by Vince Flynn
do for you?”
“General, I’ve got you on speakerphone. Irene is here with me and she has a question for you.” McMahon looked at Kennedy. “Good morning, General. Did you get a chance to look at the file I left on your desk last night?”
“Yes, I read it over first thing this morning.”
“Did you know Commander Coleman?”
“Yes, I did. He was top-notch.”
“I noticed last night that out of all the files I reviewed, Coleman was the only SEAL
who had been granted an early discharge. Is that uncommon?” The general hesitated for a minute. “It is not a common practice, but the brass has been known to make exceptions.”
“Do you know why he was granted an early discharge?” Again, the general paused.
This time for a long enough period that Kennedy knew she had touched on something more than routine.
General Heaney cleared his throat and asked, “Irene, are you familiar with Operation
Snatch Back?”
“Yes, I helped put the pretermission intel together.” For a long period no one talked.
McMahon had no idea what was being discussed, but by the tone of Heaney’s and
Kennedy’s voices he could tell now was not the time to ask. “Did you receive a post mission briefing?”
Heaney asked. “Not a formal one. I only heard rumors.”
“Coleman was the commander of the SEAL team we sent in.”
“His discharge was granted about a month after the mission?”
“Yes.”
“Did he crack up?”
“No … not really.”
“Did he request the early discharge, or was it offered to him?”
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“I’m not aware of the exact circumstances. Admiral Devoe, the force commander for the SEALS, and the secretary of the navy signed off on it.”
“Was Admiral Devoe Coleman’s immediate superior in the chain of command?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think you could track the admiral down and call us back? I’d like to ask him some questions about Coleman.”
“I’ll get him on the line and call you right back,” responded Heaney in his quick, efficient, military tone. McMahon looked up at Kennedy, who was still standing over the phone. “What was that all about?” Kennedy sat down in a chair and closed her eyes. “Do you remember the Pan Am flight that was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland?”
“Yeah.”
“About fifteen months ago, the Agency located the whereabouts of the two terrorists responsible for the bombing. They were at a small military base in northern Libya. We sent a SEAL team in to take them out …. I’m not sure what happened …. All I know is that we lost part of the team.”
“How many men?”
“Ten.” The phone rang and McMahon grabbed the receiver. “Hello.”
“Skip, General Heaney. I’ve got Admiral Devoe on the line.” McMahon hit the speaker button and placed the receiver back in the cradle.
“Good morning, Admiral, this is Special Agent McMahon with the FBI, and I have
Irene Kennedy from the CIA in my office. We’d like to ask you a few questions.” With a noticeably unenthusiastic tone, the admiral said, “Shoot.” Kennedy stood placing both hands on Skip’s desk and leaning over the phone. “Admiral, has General Heaney told you why we want to talk to you?”
“Yes.”
“Good Would you explain to me the events surrounding your granting of an early discharge for Commander Coleman?”
“Before I answer that, I’d like to know why you want to know.” Kennedy looked at
McMahon, and Skip leaned forward. “Admiral, this is Special Agent McMahon. We are involved in a very important investigation.”
“Is Commander Coleman a suspect?”
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“No,” answered McMahon. “Is that no, or not yet?”
“General Heaney, can you help me out here?” asked McMahon.
“Bob, this is some pretty serious stuff. I’ve been working with Skip and Irene for the last five days. They’re straight shooters.” Devoe thought about it and responded, “I will answer what I can.” Kennedy rephrased her question. “Admiral, did Commander
Coleman ask you for an early discharge, or did you offer it to him?”
“He asked for it.”
“Why?”
“He was unhappy about a certain issue.”
“Did that issue have anything to do with Operation Snatch Back?” asked Kennedy. “I
am not at liberty to discuss that subject.” This time it was Kennedy’s turn to ask Heaney for help. “General?”
“Bob, Irene did the pretermission intel for Snatch Back.
She has a higher clearance than you or I do.” Kennedy repeated the question. “Did that issue have anything to do with Operation Snatch Back?”
“Yes,” answered Devoe. “Did he want out because the mission was a failure?”
“Not exactly. He was more upset about something that happened after the mission.”
“What?” After a reluctant pause, Devoe said, “Listen, I know where you’re headed with this, and I know the type of pressure you’re going to be under to make some arrests.
I can tell you right now Scott Coleman has nothing to do with these assassinations ….
None of my boys do. I’ve been having nightmares about this ever since I heard you showed up at JSOC five days ago. If you dig, you’ll find enough motive to indict every single one of my SEALS. None of them are really enamored of the behavior on Capitol
Hill. Most of them have voiced opinions on the subject of who they think is fucking this country up-excuse my French—but that doesn’t mean they killed anyone.”
“Admiral, we understand that,” said McMahon. “We have already discussed this universal dislike of politicians with General Heaney, and we respect the sacrifice these men have made for America. I am running this investigation, and I’m not going to arrest anyone unless I have some solid evidence to back me up.”
“Special Agent McMahon, pardon my candor, but you are fooling yourself if you think you’ve got the final say in this investigation. You have another month, at the most,
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before those peacocks on the Hill start screaming for hearings, and when that happens, they’ll make the people in my profession look like a bunch of crazed killers.”
