Hidden Order: A Thriller by Brad Thor Read Free Book Online

school. He had always worn Brooks Brothers suits, white shirts, and very conservative ties, which was exactly how he was attired now. A tan overcoat sat folded on the bench next to him along with a copy of the Wall Street Journal , a cup of coffee and a bag from which he must have been feeding the pigeons pieces of a muffin.
    “This is what Ashby brought from my house,” said Harvath.
    “Women,” the Old Man responded with a dismissive shake of his head. “I should have sent a man to pick up your clothes.”
    Harvath knew Carlton liked Ashby and didn’t really mean the remark, but he was in a bad mood for some reason.
    “We need to get going,” he said.
    “Where to? Across the street to State?”
    Carlton chuckled as he stood and gathered his things. “Those people could screw up a one-car funeral. After all the headaches they put us through back when I was at the CIA, there isn’t enough money in the world for me to take them as a client. Not even now.”
    Harvath doubted that, but he knew better than to argue with him. “So if not State, who are we going to see?”
    Carlton pointed up C Street with his chin and began walking. “What do you know about the Federal Reserve?”
    “The Fed? Let me see. I know that they technically don’t print our money.”
    “ Technically , they also don’t make ice cream, but that’s not what I asked.”
    Wow, the Old Man has a burr under his saddle. Assuming that it was the Fed who had sent the plane to pick him up, he was tempted to say thatthey had a very nice aircraft, but he bit his tongue and replied, “The Federal Reserve establishes our monetary policy.”
    “That’s a better answer. What does it mean?”
    “They set the interest rates at which banks borrow money.”
    “Is that all?” asked Carlton. “That’s the extent of your knowledge of the Federal Reserve?”
    “I think it’s actually beyond the extent of most people’s knowledge. Not many care about the Fed.”
    “They should .”
    Harvath couldn’t argue with that. Americans should care about a lot of things. He wasn’t quite sure, however, how high the Federal Reserve ought to be on that list.
    “What did you study in school again? It wasn’t economics, was it?”
    The Old Man knew perfectly well what he had studied. The economics remark was a jab.
    “I studied political science and military history.”
    “Did they give you any John Adams to read out there in Southern California?”
    “Of course. The Revolutionary War and the history of the Republic was a key focus. We read all the Founders.”
    “Good,” Carlton replied. “Then you can tell me what Adams identified to Jefferson as one of America’s greatest weaknesses?”
    “ One of America’s greatest weaknesses ?” he repeated as he thought about it for a second. “Based on our context here, I’m going to assume it has something to do with banking.”
    “It does. Adams saw people’s complete ignorance when it came to money, credit, and circulation as a serious deficiency.”
    “That’s a new one by me. What does it have to do with why we’re having a meeting at the Federal Reserve, though?”
    “Have you even picked up a paper since you’ve been gone?” the Old Man asked.
    “Didn’t exactly have a lot of newsstands where we were.”
    Carlton’s visage softened. “I’m sorry. I owe you an ‘attaboy’ for that job.”
    He had never been comfortable with praise, fulsome or otherwise. “No, you don’t, sir.”
    “Yes, I do. That was a hard operation and you did remarkably well. You got handed a bushel basket of lemons with that captain having been smuggled into port and you still made lemonade. You and your team did, though, leave a lot of dead Somalis.”
    “No, sir. We left a lot of dead pirates .”
    “I understand,” the Old Man said with a nod. “And better them than a single one of you, but my problem right now is that some French human rights organization caught wind of it and they’re trying to put the