OVAL OFFICE
WHITE HOUSE
President Dellenbaugh was seated on one of two tan leather chesterfield couches at the center of the Oval Office. Across from him, on the opposite sofa, sat the governor of New York, Judy Brown.
Dellenbaugh was in his first term as president, having been elevated to the post following the untimely death of President Rob Allaire, for whom he’d served as VP. A month ago, Dellenbaugh’s vice president, Danny Donato, was assassinated, killed after his plane was shot down near Hawaii. Faced with the challenge of selecting a new vice president, Dellenbaugh was close to selecting Brown.
Brown was forty-six years old, with medium-length brown hair and a voluptuous frame. She was attractive, though her looks were cut with a tough aspect, a look that made her appear as if she was ready for an argument. Brown had served as U.S. district attorney for the Southern District of New York, where she focused her prosecutors on terror cells, human traffickers, and Russian mobsters. She became a celebrity, a folk hero in New York, and she rode that popularity to the governor’s mansion in Albany.
Brown was from western New York, outside of Buffalo, the only child of a Buffalo policeman who was killed in the line of duty when she was ten. She was pro-life, pro-gun, pro–death penalty, and a fiscal conservative, the kind of politician who had no place in the liberal bastion of New York politics. Yet, she’d been elected governor with more than 60 percent of the vote. Brown was a hard-core conservative who nevertheless had won the trust of moderates and even some liberals with her plainspoken manner and her toughness. Some would even say her fearlessness.
“How did the meeting with Hector go?” said Dellenbaugh.
“Fine,” said Brown.
“Do you still think he’s too old to be running the CIA?” asked Dellenbaugh.
“Yes,” said Brown, “and no.”
“What does that mean?”
“Mr. President, what I said was taken out of context,” said Governor Brown, referring to a now well-known comment Brown had made on CNN. “What I said originally was that when I’m sixty-four I don’t think I’d be able to run the CIA. It wasn’t a knock on Hector Calibrisi. The assholes at CNN cut it that way.”
“Judy, if I ask you to be vice president, you’ll be, let’s see—”
“Fifty after your second term, Mr. President. Fifty-eight after my second term, all hypothetically speaking.”
“Which is young.”
“Anderson Cooper took it out of context. When I’m sixty-four I want to be in Tuscany, cooking my family all the great meals I never got to cook all these years. I don’t want to be doing anything when I’m sixty-four. That being said, Langley has failed to stop several material threats coming from outside our borders. I’ve seen the aftereffects firsthand. Russian mafia. Human traffic. Terror. The time to stop these threats is when they’re still outside our borders. You can blame the FBI all you want but they’re just doing cleanup by the time things metastasize inside the U.S.”
Dellenbaugh smiled.
“That’s the most naïve thing I’ve heard today.”
“You disagree?” said Brown.
“You might have a good idea about the war we’re fighting in New York City, Governor,” said the president, “but it’s nothing compared to the wars we’re fighting in about ten countries scattered all over this world. You have no idea.”
Brown started to say something, but stopped herself. She leaned back and crossed her legs.
“I’m actually glad to hear that,” she said.
“Why?”
“It makes me feel safer knowing it’s not incompetence.”
“It’s not,” said the president. “It’s us, Great Britain, and Israel. That is the final wall. We are the final wall. It’s constant and it’s frightening.”
Dellenbaugh leaned forward and poured a cup of coffee from a silver coffee service on the table between them. He didn’t offer Brown a cup. He sat back and took a sip.
Brown stared calmly at Dellenbaugh without speaking.
“Would you get rid of him?” asked Dellenbaugh.
“If I were vice president?”
“Yes.”
“If I’m vice president, I will support you and your decisions as they relate to Langley and everywhere else. Who runs the CIA would not be my decision. If it was, I probably wouldn’t just fire him. I voted for you, President Dellenbaugh, and I support you even if I’m not asked to be VP. If you’re saying there’s more here than meets the eye, then I’d want to learn more and spend more time with Hector and his team. Who knows, maybe I have some good ideas that can help? I’m ruthless when it comes to people trying to hurt this country.”
“I appreciate your honesty,” said Dellenbaugh.
“Thank you.”
A knock came at the door. Cecily Vincent, the president’s assistant, looked in.
“They’re here, sir,” said Cecily.
Dellenbaugh stood up, followed by Governor Brown.
“I’m afraid I have to cut this a little short, Judy.”
“No problem. If you’d like to continue our discussion, I’m glad to stay in town,” said Brown.
“That might not be a bad idea.”
Cecily led Brown out through a different door, what was considered the main door, though true insiders seldom used it. Cecily returned and opened the door to her office. Hector Calibrisi, Bill Polk, Josh Brubaker, and Jenna Hartford entered the Oval Office and sat down.
Dellenbaugh looked at Jenna.
“You must be new.”
“I’m Jenna Hartford,” she said in a clipped British accent, stepping forward to meet Dellenbaugh.
“Nice to meet you,” said Dellenbaugh, smiling.
“She worked at British intelligence,” said Calibrisi.
“I couldn’t tell,” said Dellenbaugh sarcastically. He sat down, as did the others. “What’s the latest?”
“Langley has completed the design of an operation,” said Brubaker. “This is the North Korean general I discussed with you earlier.”
“Yong-sik,” said Dellenbaugh. “Why do you need me?”
* * *
Over the next ten minutes, Jenna, Polk, and Calibrisi briefed the president on the details of the Macau operation. When they were finished, Dellenbaugh walked behind his desk, deep in thought. He paced back and forth in front of the window.
“What more do we know about the Iranian plane?” he asked.
Calibrisi, who’d been scanning his phone for updates, looked up.
“It’s Abu Paria’s, sir.”
Dellenbaugh’s eyes met Calibrisi’s.
“It can’t be a coincidence,” said Dellenbaugh.
“I agree.”
“So why are they meeting?”
“We don’t know if they are, Mr. President,” said Calibrisi.
“Yes we do,” said Dellenbaugh. “This just became a bigger situation.”