The Detachment

not on principle. If I hadn’t known better, I might have thought my response wasn’t so much a refusal as it was a negotiating gambit.
    “Look, we’ve both come all this way. If you’re not in too much of a hurry, why don’t you just hear me out?”
    His point was completely reasonable. And yet I sensed danger within it. Why?
    Because you’re interested. Admit it. If you weren’t, you wouldn’t even have come.
    No. I came to find out what this is about. Because forewarned is forearmed. Sound tactics, that’s all.
    The rejoinder felt weak. Kanezaki and Dox, always chuckling at me when I said I wanted out. Were they right? Did they know me better than I knew myself?
    The waiter brought over Horton’s beverages and departed. Horton stirred some cream into his coffee and said, “The National Counterterrorism Center focuses primarily on analysis and coordination, but Shorrock has been developing an ops capability. You see, prior to nine-eleven, al Qaeda wasn’t able to recruit Muslim Americans, but that’s changed.”
    “You’re talking about the Fort Hood shootings?”
    “And the attempted Northwest Air bombing, the attempted Times Square bombing, the planned D.C. Metro bombing, the planned Portland bombing…all the work of American Muslims.”
    I laughed. “You mean after a decade of two open wars, a dozen covert ones, predator strikes, torture, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, hysteria about mosques…American Muslims are getting susceptible to calls for revenge? It’s shocking.”
    He took a sip of coffee, then set the cup down. “I wish I could share your levity. But the problem is getting worse.”
    “What does this have to do with Shorrock?”
    “His men are involved with several domestic cells. Theoretically, Shorrock is supposed to penetrate a cell just deeply enough to gather evidence sufficient for criminal prosecution. In fact, he is now running these cells for real. You follow?”
    “Shorrock’s a secret radical?”
    “Shorrock is planning a series of false flag attacks on America.”
    I didn’t like where this was going. “Why?”
    He looked at me. “To provide an emotional and political pretext for the suspension of the Constitution.”
    “You’re talking about a coup,” I said, my tone doubtful. “In America.”
    “A coup against the Constitution, yes. You don’t think it can happen here? Do yourself a favor. Even if you don’t want the job. Google COINTELPRO, or Operation Mockingbird, oh, and especially Operation Northwoods. You might also look into Operation Ajax, Operation Gladio, Operation Mongoose, and the so-called Strategy of Tension. And those are just the ones that have leaked. There are others. Unless you think the Reichstag Fire and the Gleiwitz incident and the Russian apartment bombings were unique to their respective times and places and could never happen elsewhere, least of all in America. But you don’t strike me as that naïve.”
    “Was nine-eleven an inside job, too?”
    “It wasn’t, though the way it’s been exploited, it might as well have been. But are you arguing that because not all cataclysms occur behind a false flag, that none of them do?”
    The waiter brought over the omelet and Horton started in on it. I wondered how much of what he was telling me was true. And why, if it were true, I would even consider getting involved.
    “You want some?” he said, chewing and gesturing to the omelet. “It’s delicious.”
    “Why are you coming to me for this?”
    He swallowed and nodded as though expecting the question. “The plotters are prominent individuals in politics, the military, corporations, and the media. They can’t just be killed or otherwise obviously removed, or the factions they represent would sense a threat and retaliate. I need their misfortunes to look natural for as long as possible, so we can do maximum damage to the plot before opposition can coalesce.”
    I didn’t care for his premature use of we . But natural would explain why he was interested in me. “What else?”
    “Some of the targets have significant security details, meaning you’ll need a team. That’s where your man Dox comes in, along with my men, Larison and Treven. This job could actually stand for a larger detachment, but size entails risks, too. I think the four of you can manage.”
    “I don’t buy it. You don’t have the manpower in the ISA?”
    “The manpower? Sure. The expertise? My friend, you’re being too modest. There are people who say you