With that, she turned and walked away.
* * * *
Since I only had a couple of hours left before my briefing, I decided to walk over to the New Headquarters Building and find a comfy chair in the Agency’s library where I could read over the briefing documents in Novus without being disturbed.
As I was about to leave, I realized I might not have a better time to talk with Ms. Brooks in the Defense Department’s Casualty Assistance office, so I stayed where I was and gave her a call.
After we chatted about Eleanor for a few minutes, and I updated her about Nikki and me getting married, I told her a not-entirely-false-and-mostly-true story about us taking a side trip to Israel during our honeymoon and locating Lisa Redding at the Tzora kibbutz with the help of some friends in Shin Bet.
Once I’d finished describing Lisa’s mental condition—while omitting any references to Mossad—I explained about her arranging for one of her friends to have her power of attorney in case she was ever incapacitated.
When Ms. Brooks heard this, I thought she sounded relieved.
I suspected she realized she could use Lisa’s condition as an excuse for why she hadn’t been able to locate her in the first place, and a few minutes later, my suspicions were confirmed when she said, “I’m sure that’s why our office was having difficulty pinpointing her location. It was hard enough trying to locate her in a foreign country, but the fact that she’d moved twice in the last year made our task almost impossible.”
After assuring her I was in complete agreement, I said, “Now that we know Lisa Redding is incapable of taking care of Eleanor, I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear my wife and I would like to begin the process of legally adopting her.”
“You’re right. I’m not surprised to hear that, and of course, I think it’s wonderful. Every child needs a good stable home.”
“How would we go about starting the adoption process?”
“First of all, you need to recognize there’s a lot of legal paperwork involved when a non-related couple wants to adopt a child.”
“I’m aware of that, and when I get off the phone, I’ll be emailing you the contact information for Lisa’s caregiver, Rose Stillman. She’s the nurse who has Lisa’s power of attorney.”
“Okay, I’ll get in touch with her. I’ll also be mailing you the packet of materials you’ll need to fill out. I’m sorry to say it can’t be done electronically.”
“That’s fine. I’ll be away on business for a while, but my wife will be at our home address, so she can take a look at it.”
When Ms. Brooks didn’t say anything for a moment, I thought I might have said something wrong, but then when I heard her clicking the keys on her keyboard, I figured she must be looking up something.
“I was just going over the information you submitted when you were given temporary custody of Eleanor,” she said, “and I see the emergency certification we issued was based on a recommendation from Ms. Pack, one of the President’s Senior Advisors.”
Several months ago, when Nikki and I visited Eleanor after Jeremy’s death, we discovered she was being cared for by an elderly neighbor with a smoking habit, someone who could barely get around her own house with a walker. Despite the fact I considered those arrangements sufficient grounds for giving me temporary custody of Eleanor, Ms. Brooks hadn’t agreed with me, and thus, I’d immediately called Carlton and asked for his help.
He’d been eager to help, and although I’d just been expecting him to use his cover story as the EAI Director and give Ms. Brooks a phone call with a glowing recommendation of me, he’d called Sasha Gail Pack, one of the President’s Senior Advisors, and asked her to do it.
I didn’t have any idea Carlton knew her well enough to ask for a favor, but she’d immediately called Ms. Brooks and spun her some tale about the President and me having a close relationship. This had been enough of a recommendation for Ms. Brooks to issue an emergency certification giving me temporary custody of Eleanor.
“Yes,” I said, “I believe Ms. Pack called you when you indicated I hadn’t been sufficiently vetted for you to override the requirements necessary for issuing an emergency certification.”
Ms. Brooks cleared her throat. “Yes, that’s correct, but we got that straightened out when she faxed me over a letter of recommendation. I’m sure it won’t be a problem when I send her a notice she’ll need to submit another letter of recommendation in order for us to proceed with the adoption process.”
Since I’d never spoken to Sasha Gail Pack personally, I started to suggest a few other people who’d be willing to write letters of recommendation for me, but then I saw Ben Mitchell wave at me from across the courtyard. “That sounds fine, Ms. Brooks. I’ll look forward to working with you on Eleanor’s adoption.”
By the time we’d finished our conversation, Mitchell was standing in front of me. “Hey, Titus, I just ran into Olivia in the elevator. She said I might find you here.”
“What’s wrong with your voice?”
“Oh, I think it’s just allergies. I started getting a sore throat last night, and today I’ve been sneezing like crazy.”
“Are you sure you don’t have a cold? You sound awful.”
“I’ll be fine as soon as my allergy medicine kicks in.”
“I suppose you know Carlton will bump you from this mission if you’re not in tip-top shape.”
“I’m good to go. Really.”
“If you’re good to go, then let’s head on over to the library and do some reading.”
* * * *
As we walked over to the Agency’s library, I asked Mitchell how long he’d remained in Marrakesh after handing the flash drive over to me, and he said he’d been there until the Arab Summit had ended on Monday. He’d flown back to Washington on Tuesday.
“How did things go with your Iranian asset?” I asked. “Did Alviri continue to feed you good intel on the Iranian president’s meetings?”
