Court shrugged. “Still an ass.”
“Anyway…Trey says two recent ops run out of Langley were fumbled badly. Possibly compromised, possibly from within. They haven’t identified the leak, or even convinced themselves that thereisa leak, but they don’t want to take any chances on this one.”
Court said, “Then fold DIA into this. Get someone at State—”
“They’ve had compromises, too.”
“DIA or State?”
“Both.”
Court took another gulp of the beer. The moment seemed to warrant it. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying thatTreysays that no one has found any commonality in the exposures. This might be a case of colossal bad luck, but—”
“How could all those agencies be compromised?”
“They couldn’t. Nobody knows what’s happening yet, but in the meantime, CIA has an in extremis situation in Nicaragua, and Trey wants an outsider to go down and handle it.”
Court shook his head. “I don’t like the sound of this.”
“Unfortunately, Six, you and I have both relinquished the right to say no to Trey Watkins for a while.”
Court rose, walked over to the fridge, and opened it, hoping to find it stocked with some different type of beer.
It was empty.
He shut the fridge, then sat back down.
“The asset in Nicaragua?”
“A female. CIA code name is Caprice.”
“I’m assuming she isn’t to know that I’mnotwith the Agency.”
“I don’t see the need to bore her with unnecessary details.”
“So you want me to lie, basically.”
“Nobody does it better.”
Court sighed again. “Tell me no one at CIA knows about what we’re doing.”
“Watkins does.” Hanley waved his beer in front of him as he had another thought. “Well…someone has to get the information on the extraction location to Caprice, so Managua station has to be at least involved with comms, but otherwise, no one should know.”
“You trust Watkins?”
“It’s not about trust. It’s about mutually assured destruction. He’s running us off book. He’s given me a long leash. He’d fry if the wrong people found out about this.”
“Tell me this,” Court demanded. “Is the president of the United States one of the right people or one of the wrong people?”
“I don’t think we will ever know the answer to that question, unless and until we find out the hard way that he was one of the wrong people. Look, you’ve been around a long time, and I’ve been around for-fucking-ever. We both know that if we get compromised, we’ll swing in the wind, and Watkins will look the other way to save his ass.”
“What a dick,” Court mumbled, and drank down the hoppy beer.
“He’s the dick who saved your life.”
“Can you just stop saying that?”
