Black Flagged Apex

Chapter 56





2:14 PM

The White House Oval Office

Washington, D.C.



The president stared at the phone for a second and glanced at Jacob Remy, who shrugged. The situation room's senior watch officer had requested the president's presence in the main conference room. Normally, this request would be passed through his national security advisor, or someone a little higher up in the chain-of-command.

"Patch the watch officer through," he said out loud.

"Mr. Lee, you're connected to the president," his secretary said.

"Mr. President, I apologize for this unorthodox request, but we've had a major development. Major General Bob Kearney needs to speak with you. They've figured out what happened to the remaining canisters, but it's complicated, sir. He's standing by."

"Tell General Kearney that I'm on my—"

"Pardon the interruption, Mr. President, but he said that you'd want to talk to him before entering the situation room. General Sanderson was involved."

Jacob Remy stood up from his comfortable chair and gave the president a concerned look. He nodded a second later. The president had no idea where this would go, but he was fairly certain it would be painful. Kearney had vouched for Sanderson's NCTC liaison, who appeared to have been a True America undercover operative. His Washington, D.C., career would hit a wall if the evidence officially supported Shelby's theory that Sanderson had planted a traitor on the task force.

"All right. Put Major General Kearney on," the president said.

"Mr. President, General Kearney. Sorry for the subterfuge, but I have a situation that requires special handling."

"What do you mean by that? Sanderson's situation is already complicated enough."

"Are we on speakerphone, Mr. President?"

"Yes. I'm with my advisor, Jacob Remy. The room is clear."

"We've discovered six convoys suspected of carrying bottled water contaminated with the Zulu virus."

"Convoys? Bottled water?" he said, glancing at the pitcher of water on the silver tray at the edge of his desk.

"It appears that True America never intended to poison municipal water supplies. Sanderson's team tracked the canisters to a hidden facility in Pennsylvania, where they were used to lace bottles with the virus. Thousands of bottles headed to different targets. They managed to stop one of the convoys at its point of origin in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, at one of the Crystal Source spring water distribution plants."

"Have they figured out the convoy's target?"

"Yes, sir. The shipment was manifested and scheduled for delivery to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The delivery paperwork looks authentic."

"Good God. The General Assembly is scheduled to start a two-week session tomorrow. Do we know any of the other targets?"

"Negative, sir. The lead drivers of each convoy were given sealed boxes with preprogrammed GPS units, a satellite phone and delivery paperwork. Only the driver knows the target."

"Where is Honesdale?"

"Near Scranton, sir."

"Have you notified Director Shelby? They have an entire task force in Scranton."

"I've been debating that," Kearney said.

"What? I'm not sure I'm hearing you correctly, General. What exactly is there to debate?"

"This is why I wanted to talk with you offline. Sanderson's team has unfinished business. The FBI task force could interfere," Kearney said.

"Go ahead."

Jacob Remy was shaking his head slowly, expressing the same sentiment that the president was feeling. It had been a big mistake to let Sanderson work his way into the task force.

"One of the convoys is untraceable. It left Honesdale this morning around nine—"

"How is this one untraceable?"

"Sanderson provided the NSA with a list of cell phone numbers for the drivers that were provided by Crystal Source's operations manager. Only the lead driver for each convoy is with True America. The rest are employees diverted from the company's normal distribution schedule. We know that six convoys left the facility. NSA has been able to locate phones in five of the convoys, including the one sitting in Honesdale. The missing convoy was smaller than the rest, consisting of three trucks. NSA is getting no hits from the convoy. Bad luck, really."

"Or they're all equipped with sat-phones. They might all be involved with True America," the president said.

"That's a distinct possibility, sir. This might be their most important convoy. The others consisted of six vehicles each. Either way, tracking that convoy may no longer be important. The convoy left at nine. If its target was located in either Washington, D.C., or New York City, it may have already delivered the water. Sanderson's team has volunteered to take the necessary steps to identify the convoy's destination. If the FBI descends on the bottled water facility too quickly, they'll render the Sanderson option unviable."

"The fact that you're speaking vaguely gives me the impression that I don't want to know the details of Sanderson's operation."

"That's correct, sir. All we're asking for is a few hours."

"We? Are you working for Sanderson now?"

"Terrence has been a close friend of mine since West Point. I trust him without question or hesitation. His methods are unconventional, and he's not afraid to twist arms."

"He twisted mine pretty hard. I didn't appreciate that," the president said.

"The bruises and twists are a small price to pay for the results he consistently delivers. I trust him, Mr. President."

"I can't exactly order Shelby to stand down to give Sanderson's team some time to work their magic. How do you propose I handle this in the situation room meeting?"

"May I suggest a much smaller meeting for now? We can deal with the convoys still on the road using SOCOM assets. Local law enforcement can be called in separately to handle any situations precluding military intervention. We can get a jumpstart on the convoys while we wait for Sanderson to provide the missing convoy's destination."

"Who is tracking the convoy right now?"

"The National Security Agency. They're tracking the convoys live using cell phone GPS locator data and satellite imagery."

"Shelby will go haywire when he finds out this was done behind his back," the president said.

"If Sanderson's team works fast, we might be able to sneak this past him," Kearney said.

"Little has gone smoothly over the past week…and nothing gets by Shelby. This is guaranteed to get ugly," he said and paused.

He didn't look at Remy. This was his decision to make.

"Tell Sanderson that I'll hold off notifying the FBI, but I won't order Shelby to cease and desist if he catches wind of this. General, will you do me a favor and discreetly bring General Gordon to the Oval Office? Notify your source at the NSA. I want them video conferenced into the meeting. Coordinate with Mr. Lee in the watch center to transfer the NSA's feeds to the screens in my study. Be up here in five minutes," the president said, disconnecting the call.

"This is like dealing with the devil," he sighed.

"Preventing a biological attack on the United Nations General Assembly is worth shaking hands with Satan himself," Remy said.

"This is clearly a politically motivated attack on world stability. Right in line with some of True America's hardcore rhetoric and their mainstream talking points."

I think we go after them immediately. Shut the entire organization down," Remy suggested.

"Greely and his band of nutcases just made that a little easier for us, didn't they?"

"I have a feeling that the rest of the targets will seal that deal. We'll have to move fast to take advantage of the public outrage and prevent their political action group from generating any significant momentum. I'm seeing another primetime television address," Remy said.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. We still have five convoys to stop," the president said.

"I'll bring Beck up to speed and have him prepare a comprehensive strategy that we can implement as soon as we've safeguarded the American people," Remy said, referring to the president's chief political advisor.

"Sounds good. Let's get the study reconfigured to handle this. I want this sealed off from the rest of the staff. Just you, me and the two generals. We'll bring in others as we need them. I have a plan that might help us deal with Shelby, in the short run and the long run," the president said.

"Good. I was beginning to worry about him," Remy said.

"I've always worried about him."