Gone Tomorrow

it?”
    “I can’t volunteer information.”
    “You say that a lot.”
    “I mean it a lot.”
    “Who are the Hoths?”
    He just smiled and made a circular once again gesture with his hand. I can’t volunteer information . A great NCO’s answer. Four words, the third of which was perhaps the most significant.
    I said, “You could ask me questions. I could volunteer guesses. You could comment on them.”
    He said, “Who do you think the Hoths are?”
    “I think they’re native Afghans.”
    He said, “Go on.”
    “That’s not much of a comment.”
    “Go on.”
    “Probably Taliban or Al Qaeda sympathizers, or operatives, or flunkies.”
    No reaction.
    “Al Qaeda,” I said. “The Taliban mostly stay home.”
    “Go on.”
    “Operatives,” I said.
    No reaction.
    “Leaders?”
    “Go on.”
    “Al Qaeda is using women leaders?”
    “They’re using whatever works.”
    “Doesn’t seem plausible.”
    “That’s what they want us to think. They want us searching for men that don’t exist.”
    I said nothing.
    “Go on,” he said.
    “OK, the one who calls herself Svetlana fought with the mujahideen and knew you captured the VAL rifle from Grigori Hoth. They used Hoth’s name and his story to get sympathy over here.”
    “Because?”
    “Because now Al Qaeda wants documentary proof of whatever else it was that you guys were doing that night.”
    “Go on.”
    “Which Sansom got a big medal for. So it must have looked pretty good, once upon a time, way back when. But now you’re worried about exposure. So I’m assuming it wouldn’t look so good anymore.”
    “Go on.”
    “Sansom is miserable, but the government has got its panties in a wad, too. So it’s both personal and political.”
    “Go on.”
    “Did you get a medal that night?”
    “The Superior Service Medal.”
    “Which comes directly from the Secretary of Defense.”
    Springfield nodded. “A nice little bauble, for a lowly sergeant.”
    “So the trip was more political than military.”
    “Obviously. We weren’t officially at war with anyone at the time.”
    “You know the Hoths killed four people, and probably Susan Mark’s son too, right?”
    “We don’t know it. But we suspect it.”
    “So why haven’t you busted them?”
    “I work security for a Congressman. I can’t bust anyone.”
    “Those feds could.”
    “Those feds work in mysterious ways. Apparently they consider the Hoths to be A-grade enemy combatants, and a very significant target, and extremely dangerous, but not currently operational.”
    “Which means what?”
    “Which means that right now there’s more to be gained by leaving them in place.”
    “Which actually means they can’t find them.”
    “Of course.”
    “You happy about that?”
    “The Hoths don’t have the memory stick, or they wouldn’t still be looking for it. So I don’t really care either way.”
    “I think you should,” I said.
    “You think that’s their place? Where you were?”
    “This block or the next.”
    “I think this one,” he said. “Those feds searched their hotel suite. While they were out.”
    “Lila told me.”
    “They had shopping bags. Like window dressing. To make the place look right.”
    “I saw them.”
    “Two from Bergdorf Goodman, and two from Tiffany. Those stores are close together, about a block from those old buildings. If their base was on the block east of Park, they’d have gone to Bloomingdales instead. Because they weren’t really shopping. They just wanted accessories in their suite, to fool people.”
    “Good point,” I said.
    “Don’t go looking for the Hoths,” Springfield said.
    “You worried about me now?”
    “You could lose two ways around. They’re going to think the same as us, that even if you don’t have the stick, then somehow you know where it went. And they might be even more vicious and persuasive than we are.”
    “And?”
    “They might actually tell you what’s on it. In which case from our point of view you would become a loose end.”
    “How bad is it?”
    “I’m not ashamed. But Major Sansom would be embarrassed.”
    “And the United States.”
    “That too.”
    The waiter came back and inquired as to whether we needed anything else. Springfield said yes. He reordered for both of us. Which meant he had more to talk about. He said, “Run down exactly what happened on the train.”
    “Why weren’t you there, instead of the chief of staff? It was more like your line of work than his.”
    “It