Transfer of Power Page 5

  “Good morning, Mr. President,” answered the Navy steward. Carl closed the door and took the president’s jacket, hanging it on an antique wooden valet in the corner.

  A circular oak table for four occupied the center of the room. Hayes sat at the seat closest to the Oval Office and pulled in his chair. Folded and laid out in front of him were copies of The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The New York Times, and USA Today. The same four papers were laid out in the same order every day, Monday through Friday. The president began perusing the headlines.

  The steward approached and placed a cup of black coffee next to the copy of the Times . “What would you like for breakfast this morning, Mr. President?”

  Without looking up, President Hayes reached out for the cup of coffee.-“How about a half a grapefruit to start with, please.”

  The steward nodded and retreated into the pantry while the president began reading an article in the Post . Before the grapefruit was served, there was a knock on the door. The Navy steward opened it and greeted the two visitors. Bill Schwartz, the president’s national security adviser, entered the room with Dr. Irene Kennedy from the CIA.

  The lanky national security adviser greeted the president’s steward. “Good morning, Carl.”

  “Good morning, Mr. Schwartz. What would you like to drink?”

  “My usual please.”

  “And for the lady?”

  “Just a cup of regular, please,” replied Kennedy.

  Schwartz maneuvered his thin frame across the room and sat in the spot directly across from Hayes. Kennedy placed her briefcase on the floor and sat immediately to the president’s right. The president looked up at his national security adviser and asked, “How was your trip?” Schwartz had just returned from Brussels, where he had attended three days of meetings on the further expansion of NATO.

  Schwartz removed his small silver-rimmed glasses and began to clean the lenses with his tie. “It was slow, boring, and painful.”

  “It always is with NATO.” President Hayes took a sip of coffee and placed the mug back on the table. “The only organization that’s worse is the UN.”

  “That is true.” Schwartz nodded his head slowly and watched Carl place a mug of coffee in front of Kennedy and then himself.

  Next, the steward gave the president his halved grapefruit and put the other half in front of Schwartz, saying, “Eat this. I’m going to get you some pancakes too, and see if we can put some meat on your bones.” The steward then winked at the president. Carl had worked in the White House for more than twenty years and was an expert at ribbing even the most powerful of Washington insiders.

  With his hands clasped in front of his waist, Carl bent forward and, in a much more friendly tone than the one he had used with the national security adviser, asked, “May I get you anything to eat, miss?”

  “No, thank you. I’m fine.” Kennedy wrapped her hands around the warm coffee mug.

  The steward turned to President Hayes. “If you need anything more, please ring.”

  “I will. Thank you, Carl.” The president watched the steward leave and then leaned back. Looking to Kennedy, he said, “I got your message last night. I’m glad to hear everything went well.”

  “Yes. So far so good.” Kennedy brought her coffee up to her lips and took a small sip.

  “Bill, how much do you know about last night’s activities?” asked the president.

  Schwartz dumped a teaspoon of sugar onto his moist grapefruit and said, “Irene filled me in on the basics when I got in last night.”

  “What time was that?”

  “Just after midnight.”

  The president looked to Kennedy. “Have we discovered anything yet?”

  “Our man and Harut left Saudi Arabia around two this morning. They are supposed to touch down at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany”—Kennedy looked at her watch and did the calculation—“in about thirty minutes. There they will be met by a team of specialists who will board the plane and start to interrogate Harut while airborne for Andrews.”

  The president thought about asking her what she meant by the term “specialists,” but decided he was better off not knowing. “When can we expect some answers?”

  “It’s hard to tell. Sometimes the information is extracted easily, but the drugs don’t always work the same way on everyone. There are certain precautions we need to take to make sure he isn’t lying.” Kennedy paused. Stansfield had told her from day one to always be on the cautious side. Especially when dealing with politicians. She looked to NSA Schwartz and then back at President Hayes. “We need to be thorough.”

  Hayes stacked the newspapers, one on top of each other, off to the side. “Are we talking hours or days?”