“Admiral, I don’t give a crap about what the politicians want.”
McMahon’s voice grew louder. “I’m trying to find out who in the hell is behind these murders. We have a very strong reason to believe the assassins are American commandos. General Heaney, will you back me up on this?”
“He’s telling the truth, Bob.” Kennedy placed a hand on her hip.
“Admiral, why did Commander Coleman ask for an early discharge?”
“Is this conversation being taped?”
“No,” answered McMahon.
“I’ll tell you why, but this is completely off-the-record. If this thing turns into a circus trial, I’ll deny I ever said it.”
“It’s off-the-record, sir,” said Kennedy. McMahon looked up at Kennedy and mouthed the word no. Kennedy shushed him with a wave of her hand.
“Are you familiar with the objective of Operation Snatch Back?” They answered yes and Devoe continued, “We sent in a SEAL team. Coleman was the commander. He took half the team and went in first. They were inserted about two miles out from the camp, and they moved in and set up perimeter positions. They were to take out the sentries and provide cover for the second group that was to be vertically inserted by helicopter into the camp. The second group’s responsibility was to take the terrorists alive if possible.
“Coleman moved into position and then ordered the second group in. The choppers came in low and quiet. Right before they reached the camp, Coleman’s men took out the sentries as planned. The Black Hawk stopped above the camp, and before the second group could rappel to the ground, the chopper was blown
out of the sky by a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades. “Eight men and the two pilots, just like that …. Coleman and his team were extracted, and during their debriefing, every one of them stated that they thought the Libyans were waiting for them. They said everything looked good, and then within the blink of an eye a dozen rag heads appeared with RPGS.
Coleman took it harder than the rest of us because he ordered the second team in …
he blamed himself for their deaths. “We weren’t convinced the mission had been blown until several weeks later when I received word that the FBI had discovered a leak. I told
Coleman the news, thinking it would help him put the blame elsewhere, but it didn’t work.
He wanted to know where the leak came from, and I told him I didn’t know. A couple weeks later he came to me and said he wanted out. I asked why, and he said he’d lost
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faith. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t listen. Scott was a good officer. He’d been a SEAL for almost fifteen years. I figured he’d given more than enough to the Navy, so I got him the early discharge.”
“Admiral, who told you that the FBI found a leak?” asked McMahon. “I would rather not say.”
“Did this person say where the leak came from?”
“They said it was a prominent politician.”
“Did they tell you who that politician was?”
“No.”
“Did you tell Commander Coleman that the leak came from a politician?”
There was a moment of silence, then the admiral answered, “Yes.”
McMahon and Kennedy looked at each other. Both were thinking the same thing.
McMahon looked back at the phone. “How did Coleman react to the information?”
“Like all of us did. He was pissed, but, gentlemen, I can assure you Commander
Coleman is not your man.” Kennedy raised her eyebrows in a doubtful manner and
McMahon said, “Admiral, that’s all the questions we have for now. I’m going to ask that you not tell anyone about our conversation, especially Mr. Coleman. I promise that either myself or General Heaney will keep you informed about any part of the investigation that may involve you. General Heaney, we have a meeting with Director Roach that should last an hour or so. Could you meet Irene and me in my office around ten A.M.?”
“I’ll be there.”
“Thank you, gentlemen.” McMahon hit the speaker button and disconnected the line.
He looked up at Kennedy, who was still standing, and asked, “How many prominent politicians would have known about Operation Snatch Back beforehand?” Kennedy shrugged her shoulders. “The way those guys gossip, you can never be sure, but according to law, the President and a ranking member of the Senate Intelligence
Committee must be informed before we run a covert operation.”
“Who were the two ranking members of the Senate Intelligence Committee a year and a half ago?”
“Erik Olson and Daniel Fitzgerald.”
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“Isn’t that a coincidence. They’re both dead.” McMahon stood and put on his jacket.
“Let’s go talk to Brian and see if we can find out who this mystery politician is.”
“I think I already know who it is,” Kennedy said with a glum look on her face.
“Who?”
“Fitzgerald.”
“Why?”
“He resigned from the Intelligence Committee about a year ago, claiming that he needed to focus more of his energy on the Finance Committee.”
McMahon led the way down the hall and up the two flights of stairs.
Skip greeted Roach’s assistant and told her that he needed to see the boss immediately. She buzzed Roach, and a minute later McMahon and Kennedy were let in.
Roach was sitting at his conference table surrounded by the usual stacks of files and papers. He stood and greeted the visitors, professional as always. “How’s the investigation going?”
“We may have come across a break.” McMahon looked over his shoulder to make sure the door was closed and then asked, “What do you know about a covert mission called Operation Snatch Back?” Roach looked more than a little surprised. “Where did you hear about Operation Snatch Back?
That’s classified.” Roach turned to Kennedy. “Did you tell him?”
“Not in the way you’re thinking. We stumbled across it in our investigation.”
“How?”
“Irene was looking into the file of a former Navy SEAL and the name came up.”
“In what way did it come up?” Kennedy stepped forward. “About a month after the mission, one of SEALS involved in the operation received an early discharge. We talked to his commanding officer and found out some interesting things.”
