He wouldn't smother her with gifts or jealousy the way
Stefano had. And then one day, at a Fourth of
July picnic a couple of months after they met,
she happened to look into his eyes and it all
clicked. Affection became love.
BALANCE OF POWER 393
A branch scraped heavily against the window and
Sharon looked over. The branch had certainly
grown since she was a girl. That same branch used
to scratch so gently against the same window.
It
has grown larger,
she thought,
but it hasn't changed.
She wondered if that was a good or a bad thing, being
able to stay the same.
Good for a tree, bad for people,
she decided. But change was one of the most difficult
things for anyone to do. Change- and compromise.
Admitting that your way might not be the only way of
doing things or even the best way.
Sharon gave up trying to sleep. She'd pull
another Nancy Drew from her shelf. But first she
slid from the bed, pulled on a robe, and
went to look in on Harleigh and Alexander. The
kids were sleeping in the bunk bed that used to belong
to her younger twin brothers- Yul and Brynner. Her
parents had met at a matinee of the original
The King and I.
They still sang "Hello, Young Lovers" and "I Have
Dreamed" to one another, off-key but beautifully.
Sharon envied her parents the open affection they shared.
And the fact that her father was retired and they got to spend
so much time together and they seemed so thoroughly happy.
Of course,
she thought,
there were times when Mom and Dad weren 'I so content-
She remembered quiet tension when her father's
business wasn't going so well. He rented
bicycles and boats to people who came to the sleepy
resort on the Long Island Sound, and some summers
were bad ones. There were gas shortages and
recessions. Her father had to put in long hours then,
running his business
394 OP-CENTER
during the day and working as a short-order cook at
night. He used to come home smelling of grease and
fish.
Sharon looked at her children's peaceful
faces. She smiled as she listened to Alexander
snore, just like his dad.
The smile wavered. She shut the door and stood in
the dark hall, her arms folded around her. She was
angry at Paul and she missed him terribly.
She felt safe here, but she didn't feel at
home here. How could she? Home wasn't where her
possessions were. Home was where Paul was.
Sharon walked slowly back to her old bedroom.
Marriage, career, children, emotion, sex,
stubbornness, conflict, jealousy-was it hope or
arrogance that possessed two people and convinced them that all
of those things could be melded into a working life?
Neither,
she told herself.
It was love.
And the bottom line, however she got to it, was that as much
as her husband frustrated her more than any man had
or could, as much as he wasn't there as much as she or
the kids wanted or needed, as much as she was angry
at him almost as much as she felt affection for him, she
still loved him.
Deeply.
Alone now in the small, quiet hours of the morning,
Sharon felt that she may have come down too
hard on Paul. Leaving Washington with the kids,
snapping at him on the phone-why the
hell
wasn't she willing to cut him any slack? Was it
because she was angry that he could take all the time he
wanted for his career and she couldn't? Very possibly.
Was it also because she
BALANCE OF POWER 395
keenly remembered missing her father during the summer
busy season and when he had to hold a night job?
Probably. She didn't want her kids
to experience the same thing.
Sharon didn't feel that what she'd said to Paul was
wrong. He
should
spend more time with his family and less time at work. His
job required a greater commitment than
nine-to-five, but Op-Center would continue
to function if he came home for dinner
some
nights ... if he went on vacation with them
once
in a while. But how Sharon had spoken to him-that was a
different matter. She was frustrated and instead of
talking to him she'd taken it out on him.
After taking his kids away, that had to leave him
feeling very much alone.
The woman took off her robe and lay down on the
twin bed. The pillow was cold with her sweat and the
branch was still scratching. She looked over. As she
did, she saw her cellular phone on the night
table. The black plastic glowed in the moonlight.
Rolling onto her side, Sharon picked up the
phone. flipped it open, and began punching in
Paul's private number. She stopped after the
area code. She discontinued the call and set the
phone aside.
She had a better idea. Instead of giving him a
call- where even a small thing, like getting voice
mail or hearing the wrong word could trigger a
relapse-she'd give him an olive branch.
Feeling guilty and forgiving at the same time,
Sharon lay back, shut her eyes, and dropped
almost at once into a contented sleep.
FORTY-ONE
Tuesday, 11:50 a.m. Madrid, Spain
When the soldiers in the courtyard suddenly withdrew,
Darrell McCaskey silently thanked Brett
August. The Strikers had to be the reason for the
abrupt pullback.
After the helicopter took off, the soldiers on the
rooftop kept McCaskey and Maria pinned down.
