Excerpt from Chapter 6

Bernie Schwartz didn’t mince words when he answered the phone. “Why in the hell didn’t you call me back this afternoon; I left a message with the switchboard operator, didn’t you get it?”

“I’m sorry, Bernie, I did get your message, but I got busy with some things going on at EPIC and I forgot to call you back.”

“You cannot ever let that happen again, Frank. When you are working away from this office, I’ve got to be able to reach you. Especially on that assignment. We cannot communicate if you forget to call, and we need to communicate.”

“OK, never again. What was it you wanted to tell me, Bernie? Is there something wrong in Atlanta?”

“No, there’s something wrong in El Paso. I got a call from my D.C. contact with a warning that might affect you. Do you remember me talking about the security codes of my old agency and what ‘Red Six’ meant to us?”

That was a tough one, because it’s been awhile since he told me about his days at the CIA when he was working European stations during the 1950s. “Bernie, I can’t recollect exactly, but I believe it was one of the highest threat levels for your operations. I’m thinking ‘Red’ meant the Soviets were involved, but that certainly wasn’t very creative for the agency, was it? I don’t remember the significance of the ‘Six,’ other than it was higher than a ‘Five’.”

Bernie said my recollection was close enough, and assured me the warning he had gotten from his old pal approximated the “Red Six” category. It was so serious that Bernie was having second thoughts about me continuing the assignment.

“Frank, we may have to pull you out of there. I don’t want to spook you, because my contact couldn’t get specific about the threats at this point, but he did state emphatically that you could be in way over your head real fast. And if the right pieces don’t fit in this puzzle, you may not be able to get out of there in time.”