The Hunters (Presidential Agent 3)

Charley saw the look on Naylor’s face.

It’s a look of…sympathetic resignation.

He’s thinking I’m going down Ollie North’s path.

And that I have just lost this confrontation.

Well, what the hell did I expect?

Montvale’s right. I am a junior officer given more authority than I am equipped to handle.

A very small fish in a large pond about to be eaten by a very large shark.

“What are you suggesting, Mr. Ambassador?” Castillo asked.

“Until such time as I can convince the President—and that’s a question of when, not if—that the Office of Organizational Analysis should be under me, I suggest that it would be in our mutual interest to cooperate.”

“Cooperate how?”

“On your part, primarily by keeping me informed of what you’re doing. I really don’t like walking into the Oval Office to have the President greet me with, ‘Charles, you’re not going to believe what Castillo has done, ’ and have no idea what the hell he’s talking about. I want to be able to tell him that I knew what you would be going to try to do and that I did thus and so to help you do it.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, just before he was shot down in flames, “but if that means you will insist on your liaison officer, no deal.”

The look on the general’s face now means I have really just shot myself in the foot.

“That’s negotiable,” Montvale said.

“Negotiable?” Castillo blurted. It was not the response he expected.

“That means you offer me something in lieu thereof and I decide if I’m willing to take it.”

“That telephone call I made just now? It was to my chief of staff, Major Richard Miller.”

“What about him?”

“You take Mr. Ellsworth out of my office and I will instruct Major Miller to tell you—promptly—everything he can, without putting the lives of my men at risk, about what I’m doing and why.”

“We are, I presume, talking about the same Major Miller who comes to my mind?”

“Excuse me?”

“The general’s son? The man whose life you saved—at considerable risk to your life and career—in Afghanistan? The man whom Mr. Wilson accused of making improper advances to her when she was in fact at the time making the beast with two backs in your bed? That Major Miller?”

“Yes, sir. That Major Miller.”

“Deal,” Montvale said and got half out of his chair and put out his hand.

Jesus H. Christ!

This is too easy.

When does the other shoe drop?

Montvale’s grip was firm.

“Our new relationship will probably be a good deal less unpleasant for you than I suspect you suspect it will be,” Montvale said, smiling.

“Yes, sir,” Castillo said.