Rodgers started to go, but Martha jumped up. She stepped between him and the door, drew herself up, and came toward him until her face was less than a foot from his.

"Tell me, Mike," she said, "would you have pulled the same kind of stunt with Jack Chan or Jed Lee or any of the male senators we deal with? Would you have been that cold with them?"

The woman's tone made Rodgers feel as if he were on trial. He wanted to tell her where to go, but he settled for, "Probably not."

"You're damn right 'probably not,' " Martha said. "The old boys' club looks after its members."

"It isn't that," Rodgers said. "I would have treated Senators Chan and Lee differently because they wouldn't have tried to cut me off at the knees."

"Oh, then you think this was against you? The Senator's after our fat because she has it in for Mike Rodgers?"

"Partly," said Rodgers. "Not because of my gender or me personally, but because I believe that as the only remaining superpower the U.S. has a responsibility to intervene where and whenever necessary. And Op-Center is a crucial, quick-strike part of that. Martha, do you really think I was standing here promoting me?"

"Yeah," she said, "I do. That's sure what it sounded like."

"I wasn't," he said. "I was promoting us. You, me, Paul, Ann, Liz, the spirit of Charlie Squires. I was defending Op-Center and Striker. How much money, how many lives, would a new Korean war have cost? Or an arms race with a new Soviet Union? What we've done here has saved the nation billions of dollars."

While he spoke, he noticed Martha ease off slightly. Very slightly.

"So why didn't you talk to her like you're talking to me?" she asked.

"Because I was presented with a fait accompli," Rodgers said. "She'd've used my arguments for batting practice."

"I've seen you take worse from Paul," she said.

"I'm his subordinate."

"And isn't Op-Center subordinate to Senators Fox, Chan, Lee, and the other members of the Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committee?"

"To a degree," Rodgers admitted. "But the operative word there is comminee. Senators Chan and Lee aren't uncompromising isolationists. They would've talked to Paul or me about the cuts, given us a chance to discuss them."

Martha raised a fist cheek-high and shook it. "Let's hear it for the smoke-filled rooms."

"Things got done in there."

"By men," Martha said: "God forbid a woman should make a decision and ask a man to implement it. If she does, you turn around and slug her."

"As hard as she slugged me," Rodgers said. "You think I'm a piece of work? Who's the one asking for equality some of the time?"

Martha said nothing.