The breaking news headline scrolling across the bottom said:
President Bartlett to issue a full and unconditional pardon to
former Attorney General Jamail Tibbs
Shaking his head, Brahman said, “Bartlett was making all the right moves to quell this crisis. Who the hell is advising her?”
Brahman then yelled toward the door at his staff, “Get the damned president on the phone. Tell her it’s me and that I’m pissed off!”
“Yes, sir, we will try,” came the meek reply from outside the door.
“Well, sir, if you wanted the referendum re-ignited with the legislature, you should send her a thank you card,” chuckled Pops. “She sure knows how to add kindlin’ to the fire, don’t she?”
“That fire finally reached a point that was manageable. Why now? Why not wait and allow for more time to pass?” thought Brahman aloud as he rubbed his chin.
“She’s as cold and calculating as a damned West Texas rattler, Smitty. Hard for me to imagine there’s not some agenda driving this.”
“Let’s listen to this,” the governor said as he pointed the remote at the TV and turned up the volume.
President Bartlett was walking to a microphone set up outside at the White House Rose Garden.
“Prior to my election to become your president, our country was embroiled in an unfortunate crisis that eventually led to the deaths of citizens, military personnel, federal agents and even a governor and his wife. This was a sad and unfortunate chapter in our history. Now that this crisis has abated and the country has begun to heal, I am taking additional steps to return America to a sense of normalcy. Today, I have issued a full and unconditional pardon to former Attorney General Jamail Tibbs,” stated the president to the small, specifically chosen pool of reporters.
“Madam President, will there be pardons for anyone else involved in the crisis, including officials in Texas?” yelled a pool reporter from MSNBC.
“There are no other pardons planned at this time,” said the president flatly.
“What about the Joint Chiefs who were taken into custody?” asked a CBS reporter.
“The Joint Chiefs who were taken into custody are a military court matter, and I will not intervene there,” she answered.
“Madam President, are there not active arrest warrants for several Texas Rangers and officials within Texas state government?” asked a reporter from Politico. “Is the Justice Department still going to pursue those warrants, or will you pardon them, too?”
“We are still in negotiations with Governor Brahman with regard to state officials that were acting under the direction of the former governor. We will continue to pursue an equitable outcome for all involved,” answered the president with a noticeably uncomfortable change in her body language while she addressed this question.
After this, several advisors cut in and started to escort the president from the microphone back to the West Wing.
“Thank you for your time today,” she said as she left. “We will continue to heal. God bless America.”
“Is she single-handedly trying to get this referendum passed?” asked Brahman as he watched incredulously.
“I’ve seen a lot of things, but that is waving a giant red flag in front of a bull in full rut. What the hell is wrong with that woman?” Pops asked.
“There’s a method to her madness but, God help me, I can’t see it right now. Let’s pull everyone in as soon as possible so we can issue a statement,” announced Brahman as several aides and staff who were watching the press conference in other rooms began streaming into the governor’s office.
Zach Turner was walking down the jetway as he departed his flight into Houston from D.C. when his phone began blowing up with text and voicemail messages.
“What the hell?” he said to himself, trying to scroll through the messages, looking up frequently to avoid other people walking in the terminal.
“Turner,” he announced as he took a call from Will.
“Did you see the news?”
“Hey, Will, I’m just seeing some of it. My flight didn’t have internet. What the hell is going on?”
“Damned Bartlett pardoned Tibbs. Said warrants are still open for Pops and other Texas officials. What the hell is her game here?”
“Hmmm, well, you know this is a calculated move. She knows something. Why else would she do this now? She obviously isn’t worried about a referendum.”
“Damned straight. She doesn’t want another crisis. She knows very well this will incense Texans. What is her play here?”
“Something tells me we might get some answers when we see what role Ottosson has in all this. When will we get the contents of his laptop?”
“Beard is meeting us tonight.”
“Was he able to defeat the encryption?”
“Yes,” Will said.
“Did he give you any clue to its contents?” Zach asked.
“Said he was afraid to,” Will told him. “Wanted us to see for ourselves.”
“Beard, afraid? That’ll be the day,” Zach exclaimed.
“All he said is that we better have every priority protocol in place. He said that twice!”
As Zach got off the call, he felt a sickening sense that something ominous was brewing. As a Navy SEAL, and later a CIA operative, he had seen some of the worst of the United States government’s underbelly.
He knew how far people would go to get power―and to keep it.
Chapter 24
“In U.S. politics, compassion means giving money and privileges to well organized interest groups at everyone else’s expense.”
- Paul Craig Roberts
(1939- ) Economist, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
in the Reagan Administration (“Father of Reaganomics”)
Reaction from various Texas state politicians was predictable. Even the Democrats had a hard time explaining away how Bartlett could provide a pardon to the man responsible for ordering the raid that killed a very popular governor and his wife.
