“Thank you, sir,” Harv said.

Nathan looked out the window. Time to change the subject. “I’m going to be frank, General. If Montez is up to his old tricks and operating on U.S. soil, then he needs to be neutralized.”

“Agreed. I can’t think of a better team. Nobody knows Montez better. On the flight out here I reread your debrief.”

Harvey crossed Sixth Avenue, heading for the Cabrillo Bridge.

“I’ll be honest, sir, this is a major skeleton for me. Harv too. I—” Nathan broke off in midsentence. This wasn’t a discussion he wanted to pursue in Major Halliday’s company.

“Don’t worry about Bob,” Thorny said. “He’s had a complete briefing. I didn’t want him involved in the dynamics of this operation unless he knew everything. Bob’s very resourceful.”

“Being the personal aide to the commandant of the Marine Corps has its advantages?” Harv asked.

“Indeed it does,” Halliday replied.

Thorny rolled his window down a little. “So what’s your plan?”

“Harv and I talked about this. Whatever we do, it has to be covert. It can’t be leaked that we’re after him. We’ll only get one shot. If we miss, he’ll disappear forever. We’ll start at Lake Powell, where Kramer’s body was dumped. We’re getting some help from the FBI, but there’s a number of things we want to look into. Where Kramer was staying, and why. Where Montez stayed, if anywhere, and the location he used to torture Kramer. We plan to look into every rented, leased, or stolen boat in the area just prior to Kramer’s death. I doubt Montez is doing much himself, it’s not his style. He’ll have mercenaries doing the heavy lifting. They’ll probably be Hispanic. Maybe they were seen. Harv and I are flying out there this afternoon. In the meantime there’s something you could do for us.”

“Name it.”

“See what you can dig up on Kramer and Montez with any intelligence agencies you have trusted contacts in. Discreetly, if possible.”

“In my circles, there’s no such thing as discreet. Harv, you’ve been awfully quiet.”

“It’s no secret I’d like to see Montez skinned. But we can’t let that compromise our mission, assuming we’ve officially agreed to find him. Have we?”

“Yes,” Nathan said.

“Then you should know,” Thorny said, “this is purely a Marine Intelligence operation, and off the books at that.”

“Sounds familiar,” Harv said under his breath.

“You know the score. It’s your call how it goes down.”

“As in dead or alive?” Nathan asked.

“If the opportunity presents itself, we’d prefer to get Montez alive for obvious reasons. He’s a walking gold mine of military intelligence. We’ve got MIAs all over the globe, some in Central America. We might be able to close some files and give some families closure.”