much, but you can’t repeat anything I tell you,” he added.
She grinned. “You know I’m as silent as a clam. Come on. Talk.”
“Apparently, the State Department sent people into our office,” he replied. “We know they talked to our lieutenant, but we don’t know what about.”
“State Department!”
“They do have their fingers on the pulse of foreign governments,” Rick reminded her. “If anybody knows what’s really going on, they do.”
“I would have thought one of those other government agencies would have been more involved, especially if the general’s trying to recruit Americans for a foreign military action,” she pondered.
His eyebrows arched.
“Well, it seems logical, doesn’t it?” she asked.
“Actually, it does,” he agreed. “I know the FBI and the CIA have counterterrorism units that infiltrate groups like that.”
“Yes, and some of them die doing it,” Barbara recalled. She grimaced. “They say undercover officers in any organization face the highest risks.”
“The military also has counterterrorism units,” he replied. He sipped his cooling coffee. “That must be an interesting sort of job.”
“Dangerous.”
He smiled. “Of course. But patriotic in the extreme, especially when it comes to foreign operatives trying to undermine democratic interests.”
“Doesn’t the general’s former country have great deposits of oil and natural gas?” she wondered aloud.
“So we hear. It’s also in a very strategic location, and the general leans toward capitalism rather than socialism or communism. He’s friendly toward the United States.”
“A point in his favor. Gracie Pendleton says he sings like an angel,” she added with a smile.
“I heard.”
“Yes, we had that discussion earlier.” She was also remembering another discussion over the phone and her face saddened.
He reached across the table and caught her hand in his. “I really am sorry, Mom,” he said gently. “I don’t know what came over me. I’m not usually like that.”
“No, you’re not.” She hesitated. She wanted to remark that it wasn’t until she asked about the lieutenant giving Gwen a rose that he’d gone ballistic. But in the interests of diplomacy, it was probably wiser to say nothing. She smiled. “How about I warm up that coffee?” she asked instead.
Gwen answered the phone absently, her mind still on the previews of next week’s episode of her favorite science fiction show.
“Yes?” she murmured, the hated glasses perched on her nose so that she could actually see the screen of her television.
“Cassaway, anything to report?”
She sat up straighter. “Sir!”
“No need to get uptight. I’m just checking in. The wife and I are on our way to a party, but I wanted to make sure things are progressing well.”
“They’re going very slowly, sir,” she said, curling up in her bare feet and jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt on her sofa. “I’m sorry, I haven’t found a diplomatic way to get him talking about the subject and find out what he knows. He doesn’t like me.…?”
“I find that hard to believe, Cassaway. You’re a good kid.”
She winced at the description.
He cleared his throat. “Sorry. Good woman. I try to be PC, you know, but I come from a different generation. Hard for us old-timers to work well in the new world.”
She laughed. “You do fine, sir.”
“I know this is a tough assignment,” he replied. “But I still think you’re the best person for the job. You have a way with people.”
“Maybe another type of woman would have been a better choice,” she began delicately, “maybe someone more open to flirting, and other things …”
“With Marquez? Are you kidding? The guy wrote the book on staunch outlooks! He’d be turned off immediately.”
She relaxed a little. “He does seem to be like that.”
“Tough, patriotic, a stickler for doing the right thing even when the brass disapproves, and he’s got more guts than most men in his position ever develop. Even went right up in the face of a visiting politician to tell him he was putting his foot in his mouth by interfering with a homicide investigation and would regret it when the news media got hold of the story.”
She laughed. “I read about that.”
“Takes a moral man to be that fearless,” her boss continued. “So yes, you’re the right choice. You just have to win his confidence. But you’re going to have to move a little faster. Things are heating up down in Mexico. We can’t be caught lagging when the general makes his move, you know? We have to have intel, we have to be in position to take advantage of any opportunities that present themselves. The general likes us. We want him to continue liking us.”
“But we can’t help.”
He sighed. “No. We can’t help. Not obviously. We’re in a precarious position these days, and we can’t be seen to interfere. But behind the scenes, we can hope to influence people who are in a position to interfere. Marquez is the obvious person to liaison with Machado.”
“It’s going to be traumatic for him,” Gwen said worriedly. “From the little intel I’ve been able to acquire, he has no idea about his connection to Machado. None at all.”
“Pity,” he replied. “That’s going to make it harder.” He put his hand over the receiver and spoke to someone. “Sorry, my wife’s ready to leave. I have to go. Keep me in the loop, and watch your back,” he added firmly. “We’re trying to get the inside track. There are other people, other operatives, around who would love nothing better than to see us fall on our faces. Other countries would do anything to get a foothold in Barrera. I don’t need to tell you who they are, or from what motives they work.”
“No, sir, you don’t,” she agreed. “I’ll do the best I can.”
“You always do,” he said, and there was faint affection in his tone. “Have a good evening. I’ll be in touch.”
“Yes, sir.”
She hung up the cell phone and sat staring at it in her hand. She felt a chill. So much was riding on her ability to be diplomatic and quick and discreet. It wasn’t her first difficult assignment; she was not a novice. But until now, she’d had no personal involvement. Her growing feelings for Rick Marquez were complicating things. She shouldn’t care so much about how it would hurt him, but she did. If only there was a way, any way, that she could give him a heads-up before the fire hit the fan. Perhaps, she thought, she might be
