47

Tapping his feet in the hallway of the West Wing lobby, Kurt Hale was growing impatient. George Wolffe said, “I know that look. Storming down the hall without a security badge isn’t going to win you any friends. And you need some friends at this point.”

Kurt said, “Yeah, okay, but if I find out that Alexander Palmer is making us cool our heels out here as some sort of power play, I’m going to throat punch him.”

George heard someone coming down the hall; then Palmer turned the corner. “Speak of the devil.”

Palmer handed them both badges with a bright red V, indicating visitor. He said, “Kurt, I hope this is important, because President Hannister has a busy calendar.”

They started walking and Kurt said, “It is. I’ve had to make some decisions, and I need to let him know.”

Palmer snapped his head to Kurt and said, “Don’t tell me you’ve initiated some operation without sanction of the Oversight Council.”

“Not exactly, but I had to move some personnel, and I need Kerry’s assistance. He’s here, right?”

Palmer opened the door to the Oval Office and said, “Yeah, he’s here, but don’t expect a lot of love. You jerked him out of something hot as well.”

Kurt walked in first, followed by the other two. At the Resolute desk, Hannister heard the door and lowered his glasses. He said, “Kurt, I don’t have a lot of time. What’s up?”

Kurt shook hands with Kerry Bostwick, then the president. He said, “Sir, the operation in Chefchaouen was only partially successful. We captured the target, and he’s talking. We have a lead on Jalal al-Khattabi in Fez through some relatives of his. They work at the tannery in the medina, and the target firmly believes that they’ll know where Jalal is and what he’s up to.”

“So you want Omega authority to go after them? You know I can’t do that unilaterally. Is this time sensitive? Are we looking at an imminent threat?”

“Yes, sir, I do think there is an imminent threat, but I’m not asking for unilateral Omega without Oversight Council approval. As I said, the operation was only partially successful.”

He paused for a minute, not even wanting to say the words. But he did. “Pike and Knuckles were arrested.”

He saw the collected group begin to wind up with questions, and he held up a hand, saying, “It’s not that bad. The target was being chased by the police, presumably for his drug activities, and Pike managed to snatch him from right under their noses. In the process of securing the target he was arrested, but it’s all circumstantial, based on nothing more than the fact that his vehicle looked like the one that had left the scene. The biggest piece of evidence—the target—is missing. They have nothing else, the Grolier Recovery Services cover is very solid in that region due to the historic nature of the area, and both Pike and Knuckles have plenty of training in SERE activities.”

“So why the meeting?”

“Two reasons: One, because I need him back in play. I’m sure there’s another hit coming. Maybe more than one, and Pike’s on the thread. The length of time it will take to resolve this on their own leaves the team pretty much non–mission capable, and putting in a new team will cause us to lose ground.”

Palmer said, “Just order them to continue the mission without Pike and Knuckles.”

“Yeah, I could do that, for the active-duty guys, but Jennifer won’t. No way. It’ll split what’s left of the team.”

“Tell me again why we put up with this civilian shit? Tell me why we don’t just use active-duty folks?”

Kurt glared at him and said, “Because they get results. More than anyone else, and part of that is predicated on their loyalty to each other.”

President Hannister waved his hand, interrupting the exchange. He said, “And point two of why you wanted this meeting?”

Kurt let his anger subside, focusing on what was important. He said, “Because Pike and Knuckles have been taken to Casablanca. We tracked the beacons embedded in their phones, and they’re currently being held at the headquarters for DGST.”

Palmer said, “DGST? What the hell is that?”

Kerry said, “Direction Générale de la Surveillance du Territoire. It’s their version of the FBI, except it doesn’t really care about human rights. It’s more of a secret police.”

President Hannister said, “So why are the Taskforce Operators being held by them? Are they responsible for drug interdiction?”

Kurt said, “No, which is why I’m here. They deal with terrorism and state security, and Pike getting pulled into them, for whatever reason, gives us an edge.”

Hannister said, “How?”

Kurt pointed at Kerry and said, “Because the CIA deals with them on a daily basis. Shit, after the attacks in France and Belgium, everyone deals with them on a daily basis. They have the pulse of the Moroccan extremists.”

A suspicious look on his face, Kerry said, “How’s that help?”

“Remember Carly Ramirez?”

“Yeah. You stole her from me.”

“I prefer to think she chose a different career path, but anyway, she’s still on the CIA books. I want to use her as a CIA liaison. Get her into DGST headquarters and cause a little smoke about who they have, get them to release Pike and Knuckles as a gesture of mutual cooperation, but that’ll depend on leveraging the station there. Technically, she’s still a CIA asset.”

“What are you talking about? I can’t have her walk into the chief of station in Morocco and demand help. The first thing he’ll ask is why he wasn’t read on to a covert action on his soil. The next thing he’ll ask is what section of the agency the two knuckleheads who were arrested work for. And I can’t defend either one.”

“Yeah, you can. Don’t paint it as an operation. He doesn’t need to know what caused the arrest. Paint it as a transit.”

“Even a transit would be included in cable traffic. He’ll be livid that someone entered his domain and he wasn’t informed. It’s why we have a chief. You don’t understand the significance.”

“Yes, I do, and no, he won’t. He’ll be pissed, but he’ll understand he can’t be read on to every single covert action around the globe, and if some crew had to transit Morocco on a mission, then it just happened, and now you’re going to ask for his help.”

“What, specifically, are you thinking?”

George Wolffe, a CIA paramilitary officer who’d done more than his fair share of operations just like this, stepped into the breach. “Simple, sir. Carly shows up at his doorstep and asks for his help with DGST, using your weight as the director. She tells him a bullshit story, then endures his wrath for a few minutes. He sends a cable back to the mission center for Africa or the Near East—whoever’s controlling Morocco nowadays—bitching about being left outside the loop, they tell him to comply, and he gets in touch with his contacts in DGST. Then she gets them out as CIA assets.”

Aggravated at an old CIA hand short-circuiting his excuses, Kerry said, “And then what? They’re going to continue the mission in Fez, right? How can I do that without including the CIA?”

Kurt nodded and said, “Actually, I want to include them, at least on the face of it. I think the DGST will help us find these assholes. It’s just a hunch, but I believe that they’re involved here for the same reasons we are. They’re on a thread of terrorism, even if they don’t know what it is. There’s no other reason for a simple drug bust to end up in their hands. Let Pike develop the situation. Let him figure it out, but get him out of their custody under CIA auspices.”

“So you’re saying we’re going to read on the chief of station to the Taskforce?”

“No. Come on. Don’t tell me you can’t build a bodyguard of lies around Pike. Jesus, do you actually work for the CIA, or do you just pretend to? Give the chief of station a reason to feel important, then cut him free.”

Kerry remained silent. President Hannister said, “Can you do that?”

Kerry nodded, then said, “I can do it, but I can’t contain the fallout if it goes wrong. I can’t drag in the CIA after the fact. All of you need to be aware of that. If you include the chief of station, you open the operation to investigation after the fact. If this blows up, I’m not going to have the chief of station interrogated on the Hill by the House and Senate intel committees on a covert action for which they never got a finding.”

Kurt said, “Don’t worry about that. Just get Pike out. Nobody’s asking you to betray your men.”

Alexander Palmer said, “How soon can you get Carly there?”

“She’ll be there in about two hours. I put her on a flight as soon as I heard about Pike and Knuckles.”

President Hannister said, “You did what?”

Kurt raised his hands in surrender, saying, “You wanted the black magic, sir. I’m just rubbing the bottle.”