Sheep Dog and the Wolf

by Douglass, Carl;

  Hunter was dressed in old ranch clothing and had a month old beard which aged him ten years. He wore opaque sun glasses and a wide-brimmed cowboy hat pulled low over his forehead. He had dyed his hair black and wore it long like the Dakelhs. His skin was either genuinely tan or he had a convincing make-up job. He greeted the Johannson’s affectionately and took a moment to greet every ranch worker enthusiastically. The pilot—one of the cousins named Ben—had briefed Hunter on their names. His long history as a spy had given him a remarkable memory for names, and he impressed and delighted the ranch inhabitants with his easy facility with everyone.

  After supper, Hunter and Steffan talked for an hour. Over Steffan’s protests, Hunter forced him to take a $100,000 Canadian National Bank bearer’s bond for the year’s worth of service.

  “Who knows, Steffan,” Hunter said, “I might have need of your services again one day.”

  “Let’s hope we meet again in less stressful circumstances,” Steffan said.

  “I’ll drink to that.”

  The men shared a tall glass of Malviore Ice Wine that Hunter had brought from New York for the occasion. He explained the odd origin of the wine and let Steffan judge for himself the quality. The ice wine is harvested from frozen Reisling grapes picked at 14° F. along for the Niagara Peninsula. Steffan approved, so much so that he had another full glass.

  In the morning Candy persuaded Heather to don the opaque hood for the trip back home. Hunter avoided talking to the girl who sat in the back seat of the Bell Longranger all the way to Creston, B.C. near the international border where they landed in a small private airport. Hunter then allowed her to remove her hood. She looked about anxiously and was still uncertain as to whether she was in Canada or Siberia. There were no telltale landmarks to convince her of either choice. The short drive from Creston to the Canadian/US Border allowed her for the first time to know that she was in Canada. She remained uncertain about whether or not she had spent the entire past year in the huge country to the north of her own home country.

  For the first time, Hunter spoke to Heather. He did so in a broad Canadian accent with ‘ehs’, and ‘oots’ and ‘down souths’ and a bit of overacting.

  “Heather,” he said. “You are almost home. You have been on vacation, and you are returning to school. We’ll drive to Sand Point, and from then on you are safe and on your own. You can contact the police, and you can speak to the news media if you want. I suggest—however—that you talk to your parents before you do either. They may convince you to keep your recent year’s experience to yourself. I am Hyrum Edgar Poindexter. I suggest you remember me and forget other names you know about.”

  Heather was still cowed by the forceful man who was apparently behind her kidnapping and confused about the reason for it all. She nodded her agreement.

  The two drove the rent-a-car through the Rykerts-Porthill border crossing station without incident. Hunter drove south on Idaho Highway #1 to U.S. #95 and into Bonners Ferry—the gateway to north Idaho—where they had a quick hamburger lunch at McDonalds. Hunter let her off in front of the post office in Sand Point, fifty miles south of the border, gave her $10,000 dollars in cash, and told her to “have a nice life”.

  He drove away out of her life as enigmatically as he had entered it a year ago. She hurried to a Verizon store and purchased a throw-away cell phone and called home.

  “Hello.”

  “Mom, it’s me…it’s me, Heather.”

  “Oh, sweetheart, I was afraid this day would never come. Are you all right? Did they hurt you? Are they still guarding you? Did they tell you why they kidnapped you? Oh, baby, are you okay?”

  “One thing at a time, Mom. And yes, I’m perfectly okay. I’ve been a ranch hand, and I am in the best shape I have ever been in. I want to get back to school, but I’ve changed. I don’t think I’ll ever be the bratty selfish Yalie I was ever again. The man who dropped me off here told me I probably shouldn’t talk to the cops or to the news media until I talked to you guys. Is that what I should do?”

  “Your dad is absolute about that. I don’t quite understand all the reasons why, but we should really go by what he says. This is one time for sure that we need to trust that he knows best.”

