Lee Child - Die Trying

The room went silent.

“The polls say we need a better approach,” Dexter said. “And we’re trying to find one. We’re trying real hard. So how would it look if the White House stopped trying just because it happens to be Holly who’s involved? And right now? The Fourth of July weekend? Don’t you understand anything? Think about it, Harland. Think about the reaction. Think about words like vindictive, self-interested, revenge, personal, words like that, Harland. Think about what words like those are going to do to our poll numbers.”

Webster stared at him. The off-white walls crushed in on him.

“This is about Holly, for God’s sake,” he said. “This is not about poll numbers. And what about the General? Has the President said all this to him?”

Dexter shook his head.

“I’ve said it all to him,” he said. “Personally. A dozen times. He’s been calling every hour, on the hour.”

Webster thought: now the President won’t even take Johnson’s calls anymore. Dexter has really fixed him.

“And?” he asked.

Dexter shrugged.

“I think he understands the principle,” he said. “But naturally, his judgment is kind of colored right now. He’s not a happy man.”

Webster lapsed into silence. Started thinking hard. He was a smart enough bureaucrat to know if you can’t beat them, you join them. You force yourself to think like they think.

“But busting her out could do you good,” he said. “A lot of good. It would look tough, decisive, loyal, no-nonsense. Could be advantageous. In the polls.”

Dexter nodded.

“I totally agree with you,” he said. “But it’s a gamble, right? A real big gamble. A quick victory is good, a foul-up is a disaster. A big gamble, with big poll numbers at stake. And right now, I’m doubting if you can get the quick victory. Right now, you’re half-cocked. So right now my money would be on the foul-up.”

Webster stared at him.

“Hey, no offense, Harland,” Dexter said. “I’m paid to think like this, right?”

“So what the hell are you saying here?” Webster asked him. “I need to move the Hostage Rescue Team into place right now?”

“No,” Dexter said.

“No?” Webster repeated incredulously.

Dexter shook his head.

“Permission denied,” he said. “For the time being.”

Webster just stared at him.

“I need a position,” he said.

The room stayed silent. Then Dexter spoke to a spot on the off-white wall, a yard to the left of Webster’s chair.

“You remain in personal command of the situation,” he said. “Holiday weekend starts tomorrow. Come talk to me Monday. If there’s still a problem.”

“There’s a problem now,” Webster said. “And I’m talking to you now.”

Dexter shook his head again.

“No, you’re not,” he said. “We didn’t meet today, and I didn’t speak with the President today. We didn’t know anything about it today. Tell us all about it on Monday, Harland, if there’s still a problem.”

Webster just sat there. He was a smart enough guy, but right then he couldn’t figure if he was being handed the deal of a lifetime, or a suicide pill.

JOHNSON AND HIS aide arrived in Butte an hour later. They came in the same way, Air Force helicopter from Peterson up to the Silver Bow County airport. Milosevic took an air-to-ground call as they were on approach and went out to meet them in a two-year-old Grand Cherokee supplied by the local dealership. Nobody spoke on the short ride back to town. Milosevic just drove and the two military men bent over charts and maps from a large leather case the aide was carrying. They passed them back and forth and nodded, as if further comment was unnecessary.

The upstairs room in the municipal building was suddenly crowded. Five men, two chairs. The only window faced southeast over the street. The wrong direction. The five men were instinctively glancing at the blank wall opposite. Through that wall was Holly, two hundred and forty miles away.

“We’re going to have to move up there,” General Johnson said.

His aide nodded.

“No good staying here,” he said.

McGrath had made a decision. He had promised himself he wouldn’t fight turf wars with these guys. His agent was Johnson’s daughter. He understood the old guy’s feelings. He wasn’t going to squander time and energy proving who was boss. And he needed the old guy’s help.

“We need to share facilities,” he said. “Just for the time being.”

There was a short silence. The General nodded slowly. He knew enough about Washington to decode those five words with a fair degree of accuracy.

“I don’t have many facilities available,” he said in turn. “It’s the holiday weekend. Exactly seventy-five percent of the U.S. Army is on leave.”

Silence. McGrath’s turn to do the decoding and the slow nodding.

“No authorization to cancel leave?” he asked.

The General shook his head.

“I just spoke with Dexter,” he said. “And Dexter just spoke with the President. Feeling was this thing is on hold until Monday.”

The crowded room went silent. The guy’s daughter was in trouble, and the White House fixer was playing politics.

“Webster got the same story,” McGrath said. “Can’t even bring the Hostage Rescue Team up here yet. Time being, we’re on our own, the three of us.”

The General nodded to McGrath. It was a personal gesture, individual to individual, and it said: we’ve leveled with each other, and we both know what humiliation that cost us, and we both know we appreciate it.

“But there’s no harm in being prepared,” the General said. “Like the little guy suspects, the military is comfortable with secret maneuvers. I’m calling in a few private favors that Mr. Dexter need never know about.”

The silence in the room eased. McGrath looked a question at him.

“There’s a mobile command post already on its way,” the General said.

He took a large chart from his aide and spread it out on the desk.

“We’re going to rendezvous right here,” he said.

He had his finger on a spot northwest of the last habitation in Montana short of Yorke. It was a wide curve on the road leading into the county, about six miles shy of the bridge over the ravine.

“The satellite trucks are heading straight there,” he said. “I figure we move in, set up the command post, and seal off the road behind us.”

McGrath stood still, looking down at the map. He knew that to agree was to hand over total control to the military. He knew that to disagree was to play petty games with his agent and this man’s daughter. Then he saw that the General’s finger was resting a half-inch south of a much better location. A little farther north, the road narrowed dramatically. It straightened to give a clear view north and south. The terrain tightened. A better site for a roadblock. A better site for a command post. He was amazed that the General hadn’t spotted it. Then he was flooded with gratitude. The General had spotted it. But he was leaving room for McGrath to point it out. He was leaving room for give-and-take. He didn’t want total control.

“I would prefer this place,” McGrath said.

He tapped the northerly location with a pencil. The General pretended to study it. His aide pretended to be impressed.

“Good thinking,” the General said. “We’ll revise the rendezvous.”

McGrath smiled. He knew damn well the trucks were already heading for that exact spot. Probably already there. The General grinned back. The ritual dance was completed.

“What can the spy planes show us?” Brogan asked.

“Everything,” the General’s aide said. “Wait until you see the pictures. The cameras on those babies are unbelievable.”