“Well, I…”
“Let me supply it for you,” Brognola said. “In short, sir, you are well and truly fucked.”
Heller looked up at the harsh words. “You can’t talk to me like that.”
“I can,” Brognola said. “I have. Mr. Heller, you are going to go away for a very long time.”
“I want my lawyer,” Heller said.
“I don’t think you understand,” Brognola said. “I thought I was making the situation very clear. I will try again. Do you have any idea the sort of damage that could be done to this nation if it came to light that a highly placed government official was complicit in acts of terrorism and murder, much less an active participant in and accessory to them?”
“But I wasn’t—”
“Spare me the act,” Brognola said. “I’ve seen the evidence against you. I know what you’ve done. There may be people in the world you can fool with your wide-eyed histrionics, but I am not one of them. You, Mr. Heller, are very shortly going to disappear into the deepest, darkest hole available to the United States government.”
“What do you mean?” There was real fear in Heller’s voice.
“You’ve heard of Guantanamo Bay, of course,” Brognola said. “And I know you’re aware of the supposed ‘secret prisons’ operated by the Central Intelligence Agency throughout the world. You sponsored a resolution condemning them, didn’t you?”
“I don’t recall.”
“Of course not,” Brognola said. “No matter. Mr. Heller, there are certain people so bad, so dangerous, people who represent so imminent a threat to the United States, that they cannot be allowed to see the light of day. Now, the United States government is not composed of murderous barbarians, despite what you may have heard on certain cable news channels. If this were some banana republic, and if I represented the sort of people that, say, TBT believes people the U.S. government and its military, why, I would just draw a pistol from within my jacket and put a bullet in your head.”
Heller flinched. Obviously he feared that exactly that would be his fate.
“Relax, Mr. Heller,” Brognola said. “I have no intention of killing you. I am, however, going to make you disappear.”
“What do you mean?”
“In a few minutes,” Brognola said, “you’re going to be transferred. You will be taken to a prison facility known to only a handful of people within the United States government, including the President himself. There, you will spend the rest of your natural life with other traitors, terrorists and murderers—people who share a quality in common. Like you, all of them are important enough that we cannot have the public exposed to news of the full extent of their crimes. If ever the American people knew just how far you were willing to go, simply for money, they might well lose all hope in the government. Corrupt as it often is, it’s the only government we have, Mr. Heller. And it is my pleasure to see to it that a treasonous piece of filth such as yourself never again threatens it.”
“No!” Heller shouted. He tried to rise, but the chains on his waist and around his ankles stopped him from becoming fully upright. He landed heavily in his chair again. “Please! I’ll cut a deal! Anything!”
“There are no deals,” Brognola said. “There is only justice.” He rose and walked out. Heller was still shrieking and wailing as the door closed behind Brognola. Without missing a beat, the big Fed opened the door adjacent to the interrogation room. There, he found Ambassador Wu Lok sitting in front of the two-way mirror, watching in rapt horror as Heller put his face in his hands and wept like a child.
Brognola closed the door behind him and sat opposite Lok. The ambassador wasn’t bound. He had with him a small suitcase, which had been brought to him from the Chinese Embassy.
“You heard?” Brognola asked.
“I did,” Wu said grimly.
“I want there to be no misunderstanding here, Wu,” Brognola said. “We’re fully aware of what your government has tried to do. And we know it’s not the first time.”
“You can prove nothing.”
“I can prove a lot of things,” Brognola snapped, “and we’re well past the point at which you’ve got any leverage with me, so drop the attitude.”
Wu looked humbled. He bowed his head slightly. “As you say.”
“Now,” Brognola said, “I know, for example, that there’s an off-the-books Type 052 Luhu-class destroyer sitting in international waters just beyond our reach. And I know it’s not the only craft of its kind.”
Wu looked surprised, then alarmed that he had given away too much through his reaction.
“Yes,” Brognola said, “you should be worried. We’re completely aware of most of what you do, you know,” he said, only partly bluffing. “We know that you extend the hand of friendship only to hold a knife behind your back. We know you’re working against us. Trade between our peoples is an important thing, Wu, but don’t think we won’t sacrifice it if we have to. Everyone will suffer if we do, but we won’t let your government continue to attack us from the shadows.”
“You intend to do what, exactly?”
“Well, we sure as hell can’t try you,” Brognola said. “The world doesn’t need that sort of polarizing event right now. No one will benefit from the publicity. You brought us close enough to the brink that time your people seized that radar plane and its crew, a few years back.”
“Tell me what you require of me,” Wu said simply.
“Take whatever boat you’ve got waiting to your destroyer,” Brognola said. “Go home. Tell your handlers in Beijing that if they want an open war, all they’ve got to do is keep working against us as they’ve been doing. Tell them that with every sleeper cell and covert, plausibly deniable operation they conduct on American soil, or against American interests abroad, the world edges closer and closer to a war between our nations. Make sure they understand that no one—no one—will benefit if that happens.”
“I am no one’s servant,” Wu said indignantly.
“No?” Brognola said. “Then you can join Heller in a prison so secret, a place where you’ll be buried so deep, that you’ll die never again seeing daylight or another human face. Do you really want that?”
“You know I do not,” Wu said.
“Then do as I tell you,” Brognola said. “Get on your ship, go back to China and don’t ever come back here.” The big Fed stood, smoothed his suit and opened the door. He turned back to give Wu one last, hard look. “We’ll be watching you, Wu,” he warned. “And we won’t ever forget.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5248-0
Special thanks and acknowledgment to Phil Elmore for his contribution to this work.
SABOTAGE
Copyright © 2010 by Worldwide Library.
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Sabotage Page 27