  “I’ll keep quiet. But sometime I’m going to need some explanations. I’ve earned that privilege.”

  “You have. Right now what’s important is where are you?”

  “Some little burg called Sand Point, Idaho. It’s right by the Canadian border. How do I get home?”

  “Your dad will have a plane in the air within the hour. I think he can get to you before midnight. Check into a motel and call me again when you’re settled. Oh, I didn’t think, do you have any money?”

  “Yeah, Mom, it was weird. The guy gave me ten thousand bucks. I could party hearty tonight.”

  “Get some food and rest. Dad’ll be there before you know it. I will be able to start life all over again when we get you home. I feel like I’ve been holding my breath for the entire past year.”

  Heather found out from her father enough to convince her to let the past year’s experience become a lost part of history.

  “The people who took you are nobody to mess with. They do keep their bargains, and they have a very long reach. I want you to stay safe and live a happy life. You are more likely to be able to do that if you will keep this a secret.”

  The Same Day

  Central Intelligence Building, Langley, Virginia

  Office of the Director

  DCIA Lang arranged for a black star to be placed in the official history of the Central Intelligence Agency. No one would ever know the name of Edgar Liam Salinger, but his star would at least be part of the noble heritage of agency heroism.

  He spoke briefly to his ADCIA, “I’ll handle the transfer of evidence to Afshin Baktiari myself. They won’t accept anyone’s word that the guy they call “The Shadow” is really dead. The evidence looks good, don’t you think?”

  Lang had reference to his counterpart, the head of The Ministry of Intelligence and Security of Iran—the VEVAK.

  “I saw to it myself. We thought of everything. We won’t run into any difficulties.”

  “Good work, Oliver, this had to be hard for you. You have always been a Company man to your core. I’m going to retire after this year, and I’ll do my best to put you in my chair when I do.”

  “Thanks, Director. It’s always been the Company and the country above everything else for me. It has been an honor to serve.”

  The moment was as close to a “warm-fuzzy” as happens in the Central Intelligence Agency.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY

  “A player can sometimes afford the luxury of an inaccurate move, or even a definite error, in the opening or middlegame without necessarily obtaining a lost position. In the endgame…an error can be decisive, and we are rarely presented with a second chance.”

  —Paul Keres, speaking about chess

  One Year Later

  White House Oval Office: Morning Briefing, 0630

  Present: POTUS, DCIA

  “Good morning, Mr. President. I trust you slept well.”

  “Thank you, Director Prentiss, tolerably well. What’s new?”

  “VEVAK handed over the rest of UBL’s family members and threw in fourteen middle level agents—scapegoats, to use the Hebrew phrase—for good measure. These scapegoats, however—unlike the Biblical ones—will not be let out to wander alone in the desert. We plan a vigorous interrogation.”

  “No water boarding or anything not allowed by policy and law. We’ve all learned the danger of getting overly enthusiastic.”

  Oliver—like every one of his predecessors—thought that concept was rubbish pure and simple, but he kept his opinion to himself. He had taken elaborate measures to shield the president from ever being informed of Company procedures in dealing with the Iranian agents, whom he knew were already being hailed as martyrs for the jihad in Tehran.

  “Maybe the best news is that the Iranians
have been keeping a low profile ever since the attack by Israel. We are not getting any intel about them transporting missiles or trained terrorists. They don’t act especially chastened, but the result is the same. It appears that your decision to rein in the Sheep Dog program was a wise one.”

  “Thanks, Oliver. Too bad I can’t get a little political credit.”

  “While it would be nice, you don’t really need a bunch more credit. Your administration will leave a sterling history, and you don’t have to run again.” If the president was aware that the new DCIA was applying the flattery with a trowel, he did not show it. If the truth were known, he quite liked flattery and thought he deserved it.

  “Where are you off to, next, Director?”

