I7

I7

When the agent came in Felt  thought the man looked  more movie gangster than g-man, investigatee  more than  investigator, and somewhat later he learned he was one of the very few members of the Democratic  Party to be  accepted into the Bureau. "Are you William Mark Felt?" the newcomer asked.

Felt, who had been  sitting ramrod straight  in his  chair, now stood ramrod straight on his feet and extended  his hand. "Just Mark Felt, please." And the newcomer remarked on  their mutual good fortune, as he was  Bill Sullivan, and two  Williams would have been confusing.

Sullivan approached the desk to see what Felt had been reading, amused by Mark's body language which seemed to dare  him to say something derogatory about the presumption. "Ah yes, Cowboys and Indians," he said when he saw  the material a bit  closer. "How far did you get?"

"The Indians dropped  a couple  cows," Felt  replied, "and  the Cowboys dropped a couple Indians.  If you hadn't shown up, Bill, I'm sure  I would have plowed  my way through to  the part where the US  Army lost  their fort.  A lifetime ago.  Is this  one of Tolson's special projects?"

"DECON,"  Sullivan   said. "Domestic  Enemies   Containment, Observation, and Neutralization. I'm  sure the Director told you this was Special Projects but my  advice to you is to play along with Special Agent in Charge Tolson  on this. At least until you break the murder case."

Felt silently absorbed this and nodded  once, clearly accepting the advice. He donned his overcoat and said,  "Where is Tolson, by the way? I've only just arrived from the Texas office and the Director gave me almost nothing in  the way of a briefing."

"Tolson is waiting for you at what qualifies for  a hospital in this tiny  hamlet," Sullivan said. "It's practically a one-room log cabin. He's with Dr. Ian Trochmann. I'll take you there, but I won't be staying. I've got tasking of my own."

As Sullivan drove Mark Felt  to the  hospital to take  over the investigation Felt said, "You got me wondering why Tolson gives a damn about the Army losing a fort way back when."

Sullivan shrugged. "It was the little brother  to Custer's Last Stand. One  thing that really  strikes me about the  Indian wars was how the Indians gave as well  as they got. We only beat them with numbers."