Latimer’s charges against General Slaider, and his in turn, Slaider’s against Latimer, sound too much like the hyperbole of American politics. What they most affectionately refer to as “mudslinging”—not to be taken too seriously. And tomorrow, the succession would be resolved. So who is responsible for the destruction and the chaos?
Lal assumed that security at the joint session would be extraordinarily high tomorrow. He had instructed his own security forces to begin a review of the capitol security situation. Moves on such short notice have decided advantages and disadvantages from a security standpoint, but mostly disadvantages. He would have liked more time.
Lal drew deeply on his cigarette. He did not wish to get himself killed, a victim of America’s enemies. Under the circumstances, his presence at the joint session would surely be considered inappropriate. But Paul Latimer requested his attendance specifically and for the sake of good relations and the fusion joint venture, Lal decided he would have to go. But he must be careful. He might even wear a bulletproof vest. Perhaps not. That would be very damaging if the press people were to gain knowledge of this. Then again, perhaps yes.
He watched the blue-gray smoke curl from the tip of his cigarette. Who? Who was really behind all this?
78
This time the telephoned bomb threat was real. The army sapper looked at the device carefully. High explosive plastic. Rumanian. Best stuff in the world. This was one big charge. Biggest charge he’d ever worked on in a noncombat situation. Easily enough to take out a quarter the capitol building. Placed where it was in the basement of the capitol, it would have eliminated the entire Congress of the United States, sitting as it will be in joint session today, if it had gone undetected.
He hadn’t decided on the detonating mechanism yet. He needed more time to study the device. He took pictures using mirrors on long poles to get to as much of the hardware as possible. He and his team would study the pictures, looking for telltale clues, analyzing enlargements. But right now he was just talking to it. Establishing a relationship.
The building had been cleared, the press and media people all cordoned off. All radios and electronic gear within a thousand-foot radius of the device were turned off.
The Congressional proceedings had to be postponed. America watched transfixed as TV anchormen and anchorwomen covered yet another public humiliation, another frustration of the national will. But to get a device as destructive as this inside the Capitol there must have been inside collusion. Perhaps President Drummond had been sensible after all, requiring his cabinet to relocate to a secure facility. People who doubted the necessity of his executive order began to reconsider. There would be no meeting today in the Capitol. It would take several hours at least, probably all day, to disarm the device, the electronic media were advised.
Three hours later, to the horror of the viewing public, the device detonated. The wrong wire severed, the wrong screw loosened. No one knew. Perhaps an investigation would learn what caused the explosion. Five Army bomb specialists were killed instantly. The entire south wing was destroyed, taking the House Chamber on the second floor down with it. The remainder of the building was seriously damaged and unusable.
By evening, General Slaider reported to the Executive Council that a ring of double agents within the Central Intelligence Agency had been discovered by Army Intelligence. Two CIA agents were killed during a raid and another was critically wounded. He later died of his wounds, but not before implicating Venezuelan and Brazilian agents. General Slaider announced to the Executive Council that the Brazilians purchased the plastic explosives for the Capitol bombing from Venezuela, who got it from Iran, who got it from an Islamic extremist group operating out of Rumania.
Secretary Llewellyn ordered a battalion of Army MPs detached from the MP brigade and reassigned to protect every member of Congress. The UN Situation Center had received briefings from General Slaider’s staff.
Quietly, the Executive Council ordered the CIA out of the domestic intelligence and Homeland Security information loops until the extent of the compromise of agency operations could be assessed. The Defense Intelligence Agency was directed to lead the intelligence community until an assessment of the extent of the CIA compromise could be completed, according to the briefing from Secretary Llewellyn’s spokesperson to the chairman of the Select Subcommittee on Intelligence.
Lal was certain that news of the Venezuelan and Brazilian connection and complicity within the Central Intelligence Agency was leaked to the press by General Slaider’s staff. By the following morning headlines proclaimed the uncovering of a conspiracy by oil-producing countries and elements within the United States government. Once again there was general praise for the quick action by the military for uncovering the plot and protecting the country from treachery, now confirmed to be both internal and external.
Sensibly, Secretary of State Llewellyn declared a postponement of any new attempt at a joint session of Congress until security could be ensured for such a meeting.
79
“Emerson, are you awake?”
“Yes.”
“I would like to talk with you. Do you mind?”
“I’m hardly in a position to deny you anything, General.
“Yes, that’s true enough. Well, we’ll just sit here and chat some more. You know you’re very good for me. A devil’s advocate . . . devil from my perspective of course.”
Slaider took the seat next to the president’s bed.
“You’re looking very fit Emerson. I trust you have been reading the Post?”
Drummond did not respond.
