CHAPTER 20

“I’ve got enough trouble right now,” Jim Garret said as he stomped down the hall with his usual ‘tail’ of ass kissers that seemed to be pretty unavoidable when you put stars on your shoulder. Jim had learned to mostly ignore them. Then when he got this job, his tail managed to grow even longer. Jim did not even think that was possible. That’s one reason why General Garret loved a good crisis. It gave him an excuse to walk really fast and some of the lesser fit guys just could not keep up.

Lenny Price was not one of those that Garret put in the tail category. The Sergeant Major had been with Jim since before they both ascended to the category of divine beings. When Lenny showed up, Jim knew the guy had something relevant and, that usually meant more work. Today, Jim had more work than he could handle. “Sergeant Major, in case you haven’t noticed, we’re getting ready to fight world war three around here. I hope it’s important?”

“That depends on how important you think it is, General,” Lenny replied easily enough, almost amused.

“You’re not funny today, Lenny,” Jim replied.

When they stomped back in to Garrets office, his tail was smart enough not to follow him all the way. Price was a different matter and he walked right in and closed the door behind him, “this is beyond classified Jim.”

Garret began taking off his coat and still seemed rushed as he asked, “how beyond classified?”

“It’s the kind that’s just between you and me classified,” Lenny replied. “I know we’re busy today so I’ll sum it up for you.”

“Busy?” Jim said with a certain amount of sarcasm. “You have no idea. The White House is end running the chain and sending orders directly. I’m going to have a talk with Bob when this all over with, if we’re not all dead, that is. Do you know we’re pulling Tin Man back out and dusting it off?”

Lenny was confused, “isn’t that a little out dated now?”

“Why do you think I’m so busy?” Garret began furiously searching his desk as he continued, “it was never meant for this so, we’re folding it in with the new one, Looking Glass. Where the hell are my….”

Lenny pointed to the cluttered desk top, “your glasses are right there in front of you Jim, on the desk.”

“Shit,” Jim grumbled as he picked them up and put them in his pocket, “all right fine Lenny. Is any of what you got relevant?”

“Only to the point that I can’t get any answers,” Lenny told him.

Jim almost blew up, “I told you that if some little bookworm…”

“It’s not that,” Lenny replied, “I went to Davis, over in DIA. He was as helpful as he could be. That op was on the books before he was over there so he, personally, didn’t know anything about it but, he did send me all the files they had on it.”

“And?”

Lenny continued, “they were the exact same files I had, all redactions included.”
That should have never been. While compartmentalized information and blacked out words were quite normal here at the Pentagon, and everywhere else in the government, Jim’s office was supposed to be immune to all of that. He ran the damn place! Still, every so often, some twit of a bureaucrat, following protocols, thought they were supposed to redact even the files headed for Jim’s office, ignoring the fact that the protocols came from Jim’s office in the first place!

“Are you telling me that Davis doesn’t even have the original files to one of his own goddamn operations?”

Lenny nodded, “bout the size of it Jim. Only there’s more to it than just that.”

Jim looked down at his phone and thought, “and that leads me to believe that I might should call the I-G and open an investigation.”

The Inspector General’s office might be able to get to the bottom of it but, Lenny had other concerns, “and if we do that, we’re opening this situation up. I considered that option and, I’m not sure that bringing more people in, is a particularly good idea right now.”

“Ok Lenny,” Jim replied with a huff, “why is that exactly?”

“Cause I didn’t come up completely empty handed,” Lenny said. “You do recall the warning we got from the White House? The very selective warning about possible moles originating from that, um, certain British organization that I don’t know anything about.”

Jim slapped his forehead and was sure that he saw where this was going, “you telling me that we have a major security situation here? One that involves a terrorist organization that’s possibly even more dangerous than anything that ever came out of the Middle East?”

“I don’t know for sure,” Lenny admitted, “but, like I said, I didn’t come up completely empty handed. I did find out one thing. This operation, whatever it was, seemed to have originated in one specific branch of the Dee-Oh-Dee.”

