Monster (29 page)

“I take it the Colonel’s nickname is Cold Mountain,” Dominguez observed as Rasheed shrugged his reluctant acceptance of what Rutledge had said. “Does that have something to do with the Hughes’ case you told me about?”

“He never told you about his nickname?” Reskova asked, payback forming in a wave inside her head for being excluded from Walter Reed.

“Nope. Bocelli and I couldn’t figure out at first who you all were talking about the other night at Andrew’s. I forgot to ask the Colonel.”

“I copied the bit from Fox News on the internet.” Rutledge gestured for Dominguez to follow her into the outer office.

A few minutes later, Dominguez was standing over Rutledge peering at her computer screen as the clip of the news conference where McDaniels’ reference to the movie
Cold
Mountain
had been aired. Dominguez was soon laughing in appreciation and having Rutledge replay it for him.

“Oh man, can I get you to burn that onto a DVD for me to take back to my unit?”

“Hell yeah, Abe, I’ll make a few copies of it for you.” Rutledge inserted a blank disc from her desk drawer.

“The guys are going to come unglued when I tell them about the Colonel,” Dominguez said excitedly.

“I bet he never told you he was raised on a Mescalero Apache Reservation.” Reskova saw surprise register on all of their faces. “I see I forgot to mention that information to my cohorts here too.”

“That explains a lot of things,” Rutledge said.

“Copy that,” Barrington agreed with a laugh.

“Yes,” Rasheed added. “I asked once about the name your helicopters carry: Apache. Cold explained in detail about the history of this warrior race from your Southwest United States. He never mentioned his having lived as one.”

“Man, that’s good stuff.” Dominguez took the three discs Rutledge handed him. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to go. My wife’s probably getting ready to call the cops on me.”

“Take this with you, Abe.” Reskova handed him a business card after she jotted down some information on the back of it. “That’s my E-mail address on the back and my cell phone number. If you guys need anything over there, all you have to do is ask. We’re adopting you guys.”

Dominguez took the card. “The Operation Gratitude and Operation Air Conditioner Moms have really helped us over there. Now, the Mom’s groups are springing up all over to support us. It helps. I’ll inform on ah… Cold Mountain whenever I can, Ma’am.”

“I’d really appreciate that, Sergeant.” Reskova shook his hand. “Take care of yourself.”

“Will do.”

“Come, my friend.” Rasheed gestured toward the door. “I will show you the way out of here.”

* * *

“I understand now why Cold wants to go back,” Reskova remarked, as she sat with Barrington and Rutledge in her office, reviewing the C.A.I.R. bust.

“If the Colonel can save even one more of those young men like Abe, he won’t pass up the chance under any circumstances,” Barrington agreed.

“I’m glad you gave him the card with your contact on it, Diane. I bet we could get something going right out of this building as far as troop wish lists. Besides, as an added bonus, Abe will rat out the Colonel for us. Funny, Cold was over there screwing around with the Marines like he did us.”

“It probably helped them a lot, just like Abe told us, Jen,” Reskova observed. “We actually managed to see a mission through without mass killings here too.”

“Yeah, but we have Cold Mountain light in Kay,” Barrington replied. “I wish you could have seen how well he pulled off our good cop, bad cop act.”

“I doubt it was an act,” Rutledge said. “Kay is a dangerous man to mess with. We’ll need to make sure we keep him within the guidelines. He doesn’t have the legend Cold has.”

“It’s up to us to make sure nothing happens to Kay,” Reskova reminded them. “If Cold ever hears they have Kay in prison, we’ll have a war on our hands.”

“Damn! I didn’t even consider that angle,” Barrington replied. “Kay would just vanish out of prison one day like he’d never been there. The only problem would be the body count.”

“Okay, so Muhyee is cooperating.” Reskova brought them back to the business at hand. “Let’s get to work on his computer hard drives and find enough so we don’t need to depend too heavily on him.”

“How about that sniper story, Diane? I bet that put your panties in a bunch, huh?”

