Page 21 of Casualties of War
“No, you onlythinkyou do,” Olivia told him. “Trust me, you don’t understand crazy. Crazy doesn’t make sense. It does in stories, because everything gets explained. In the real world, though, crazy people are unpredictable.”
“Is that your way of saying I’m a dreamer who shouldn’t be tackling real life issues?”
She blinked. “No. Of course not. I’m sayingno oneunderstands Serrano. No one can predict what he will do next. That’s why he’s dangerous and if you were to fall into his hands, he would exploit who you are. He would turn you into a three-ring circus and plaster it across every data stream out there.”
“When I said I was going to Vistaria, I meant I would head for the big house in Acapulco, where the real Vistarians are camped.” He noddeddown the corridor. “Shall we?”
They walked again.
“Are you sure, Adán?” Olivia asked. “It’s not pretty down there.”
“You say tackling Serrano is dangerous and warn me away, while Nick and Duardo and Daniel and Garrett…Calli and Minnie…even you in your way…you’re all fighting the bastard. Why can’t I?”
“You have been,” Olivia assured him. “You got Nick five minutes with the President.”
“Itwas nothing. I picked up a phone.”
“No one else could have done it. Even I couldn’t.”
“I want to help.Reallyhelp,” he ground out. “I want to serve my country. Why the hell can’t I do that, when every other man…every otherperson, can do it?”
Olivia put her hand on his arm once more. Her fingers squeezed. “I guess you’d better go, then.”
They turned the corner and came face to face with thebig double doors of a surgical unit and two Secret Service agents barring the way. Neither agent twitched a muscle in their direction.
Through the glass in the doors, Adán spotted even more agents concentrated around a room on the other side of the nurses’ station.
“You wanted someone to vouch for me,” Olivia told the pair of them. “Meet Adán Caballero, gentlemen.”
Adán switched his gaze backto the two. “Are you really going to hold my cousin back from her own father?”
Silence.
“You know, if the press get to hear about this, it would look bad. Big Brother suppression and refusal of basic human rights. Imagine how it would play out,” Adán said.
The agents glanced at each other.
“What’s going on here?” came the question from behind them.
Adán looked over his shoulder.
The manstanding in the passage behind them was shorter than him, with a shock of red, tightly coiled hair that made Adán recall Parris. “Doug,” he acknowledged. Doug Mulray was the Deputy Chief of Staff.
“Adán,” Doug replied. His gaze shifted to Olivia. “Olivia,” he added.
An agent opened one side of the doors. “Go right through, sir,” he told Doug.
“They won’t let me in, Doug,” Olivia said. “Evenwith Adán vouching for me,” she added.
Doug frowned and looked at the agents. “Don’t be stupid,” he told them. “Let her in.”
“She’s not American, sir,” one of them said.
“That’s what I mean about not being stupid. Herfatheris injured. Open the fucking door or give me your badge. And don’t hope I won’t follow this up the chain, either. I haven’t forgotten your boss is her ex.” Doug smiledgrimly. “I’mnotstupid.”
The other agent opened the other side of the door. “Go ahead, ma’am.”
Olivia squeezed Adán’s hand. “Thank you,” she murmured and hurried inside.
