The Kill Room

shaken man pressed a hand to his cheek and clumsily rose, collecting the files that had fallen. Shales noted that several manila binders sported a classified stamp that he was not familiar with despite his stratospheric security clearance.
    He noted too that Metzger’s first concern at the moment wasn’t the injury but securing the secret files.
    “Barry…Barry.” He looked behind Shales and shook his head. Ruth, shocked, hovered, not unlike a drone herself. Metzger smiled at her and pointed to the door. She hesitated then stepped out, closing it.
    The man’s smile vanished.
    Shales walked to the window, breathing deeply. He glanced down to see the fake Maersk container in NIOS’s parking lot. A look at the Ground Control Station from which he’d very nearly killed at least three innocent civilians minutes ago re-ignited his anger.
    He turned back to Metzger. But the director didn’t cower or beg. He gave no response, physical or verbal, except to touch his cheek again and peruse the smear of red on his finger and thumb.
    “Did you know?” Shales asked.
    “About the collateral in Reynosa? No.” As NIOS head, he would have followed the attack in real time. “Of course not.”
    “I’d launched, Shreve. The Hellfire was in the air! What do you think about that? We were ten seconds away from murdering a young boy and girl and a woman who was probably their mother. And who the hell else was inside, as well?”
    “You saw the documentation with the STO. The surveillance program we put in place for Rashid was totally robust. We had DEA and Mexican federal surveillance reports—twenty-four/seven. Nobody had gone inside or come out for a week. Who holes up for seven days, Barry? You ever hear of that? I never have.” Metzger sat down. “Hell, Barry, we’re not God. We do what we can. My ass was on the line too, you know. If anybody else’d died, it would have been the end of my career. Probably NIOS too.”
    The airman had shallow jowls around his taut lips and his cold smile deepened them now. “You’re mad, aren’t you, Shreve?”
    He’d meant the word in its sense of “angry” but the way Metzger reacted, eyes narrowing, apparently the NIOS head took it to mean psychotic.
    “Mad?”
    “That I didn’t follow Rashid’s car. That I stayed with the missile, guided it down.”
    A pause. “That scenario wasn’t authorized, targeting Rashid’s vehicle.”
    “Fuck authorized. You’re thinking I should’ve let the Hellfire land where it would, while I locked on and fired my second bird at the car.”
    His eyes revealed that, yes, that’s exactly what Metzger had wanted.
    “Barry, this is a messy business we’re in. There’s collateral, there’s friendly fire, there’re suicides and just plain fucking mistakes. People die because we program in One Hundred West Main Street and the task is actually at One Hundred East.”
    “Interesting choice of word for a human being, isn’t it? ‘Task.’”
    “Oh, come on. It’s easy to make fun of government-speak. But it’s the government that keeps us safe from people like Rashid.”
    “That’ll be a nice line for the Congressional hearings, Shreve.” Shales then raged, “You fucked with the evidence for the Moreno STO to take out an asshole you didn’t like. Who wasn’t patriotic enough for you.”
    “That’s not how it was!” Metzger nearly screamed, spittle flew.
    Startled by the uncontrolled outburst, Shales stared at his boss for a moment. Then dug into his pocket and tossed his lanyard and ID card onto the desk. “Kids, Shreve. I nearly blew up two children today. I’ve had it. I’m quitting.”
    “No.” Metzger leaned forward. “You can’t quit.”
    “Why not?”
    Shales was expecting his boss to raise issues of contracts, security.
    But the man said, “Because you’re the best, Barry. Nobody can handle a bird like you. Nobody can shoot like you. I knew you were the man for the STO program when I conceived it, Barry.”
    Shales recalled a grinning car salesman who’d used his first name repeatedly because, apparently, he’d been taught at grinning-car-salesman school that this wore down the potential buyer, made him less resistant.
    Shales had left the lot without the car he’d very much wanted.
    He now shouted, “The project was all about eliminating collateral damage!”
    “We didn’t run a scenario of firing through picture windows! We should have. It didn’t occur to anyone. Did it occur to you ? We got it