The Project 02 - The Lance

vehicle. Selena, you speak Spanish, don't you?"
    " Fluently."
    Harker put her pen down. "Any other questions?"
    " When do we leave?"
    " Tomorrow."
    " Hey, I always wanted to see Argentina," Lamont said.

CHAPTER FORTY

    It was a warm October morning in the nation's capitol, the sky blue and cloudless. Senator Gordon Greenwood was in his office on the Hill, thinking about an upcoming meeting with a group of deep pocket constituents. His secretary interrupted his thoughts.
    " Senator, Acting Director CIA is on line two."
    " Thank you, Addie."
    Greenwood chaired the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee. He picked up his phone and activated the scrambler.
    " Wendell, how are you?"
    " Fine, Gordon. A beautiful day out there, isn't it? Have you got a minute?"
    Senator Greenwood knew Wendell Lodge well. The two men often played together at the elite Bull Run Country Club, overlooking the Civil War battleground. From the club it was possible to see the spot where General Jackson had stood immovable as a stone wall, the air around him filled with minie balls and grape shot. At Bull Run the minie balls had been replaced by golf balls arcing toward the blue sky.
    CIA was political . Hearings were coming up to move someone into the Director's slot and Wendell Lodge wanted the job. No one would get to the Director's office at Langley if the senator decided to oppose him. It didn't hurt Lodge's chances that he and Greenwood were Yale classmates and members of Skull and Bones.
    All the same, a little shared information of the right sort went a long way. There were lots of ways to get information in Washington. It came down to who you knew. In the Capitol, power was the name of the game and information was the currency of power. You needed money, a lot of it, but information was the more valuable commodity.
    Lodge said, "There's something that needs your attention as Chairman of the committee."
    "Oh?"
    "Are you briefed on the Project?"
    Greenwood allowed a small laugh. There wasn't much he didn't know about the intelligence community. "You mean the President's attempt to circumvent your agency?"
    "That's the one." Lodge considered his next words. "I know the Director of the unit, Elizabeth Harker. One of her people was in Jerusalem. You probably saw him on TV, shooting the man who went after Rice."
    " Yes, I know about Harker."
    " I've just learned she's sent her team to Argentina on some covert mission. She's acting under Rice's authority. I thought in your capacity as Chairman you might be interested in knowing about it. I'm getting a bit tired of her antics. She's stepped into my bailiwick before, and when she does she makes a lot of trouble."
    " Where in Argentina, Wendell?"
    " Their flight plan ends at an Argentine air base near Mar del Plata, on the Atlantic coast. They took diving gear, weapons and underwater communications equipment. I don't think they're down there for a vacation."
    Greenwood sipped from a glass of water on his desk. "If Rice and Harker are in collusion about something and hiding it, a look by the Committee into what's going on might be in order."
    "My thought exactly, Gordon. Right now Rice is riding the popularity generated by that bomb in Jerusalem, but that won't last. If public hearings turned up Presidential involvement with questionable covert operations, it wouldn't hurt your potential candidacy any. It might even help us get you nominated and into the Oval Office. There's strong sentiment you would make a good candidate. You know you can count on me."
    " I appreciate your call, Wendell. Let's get together at the Club next weekend."
    " I look forward to it."
    Greenwood set the phone down and looked out his window. After a moment, he picked up the phone again and dialed.
    On the seventh floor at Langley, Wendell Lodge placed another call, this time to South America.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

    Carter looked out the window at the endless canopy of jungle greenery passing below. They were somewhere over South America.
    He didn't like this mission. He didn't like deep water. He always imagined something with teeth waiting for him under the surface. Lamont, on the other hand, had probably been born with flippers and a mask and if something with teeth tried to bother him, Nick was pretty sure he knew who'd win. He wasn't worried about Lamont. Selena was a different story.
    He didn't want to worry about Selena. He told himself it would be different if she'd come out of an intelligence or military background.