“Not the DIA?” Jim bowed his head in irritation, “so you’re telling me that, now, we have a super secret organization within our own ranks, complete with their own Orphan Annie decoder rings?”

“Well they act like that sometimes,” Lenny said, “but nah, the original orders came from the US Navy, specifically from the office of the Under Secretary. What’s even more interesting, they apparently had a man on Task Force Toto.”

Jim blinked, stared into space for a second, and then said, “you telling me, that Bob Isaacs was being spied on by the fucking Navy? What the hell for?” Then Jim stomped around and realized, “what did the Secretary’s Office have to say about it?”

“No point in calling them,” Lenny replied, “the guy who was there, Carl Ross, he’s been gone since the administrations changed.”

“He was the Under Secretary, right?” Jim thought about it, “so he’s civil service. Where is he now?”

“Retired,” Lenny said. “I tried to get a hold of him but, nobody seems to know where he is.”

Jim was not in a playing mood today. He simply ordered, “find the little cock sucker. I want to talk to him and, I mean, me, personally. As for right now, we have a teleconference to be at. That’s the real reason I called you over here.”

Both men took the back door to Jim’s office and proceeded to the conference room that was situated off the Operations Center. Several of the joint chiefs, the ones who were not otherwise currently occupied with pressing matters, along with some other key officers, were already gathered at the table.

The White House situation room was already on the line and the video was streaming to one of the overhead monitors. Currently, no one at the White House was actually in front of the camera, save the occasional passer by. The picture was also as crappy as ever. Jim’s granddaughter had better coverage with her lap top chat programs and, if it weren’t for all the encryptions, Jim probably would have used that instead of the official stuff which, never seemed to work right. It was the big problem with having IT departments. They never seemed to get anything to work perfectly. Jim figured it was because they would be out of a job if they did.

Jim started by asking his own guys, “what’s the situation with that tanker in the gulf?”

The Duty Officer replied to that, “we’re maintaining direct radio contact, just like you ordered sir. They seem to be interested in talking to us.”

“Well I’m not going to talk to them,” Jim stated the obvious. You never let anyone who could actually promise them something, have direct communications. In this particular case, the Omani sailors that were holding the British flagged vessel, were talking with the CIC of the USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier just outside the Persian Gulf. What Jim really wanted to know about it was, “have they said what they want?”

“Yes sir,” the Duty Officer replied, “several times in fact. They want a UN Inspection team to come on board.”

Jim blinked, “say again?”

“Yes sir,” the man continued, “they claim to be sitting on tons of Fairy Dust and they want that verified and documented.”

The US Navy officer who acted as an advisor to Jim, commented, “General, I don’t know what they hope to gain from that. That ship is sitting in international waters. It departed from Hong Kong a few days ago. Technically speaking, it’s not breaking any laws, treaties, or any other international agreements. That makes this an act of piracy and, as you know, our policy piracy in the straits of Hormuz is, zero tolerance for it. I talked to Admiral Short, just a few minutes ago, and he is recommending we take the freighter down. He’s putting the assets into place, as we speak.”

A voice came over the speakers of the room, “that’s a really bad idea.”

Jim looked up at the screen and told the voice from the White House, “do you have something to add Mary?”

“Yes I do Jim,” Mary replied from the situation room. “That tanker is registered out of Hong Kong, and strangely enough, the CIA has a file on her, going back to a certain incident, a few years ago. Do you know the one I’m talking about Jim?”

“I think I get your point Mary,” Jim replied. He then looked to his assembled officers, “give me the room gentleman.” As the officers filed out, Jim told his Sergeant Major, “no Lenny, I want you to stay for this.” He then told the image on the screen, “are we secure on your end?”