  “We will start getting information out of him within minutes. Depending on what he knows and what kind of health he’s in, we should have some answers within an hour. But let me caution you that it will take weeks to fully interrogate and debrief him.”

  “But our priority here is to find out if, when, and where they are planning this attack in Washington.”

  “Yes.” Kennedy nodded.

  Hayes looked to Schwartz, whose job it was to coordinate the efforts of all the intelligence agencies. “I want this to receive top priority, and I want a full briefing on the interrogation.”

  Kennedy nodded. “Yes, Mr. President.”

  Washington, D.C.

  TWO MILES EAST of the White House a green-and-white truck backed up to the entrance of a dilapidated warehouse and stopped. Plastered in large white letters across the green side of the cargo area were the words “White Knight Linen Service.” Two men in blue coveralls came out of the warehouse and hefted the rusting garage door up, its casters screeching as metal scraped on metal. The driver put the truck in reverse, and the two men guided the boxy vehicle through the narrow door with hand signals. When all of the truck was inside, the door was closed.

  A hazy light filtered through the dirty windows near the roof of the building. Four men approached the rear of the truck, and a ramp was secured to the fender. The men began to unload the truck’s canvas laundry baskets and boxes of fresh linen. After about five minutes the vehicle’s cargo area was empty.

  From an elevated glass office a man in green fatigues appeared. His closely trimmed beard grew from the top of his cheekbones down into his collar, and his hands and forearms were covered with thick black hair. In contrast to the rest of his body, the top of his head was bald—a shiny bronze oasis of smooth skin bordered by a horseshoe of black hair. Although short in stature, Muammar Bengazi was obviously strong.

  Gripping the metal railing with his thick fingers, Bengazi watched his men work. They had come too far to make any mistakes now. Everything had to be done perfectly from this point forward. They had been given a summary from their benefactor that detailed the exact layout of the building. Bengazi was told the report had been compiled by the KGB some twenty years earlier. More recently, one of his men had got inside the building and given them a more up-to-date summary.

  Bengazi whistled, and his men looked up. From his perch, he pointed to three objects sitting under canvas tarps located in the far corner of the warehouse. He watched his men walk over and yank the tarps back. Underneath sat three Kawasaki all-terrain vehicles painted in a drab tanandgreen camouflage pattern. The small vehicles were used by hunters for their maneuverability and power. Around the back of each vehicle a Ushaped cargo rack was attached. The cargo racks were stacked with metal trunks that were tightly secured by black bungee cords.

  One by one the men started the ATVs. The musty smell of the warehouse was soon replaced with that of gas and oil. A small trailer, also loaded with metal boxes, was hooked to one of the ATVs and backed up the ramp and into the truck. The other two ATVs followed and were backed in tightly.

  Bengazi walked down the metal stairs from the office to the floor of the warehouse. He was surprisingly light on his feet for a man of such girth. He approached a bright yellow fork
lift, climbed into the driver’s seat, and started the engine. After the vehicle warmed up, Bengazi backed it carefully up the ramp and into the back of the truck. The forklift was missing its two metal forks that were normally positioned in front.

  When Bengazi had the heavy piece of machinery exactly where he wanted it, he turned it off and climbed down. He jumped from the tailgate and moved off to the side. For the next five minutes he watched his men reload enough of the truck’s original cargo to conceal the forklift and ATVs. He walked from one side of the tailgate to the other, attempting to peer around and over the boxes and baskets. Satisfied with the job, he nodded to his men and checked his watch. They were on schedule.

  Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany

  THERE WAS A slight jolt followed by a hydraulic whine. Mitch Rapp was yanked from his deep sleep and jerked forward in his seat, simultaneously reaching for his Beretta and looking to his left. He breathed a sigh of relief, and slowly his hand released the grip of his gun. Harut was still there, hands and feet cuffed, with a black hood over his head, lying strapped to the leather couch of the Learjet. His turban and robe had been replaced with a green flight suit.

