by Vince Flynn
Like any other U.S. soldier, Coleman hated the thought that he or his men might be killed by an American-made weapon, especially a high-tech weapon that wasn’t supposed to be sold. Coleman finished reading the paragraph and looked up at the former Recon
Marine sitting across the table. “Michael, I think you and I should go take a look at his estate this evening.” On the top floor of the residential side of the White House was a large room that faced south called the Solarium. The room sat above the Eisenhower
Balcony and had large plate-glass windows running from the floor to the ceiling. Stevens liked the room because it was the brightest in the White House, and since he was starting to feel like a caged animal, he decided to move his lunch meeting up to the top floor, where he could actually see beyond the gates of the compound. He was scheduled to meet with the leaders of his party to go over the legislative agenda for Monday’s reconvening of the House and Senate.
Stevens looked out across the South Lawn toward the Washington Monument.
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The large green personnel carriers and tanks were clearly visible from his panoramic perch. “God, it’s only been four days since we got back from Camp David, and I already feel trapped.” Stevens shook his head at a flight of four green Cobra gunships working their way eastward across the Mall from the Lincoln Monument to the Capitol. The sight of all the military equipment so openly visible in the heart of Washington made him wonder if the decision to bring in the military was wise.
“Stu, are you sure this is the right thing to do?” Garret was sitting at a small desk feverishly writing. Without looking up he asked, “Is what the right thing to do?” Stevens waved his arm in front of him, gesturing toward the Mall. “Bringing in such a strong military presence. I mean, do we really need tanks in front of the Washington
Monument? It just. it just makes me look so harsh. Like I’m a dictator.”
“That’s what we need right now, Jim. I’ve talked to every pollster from New York to
L.A. over the last three days, and they’re all telling me the same thing. The American people want law and order returned to their capital. The voters are scared and they’re looking to you for guidance and leadership.
Bringing the military in will portray the right message. You’ll be seen as a strong and decisive leader.”
“I know, but what about what you said initially? That we’d look like the Chinese if we brought in the tanks?”
“Shit, that was before they killed the damn Speaker of the House in broad daylight and tried to blow us out of the sky. Things have gotten much more serious than they were after that first morning. The voters are scared. At first they got off on the thrill of seeing a couple of dinosaurs like Fitzgerald and Koslowski get assassinated. That initial thrill is gone, and they want a return to law and order. They’ll turn on their TVS when they sit down to eat dinner tonight, and they’ll see a stone-faced soldier sitting on the turret of a tank and they’ll be happy they have a strong President who’s willing to take action in a time of crisis. Trust me, Jim, I know what I’m doing on this one.”
COLEMAN AND THE O’ROURKES STAYED AT THE CABIN UNTIL ALMOST
10 A.M. , talking about which course of action to take with Arthur. After the O’Rourkes left for D.C Coleman spent most of the afternoon checking out the neighborhood where
Arthur lived. From his SEAL training, Coleman had developed a knack for memorizing maps. He drove down every street within five miles of Arthur’s estate, checking for unmarked service drives and paths that led from the road down to the water, making mental notes of anything and everything that might be useful.
Before taking any action against Arthur he wanted to be completely familiar with the neighborhood. The closer he got to Arthur’s estate the more details he took in: which houses had security cameras, which ones had Beware of Dog signs, and which ones had
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guardhouses. He only drove past Arthur’s gate once. Anything more than that might arouse some suspicion. Besides, he was more worried about the houses that bordered
Arthur’s. Augie’s file stated that neither had high-tech security systems. Both had security company signs at the end of the driveway, but neither had gates or fences, which probably meant the houses were wired but not the grounds. After his sight-seeing tour, Coleman drove out to Sparrows Point, just south of Baltimore on the Patapsco River. The large industrial yard was once entirely occupied by Bethlehem Steel, but with the decline of the U.S. steel industry it was now partitioned into extremely cheap warehouse and waterfront dock space. The SEAL Demolition and Salvage Corporation was located in a dirty, dank building that faced Old Road Bay on the east end of the point. The lease was a meager one thousand dollars a month for one thousand square feet of finished office space and another ten thousand square feet of bulk warehouse. Coleman pulled his Ford
Explorer into the large warehouse and got out. Earlier in the day he had called his only two employees and told them to meet him at the office around 4 P.M. They were standing next to the office checking diving equipment when he arrived. Dan Stroble and Kevin
Hackett were also former SEALS.