Mary was obviously looking somewhere else. She then said, “wait one. I’m going in the office.” She turned off the video feed and the screen turned blue. Jim understood her meaning. Mary was leaving the fusion center and going into the small room, with blinds on the windows, that was usually used by the President when he needed to have private conversations. When the next call came in, Mary was most definitely in that room and so was Bill Devon.

“General,” the President remarked, “I’d like to say it’s a pleasure but, under the current circumstances, not really.”

Mary got right to the point, “that tanker was one of several that was shipping guns to Britain. The same guns that wound up in the hands of the elves, before they went public.”

Lenny looked to his boss. Jim nodded and then told Mary, “so we think this is one of King Arthur’s yachts?”

Mary replied, “it’s a fair bet. That being said, I’m of the opinion that they wanted it to get caught so we wouldn’t have any choice but try and take it back.”

If the ship had been seized anywhere but the Gulf, as Jim fully understood, there would have been a lot more leeway on this. As it was, the straights of Hormuz was a sensitive rights of navigation issue. Most of the oil on planet earth passed right through those straights and, a long time ago, the US had guaranteed the safety of every vessel passing through it, flags not width standing. What Jim did not understand was, “why would they want that?”

Now the President spoke up, “General Garret, I just got off the phone with Prime Mister Thayer. His cabinet is sitting on the verge of getting ousted, as we speak. There was already a movement in Parliament to call for new elections to kick him out. Now, with the Muslims in Britain, rioting all over the country, it‘s picked up more steam. He’s had to call in the army to help maintain control and that hasn’t been particularly popular, or safe. He doesn’t even trust his own military at this point. As we both know, he has good reason for that.”

Jim just shrugged, “what’s that got to do with this tanker?”

Mary answered, “the reason they want UN inspectors is because, I believe, the claims are true. That ship is probably loaded with dust, on a British flagged vessel. As you know, every ship in their merchant marine is also a part of their reserve fleet.”

“Which means,” the President went on, “if the inspectors verify this, that’s going to implicate the British government in smuggling a controlled substance. Something that we, that is to say, you, I, and Mary already know they are doing.”

“Yeah but,” Jim replied, “I thought it was our Knights of the Round Table doing that.”

The President said in his usual business like fashion, “that’s true but, to the eyes of the world, there’s not that much difference since hardly anybody even knows about them. The fact is, the Camelonians have been using their positions within the British Government to have the legitimate agencies do their dirty work for them. If any of that gets out, we have a scandal that’ll bring down Thayer’s government and, it is my opinion as well as his, that whoever replaces him will be one of King Arthur’s cronies.”

Mary added, “and if we’re the ones who have to admit that dust is on that ship, it’ll put us in a position of having to help them take down Thayer. General we can’t have the Camelonians controlling Britain. We don’t know how many times they’ve done it in the past but, right now, with our troops in Feyland, we can’t let that happen.”

The President went on, “because at that point, King Arthur will be dictating terms to us. With what’s at stake, that’s unacceptable.”

“Understood sir,” Jim replied before bringing up, “why don’t we go public with what we know about the Camelonians? Let’s shine a spot light on those ass holes and maybe they’ll crawl back under their rock.”

“Won’t work,” Mary replied. “If we go public it’ll just create the exact situation we’re trying to avoid here.”

The President then said, “do you really think the British public would be all that happy to find out that they’ve been manipulated by a bunch yahoo’s like this, for centuries? If that happens it won’t just be the Muslims rioting. It’ll be everybody in Britain.”

“Sir,” Jim replied, “respectfully, if people know who these guys are then Thayer will have a better idea of who he can trust and who he can’t.”

“Sure,” Bill Devon calmly replied, “in a war situation I’d agree. The only problem is, that’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid. You know better than anybody, General, what will happen when the US Second fleet shows up on their door step and starts landing troops on the British coast line?”

Jim huffed in frustration, “we’ll wind up having to sink half the Royal Navy. Then the French and Germans will hit us in Europe. The Chinese will attack Taiwan and Korea, and then the nukes start flying because all our assets are tied up trying to secure an island that is allegedly occupied by our allies.”

