The Destroyer 142 - Mindblower by Warren Murphy

Author:Warren Murphy
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780751560916
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2016-09-28T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

It came as quite a surprise to Thomas Shep to realize he was the most powerful man in the government of the United States of America.

It was ironic that a bureaucrat whose sole function was to police the checks and balances of the intelligence system could become, because of loopholes in the checks and balances, the mastermind of all government intelligence. Through the judicious use of intelligence, he could affect any other aspect of government. And there was nothing beyond the reach of the U.S. government.

“Guess I’m king,” Shep said, laughing at his own reflection in the little mirror he kept in his desk. The mirror reflected a pasty-faced cherub of a man with pink skin and a scraggly comb-over. His skin was blotchy. His nose displayed a road map of broken capillaries. What he noticed when he looked in the mirror, however, was the reflection of the room behind him.

“A king ought to get a better office,” Shep announced.

The problem with his current situation was that he was omnipotent but he had to keep quiet about it. He could go on consolidating his hold on the world as long as nobody knew he was doing it. If they ever got wind of him, they’d just fire him and be done with it.

He dreamed of going public. That wacko who took on the Colombians with the windstorm guns, he had it made. Going out and giving the big blow-off to anybody who got in his way.

Of course, it was all for show. The guy with the blowguns was all bark and very little bite. He’d get his own pretty soon. Just a matter of time.

Meanwhile, there was much to be learned from the people who were trying to stop the Hurricane.

Shep had used his accidentally broad security clearance to create his own official authorization to have even greater security clearance. This was one of those loophole areas where there should have been a system of checks and balances—but there wasn’t. Shep’s authorization gave him the power to authorize any kind of surveillance. He tapped into intelligence feeds from around the world and through the federal government, and he had been laboriously backtracking the authorization for all activities in relation to the Hurricane.

The level of autonomy that they had—whoever it was who was chasing the Hurricane—matched Shep’s. Shep refused to allow anyone else to have what he had. Otherwise, there was no point in his having it.

He was going to find out who it was and find out what they were up to and who they reported to and what their sphere of operations was. Once he knew all about them, he’d know if he could place them under his control. If he could, great. If not, he’d sabotage their whole agency, one way or another, and get rid of them entirely.

“Preston Huich,” Shep said to his dingy Pentagon office. “There’s a name for you.”

He was looking at one of those funny orders, issued overnight during the few hours that Shep had gone home for a shower and a change of clothes.

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