“Your time will come, Rutledge,” Reskova said as Rutledge laughed and Barrington attempted not to. “I know how to get you. I’ll have Dreyer switch our places on the team, smart ass.”

“If we’re switching places, do I get the Cold Mountain too?” Rutledge quipped on the way out of the office with Barrington trailing her at a distance shaking his head.

Reskova gritted her teeth and unclenched her hands, vowing silently never to comment on Rutledge’s digs ever again.

* * *

Two days later, after numerous attempts at asking for permission to visit Walter Reed to see McDaniels, Reskova was readying her work load so she could visit in person. McDaniels had left the no visitors order with Walter Reed administration too and did not rescind it. Sergeant Dominguez had visited McDaniels. He called her to let them all know McDaniels was up and moving around.

The C.A.I.R. bust had resulted in complete tumult within the lobbying group as their lawyers tried desperately to undo the damage. Dreyer had approved the leakage of some data involving the case to the Washington Times, which ran with it in headlines, vilifying the Council on American Islamic Relations. The team worked nearly around the clock with Rasheed doing translation duty, quickly trying to nail down tendrils snaking out from the Washington C.A.I.R. office to the rest of the country. Their findings had birthed five new teams investigating the leads and a no holds barred budget to get anything and everything they wanted.

“Just leave, Diane,” Rutledge peaked into Reskova’s office to say. “We can’t go any further with the courier tie yet anyway. Tom, Kay, and I…”

Reskova’s phone rang and she answered it formally. “Yes, he’s with our office. Please issue him a shield and send him up.”

Reskova hung up, running her hands through her hair nervously. Rutledge picked up on her actions immediately.

“Want to slip into a teddy before Cold gets up here, Diane?” Rutledge asked, bringing Reskova to a complete halt.

“How… never mind,” Reskova said, moving quickly around her desk and by Rutledge, who briefly made an effort to block her way. Reskova gripped Rutledge’s nose in a lightning fast grab. “You don’t want to do that, Jen. Unarmed combat is not your specialty.”

“Okayyyyyyyyyyy…,” Rutledge whined nasally, dancing a little in distress.

Reskova released her and Rutledge stepped aside holding her nose.

“That hurt!”

“Good,” Reskova called over her shoulder with some satisfaction. Barrington and Rasheed had already gathered at her door.

“You gentlemen want some?” Reskova halted at her doorway, raising her hands in a beckoning gesture. “Any witticisms you want to lay on me before Cold gets up here?”

Both men jumped out of her way. Barrington pointed at Rutledge comically with an ‘I told you so look’ as Rutledge still patted her nose hesitantly. Reskova opened the door into the hallway in time to surprise McDaniels. He was in dress uniform, but leaned on a cane slightly as he walked up. Reskova looked around the hall. When she saw they were alone for a moment, she simply hugged him.

Chapter 21

New Mission

“Hi, babe,” McDaniels stroked her hair with his free hand. “You ratted me out to Abe. He brought over his portable DVD player just so he could rag me with the Cold Mountain news broadcast.”

Reskova looked up at him, her eyes moist. “That’ll learn you to give out no visitor decrees. Besides, you’re a Colonel for God’s sake. Show some backbone.”

McDaniels kissed Reskova lightly on the lips. “I missed you too. I just didn’t want you all screwin’ around when you should be working. Now, can we go inside and get some coffee? I have some business to discuss with you straight from Dreyer.”

“Sure, come on in.” Reskova pulled him into the office. “Is it serious?”

“Just something Dreyer came up with concerning your Russian courier,” McDaniels answered, greeting Rasheed, Barrington, and Rutledge, as they waited in a greeting line inside the doorway. “Hey, nice to see you all. Thanks for the great info you provided Abe with. He and his unit are having a very entertaining time with it.”

“He gave us some great info on your time in Fallujah too, Cold.” Rutledge grinned. “We had to return the favor.”

“That ain’t like Abe,” McDaniels said, his face decidedly more grim. “I…”

“Take it easy, Colonel,” Barrington cautioned. “I think he just needed to share it with someone.”

