Read Online The Kill Zone by David Hagberg - Free Book Online Page B

a beer?”
    Yemm hesitated.
    â€œHow about a cognac?”
    â€œThat sounds good,” Yemm said. He unlocked the dispatch case and withdrew the thin file folder with the mission authorization form.
    McGarvey gave him his drink and took the folder.
    â€œUsed to be in the old days that everybody was screwing everybody else, and no one took any notice,” Yemm said gloomily. “Now it’s different, and I don’t know if we’re better off for it.”
    â€œThese days we think twice before we do something. That’s a change for the better.”
    â€œShe was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
    â€œYeah,” McGarvey said. He took a pen from Yemm, signed the form and handed them back. “Sometimes we’re not very honorable men. Expediency without integrity.”
    â€œAt least we’re fighting on the right side,” Yemm conceded.
    â€œSometimes I wonder.”
    Yemm gave him a critical look. “Problems, boss?”

    McGarvey took a drink. “I wasn’t kidding when I asked you this afternoon if you ever thought about getting out of the business.”
    â€œI wasn’t kidding when I said every day.” Yemm took a pull at his drink. “But it’s too late for us.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œWhat else could we do?” Yemm answered morosely. “What else are we trained for except opening other people’s mail, eavesdropping and shooting people who don’t agree with us?”
    McGarvey shrugged. “We do the best we can,” he said. He swirled the liquor around in the snifter and took another drink as if he needed it to buck himself up. “When the Soviet Union packed it in we lost the bad guys. The evil empire. An idea that we could rally around the flag against. They were worse than the Nazis and five times as deadly, because they had the bomb.”
    â€œYou almost sound nostalgic—”
    â€œThey had the bomb, everyone was afraid that they might actually use it. Remember the nuclear countdown clock? Missiles over the pole; Vladivostok to Washington, D.C.; Moscow to Seattle, equidistant. Or, tactical nukes across the Polish plains into Germany. Or missiles in Cuba.”
    â€œThey held our attention there for a while,” Yemm said.
    â€œThat they did. But since 9-11 all bets are off. The bad guys are everywhere.”
    â€œLike I said, boss, time to get out.”
    McGarvey shook his head. “Not yet, Dick. I’m going to need you for the next two or three years.”
    â€œYou’re taking the job then?”
    â€œIf I can get past the hearings. There’s a lot of truth to what Hammond’s saying.”
    â€œBullshit,” Yemm said.
    â€œI’ll try,” McGarvey promised, his eyes straying to the fireplace. “It’s like road rage; people jumping out of their cars and shooting each other because someone pissed them off by doing something stupid. Minor shit. Only now everybody’s been infected, even entire governments. We’re in a kind of a geopolitical road rage that’s hard to fight, and almost impossible to predict.” He looked back at Yemm. “That’s our job now. Figuring out who’s going to go crazy next.”
    â€œThat include us?” Yemm asked softly.
    McGarvey nodded. “Yes.” How to get that across to Senator Hammond and the others tomorrow, he wondered. He was guilty of a mild form of
treason. He had a feeling that he’d always been guilty of that crime. He’d always seen both sides of every issue.
    Yemm pocketed his pen and put the authorization form back into his dispatch case. He finished his drink. “Sorry, boss,” he said.
    â€œFor what?”
    â€œI came over to cheer you up for tomorrow. Guess I didn’t do such a hot job of it.”
    â€œIt’s the weather. It’s got everybody down.”
    At the door Yemm buttoned his coat. “I used to like the snow when I