Riva heard the distant cry of sirens. The bomb on Hollander’s lawn, he thought. Before the night was over they’d be running in panic-stricken circles—chasing their tails. A pack of prize fools, the American security forces.
“Copasetik.”
He turned the key and waited with the engine idling until the Chevrolet drove past; he switched on the lights and pulled out to follow at a leisurely distance, heading for Wisconsin Avenue.
4:05 A.M. EST They had floodlights all over Senator Hollander’s lawn and the bomb squad was examining the pieces of shrapnel they had found imbedded in the siding.
“A hell of a lot of force in that thing,” the sergeant said. “Christ look at that tree it knocked down.” It had been a giant of an old maple.
Senator Hollander and Mrs. Hollander were stomping around the snowy lawn in slippers and robes, bellowing at everybody in sight. Lieutenant Ainsworth spoke into the radio: “It looks like a professionally made bomb. You’d better try and get in touch with Mr. Satterthwaite.”
4:08 A.M. EST Riva drove slowly along Wisconsin Avenue and parked a block short of Milton Luke’s apartment building. The snow was still fluttering down in heavy wet streamers. It was beginning to accumulate on the sidewalks and lawns; the temperature had probably dropped a degree or two.
A garage would have made it easier but there wasn’t any. It had been the last apartment building raised in Washington before the zoning laws forbade throwing up high-rises without built-in garages. So everybody had to scramble for parking spaces in the street—everybody except the VIPs. The limousine assigned to Speaker Luke, now President-designate Luke, had its own cordoned-off parking space immediately in front of the building. The chauffeur was a Secret Service agent and was always with the car. Two more Secret Service men were on the apartment house door. There were dozens of them inside the building, in the corridors, at the other entrances. You couldn’t get at Luke inside; you had to do it out here.
Riva lifted the walkie-talkie. “All set?”
“Copasetik.”
“Synchronize. Three minutes from … now.”
He was studying the crystal of his watch; now he slipped the hosepipe bomb out from under the newspaper, got most of it inside his coat pocket and the rest up his left sleeve, and stepped out of the car with his left hand in his pocket. The bomb was only an inch and a half in diameter but the charge inside was a German explosive gel that had the destructive equivalent of a six-inch naval shell. One end of the hosepipe was capped with aluminum, the other with a heat-sensitive detonating device, and powerful magnets were fixed to both caps and a ring around the center of the pipe. The magnets would hold the bomb snug against any piece of steel.
The detonator was a tin-copper electrical device that relied on an increase in temperature to affect the expansion differential of the two metals: any temperature above 100 degrees Fahrenheit would cause contact and thereby detonate the bomb.
He walked down the street on the sidewalk opposite the apartment building and glanced casually in its direction. The Secret Service agents were watching him as they would watch any pedestrian abroad at ten past four in the morning.
Ahead of him a car was sliding among the lights of the intersection two blocks distant. Riva timed his turn to coincide with the bleat of the car’s horn as it came into the block.
The horn attracted the Secret Service agents’ attention. The chauffeur was standing under the awning watching the limousine but his head also turned toward the advancing Chevrolet. Riva stepped off the curb between two parked cars and stood there waiting for the Chevrolet to go past him so he could walk across the street. He made it look as if he were walking toward the building beyond the apartment house.
He heard the pneumatic hiss of the car as it grew closer and he took a step back to avoid the splash of snow. The car went by, doing about twenty-five; the agents’ heads swiveled, indicating their steady interest in it. Riva stepped out into the avenue, looked both ways and began to cross. His path was designed to take him past the back of the limousine toward the next building down.
The agents were dividing their attention between Riva and the receding Chevrolet when Harrison in the back seat of the Chevrolet began to shoot. He was shooting at the windows of Milton Luke’s apartment. His shots were not expected to do any damage; it was a very high angle. But they accomplished their purpose; the Secret Service agents got behind pillars and cars and began to blaze away at the Chevrolet.
Riva did what anybody would do. You’re a pedestrian in the middle of the open and suddenly guns start going off: you dive for cover.
The cover he chose was the shadow of the VIP limousine and as he rolled past its rear bumper his left arm snaked up underneath the rear of the car. It took only a second or two to locate an exhaust pipe. He snapped the magnetized bomb on top of the pipe, immediately beneath the gasoline tank, and kept right on rolling over against the curb. Now he was a few feet behind the limousine, not within reach of it, and the Secret Service agents could see him if they chose to look.
The Chevrolet was just disappearing around the corner with a wail of tires and the agents stopped shooting. Riva got to his feet and when the nearest agent swung to glare at him Riva said, “Jesus Christ Almighty. What in hell was that all about?”
4:20 A.M. EST Satterthwaite scraped a hand down across his chin. The stubble stung his palm.
Bleary faces along the length of the big table in The Salt Mine. Voices barking into telephones. Satterthwaite had FBI Director Clyde Shankland on the line. “It looks like a maximum effort they’re putting up. First Hollander’s lawn, then five Goddamned bombs in that one building, then a sniper shooting at Luke’s windows. God knows where else they’ll hit. Look, I want every man you’ve got. We’ve got to provide immediate protection for every VIP in Washington.”
Kaiser was tugging at his sleeve. Kaiser had a telephone cupped in his hand. “It’s for you. The President.”
Satterthwaite said to Shankland, “Get on it, Clyde,” and slammed down the phone and grabbed the other one from Kaiser. “Yes, Mr. President.”
4:23 A.M. EST The city was amok with crying sirens. Riva circled the block and got back into his car and reached for the walkie-talkie. “Copasetik?”
“Copasetik.”
“They’re on their toes. Let’s do the alternate.”
“Copasetik.”
The central area was getting too hot; they would skip the other targets and head for the outskirts.
The Secret Service men had questioned him for several minutes but Riva’s identification was in order and his story was plausible and they had bigger things to worry about than him.
He put the car in gear and headed up toward Senator Forrester’s house.
4:28 A.M. EST Special Agent Pickett slid into the front seat of the limousine to use the radio. His hand brushed the manila folder on the seat and when he pushed it aside the ID sheet came ajar and he was looking straight into the face of the man they had questioned less than ten minutes ago.
He picked up the ID sheet and stared at the photo and blurted into the microphone.
“This is Pickett. I’ve just seen your man Riva.”
4:31 A.M. EST DeFord and B. L. Hoyt marched into the war room and Hoyt said to Satterthwaite, “Listen, they may be pulling something in that apartment house. Those rifle shots could have been a diversion to distract our people’s attention while someone slipped into the building. We’d better get Milton Luke out of there.”
“And put him where?”
“The White House. It’s the best guarded place we’ve got.”