  Rapp rubbed his eyes and looked out the small window on his right, quickly realizing that the bump that had awakened him was the landing gear locking into position. They were almost level with the German countryside. A second later they cleared the trees, and the concrete runway was beneath them. The green fields were replaced by a rank of gray hangars and planes. First a row of large C-130s, then several flights of F-16s, and then finally they touched down. Rapp continued to rub his eyes with clenched fists. He felt almost as if he had been drugged. The past three nights had been marked by a total of six hours of sleep. Rapp checked his watch and estimated that he had been out for almost four hours. It was a good start, but he wouldn’t mind getting a couple more hours of shut-eye as they crossed the Atlantic. There was no telling how quickly he would have to go out in the field again.

  The plane taxied off the main runway and came to a stop next to a fuel truck and a blue van with blacked out windows. Rapp unbuckled his seat belt and got up. His appearance had changed since leaving Bandar Abbas. The unkempt black-and-gray beard was gone, replaced by a cleanly shaven face. With the beard gone, a scar was now visible on Rapp’s left cheek. It was narrow, less than an eighth of and inch, and it started by his ear and ran straight down to his jaw—the pink scar tissue offset by his bronze skin. The doctors at Johns Hopkins had done a good job minimizing the knife mark. At first it was almost half an inch wide, but after the plastic surgeons were done, there was only a thin line. This scar, more than any of his others, was a daily reminder to Rapp that what he was doing was very real and very dangerous. A streak of gray could still be found in his long, thick hair, but most of it had been washed out during the fifteenminute shower he took after the helicopters had landed in Saudi Arabia. Rapp had shared a quick Miller Lite with Harris and his men and then headed for the showers to wash a week’s worth of dirt and grime from his body. He stood under the hot water and scrubbed every inch of his filthy skin three times. When he had finished washing the dirt and smell away, he stood under the hot water for another five minutes and savored a second Miller Lite.

  By the time he was clean and dressed, the Learjet was ready. Rapp went back into the room where Harris and his marauders were already into their second case of beer and found Harut changed into a green flight suit, medicated, and lying on a cot in the corner. Congratulations were exchanged once again, and then Rapp threw Harut over his shoulder and headed for the flight line.

  Now on the ground in Germany, Rapp looked down at Harut and yawned. Rapp would have just as soon put a bullet in Harut’s head back in Iran, but if it meant finding out where Aziz was, the young American was willing to do almost anything. Rapp walked to the front of the jet with his head tilted to the side. When he reached the door, he grabbed the handle and twisted it clockwise. There was a slight hiss as the pressurized air escaped. Rapp let the door out and eased it toward the ground. Despite the overcast morning sky, he still had to shield his eyes from the light. His lean biceps bulged under the fabric of the black polo shirt he was wearing, and a brown leather shoulder holster held his Beretta securely to his side.

  The door of the blue van opened, and a woman stepped onto the tarmac. Two men followed her. It wasn’t often that Rapp felt uneasy, but as he watched Dr. Jane Hornig walk toward him, he found himself suddenly wishing he were elsewhere. Hornig, in her mid-forties, scurried toward the jet with one hand clutching the lapels of her blue blazer and the other holding her metallic briefcase. As Rapp watched her approach, he couldn’t help but think of the scene from The Wizard of Oz when the mean neighbor, who turns out to be the Wicked Witch of the West, shows up on her bike to take Toto away. The music was even playing in the back of his mind.

  Rapp was convinced that Hornig’s face had seen neither sun nor makeup in over a decade. She had the classic demeanor of a scientist, disheveled and low-maintenance. Clothes and appearance didn’t matter to Hornig; only her work did. Standing just a touch over five feet tall, she still wore her hair in a bun and dressed as if she had never found her way out of the sixties. On the one occasion that Lt. Commander Harris had met Dr. Hornig, he had, in his typical smart-ass way, dubbed her Dr. Strangelove, after the hilariously abused character played by Peter Sellers in the 1964 Cold War spoof.

