EXFIL by Anthony Patton (best book reader txt) 📕

would spend the rest of my life in prison, which was a sentence in itself. I imagined how I would adjust to life in prison, counting the days and working the legal system for an early release for good behavior.

I also imagined how my family and friends would be ashamed of me. Although I had a newfound sympathy for the unfortunate individuals in prison, it also reaffirmed the importance of having a culture with values that strove to keep people on the narrow path.

I felt like a common criminal when the security guard handed me my personal items (wallet, watch, wedding ring, etc.) during my discharge, and I waited for the security door to buzz and click. Although fewer than twenty-four hours had passed, I felt as though I had regained my freedom after a decade behind bars and squinted in the sunlight with a smile and a wave when I saw Beth waiting for me in her car.

She agreed to drive down, no questions asked, when Lewis called her, which was why I loved her so much. Tom and I had talked the night before about getting our wives together for the first time since Bangkok, to discuss what had happened, but we decided it would be best to give them the edited version. We wanted to get ahead of the story and stay married.

When I got in the car, I gave her a kiss and leaned back.

“I need a drink and a woman,” I said with a smile and kissed her again.

“You better have a good explanation for this,” she said with a reluctant smile of her own as we drove away. Despite our love and trust, I could only imagine the mental machinations she must have endured during the drive.

The Howards were waiting for us at a nearby coffee shop, where we reminisced about the good old days in Bangkok and avoided the big story for longer than Beth could handle.

I took the lead.

“Have you read the book The Spy Who Came in from the Cold?” I asked, knowing that Beth and Donna hadn’t. “The basic idea was that an Intelligence Officer was made to look disgruntled and vulnerable so that a foreign intelligence service would see him as a recruitment target—a dangle, if you will.”

“How did they make you look vulnerable?” Beth asked, intrigued by Donna’s inability to contain her guilty knowledge.

“Oh, can I?” Donna asked, waving her hand.

I gestured to her.

She wasn’t as rank-conscious as the other wives, which was charming, to a point.

“They made it look as though Lance pressured Tom to have sex with a dancer in Bangkok, and then made it look as if Tom committed suicide in response.”

“Oh my God,” Beth said. “Is she serious?”

“Lance was amazing,” Donna said, squeezed Tom’s hand, and got lost in his eyes before kissing him. “He was nervous and almost cried.” She turned to us.

“But it wasn’t true,” Beth said. “I mean, the dancer part.”

“All made up,” Tom said to nip it in the bud and kissed Donna on the lips.

She was clearly hypnotized by his charm.

Jade Envy told me Tom had agreed to work for them because they had video of him with the dancer, but what the Chinese didn’t know was that Tom reported the pitch and staged his suicide to shift their attention from him to my access to the Pentagon security patches. The most important part for now was to prevent the Chinese from learning about the plan, at least until after I had passed the second Trojan horse and our cyberattack was complete.

I continued, “Cut to the chase, the bad guys took the bait and we passed them the lethal information.” I knew Beth wasn’t buying the whole story, but Donna seemed sold on it.

“In light of recent events,” Beth said, “is it safe to say China was involved?”

Tom and I looked at each other. “It’s best if we leave it at that,” I said with a subtle gesture as Donna responded to a text message on her phone and laughed.

Beth should have known better than to ask such a question in front of Donna.

With our story backstopped at the highest levels of the U.S. government, Tom and I had given the wives enough information to contain the story and bury our own misdeeds. Tom seemed to be in the clear, but I knew Beth was just being a good wife, for now.

Donna and Tom made plans to visit family for a few days to stay below the radar.

Beth and I stayed behind. She was ready for more details.

“Lieutenant General Lewis said he’d reached out to someone at West Point about a teaching position,” I said.

She nodded in a supportive way. “He did, and the good news is that they’re eager to have you—as a civilian? Did someone retire and not tell me?”

I nodded and took a deep breath—let the lies continue. “I wasn’t on the brigadier general promotion list, so I decided it would be better to work as a civilian. I’ll collect my salary and pension.” I shrugged. “I made the decision only after confirming that I could teach as a civilian.”

Her face showed doubt. “I’m just surprised that you didn’t talk to me first, but we’re so happy to have you back,” she said and kissed me on the lips. “I know you can’t tell me all the sordid details, but did this operation really hinge on you feeling guilty for Tom killing himself? It seems to me like it would have to be something more serious to motivate someone like you to betray his country.”

I swirled my coffee and nodded—she’s so smart. “We had a layered approach, with more serious scenarios if necessary, but this one worked. I will tell you that Brett was involved and it was a work of art—the best operation of my career.” Beth respected the “need to know” rule of intelligence, but I knew she’d want a fuller explanation later. I checked my watch with an apologetic expression. “I have a