Instantly, there were demands among many state legislators for the governor to call a special session of the legislature immediately. They knew the governor had a minimum amount of days to call for the special election to replace murdered Senator Milsap, but most thought one vote in the state Senate was not critical for the ultimate passage or defeat of an independence referendum.
When Zach Turner pulled up to the Bunker at 5:45 a.m. for the 6:00 meeting with Beard and Will, their trucks were already there.
“Damn, boys, you must have good news,” said Zach as he strolled in and dropped his backpack on the nearest table.
Beard had three laptops, with multiple large computer screens opened and USB cables going everywhere.
Beard looked at both of them with a dire face, “Guys, this is some crazy stuff, that’s all I can tell you. We are sitting on a nuclear tinderbox of information.”
“Okay, take us through it. Hang tight while I pour some coffee,” replied Zach.
“I’ve got mine already. Ready to go,” added Will.
“This first set of data is from one of Ottosson’s cell phones. It shows text messages with three prepaid cell phones and I have only been able track down who bought one of them.”
Beard pulled up messages on one of the screens.
The text message read:
Operation Walrus on track, set for Ft. Myers on rendezvous date
Replacement Crew Set
“Okay, what the hell does that mean?” asked Zach.
“Let’s see if you’ll begin to connect the dots when you see more related texts. This next one is the day after,” answered Beard.
Walrus successful. Undetected. Perfect.
“Look at the date of this last text,” said Beard flatly.
“Not sure if I see what you’re seeing yet,” Will stated.
“Okay, look at this one,” responded Beard.
Tail #N56732 Back with McCray tonite on CIS, P
ick Me up
“CIS? That’s an aircraft tail number. Look it up,” said Zach, somewhat frantic.
“Already did. That’s a CIS private Falcon 900. I hacked into the private executive flight base operations (FBO) at Reagan. Here is the manifest for this flight. The same set of passengers, plus one, went to Fort Myers the day before, but came back less one passenger,” noted Beard, who was eager to provide the important name that was missing on the return flight.
He pulled up the manifests for both flights on the screen.
“Oh, my God,” Will said quietly.
Zach sat silently with little emotion. He knew where this was headed now, but waited for Beard to give him more.
“There’s a ton of text messages on this particular date to these three phone numbers. They are all in this type of code referring to the Walrus moniker. But I think I need to show you this next, from the laptop in the hotel room.” Beard pulled up a screen from one of the connections made to a laptop. “There was an awful lot of research on this laptop done on this particular chemical.”
“Tetrodotoxin?” asked Will.
“Instant death, usually within minutes. Typically, an organic compound from a puffer fish, blue-ringed octopus or sea snake. He also had a lot of information about the presynaptic neurotoxins from the Inland Taipan, the deadliest snake in the world, as well as adrenaline. Apparently, he was in touch with black-market providers of the two poisons, one from Russia and another from Senegal.”
“This is out of character for the Russians. They usually want to use polonium, a radioactive poison,” offered Zach.
“So this isn’t KGB?” asked Will.
“I have actual dosing instructions,” said Beard. “This concoction was mixed with adrenaline to speed its absorption throughout the bloodstream.”
Both Zach and Will now stood, both with hands on hips.
“Here it is. You can see here, they mix the two poisons with adrenaline. Look at how low of a dosage is needed, less than one-tenth of a milliliter,” said Beard matter-of-factly.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Holy crap!” exclaimed Will.
“How is it administered? You would have to inject someone, right?” asked Zach.
“Well, yes but look what the toxin was loaded in.”
“An Epipen? Am I reading that correctly?” asked Will.
“It’s an injector similar to an Epipen. I picked one up.” He showed it to them. He then stuck it quickly into the fatty part of his bicep. “Look how quick that was. I didn’t even feel it. I just jabbed it in and pressed the injector. Not even any blood and, honestly, I didn’t feel a thing.”
Both Zach and Will sat back down as the sheer immensity of the moment overtook them both.
“Okay, so if I had an Epipen injector loaded with this cocktail, I could essentially scratch someone or inject this tiny needle from the pen and that someone would have some very serious problems within minutes?” asked Zach.
“Probably within seconds,” Beard said. “Those two toxins are the fastest acting natural toxins known to exist. The adrenaline would help the toxin move through their system quickly.”
“And their immediate symptoms would be what?” asked Will.
“Cardiac arrest, partial paralysis, foaming of the mouth, loss of motor control, hyperventilation. A really bad scene,” Beard told them.
“Enough to fall out of a boat into the Gulf of Mexico?” asked Will.
“Under the right circumstances, certainly,” answered Beard.
“United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Noyner was obviously Walrus?” said Will.
“The chief justice of the Supreme Court was assassinated,” answered Zach.
“I’ve got more,” claimed Beard.
“Geez, this isn’t it?” asked Will.
“Not hardly,” Beard replied.
“What else do you have?” asked Will.
