"I'm not sure at this point. Do you have it in you to take the lead?" Kennedy thought she knew the answer, but she needed to ask the question.
Coleman thought about it for a moment and then said, "I have the drive, but Mitch and I are very different. You know that. I'm not afraid to break a few rules and even a few noses, but I'm an amateur, compared to him. The only other person I know who could do it is Stan, and from what I heard yesterday, he's not exactly up to the challenge."
"What about Mike?" Kennedy asked, referring to Mike Nash, her counterterrorism director.
After inhaling sharply, Coleman shook his head. "I like Mike, but I'm not sure he's cut out for this rough stuff. I don't blame him. He's got a wife and kids and you gave him an important job with a nice title. He'll do well, and if he had his back to the wall, he'd do whatever it would take to survive, but that's not what this is."
"What is this?"
"You want Rick back, you need to find someone who's willing to throw out the rule book. You need someone like Mitch who doesn't give a shit about the politics . . . someone who's fearless. Someone who will make these dirt bags fear for their lives."
Kennedy agreed. The only problem was that she had no such man available. "Louie Gould . . . have you had a chance to talk to him?"
"Only briefly."
"Do you buy his story?"
Coleman let out a small laugh that said what he thought of the question. "I'm not sure I believe a thing that comes out of that guy's mouth. What does Mike say?" Nash and another CIA interrogator had been tag-teaming Gould since the night before, trying to sort through his lies.
"He says progress is slow. I'm going over there in a minute. Gould doesn't know it but I have some leverage on him. He'll tell us what we need to know and then some."
"If we can find out who hired him . . . everything might fall into place."
"It would be nice if it were that easy, but I'm guessing there are some firewalls in place that are going to make that very difficult."
"Probably, but he might be able to point us in the right direction."
"I'm counting on it." Kennedy closed her eyes briefly and then said, "You lost a man?"
Coleman wore the fateful memory on his face. "Yeah . . . one of my best."
"Mick Reavers."
"That's right."
Kennedy could tell Coleman had some emotions that he hadn't yet begun to deal with. She looked away and said, "Through back channels I've made it very clear that I want his body back by the end of the day."
"I appreciate that." Coleman looked across the room for a second and stared at a poster of an A-10 Warthog. "He never had a chance. They shot him before he even got his weapon up."
It wasn't often that Kennedy allowed herself to get pissed off, and it was even more rare for her to show it. She supposed she was filling the void left by both Rapp and Hurley. "Scott, I want to make something clear. We are not going to allow this crap to go unchallenged. I've got more shooters on the way over and within twenty-four hours I am going to have some targets for you. We're going to find General Qayem. It might not be this week or the following, but you are going to find him and you are going to kill him. Do you understand me?"
Coleman nodded. "That's what I was hoping you were going to say."
"And by the time we're done, my guess is there's going to be a few more names added to our list."
ASHAN had been summoned to the director general's office, and he thought he knew why. His people had informed him of the developments across the border. Not only was Rickman gone, but another operative in Jalalabad had gone missing and there had been an attempt on Mitch Rapp's life. As the deputy general of the Foreign Relations Wing, the only thing that surprised Ashan was that he hadn't heard directly from the Americans. Even so, he had directed his people in both Jalalabad and Kabul to aid their counterparts from the CIA.
The ISI was an extremely controversial yet influential part of the Pakistani government. In recent years there