Eric nodded, involuntarily. Then a late-acting bureaucratic reflex prompted him to protest: "That's all very well, and I agree with your reasoning, but it doesn't help me out if they come after me with an audit."
James stared at him coldly. "Where's your loyalty, boy?"
"You're asking me to commit a federal felony, on your word. If you want to run HUMINT assets on the ground,
James stared at him a moment longer, then nodded minutely, "So that's the way it is."
"It's the way it's got to be," Eric shot back. "It's not just me who's got to trust you, it's the whole goddamn chain of command, all the way down."
"What do you want?" James's intonation was precise and his voice even, but Eric didn't let it fool him.
"Something vague, but in writing. The vaguer the better. Something like, 'In the interests of operational security and in view of the threat of enemy intelligence-gathering attempts aimed at compromising our integrity, all investigations are to be restricted to those with a need to know, and normal committee oversight will be suspended until such time as the immediate threat recedes.' Just keep it vague. Then if I have to take the stand, I've simply misunderstood your intent. I'm obeying an order by a superior, you didn't intend your orders to breach the law. Nobody needs to get burned."
James snorted abruptly, startling Eric. "Is that all?"
Eric shrugged. "That's how it's done. That's what kept the shit in cheek during Iran-Contra. Or did you expect me to fall on my sword when all I need is a note signed by teacher to say I'm an overachiever?"
"Bah." James glanced away, but not before Eric noticed a twinkle of crocodilian amusement in his eye. "I thought you were an Air Force officer, not a politician."
"You don't get above captain if you're politically challenged, sir. With all due respect, it makes life easier for me if I can advise you-where appropriate-of steps I can take to do my job better. That's one of them. Off the record, of course."
"I'll get you your fig leaf, then. Signed on the Oval Office blotter, if that makes you feel better. Now, talk to me." James leaned back, making a steeple of his fingertips.
Eric relaxed infinitesimally. "Someone sent Mike back to us. He didn't come by himself; his leg's busted up. That tells us something about what sort of operation we're fighting."
"Go on..."
"I haven't debriefed him yet. But at a guess, what we've already done has hurt their operations on the east coast, and sending agents through after them is going to scare the shit out of them. They're going to have to negotiate or escalate. Leaving aside the business with GREENSLEEVES and the nuke, we're going to have to negotiate or escalate, too. Now, it's not for me to advise on policy, but I suspect we're going to find that Mike was sent back by someone who stands to gain from negotiating with us. Call them faction 'A'. The red-on-red action suggests there's a rival faction, call them 'B'. So we
Dr. James nodded minutely. "Your advice?"
"We have to find that nuke, or rule it out. And we have to keep them talking while JAUNT BLUE get their shit together. Right now, we're fumbling around in the dark- but so are they. All they know is, we've whacked a bunch of their operations and figured out how to get an agent across. And if they're in trouble internally, presumably they'd love to get us off their backs while they clean up their own mess. They probably think we don't know about the nukes, and we can be pretty sure that they don't know about JAUNT BLUE. Everything we know about them suggests they just don't think in those terms, otherwise they'd be crawling all over us."
