Page 64 of PSYCHOlogical

“I told him I knew nothing of Wallace, or his relationship with the men. When it came to Pike, I said nothing shocked me.”

“What did he say?” he asked without looking up.

“He took the newspaper and stomped off. What about you?” I asked. “What did you say?”

“I acted shocked, of course. He suspects the DNI has sent a goon squad to kill us all.”

“He doesn’t think it was an in-house job?” I asked. “That someone in New Dawn did it?”

“He said marines don’t kill marines. He said it was likely the work of men from another one of DNI’s similar programs. One that utilized Army special forces.”

“He said that?”

He took a drink of his coffee, winced, and lowered the cup. “Pretty much exactly.”

“If he doesn’t think that marines kill marines, then he thinks what we think. That the DNI is eventually going to wipe us all out. Correct?”

“He mentioned that theory. Yes.” He lifted his eyes from his cup of coffee. His gaze was blank. After a moment, his eyes met mine. “I just thought of something.”

“What’s that?”

“Something else he said.” He rubbed his temples. “He said Shephard was truly scheduled to go to Somalia, but that he never arrived. If what he said was true, someone gave the order to ship Shephard out. Someone else gave the order to kill him. There’s more than one person calling the shots.”

“Maybe Martin gave the order to ship Shephard to Somalia.”

“He didn’t say so, but I suppose he could have,” he said, seemingly trying to convince himself that may have been the case. “Do you have any idea who calls the shots? From the Office of the DNI? Who assigns the targets?”

I shrugged. “That’s above my pay grade. I have no idea.”

“This is becoming frustrating,” he said.

“It’s been frustrating since we figured out what’s going on,” I admitted. “Being in a situation where I might have to kill someone scares me to death.”

“I’d just like to know who my enemy is, so I know who to kill.”

“Did you see that movie with Jack Nicholson?” I asked. “When he says, ‘You can’t handle the truth?’ The one about the marines?”

“A Few Good Men?”

“That’s the one,” I said with a nod.

“That was a damned good show.”

“I love Jack Nicholson,” I said. “He’s got to be my all-time favorite actor. I’ve seen all his movies. Anyway, that’s what I feel like. Like I can’t handle the truth. I just want this to end.”

“As do I,” he said. “My only problem is that I’m not sure which direction to attack.”