"How many bodies are we talking about? I can't imagine they were hanging out alone," Shelby said.
"About twenty. One of them belongs to Sanderson's team."
"Twenty bodies? Exactly what are my people expected to do at the estate?"
"Keep local law enforcement away until we can get a Special Operations strike force up there. Send a small group," the president said.
Shelby understood immediately. Later today, General Gordon would land several helicopters at the estate, creating enough mayhem to explain the sudden appearance of twenty bodies. He'd play along with that, in the interest of national security.
"That sounds easy enough."
"There's one more thing. I need you to remove any and all pressure on Sanderson's people."
"Already done, Mr. President. I revoked the warrants and released the agents being held in Brooklyn. I've also removed them from the wanted lists. After examining the evidence gathered by Task Force Scorpion and speaking with Special Agent Sharpe, I've concluded that Sanderson had been working in good faith, on the nation's behalf, despite his methods. The digital recordings of the NCTC watch floor confirm that Callie Stewart indeed sacrificed herself, along with others, while trying to stop the suicide bombing," Sanderson said.
"Frankly, I'm relieved to hear that this is your independent conclusion. We've invested an inordinate amount of trust in Sanderson's word."
"Don't get me wrong, Mr. President. Sanderson is a dangerous character. I don't fully trust him, but based on the evidence, his organization's assistance was instrumental to stopping the final stage of Greely's plan. My task force was on the verge of a breakthrough, which is why NCTC was targeted. They had unofficially concluded that the Fort Meade attack had been orchestrated to fail and that the Hacker Valley compound had been filled with weekend warriors having little to do with True America. Sanderson's information serves to reinforce the task force's belief that Greely's splinter group was behind everything. Mills, the bottled water connection…it all makes sense. I imagine the remaining four targets will directly support Greely's extreme version of the True America manifesto."
"In my opinion, the True America manifesto is a clear and present danger to the stability of the United States," Jacob Remy offered.
Here we go, Shelby thought. The idea of a splinter cell didn't sit well with the president's chief of staff.
"I agree. Which is why I think we got lucky in Pennsylvania. The last thing this country needed was a public trial of Greely, Harding and this Mills character. They would have become martyrs for the True America political movement. Sanderson did us a huge favor. I just hope he left us enough evidence to track down the rest of Greely's people. I'd like a solid link back to the NCTC bombing. The families of the victims deserve the closure."
Jacob Remy looked like he was about to make a point, when General Kearney turned around and made an announcement.
"Mr. President, NYPD just stopped the Manhattan convoy at the GE Building loading docks. The driver was killed in a brief firefight."
"Thank you, General."
Frederick Shelby added this target to his mental calculation. Was NBC the target? NBC owned more than half of the seventy-story building, housing most of its corporate offices and studios there. Greely despised the media, on both sides of the political spectrum. Shelby wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the next convoy stopped at the News Corporation Building to deliver some contaminated water to Rupert Murdoch's empire. Knowing three out of the six locations, he could probably guess where the rest of the convoys were headed. He'd be willing to bet his job on the likelihood that one of the convoys was headed to lower Manhattan. Greely and Harding had clamored for the public overthrow of Wall Street well before it was cool to hate Wall Street executives. The convoy headed to Allentown would probably turn east on Interstate 78, unless General Gordon's commandos reached it first.
"General Gordon, how long until your air units intercept the northernmost convoy?" the president asked.
"Just inside of twenty minutes. We're trying to coordinate this for an open stretch of road with limited traffic. It might happen after Allentown."
"Thank you, General. Jacob, Frederick, will you follow me into the Oval Office for a moment?"
Shelby followed Remy into the Oval Office, past a seasoned regular Secret Service agent. When the door shut behind him, the president turned and leaned his back against the front of his desk. There was no invitation to sit.
"What exactly did your task force uncover regarding Hacker Valley? I was told by General Gordon that the compound was filled with heavily armed domestic terror cells. This is important. I'm about to level some heavy accusations against True America, and I need us to be on the same page. What leads you to suspect that Hacker Valley was some sort of diversion?"
"Very few of the militants—"
"Terrorists," the president corrected.
"Very few of the terrorists captured or killed fit the profile of an active True America operative. This could have been a recruiting drive for True America, but I feel pretty confident in my assessment that the compound had been stuffed with anti-government weekend warriors in order to send us in the wrong direction. I also have strong reason to believe that the attack on Fort Meade was orchestrated to make it look like our public water supply was in jeopardy. The sergeant involved in the shooting has disappeared, and his vacation schedule fits the profile of every True America operative we've recovered. And I don't think it's a coincidence that NCTC was hit soon after Special Agent O'Reilly placed a call to Laurel's chief of police to check the specifics of his vacation."
"This is all very compelling, Director, and I'm sure you'll get this all sorted out later, but right now you're missing the bigger picture."
"I don't understand, Mr. President," Shelby said, fully understanding exactly what was headed his way.
"I'm not convinced this is the end of True America's plot against the government, and I have no intention of waiting around for round two. Starting tomorrow, we will systematically dismantle True America."
"I'm not sure there's anything left to dismantle. Their training compound has been destroyed. Their plan has been stopped cold; most of the experienced personnel have been killed or captured and the three ringleaders are dead. Do we have new information from Sanderson or the CIA?"
"Don't play word games with me, Director. I expect your agency to assist the Department of Justice in the execution of warrants against all of True America. I've authorized the attorney general to start the process. We'll begin right here in D.C. while the embers are still hot."
"I don't appreciate your analogy, Mr. President, and I think you're jumping the gun on this. There's not enough evidence to sustain your course of action in the long run. At least at this point. I can assure you that my agency will conduct an extremely thorough investiga—"
"I'm not waiting around for six months while you assemble data and question thousands of witnesses. We need to strike this organization down now."
"While the public is still outraged and confused? I'll restructure Task Force Scorpion to address these investigative needs, and put them to work immediately. We'll figure out exactly what happened, starting with Al Qaeda in Europe."
"I don't feel like I'm making myself clear…"
"Mr. President, you have made yourself abundantly clear. I have just been trying to tactfully steer you away from a disastrous course of action. You cannot take advantage of the situation to flush True America down the toilet. This is a political attack and little more."