Scott’s mouth tightened. Guilt? He didn’t know, but if Murray was responsible for setting in motion the ambush that had taken the lives of his teammates, he hoped it ate him alive.
The general took his seat behind his desk and motioned for Scott and Colt to take the two chairs opposite him. He pulled out a decanter of dark liquid—from the smell, whiskey—and poured a glass. He offered one to them, but they declined. From the ease with which the general downed the first glass, Scott got the feeling it was a frequent occurrence. He had the bloated, flushed look of someone who’d been drinking for a long time.
“Katherine said you had something about Natalie? She’s in danger?”
“You tell us,” Colt snapped.
Scott shot him a look for going off script. This was his part.
“We know the truth,” Scott said.
The general’s glassy eyes met his without reaction. “What truth?”
“We know that you were one of the handful of people who knew about Russia’s secret adoption sleeper program. That you buried it and then decided to turn Mickinto a double agent when he was activated. We know that you knew Natalie was a part of it and that you used her, tried to have her killed twice, and threatened to kill her family if she didn’t bring you the computer that proves your guilt. We know that you hired the men who killed Travis Hart in Alaska.” He paused and dropped the bomb. “And we know that you were the traitor who gave Mick the information to pass on to the Russians about my platoon’s recon mission to the gulag.” In spite of his vow to stay cool, Scott’s fury rose as he was talking. He found himself leaning over the desk at the man who sat there like he was telling him the weather. “A mission that saw eight of my men, eight American servicemen, killed by two missiles.”
Scott didn’t know how he expected the general to react. Maybe with denial? With shame? With violence? It sure as hell wasn’t with anger and defiance. “It is a soldier’s duty to sacrifice. Those men lost their lives for the good of their country. Just like my son. He paid the ultimate price as well. How dare you come in here and accuse me of being a traitor! I gave my son for this country; I would never betray it.”
Scott was taken aback by the venom. The general’s cool facade had shattered; he looked like a rabid dog, practically frothing at the mouth.
“TJ’s ‘sacrifice’ wasn’t because he was betrayed by someone on his own side,” Colt said. “You set those guys up. You let a team of American SEALs walk into a fucking ambush. That isn’t sacrifice; that is murder.”
The general turned his bright-eyed gaze on Colt. “You better than anyone should know that national security isn’t always pretty. What do you tell yourself to let yourself go to sleep every night?” He gave him a look of disgust, as if he shouldn’t have to explain it to someone like Colt. “This is war, and sometimes people have to die for the greater good.” He turned to Scott. “You’re anofficer. You know that sometimes officers have to send men in when they know they are going to be killed. Think of all those boys who got out of the first boats at Normandy. They laid down their lives so that others could follow. Do you think those officers didn’t know exactly what was going to happen? That they were sending their men to the slaughter?Thatis war.Thatis the reality. Like it or not.”
“But this isn’t war,” Scott said. “It’s a personal vendetta. And Eisenhower didn’t call the Germans to tell them we were coming.”
The general flushed angrily. “Don’t fool yourself. There is a war going on right now, acknowledged or not. And Russia is winning it. Ivanov acts with impunity and NATO and its allies are too damned scared to start World War III to do anything about it. He knows it and gets away with murder.”
He’d gotten away with the general’s son’s murder. Scott knew that’s what this was about. General Murray had always been a vocal opponent of Ivanov and a hawk when it came to war with Russia, but TJ’s plane being shot down must have sent him off the deep end. He’d lost perspective and convinced himself that the ends justified any means. But it was the logic to his argument that made him so scary; even now, he clearly believed he’d done the right thing.
The general’s hand tightened around his empty glass. His face was red with anger and he looked ready to explode. “If the president had a sack, none of this would have been necessary. But she left me no choice.”
“So this was about starting a war?” Scott said.
“It was about forcing the president to get off her fucking ass and retaliate. She might be able to ignore one pilot, but an entire platoon of SEALs? That would have demanded retaliation.”
“Except that it didn’t,” Colt said. “Because Ivanovoutplayed you.” He laughed and the general looked in danger of having a heart attack, his face had turned so red. “The Russian president didn’t want to be forced to declare war as he’d promised if there was another American ‘incursion’ so he sent his missiles but claimed they were a test. Ivanov didn’t take credit for wiping out a platoon of SEALs and our side had no interest in letting it be known that we had a team illegally in Russia, so it was a stalemate.”
“That’s why you involved Brittany Blake,” Scott said, continuing the narrative. “You went to the press secretly not to get justice for our guys like you said but to get it out in the public so someone would be forced to do something.”
The general didn’t say anything, but it was clear he was furious. Ivanov had made a fool of him, and they all knew it. “That will change,” Murray said. “When I’m in the White House those boys will have their justice.”
He was out of his mind. “Those boys you sent to their slaughter?”
“Those boys who were doing their duty,” the general said defiantly.
“And what about Travis?” Colt asked. “Was he doing his duty, too?”
The general’s defiance cracked a little. “That was unfortunate.”
“No,” Scott said. “That was you trying to cover your tracks when you found out not all of us were killed.” He paused. “And what about Natalie? Was she doing her duty, too? Or was she just another pawn in your game?”
“Natalie was a spy,” the general said coldly. “I was shocked when I realized the Russians had activated a few of the children from the program after so many years. But it was around the time things with Russia started to heat up, and I assume they were looking at all theangles—and all their assets. I just ensured that she didn’t do any real damage.”
“You mean you took advantage of the situation,” Scott said. “You used her for your own ends and tried to make her your scapegoat. And then you tried to have her killed to protect yourself when you discovered that she tried to call off the mission.”
The general’s lack of response and his obvious lack of remorse infuriated Scott. Clearly, Natalie, like the rest of them, were just disposable pawns in the crazed bastard’s efforts to avenge the death of his son and force the US into a war with Russia.
Colt looked at Scott. “I feel like I’m fucking watchingDr. Strangelove.”