“Oh, yeah. He managed to get his notes to me every day.”
“Frankly, that surprises me. I thought he might stand you up after he gave you the flash drive.”
“Why would he do that? The reason he contacted the Agency in the first place was to give us his notes from the Arab Summit. He didn’t get paid for the flash drive you delivered to the Israelis. We only paid him for President Rashad’s notes.”
“There’s two things wrong with what you just said, Ben, and if they weren’t important, I wouldn’t bring them up.”
“Yeah, right.”
“First of all, you don’t know whether Alviri contacted the Agency in order to give us intel on the Arab Summit or whether he was just using the Agency to get the flash drive to the Israelis. And, secondly, you don’t know if he got paid by the Israelis for the intel he delivered on the flash drive.”
“Okay, I see your point.”
“You need to be careful about making assumptions, Ben. Assumptions can get you killed.”
“Would I be wrong to assume you’re dragging me over here to the library so we can look up something related to our briefing?”
I placed my key card on the scanner mounted on the wall outside the Agency library. “You’d be wrong to assume that. We’re not here to look up anything.”
I held the door open for him and motioned him inside. “We’re here because it’s a quiet place where we’ll be able to read without being disturbed.”
“Read what?”
“We’re going to be reading the background documents the analysts have prepared for our briefing.”
“How can we read the background documents when we haven’t been briefed yet? Don’t they give us those after the briefing?”
I gave him my best smirky smile.
“Oh, I get it,” he said, nodding his head. “Someone gave you access to our briefing documents before our briefing. If I had to guess, I’d say it was Douglas.”
“No comment,” I said, pointing over to some chairs in front of a bookshelf on military hardwar
e. “Have a seat and we’ll get started.”
He pointed to my messenger bag. “Are the documents in there?”
“No, they’re on Novus. It’s a lot of reading, but I figured if we divided the sections up, then we gave each other a synopsis of what we’ve read, we should be ready for the big game.”
“Uh-oh. It sounds like you didn’t get your assigned reading done, and you need me to help you out.” He pulled out his Agency phone. “Don’t worry. I don’t mind helping you. However, I’d be surprised if my old Novus code from our last mission was still valid.”
I stuck my hand in my pocket and pulled out the white card the security officer had given me. “Here’s my new code.”
He looked down at the card. “Aren’t these codes personalized? Won’t the Agency computer nerds who monitor our systems be able to tell you’re logged into Novus on two different phones?”
“Probably, but by the time anyone gets around to questioning me, our briefing will be over, and we’ll have access to these documents anyway.”
Mitchell shrugged and entered the code on his screen.
In the meantime, I studied the table of contents and figured out how to divide up the documents between us. Since there were two sections, it was pretty straightforward.
Once Mitchell had opened up the Novus document, he asked, “What does Douglas mean here in his opening note when he mentions the experts who’ll be attending our briefing? Who are these experts?”
“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the DDO showed up. You know he considers himself an expert on the Middle East. Other than that, I have no idea.”
“Do you know if Olivia is directing our operation? When I saw her just now, she refused to tell me. Actually, she made me sorry I asked her in the first place.”
“No, it’s not Olivia. Our director will be Veronica Paisley. Since she’s new to the Ops Center, I doubt if you’ve ever worked with her before.”
“She’s a newbie? I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Assumptions, Ben. We shouldn’t make assumptions.”
“You can’t tell me you’re comfortable with having a novice at the helm when we’re heading over to Iraq.”
He was right.
* * * *
After Mitchell read the title page, “Briefing Documents for Operation Invisible Target,” he asked me why I thought the DDO had chosen the name Invisible Target for our operation.
I gave him my opinion on the subject, after which he gave me his opinion—different from my own—and then we discussed it.
That discussion went nowhere fast because we both agreed mission identifiers seldom described anything specific about the actual protocols. I also pointed out the DDO had a tendency to get a little too creative when it came to naming operations.
“It looks like the documents are divided into two sections,” Mitchell said. “Which section do you want me to read?”
“You choose. Would you rather read about the current political situation in Iraq or would you rather read about how Tehran is trying to influence the current political situation in Iraq?”
“I’ve just spent a month in Baghdad, so I can probably summarize the current political situation in Iraq without even reading this stuff. I’m sure it’s all about the election of Prime Minister Madi and how his rise to power is causing headaches in Tehran. I know that’s what everyone in Baghdad was talking about, especially the chief of station. I swear Garrison talked about it the whole time I was there.”
He looked up at me and smiled. “However, I’m not making any assumptions about that. The documents I’m about to read could be about something else entirely. My mind is completely open; free of any assumptions whatsoever.”
“Oh, I don’t know, Ben. What you said sounds about right to me. In this case, I’d say that was a pretty astute assumption.”
He ignored my comment and started reading about Iraq, and I started wading through the materials on the Iranian regime in Tehran. By the time we were finished, we had thirty minutes left before our briefing started.
I mentioned the timing to Mitchell before he started giving me a synopsis of what he’d just read. “Not to worry,” he said. “I can summarize my section in five minutes.”
“Let’s hear it then.”
