Call to Treason Read Online Free Page A

that wasn't the key to the increase," Debenport said. "Those boys grabbed a lot of Homeland Security detail out of the gate. We can write those budget request entries in ink."
        "Because of a buzz phrase," Hood said. "We might have been in a position to reorient ourselves if our attention hadn't been on stopping nuclear war between India and Pakistan."
        "Yes, and frankly your success is part of the problem. You've shifted the majority of your operations from the United States to other countries "
        "At the president's request," Hood reminded him. "He asked us to augment Op-Center's domestic agenda after we stopped a leftist military coup in Russia."
        "I know the history," Debenport said. "I also know the future. The voters don't much care whether Moscow turns Red again or Tokyo is nuked or Spain falls apart or France gets hijacked by radicals. Not anymore.
        Foreign aid resources are being downsized across the board."
        "Your constituents may not care, but we know that what happens there affects what happens here," Hood said.
        "That's true," Debenport said. "Which is why the mandate the president gave you is not being changed."
        "Only our funding. We're supposed to do the same job but with eighty percent of an already stretched budget."
        "American households are having to do more than that," Debenport said.
        "As a senator, I also have a responsibility to help alleviate that burden."
        "Senator, I appreciate your position, but this isn't right," Hood said.
        "I used to work on Wall Street. I run a trim operation, leaner than the agencies that are getting an increase. I intend to request, in writing, a hearing of the full CIOC as permitted under charter "
        "You can have it, of course. But you will be wasting your time and ours," Debenport said. "This decision was unanimous."
        "I see. Let me ask you this, then. Is the CIOC fishing for my resignation?"
        "Hell, no," Debenport said. "I don't run when I can pass. If the committee thought you had overstayed your welcome, I'd tell you."
        "I appreciate that," Hood said. "Did you discuss any of this with the president?"
        "That's my next call. I wanted to tell you first," Debenport said.
        "But whatever his feelings, he has no veto power. He doesn't even have a political majority on the committee."
        "So that's it."
        "I'm sorry, Paul."
        Hood was angry, though not at Debenport. He was upset with himself. He should have smelled this one in the oven. He thought the departure of Fox was a signal that things were going to get better. And maybe they had, in a way. Fox did not see why Op-Center was necessary at all.
        She believed that the overseas intelligence activities of the CIA and the FBI were sufficient to keep America safe. Of course, she was also one of the senators who had put the bulk of America's spy capabilities into electronic intelligence. That was a huge miscalculation. If there were no operatives on the ground to pinpoint the mud huts, bunkers, apartments, cars, and caves for audio surveillance and spy satellites, a lot of what was called "incipient hostile intent" went unnoticed. That was when surgical covert activity became a War on Terror.
        Still, Hood had hoped that Debenport would fight harder to keep Op-Center fully staffed.
        The senator hung up, and Paul sat there, looking at the last E-mail he had opened. It was from the CIA Office of Personnel Security, Department of Communication, regarding updated procedures for the evacuation and decontamination of juveniles in the event of a biological attack on child care facilities serving the intelligence community. It was an important document, but it emphasized the gulf between the agencies. Op-Center did not even have a child care facility.
        Hood closed the E-mail and brought up the budget file. He called Op-Center's CFO Ed Colahan and