“Exactly,” the President replied, “and not only that. You hit the key note there with your last few words. As far as the world is concerned, including our own population, the British are our closest friends. Having to attack them will cause fall out for decades to come. Nobody will trust us after that. The British populace will probably be hostile for centuries to come. I doubt my administration would make it past the next election and, if that happens, how do we know King Arthur doesn’t have some guy over here ready to move into my office? He‘s obviously thought this matter through.”

“Jesus Christ,” Jim mumbled under his breath, “this just keeps getting even more complicated.”

“The fact is general,” the President continued, “we have to do something here. If events keep playing out the way they are, we’re either going to have to back down, and give the Camelonians the keys to Great Britain, or, blow up half this planet to keep that from happening. Neither of those are particularly good options. Now, Mary here has at least one suggestion that will fly, for the moment.”

“Believe me sir,” Jim told his boss, “I’m all ears because I’m sure out of ideas.”

Mary said, “we have to put some pressure on them.”

Jim complained, “if what your report said was true, Mary, we don’t even know who they all are. How are we going to do that?”

Mary smiled for the camera, “while that’s true, the fact is, we know who some of them are. I think it’s time we start lighting a few fires of our own. At the least, if the balloon goes up then we’ll have some intelligence assets under raps.”

Jim nodded in agreement, “ok, but you don’t need me for that.”

“No I don’t,” Mary replied, “however. As far as that tanker is concerned, you keep talking about taking it down?”

“Yeah?” Asked Jim. He then shrugged, “so?”

“So,” Mary told him, “I think down is the wrong direction.”

When Mary shut off the conference call she looked to her boss and said, “I know Bill. It’s damn dangerous.”

“That’s all anything is right now Mary,” Bill replied. “Everything is damn dangerous. Speaking of which, did that spook buddy of yours get Janet out, yet?”

Mary actually laughed at that and she even surprised herself by doing it. What was there left to do? Mary sniffled before she replied, “with all the air traffic grounded, and the military stuff busy, there’s no way Spivey can get Janet out at the moment. He did do the next best thing. She’s at the safest place she can possibly be, Ten Downing street.”

“You’re kidding,” now Bill wanted to laugh. “I bet she didn’t expect that when she got off the plane at Heathrow.”

Mary laughed again, “Bill, she was confused as hell. She didn’t even know what Ten Downing Street was till after she’d spent her first night there.” Mary then became humble, “look, I never said thank you for letting me call in that marker.”

“Don’t mention it,” Bill pointed to the window like Alicia was standing there, “I got a daughter too, as you very well know. I understand how you feel but, understand Mary, it wasn’t entirely for altruistic reasons. Having your daughter there, in some small way, compromises two of my key people. We can’t have that ether. Look what it’s already cost us.”

“Under the circumstances sir,” Mary replied defensively, “I think we should have done that no matter what I owed Spivey.”
“Oh I agree,” Bill replied. “The fact is, I’m glad they asked for it cause I wanted to suggest it all along. I’m just concerned that it’s even necessary in the first place. Have we gotten word to our people yet?”

“Still working on it,” Mary had to admit. “The situation with the air travel is still, um, volatile. The French already had one marked flight turned back by the RAF. We were waiting to see what would happen with that before we tried anything.”

“Jesus Christ,” Bill grumbled, “those are treaty planes under UN Jurisdiction. If that tanker in the gulf doesn’t light the match to all this then that sure as hell will. What about just contacting our delegation at Coven Hill? I assume you did that?”

“This was deemed too sensitive,” Mary replied. “The orders were assigned to a classified courier Mister President, with a Marine security detail. We didn’t want to risk any chance of an interception.”

“Oh god,” Bill snorted out, “what stupid bureaucratic dickhead did that?”

“Um,” Mary shifted her weight a little and then replied, “you did sir.”