“You’re amazed, aren’t you, at how far I’ve gotten? It has not really been as difficult as you might expect. In the eighties, the CIA came very close to setting up a quite effective shadow agency outside the purview of the Congress. Only bad luck brought that scheme to light. Of course, you know all about that. But you know, I always found it amusing that the press and the democrats in Congress were so fixated on Ronald Reagan that they only wanted to use that discovery to pillory him or at least embarrass him. It was idiotic. They missed the whole point. What was important wasn’t that the Director of the CIA should be a party to such a thing. No, no, no. Emerson. What they didn’t ask and should have was why this attempt to set up a shadow intelligence agency was made in the first place. That question never aroused any interest in the press or in the Congress. Do you know why such a thing was attempted, Emerson?”
“I’m too dense for such obscure reasoning. Why don’t you tell me, as I’m sure you are planning to do anyway?”
“The obvious answer is that those men wanted to operate independent of oversight because they did not trust Congress regarding the formulation of America’s foreign policy. They saw the Congress as obstructionist and hostile to the foreign policy prerogatives of the president. They were determined to carry out the president’s policies while providing him with the shield of deniability. If any of their activities were discovered, they could take the heat and the president could claim he knew nothing about it. Frankly, it was a very tempting arrangement from a president’s point of view, though completely illegal, of course. As I said that is the obvious answer and quite wrong.”
The president showed no reaction.
“Shall I tell you why it was attempted?”
Emerson answered by nodding his head in an exaggerated show of anticipation.
“It was attempted because men are fallible and the systemthe Congressprovided an opportunity for such a shadow agency to be established and so given the opening, the attempt was made. It was nothing so noble as misdirected patriots attempting to serve their president, even if it meant breaking the law. No, no. It was simply that so much discretionary money was available with such flawed oversight that it simply had become possible. The circumstances of Iran or the Contras was only incidental. No, these men were serving their own vision of what America’s foreign policy should be in a way that the Congress inadvertently allowed, if only tem
porarily.
“And just how do you know this?”
“Emerson, I was one of them, of course.”
“I must say, by now I’m not surprised by any illegal activity you justify with your contorted rationalizations. And now you’ve chosen a larger objective, a reformation of world governments in your image.”
“Precisely. One never knows when fate will deal you a surprise, Emerson, but so far no one has discovered the shadow military force that the Congress has been funding with my discretionary account. Fifty billion dollars of unallocated money buys you just about anything you want in the subversion game, especially when you are working from within, as I am. You know, ever since the Vietnam war, every chairman of the joint chiefs has known about the shadow forces. Nothing was said and nothing was done about it because, no one wanted it discovered on his watch. And soon enough—for each chairman—it became useful to have. Dirty tricks. Disappearances. Killings, when necessary. So it survived and as with everything else spawned in Washington, it grew. Except that until my tenure, its operations had always been on foreign soil. I saw no good reason for such a limitation. I’m shocking you, I know, Emerson. But the time for mincing words is rather over, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Tell me, general, why do you feel safe in keeping me alive? Are you so confident in the loyalty of your forces?”
“I see, Emerson, that you don’t understand the nature of these forces. They are not necessarily permanent, full-time, uniformed personnel merely operating with a hidden agenda. More often than not, they are specialists from the private sector called in to do some portion of a job the whole picture of which they rarely are in a position to see. And then they vanish back into the misty mass from which they came. Or they can be legitimate Armed Forces personnel doing they know not what, but following orders. You really have no idea how much covert capability the Congress pays for with no clue what it is doing.
“It works because they don’t see the big picture. Only their small piece. When Rumsfeld changed the balance of military forces by expanding special operations forces to meet the terrorist threat he created not just a unique fighting capability for the United States, but a unique subversive force as well. Meant for use against foreign countries, of course, but with proper motivation that is just a technicality. Or they can be highly motivated special agents from our numerous clandestine forces, who believe in following orders without having to know why. Depending on the job that needs to be done, you choose from the pool that makes the most sense. To stage your assassinationI never meant for you to be killed, by the wayto blow up the power lines, the resources came from the private sector. Actually, quite an accomplished team in their own way. For the bomb that blew up the capitol, it was several of the uniformed but motivated types. The five who died were simply unavoidable collateral damagean odious phrase, I knowto the nonmilitary mind.
“You’d be surprised how many there are who will simply follow orders and execute their mission whatever that may be. Your medical staff here, for example, was carefully chosen. They know you are the president and that you are not dead. But it does not matter to them, because they are doing the job they were ordered to do and have shown a propensity in the past to do just that, follow orders. Besides, nobody leaves here, just yet, so it doesn’t matter what they think, really.”
“General Slaider, I know what you stand for and I’m not impressed at all.”
“But the best is yet to come, Emerson. And I am afraid our chats will have to stop for a while. I will be making a trip to our friends, the Yellow Menace.”
80
“What do we do now, Paul?”
