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Back Balance of Power Save as PDF
Chapters (53)
  1. BALANCE OF POWER
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. About The Creators
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. FORTY-TWO
  46. FORTY-THREE
  47. FORTY-FOUR
  48. FORTY-FIVE
  49. FORTY-SIX
  50. FORTY-SEVEN
  51. FORTY-EIGHT
  52. FORTY-NINE
  53. FIFTY

Hood thought back to his own brush with his former lover. "They'll have very minimal contact. Darrell will be able to handle it."

"I meant it's gonna sting her," Herbert said. "She may handle it like the Castilians are handling the Catalonians."

It was a joke but a nervous one. María had been infatuated with McCaskey. Their romance, two years before, had caused almost as much conversation as Op-Center's first crisis, finding and defusing a terrorist bomb onboard the space shuttle Atlantis.

"I'm not worried about it," Hood said. "I am worried about giving Aideen an exit strategy in case something goes wrong. They're flying up to San Sebastián tonight. Darrell says that Interpol is worried about the same thing that's been hounding police all over Spain: ethnic loyalties within the organization."

"Meaning that Aideen and María are on their own," Rodgers said.

"Pretty much," Hood agreed.

"Then I think we need Striker over there," Rodgers continued. "I can set them down at the NATO airfield outside Zaragoza. That'll put them about one hundred miles south of San Sebastián. Colonel August knows that region well."

"Get them going," Hood said. "Ron, you'll have to take this to the CIOC. Get Lowell to work with you on it."

Plummer nodded. Martha Mackall had always handled the Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committee pretty much on her own. But Op-Center's attorney Lowell Coffey knew his way around the group and would give Plummer an assist as needed.

"Is there anything else?" Hood asked.

The men shook their heads. Hood thanked them and they agreed to meet again at six-thirty, just before the night shift came on. Though the day team officially remained in charge as long as they were on the premises, the presence of the backups allowed them to get rest if the situation dragged on through the night. Until things stabilized or got so far out of control that crisis management gave way to open war. Hood felt it was his duty to be onsite.

My duty, he thought. Everyone had a different idea about what duty was and to whom allegiance was owed. To Hood, the bottom line was that he owed it to his country. He'd felt that way ever since he first watched Davy Crockett die at the Alamo on a Walt Disney TV show. He'd felt that when he watched the astronauts fly into space on TV during Project Mercury, Project Gemini, and Project Apollo. Without that kind of devotion and sacrifice there was no nation. And without a safe and prosperous nation the kids had no future.

The trick was not so much convincing Sharon of that. She was a smart, smart lady. The trick was convincing her that his sacrifice mattered.

He couldn't let it rest. Against his better judgment Hood picked up the phone and called home.

THIRTEEN

Tuesday, 12:24 a.m.

Madrid, Spain

Isidro Serrador's small eyes were like stones as he watched the men walk into the room.