They had served on Coleman’s SEAL team for three years and had left the Navy about six months after their commander. Since the inception of the SEAL Demolition and
Salvage Corporation four months earlier, they had only done one job, for British
Petroleum. BP had quietly contracted to have one of their abandoned oil rigs in the North
Atlantic demolished.
Somehow, word had leaked out, and Greenpeace was mobilizing a group of protesters to occupy the rig and prevent the demolition. They wanted BP to dismantle the rig girder by girder. To the executives at BP the decision was simple: demolish the rig at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars or dismantle it piece by piece at an estimated cost of $5
million. BP scrambled to put together the demolition team and blow the rig before
Greenpeace could mobilize. BP’s best estimate was that they could have all of the charges in place and ready to go within forty-eight hours. They found out that a boat loaded with Greenpeace activists was docked in Reykjavik, Iceland, and set to leave port the following morning. The activists would arrive at the rig by noon the next day and storm the platform, creating an international media event that would bring public and political pressure down on BP to dismantle the rig. BP needed to slow the protesters down so they would have enough time to blow the rig. The vice President of operations at
BP was told to find a way to stop the activists from reaching the rig without making it look as if BP had had a hand in it. The executive made several calls to his contacts in
America and Britain and found out that a new, upstart company in Maryland might be perfect for the job.
The man called Coleman and explained the situation to him. He had twenty hours to get to Reykjavik and stop the boat from leaving the harbor. The man didn’t care how it was done, just so long as no one was hurt. Coleman had a rough idea of how much it would cost BP if they had to dismantle the rig, so he said he’d do the job for three hundred thousand dollars. The BP exec agreed, and Coleman, Stroble, and Hackett were on the next flight out of Dulles with their diving gear. They landed in Reykjavik just
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before sundown and were down at the pier by eleven that evening. During their tenure as
SEALS, they had spent countless hours swimming around dirty harbors attaching explosives to hulls and disabling propellers and rudders. The only thing that was difficult about the mission was the temperature of the water. Even with their neoprene wet suits they could stay in the water for no more than fifteen minutes at a time. They took turns swimming over to the ship from a berth about two hundred feet away. Using an acetylene torch, they cut away at the U-joint where the driveshaft met the propeller. The boat would be able to maintain steerage and prop speed up to about ten knots. Anything more than that and the laws of physics would take effect. The increased torque
on the propeller would cause the sabotaged joint that connected the driveshaft to the prop to snap. They sat at a cafe the next morning and wagered on whether the ship would make it out of the harbor. Coleman didn’t feel guilty about the job. He’d been around the ocean his whole life and had a deep respect for and healthy fear of it. Sending a couple thousand tons of steel to the ocean floor wouldn’t harm it a bit. As they drank coffee and waited for their 8
A.M. flight back to Washington, a tug moved in and towed the ship out to the main channel. The lines were released and the ship was under way. A white froth churned up behind the stern of the boat as it headed for the open sea. It had just cleared the seawall when the frothy wake subsided and the ship stalled, turning sideways in the middle of the channel. An hour later, Coleman, Stroble, and Hackett were on their way back to
Washington. Over the last month they had received two more offers for jobs, but they had told the prospective clients they were too busy to take the work.
Coleman slammed the door of his car and walked over to Stroble and Hackett. “How are you guys doing?”
“Great, sir. How about you?”