  Hornig, for all of her eerie qualities, was far more than just a psychologist. She also had advanced degrees in both biochemistry and neurology and was considered the foremost expert in America on the history and evolution of human torture. She had an interesting business relationship with the CIA. Langley provided her with guinea pigs for her experimental drugs and techniques, and in return she gave them what they wanted—information pulled from the deepest recesses of the human brain. This often included details that the subjects would not be able to remember on their own. Rapp had watched Hornig and her henchmen work on one occasion, and after about ten minutes, he decided he could wait for the Memorex version when they were done.

  As Hornig approached the foot of the stairs, she looked up and said, “Hello, Mr. Kruse.”

  Very few people at Langley knew Rapp’s real name. To them he was Mr. Kruse, a case officer who specialized in the Middle East. People in the intelligence business knew not to ask too many personal questions when dealing with field personnel. Indiscretion usually guaranteed an official reprimand from one’s superior.

  Rapp greeted the doctor and stepped back, allowing her room to enter.

  Hornig looked to the rear of the plane. “How is he doing?”

  “Fine. I gave him the exact doses you prescribed.”

  “Good.” The doctor set a silver ballistic briefcase on the nearest seat and turned to the door. “These are my assistants, Sam and Pat.”

  Rapp looked at the two men and nodded. Both were carrying two larger silver ballistic briefcases. “There is a bedroom at the rear of the plane.” Rapp pointed. “It’s probably the best place to get set up.”

  Hornig agreed, and she and her two assistants continued single file toward the rear of the jet.

  Rapp watched them move Harut into the bedroom and decided it would be a good time to get some fresh air. As he stepped down onto the tarmac, he felt the rare urge to smoke a cigarette. It was a nasty little habit he had picked up while working undercover, and from time to time he still found himself craving one. He looked to his left, where an airman was busy refueling the plane. Rapp almost made the stupid mistake of asking the man for a cigarette, but he saw the flammable insignia on the side of the green truck. Rapp stood awkwardly next to the plane and looked to his left and then right. The low gray skies and rows of sterile military hangars gave the morning a depressing and dirty feeling.

  Rapp sensed the oncoming downturn in his emotions and fought it. There was the tinge of self-pity, triggered by either the dreary surroundings or the arrival of Hornig, or probably both. These little mood swings h
ad become more and more frequent over the last year. Rapp thought he knew what was causing them. When you spent as much time alone with your thoughts as he did, self-diagnosis became as normal as eating. He was nowhere near the pain and anguish that he had suffered almost a decade earlier. This wasn’t like that; it was different. This was more like a warning that if he didn’t do something, he would be stuck on a certain path for the rest of his life. A barren path marked by loneliness.

  Before leaving on the most recent mission, he had talked to Kennedy about it. His parents were both gone, and although he still had friends outside of work and a brother in New York with whom he was very close, it wasn’t as if he could pick up the phone and talk about his day at the office. He could talk about his computer-consulting business all he wanted, but Langley was off limits. Officially, Rapp didn’t even work for the CIA. He was what they liked to refer to in the business asa private contractor. Rapp lived a life completely separate from the Agency. With the help of Langley, he ran a computer-consulting business on the side that just happened to do a fair amount of international business, which of course gave him the cover to travel. His only passion in life, outside of work, was competing in the annual Ironman competition in Hawaii—an event that the former all-American lacrosse player from Syracuse University had actually won once.

  During these dark, brooding moments, Rapp had wondered how screwed-up his life was or, worse, how screwed-up it might get. He would continually ask himself if it was normal to want with such determination to kill another human being. He knew this was the crux of his problem and had once joked with Kennedy by saying, “Most people have lists of things they want to do before they get to a certain age, like go skydiving, travel to China, have a kid . . . not me. At the top of my list of things to do before I turn forty is kill Fara Harut and Rafique Aziz. How healthy do you think that is?”

  Laughing and making jokes were all part of therapy for Rapp; without-humor, he would never make it. In his job he needed to stay loose or, like a watch wound too tight, he would explode. Rapp had studied it from every angle, and he believed that his position was both moral and just.