“Warren, right this second, I haven’t the foggiest idea what to do. But I can tell you this, Slaider means business. He’s out to take over the government of the United States and he’s doing a damn good job of it. The bombings have got the public on his side; he’s got everyone seeing oil terrorists and United Nations conspirators everywhere; I think the count is now thirty-seven states under military jurisdiction; he’s stymied the Congress by destroying any place they seem about to use for a meeting; he’s either killed or neutralized Emerson; except for your support he’s neutralized me; he’s managed to do god knows what with half the leadership that was in Washington; the press is painting him as the only competent person in a leadership role, the only person getting anything done, and ironically they’re not too far wrong with that assessment.”
“The Navy and the Marines are still uncommitted, Paul,” General Stoner said.
Latimer was startled by a knock on the office door. The door opened and a message was handed to General Stoner.
Stoner read the message and then turned to Latimer.
“The Western European Alliance wants assurances regarding the control of the tactical nuclear weapons still in Europe. With the political and command structure in the US going down the toilet, they’re concerned about whose finger is on the little red button.” Stoner stopped but did not seem finished.
“And . . . ?” Latimer asked.
“And they want all US nuclear weapons sequestered and placed under Alliance protection until we settle down over here and get a legally constituted government in place. Slaider has refused their request. Strategic weapons come under Air Force and Navy jurisdiction. But the tactical stuff is all ground-related and comes under Army jurisdiction. And we still have quite a number of the nuclear artillery pieces and nuclear-capable short range missiles there.”
“What do you think they’ll do next?”
“Well, of course this is the big fear we always had about the Russians, that a military coup would place their nuclear weapons under military rather than political control.”
“What was our plan in that event?” Latimer asked.
“There wasn’t much we could do. We were to sit and watch what happened. Unless something directly threatening to the US occurred, we decided it would be their problem.”
“Our allies apparently have a different plan,” Latimer said.
“Well, these weapons are on their territory. That makes them the target it they are misused. I imagine they will upgrade their request to a demand pretty damn quick.”
“If the media pick up on this, perhaps it might reverse the popular support for Slaider in the press, or at least get the people to focus on a return to legitimate civilian government? And if there were further military unrest . . . ?”
“I suppose it’s possible, Paul. But what do you mean by further military unrest? We already had an air base invaded by the Army. Are you suggesting retaliation? You’re walking a very dangerous line here. It won’t take much at this point to tip this thing into a war between the forces. This is a war the Air Force can’t win even if I wanted to fight it, which I don’t.”
“It doesn’t have to be a big thing. Just something that sounds out of control to the Alliance and to the public . . . to scare them, and to get the American public to see what is going on and that the risks of letting the military continue to govern America are enormous.”
“It’s a fine line we military boys don’t do well navigating, Paul. Once you let this genie out of its bottle you may not get it back in. We may end up in a military factional war.”
“I don’t think we have any choice but to risk it, Warren, unless you’re content with watching a military takeover of the United States.”
Both men fell silent. Finally, General Stoner asked Latimer, “What kind of an action did you have in mind?”
“How about an Air Force strike on the missile battery that took a shot at me on my way to the mountain? It’s limited. We can get good press exposure. We can make a case that it was a rogue outfit and that we were actually taking an action to de-escalate the command chaos.”
“This could really blow up in our faces, Paul.”
“Look, Warren, do you believe that Slaider is out to take control of the government of the United States?”
“Yes. As incredible as it seems, yes, I’m convinced that t
hat is just what he’s doing.”
“Do you think Slaider’s plan is in the best interest of the American people if it destroys our Constitutional form of government? Do you think anything else will stop him if we don’t take some action, even desperate risks, now?”
“No. But are we risking a worse fate for America by what we are going to start, if it goes wrong, than if we were to let Slaider win? In my view, whatever he wins, it’s only temporary. He can’t keep blowing up buildings forever. And that’s the nub of my problem. Just what the hell is he actually trying to accomplish? It still doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“You’ll have to figure that out to whatever level of clarity you need. I don’t really give a rat’s ass what he thinks he’s doing. I’m going to just focus on the facts. I swore to uphold the constitution of the United States and by god that’s what I need you to help me do. Everything else is just bullshit.”
General Stoner thought for several more seconds. Finally, he leaned over Latimer’s desk and pressed a button summoning his adjutant.
81
The farmer raised his head quickly, reflexively. Unable to assimilate the attack on his senses, his body bent over, his hands clutching his head desperately trying to stifle the surge of sound crushing him in an engulfing wave of pain. The screaming sonic boom exploded over him and through him like nothing he had ever experienced before—nothing like this overwhelming, mind-stopping, time-stopping shock of energylike a gut punch by a huge fist. No, he thought, it was more like . . . like it had entered his body, every organ, every cell, even every molecule and atom, and then shaken every one of those things as hard as it could. The screaming whine of the engines left him dazed.
On Deception Watch Page 33
