"Well, that's something, anyway."

"It's all I'm going to get."

"Okay, so let's run down a list of possibles."

"I've got till Monday, Leo, not till New Year's."

"We can make a start..."

"No time," Brognola said again. "I'm going to hear the bastards out and play along with them until I find an opening."

"It's too damned risky."

"Well, I hadn't planned on going in alone."

"All right. Just tell me when and where. We'll roll these scumbags up and shake 'em till they rattle."

Hal was watching him through narrowed eyes. "Not us," he said. "I'm looking for a specialist."

Turrin had been half expecting it, and still the statement, voiced aloud, had come as a surprise.

"Well, sure... I mean, you've got some top-notch talent in the program."

"I can't touch it, Leo. Ground rules. I've got sixty hours, tops, and I'm required to go outside the house."

The answer had been looking at him all along, but Turrin was reluctant to suggest the only viable alternative. He waited for Brognola, letting him take the initiative.

"I need to get in touch with Striker."

Once spoken, it became a problem they could deal with logically, deliberately. Both men were fully conscious of the risks involved, the dangers to themselves, the precious hostages and to the man they called Striker. Turrin knew that he could walk out now, refuse to put his future on the line, and no one — least of all Brognola — would think less of him for his decision.

No one but himself.

The former capo mafioso understood his duty, as defined by printed guidelines, and he also recognized a deeper obligation to the man who faced him across the empty desk. Brognola had defended Turrin countless times, had saved his ass from the congressional investigators and from leaks inside his own department, keeping him alive while he fulfilled his mission in the syndicate. When he emerged to claim his rightful place at Justice, Hal had been his sponsor, fending off the others who believed that Leo was a risk, his motives suspect by the very fact that he had spent so many years inside the Mob. He owed Brognola everything he had, and short of sacrificing Angelina or the kids, he was prepared to pay that debt with any means at his disposal.