At the same time the scattered soldiers around the
perimeter regrouped. It appeared as if they were
organizing for an assault. But the attack never
came. Everyone seemed riveted by loud pops from
inside the palace.
"It's begun," McCaskey said to Maria.
Yellow smoke filtered through several of the windows
along the wall beside the arches. There were shouted commands
at the far end of the courtyard, near the western side
of the palace. Though it was difficult to see because of the
high, bright sun and deep shadows, the bulk of the
soldiers seemed to disappear. Not long after that,
McCaskey heard gunfire behind the ornate white
walls.
"What's going on?" Maria asked. She was leaning
against the inside of the arch closest to the palace wall.
Her legs were stretched in front of her.
McCaskey had
BALANCE OF POWER 397
placed his handkerchief across the gunshot wound in her
side and was holding it in place.
"It's the countercoup," he replied. He didn't
want to say much in case they were overheard.
"How are you doing?"
"All right," she replied.
> As they spoke, McCaskey had squinted across the
wide, sunlit space. To the south-McCaskey's
left- a tall iron gate separated the palace
courtyard from the cathedral. The church doors had
been shut before but now it looked as though people were beginning
to emerge-priests as well as parishioners. He
assumed that they'd heard the helicopter and the shots that
had been fired at it. Within the courtyard itself Luis
was still lying across the captain. The Interpol chief was
silent but the Spanish officer was moaning.
"We have to bring him in," Maria said.
"I know," McCaskey said. He continued to peer
into the sunlight. He was finally able to pick out at
least three soldiers who had remained behind. Two of
them were roughly four hundred feet away. They were
crouched behind a post that supported the gate on the
southern side of the courtyard. A third soldier was
squatting behind an old lamppost about three hundred
feet straight ahead, to the north.
McCaskey put his gun in Maria's hand.
"Listen, Maria. I'm going to try and get
Luis. I'll see if the soldiers will trade him
for that captain."
"That is not a trade," Maria declared angrily.
"Luis is a man. The captain is
una yibora.
A snake that crawls on the ground." She glanced
out at the captain and her swollen upper lip pulled
into a sneer. "He is
398 OP-CENTER
lying there just as he should-on his belly."
"Hopefully," McCaskey said evenly, "the
soldiers won't see things quite the same way. Can you
move around slightly so they can see the gun?"
Maria put her left hand on the bloody
handkerchief and twisted slightly. She brought her right
hand around.
"Hold it," he said before the gun came around. "I
want to tell the soldiers something first. How do you
say, 'Don't shoot"?"
" We
disparar.""
McCaskey leaned his head out from behind the arch.
"left-brace No disparar!"
he yelled. He kept his head exposed then asked
Maria, "How do you say, 'Let's take care of
our wounded"?"
She told him.
McCaskey shouted, his
jCuidaremos nuestros heridos!"
There was no response from the soldiers.
McCaskey frowned. This was one of those moves where
you had to put everything on the table and pray.
"All right," he said to Maria as he rose. "Let
them see the gun."
Maria twisted further until her right hand came from
behind the archway. The gun glinted in the sun at the
same time as McCaskey stepped into the open. He
held his hands up to show that he was unarmed. Then,
slowly, he began walking into the courtyard.
The soldiers did nothing. The sun felt
savagely hot as McCaskey stepped closer to the
wounded men. He was aware of continued gunfire from
inside the pal BALANCE OF POWER 399
ace-not a good sign. The Strikers should have been in and
out without engaging the enemy.
Suddenly, a soldier stepped from behind the gatepost.
He entered the gate and walked toward McKaskey.
He was armed with a submachine gun. It was pointed
directly at McCaskey.
" We
disparar,""
McCaskey repeated in case the soldier
hadn't heard him the first time.
"fVuelta!"
the soldier shouted. McCaskey looked at him and
shrugged. "He wants you to turn around!" Maria
yelled. McCaskey understood. The soldier
wanted to make sure he didn't have a weapon
shoved in his waistband. McCaskey stopped,
turned, and lifted his pants legs for good measure.
Then he continued walking. The soldier didn't
shoot him. He also didn't lower his weapon, which
McCaskey now recognzied as an MP5 of
Hong Kong origin. If he fired at this range,
he'd cut McCaskey in half. McCaskey
wished he could see the soldier's face beneath his cap.
It would have been nice to have some idea what the man was
thinking.
The walk to where Luis was lying took less than a
minute but it felt much, much longer. When
McKaskey arrived the Spanish soldier was still about
thirty feet away. The soldier kept the gun
pointed in McCaskey's direction. The
American knelt slowly, keeping his arms raised.