“Yes, my friend,” Rasheed commented. “The young Marine seemed relieved to talk with us.”

“Yeah, I get that,” McDaniels replied thoughtfully.

“You’re not mad, are you?” Reskova asked with some apprehension.

“No, not at all - I should have noticed the Gunny wasn’t feeling right,” McDaniels explained. “Abe and Bocelli are the kind of sergeant an officer dreams of having in a rough situation. Anyway, I have something to talk over with Diane so who made the coffee?”

“I did.” Rasheed hurried over to pour McDaniels a mug.

McDaniels took it from him gratefully and sipped it with pleasure. “Yeah, Kay, now that’s how it’s done. You should have tasted that cow urine they served me at Walter Reed. Let Diane and I go over this thing Dreyer has for us. We’ll clue you all in if she thinks it appropriate, okay?”

* * *

There was a chorus of acknowledgements. McDaniels and Reskova walked over to her office. No one commented on the cane but Rasheed watched McDaniels speculatively. He waited until the door to Reskova’s office closed before looking at his companions. They were already watching him. Rasheed shrugged.

“It is not a good thing to see the Cold Mountain with a cane, even after surgery,” Rasheed explained.

Barrington and Rutledge nodded in agreement before turning quietly to their respective desks.

* * *

Inside Reskova’s office, McDaniels sat done in the chair fronting Reskova’s desk. Reskova noticed the relief he could not keep from his features.

“You’re hurting,” Reskova sat down behind her desk.

“It’s just soreness. That damn piece of metal I’ve been carrying around came nearer the surface rather than deeper in so they took it out. I already feel better just knowing it’s gone. I’ll be fine in a few days.”

“So what’s the cane for?”

“Just to keep from making the wrong movement. Some of the muscle in my back’s pretty tender.”

“Did you see Dreyer before you came up here?”

“He came to Walter Reed to see me. It seems he outranked my no visitation orders. Dreyer just wanted to see if I was up to a little work.”

“How little, and what do I have to do with it?”

“Dreyer wants you and I to team up again with the Russian courier. He thought we could pull off a meeting since that Muhyee guy turned and gave us all the contact info. Dreyer believes the Russian’s keeping a low profile, but if we’re convincing enough, we may be able to find out if he’s a Chechen contact or a Russian one.”

“No one will be happy if he’s playing on the Russian side. We investigated him pretty well. He most definitely has Chechen ties. We were surprised the Russians haven’t found him out. After the school bombing, I thought they were going to get serious. Now I’m starting to wonder.”

“They may not know he has Chechen ties. Where’d you pick up on them?”

“Through the Mercado bust which we confirmed on Muhyee’s hard drives. What does Dreyer have in mind?”

“He wants us to approach him through the Internet at the online drop that C.A.I.R guy was using. We’re supposedly eager to set up a meet with him and organize another cell here in Washington.”

“No way he’s going to buy you as a terrorist, Cold. You’re famous. Hell, they had pictures all over the papers of you after the Mercado deal.”

“Yeah, but did they have pictures of me in a suit with a beard?”

“You’re kidding, right? So that’s why you didn’t shave. Come on. We can trap this guy some other way. All that will happen if we even get a meeting is he’ll recognize you and go underground or get the hell out of the country altogether.”

“Dreyer thinks we can deal with him the same way Kay helped you do with Muhyee.”

“What’s our bargaining chip once we know he’s valuable?”

“We’ll tell him if he doesn’t cooperate we’ll turn him over to the Russians. If he does cooperate, we’ll treat him like a prisoner of war after he disappears. The Russians won’t take kindly to it if they know we have him.”

“And if the Russians have a hand in it?”

“Then he can deal with us or die. Those clowns over in Iraq stirring all the shit up in Ramadi and the rest of the Sunni Triangle ratholes are getting financial assistance from more places than Syria and Iran. A lot’s being funneled from here in the states to Iran and Syria from these damn charity fronts and lobbying groups like the one Muhyee ran. They’re not only looking to surprise us like the Mercado cell planned, they want a continuing money source.”