Patriots Betrayed by John Grit

a dirty mind, especially when a woman looks at me like that.”
    “Well, in that case you’re probably not far off.” She reached over the back of the seat to grab the laptop. “I was thinking of screwing some people royally.”
    “Hmm,” Raylan said. “I’m not enough for you?”
    She smiled and opened the laptop. “It’s crooked politicians I’m thinking of screwing. Every crooked politician in Washington.” She smiled mischievously. “I’ve added more names to the list that have used the CIA as their personal Killers-For-Hire.”
    “I admire your ambition, but that’s a bit much for one woman.”
    She laughed. “We’re going to need more flash drives.”
    “We’ll also need those padded shipping envelops. I’ll wait until you’ve used what flash drives we have, so I can keep an eye out for trouble while your mind’s on the computer.”
    Suddenly somber, she said, “One of the names is President Preston Riley.”
    He blinked. “What, did the company have you take someone out on his behest?” He wasn’t serious and expected her to say no.
    She nodded, tears streamed down her face. “I was told she was a terrorist purposely infected with a deadly plague and she was going to carry it into the U.S. The plan was to kill her while she was still in Italy. I found out later she had been lured to Italy by the president. She wasn’t on any terrorist mission, but went there to have a rendezvous with him and plan how he was going to leave his wife and announce to the press that he was in love with her and going to marry her. God was she naïve. But she wasn’t as bad as me, believing anything I was told. After all, it was the CIA, the U.S. Government. They would never have me kill an innocent American.”
    Carla’s face revealed shame and hurt. “She was two months pregnant with the president’s baby and had refused to quietly abort it.” Carla turned away. “She was twenty years old. Just an innocent girl who had been used by a powerful man that didn’t want anyone to know he had cheated on his wife.” She smeared her face. “I doubt it would have cost him a second term, the way things are nowadays. Most voters don’t care about a politician’s love life. When I joined up, I thought I was going to protect Americans, not murder them for sleeping with a politician.”
    He held her. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
    “I was ashamed. Why do you think I quit before you did? When I learned I had murdered an innocent woman just to save a president’s career and reputation, I could no longer dance to their tune. It’s a shock to your belief system to learn the U.S. Government is the biggest, most powerful, and deadliest street gang in the world. Killing enemies of our country out of self-defense is a sickening job that I reluctantly signed on to do, but murder for political favors that have nothing to do with protecting over three hundred million Americans is inexcusable. I refuse to be a part of that.” She looked down in shame. “I wasn’t sure how you would react. It took me this long to get the nerve to tell you.” She summoned the courage to look at him for a second and then diverted her eyes. “You’re a Boy Scout with your own set of morals that you don’t ever violate. Like never harming innocents.” She raised an eyebrow and gave him a wintry smile. “Of course you don’t think twice about killing assholes that violate your rules. Well, I violated your rules.”
    Raylan gently held her chin up and looked her in the eyes. “What? You thought I would blame you for being used? They use people. That’s what they do. The fact you feel so bad about it proves you would never have killed her if you had known the truth. They use people like tools and fools, Carla, pulling our strings, using our desire to serve the American people to get what they want. We both quit for the same reasons.”
    She kissed his cheek. “Going after the boss doesn’t scare you?”
    “All they can do