Transfer of Power

chapter 28
The apartment was nice. It had been decorated by his mother. She had insisted on flying to D.C. to help her son get settled in. Now that Dallas was an important figure in Washington, he'd have to entertain. Mrs. King had loaded up her son with the best that Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and Restoration Hardware could provide. The two-bedroom apartment in Adams-Morgan cost him nineteen hundred dollars a month, but it was worth it. It was only a couple of blocks away from some of Washington's best nightspots, there were plenty of women around, and it was close to work.

Dallas King sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen with a cup of coffee in one hand and the remote control to his TV in the other. He was waiting for the seven A.M. top-of-the-hour CNN news update. Dallas took a sip of coffee and looked down the hall to his bedroom. Through the cracked door he glimpsed the lean leg of his lovely little Asian hostess, Kim. She had been everything he had hoped and then some. After King finished his meeting with Sheila Dunn, he had moved to the bar for one more glass of wine. Someone must have explained to the hostess who he was because she began asking questions about the crisis. King worked it for everything it was worth, stressing his role as Vice President Baxter's closest adviser, complaining about the pressure, and finally telling her how much he wanted to be with her. By the time one A.M. rolled around, he had her punched out and on the way to this apartment.

As he sipped his coffee, CNN came back from a commercial break. King turned up the volume and listened to the anchor start off with the lead story of the morning. Footage of a candlelight vigil that had taken place the night before flashed across the screen. The anchor announced that an estimated fifty thousand people had taken part in the silent march from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol. Next came more footage of massive crowds pressing against police barricades in an effort to glimpse the White House. This relatively calm footage was replaced by images of protestors burning American flags in Gaza, the West Bank, Baghdad, and Damascus.

King shook his head and muttered, "If they keep that shit up, we'll have no choice but to storm the place."

The anchor and the correspondent talked for almost a minute about the official reactions of governments around the Middle East and then broke away for a live briefing being delivered by Director Roach of the FBI.

Roach stood in front of a Justice Department podium and started out reading from prepared text. The director gestured to an easel on his left, saying, "this is the photo we released yesterday of Mohammed Battikhi   the man we believe to have fired shots from the roof of the Washington Hotel during the opening moments of the attack on the White House. We now know his real name to be Salim Rusan. He is at large and considered to be extremely dangerous. Right now we are offering a one-million-dollar reward for any information leading to the arrest of Rusan and a second individual." One of Roach's aides removed the first photo and replaced it with a second of a man wearing a green uniform. His hair was slicked back, and he had a gold chain with a cross hanging from his open collar.

"This man worked for the White Knight Linen Service Company," Roach continued, "and went by the name of Vinney Vitelli. His real name is Abu Hasan. We are not sure if he is at large, but we are very interested in talking to anyone who has dealt with him in the last year."

Roach continued to talk, giving a number to call, but King wasn't listening. His eyes were open wide in disbelief. It couldn't be. King stood, almost dropping his coffee cup. Tugging at the collar of his white bathrobe, he raced for the TV. "Oh, my God, it's him!"

* * *

No one in the bunker had slept for more than a half hour at a time, and some of the agents had not slept at all. The noise of steel assaulting steel grew louder as morning approached. President Hayes remained confident that the FBI would come. He'd been through the briefings, he had listened to the experts state that the best time to attack was right before dawn. It was when people were most sluggish and hence easiest to surprise.

It started to brighten, this time of the year, around five-thirty, and the sun was up by a quarter past six. Each of the eleven felt a fevered anticipation as morning drew near, but as the hours passed by, there was collective letdown, followed by depression, as the nerve-racking sound of the door being breached gnawed at their ears. Each individual, including the president, asked himself or herself the same question over and over again. Can we hold out for another day?"

Valerie Jones was coming back from the small bathroom, where she had finally, after two days, decided to remove the makeup from her face. Considering the situation, she felt that any hang-ups about her wrinkles and the dark circles under her eyes were foolish.

