decent assignment,” Gelzinis said. “Remember who approves military promotions. The president. Or his responsible staffer.”

“That’s exactly the kind of low threat I’d expect from a pandering weasel like you,” Dan told him, and was happy to see the assistant choke and splutter, caught wordless.

Which seemed to be Sebold’s cue. “Now, Dan, Brent, let’s calm down. We’re saying things in the heat of the moment. Things we don’t really mean. Okay? Dan’s going to apologize. Then we’re all going back to work.”

“I’ll apologize to Tony,” Dan told them. “But not to the asshole with the suspenders. He should be in prison. They only let him walk because he was the first to turn state’s evidence.”