EXFIL by Anthony Patton (best book reader txt) 📕

“Look, we’re good,” I said, flooded by unwelcome emotions. “I would have done the same to you, given the opportunity.” He was right. I felt less forgiving now. “Besides, I heard on the radio that our attack was devastating.”

He sipped his drink and smiled. “We infected their entire network, which will pay dividends for many years to come. It was fucking beautiful.”

I touched my heart. “It was your masterpiece.”

“Indeed,” he said, gently setting his drink on a coaster, and looking down with his hands in prayer with a deep breath. “Early-stage cirrhosis of the liver. My doctor detected it in time, but I’ll probably need a liver transplant.”

“I’m sorry, brother,” I said, amazed by how my anger had just pivoted to compassion for my sick friend.

He leaned back and sighed. “It broke my heart when we heard about you in Bangkok. You were larger than life. You were Captain America.”

I sat, frozen, dreading what he might say next.

“I spent many years thinking about the perfect intelligence operation, my work of art.” He nodded with a smile. “After two broken marriages and years of alcoholism, it finally occurred to me: the secret isn’t in planning the perfect operation against our enemy. The secret is knowing we’re our own worst enemy.”

I gestured for him to continue, knowing how it would end but intrigued to hear the rest of the story.

“When I hit rock bottom,” he continued, “crazy thoughts were running through my mind, dangerous thoughts.” He paused to sip his drink. “I got my life back on track, but it occurred to me that such a scenario presented the perfect opportunity, if only someone had been there to steer me in the right direction. I found my art—in a dark and scary place.”

“It was a dark and very scary place.”

We stood and embraced with firm slaps on the back. His operation wasn’t malicious; it was an honest admission of our flaws, used to unleash beautiful justice on our enemy.

He smiled and gestured for me to follow. “An operation like this has many moving parts. I take some credit, but couldn’t have done it without a good friend.”

We walked through the kitchen and he opened the back door to reveal Lieutenant Colonel Li sitting on the patio with his wife and daughter—Jade Envy in the flesh. My heart stopped. A smile filled his face as he walked over and shook my hand.

“Son of a bitch,” I said. His muscles tensed up as I pulled him closer for a firm hug.

He smiled and rested his hand on my shoulder. “You see, Colonel Reed, I told you we were on the same team.”

“Have been for ten years,” Brett said. “We decided it was time to help the Li family start a new life in America.”

“Ten years,” I said.

This meant Brett recruited Li after I’d left Islamabad, and there’d been no reason to tell me. This explained why they hadn’t wanted us to recruit Captain Chen in Bangkok. It explained why we’d stumbled upon the credit card information and why he’d accepted the pitch.

As I considered all the moving parts, I finally understood that none of this would’ve been possible without Li pulling the strings behind the scenes, convincing his superiors that everything he did was necessary for the operation to succeed—a stunning achievement.

“I’m happy for you and your family,” I said.

“We are preparing dinner,” Li said. “Will you join us?”

I gestured behind me. “My family is waiting. We’re on our way to West Point for my new teaching job.”

He bowed gracefully and smiled. “Safe journey.”

We were professional enough to avoid an extended farewell. I wanted Brett to enjoy his success without a third wheel. As I walked around the house, however, the flood of emotions overwhelmed me as I leaned against a tree and wept, falling to my knees. Up to this point, I had thought of myself as someone to admire, with my excessive drinking, sexual escapades, and arrogance unfortunate albeit necessary parts of the package—my charm, if you will.

Brett forced me to face the ugliness within and plead for forgiveness, which filled me with an intense desire to never live that way again. The most humbling part was that they believed the operation would work. What did this say about me? I shuddered at the thought of how I looked through their eyes, despite their kind words, and dreaded the thought that Beth would discover the truth. To my relief, they had offered me a second chance I didn’t deserve.

I dried my tears, wiped the dirt off my knees, and walked to the car to see Beth laughing and joking with the boys, the radio blasting. I lowered the volume, glanced in the rear-view mirror, put the car in reverse, and turned to Beth with my tears on display.

She touched my hand. “Whatever it is, honey, I love you.”

“You have no idea how much I love you,” I said.

I backed the car up and headed down the winding driveway.

THIRTY

After a few weeks of teaching at West Point, I learned that life could be good on the other side of active duty. No one had a clue about what I had done, including Beth, although I imagined a scenario in which I would one day tell her the truth, perhaps by writing a novel.

My work in intelligence was whispered about and created an aura of mystery, but no one asked for specifics. The inner circle of the China cyber operation had been sworn to secrecy.

Everything I heard about the satisfaction of molding the minds of the next generation of Army officers was spot on. I entered this new chapter of my life with the idea of imparting my wisdom to these young cadets—how lucky they were to have me!—but they energized me in ways I could never have imagined. They stood at attention when I entered the classroom and called me “sir,” despite the suit and tie. They were always prepared to discuss what they