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The afternoon before had been hectic Parker had overnence clearance I was given temporary FBI credentials and, even better, a Glock 17 After dinner, she’d also handed me a pile of files to take back to

I’d never seen a CIA report before, and I was surprised to see how siist of what I’d read was that, though there were a lot of leads and tips as to Perrine’s whereabouts, so far they hadn’t amounted to much

Usually paperwork in cases drove me nuts, but I was actually pretty jazzed about the whole thing I wasn’t exactly back at my Major Case Squad desk at One Police Plaza in Manhattan, but at least I was doing so constructive

I was even psyched about givingis usually on par with a root canal on , I was actually raring to go to give my speech about Perrine to the US troops ere after him

But, as it turned out, my enthusias in the dor

“Hey, Parker,” I said, holdingit in Barbasol “I’m almost done with the first draft ofAddress, one part St Crispin’s Day speech from Shakespeare’s Henry the Fifth”

“Sounds … ambitious,” Parker said “But you’ll actually have to put it on the back burner, Mike Tip caht, late Apparently, someone spotted Perrine over the border in Tijuana The ar is on standby”

Gray Fox, as Parker had explained to me the day before, was the code name of a division of the army’s Special Ops They were an airborne unit that worked with the CIA on covert operations Using sine aircraft or drones, they scanned search areas with sophisticated listening equipment They could tap as well as pinpoint the location of any and all cell-phone transround

The rest of the gang she was referring to included the Delta Force and SEAL Teaned to the task force to do the actual boots-on-the-ground arrest once Perrine was found

“Well, I hope it’s credible Where does that leave us?”

“I just got off the phone with the LAPD federal task force working the cartel murders in LA They need bodies I know I said it would just be a couple of days down here, Mike, but if you want, we can get on board there”

“But what abouton ht”

“The troops can wait for now, General Bennett,” Parker said “How about pretending to be a cop again for a couple ood at it”

“I asn’t I?” I said, finally putting the phone back down on the shelf “When can you get here?”

“I already am,” Parker said from the open doorway of the bathroom behind me