“Fine. Have you checked the messages?”
“Yep,” answered Stroble. “There was nothing on the machine.”
When Coleman asked if they’d checked the messages, he actually meant, have you checked the office and phones for bugs? They knew that eventually the FBI would put them under surveillance. They needed an alibi that would explain all of the time they’d spent together while planning for their mission, so with some seed money from Seamus they had started the SEAL Demolition and Salvage Corporation. They weren’t the only retired SEALS living in D.C. who were working with each other.
Coleman knew of two others a little older than him who ran a charter fishing operation out of Annapolis and had a sneaking suspicion that they did a little work for the
CIA on the side. There were also several other groups of SEALS that ran security firms, providing bodyguards for diplomats and corporate executives. Coleman and Seamus had agreed that the key to not getting caught was making sure they afforded the FBI no hard evidence. That meant no fingerprints, no eyewitnesses, and no ballistics that would link them to the killings.
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They wore gloves during every phase of the operation and kept their faces concealed.
The rifles used to kill Koslowski and Basset and the pistol used to kill Downs were now rusting at the bottom of the Chesapeake. No real evidence linked them to the murders. If the FBI came, all they would find would be three former SEALS trying to launch a new business venture. Coleman went into the office and came back out saying, “Let’s get the gear together. I want to take the boat down to Annapolis and do a bid on a project. If the weather stays nice, we might be able to get some fishing in on the way back. Let’s pack up and shove off in about thirty minutes.” While Stroble and Hackett gathered up the diving gear, Coleman topped off the tanks on the boat.
Within thirty minutes they were under way and headed for the Bay. They centered their conversation on inconsequential small talk until Stroble finished going over the boat with a sensor. Coleman stood behind the wheel on the flybridge and watched the movements of the ships and small vessels around them. He feared that the FBI might try to bug the office, his apartment, or his car, but that didn’t scare him.
Those could be detected, and if they were dumb enough to bug him, they would tip their hand. What he feared most was the use of directional microphones. The CIA had been using them for years, and the technology was getting better and better. A person could stand over three hundred feet away and eavesdrop on someone’s conversation by merely pointing a microphone at them. The CIA had developed the technology to listen through walls and other hard materials where it was difficult to place a bug. As they reached the open water of the Bay, Stroble and Hackett huddled next to Coleman on the flybridge. With the engines roaring, the wind rushing past, and not another ship within a mile, Coleman started to fill them in on the details of Seamus and Michael’s meeting with
Augie. Neither Stroble nor Hackett was surprised by the story.
They’d heard the rumors about Higgins before, and it seemed well within the realm of possibilities that he was responsible for the murders of Olson, Turnquist, and their bodyguards. By the time they reached Annapolis, Coleman had given them all of the details regarding the meeting he’d had with the O’Rourkes. They cruised south past
Annapolis to Tolly Point, and Coleman headed for shore. He told Stroble and Hackett to stay below until they were back out in the Bay. The sun was setting in the west, and patches of gray clouds were moving in off the Atlantic. Rain would be welcomed but not crucial. Still atop the bridge, Coleman maneuvered his boat into the marina at the end of
Tolly Point. He saw someone standing next to the gas pumps on the dock and raised his hand to block the low sun. Coleman swung the boat in and came up alongside the dock.
Michael jumped on board holding a fishing pole and tackle box.
“Welcome aboard, Congressman. It looks like we’re going to have a nice night for fishing. Stow your gear and grab us a couple of beers out of the cooler.” Spinning the wheel around, Coleman headed back through the channel. Michael set his gear down and flipped open a red cooler.
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Grabbing two beers, he climbed the ladder to the bridge and handed one to Coleman.
Coleman smiled and nodded. A second later they passed the no-wake buoys, and
Coleman pushed the throttles down, gunning the engines. As the noise increased, Michael whispered, “Are Dan and Kevin here?”
