Blowback

“If I really cared about impressing you, we would have eaten at one of the fancy joints up the road. It would have cost twice as much, but the food wouldn’t have been half as good.”

“I guess I’ll have to take your word for it,” said Harvath as a waiter arrived with an ice bucket and a bottle of white wine.

“I took the liberty of ordering us something to drink.”

“I can see that.”

“You’re not going to give me any macho bullshit about only being a beer drinker, are you?” asked Kampos.

Harvath laughed and shook his head. It was funny to hear Nick pimping him about being macho. The man was a six-foot-four solid wall of muscle with gray hair, a thick mustache, and a craggy face weathered with a permanent tan from a lifetime spent out-of-doors. Divorced, with two daughters in college back in the States, Kampos liked to joke that it was the women in his life who had grayed his hair, but Harvath knew better. Nick and his ex were still on good terms, and he adored his daughters more than anything else in the world. He put up a pretty tough front, but underneath it all, the guy was a complete teddy bear.

“Good,” replied the DEA agent as he politely waved the waiter away and poured full glasses for both of them. “Local stuff. A little rough at first, but you get used to it. Cheers.”

Harvath regretted not chickening out and ordering a beer the minute the wine hit his taste buds. “Smooth, “He said between coughing fits.

“You’re getting weak, sister. Too much time in DC and not enough in the field.”

“I’m never out of the field, it seems,” replied Harvath as he took another swig and this time managed to get it down without registering how bad it tasted.

“There you go. That’s the Scot Harvath I know and love,” said Kampos with a wide grin. “After this, we’ll move you onto the hard stuff.”

“Bring it on,” Harvath stated with a smile.

Kampos discreetly belted out the army yell, “Hooyah!” and took another long swallow of local vintage.

Scot couldn’t help liking the guy. In fact, when he thought about it, the DEA was one of the only agencies he’d ever worked with where he’d actually liked every single person he’d come in contact with. Though they shared many of the same facilities as the FBI training academy at Quantico, the two cultures couldn’t have been more different. While the FBI focused on hiring lawyers and accountants, most DEA agents were ex-cops, or ex-military like Kampos. What’s more, they were the best close-range shooters in the business. In fact, the DEA was so good at close-quarters battle, or CQB as it was more commonly known, that they trained all of the president’s Marine One helicopter flight crews.

When Harvath transferred from the SEALs to White House Secret Service operations, he’d been so impressed with the HMX-1 Nighthawks’ level of CQB proficiency that he had asked if he could train with them in his off time. Shooting, after all, was a perishable skill, and any law enforcement officer who carried a gun was always encouraged to log as much range time as he could-especially in his off time. The bottom line was that the more you fired your weapon, the better shooter you became, and that was certainly true in Harvath’s case, especially while Nick Kampos was his instructor.

Harvath had learned a lot about the DEA, both on and off the range. What struck him the most was their dedication not just to their jobs but to each other. One of the guys told him a story about how they had turned a founder member of one of Colombia’s largest drug cartels and while they had him in a hotel awaiting a trial he was set to testify at, he regaled his two DEA protective agents with stories of what his immense wealth had been able to buy-local cops, state cops, judges, politicians, but never a single DEA agent.

Though they had boots on the ground in fifty-eight countries around the world, including those of Kampos, who had put in for the Cyprus position just before Harvath left the White House, for some reason, the powers that be in Washington had never invited the Drug Enforcement Administration to sit at the big kids’ table when it came to sharing intelligence. This oddity had its pros and its cons, but for the most part, the DEA agents Harvath knew were okay with it. It meant they weren’t bound by a lot of the same rules, requirements, and restrictions as other federal agencies. It also meant, at least for right now, that Harvath had someone he could reach out to for help and be one hundred percent certain that it wouldn’t get back to Senator Helen Remington Carmichael.

“If you don’t mind my saying so,” said Kampos as he put a little float atop each of their glasses, “you look like shit.”

“Thanks a lot,” replied Harvath.

“If the job’s gotten too much for you, maybe you ought to think about getting out.”

“What are you, a career counselor now?”

“Nope. I’m just a Wal-Mart greeter currently employed by the DEA.”

“Get serious,” said Harvath.