“Go on,” commanded Roach.
“Admiral Devoe, the force commander for the SEALS, told us that the officer in question, Commander Scott Coleman, was in charge of the SEAL team that participated in Operation Snatch Back. After the mission, Coleman stated that he thought the Libyans had set a trap. He also blamed himself for the loss of his men because he ordered them in.
A couple of weeks after the mission, Admiral Devoe finds out that the FBI has identified who leaked the mission. The admiral passes the information on to Coleman, telling him
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that he doesn’t know who leaked the mission, only that it was a prominent politician.
Shortly after that, Coleman demands an early discharge and gets it. So far none of this adds up to anything hard, but if the prominent politician who leaked that mission happened to be Senator Daniel Fitzgerald, then we have a possible motive.” Roach looked more than a little surprised and asked, “What makes you think it was Fitzgerald?”
“An educated guess,” said Kennedy. “Was it Fitzgerald?”
“Yes …. Both of you take a seat. This is more complicated than it looks.” McMahon and Kennedy sat in the two chairs in front of Roach’s desk, and the director sat on the edge of his desk. “What I’m about to tell you does not leave this room …. Fitzgerald was the one who leaked the mission. He didn’t do it intentionally, and that is why he was never prosecuted. In fact, we stumbled across it in an unusual way. Our Counter
Espionage Department regularly reviews the tax returns, asset portfolios, and credit history of certain people that, by the nature of their jobs, come in contact with government employees that have access to sensitive information-people like journalists, attorneys, secretaries, lobbyists, even waitresses and bartenders.
Last year, one of our agents was reviewing the tax returns for all of the employees that worked at a local restaurant. She discovered that one of the bartenders had purchased a two-hundred-thousand dollar condo in Georgetown. The guy only makes about thirty thousand a year, so a red flag pops up. She calls the mortgage company and finds out the person in question put down sixty grand for the down payment on the condo. A little more investigating and she rules out that the money came from his parents. We think the guy is probably selling drugs, but there’s an outside chance he may be talking to people we don’t want him talking to.
A lot of big hitters frequent the establishment where he works, and after a few drinks these politicians and their staffers have been known to discuss things they shouldn’t in public. “We decided there was enough to put this bartender under surveillance. We wired the bar, his condo, and tapped his phone.” Roach shook his head. “Two days before
Operation Snatch Back was to commence, Fitzgerald gets done with work and stops by for a couple of drinks. The nightly news is on and they run a segment on the anniversary of the downing of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie. The reporter ends the segment saying that the two men suspected of planting the bomb are believed to be hiding in
Libya.
Fitzgerald responds out loud, ‘Not for long,’ and the bartender asks what he means.
Fitzgerald says, ‘Between you and me, kid, those two bastards are going to be sitting in a
U.S. jail
in about forty-eight hours.” The kid asks how, if they’re in Libya, and Fitzgerald tells him he can’t go into it. “At the time this meant nothing to our people that were on the case, but after Snatch Back failed, the CIA gave our Counter Espionage people a heads—
up warning that the mission may have been compromised. One of the names on the list of people that knew about the mission beforehand was Senator Fitzgerald. Our agents put two and two together and hauled the bartender in for a shakedown. They told him he was either going to spend the next twenty years in a Federal pen or he could spill the beans ….
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He spilled the beans. The guy thought he was passing the information on to a reporter. It turns out the reporter is a former KGB agent who is now operating for himself and selling his secrets abroad. The rest of the story is highly classified, and I can’t go into what we found out It’s an ongoing operation.”
“You’re using the kid to feed him misinformation, aren’t you?” Kennedy waited for an answer. Roach shrugged his shoulders and said, “Director Stansfield knows all about it.
We’re working in cooperation with the Agency.” Roach walked around to the other side of his desk and sat.
McMahon sat forward and said, “I’m going to have to talk to everyone who was involved in this.”
“No, you’re not,” answered Roach. “Brian, if this Coleman is our guy, all of this information about Fitzgerald is going to have to come out in the indictment.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, but for now I don’t want Fitzgerald’s name and Operation Snatch Back mentioned in the same sentence. Do what you have to do to investigate Coleman, but keep Fitzgerald out of it. I assume I can get ahold of Admiral
Devoe at the Pentagon?”
“No, he’s down in Norfolk.”
“All right, I’ll talk to him personally, and you’d better put a list together of all the people that know Snatch Back was leaked.
Madeline Nanny is going to want to talk to you about this.” Mike Nance took the short walk from his corner office to Stu Garret’s. Passing Garret’s secretary, he smiled and said hello. The door was open and Nance closed it behind him. Nance sat in one of the armchairs and crossed his legs. “How is the President today?” Garret finished what he was writing and pushed himself away from the desk. Taking his cigarette out of his mouth, he blew a cloud of smoke toward the ceiling and said, “He’s doing great. We just got the results back from the most recent Time/CNN poll, and almost seventy percent of the people surveyed are behind his decision to get the military involved.” Garret shoved the cigarette back in his mouth and took a deep drag. “He’s very happy. Much more relaxed.”