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Kennedy shook her head, her embarrassment complete.
Stansfield turned his icy gaze on Hurley. "And you ... are you happy that you have succeeded in getting young Irene to finally sink to your depths?"
"That's bullshit. She's a grown woman. She can fight her own battles. I resent the fact that every time she doesn't like what I'm doing she goes running to you." Hurley pointed at him. "You know the rules as well as I do. I'm in charge in the field. What I say goes. I'm God and that too-smart-for-his-own-good college punk wandered so far off the reservation he's lucky I don't put a bullet in his head."
"That's our litmus test these days? When an operator doesn't follow orders to the letter, we put a bullet in his head?"
"You know what I mean. He went way beyond his operational parameters. He basically threw them out and flew off the handle."
"And succeeded. Let's not forget that part."
"Shit," Hurley scoffed at the point. "Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a blue moon."
"This is how you would like to argue with me ... by mixing squirrel and moon metaphors?"
"You know I'm right."
"You are partially right, and you have also become an intolerable bully whom I'm not so sure I can keep around."
"Say the word and I'll resign. I'm sick of this bullshit."
"And then what will you do, Stan?" The deputy director of operations leaned over and placed his hands on the table. "Become a full-blown alcoholic. Another bitter, discarded spy who closes himself off from an ungrateful citizenry. You're already halfway there. You drink too much. You smoke too much. You piss and moan like some miserable woman who's mad at her husband because she's no longer young and beautiful. And there's the meat of the problem, isn't it, Stan?"
"What's the meat of the problem?"
"I think you may have heard this before. He reminds you of yourself."
"Who? The college puke?"
Stansfield nodded slowly. "And he might be better than you. That's what really scares you."
"That's bullshit."
Stansfield should have seen it sooner. He stood up abruptly and said, "So, your recommendation is that I cut him loose?"
"Absolutely. He's too much of a loose cannon. Sooner or later he's going to cause you a lot of problems."
"And who do you have to replace him?"
Hurley waffled. "A couple of decent candidates."
Stansfield looked to Lewis, who was at the head of the table. "Doctor?"
Lewis shook his head. "Neither of them have his skill set. Even if we worked with them for a year I don't think they could match him."
"That's not true," Hurley said, while looking as if he'd just taken a bite out of a lemon.
"Irene?" Stansfield asked.
She didn't speak. Just shook her head.
Stansfield pondered the situation for a moment and then said, "Here is my problem. We are flying blind in Lebanon and Syria. The director and the president overruled me and sent Cummins in to negotiate for the release of that Texas businessman." Stansfield stopped speaking for a second. He couldn't get over the stupidity of that decision and all of the damage that had been done after Cummins himself had been taken hostage. "Our assets have been getting picked off one by one for the past six months. Our network, that we worked so carefully to rebuild, is now in shambles. This situation has to be turned around, and I need men in the field to do it. I need shooters on the ground. We've all spent enough time over there to know that weakness breeds contempt. That stops today. I want these guys looking over their shoulders wondering if they're next. I want the leadership of Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah afraid to pop their heads out of their holes for fear that they might get those heads blown off. I want them on notice that if they're going to grab one of our assets who is negotiating in good faith and torture him for months on end ... dammit, we are going to come after them like crazed sons of bitches." He turned his attention back to Hurley. "I don't want to lose you, but I need this kid. He's too good to just throw away. He knows how to take the initiative."
"Initiative? That's what you want to call it?"
"Oh, for Christ's sake, Stan, could you please get hold of your ego and hypocrisy and listen to me. This is bigger than you. We have a gaping hole in our operational abilities. A big nasty neighborhood in the Middle East that is breeding terrorists like rabbits, and we have nothing. I need to get back in there."
"You're calling me a hypocrite?"
