idea where he was going, other than to just find some new hide so he could work out a plan. Oryx rubbed his face against the upholstery in the backseat of the car because he could not use his hands to wipe the blood away, and he moaned and cussed softly in Sudanese Arabic.
The phone rang. Gentry had no interest in listening to one more petition from Zack to do what he was told, but he answered the phone anyway. The rage and adrenaline from the fight in the shack still had his emotions in high gear.
Court said, “The time for talking is over, asshole. If you’re going to come after me, come on, because the quicker I kill you once and for all, the quicker I can break cover and get my job done!”
But it was not Zack on the other end of the line. It was Denny Carmichael. He said, “Young man, Sierra One explained the problem at hand. I am calling to see what I can do to rectify it.”
Carmichael was scared, nervous about having one of his men on a rogue mission. Court could hear it in his voice.
“I’m sorry, sir. Killing Oryx at this point will create a disaster I am not prepared to be a part of.”
“I understand how you feel. I was one of the architects of Nocturne Sapphire. All along, we knew that if we could take him alive, he could be very useful to us and to his country. But unfortunately we cannot leave any trace that the CIA or any U.S. operator was in Suakin yesterday. If evidence comes out, then we will have a massive international superpower crisis, which is, frankly, a hell of a lot more important than civil war in a third-world nation.”
“So you agree there will be war. A civil war with the backing of the Chinese and Russians?”
“Civil war, yes, in the short term it is likely. But we do not see the superpowers playing an active role.”
“Maybe you don’t have the assets in place to see it happening.”
“I can assure you, we have close contact with officials very high in the Sudanese government.”
“How close is your contact?”
“Extremely close.”
“How high are the officials?”
“Extremely high.”
“Well, I have the fucking president sitting in the backseat of my car, so when you can get a source higher and closer than that, maybe you’ll impress me.”
There was a long pause. “There is an important trade deal in the works.”
Gentry couldn’t care less. “Yeah, so maybe we take it on the chin from the Chinese. That sucks. But we’ll get over it.”
“That’s not for you to decide.”
“Actually, it is. I’ve got the president. I intend to get him to the ICC alive. I am going to do the right thing here. There are a lot of people in this country who are depending on it. You guys had the right idea; Nocturne Sapphire was the right op. Yeah, it was hopelessly fucked-up because Sudan Station doesn’t know its ass from a hole in the ground, but we were damn close to pulling it off. I’m going to finish this. You guys at Langley need to realize that what I am doing here is the right thing, and you need to rethink your—”
Denny’s calm but annoyed countenance of all their earlier conversations morphed in an instant to screaming, shouting vitriol. “I don’t have time to listen to a sermon from a pissant like you! Let me explain something. The past four years have been a cakewalk for you. There are people up here who have a soft spot for Court Gentry. You did good work for a long time for precious little thanks, and that earned you a great deal of respect in the SAD. When the shoot-on-sight went out on you, there were some in the bureaucracy here who were borderline insubordinate in their conviction to the cause, and the operation to eliminate you suffered for it.
“But now, Mr. Gentry, now there is not a man left in the agency who’s on your side. Not only will I reinstate the SOS, but I will bump it up to the top of the priority list. It won’t be some half-assed Echelon tracking, intradepartmental memoranda and Interpol watch request. It will be coordinated teams of tier-one hunter-killers, SAD/SOG Paramilitary Operations officers, Combat Applications Group, proxy teams of bounty hunters. I will personally arrange that every available SAD asset will be brought to bear against you.