Besides him, who else could it be?
Simon forced a bitter smile, uglier than crying, and mechanically pressed the answer button.
Sure enough, before he could make any sound on his end, Brenan's voice, twisted with extreme anger, roared like a flood breaking through a dam, instantly filling his entire ear canal:
"Simon! What the hell are you doing?! Have you seen the latest emergency intelligence?! Kirkuk! Kirkuk! That son of a bitch, who should go to hell ten thousand times, Song Heping! He actually dared to launch a sneak attack on Kirkuk! He's seized the Kurds' oil fields! This is a blatant declaration of war against our United States of America! Provocation!"
At this point, perhaps because he was speaking too fast, Brenan had to pause to catch his breath, then continued cursing:
