He looked at Miroslav and really meant the next words out of his mouth, “That, my President, is probably the first time that truth has ever been spoken aloud in this building. No matter what happens in the next election, I would work for you anywhere.” With much pride Thion left him to ponder the last twenty-four hours.
* * *
Its re-entry was recorded by many a camera. NASA had tracked the satellite’s possible trajectory and it turned out to be only a hundred miles off the Maine coast. Many of the photographers caught a fiery glimpse of the Killer Satellite burning up on re-entry, which of course was shared with the world.
As predicted by Matt, the Agency’s counterfeit message had an immediate numbing effect on the masses. Without Pablo to incite them, the movement became stagnant and then fizzled out. It took a couple of days to cool off in the U.S., but cool off it did, as news reports of American casualties started to roll in and everyone realized that another Pearl Harbor really had happened.
Suddenly being in support of someone who attacked and killed a lot of innocent people was no longer chic.
* * *
Ecuador started to move again as even Otavalo started to get back to work. After the masterful coalescing of his country in the worst of times, Vincente Herrera was finally picked up by helicopter after nearly two weeks, all to a cheering crowd that would surely re-elect him time and time again, regardless of the position he sought to acquire. He waved back and bid his farewells out of the open helicopter door. After seat belting in, he yelled into Gustavo’s ear, “I do have a country to run after all.”
* * *
Admiral Anders was first to arrive for the meeting and was watching the coverage in Athens via a television monitor. The news coverage was showing that the quarter million or so that had gathered were now breaking up and letting traffic move again, “Looks like Hurst’s plan worked,” said General Hatten who was the next to arrive for the meeting.
“Yes, it does. Steve. How is Hurst? Any word?”
“I know he’s back on U.S. soil, but that’s because we’re the branch that flew him to Washington. Ray has him now.”
“I see,” said Anders.
Out of nowhere a woman’s voice piped in, “You’ll all be briefed soon enough, Mark.” Kim then started laying packets out for the group.
Anders observed that it was Caulfield’s pet snake. When her packet distribution had her across the room he whispered to General Hatten, “You know he should really be required to keep that in a cage.”
Then when she got near again he greeted her as insincerely as possible without sounding condescending, “Good morning, Kim, how are you? We were just doing what everyone else in the know is doing.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, we’re contemplating about our young lad and you certainly can’t blame us. He’s quite the story.”
By now the rest of the group was gathering as Kim was finished handing out the meeting outline. Mark didn’t quite know why he didn’t like her, but the closest to an answer he could come up with was that when he was a Navy pilot on the Enterprise in Vietnam, they had people like her.
Every time the world went crazy and created an atrocity that America had to respond to with Military action, the swarm of these “Kim-like” shrinks came in and tried to get in their heads so they could ground them. Their goal seemed to be to get one to admit that no sane person would fly combat missions; therefore one must be crazy. It made no sense. It was a “Catch-22” in reverse. And Kim was one of those.
She and Callahan were two peas in a pod. She simply had this annoying way of always analyzing one that just got under Admiral Anders’ skin. President Caulfield came in, pulling him out of his thoughts. Once everyone settled, the packets were opened, and Mark saw his report was on top.
The President opened, “Mark has the floor folks.”
Admiral Anders cleared his throat, “Well, we can only assume that we woke up our friends in the Kremlin. The last two days have exposed where we are in missile defense.”
General Hatten broke in, “Do you think they really detected the YAL-1?”
Admiral Anders replied, “We don’t know, but what we do know is they can do the analysis like we can. Pretty soon the ABL will be automated and nearly impossible to detect.”
The President broke in now, “So what are you saying, Mark?”
“I’m saying this move we made is going to change the way they look at attack subs. Let’s not forget, World peace hinges on them knowing for certain of our destruction in case we sneak attack them. Certainly that thought of security will soon be shaken. Even if your new friend holds his own, there are a lot of people that will not see this as a positive.
“And that, my friends, gives us an advantage in the arms race that we all know never stopped. We could see the destabilization of relations, taking us back to the Cold War days.”
Osborne broke in before the President, “Mark, we’ve already decided that the YAL-1 is really not a feasible deterrent, you would need to have too many in the air to be effective. We knew where their sub was beforehand here. They know this. If we know it, then they know it.”
Admiral Anders, retorted back to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “Well, Sir, then you also know that Steve’s people are working on a drone YAL-1 prototype as we speak. Eventually, we will make them smaller, faster, and more stealth. Like all of our technology, it only gets better.”
The President stoically added, “You don’t think we can take this new relationship to the next level and get by this?”
“Not if there’s an imbalance of power,” answered Admiral Anders.
The President took in Mark’s good advice and replied, “That’s pretty sobering and something we need to think about at length as a group. We’re going to need them and I know that’s not a popular opinion around here, but we have common goals as nations and we also have some common enemies.
“How long do you think it will be before one of their Middle Eastern allies turns on them with their own weapons? We’ve shown our hand, it’s true, we’re more powerful now, but we both have strengths and we’ve both proven time and time again that the world cannot rest when we’re at odds with each other. We have to find a way to trim the edge by controlling our assets.”
“What the hell does that mean?” shot General Early of the Army.
“It means he’s saying we don’t use our newest deterrent,” observed General Osborne.
General Hatten rose and addressed the President directly, “Mr. President, I’ve stood by some decisions that have been made here that I don’t agree with, yet you never heard a peep out of me. But if you think for one second that I will stand by and watch the greatest nuclear deterrent we’ve ever had as a country moth-balled in some grand gesture to win those liars over, then Sir, you can have my immediate resignation.”
When the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force said this, he was looking right in the direction of Kim’s observation room and she felt the hate from behind the glass. General Osborne went into action, for this was his forte. He was the mediator, the good cop and the nice guy. “Now calm down, Steve. We’ve all been through a great deal here. A lot has changed for all of us. The Marines and the Army sure have a lot better odds than you two do (he was looking at Mark Anders also).
“Planes and ships have vulnerabilities that ground troops don’t. You two have both been under a great amount of stress, so maybe it’s time to re-listen. What the President has suggested might have to be done. None of us can honestly say what the implications of this will be. This is a balance of power that has been in place for fifty years.
“Now we have receding ice caps, new threats in China, North Korea, and Iran, plus ever more powerful ways to track subs. There’s also a potential new Arms Race that will start the day after Election Day if your friend Miro doesn’t win, Lawrence. So Steve, take a breath, and everyone else in this room better listen to me. The decisions we’re going to make in the coming months are going to shape
the next fifty years. We need to remember that.
“Lawrence has put us in a position that no other Administration has ever had the privilege of here, so let’s not be so jaded that we missed the time to change; that we don’t go down in the annals of history as the group that had the opportunity to change things and missed it!”
President Caulfield thanked his Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and gave him a true look of admiration for finally sounding the part he was playing. He’d let that part of the meeting rest on the high note and changed venues for a breather. “Section Two of your packet is an update on Hurst. First of all, we brought in Bob Thompson. He wasn’t totally surprised we brought him in, let me tell you. Eric will cover the rest.”
Eric Barnett of the CIA stood, his pate shining off the lights, his thin goatee framing his round mouth on his round face. He cleared his throat and addressed the room, “When the Internet actually became a thing, we were worried that a foreign national or other enemy of our nation could get control of it. Our thinking also spread to the financial institutions.
“So we recruited James Haberman and put him to work with the group that created the actual foundation of the Internet. James placed back door passwords everywhere he went and soon the Agency had what they wanted. But Haberman knew how big this unknown thing was going to get, and he became obsessed with controlling it. Haberman saw it all, just like his little Ecuadorian friend did.
“According to Hurst, but also by the program found in Manuel’s lair, we confirmed that Haberman did not stop at that, for whatever reason. Ray Callahan says he was obsessive/compulsive and “had” to win all the time. This treasure trove gave Pablo everything he needed once he had his woman raid Haberman’s vault.
“We’ve learned that nothing was out of his reach. Manuel had the codes to access everything from the Nation’s airports and emergency systems, to our power grid. Yet, strangely and to his credit, he didn’t target any of those. Manuel also did not go after any non-financial or civilian targets. Bob says that he obviously trusted James too much, but with no contemporaries, whom would Bob get to double-check James Haberman?
“Another fact is, Matt Hurst shot Pablo Manuel through Vera Maldonado as she was blocking for him, trying to allow him access to push the buttons. She left Matt no choice.”
Steve Hatten rudely interjected, “Why do you say that, like we give a shit, Eric?”
Eric looked around the room, “She was also pregnant with Hurst’s child.”
“Did he know that?” queried Stan LaRue, a man with a vested interest in their past liaison, as his office investigated their tryst in Tahoe.
“Yes,” replied Barnett. “Gentlemen, there’s no other way to put it. It was all about this. Pablo Manuel brought down our military and sent that satellite loose as a distraction. The Sheep leader was seconds from delivering a ‘death blow’ on the World economy. Had he succeeded and lived, his following would have been unprecedented.”
The sober room sat on this information quietly until General Osborne broke it, “What will become of Hurst?”
The President bravely spoke the unpopular often, and this was one of those times, “If he wants his life back, he can cash in and hit the lecture circuit for all I care.”
“Surely you’re not serious,” snapped DHS Director LaRue again.
“I am, Stan. America owes this kid and we will pay. But according to Eric’s man, Ray Callahan, who’s in his head already, by the way, he will want the analyst job and quiet autonomy. He’s an investigator, so if you offer him an analyst job, he’ll take it.”
The room had a disgruntled grumble happening in small pockets.
“No matter,” the President added, “This is one debt that will be paid-in-full, no corners cut. Ray Callahan is currently seeing to it that Matt gets the best mental care and when he’s ready to make a decision about his future, then we will honor his wishes.”
Charlie Sexton came in with another thought on everyone’s mind, “Where is Manuel?”
President Caulfield tried to answer Charlie and slide in the news he was hiding, “We dumped Manuel’s body at sea, but Hurst is burying her here tomorrow.”
“That’s a tall order, Lawrence,” said General Hatten, still quietly fuming. “If the press gets wind it’s her we buried on U.S. soil, they’ll have a feeding frenzy.”
“We asked the impossible of him, he paid the greatest sacrifice for God and Country. Where’s your sense of right and wrong, Steve?”
“Well, technically, Mr. President, we asked nothing of him, and I for one think that if he would have just taken over the scene at the airport once he killed Beck, none of this would have happened. Now we’re burying his traitor bitch on the same soil as our forefathers are buried. You can’t order me to be on board with that. She was an enemy of our country that had killed many innocent Americans. How can you allow this?!”
Stan was still livid and interjected vehemently, but Lawrence could see it was tough for him to shed his diffident nature, “I have to ditto that, Lawrence, not too comfortable with this. She killed two of my people in that parking lot.”
The President noted the contrast in Stan’s tone and demeanor, as Stan rarely spoke so stalwartly, or went against him, for that matter. Lawrence replied with the absolution of the man with the final word on the issue, “I’ve thought about both those arguments, (and he side glanced at Kim’s booth unconsciously) but again, this kid has paid the ultimate price for his country and he will not be denied. Every soldier must be allowed to return to his old life if he so wishes.
“Steve’s argument that this was a voluntary service by Hurst is not up for debate. My final view is, he was an able-bodied American citizen with the wherewithal to fool his captors and make sure that the people who harmed his country paid a price, that they were not allowed to sneak off unscathed into the night.
“We’ve now found out that there was a threat to his family, which turns out to be the main reason he went all the way with this. So Steve’s view on the course of action Hurst should have taken throughout this has not taken into account the threat to his family.
“He was drafted by his conscience as an American, a husband, and protector of his family. He left behind a pregnant wife and turned his name into one of the most vilified in our country’s history. So what’s the harm in letting him bury her here? We know she was just a sycophant, that this Pablo had no peers only followers. According to Eric’s report here, his team believes that we were dealing with an intelligence level like no other.
“Pablo Manuel was James Haberman’s intellectual superior. He outsmarted the Russians, and us, yet somehow, Hurst outsmarted him. Think about it, this single man invented this whole mechanized army by himself. Then he brought our world to the brink of destruction, and then this other single man brought us back. Manuel invented a fish that can swim undetected and was able to stop Mark’s carrier group. He invented flying EMP Drone Planes to ground Steve’s Air Force, yet our boy Hurst outsmarted him.
“He played Cobra and sat in the tall grass until it was time to strike. So unless someone has anything else to add, this is happening, objections noted. He’s burying her in a private cemetery in Maryland. We will respect him for the patriot and hero he is, as this is his wish. Now let’s all seriously give a small prayer for this young man to whom we owe so much.”
The President actually bowed his head and did just that, as did the others. Kim was back and she observed that Mark Anders and Steve Hatten were the only ones who didn’t. Duly noted.
* * *
It was a pleasant enough morning. It was slated to be a mild day, yet Matt was already sweating in the monkey suit. He never got used to suits. It was the one thing he hated when he took the management position at Stor. He did get them to agree to let him close one night a week in street clothes though, and now that he thought about it, if he would have been in a suit that day, he would have been slower to get there, maybe everything would have been different.
He
looked in the mirror for one more tie adjustment, great job negotiating that dress code Hurst . . .
Ray had informed him that Jan was aware of his recent transgressions with Vera, and that she knew about his last two years. That was a relief that Ray could see wash over him. It was one benefit to having a CIA shrink doing your bidding. When he thought you were too fragile for something, he did it for you, at least this shrink did.
He wasn’t fragile, of course, but he appreciated that Jan would have some time to reflect before they reunite next week. That the words didn’t come from him seemed to help, somehow that smart Ray Callahan knew this.
Of course, now he had to act like a victim, and that was as far from the truth as possible. The part of this that ate him up and twisted him apart was he knew deep in his heart that he could have stopped it all earlier. And that made him culpable for much of the tragedy in a twisted sort of way.
Several times, he was quite sure he could have escaped and called in the troops, actions that could have thwarted the Bush carrier group destruction. Only he knew the real reason for his inaction. And now he had to pretend that the two most fantastic years of his life were a tortured filled nightmare, when in reality, they weren’t.
Matt was confused, as he loved two women, one of which was now dead, and he was burying her today. Of course, he would have to mourn her inwardly going forward, which he’d realized put him right back in old game. Put the face on that will get you through the day and hide the one that you want to show, but can’t. It’s the same old game, just different players and agendas.
The Town Car pulled up and his handler got out. He was a man mountain at six feet four and at least two hundred and fifty pounds. His name was Adam Brooks and he was the person they assigned to be his shadow. He was a former Marine who had his right knee destroyed by shrapnel from a roadside IED in Iraq.
He wasn’t ready for release yet and he knew the base and the area, so Matt didn’t spurn him, he just let him become background noise. Adam was an incessant talker, but as it turns out that was just what he needed today. Matt was wearing an eye patch and hat every time he encountered Adam so he was not recognized. The guy literally never stopped talking the whole twenty minute ride, it was one diatribe to another; he spat out an array of topics that kept Matt distracted, which was good as he never had time to think about what he was about to do.
And the Meek Shall Inherit (Harbinger of Change Book 2) Page 20