“Yeah, they’re below. I told them to stay there until we were out of sight. Did you have any trouble getting here?”
“No, as far as I could tell, no one followed me.” Coleman looked at his watch. It was
5:21 P.M. “The sun should be down in another fifteen minutes, and then we have to stop and pick up some equipment …. We should get there around seven P.M.” Coleman hugged the coast as they headed south toward Thomas Point.
The Bay was calm. A light breeze was coming in from the east, and the boat traffic was light. Most of the recreational boaters on the Chesapeake were done until next spring. The temperature was around fifty-eight degrees and dropping. He continued past
Thomas Point for exactly 1.3 miles and turned due east, cutting across the main shipping channel of the Bay. Stroble and Hackett, in the meantime, had changed out of their clothes and put on wet suits. Michael stood on the flybridge with a pair of binoculars and scanned their path for any ships. When they reached the other side of the channel, Coleman pulled the boat up next to one of the large red buoys that marked the shipping channel and dropped anchor. Stroble and Hackett had their diving gear on and were giving each other one last safety check, going over each other’s equipment like pilots doing a preflight instrument check.
Coleman and Michael stayed atop the flybridge and kept a lookout for the Coast
Guard while Stroble and Hackett went over the side. About five minutes later, they came back up with a large trunk. Michael and Coleman lifted the heavy container into the boat.
It was five by four feet and about three feet high and was made out of dark green fiberglass. Coleman popped the hermetically sealed clasps and opened the trunk. Set in foam cutouts on the top section were six pairs of night-vision goggles.
Coleman grabbed four of them and handed them to Michael. Next, he grabbed two handles and lifted the top section out of the container, revealing a cache of weapons also set in foam cutouts. Coleman snatched three MP-5 submachine guns and a sniper’s rifle from the container along with silencers and ammunition clips. After closing the airtight trunk, he and Michael handed it back over the side to Stroble and Hackett. They took the trunk back down to the bottom and covered it with rocks. When Stroble and Hackett were back on board, Coleman raised the anchor and headed back across the Bay on a southwesterly course. Stroble and Hackett checked all of the weapons to make sure they
were clean and well oiled and then packed them into waterproof backpacks. When they were finished, Hackett took the helm so Michael and Coleman could get ready.
Everyone was fitted with a waterproof radio and headset that was worn under their wet suits. About a half a mile from Curtis Point, Coleman took back the helm and slowed the boat to about ten knots. He pulled to within about a quarter of a mile from shore and
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turned south, counting the houses as he went. When they passed the sixth house in from the point, Coleman told Stroble and Hackett to put on their night-vision goggles and scan the ridgeline of the cliff and the docks for people.
The entire shoreline consisted of an elevated cliff that ranged from fifty to eighty feet in height. Arthur’s estate sat in the middle of a small swale. The cliff on either side of his estate was about ten feet higher than it was in front of his. Stroble and Hackett announced that no one was in sight. Coleman continued for another four hundred feet and pulled to within thirty feet of shore, cutting the engines and dropping anchor. Before leaving the bridge, he turned off all of the running lights. It was a good night for reconnaissance.
What little moon there was, was sitting low in the night sky and partially obscured by clouds.
Coleman gathered everyone close together for a radio check and quick briefing. He spoke in a low whisper. The acoustics of the water caused sound to travel much farther than people realized. “All right, I’m Zeus, Michael is Apollo, Dan you’re Hermes, and
Kevin you’re Cyclops.” Hackett smiled at the code name, which referred to the sight on his sniper’s rifle. “Everyone check your watches. I’m reading nineteen zero eight on my mark.” Coleman waited for his watch to strike 7:08 P.M. and said, “Mark.” Everyone synchronized their watches. “Arthur’s estate is loaded with motion sensors, laser trip wires, and tremor plates. There is no way we are going to sneak in there without being noticed. What I want to do tonight is get a better look at the two neighbors’ yards and get a general feel for the layout.
