The President’s national security briefing had virtually the same cast as it had for the assassination of Congressman Drexel. The new addition was the demolitions expert from the bomb squad, though it would be a while before he got a chance to talk. Clyde Benedict, the director of Homeland Security, was holding forth.
“Madam President, this is no longer an isolated incident. We are now talking about a coordinated terrorist attack against members of the United States Congress.”
“Despite the fact we have one sniper and one suicide bomber?” Kate said.
“Despite that. I think the situation is clear.”
“The situation is anything but clear,” Lance Cabot said. “Sorry to interrupt, Madam President, but there are only what can be described as special circumstances.”
“What special circumstances?”
“This is demolitions expert Roger McClarey. He’s done an analysis of what remains of the device, and his findings are interesting. Mr. McClarey?”
Roger McClarey cleared his throat. “The device used was your typical suicide vest, several separate charges designed to go off simultaneously, any one blast triggering the others. It is not a particularly sophisticated device, which is why it is popular. It could be detonated by a button wired to a single chamber.”
“That was done in this case?” Kate said.
“Apparently.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Clyde Benedict chimed in.
“Most suicide bombings fit a pattern. The bomber walks into a crowd where the bomb would do the most damage, and detonates.”
“In this case he was targeting a particular person.”
“Even so. He would walk up to him and detonate. He wouldn’t care where that was. He would pick the easiest access with the most possibility of success. He wouldn’t worry about collateral damage. In most instances, it would be the icing on the cake.”
The director scoffed at the logic. “So he blew him up at home. That’s where he knew he’d be.”
Roger shook his head. “That doesn’t make it easier, it makes it harder. You go to his office building, wait for him to arrive. When he walks into the lobby, you blow him up. Simple.
“Your way, the congressman comes out his front door. A lone man approaches him. Someone he doesn’t know. A congressman’s already been killed, which puts him on his guard. Is he going to stand there and let an unknown man walk up to him?”
“That’s not what happened here.”
“No, it isn’t. The bomber waited in his car. All night, most likely, since after daybreak he would have been seen. To the best we can determine, which is hard since the whole car was blown apart, he curled up and hid in the trunk. He waited there all night for the congressman to wake up and start his car. When the car started, he detonated his bomb.
“The trunk is the worst possible place to put the bomb. You know you blow yourself up, but you can’t be sure of your target, though in this case enough explosive was used for any reasonable certainty. Still, it makes no sense. If you want to blow someone up when they start the car, you wire the ignition. This is not rocket science. Two-bit gangsters have been doing it since Prohibition.”
“You find that convincing?” the director said. “Car bombs can fail. When they do, you can’t do anything about it. If a suicide vest fails, a bomber on the spot can deal with it and find another way to detonate.”
“Do we know who this bomber is?” Holly Barker asked, trying to cut short the argument.
“We do not. We managed to save a fragment of a fingerprint and get a sufficient DNA sample to determine his probable ethnic origin.”
“Can you do that?”
“It’s not an exact science, but there are a few markers we can use as indicators,” Lance said. “The body was obliterated, but we were lucky enough to recover almost an entire hand. Tests are still being run, but preliminary results indicate the bomber to be of Middle Eastern ancestry.”
“So the sniper and the bomber are both Middle Eastern,” the director of Homeland Security said.
“That goes no further than this room,” Kate Lee said. “We will be releasing a statement, of course, but a preliminary finding of that sort would be highly inflammatory, resulting in widespread speculation and panic. We have yet to confirm the identity of the shooter, and our investigation into the bombing has barely begun.”
“I want all the details of the investigation, evidence, and up-to-the-minute findings forwarded to me at my office,” Holly said.
Lance gave her a look. “May I remind you you’re not running the CIA.”
“I’m briefing the President. If we have to convene a meeting like this every time there’s a new development, the government will shut down.”
“Well done,” Kate Lee said as Holly walked her back to the Oval Office. “Any meetings of this type that you can keep me out of I will greatly appreciate.”
“I understand. What do you think of the theory about the bomber?”
“It makes sense. It’s not helpful, but it makes sense.”
“It is a strange method for a suicide bomber.” Holly took a breath. “Madam President, I know you don’t like to play the mommy card, but if you’d like to grab some time with your son, why don’t you let me run interference and you take some now before things get crazy?”
Kate smiled. “I wish I could.”
“Why can’t you?”
“I have to reassure the American public.”