“Who?”
“He used to be an undercover cop in Philadelphia, specializing in infiltrating would-be rag-head terrorist groups,” Castillo clarified. “He is also now associated with Sparkling Water.”
“And what we are going to do in picturesque Mogadishu,” Dick Miller said, “is take photographs of each other standing in front of easily recognizable landmarks—”
“Which I will send to POTUS as visual proof that we are carrying out his orders,” Castillo said, finishing the sentence for him.
“Which are, specifically?” Damon asked.
“To assess the situation and make recommendations vis-à-vis the solution of the problems known as the Mexican drug cartels and Somalian pirates.”
“What are you going to suggest?” Damon asked.
“Ambassador Lorimer suggests that following the motto of Special Forces—‘Kill Them All and Let God Sort It Out’—would be one solution, but I don’t think the President would go along with it. He doesn’t stand a chance of reelection without the Somali-American vote.”
“Charley,” Ambassador Lorimer said, laughing, “that’s not what I said and you know it. What I said was that President Clendennen is going to have a harder problem with the pirates than President Thomas Jefferson did. The law then — I said the law then, Charley — permitted Jefferson to hang pirates from the nearest yardarm. Now they have to be tried in a court of law.”
“Well, maybe President Clendennen doesn’t know that,” Castillo said, “or I’ll have to think of some other suggestion to make.”
“And what are you going to be doing, Charley, while Uncle Remus is in picturesque Mogadishu, besides thinking of another suggestion to make to the President?” Damon asked.
“Hoping he has another nutty idea that will make him forget this one.”
“And where are you going to do that?”
“We were discussing that when you drove up in that car with the ‘I can park anywhere, I’m a diplomat’ license plates. There were two possibilities for a location for my command post. One was the Danubius Hotel Gellért in Budapest. The advantages of that would be that I could talk to my Uncle Billy Kocian…” He stopped, said, “I have now stopped pulling your chain, Greg,” and then went on, “about the pirates. He has amazing contacts. And also it has a foreign-intrigue sound to it that I suspect will appeal to the President. The other option was the Grand Cozumel Beach and Golf Resort in Mexico. That would probably make the President think that we’re all sunning ourselves on a beach while sucking on bottles of Dos Equis instead of investigating the bad guys. But I have a friend, a lifelong friend, a Mexican cop — an honest Mexican cop — who knows all about the cartels and will have some practical ideas about how to deal with them the President should hear.”
“So, what did you decide?” Damon asked.
“My fiancée just told me we’re going to Mexico first, and then Budapest.”
“Your fiancée? You’re back to pulling my leg?”
“Not at all.”
“You have a fiancée?”
“Indeed, I do. You’ll meet Sweaty on our way to Cozumel.”
“On our way to Cozumel?”
“Sweaty said the smart way to do this is to go to Mexico, get organized there, see my cop friend Juan Carlos Pena, then go to Budapest, and then sneak you tourists into Mogadishu on Air Bulgaria. So that’s what we’re going to do.”
“I’m going to have to come up with some story to tell the ambassador. I can’t just disappear, Charley.”
“When you get back to Montevideo,” Uncle Remus said, “the ambassador will tell you he’s just had a call from the secretary of State ordering you to Washington immediately for an indefinite period to assist her in some unspecified task.”
“You can do that?”
“It’s already done.”
PART VI
[ONE]
Supervisory Secret Service Agent Robert J. Mulligan held open the door to the Oval Office and Truman C. Ellsworth, the director of National Intelligence, and CIA Director A. Franklin Lammelle came through it.
“Good morning, Mr. President,” Ellsworth said. He took from his briefcase a brown manila envelope and handed it to him.
“We have heard from Colonel Castillo, Mr. President,” Ellsworth said.
President Joshua Ezekiel Clendennen quickly glanced at what it contained:
TOP SECRET
URGENT
DUPLICATION FORBIDDEN
TO: POTUS
SUBJECT: REPORT
VIA SECRETARY OF STATE
MAKE AVAILABLE (EYES ONLY) TO:
DIRECTOR, CIA
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
C IN C CENTRAL COMMAND
OOR SITREP #1
US EMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 2020 ZULU 9 JUNE 2007
1- WITHIN TWENTY-FOUR (24) HOURS AFTER ARRIVAL IN ARGENTINA OF MR. ROSCOE J. DANTON, OPERATION OBSERVE AND REPORT (OOR) WILL PROCEED TO AS YET UNDETERMINED LOCATION IN MEXICO FOR FOLLOWING PURPOSES:
A. ASSEMBLE OOR OPERATIONAL TEAM
B. WHEN A. ABOVE ACCOMPLISHED DETERMINING BEST METHOD OF MEETING REQUIREMENTS OOR AS ORDERED BY POTUS.
C. INITIAL CONTACT WITH MEXICAN POLICE AUTHORITIES.
2-TRAVEL WILL BE BY AIRCRAFT LEASED FROM PANAMANIAN EXECUTIVE AIRCRAFT AND BILLED TO CIA.
3-ROSTER OF PERSONNEL INVOLVED FOR DURATION OF POTUS MISSION:
A. CASTILLO, LTC C.G. RETD.
B. NAYLOR, LTC ALLAN B. USA
C. D’ALESSANDRO, MR. VICTOR DA CIV GS-15
D. CIVILIAN CONTRACT PERSONNEL OF PANAMANIAN EXECUTIVE AIRCRAFT:
(1) TORINE, JACOB (PILOT)
(2) MILLER, H. RICHARD, JR (CO-PILOT)
E. THE FOLLOWING PERSONNEL HAVE BEEN EMPLOYED ON A CONTRACT BASIS FROM SPARKLING WATER DUE DILIGENCE, INC., AND BILLED TO THE CIA. UNLESS ADVISED TO THE CONTRARY, POTUS MAY ASSUME THEY HAVE JOINED OOR AT THE TO-BE-DETERMINED LOCATION IN MEXICO. IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT OTHER PERSONNEL, IN ADDITION TO THOSE LISTED HEREIN, MAY BE REQUIRED TO ACCOMPLISH THE MISSION OF OOR AS SPECIFIED BY POTUS.
(1) LEVERETTE, COLIN (TEAM CHIEF)
(2) BRADLEY, LESTER (SECURITY TECHNICIAN)
(3) LORIMER, EDMUND (COMMUNICATIONS TECHNICIAN)
(4) BRITTON, JOHN (SECURITY TECHNICIAN)
(5) BRITTON, DR. SANDRA (LINGUIST)
(6) SIENO, PAUL (INTELLIGENCE ANALYST)
(7) SIENO, SUSANA (INTELLIGENCE ANALYST)
(8) DAMON, C. GREGORY (DIPLOMATIC ANALYST)
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED.
CASTILLO, LTC RETD
TOP SECRET
The President handed the report to presidential spokesperson Robin Hoboken and then demanded, “Where’s Cohen? Isn’t she supposed to deliver this?”
“I have no idea where the secretary of State is, Mr. President,” Hoboken said. “But I’m sure the Secret Service could find her for you.”
The President looked as if he was going to reply to Hoboken, but didn’t, instead shaking his head.
“The protocol, Mr. President,” DCI Lammelle said, “provides that when the secretary is not available, the message goes to the next person on the list, in this case the DCI, me. When I got it, I immediately went to see Mr. Ellsworth and we came here together.”
“That answers the second part of my question,” the President said. “But not the first.”