“It means, when all is said and done, you are going to wish you didn’t go poking around D.C. to find out why everyone is after you.”
“Why not?”
Hanley heaved a long sigh. He didn’t want to say more, but he knew Gentry wasn’t going anywhere unless he talked. “Because this whole thing is your fault.”
A long pause. “No.”
“Everything you think is just some terrible misunderstanding is not a misunderstanding. You are under lethal authorization because you earned lethal authorization. It sucks, and I’ve been against the sanction from the get-go . . . but it is a legit sanction.”
Court shook his head emphatically. “Not true. I know everything that happened down at street level on my ops, and my conscience is clear. If something went tits-up on a mission it was strategic, not tactical, and I didn’t have a damn thing to do with strategy. I’d fall on my sword in an instant if I fucked up, but I’m not taking the fall for someone else’s mistake.”
Hanley winced, feeling the pain of having to deliver bad news, but also the pain of having to deliver bad news to someone who just might kill the messenger of the bad news.
He said, “Carmichael called me up one day five years ago, back when I was running the Goon Squad, back when you were on the team. He said he had a new termination order for us. I said, ‘Cool, we’ll meet and wade through the intel, then go see legal and the director to get it approved.’ He told me it was already approved by everybody. That wasn’t how we did things, so I told him I wanted to talk face-to-face.
“He met me at a restaurant in Reston, and he brought Max Ohlhauser, the Agency’s chief legal counsel. You know him?”
Court shook his head, Hanley could barely register the movement in the dark. “I don’t hang out with CIA lawyers.”
“Anyway, each time we got a term order, it had to be signed by Denny, Ohlhauser, and the CIA director, whoever was in the chair at the time.”
“Okay.”
“So Denny pulls out the order, all signed off on by the director and Ohlhauser, and then Denny signs it right in front of me. I looked down to see who we were terming. I figured it was some AQ guy, maybe Hezbollah, Al-Shabab. The usual suspects. But your name was on the order, Court.”
“Why?”
“Denny wouldn’t tell me specifics. It was a need-to-know thing. But Ohlhauser knew. And so did the director.”
“How do you know the director—”
“Because I went and asked him. Personally. He wouldn’t talk to me about it, he felt conflicted as hell, you could see it on his face. But he said if I had a term order with his signature on it, I needed to shut the fuck up and comply and to get the fuck out of his office.” Hanley chuckled in the dark. “I’m not paraphrasing, that’s verbatim.”
“So Carmichael and Ohlhauser told you nothing?”
“No. They told me something. They told me which op you fucked up that earned you the sanction.”
More thunder, the rain whipped in sheets on the window now.
“What op?”
Hanley did not reply.
“What op?”
Nothing.
“You gonna make me shoot you, Matt?”
Hanley said, “Operation BACK BLAST.”
—
Court’s eyes narrowed. The name meant nothing to him. He thought back several years, through so many operations. Maybe. He wasn’t sure. “That first thing we did in Jalalabad?”
“No, man. That was BACKBEAT.”
“That’s right . . . The thing in Ankara?”
“BRAINSTORM.”
“Sarajevo?”
Hanley looked at his former operator with bewilderment. “Jesus, that one was called AARDVARK SANDSTORM. Were you even paying attention during the briefings?”
Court shrugged. “I’ve had a pretty full plate recently. What the hell was BACK BLAST?”
“Trieste, Italy.”
Gentry looked away a moment, thinking back. “The thing in Trieste had a name?”
Hanley nodded in the dark. “In your defense, it was kind of thrown together, wasn’t it? But it did have a name. It’s possible Hightower never read you in on the name of the op.”
“But . . . what about it? That op was solid.”
“Denny says it wasn’t. He says you rogued it. Ohlhauser confirmed it, and the director seemed to agree.”
Court stood from the chair quickly, startling Hanley. “That’s a damn lie! I remember everything that happened in Trieste. A terminal sanction along with a personnel recovery. I wasted the bad guy and scooped up the good guy. Whatever Carmichael’s real reason for wanting me off the table, it sure as shit wasn’t anything that happened in BACK BLAST.”