“The Iraqi people are tired of their country being used by other countries to pursue their own agendas, and they’re tired of terrorist groups like ISIS. They’re tired of paramilitary groups under Tehran’s direction interfering in Iraqi politics, and they’re tired of the U.S. presence in their country. That’s the reason the people elected Abdul Madi as their new prime minister. Prime Minister Madi won the election because he promised to make Iraq an independent country again, free of all outside forces.”
“I can’t imagine a much more unattainable campaign promise than that one, and that’s saying a lot with the politicians we have today.”
“Making good on that promise will be tough. Although ISIS has been defeated, Tehran and Washington are both heavily invested in Iraq. The U.S. wants to keep troops there to keep an eye on Iran and prevent other terrorist groups from gaining a foothold in the region, and Iran has economic interests, as well as political reasons, for having a presence in Iraq.”
“Was there anything in the documents about the steps Prime Minister Madi is taking to implement his policy of being free of outside forces?”
“Yeah, he’s walking a tightrope between Tehran and Washington. Sometimes he’s thumbing his nose at Tehran and siding with our President about certain issues—like for instance, Iran’s nuclear ambitions. At other times, he’s turning his back on the U.S. and doing Tehran’s bidding—like allowing Iran to build a highway in northern Iraq, which will give them a land bridge all the way from Iran to the Mediterranean coast.”
“At the Arab Summit, there was talk about Saudi Arabia helping Iraq rebuild her country. Was that mentioned in the documents?”
“Yes, it was in there. The Saudi Crown Prince will travel to Baghdad next week to hold talks with Madi about giving them billions of dollars to rebuild the cities destroyed by ISIS. Naturally, the Saudis’ willingness to help Iraq won’t be applauded by the Iranian regime.”
“No, Iran and Saudi are at each other’s throats everywhere in the Middle East. We saw proof of that when we were in Yemen.”
“Okay, Titus. I did my synopsis in less than five minutes. It’s your turn now. Tell me how Tehran is trying to influence things in Iraq.”
“They’re employing the same tactics I’ve seen them use in Syria and Lebanon. It’s never just one approach. They use numerous means to gain influence, positive as well as negative. The positive ones include providing Iraq with educational assistance and supplying them with goods and services. On the negative side, they incite riots, aid terrorists, and create havoc in the Iraqi government by financing opposing political parties.”
“I know Iran is one of Iraq’s biggest trading partners. When I was in Baghdad, almost everything I saw in the supermarkets was from Iran.”
“The regime in Tehran also has its tentacles inside the Iraqi army, and they’ve been supplying some of Iraq’s political parties with truckloads of cash. To offset that, the U.S. is advising Prime Minister Madi to institute stringent reforms that would prevent both those scenarios from continuing.”
“So what’s the bottom line here?” Mitchell asked, as he put his phone back in his pocket. “Do these briefing documents tell you anything about our mission objective?”
“I’m guessing Operation Invisible Target will have something to do with helping Prime Minister Madi free himself from Iran’s orbit and become a satellite of the U.S.”
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“No, that could be it, but I was wondering if our mission might have something to do with the official visit of the Saudi Crown Prince to Baghdad next week. Maybe he’s the operation’s . . .” Mitchell paused and crooked his fingers to make air quo
tes, “. . . invisible target.”
“Let’s hope that’s not true. In my experience, it’s never an easy task to prevent an assassination, no matter who the target is or how much intel the analysts give you.”
“Are you kidding me? You’d love to be given an assignment like that. The more difficult the assignment, the better you like it.”
Once again, Mitchell had made a wrong assumption.
This time though, I didn’t correct him.
Chapter 24
Mitchell and I arrived in the Ops Center four minutes before our briefing was due to begin in RTM Conference Room A.
The Ops Center was the hub of all Agency operations and was made up of five different RTM Centers. The myriad of hallways connecting the RTM Centers—located in the basement of the Old Headquarters Building—meandered around like a maze and presented a challenge to most new operatives arriving for their first briefing.
As Mitchell and I got off the elevator, we turned left and headed down Corridor A toward RTM Center A.
At that moment, I suddenly remembered the silver-striped tie tucked away in my messenger bag, so I told Mitchell I’d meet him in Conference Room A, and I slipped inside a men’s restroom.
After putting on the tie and running my fingers through my hair a couple of times, I decided I was as professional-looking as I’d ever be, although I doubted my appearance would ever measure up to Carlton’s standards.
As I hurried out of the restroom, I ran straight into Veronica Paisley, who was also headed toward Conference Room A.
I immediately apologized. “I’m so sorry, Veronica. Are you okay?”
She laughed. “I’m fine, Titus. It looks like we’re both running late.”
Veronica didn’t look that much different than she had ten years ago, even though she’d changed her hairstyle. Back then, her blonde hair had been a lot darker and much longer. Now, it was a lighter shade of blonde and only came down to her shoulders.
She was wearing a stylish pair of red-framed glasses that covered most of her face, but just before we entered the conference room, she removed them, and she didn’t put them back on again until she sat down next to Katherine Broward, head of the Analysis and Strategic Assessment (ASA) Division.
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