Jones had spent all night thinking about the president's rebuke the day before. She had worked far too hard to get where she was, and she wouldn't allow anyone to pin the blame on her for admitting a terrorist into the Oval Office. In Jones's mind the truth was never that simple. There were always eight sides to every story.

There was no way she was going to roll over now and watch her career go up in flames. Jones had been concentrating on angles all night. Who could influence Hayes to help put the story in the proper light? Whom could she use to focus Hayes's anger on? The first question was easy to answer. Jones knew enough senators and big donators. She could get them to whisper in the president's ear or, if needed, lean on him. The way she would spin it would be to hold up Russ Piper and the DNC as sacrificial lambs. All Jones did was put him and his guest down in the appointment book. That menial task was hardly worth ending someone's career over.

As far as getting her boss to focus his anger on something or someone else, Jones was working on that. She proceeded back to the couches and sat next to him. If she could get him thinking in another direction, she just might hold on to her job and her career.

President Hayes didn't bother to look up when his chief of staff sat. Jones studied him for a second and then asked, "Why wouldn't they have come?"

Hayes shook his head. "I don't know. They must have a good reason."

"Like what? Isn't it our policy not to negotiate with terrorists?"

Hayes glanced over at her. "We don't always stick to policy."

"Well, who's making the decisions?"

The president looked at her with his tired eyes. "As I told you yesterday, if they're following the Constitution, which I'm sure they are, the powers of the presidency will have been transferred to Vice President Baxter."

Jones rolled her eyes. "That isn't good news."

The president did nothing at first and then nodded slowly in agreement.

"Why wouldn't he send in the FBI?"

"I don't know, Valerie." Hayes sounded very impatient. The tension and lack of sleep were working on his nerves.

"Well, it makes no sense." Jones moved forward cautiously. "Everything you said about the FBI striking before sunrise made sense. I don't understand why they wouldn't have come."

"There's a lot we don't know about. They could have plenty of good reasons why they're waiting to attack."

Jones was keenly aware of the problems between President Hayes and Vice President Baxter. She and the president had discussed them on many occasions. If she could get the president to focus his anger on Baxter, her minor role in this debacle would be forgotten.

In a voice just barely above a mumble Jones planted the seed that she hoped would shift the president's righteous ire in a different direction. "Or Baxter likes being president."

* * *

Irene Kennedy stood in her office and watched the sun rise over the trees of the Potomac River Valley. Any attempt to count her hours of sleep over the last week would be a wasted exercise. They were too few and too far between. She had more pressing things on her mind, and besides, thinking of sleep only caused her to worry more about Rapp. Kennedy had been hoping to steal a couple hours on the couch in her office after the two SEALs had made it into the White House and reported back on the bombs, but that never happened. Things had fallen apart, and they had done so miserably.

At 2:23 A.M. Kennedy had been sitting in the control room at Langley when an irate Skip McMahon called. McMahon had been rousted from his cot in the Executive Office Building just minutes earlier by Rafique Aziz. He had stumbled down the hall and into the FBI's command post in his boxers and T-shirt. Once on the phone, McMahon was further confused by the wild accusations Aziz had flung at him. Everything Aziz said came up empty with McMahon. McMahon tried in vain to deny the accusations, but Aziz only grew more irritated. As Aziz began to threaten to kill hostages, McMahon began to link the recent events with a phone call he had received from FBI Director Roach, the previous evening. Roach had explained to McMahon that the CIA would be moving some sensitive surveillance equipment into position by the east fence of the White House. In less than a minute, one of McMahon's agents had a set of blueprints rolled out on the table before him and was stabbing his finger at the location of a ventilation duct on the South Law. As things fell into place, McMahon assured Aziz that he would get to the bottom of the thing within five minutes. McMahon's next phone call was to his colleague and good friend, Irene Kennedy.

That was when the control room at Langley started to piece together what had happened. Upon receiving McMahon's call, General Campbell ordered Harris to send one of his men into the shaft to find out what was going on. Not long after that, the two SEALs were pulled out of the shaft by an electric winch. Nick Shultz had fulfilled the SEAL code of honor of never leaving a man behind in battle, dead or alive.