He looked down at the wounded men.
The captain was looking up at him, wheezing through his
teeth. His lower leg was sitting in a
deepening puddle of blood. If he didn't get
help soon he'd bleed to death.
400 OP-CENTER
lws comwas Yymg facedown across him, Yuce an
X. McCaskey bent his head and looked at
Luis. His eyes were closed and his breathing was
shallow. His normally dark face was pale. The
bullet had struck the right side of his neck about
two inches below the ear. Blood was dripping onto the
stone blocks. It streamed toward the pool of the
captain's blood and they mingled thickly.
McCaskey stood slowly and straddled the men. He
put his arms under Luis and lifted him up. As he
rose he heard a commotion at the gate.
McCaskey and the Spanish soldier both looked
over.
A sergeant at the gatepost had his hand around a
priest's arm. The priest was speaking quietly and
pointing toward the wounded men. The sergeant was yelling.
After a moment, the priest simply wrested his arm
away and stormed forward. The sergeant continued to yell
at him. He shouted for the priest to stop.
The priest shouted back that he would not. He pointed
toward the palace, where there were still the sounds of
gunfire and clouds of yellow smoke.
He said he was going to see if he could be of any
assistance.
The sergeant warned him that there was danger.
The priest said he didn't care.
So that was what the debate was all about,
McKaskey thought. The priest's safety.
Never assume.
McCaskey didn't want to stand there while Luis
bled. Cradling him gently to his chest, he turned
and started walking toward the arches. The soldier let
him go. McCaskey turned and saw him attending
to the wounded captain.
McCaskey returned to the arch. Carefully, he
set
BALANCE OF POWER 401
Luis down beside Maria. He looked back. The
priest was kneeling beside the captain. He turned
back to the injured man.
"Poor Luis," Maria said. She set the gun
down and touched his cheek.
McCaskey felt a pinch of jealousy. Not for
Maria's touch but for the concern he saw in her eyes.
The look came from deep inside her, pushing aside
her own pain. He had been such a damn fool
to lose her. He noticed, now, how pale
she looked as well. He had to get help for her.
McCaskey unbuttoned his cuff and
ripped off the
bottom of his sleeve. He lay the cloth on
Luis's wound.
"You both need medical help," McCaskey
announced. "I'm going to try and get to a
telephone- call for an ambulance. As soon as
I do that, I'll look for your friend Juan."
Maria shook her head. "It may be too late-was
She tried to get up. McCaskey pushed down
firmly on her shoulders.
"Maria-was
"Stop it!" she shouted.
"Maria,
listen
to me," McCaskey said. "Give me just a little
time. With any luck this assault will make it unnecessary
to rescue Juan or anyone else from General
Amadori's thugs."
"I don't believe in luck," Maria said. She
used her free hand to push aside his arms. "I
believe in the lousiness of people. And so far I've never
been disappointed. Amadori may execute his
prisoners just to
402 OP-CENTER
keep them from talking about what he's been doing-""
Maria stopped. She glanced past McCaskey.
As she did, her eyes widened.
"What is it?" McCaskey asked, turning around.
"I
know
that man," she said.
McCaskey gazed into the courtyard. The priest was
hurrying toward them. He slowed as he neared. He
obviously recognized her as well.
"Maria," the priest said as he reached the arch.
"Father Norberto," she replied. "What are you
doing here?"
"It was strange fortune brought me," he said. He
squatted and touched her head comfortingly. Then he
looked at her wound. "My poor girl."
"I'll live," she said.
"You've lost a lot of blood," Norberto said.
He glanced at Luis. "So has this man. Has
a doctor been summoned?"
"I'm going now," McCaskey said.
"No!" Maria shouted.
"It's all right," Norberto said, "I'll stay with
you."
"It isn't that," Maria said. "There's a
prisoner- he must be helped!"
"Where?" Norberto asked.
"He's in a room over there," she said. She
pointed toward the doorway along the palace wall.
"I'm afraid they'll kill him."
Norberto took her hand. He patted it as he
rose. "I will go to him, Maria," he said. "You
stay here and try not to move."
Maria looked from the priest to McCaskey. The
BALANCE OF POWER 403
concern McCaskey had seen in the woman's eyes
was gone, replaced by contempt. His heart shattered,
McCaskey left without a word. He was followed
closely by Father Norberto.
The men entered the doorway together, McCaskey going
Clancy, Tom - Ballance of Power Page 38
