The Marching Season

to carry out the assignment if you were no longer in charge of the case. So I removed you and quietly took steps to en-
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    sure your father-in-law's safety. Unfortunately, those steps were not successful."
    "If that was the case, why wasn't he provided additional protection in Washington?"
    "Because the Director assured me that Delaroche would not operate on American soil."
    "Why didn't you tell me?"
    "Because we didn't want you to do anything rash that might jeopardize the security of the operation. The goal was to draw Delaroche into the open so he could be eliminated—taken off the market, as it were. We didn't want you to frighten him away by locking your father-in-law inside a vault and throwing away the key."
    Michael looked at Delaroche, who was shaking his head.
    "She's lying," he said. "The Director arranged everything for me here—transportation, weapons, everything. He specifically decided to carry out the assassination in Washington because he knew the ambassador would be more vulnerable here than in London. It was timed to coincide with the Northern Ireland conference to increase the impact on the peace process." He paused a moment, eyes moving from Michael to Monica and back again. "She's very good, but she's lying."
    Monica ignored him, looking at Michael.
    "This is why we didn't want Delaroche to be taken into custody, Michael. Because he would lie. Because he would fabricate. He would say anything to save his own skin." Her gaze moved from Delaroche to Michael. "And the problem is, you believe him. We wanted him eliminated, because if he was arrested, we suspected he might pull a stunt like this."
    "It's not a stunt," Delaroche said. "It's the truth."
    "You should have played your part better, Michael. You
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    should have just taken your revenge for Sarah Randolph and killed him. But now you've created quite a mess—for the Agency and for yourself."
    Monica stood up, signaling that the meeting had come to an end.
    Michael said, "If you insist on playing it this way, you leave me no other choice but to go to Counterintelligence and the Bureau with my suspicions about you. You'll spend the next two years going through the Agency equivalent of Chinese water torture. Then the Senate will want a piece of you. Your legal bills alone will bankrupt you. You'll never work in government again, and no one on Wall Street will touch you with a barge pole. You'll be destroyed, Monica."
    "You don't have enough proof, and no one will believe you."
    "The son-in-law of Ambassador Douglas Cannon alleges that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency was involved in the attempt to assassinate him. That's a helluva story. There's not a reporter in Washington who wouldn't jump all over it."
    "And you'll be prosecuted for leaking Agency secrets."
    "I'll take my chances."
    Adrian Carter stepped into the room. Monica looked at him; then her eyes settled back on Michael.
    "A witch hunt will destroy the Agency, Michael. You should know that. Your father was caught up in the Angleton mole hunt, wasn't he? It almost ruined his career. Is this your way of taking revenge on the Agency for your father? Or are you still resentful of me because I had the gall to suspend you once?"
    "You're not in any position to piss me off right now, Monica."
    "So what do I have to do to prevent you from making this reckless allegation against me?"
    "You're going to resign at the appropriate time. And until
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    then, you're going to do exactly as Adrian and I say. And you're going to help me put the Society out of business."
    "God, but you're a naive fool. Putting the Society out of business is impossible. The only way to control them is to be part of them." She looked at Delaroche. "What do you plan to do with him?"
    Michael said, "I'll handle Delaroche."
    He reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a cassette tape.
    "I made this today, along with a few duplicates," he said. "It contains a full accounting of your role in the Society, the Trans-Atlantic affair, and the attempt to kill my father-in-law. I'm going to set up a trip wire. If any harm comes to Adrian, Delaroche, or me, copies of this tape will be sent to The New York Times and the FBI."
    Michael placed the tape back in his pocket.
    "It's your move, Monica."
    "I've given six years of my life to the Agency," she said. "I've done everything in my power to ensure its survival and to protect it from men like you—dinosaurs