When the shooting started, Shultz was trailing just far enough behind to be safe from the shots, but within reach of the gear that Craft was pulling behind him by rope. Struggling, he pulled his swim buddy back through the narrow confines of the duct, inch by inch, praying his friend would be alive when they reached the other end. It was all for naught. Craft was dead.

Now, standing at the window of her seventh-floor office at Langley and watching the sun climb into the morning sky, Kennedy wished she could turn back the clock and do it all over again. Do it right, do it the way she had wanted to from the start. Kennedy had promised herself when she got into the business of ordering men into harm's way that she would do everything possible not to become a detached bureaucrat. Seventeen men had died under her watch at Langley, the majority of them in one seriously botched operation. Craft would bring the total up to eighteen, and as with those before him, Kennedy would visit his grave.

A knock on the door pulled Kennedy from her trance, and without turning, she said, "Come in."

The door opened and closed, but whoever had just entered had chosen to stay silent until recognized. Kennedy finally turned and saw a far from jovial Skip McMahon standing across from her.

"Skip, I couldn't say anything to you last night. There were far too many people around."

McMahon, dressed in a suit and tie, stared her down   his hands on his hips and deep dark circles under his eyes. "I can't believe you didn't tell me."

"I'm sorry."

McMahon shook his head slowly from side to side. "You and I have never played these games. We've always been straight up with each other."

"I know; I apologize. It's just that things happened too fast last night. I wanted to tell you . . . I asked if I could bring you in on it, and I was told to wait."

"By who, Thomas?"

"It goes higher than that."

McMahon frowned skeptically. "How much higher?"

Kennedy turned away, not entirely comfortable with telling McMahon.

McMahon reached out and grabbed Kennedy's chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. "No more games. I want the truth."

Kennedy reached up and pulled his hand down. "You have to keep it to yourself."

"The hell I do," snapped McMahon.

"Don't talk to me like that," chided Kennedy while taking a step back. "We're friends."

"Well, friends don't let friends get ambushed by hanging them out to dry."

"Skip, this came down from above. I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't . . . and I didn't have enough time to convince them otherwise."

"Who authorized those men to go in, and how decided to shut the FBI out of it?"

Kennedy sighed and said, "Vice President Baxter."

"That motherf*cker!" McMahon wheeled away from Kennedy, his fists balled up in anger. "That arrogant motherf*cker. Where in the hell does he get off . . ." McMahon stopped short of finishing the sentence and strained to regain some composure. Through clenched teeth, he said, "This is an FBI operation. Not the CIA and not the Pentagon. If I am not briefed fully and truthfully by you people, I will march right over to the . . . ."

McMahon was cut off by the intercom on Kennedy's desk. "Dr. Kennedy?"

Kennedy walked over to her desk and pressed the button. "Yes."

"They are waiting for you in the director's conference room."

Kennedy looked at her watch. It was several minutes past seven. "We'll be right there." She looked up at McMahon and said, "We have to get going, but I want you to promise me you'll keep this to yourself until I have a chance to explain further."

Shaking his head, McMahon frowned and said, "Nope. . . I'm gonna go in there and chew some ass."

Kennedy reached out and grabbed his wrist firmly. "No you are not. There is a lot more, Skip. And if you want to know what is really going on, you keep quiet until the meeting is over."

* * *

They were the last two to enter Director Stansfield's private conference room. As Kennedy and McMahon took their seats, an agitated Director Roach was already letting the others know how the FBI felt about the current situation. "Horseshit" was the phrase he used to describe the mess the others had created and the lack of professional courtesy they had displayed.

Seated at the head of the table was Director Stansfield. To his left were Vice President Baxter and Dallas King. To the director's right sat General Flood and Director Roach. McMahon and Kennedy took seats next to each other on Director Roach's side of the table. It was a small meeting and intended to be so.

FBI Director Roach had paused for a brief moment when Kennedy and McMahon entered and then continued, saying, "I can see no valid reason for not informing us that you were sending those men into the building. It absolutely mystifies me." Roach shook his head. "Skip and I have already talked about it . . . we would have agreed with sending them in. I just don't get it."

