164 AMERICAN SPY
him, on the lower bunk, in the dark. Lance wanted to make sure all of us
witnessed his successful revenge operation in the flesh (so to speak). For-
tunately, neither Heather nor the Interceptor, who were both admirably
focused on the task at hand, noticed that they’d attracted a small audience.
I fought the urge to yell, “Fire in the hole!” one last time. We quickly left
them to their own devices (and I’m not saying any were used, other than
the NODs), the deafening horizontal mambo marathon continuing into
the wee hours. Since the walls of our rooms were paper-thin, most of us
got very little sleep that night.
Thanks to our memorable experience on that secret base somewhere on
the Eastern Seaboard, I knew before heading out on my sensitive technical
operation in Latin America that in CIA circles, “mounting a rear-entry
penetration operation” referred to much more than merely sneaking in
the back door of an enemy beach house to plant a hidden listening device.