By the time Peter and Bernadette finished their breakfast and were back on the road, Terry was in the operating room of a small but first-class trauma facility. Frank went up to see the Director of Operations to brief him. Just as he finished briefing the Director of Operations, the phone buzzed. The Director frowned and picked up the secure phone. He told Frank to pick up the extension. Fifteen minutes later the report from the Recon team in the valley of the terrorists’ ended. The Director shook his head and said, “I knew this guy was good, but I was thinking your report was embellished a bit. Now from what was reported by the Recon team, it was understated.

“This strange man is the best operative I have ever heard about. The Recon team leader thinks for security reasons I’m not telling him what unit hit the valley. It was a major bomb factory run by the Soviets deep in the West Virginia mountains. Their bomb plot against the Old Executive Office Building might have worked.

“The Recon team spotted a small camp from a helicopter search, probably where our guy staged from. With a badly wounded man, he couldn’t go back and clean it up. We need to get it cleaned up before the cops or FBI people find it.

“The Recon leader said they monitored the local police network for their own protection and heard about a carjacking very near the first hard surfaced road near the entrance to the old fire or logging track into the valley. Both the driver and a woman passenger were killed. One shot to the head. That must have been the Russian. Use your contacts to raise the priority of the search. Bring the FBI in. Tell them we don’t know what happened in the valley. We were just checking out a low-level lead from Moscow that there was a training camp for spies and terrorists in the area. No mention of our guy and his team. Our Recon team was in fact a search team attracted by the smoke.

“Frank, handling this asset is a full-time job. I want him protected at all costs. Mostly from our process people. No written reports of any kind. Clear all your instructions to him with me and no one else. Also, no effort to find or identify him without my express personal order. If he wants us, he will find us. He will notice any attempt of ours to find him. His reaction would probably be to kill you and maybe me and disappear. When we need him, we run the ad he gave us in the Wall Street Journal one week every month until he contacts you.

“Remember, this guy is not a defector. He wants nothing from us. He is an all-pro from our toughest opponent who shares our interests. Doesn’t happen very often. Until now I would have said never.”