Blowback by Brad Thor Page A

regularly and had the body of a woman at least fifteen years younger. She especially liked the piercing Brian had talked her into getting. They both wore matching, stainless steel studs-the senator in her navel and Brian Turner through the head of his penis in what was known as a Prince Albert. It was a reminder to Carmichael of her secret indulgences, and she liked to discreetly finger the stud while surrounded by other important DC figures-people who would never even guess at the double life she led.
    In a moment of concern, Turner had asked the senator what her husband might say if he ever saw her piercing, but Carmichael had set his mind right at ease by telling him that her husband hadn’t seen her naked in years.
    Turner returned to bed carrying a file folder. He tucked a pencil behind his ear and brushed the hair away from his forehead. “I asked one of the DOD liaisons at the agency to review the footage.”
    “And?” asked Carmichael.
    “And same as you, the first thing he noticed was that the uniform the American soldier was wearing-”
    “Didn’t have any insignias other than the U.S. flag,” said Carmichael, finishing the young man’s sentence for him.
    “Exactly.”
    “Which means the soldier was probably operating in some semi-covert capacity, maybe on one of the Special Operations Command’s direct action teams.”
    “Right again,” said Turner.
    “Do you know who he is?”
    Turner smiled. “Nobody, it seems, wants to help hang this guy. I had to be very careful who I talked to and what information I pulled. He’s very highly thought of-kind of a hero in intelligence circles.”
    “Quit dragging this out,” purred Carmichael as she grabbed the file folder away from him.
    The young man watched as the senator pored over the pages, a smile curling the edges of her mouth.
    “This is incredible,” she whispered as she continued to read. Toward the end of the dossier, she concluded, “This is beyond good, Brian. This guy is the president’s goddamn golden boy.”
    Turner smiled again. “I thought you’d appreciate it.”
    “I more than appreciate it. This is the find of the decade.”
    “His résumé is pretty lengthy. For some reason, he doesn’t seem to stay in one place too long. He served on both Navy SEAL Teams Two and Six, before the Secret Service hired him to come work at the White House. While he was there, he knocked one out of the park by rescuing the president during that whole kidnapping thing in Park City, Utah. That’s the move that earned him all his cachet around town. Shortly after that, he linked up with the CIA and started doing occasional assignments with members of the Special Operations Group. One involved a hijacking and the dismantling of the Abu Nidal terrorist organization, and another involved the Russians and the suitcase nukes they were threatening to detonate here.”
    “He seems to be behind a lot of the president’s successes.”
    “He does,” agreed Turner, “but then all of a sudden he got dumped over at the Department of Homeland Security. He’s now working in some innocuous police and intelligence liaison unit called the Office of International Investigative Assistance.”
    Carmichael closed the folder and tapped it against her chin for several moments. “Something tells me we’re going to find that the Office of International Investigative Assistance is anything but innocuous and that our new friend is up to a lot more than just liaising with police and intelligence people.”
    “Where are you going?” asked Turner, as the senator slid out of bed and began getting dressed. “I thought we were going to spend the evening together.”
    “I can’t. Not now. There’s much too much to be done. But I want you,” said Carmichael as she bent down and gave Brian a deep kiss, “to sleep like an angel tonight. You deserve it. I also want you well rested, because I’ll probably need you in the morning. Keep an eye on your hotmail account. If we