“I wish I could say this was the worst.”
“You can’t be serious,” Zach exclaimed. “His weakness is women. Who entrusted this guy to do something this diabolic?”
“Tip of the iceberg, sir.”
“How so?” asked Zach. “Are there others? What is the immediate danger?”
“From what I can tell here, sir, our constitutional republic as we know it,” answered Beard.
“This stays right here,” Zach ordered. “Nobody knows this but us three. We will need to call our team in, but only the bare minimum staff we need for research and recon.”
Chapter 25
“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”
- Thomas Jefferson
3rd US President, Delegate to Continental Congress
Author of The Declaration of Independence, Founding Father
In the late seventies, Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, now known as FISA. Nixon effectively used the CIA and other agencies to spy on political rivals, so Congress enacted legislation where, at a minimum, a secret request for surveillance had to be made through a judge.
Congress, in its typical methodology, designated the act “Foreign,” but its real purpose was for domestic spying. The act is thought by many constitutional scholars and personal privacy advocates to be unconstitutional because the entire process is secret and the party who may be “investigated” is given no right to object or participate, and the investigation is done in an ex parte manner (only one side is represented).
One basic tenet and restriction of the Constitution is to rein in the judicial branch of government, which may issue “edicts” when no case or controversy is before them. The FISA courts operate without a case or without probable cause or evidence, which led to the bulk collection of metadata on private American citizens. This secret court literally has no oversight on it in the traditional manner.
“Gentlemen, this next file you have in front of you will take some time to digest. I hate to forewarn you on what’s in here because you will have to read it to believe it,” said Beard.
Zach looked at Beard in disbelief as he dragged his chair closer. Beard pulled up a file on one of the big screens on the wall.
“Beard, you’re gonna have to go through some pretty deep stuff to top the diabolical assassination of the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Will.
“Unfortunately, this probably does,” answered Beard. “Here’s the first document. A committee memo from our esteemed senior senator from Texas, Kevin Simpson who, as you both know, is the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.”
They both looked at the document, reading it slowly. Zach could not believe what he read. He stood up and walked closer to the screen.
“This is marked Top Secret and it is an internal emergency memo to the NSA advocating for the immediate surveillance of the people on the attached list for presentation to the FISA court,” read Zach.
“Exactly. Now let me pull up the attachment,” came back Beard.
“The attachment is a list of names. Holy crap! You’ve got to be kidding me!” yelled Will as he began reading names out loud.
“Okay, I don’t know what the list represents, but I have a very good idea,” Zach exclaimed.
“Help me connect the dots, Zach. They are all Texans and seem to all be Texas legislators,” said Will, slightly confused.
“I had the same hunch, Zach. So I compared this list against the last independence referendum vote,” said Beard.
“Let me guess,” Zach said disgustedly.
“Yep, the majority of names on this list turned out to be no votes on the referendum. Look at the date of the memo,” instructed Beard.
“This is fully two months before the vote,” observed Will.
“Yeah, but that’s plenty enough time to dig up dirt if any exists,” stated Zach.
“What name stands out the most on this list?” asked Zach, already knowing the answer.
Will studied the list for a few minutes. Beard knew the answer but he
ld back, waiting for Will to discover it.
“Damn, Jeffrey Milsap,” Will said, referring to the recently murdered Texas state senator.
“I wish I could tell you that this was as bad as gets,” announced Beard. “I need to also tell you both there is one operation on these files that has references and mentions, but I have not been able to find many details. They refer to it as Madison, so who knows how bad or what that operation is?”
“Geez, Beard, how much worse could this get?” asked Will
“Much, much worse,” replied Beard. “Before we go too much further, there is a detailed dossier with an incredible amount of detail on each person on the list. This includes phone conversations, text messages and even internet history and search criteria.”
Very few of these legislators were considered clean, meaning irreproachable from an ethics standpoint. Several were closet gays, more than a few had mistresses or, like Milsap, sought the services of professional women. Many had porn site search histories. Several had drug or prescription drug issues or campaign finance irregularities. For the few clean ones, they were threatened with physical harm to their families. Others were simply paid.”
“Extortion for a ‘no’ vote on the referendum. Simple as that?” asked Zach.
“Apparently so. I bounced this up against the referendum vote. Look here.” Beard pointed to the screen.
“Seriously? One hundred percent?” asked an astonished Will.
“To the man or woman, one hundred percent,” answered Beard.
“This makes total sense. There were votes that were head scratchers. Some of these guys were the loudest voices for independence who, when the vote went down, had puzzling justifications why they changed their votes,” explained Zach.
“Let me pull up Milsap’s file. Look at this!”
They both read, for a few minutes, accounts of multiple rendezvous with known prostitutes on a weekly basis. It also included a master scorecard of sorts that listed all the state senators and where they stood on the vote.
“He never got the chance to vote no,” said Will.
Purge on the Potomac Page 12