Page 48 of Stone
“He’s not that bad,” Viper replied.
“He insulted you in front of a group of newbs,” Stone pointed out. “Several times.”
Viper shrugged. “Yeah, but they were Shakespearean insults, so kind of classy.”
“He’s a retired professor from West Point,” Stone said, answering her question. “They bring him in to lecture Delta Force on tactics and strategy. He’s grumpy, an asshole, and a complete curmudgeon who doesn’t really like soldiers. But he’salso brilliant and has more knowledge in his pinkie than most of us do—you excluded—in their entire brain.”
“And he doesn’t forget a thing,” Philly said. “As much as I wish he did.”
“You stole his boxers and put them on the door to the mess, then painted the outline of a capybara around it,” Stone said with an eye roll.
“So it looked like the capybara was wearing his boxers?” Juliana asked.
Stone nodded. “What did you expect him to do? Laugh and move on?”
“How was I to know he had a favorite pair? Or that he hated capybaras so much? Who hates capybaras?” Philly defended himself.
Griswoldhadbeen a touch dramatic, but Philly should have known better. Archibald Griswold was not someone you messed with. He had the sense of humor of a porcupine.
“He brought it upagainwhen we talked to him this morning,” Philly complained. “It was almost fifteen years ago,” he added, looking to Juliana for sympathy.
Before Philly could drag Juliana further into a conversation about Griswold’s boxers, Stone asked, “What did he say? Why did you even think to call him?”
“Like you said,” Viper answered. “He knows everything. If something fishy happened—well, something fishier than the usual stuff—during Storm, he would know. Or he would have heard rumors.”
Stone leaned forward. “And did he hear rumors?”
“He did better,” Philly said. “He confirmed that the US knew about the existence of the gold and even considered sending a few teams to look for it. But Desert Storm was too big an op, too international, to risk that kind of side quest.”
“They were afraid there’d be a leak and other countries would want in on the action,” Stone clarified.
Philly nodded. “They ended up not sending a team to look, but they did find a small cache—two actually—in two different bunkers in Iraqi-occupied Kuwait. The powers that be assumed it had been brought over to use for payments. One cache held three hundred pounds of bullions, but the other, half that.”
“The Iraqis might have used some to pay soldiers or locals or arms dealers,” Viper said, picking up the story. “But some speculated that half had been taken. Only no one could figure out by whom. They weighed the option of investigating, but in the end, they decided it wasn’t worth triggering a potential international incident by interrogating soldiers from the participating countries.”
“Griswold shared all that with you?” Stone asked, somewhat shocked.
“He might dislike soldiers, but he really hates corrupt ones,” Viper replied. “After we told him what was going on, he talked. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear from him again.”
“Oh joy,” Stone replied, not without sarcasm.
“So what now?” Juliana asked. “Leo is looking into Polinsky, Griswold is—well might be—doing Griswold things. We’re not going to sit around here and twiddle our thumbs, are we?”
24
The door to the room flew open, startling Juliana. She jerked back, then quickly leaned forward when her chair teetered. Simon reached out and steadied it.
Monk paused in the opening, then grimaced. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be so…forceful.”
Her heart raced, but she managed a nod. Simon’s hand came up and rested on the nape of her neck again. He seemed to like touching her, and she definitely didn’t mind.
“Good timing,” Philly said. “Juls asked if we were going to sit around twiddling our thumbs while Leo and Griswold did their thing.”
Monk’s hooded gaze darted to her. “Uh, we’re not really the thumb-twiddling types.”
“Not unless asked, of course,” Philly added with an eyebrow waggle.
“Mythumbs don’t twiddle. Ever,” Viper said. “They move in a very smooth?—”
