Sleeper's Run

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

"Do I need to remind you that you and your team are part of the Clandestine Service?" Michael Singleton says on the phone.

"We almost got Caine at his apartment," Blake says, as he stands alone on the man-made beach of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel where he and his team are trying to find clues that can help them to track Trishna down.

"Yes, I know. I saw it all on the six o'clock news," Singleton says from his office at the Caracas embassy as he holds a glass of Scotch. His daughter's picture lies face down on his desk next to a glass full of cigarette butts. "I also heard about one of our surveillance teams getting their ass handed to them on some college campus. Well done, Nathan. Well done indeed."

"We weren't aware that Caine had his own surveillance on us. He managed to foil the team and escape with the woman we were using as bait."

"That's just peachy," Singleton says, fiddling with the wedding band around his finger. "Is there anything else I should know before I pull the plug on your team?"

"You can't do that. All we need is some time to reacquire him."

"No, what we need is plausible deniability. Things are getting too close for comfort, Nathan. It's time to wrap this up!"

"And how do you expect me to do that if you bench me and my team?"

"Better than to have you out there completely exposed and acting like a cowboy! And your team, are any of them still alive?"

"I would take caution in your tone."

"Look, Nathan. I hate losing good men as much as the next guy. That's why you need to bring this operation under control posthaste. The situation here in Venezuela is finally stable. President Ramos has managed to appease the majority of the population for now. This is largely due to his willingness to negotiate with the leaders of the opposition, which has begun to coalesce into a single entity with your man Rafael Montenegro as the likely leader."

"Ramos pardoned him?"

"He'll arrive in Venezuela in two days for some face time with the new president," Singleton says. "Ambassador Robertson has also arranged for the Secretary of State to visit Caracas next week in order to strengthen our diplomatic relations with Venezuela."

"What about the push for general elections?" Blake says.

"Dead as the president. It's best to let Ramos serve until the regular elections. That way, the country will remain peaceful and this whole thing will be forgotten. Ramos is not a hardliner like his predecessor. He'll be warming up to his Uncle Sam soon enough."

"Then the operation is a success," Blake says.

"Not quite. The peace in Venezuela is extremely fragile. Anything can upset the talks between the two sides. Plus, this country is still suspicious of us. We need Caine to solidify our victory."

"I can't see why Caine would be of any importance now."

"Symbols, Nathan, PR. Justice has to be served. Can you imagine the JFK assassination without Oswald? Venezuela needs closure."

"We can't just erase all these days from his memory. He can end up mentally incapacitated and that'll be too suspicious."

Singleton says. "Find Eric Caine, take him back to Colombia and have his corpse found at the Venezuelan border by the local authorities. We'll arrange for the FARC to be blamed; 'The late president was involved in drug trafficking,' that sort of thing. He had a falling out with the guerrilla group, blah, blah, blah; Caine was hired to do the deed, end of story. With any luck, both countries will sign an anti-drug alliance and the Pentagon can make a buck from this too."