Thrilled to Death by James Byron Huggins

Author:James Byron Huggins [Huggins, James Byron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781948239363
Publisher: WildBlue Press
Published: 2019-10-04T06:00:00+00:00

***

Ben had expected this to be a ball-bashing fiasco; he was glad that his powers of anticipation were still sharp.

After the disaster at the museum, the Trinity Council had been unable to contain the meetings to cold computer screens. So early this morning Archette had demanded a face-to-face evaluation of procedures and progress and they had flown to Los Angeles.

It was noon when they convened in the Los Angeles FBI field office, the largest law-enforcement office in the world, and securing themselves in the soundproof communications chamber located in a third-level basement. After the meeting, Archette explained, he would take a Central Intelligence Agency jet to New York to prepare backup fail-safes.

That had also been something Ben anticipated, reading that the psychiatrist had been laying careful groundwork. And now, finally, he understood that the CIA man had been covering all the bases, so no matter how things went down, he would be on record as either an advocate or an opponent, following the wind.

“Foolish, foolish, foolish,” Archette continued. “I vaguely perceived the dangers of allowing these two men, General Hawken and Colonel Soloman, to work together in a highly compromising covert mission, especially when their mutual history is so littered with scandal and—”

“Now wait just a minute,” Ben growled, eyes dangerous.

Patient and professional, Archette said, “Emotions are out of place in a deliberate assembly, General, and are not conducive to—”

“Save it,” Ben said. “The truth is, Archette, you don’t know anything about the military. You don’t have a clue about combat radius or maintainability or defense systems or strategic zones. So you’re not qualified to tell me whether my tactical judgment was correct or not. My men used a secure fire zone until it was violated by the objective. We used closed communications and reconnaissance and backstopping—tell me if you know what any of this means—and air support and surveillance and highly trained commandos to execute a coordinated tactical assault. But this was a battlefield, and a battlefield always contains vulnerability factors. Nobody in this room can guarantee the outcome of a conflict. That’s the nature of war. And we are in a war. I’m not going to back down to you or anyone else who doesn’t know the rules. Further, my personal feelings toward my men are none of your concern. I don’t know what your agenda is, but if you try to debate the execution of my attack, you’re going to lose.”

Archette was unfazed. “General, as I said, please control yourself. We have a situation of compromised national security and a threat of global contamination. And we must decide whether the Trinity Failsafe is equal to the task of neutralizing the danger. I also state that Colonel Soloman is obviously inadequate for the assignment and should be replaced by a more proficient operative, someone who is not as impulsive or uncontrollable.”

Staring over a cigar, Ben was grim.

Bull, seated at the head of the table, frowned. And Ben decided to attack on a different angle, knowing he was losing the battle.

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