Bill’s eyes opened wide and then he said, “oh, I guess I’m the dickhead, huh? Well, that makes this simple then, un deem it. We need that operation moving, on the double.”

“As for the rest?” Mary asked.

Bill slumped in his chair and rubbed at his temples. He really needed some sleep. He didn’t even look up when he said, “go ahead and get that moving too.”

As Mary stepped out of the office he she noticed that Alicia really was standing in the exact spot that Bill had pointed at earlier. Was that a coincidence or did Bill just know his daughter that well? Mary wasn’t sure. What she did know was that Alicia had picked up the habit of biting her finger nails almost constantly or, at least, she had in the past few hours. The girl looked like she was going to have a nervous breakdown. Despite that, Alicia’s question was, “how’s he doing?”

“Not so bad that you need to worry yourself to death, honey,” Mary tried to be warm and motherly with the young girl. Mary stepped up to her and said, “not what you wanted, was it?”

“I don’t know,” Alicia gave a nervous laugh and then continued, “exactly what you mean. I…” Then after a moment of thinking she burst out, “how do you guys take this kind of pressure? You literally have the entire world hanging in the balance here and…”

Mary snickered, “actually two worlds but, who’s counting?”

“I thought I knew Washington,” Alicia complained. “I’ve worked here my entire life. I grew up here when Dad was in congress, and then the senate, and then he was with one administration after the other. He even chaired the party at one time. I’ve seen him wheel and deal. I’ve been in on some of those smoke filled room things and, I never, ever, knew anything like this. I used to think brokering a candidate was high stakes but…”

“But you can handle it,” Mary told her, “it’s no different honey. The consequences might be but, everything else is the same. I know that people have this image of heads of state, of international politics, all being some mystical place where the laws of physics are different. Now you know that’s a lie. It’s the same as anything else. It’s filled with imperfect people who are all just trying to get the same damn thing the guy who stocks the shelves at Big Box wants.”

Alicia looked confused, “a longer smoke break?”

Mary gestured to herself, “do I look like I need one right now?”

Alicia giggled, “point taken.”

Mary then said, “and you have to handle it that way. If you don’t, the consequences are going to come right back down on you and slap you in ways you might not like. That’s where the pressure comes in and,” Mary nodded to the room she just left, “that’s where he really feels it. He can’t walk down a hall without worrying about some subtle gesture of his, making people do some act that he doesn’t know about, that spirals out like ripples on and pond, and results in lots and lots of people getting hurt. He has to think about that all the time. It will eat you up, eventually, no matter how hard you fight it.”

“Oh god,” Alicia quivered. She looked at those closed blinds and almost wanted to cry, “I pushed him into this. He wanted to just go home and…”

Mary put her hand on the girls shoulder and said, “nobody put a gun to that man’s head and he doesn’t do things he doesn’t want. Trust me honey, there was a lot more to him being here than just you.”

“I don’t,” a tear did come out of her eye, “you know? Don’t know what to do right now? I feel so lost down here. I don’t know anything about this stuff. I thought I did and then, when…”

“I know Alicia,” Mary told her, “everybody thinks that till, suddenly, their opinions matter. Then it’s not so easy. You second guess yourself and, poof, all of the sudden you realize you didn’t know all that stuff you thought you did. As for the rest, what you do is your job. You’re the gal who keeps things turning around here. You’re kind of the grease in the wheels and, no matter what is going on somewhere else, that has to keep happening. Now go and do it. Your Dad is a tough old bird and he’ll take care of himself.”

Mary left it at that and hoped that Alicia was listening. Right now, Mary did not have time to find out. She went to a corner desk in the situation room and ran off the sergeant who was sitting there. Then she picked up a secured line and buzzed the Justice Department. She gave the presidential code word that got her past all the stupid executive assistants and right to the office of the Attorney General. After he answered she said, “sir, it’s a go. Stick their ass.”