"Maybe," Herbert replied.

Everything Lewis said made sense. Which meant one of two things.

Either he was right or the obvious answer was what the perpetrators wanted investigators to believe.

"Your Strikers won't be arriving for another twenty-two hours and change," Lewis said.

"I'm going to have Mr. Friday go back to the target area and see what he can learn.

Are there any resources you can call on?" "Yes," Herbert said.

"India's Intelligence Bureau and the Defense Ministry helped us to organize the Striker mission.

I'll see what they know and get back to you."

"Thanks," Lewis said.

"By the way, I'm looking forward to working with you. I've followed your career ever since you went over to Germany to take on those neo-Nazis. I trust men who get out from behind their desk. It means they put job and country before personal security."

"Either that or it means they're crazy," Herbert said.

"But thanks. Stay in touch." Lewis said he would. Herbert hung up.

It was refreshing to talk to someone in the covert community who was actually willing to share information. Intelligence chiefs were notoriously secretive. If they controlled information they could control people and institutions. Herbert refused to play that game.

While it was good for job security it was bad for national security.

And as Jack Fenwick had demonstrated, a secretive intelligence chief could also control a president.

But though Ron Friday was a seasoned field operative, Herbert was not quite as willing to bet the ranch on his report.

Herbert only believed in people he had worked with himself.

Herbert phoned Paul Hood to brief him on the new development.

Hood asked to be conferenced on the call to Mike Rodgers whenever that took place. Then Herbert put in a call to the Indian Intelligence Bureau. Sujit Rani, the deputy director of internal activities, told Herbert pretty much what he expected to hear: that the IIB was investigating the explosions but did not have any additional information. The notion that there had been three explosions, not two, was something the IIB had heard and was looking into. That information vindicated Ron Friday somewhat in Herbert's eyes. Herbert's contact at the Defense Ministry told him basically the same thing. Fortunately, there was time before Striker reached India.

They would be able to abort the mission if necessary.

Herbert went into the Kashmir files. He wanted to check on other recent terrorist strikes in the region. Maybe he could find clues, a pattern, something that would help to explain this new attack.

Something about it did not sit right. If Pakistan were really looking to turn up the heat in Kashmir they probably would have struck at a place that had intense religious meaning, like the shrine at Pahalgam.