Vice President Baxter leaned forward and stabbed his index finger into the tabletop. Staring at General Flood, he started angrily, "I did not authorize sending any SEALs through that air duct."

Flood looked back at Baxter with barely masked contempt and then turned to Roach. "It's my fault. I was given the authority to conduct surveillance, and we were presented with a unique opportunity."

"I still don't see why you couldn't pick up the phone and call us," said

Roach.

Flood sat up a little straighter. He wanted to tell the director of the FBI that he was left out of the loop because the vice president had suggested it, but that was not the way things were done in Washington.

"In the flurry of event that took place early this morning, I made a critical mistake of not informing both of you." General Flood looked to Baxter and then Roach. "I will make sure that it does not happen again."

Both Roach and Baxter grudgingly accepted the general's apology with a nod, but Skip McMahon was less cordial. With his gruff demeanor, which was in many ways similar to the general's, McMahon placed a big fist on the table and asked bluntly, "What else haven't you told us?"

Flood and Stansfield kept their poker faces fixed, while Baxter and King shared a look that caused McMahon to ask the question again. "What else? You can't send me out there to get blindsided again. I need every advantage I can get over Aziz."

Director Stansfield liked Skip McMahon. In many ways he admired him. This was an unusual situation, however. McMahon was under an immense amount of pressure, and he was the person dealing with Aziz   the only person. Aziz had been adamant about that. Stansfield, always thinking a dozen moves ahead, did not like the idea of telling McMahon everything. The older spymaster saw a potential problem. He envisioned Aziz with a gun to a hostage's head making a demand of telling McMahon too much, of putting McMahon in a position where he might be tempted to give Aziz some of that information in exchange for the life of a hostage. Stansfield couldn't do that. Rapp was far too valuable a card in this game to start waving around for the other players to see.

Stansfield observed McMahon as he stared down Baxter and King, sensing that they knew something. Knowing he had to act fast, before one of them opened his mouth, Stansfield decided to kill two birds with one stone.

"There is something I should tell you." Stansfield reached down next to his chair and grabbed the morning's copy of The Washington Post. Standing, to further draw McMahon's attention away from King and Baxter, Stansfield walked around the table and set the paper in front of McMahon. Stansfield pointed to a front-page headline that read "CIA Saves Day by Warning Secret Service."

"How this story ever got to the Post is something that I will deal with later." Stansfield looked across the table and gave Dallas King a knowing look. "But, in the meantime, I will bring you up to speed on a highly classified subject. We have in our possession certain intelligence that we deem to be highly accurate. That source did in fact provide us with the information that enabled us to alert the Secret Service to a potential attack just minutes before the actual attack took place. That source has also provided us with information pertaining to the demands Mr. Aziz will put forth and the men and equipment he brought with him."

McMahon looked up at Stansfield, who had worked his way back to his seat. "That's how you knew about all of the plastique explosives?"

"Yes."

"What about the demands?"

"That I am willing to share with you, but"   Stansfield again glanced over at Dallas King   "it is extremely confidential information that is not to be passed on to anyone." Looking back to McMahon and Roach, he added, "I trust both of you, so I assume you will keep this confidential."

Both of the FBI men nodded, and Stansfield said, "Aziz's next demand will be to ask that the UN vote to lift all economic sanctions against Iraq. He is going to make a slight concession, in an effort to sound reasonable, and state that all sanctions regarding weapons of mass destruction may remain in place."

"The UN," started McMahon, "can they move that fast?"

"If we want them to, they will," answered General Flood.

"There is one last demand." Stansfield stopped and looked around the room, wanting to hedge his bet just a touch. "But unfortunately we are still trying to find out what it is."

McMahon looked at Stansfield. In all the years that he had been working for the FBI, he had never come across an individual as cool and analytical as Thomas Stansfield   on either side of the law or the other. The man was impossible to read. McMahon turned away from Stansfield and looked immediately to his right to see if he could get anything from Kennedy. He studied her face for even the slightest clue to whether Stansfield was being forthright about the family jewels or if he was still holding out. She stared back at him blankly, just like her boss, giving nothing away.

