“John Clark is a lot of things…but twitchy isn’t one of them.”
37
Incirlik Air Base
Turkey
1354 Local Time
The VOQ building was within walking distance. Katie went to the front desk and an airman basic explained that they didn’t have any officers checked in under the name of John Clark. Not surprised, she explained that she was looking for a group of six men and one woman, all OGA, other government agency, who’d arrived the previous night.
The young man clearly knew to whom she was referring. He made a discreet call on the desk phone, providing her name and rank to whoever answered. The clerk hung up and gave her a room number.
It wasn’t a big building. Task Force 99 probably populated a quarter of the rooms available for visiting officers, most of whom would typically be aircrew overnighting for crew rest at the busy continental waystation. Katie paused squarely in front of the viewing port on the door marked15. Conza’s half-serious suggestion had stuck. Of course, she couldn’t say for certain who was going to open the door.
She had seen Task Force 99 operate from afar. The first instance had been some months ago when they’d extracted a valuable asset, known as the Night Spider, out of China right under the noses of its Ministry of State Security. Bookended by what had gone down last night, she could only imagine what they’d been up to in the interim.
The door rattled, pulled back, and the space was filled by the considerable presence of John Clark. He smiled broadly at Katie, in the way an uncle might regard a long-lost niece.
“Well, look at you…Lieutenant Commander.”
Katie smiled. “Nice to see you, Mr. Clark.”
He laughed. “Your dad made you call me that twenty years ago, but I think under present circumstances, John will suffice.”
“John it is.”
He waved his long arm, inviting her inside like a maître d’ at a French restaurant. As he did, Katie heard a slight grinding sound from his shoulder.
What she saw inside surprised her…but only for a moment. The room was a veritable armory: weapons, ammo cans, plate carriers, night vision gear, multitools. A disassembled handgun lay on the table next to a grenade.
“Charming,” she said. “All of it yours?”
“There are seven of us. This is technically a Turkish base, and they have pretty strict rules about keeping firearms in private quarters. But I’ve got my own rules about that kind of thing, and also some heavy hitters backing me. I was able to convince the base commander that there was no safer place for all this than my room.”
“You always did know how to make a point. Guess you don’t mind the smell of gun oil.”
“At this point, it’s pretty much what’s running through my veins.” He looked her up and down. “You look great, Katie. Life treating you well?”
“It is. And you?”
“All good. A few aches and pains—my fault, mostly, for not ducking at the right time for so many years. I hear you’re tearing it up over at ONI.”
“Not sure about that, but I work with a great bunch.”
“Good answer. Reminds me of what Eisenhower said about leadership.”
Her gaze went to the ceiling in thought. “I’m paraphrasing, but something like ‘Leadership consists of taking responsibility when things go wrong and giving your subordinates credit for successes.’ ”
“That’s the one.”
“Did he tell you that in person?” she added mischievously.
Clark winced. “Touché.” His blue eyes then narrowed. “I’m guessing you came here to see JC?”
“Yeah, I was just at the clinic. He seems to be doing well.”
“Glad to hear it. I understand the two of you were in Bodrum helping with the accident investigation.”