  “Secretary Southem, Director Thompson, and I will be attending the Organization of American States in Montevideo in April. Besides the plenary sessions, I will be meeting with my counterparts separately to go over strategies for dealing with the ‘facilitators of man-made disasters’ who are increasingly finding their way into South America. It seems that the Middle-Eastern facilitators have discovered that South Americans have the wrong religion and they present soft targets galore. Our interest is to keep the infiltrators who have come to South America from heading north.”

  “Keep me up on developments, Oliver. I have to tell you I just don’t feel up to going down there in all that heat and humidity this year. I’ll depend on the three of you.”

  Meeting of the Israeli Cabinet-0900

  Tel Aviv, Israel

  Present-PM, FULL CABINET, FOREIGN MINISTER,

  DMOSSAD, COMMANDER IDF

  “General Fürstenberg, your most recent reports from the overflights across Iran seem convincing. The Iranians do not appear to be starting up their nuclear program.”

  “Yet,” said Ari Maor bar-Lev.

  “Always the skeptic, Ari,” PM ben Cohen said.

  “That’s why you pay me the big shekels,” Director bar-Lev quipped.

  “Do you have any evidence from our assets, Ari?”

  “Hints, Ehud, just hints, but we are getting concerned.”

  “Nothing seems to change, really, does it? Israel appears doomed to repeat this cycle endlessly, going from catastrophe to catastrophe, fight to fight.”

  “Can you imagine what it would be like if we weren’t Yahweh’s chosen people?” Ari—the out-of-the-closet atheist—asked.

  “I think I can, or at least the prophet Zephaniah could, ‘That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of clouds and thick darkness’.”

  EPILOGUE

  When the heavens shall be rent asunder, And when the stars shall be dispersed…

  Again, what will teach thee what the Day of Judgment is?

  It is a day when no soul will avail aught for another soul…”

  —Holy Qur’an, 82: 1-19

  Get hence, the hearse is at your door—the grim black stallions wait—

  They bear your clay to place today. Speed, lest ye come too late!

  Go back to Earth with a lip unsealed—go back with an open eye,

  And carry my word to the Sons of Men or ever ye come to die:

  That the sin they do by two and two they must pay for one by one—

  Rudyard Kipling, Tomlinson

  The Same Year, April

  New York Times, Front Page, Column A1

  CIA Director Oliver Prentiss Assassinated

  Official Murdered at Meeting of OAS

  in Montevideo, Uruguay

  Reuters News Service-Montevideo, Uruguay: This morning the recently appointed director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency was the victim of an assassination plot in the South American capital city of Uruguay. Details are sketchy, but preliminary reports indicate that he was the victim of an attack with a very swift acting poison. The police commissioner of Montevideo released information indicating that an unknown person was seen to walk up to the senior U.S. official, to speak to him briefly, then to strike him with the point of an umbrella he was carrying. Reports vary about the possible identity of the assassin, even as to his race. Most reports indicate that it appeared to be a well-dressed English gentleman, possibly one of the delegates to the OAS gathering. Others describe one of several disgruntled beggars. There is one report that a man dressed in Arab costume was seen talking to the U.S. official and gesturing with an umbrella. One sighting described a man of Negro extraction rushing at Director Prentiss. The police commissioner cautioned about rushing to hasty conclusions and assured the delegation and the Uruguayan people that a thorough investigation is underway and that the police have several useful leads.

  Conspiracy buffs in the United States have suggested that this attack was very similar to one that occurred in England in 1978 when dissident Bulgarian journalist Georgi Markov was murdered. At that time, a Scotland Yard autopsy revealed, imbedded in his leg, a BB studded with tiny holes. It had been shot into Markov with an umbrella rigged as a pellet gun. The holes in the BB had been packed with ricin. Russian spies were thought to be the culprits, but no hard evidence was ever produced, and the murder remains unsolved. U.S. conspiracy theorists—led by Andrew Potter—strongly suggest a Russian plot.

