Monster by Bernard L. DeLeo Read Free Book Online Page A

little at the unkind reference to Hughes’ demise. “I admit…”
    “You admit without Colonel McDaniels it’s very possible you, your agents, and my niece would all be dead, killed hideously by that piece of human excrement,” Hokanson cut her off again.
    “We still do not work outside the law, Sir.”
    “How about it, Colonel?” Hokanson asked, ignoring Reskova.
    “It’s the best offer I’ve had in the last couple weeks. I’d like to give it a try if you can promise me Agent Reskova won’t frag me.”
    Hokanson and Dreyer both burst into laughter but Reskova stared coldly at McDaniels. Hokanson stood up.
    “Agent Reskova will be obtaining your release and picking you up tomorrow morning, Colonel,” Dreyer explained. “I wish we could take you with us now but it just ain’t possible. Diane will go over the details of where you’ll be going. I’ll be seeing you, Colonel.”
    Hokanson handed McDaniels a card. “Call me anytime when you get to Washington. Thanks to the new Homeland Security directives about cooperation, the new task force will be stationed out of Langley, a place you’re more than a little familiar with.”
    “Thank you, Sir, I’ll do my best.” McDaniels watched the two men leave before refocusing his attention on a grim faced Reskova.
    “I never thought I’d be briefing you on entry into my task force. I figured the most I’d be doing is giving you a good word at your trial for murder.”
    “I’m surprised you’d have done that much.”
    “I know you may well have saved our lives but it was only because the entire operation had been compromised by Hokanson. You don’t really think you would have been traipsing around out in the woods with three FBI agents after a known killer with a hostage, if the kidnapped girl had been a nobody, do you?”
    “That may have been why I was brought in with you three. Someone may have done some thinking outside the proverbial box and came up with a scenario where everyone involved looked good, or if the operation went into the toilet, I’d get the blame.”
    “And you’re comfortable with that? It doesn’t bother you to be used as the operational whipping boy?”
    McDaniels shrugged. “I’ve been used before.”
    “Yeah, I’ve read your file since coming back from our excursion into the woods. How much is missing out of your file, Colonel?”
    “The folks in charge would have hung you out to dry along with me,” McDaniels reminded her. “Yet you, Jen, and Tom followed me into the woods anyway, even though you all smelled a rat too.”
    “You didn’t answer my question.”
    “Some of my file can’t be accessed at your level.”
    “We can’t work at cross purposes. You would end up right back in here. I won’t cover for your brutality.”
    McDaniels laughed. “My brutality, huh?”
    “What was that deal with Hughes, some kind of audition?” Reskova pressed him.
    “You knew exactly what I knew,” McDaniels countered. “In case you don’t know, Senator Hokanson is on the Senate Committee that oversees CIA.”
    “So what are you saying?”
    “I’m saying the Senator wanted his niece back. He probably talked to a few people who knew I was back in the states and were familiar with my expertise. Hokanson seems like a realist. He probably knew the chances of ever seeing his niece alive were slim to none.”
    “Until he put you in the picture.”
    “Why not brief me on what you want me to do as a member of your task force and then call it a day,” McDaniels suggested. “There’s no reason to keep dancing around our last little get together.”
    “Okay, here’s the way I see it. You’re obviously a professional killer. Tom is the only one who has actually drawn his weapon and wounded a suspect. Jen has drawn her weapon, as have I, but we’ve never been in a combat situation,” Reskova explained truthfully. “We are virtually the best people in the FBI at investigations, computer expertise, forensics, and on site