“It’s nice to see you too, Knox.” Hayes smiled at them both and sat down.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“I had anyone you might contact on a surveillance list. When Marsh got the call I was ready. And don’t waste time wondering if he’ll come to your aid. He’s already been transferred out of the country. You shouldn’t have played me for an idiot, Knox. You really shouldn’t have.”

He gazed at a stunned Knox for a moment longer and then turned to Stone.

“It’s been a long time, John. I can’t say the years have been kind to you.”

“They’ve been better to me than they have been to you, Mack.”

“Tell me, how did it feel to kill our old friends? Did your chest puff with pride when you finished them off?”

“That’s right, you wouldn’t know how it felt to kill somebody. You always got other people to do it for you.”

Hayes opened his briefcase and took out a single piece of paper. He held it up for Knox to see. It was the order signed by Hayes cutting off further discussion of John Carr receiving the Medal of Honor.

“When you called and told me that the ‘country’ folks around this filthy hole in the ground might rally around the persecuted Vietnam vet, I wondered what you might have meant by that. And how you found out about it. I went to the military archives. They were very helpful in showing me what you’d looked at. Unfortunately, the boxes weren’t inventoried, but this page had left a bit of the print on the inside of the box wall. It was enough to have my people search your house. And they found this. I thought it had been destroyed a long time ago. Just goes to show that no one is truly omniscient.”

He glanced over at Stone. “And I’m sure John here has told you all about our little disagreement in the jungle.”

“I’ve told him nothing. He was working for you. You think I’d trust his ass?” Stone snapped.

Hayes sat back and rested his hands on his lap. “John, you’re a much better killer than you are a liar. Prevarication is my bailiwick. And I could always sense it in others.”

“You could never let it go, could you?”

“Why should I? You hurt me a long time ago. Where’s the justice in that?”

“Justice?” bellowed Knox. “You kept him from getting the Medal of Honor!”

“And he kept me from the promotion that was rightfully mine.”

“You’re comparing what this guy did on the battlefield to making you wait a couple extra months to get your crappy pair of oak clusters?”