Woods tried not to look at Big.
The President stared at the camera longer than was customary in political speeches. His fury was obvious. He was speaking extemporaneously, which was dangerous. He continued. “I want the man who is responsible for these attacks — and whoever is working with him or protecting him — to be held accountable. This country will never rest until he and his men are brought to justice for the murders of innocent Americans, military and political. He has declared a Jihad on the United States. We have done nothing to earn his wrath. I want to say clearly today, I personally will never rest until he is brought to justice. And I hereby obligate the United States and all its power. We will never rest until that justice is satisfied. Not ever.
“I will be meeting with other political leaders and military leaders to decide how best to proceed. But I want the world to know now that we will proceed. We will respond. We will ensure justice is done. Good night.”
As the President’s speech ended Bark stood up and walked to the television in front of the ready room. The Air Wing Intelligence Officer was on the screen, apparently in an attempt to play the ship’s Dan Rather and explain what the President had just said. Bark addressed his officers. “I probably don’t need to tell you that I am not one of the military leaders he is consulting. If he were consulting me, I would tell him to strike now, strike tomorrow, strike every day thereafter until this guy is buried in fifty feet of sand. We may have a special role in this. In fact, we already do. We are the ones accused of having started this with the Israelis. But we know that didn’t happen. We inventoried the missiles. Woods and Big” — their hearts jumped — “have told us they had nothing to do with it. That means that not only did this guy murder Vialli, but he has murdered a Naval attaché in Paris, the Commanding Officer of a Navy fighter squadron and a Lieutenant serving as Officer of the Mess, and some poor guy from the State Department. These guys are really pissing me off. I just hope that we actually get to do something about it personally, and that it’s not left to someone else to do it.
“I have no idea what the President has in mind, but I want us to start getting ourselves ready for whatever action is going to follow, because I believe action will follow. I want to make sure that our weapon systems are up, that our airplanes are all up, and every officer in the squadron is one hundred percent ready to go into combat tomorrow.” To Wink, he said, “Let’s do a weapons-systems NATOPS review tomorrow afternoon. I want written tests for everyone. I wanna be talking weapons, weapons delivery, weapons choice, air-to-air combat, everything we do — I want it discussed every day at every meeting, every meal, and every minute we’re awake in this ready room. We will talk combat, we will talk fighting until this is done.” He studied the faces of his men. “I really hope we get a chance to do something about this. I really do.”
The officers stood to leave. Woods crossed to Big. “Did you hear how the President was talking about the Sheikh?”
“Yeah…”
“He’s still a threat.”
Big was startled. “You’re right.”
Woods lowered his voice. “That can only mean one thing. We missed. Shit.”
The conference room in the White House was full. The President had not waited even a day to call the meeting he had promised. Those invited had only a few hours’ notice. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was there, the Secretary of Defense, the Director of Central Intelligence, and the National Security Adviser. Also present were the Speaker of the House, the Members of the Cabinet, the chairmen of the Armed Services Committees of the House and the Senate, the Senate Majority Leader, the Senate and House Minority Leaders and the Vice President. No press was invited. This was not a staged photo opportunity as so many White House meetings were. This was a meeting the President had called to decide what to do about Sheikh al-Jabal.
President Garrett was from Texas. His drawl was mostly gone, but when he was angry, the drawl came out more clearly. And he was angry now. A tall, thin man with wavy brownish-gray hair, his personality was so large that it overwhelmed others who were in his presence. He scanned the room to make sure everyone was accounted for before he began speaking.
“Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I know it’s a bit unusual, and I hope that you don’t misunderstand what I’m trying to do. This is not some attempt at a political event. I realize we have people here from both parties and I know that might look like a publicity stunt rather than a planning session. But I want you to know right now, I am here for one purpose only — to do whatever we can to eradicate this Sheikh al-Jabal rodent from the face of the earth. He has killed innocent Americans, he has attacked us in every way, and he has declared a holy war on this country and its citizens.
“I have my own ideas of what to do about this, but I want to hear your ideas as well. I don’t want to do some secretive behind-the-scenes action. I want something new.” He raised his hand. “Before anybody says it, I’m not inclined to use the Letter of Marque or Rules of Capture Congress has implemented in the recent past with which we’re all too familiar.
“I want to do this together. I might agree that Congress abdicated some of its authority in the past, and the Presidents of the past took more liberty with the employment of the military than they were entitled to; but I don’t want the pendulum swinging too far in the other direction either. Let’s work together, come up with the right approach, and execute it immediately. That’s why we’re all here.” He waited, then had another thought. “Tell you what. Carl is here for the CIA. Anything new?”
Carl Spear, the Director of Central Intelligence, stood up. “Mr. President, there really isn’t a lot more to say about this man than has already been said. You received our report, written by one of our analysts, which compares this man to his namesake of the eleventh century, and a few others since then. You know the history of the group, the Assassins, and it really isn’t necessary to go into more than that at this time… The thing that I might add — which may make this discussion a little more difficult but is something we all need to be aware of — is that we don’t know where he is. We have some leads, and we’re trying to locate him. We had a good bead on him once, but not anymore. We simply don’t know where he is.”
Garrett agreed. “Terrorists don’t have capital cities, or Navy bases with piers and ships parked next to them, or airports with fighter jets lined up like ducks. Always one of the hardest things to do in attacking terrorism is finding the terrorists. But let’s set aside that difficult issue for just a moment.” He folded his arms. “Let’s assume that the largest military in the world can find him. I want to know what we should do about it. I can send the military. I can do that. Presidents have been doing that for long time. I will do that, if it’s what we agree on. But that is the question. How do we justify going into somebody else’s territory with our military to get this guy?”