Extreme Denial Read Free Page B

“Do you know where they live?”
    “Renata gave me that information,” McKittrick interrupted. “But obviously they won’t stay at the addresses forever.” He gestured for emphasis. “They have to be dealt with soon.”
    Yet another lapse in tradecraft, Decker noted with concern. Contacts should never know what a handler is thinking. And what did McKittrick mean by “dealt with”?
    “Renata tells me they have a club they like to go to,” McKittrick said. “If we can get them all together ...”
    6
    “What the hell were you doing in there?” Decker asked as he walked angrily with McKittrick after the meeting was over. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    Decker glanced tensely around. Squinting from the glare of numerous passing headlights, he noticed an alley and gripped McKittrick’s left arm to guide him away from the area’s clamorous nightlife.
    “You compromised the assignment,” Decker whispered hoarsely as soon as he was away from pedestrians. “You gave them your real name”
    McKittrick looked awkward and didn’t respond.
    “You’re sleeping with that woman,” Decker said. “Didn’t your trainers explain to you that you never, never, never become personally involved with your contacts?”
    “What makes you think I’m sleeping with ...?”
    “Your imitation of stand-up mouth-to-mouth resuscitation this afternoon.”
    “You followed me?”
    “It wasn’t very damned hard. You’re breaking so many rules, I can’t keep up with.... From the smell of alcohol on you, I have to assume you were partying with them before I arrived.”
    “I was trying to get them to feel comfortable with me.”
    “ Money ,” Decker said. “That’s what makes them comfortable. Not your winning personality. This is business, not a social club. And what did you mean by ‘dealt with’?”
    “ ‘Dealt with’? I don’t remember saying ..
    “It sounded to me as if you were actually suggesting, in front of outsiders, that the people we’re after are going to be ...” In spite of his low tone and the relative secrecy of the alley, Decker couldn’t bring himself to say the incriminating words.
    “Extreme denial,” McKittrick said.
    “What?”
    “Isn’t that the new euphemism? It used to be ‘terminate with extreme prejudice.’ Now it’s ‘extreme denial.’ “
    “Where the hell did you hear ...?”
    “Isn’t that what this operation’s about? Those bastards will keep killing until somebody stops them permanently.” Decker pivoted, staring from the darkness of the alley toward the pedestrians on the brightly lit street, afraid that someone might have overheard. “Have you gone insane? Have you told anyone else what you just told me?” McKittrick hesitated.
    “The woman?” Decker demanded. “You told the woman?”
    “Well, I had to introduce the idea to her. How else was I going to get them to do it?”
    “Jesus,” Decker muttered.
    “Plausible deniability. I’ve invented a rival network. They take out the first group, then phone the police and call themselves the Enemies of Mussolini.”
    “Keep your voice down, damn it.”
    “No one can prove we’re involved.”
    “The woman can,” Decker said.
    “Not when I disappear and she doesn’t have physical evidence.”
    “She knows your name .”
    “My first name only,” McKittrick said. “She loves me. She’ll do anything for me.”
    “You ...” Decker leaned close in the darkness, wanting to make certain that only McKittrick heard his fierce whisper. “Listen to me carefully. The United States government is not in the business of assassination. It does not track down and kill terrorists. It accumulates evidence and lets the courts decide the appropriate punishment.”
    “Yeah, sure, right. Just like the Israelis didn’t send a hit team after the terrorists who killed eleven Jewish athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.”
    “What the Israelis did has nothing to do with us. That operation was canceled because