Hush-Hush by Stuart Woods

Author:Stuart Woods [Woods, Stuart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

31

In the absence of Dame Felicity, Stone had decreed no dinner dress, only suits, or as the British preferred to call them, “lounge suits.”

Lance had shown up in as near as he could get to dinner dress, an almost-black suit and a pin-dotted necktie and not-quite-matching pocket square. Lance, who normally operated with a bland countenance, looked positively gloomy.

Stone didn’t ask him what was the matter, but Lance told him anyway, while the others listened in.

“It’s worse than the NSA thought,” Lance said. “They’ve not only breached our encrypted phones, they’ve come up with their own network, with their own encryption.”

Rawls was the first to grasp what he was saying. “That’s not possible,” he said. “No criminal gang has the resources and computer power to accomplish that. Only a nation-state, and a prosperous one at that, or one willing to dedicate a huge part of their economy to the task, could do it.”

“I’m inclined to agree, Ed,” Lance said. “And so is the NSA.”

Stone finally saw a glimpse of dawn. “Do you mean that the Russian government has turned over a huge chunk of its capabilities to a bunch of thugs?”

Colonel Charter spoke up. “I think this just confirms what some of us have always believed—that the Russian government is a bunch of thugs.”

“I’m just a retired copper,” Sally Deerfield said. “Will someone tell me what you’re talking about?”

“I think Philip has just told us,” Stone said.

“Yes, but what does it mean?” Sally demanded.

“It means,” Charter said, “that what we’re up against is not just a band of brigands, but an army, and a well-financed and equipped one, at that.”

“Lance,” Stone said, now more sure of himself, “is our government going to be willing to match or, preferably, outmatch what we’re up against?”

“I can tell you more about that after I’ve joined our president’s daily intelligence briefing tomorrow morning, their time. For my part, I think we’re fortunate to have the president we have, who has been schooled by the last two presidents to face something like this.”

They were called to dinner. There wasn’t much chatting at table, at first. Finally, Charter spoke up again.

“In the end,” he said, “dealing properly with this situation is going to require an act of arms.”

“In the end, certainly,” Lance said. “What I’m worried about is the beginning, which directly concerns the people at this table.”

From there, the conversation descended into geopolitics, something to which Stone had not given a lot of thought, and about which he had nothing to contribute.

After dinner, back in the library over brandy and coffee, Charter said to Lance, “May I speak to you privately?”

“Philip,” Lance replied, with an edge in his voice. “We are all sentient grown-ups in this room, and we are all involved. So you may speak to all of us together.”

Charter turned just the slightest bit red. “All right,” he said, “right now I have fifteen men on the grounds, all of them ex-SAS. I can gather, perhaps, another twenty, not all of them employed by Strategic Services.

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