Hunted

Chapter 17: Fury

Wayne Gilger took a sideways glance at Kevin McDade. As always, the man sat painfully straight, as if a rod had been inserted in his spine. McDade's eyes stared straight ahead, not even following the nearly frantic pacing of Robert Clark. Finally, McDade noticed Gilger and let his gaze slide toward him, but only for a brief instant. The look was stone cold.

Again Clark tried to sit at his desk, and again he bounced quickly out of his chair, as if a source of energy welled up within him that demanded immediate dissipation. After two more trips to the window and back, he tried sitting once again, this time meeting with more success.

"I never could have imagined," he began, his calm, collected tone more strained than normal, "that this business with Haley could have gotten so far out of hand."

Neither Gilger nor McDade ventured to answer.

Clark continued. "It's bad enough he's eluded us for so long and jeopardized our plans for the Peace-Trade Conference. Now one of McDade's highly trained assault team members is dead. If you Count Walker, who was in our employ at the time, Haley has taken out two of our best. And this man is a simple maintenance supervisor. What would happen if our team was faced with more formidable foes, I wonder?"

The comment was directed at McDade, who continued to stare ahead, unflinchingly taking the verbal abuse he had long been used to giving and receiving from his years in the military.

"Who was on duty when the call came in?" asked Clark sharply.

"Johnson, sir," answered McDade in an unfaltering voice.

"And where were the two of you?"

"I was in the war room working on the assault plans," said McDade.

"Wayne?"

Gilger cleared his throat. "I was in my office."

Clark scowled at this, his heavy gaze falling on McDade rather than Gilger. Gilger knew that was a good sign for him. The boss was drawing the right conclusions. "What did you do after Johnson summoned you, McDade?"

"I went directly to the communication center. After hearing his report, I sent a team to Walker's ship."

"Why didn't you notify Gilger first, and get his authorization?"

"I didn't believe there was time for that, sir. I believed immediate action was called for as soon as the position lock was accomplished."

"Not enough time for a videophone call?" Clark asked, incredulous.

Gilger saw an opportunity to both soothe the situation and perhaps make an ally of McDade. "If it matters, sir, I would have done the same thing had I been consulted. And a call would have delayed things another minute or two, and, if we lost those minutes, we would now be wondering if that delay had cost us Haley. As it was, Johnson did just what he should have when the voice recognition system told him he was speaking to Haley and not Walker. He was able to keep the channel open long enough to lock in on the signal, something Walker had made sure we couldn't do earlier when we talked to him. Once that was accomplished, which was when McDade arrived, there seemed no logical next step other than immediately sending a team to the spot."

Clark blew out a short breath and drummed his fingers on the desktop. "I'm not so much concerned with the action chosen as with the results of that action, and with the fact that you were not consulted. We can't have breakdowns in the chain of command at critical times. If this sort of thing were to happen during the conference on Malu III, it could lead to unspeakable disaster for all of us."

"I'm sure it won't happen again," said Gilger, as both he and Clark turned their eyes to McDade.

McDade forced a submissive nod. As Gilger studied the subtle changes in the man's nearly set-in-stone expression, he wasn't sure if he was looking at a friend or an enemy.