  The Times has described the deaths under suspicious circumstances of a total of at least twenty-eight agents considered to be clandestine operatives over the past two years. Although no direct link has been established among the separate incidences, a senior government official, who insisted on anonymity, told The Times that, “it strains credulity not to wonder about an organized attack on intelligence officers of the United States”. Nevertheless, “the White House denies any known attack, coordinated or otherwise” according to Press Secretary Irwin Lloyd in yesterday’s daily conference with the White House press.

  Five Years Later

  New York Times, Government Section

  Washington, D.C.: The director of the Central Intelligence Agency announced today that Heather Prentiss, PhD (Harvard, International Relations) has been appointed as an officer of the agency. She will be part of the analysis division and will, reportedly, be involved in evaluation of Middle-Eastern security affairs. Dr. Prentiss is the daughter of the late director of the CIA—Oliver Prentiss—who was the victim of an assassination in South America five years ago. Director Prentiss’s black star award is now one of those proudly displayed in the entryway of the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The black star is awarded for agents killed in the line of duty. Dr. Prentiss stated during her appointment ceremony, “my father was a patriot of the first order. I hope to be able to make even a small contribution. I would be arrogant even to wish to be able to make a contribution to the country comparable to that of my father’s. I will—however—do my level best to live up to his legacy.”

  Ten Years Later

  New York Times, Front Page, A2-left column, below the fold

  Washington, D.C.: President Mary Louise Hanover, Speaker of the House Henry Clay Davidson, and Senate Majority Leader Danny Rodriguez met the press on the West lawn of the White House at nine a.m. today to make a joint announcement that has shocked the world, both for the specific content of the message, and for the far-reaching implications of the underlying reasons for the announcement. President Hanover issued an order canceling all military and social aid to Israel and Egypt for the foreseeable future. The president told the Times White House reporter Stephen Prince that the main reason for the change in policy was to further the negotiations directed towards the establishment of a new State of Palestine, “in order to balance the playing field”. Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, and Congressional sources have privately informed the Times that they have grave concerns about the economic slow-down coming from the massive deficits inherited by this administration from entitlement program payouts that have come due recently. A senior administration official, speaking off the record, stated that “our debt to the Chinese alone requires drastic measures, and the
cessation of all foreign aid is on the table”. Military equipment subsidies to Israel were cancelled as of ten a.m. EST today. The Israeli ambassador to the United States has requested an urgent meeting with the president and the secretary of State.

  New York Times, Section B

  Washington, D.C.: More fallout from the deepening recession. President Hanover announced today sweeping changes in the intelligence services of the United States. Effective in one month, all major national intelligence agencies will be brought under one administration—the National Intelligence Service—and there will be “drastic” reductions in funding for all intelligence services. “They will have to do more and make do with less,” The president told the Times. President Hanover has nominated Christine Dangerfield- Udall to be the new director and Dr. Heather Prentiss to be the deputy director.

  Of the new director, President Hanover said, “Mrs. Dangerfield-Udall has a thirty year career in intelligence and was most recently the director of the NSA. She is an effective and frugal administrator, a set of abilities sorely needed now during the current serious recessionary crisis.” The new director described her deputy as “the finest intelligence analyst I have known in my thirty years. Her contributions to counterintelligence efforts in the Middle and Far East have been invaluable. She will be a welcome addition to the upper echelons of the NIS.” Informed sources tell the Times that the functions of the National Security Agency [NSA], Defense Office of Intelligence [DOI], The State Department Intelligence Service [DIS], the National Reconnaissance Office [NRO], the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA], the Bureau of Intelligence and Research [INR], the Official National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency [NGIA], and Treasury Department of Intelligence Support [TDIS] will all be subsumed by the parent National Intelligence Service. The administration states that the reason for the changes result from a year-long study aimed at achieving the greatest effectiveness and efficiency from the often duplicated services of the intelligence community. Insiders place the decision squarely on the need for cost-saving measures.