Whirlwind by Joseph Garber Page B

have to understand that it was one of the junior staff. She was up late, polishing a progress report for presentation the next morning. I, for one, think it commendable that one of our employees was putting in extra hours to “
    “Write a computer file that’s on its way to Moscow. Is that what you want to commend?”
    “No, of course not. All I’m saying is that the woman was tired. Here it is, two o’clock in the morning, and she’s been working her tail off. She hears something explode. She runs outside to see what’s going on. Then she sees a fire. So she pitches in to help douse it. In my estimation that’s praiseworthy.”
    “We’ll give her a medal after she gets out of jail.” Sam smiled. Doling out torture was preferable to being, as he had been most of the day, on the receiving end.
    “Sam, listen “
    “No, you listen. This is the second time you people have caused me grief. First, there was that Wing boy “
    “Dr. Wing’s your man, hired at your recommendation. You sure as hell can’t blame DefCon for his son’s mistakes.”
    “I can, and I do. Jesus! It’s not like the stupid kid kept his plans secret. Your company travel agent booked the tickets. Wasn’t anyone in your shop paying attention? Hey, our chief scientist’s brat is planning on visiting mainland China, the son of a man running a Magma Black project wants to rub shoulders with the commies, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Tell me, Max, how fucking dumb can you get?”
    “Do we have to go over this again? Don’t we have more urgent things to talk about?”
    Sam nodded appreciatively. Henkes had just fed him his straight line. “Yes. Yes, we do. But the point, Max, the very clear and very obvious point is this: we’ve got a bad problem on our hands. What Wing’s kid did makes it about a thousand times worse. You understand me?”
    Henkes’s voice was still angry, but it was a frightened anger. “I’m afraid I do.”
    “Good. Then understand what comes next. I’m putting a lot of uniforms in the field. But it’s not enough. I need a different sort of talent. The kind you get with the Navy SEALs or Delta Force. Unfortunately I can’t use ‘em. They’re all committed overseas. Besides, those lads … well, their operations tend to be a little less understated than the present situation requires. I can’t afford that. Not in America. If we were chasing jungle bunnies in some third-world shithouse, it’d be a different story. Dead colored boys aren’t prime time news. Dead white boys are.”
    “Don’t tell me the media are involved!” No anger now, only fear.
    “We’ve got them locked down for now. But if the body count starts to mount…”
    “So what are you going to do? How can I help?” He was on the edge of panic, exactly where Sam wanted him.
    “Subcontractors. Somebody effective but discreet. There’s an outfit I’ve used in the past. They can get the job done. Problem is, I can’t pay them direct. There’s no way I can let a money trail lead from people like that back to the White House.”
    “You want them on my payroll?”
    “Got it in one.”
    “No sweat. We’re on a cost-plus contract. We’ll just pass the expense through. My company is happy to do anything let me emphasize that anything to get Whirlwind back.”
    Done deal, another fine negotiation brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
    Sam had told Max to expect a quote-consulting contract-unquote to arrive on his fax machine within the hour. The letterhead would read “The Specialist Consulting Group, Inc.,” and the contract would be signed by that organization’s president. All Max had to do was countersign it and fax it back. He didn’t even have to read it. In fact, he’d be better off if he didn’t.
    Max understood. Max agreed.
    Only then did Sam make his last call. As he dialed, his skin crawled.
    Now, two hours later, he was keeping his eye on the clock. Quite soon, only a minute to go, Sam’s oversized plasma TV would