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Now a shiver of anxiety went through Benson’s uncharacteristically stiff spine. He wondered if he should just do it now, draw and fire before Rhett’s own keen intuition picked up on the uneasiness in the room. Two quick shots would do it. It would be too unexpected for anyone to react fast enough to stop Benson.
“Let’s get this over with.” Rhett turned abruptly towards the stairs, showing his back to Benson. “Security walkthrough, right? Sure. Whatever you say. Let’s start upstairs, shall we? You guys coming?”
Benson glanced at Kaiser, shook his head subtly for Kaiser to stay put, then strode towards where Rhett was starting up the stairs. “Right behind you.”
Rhett glanced over his shoulder at Kaiser and Jack, neither of whom had moved. “I thought Wagner was the guy with the tactical knowledge. He’s been posted here for months, knows the place better than anyone. Isn’t he going to join us upstairs?”
Benson swallowed. For a moment it looked like he might get Rhett alone in the upstairs, make it easy to end this quick and dirty. But Rhett was too sharp. The guy had turned his back on Benson, almost daring him to take the coward’s shot. Now Rhett was clearly trying to get both Benson and Jack upstairs.
Leaving Kaiser alone and unguarded?
Did Rhett have a sniper lined up outside?
Or maybe a drive-by shooting planned?
Unlikely, Benson decided. The windows were bulletproof, able to withstand high-powered sniper rifles and assault weapons. The steel door was blastproof, and Jack had made sure to slide the heavy deadbolt across so nobody could bust in. Besides, no way would Rhett trust a hired gun for something this sensitive. He’d do it himself or not at all.
Benson relaxed a bit. Nobody was getting to Kaiser in here without driving a damn tank through the walls. Still, Benson didn’t want Kaiser alone for even a minute.
Kaiser spoke up just then. “We’re all coming, Rhett. I want to make sure this place is sealed up tight. Secret Service has been dragging its feet getting the Senator approved for early protection, and I don’t want anything happening on my watch.”
“You meanmywatch.” Rhett’s eyes gleamed. “This is my assignment, right,DirectorKaiser? Now that the Senator asked you to get Benson and his merry band of mercenaries off the property.”
Kaiser chuckled darkly, gestured with his head towards the stairs, waited for Jack to start moving, then fell in line behind him.
The tense little train of four armed men chugged up the sturdy wooden stairs. Rhett got to the second-floor landing, walked briskly along the corridor, pushed open the door to the master bedroom, strode to the window, rapped his knuckles against the heavy reinforced glass, then turned, crossed his arms over his chest, and sighed as Benson, Jack, and Kaiser entered the room.
“All right, how long do you want to play this game?” Rhett smiled with lazy confidence, taking a deep breath, his chest expanding to show pectorals surprisingly heavy with muscle. Benson wondered if he’d been injecting exogenous testosterone. The synthetic hormone was known to cause mood swings in high doses—sending you from ultra-cool to manic-aggressive in moments. Benson made a mental note as Rhett snorted with sudden impatience, glancing sharply at Kaiser. “Save the act, Martin. Whatever you have to say, say it. Whatever you want to do, fucking do it. We both know you’re finished as Director. Your loyalty to John is admirable, but it’s cost you more than it could possibly be worth. You’ve pissed away your reputation by covering for Benson’s Darkwater shitshows. And adopting those twins connected to that clusterfuck in Iceland sticks the fork in your career. Everyone knows you’ve stepped off the reservation just like Benson—hell,becauseof Benson. The Senator’s starting to see it too, despite his wife’s soft spot for Benson and Darkwater. The only reason Robinson hasn’t asked the current President to replace you is because in a year he’ll be in a position to choose the next Director himself.”
“And you think that’s going to be you, Rhett?” Kaiser showed a tight half-smile. “You really think you’re going to get through the vetting process? Bill Morris brought you out of NOC and into Langley, but the fact remains that your history beyond eight years is a black hole, manufactured and sanitized, smoke and mirrors.”
Rhett grinned. “Exactly. That’s what makes it airtight. My background and record holds up to scrutiny from anyone outside the very top levels of the Agency. More than enough for Congress to approve the appointment. And that gives the soon-to-be-President Robinson all the plausible deniability he needs.”
Benson stiffened as he watched Kaiser and Rhett face off. It surprised Benson to see Rhett drop the charade so fast.
It also worried Benson. Was this planned or improvised? Impatience or provocation? Was Rhett trying to force a confrontation that escalated to violence, flipping the script before Benson and Kaiser got a chance to get all the way through it?
No, Benson decided when he saw Jack brace his feet to allow for an explosive move at Rhett if this escalated to something physical. No way Rhett was dumb enough to think he could go one-vs-three and win in a straight-up firefight. And the guy loved himself too much to be even remotely suicidal when he still had a chance to win.
Once again Benson considered drawing his weapon and short-circuiting this whole thing. But the master bedroom was cozier than the open living room below, and all four of them were too tightly clustered for Benson to risk guns going off.
Besides, this wasn’t Rhett trying to provoke a showdown, Benson thought again with rising certainty as he studied Rhett’s suddenly relaxed posture, picked up an almost playful hint in his dazzling smile, like the guy was enjoying this, had thought the whole thing through and was gambling that neither Kaiser nor Benson could use that old video, was guessing that Paige hadn’t given them anything concrete—maybe hadn’t given them anything at all.
“Paige gave you up,” said Kaiser now, and Benson inhaled sharply, dropping his arm down along his side, close to his holstered weapon. Kaiser was pushing forward with his own provocation—perhaps a bit early, but Benson let it play out. Kaiser might not have done NOC work, but he’d been a masterful provocateur out in the field, had spearheaded regime changes with Benson by his side, knew how to push buttons and pull levers. Benson just hoped he still had that ruthless edge which would allow him to take this all the way.
“Look, Rhett,” Kaiser continued. “We know you set Indy O’Donnell up to get to me. It was a solid effort, I’ll give you that. But sometimes a coup doesn’t work. Sometimes you can’t get rid of the old guard that easy. You need to consider your next step very carefully. You aren’t past the point of no return yet, but you’re pretty fucking close.” Kaiser narrowed his eyes, a glint of dark light reminding Benson and everyone else in the room that the Director had forged his way to the top of the world’s shadiest organization and wasn’t about to just step aside for a challenger.
That wasn’t how wolf-packs operated, Benson thought as that familiar excitement roared through him once more when he saw that his old friend still had some fire, still had some steel, still had some alpha in him.
And the old Alpha doesn’t just slink away when a challenger comes sniffing around.
Rhett’s eyes flashed with challenge, his posture tightening but just barely. He wasn’t going to take the bait and draw his weapon, but he wasn’t going to back down either.
Benson could see the wheels turning now, some of Rhett’s cool façade stripped away by Kaiser’s challenge.
But a challenge that Kaiser hadn’t issued all the way, Benson thought with a frown. A challenge that had an implicit offer built in, an exit route for Rhett.
Back down. Acknowledge that you didn't pull off the coup. We can't prove anything, but we all know what you did. So bend the knee and take the hit. Resign with dignity. Cut your losses, leave the Agency voluntarily, fade away into the shadows. Take the draw instead of the full loss, Kaiser was offering with that you-haven't-crossed-the-point-of-no-returnstatement.