After several seconds of silence, McMahon looked across the table at Vice President Baxter and Dallas King. Before entering this meeting, Kennedy had told him that Baxter had authorized the insertion of the SEALs, but just minutes ago, General Flood had taken the blame for the whole mess. Either Kennedy was lying or General Flood was covering for the vice president. McMahon decided to play along until he could get Kennedy alone, and then, he would get to the bottom of the whole thing.

Dallas King took his forefinger and as nonchalantly as possible wiped the bead of sweat that had formed on his upper lip. He felt as if he were standing in downtown Phoenix at high noon in the middle of July. Every time someone looked at him, he wondered if they knew. Since seeing the photo of his beer-drinking buddy on CNN this morning, King had been an absolute basket case. At first he tried to convince himself that it wasn't the same man. The guy that he drank beers with was named Mike, and he was a student. Mike didn't wear his hair slicked back like the man on the news. King tried to convince himself that it wasn't the same person, but it was futile. As he recollected his relationship with the mysterious Mike, there were too many strange coincidences. For several weeks straight he had run into Mike everywhere he went. Mike had conveniently known all about Stanford basketball team, King's alma mater.

King closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as he remembered the evening they took the late-night tour of the White House. King remembered how Mike had claimed he had an uncle who used to work for the Secret Service under Kennedy. He convinced King to show him the Treasury tunnel, saying that it was originally designed as a bunker during World War II. Mike told King that during the Kennedy administration, the staffers used to sneak women down into bunk rooms off the tunnel and have sex.

And that's exactly what they had done that night. President Hayes was out of town, and King had no problem gaining access for his newfound friend and a couple of hot young ladies. King couldn't believe how unlucky he was. Of the hundreds of people who worked at the White House, this crazy terrorist had to pick him. Squeezing his nose even tighter, he said to himself, How could you have f*cked up so bad? The pressure was unbelievable. He needed time to think, time to maneuver.

* * *

Mitch Rapp woke up to the sound of Milt Adams snoring and a brown ponytail in his face. His left arm was pinned under Rielly's neck, and his right arm was draped across her chest. Rapp lifted his head up and tried to retrieve his right arm. This only spurred Rielly to clutch his arm tighter.

How they had ended up sleeping in this embrace might have seemed a little strange, but the stash room was not particularly spacious. After the debacle earlier in the evening, Rapp had stayed on the radio with Langley until almost four A.M. At that time the FBI was screaming to find out what was going on, and the entire operation was put in a holding pattern. Kennedy had ordered Rapp to get some sleep, and they would call him with orders in the morning.

Rapp, in turn, had let Langley know how he felt, telling them that if they had allowed him to act when he wanted to, Aziz and the other two terrorists would be dead and one Navy SEAL would still be alive. It was no surprise to Rapp that Langley signed off without responding to his statement. Rapp then forced himself to bring it back down. He had done enough clandestine insertions to know that when you are given the opportunity to grab a couple of hours of sleep, you should take it. Rapp found comfort knowing that the next time he came across Aziz, he would shoot first and ask questions later. There would be no more checking in with Langley for the green light.

Rielly had surprised Rapp by taking his arms and wrapping them around her as they lay down to go to sleep. As he drifted off, Rielly had kissed Rapp's hand and whispered something he didn't quite catch. He was more than a little surprised by the warm feeling the little kiss had given him.

Now, craning his neck away from Rielly, Rapp looked at the secure field radio that was sitting between him and Adams. The overhead light was still on, and he could see just enough of the control panel to know that the radio was still on. Rapp had absolutely no idea how long he had been sleeping. He didn't want to wake Rielly but saw no other choice. Taking his left hand he reached up from under Rielly's neck and pried her hands loose. His digital watch told him it was 7:41 A.M He'd had at least two hours, maybe two and a half. Rapp figured that was more than enough for now. This was hardly the time or the place to be sleeping in. if Langley wasn't going to call him, he would have to call them and get things moving.