Page 71 of The Last Kingdom

Cotton knew the right answer, too, and held up both hands in mock surrender. “I’m not even supposed to be here.”

Koger grinned. “Looks like you’re outnumbered, Paul.”

Bryie seemed to register the gravity of his situation. “All right. Put the gun away and we’ll talk.”

Koger laid the weapon on the table within easy reach.

Bryie seemed to regain control of his nerves. “You’re nuts. Totally and completely nuts.”

“I’ve been called worse,” Koger said.

“I’m sure you have.” Bryie paused, grabbing a couple of quick breaths. “In the waning days of the Daniels administrationhis CIA director cleaned house. Forty-six field officers, analysts, and managers were fired. Across all divisions, in every part of the world. Don’t get me wrong, each one of those let go had a long history of disciplinary issues. One problem after another. For me? They all needed to go. Not a one of them worth keeping.”

“But not everyone at Langley agreed?” Koger asked.

“Hardly. Some thought it all political. Selective firings to settle old scores. Daniels’ people, doing at the end what they didn’t have the balls to do earlier. And there’s some truth to that. The firings were all appealed to Fox’s new CIA director. But, to everyone’s surprise, she affirmed the firings. Every. Single. One of them. That bred a civil war within the agency that’s still raging. And now it’s boiling over right here in Germany.”

“Why haven’t I heard a word about this?” Koger asked.

“We’ve gone to great lengths to keep things under wraps,” Bryie said.

Randy Miller’s pudgy lips formed a smirk, one Cotton thought might have fooled many people to their detriment. “We have to be careful. The Scythe have lots of friends left in the agency. Those fired agents had all been around a long time.”

“Which means,” Bryie said, “that we are leaking classified information like a sieve. All of those terminated agents had access to super sensitive stuff. We regularly police against outside access and moles. That’s our job. But from the inside? From a bunch of people who’d been trusted? That’s a new one. Bottom line is we’ve got forty-six agents who are pissed off.”

“And the Scythe?” Koger asked.

“About a dozen of them, we don’t know the exact number, formed this group,” Miller said, “and gave themselves that catchy name. Up till now, they’ve been relatively quiet. We’ve been watching, but not much of anything has happened.”

“Until last night,” Koger said. “They are obviously interested in me.”

“Which is what?” Bryie asked. “I checked. There are no sanctioned ongoing operations here in Bavaria.”

“The Scythe were way ahead of me,” Koger said. “They knew where I was and what I was doing.”

“Unlike Langley,” Bryie added. “Like I said, Derrick, they have friends in high places and we’re hemorrhaging information. You’re a tough guy here with your gun. But this is going to be a two-way street or no street at all. Pick one. I’ll either stay and tell you more, or leave, depending on your choice.”

Cotton watched as Koger considered his options, the best of which seemed a no-brainer. “I’m just a utility infielder in this game, but you need to know what they know.”

Koger seemed to get the message. Loosen up. Turn on the vacuum cleaner. So he briefed them on the Duke of Bavaria’s request for help, the presence of the Chinese, the interest of the German government, and what happened last night, ending with, “The last kingdom is a fairly obscure piece of intelligence that has suddenly become the flavor of the day.”

Koger then explained about a huge deposit of rare earths sitting on the bottom of the ocean in Hawaiian territorial waters that China wanted.

Miller nodded. “That all makes sense. The Chinese are Germany’s closest foreign ally. They do over two hundred billion euros in trade with them every year. And, unlike us, they do it nearly balanced with as much exported to China as is coming into Germany. It’s Chinese demand for German products that has fueled Germany’s strong economy for some time now. When everyone else was barring Chinese equipment for a new telecom network on national security grounds, Germany resisted and bought the stuff. The largest share of imports into Germany every year is from China. There’s also an enormous amount of collateral investment. Berlin and Beijing have a mutually beneficial cozy relationship. We have to watch that constantly. And you’re right. We’ve known for a few months now that the Chinese are working some sort of operation in conjunction with the Germans. What that is has been hard to pinpoint. The Germans don’t particularly care for us, so it’s been difficult learning details. We do know that the chancellor’s chief of staff and the head of the German parliament met with Prince Stefan last night.”

“About what?” Koger asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Find out,” Koger said. “It could be crucially important.”

Cotton knew that Germany’s relationship with the United States had been strained for a while. It started with the Daniels administration, but escalated with Warner Fox. Recently, he’d found himself right in the middle of that tension with the latest national elections.

“Fox doesn’t give a rat’s ass what the Germans think of him,” Miller said. “He likes keeping them at arm’s length. Which, I might say, is not a bad strategy. But this new German coalition government is fragile and they’re looking for international partners wherever they can find them to shore up their power. China wants to be that partner. That much we do know.”

Koger nodded. “Duke Albert told me that Stefan wants the deed so he can bargain it to Germany in return for the German parliament granting Bavaria a secession vote. Stefan believes the Bavarian people will vote to leave the Federal Republic. And he may be right. If that happens, Albert becomes king. But that isn’t going to last long. The duke is dying with terminal cancer. Maybe a few months left, at best. Then Stefan takes over. Hence his interest in all this. I’m guessing the Germans have already made a deal with the Chinese to assign the deed to them, in return for God-knows-what. Everybody wins, except us.”

“And now you have a group of renegade ex-CIA after the same thing,” Cotton said. “But why?”

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