For all he knew, Jessica had already unraveled his plot, though he sincerely doubted it. From what he could tell, she was completely unaware of his scheme, more focused on his “deteriorating state of mind.” He’d led her down that rabbit hole after the disastrous Montevideo operation, hoping the intense ordeal would be a believable trigger point for him to start seriously weighing the risks of their line of work against the rewards.
They’d talked about this at length in the past, but the life was hardwired into them. It was not as easy to leave behind as they had originally thought, especially when they were rarely more than a phone call away from the next job. Even more so when the man sending you the work was a relentless, undeniably talented spin doctor. All the more reason to dump every means of communication and put a few thousand miles of blue water behind them. Sanderson’s reach was extensive, but it didn’t include an anchorage in French Polynesia or Fiji. He hoped. The sooner they left, the better.
Watching Jessica swim effortlessly toward the yacht bobbing in the cove, he decided to make the call that would activate his plan. They’d enjoy a sunset dinner at their favorite seaside restaurant, and Daniel would propose all over again. Instead of a ring, he’d present her with a fully provisioned boat, ready to sweep them away from the life and usher in a new era.
Chapter 7
Karl Berg leaned back in his seat and checked his watch, once again finding himself unable to answer the same question that had troubled him for the vast majority of the year. Why the hell was he still here? He’d routinely worked excessively long office hours during his two-decade stretch at headquarters, never complaining. The work had always absorbed him, and in his own way he’d thrived on it, turning even the most mundane assignments into gold.
He’d pieced together the significance of Reznikov’s sudden reappearance on the world scene while holding down a chair in what most of his colleagues considered to be an end-of-the-line lateral transfer out of the National Clandestine Service (NCS). A few months later, after the controversial but successful clandestine raid against Vektor Institute, he was back in the game, promoted to deputy director of the Special Operations Group (SOG) within the Special Activities Division (SAD).
The dirty word retirement faded into the distance during the incredible year and a half that followed. As promised by Thomas Manning, then director of NCS, Berg was promoted at the start of 2008 to director of the Special Operations Group, taking over for Jeffrey McConnell, who took over the entire Special Activities Division. There was serious talk about Manning taking over as associate deputy director of the CIA, and of Audra Bauer, Berg’s longtime friend and guardian angel, sliding into Manning’s position as director of NCS.
Life was good until late 2008, when Alan Crane became the first third-party candidate in history to win a U.S. presidential election. True America had pulled off an epic, seemingly impossible win, and nobody saw it coming, because the most critical pieces of the plan to achieve victory had taken place deep inside the beltway’s Stygian nether-regions. Without a shadow of a doubt, deals had been struck between the most corruptible and sycophantic power brokers, a secret cabal that simultaneously orchestrated the implosion of a major political party and the swift ascendancy of a grassroots movement that few of the political elite took seriously.
Speculation and conspiracy theory ruled the day when the incumbent president, who was favored to comfortably win the election, was toppled nearly overnight by coordinated revelations that his administration had delayed warning the public about the true extent of the Zulu virus threat against the United States in the spring of 2007.
Several citizens of Morris County, New Jersey, died from drinking virus-infected water. Other leaks followed, clearly designed to question the administration’s knowledge and handling of the events leading to the entire situation surrounding the Zulu virus’s arrival on U.S. soil. Immigration policies were attacked, foreign policy decisions questioned. Hints were dropped suggesting U.S. involvement in an incident outside of Novosibirsk, Russia. The timing couldn’t have been worse for an administration that had grown complacent with a comfortable double-digit lead in the polls entering October. A dangerous complacency unquestionably fostered by key White House advisors and D.C. insiders complicit in the conspiracy.
The conspirators were relatively easy to identify in most cases. Anyone that landed in a key role within the administration that hadn’t previously been part of the True America entourage was immediately a suspect in Berg’s mind. This particularly applied to anyone that had served in the previous administration. Similarly, any of the presidentially appointed cabinet members deserved a close examination. Most of them did not pass the initial sniff test.
Jacob Remy’s nomination as secretary of Homeland Security was the most notoriously questionable appointment in Berg’s opinion, and the public’s. Having served under the previous president as chief of staff, logic dictated he had been made privy to the disgraced administration’s most closely held secrets. Apparently the deal he made with Crane’s White House outweighed reason or any sense of justice. James Quinn remained in the position of National Security advisor, requiring no political maneuvering, a quiet but telling gesture by Crane’s True America administration. The list grew daily as new announcements made the headlines.
Some of the conspirators managed to remain in the shadows, but Berg had spent a career connecting hard-to-see dots. He’d predicted the uncharacteristically ruthless, career-breaking shake-up at the CIA long before anyone else. It started with an appointment that didn’t raise any eyebrows at first. As customary between outgoing and incoming administrations, the CIA remained untouched for a few months after Crane took office, keeping the U.S. intelligence-gathering apparatus working full steam during a period of significant change. In fact, consensus among top CIA officials suggested a longer delay for replacement appointments, because the upset election had left the United States, the House, and Senate locked in a power struggle. True America candidates had taken enough seats to make things difficult for the two parties that had dominated politics for two centuries.
With those battle lines still being drawn, the administration pushed through the less controversial nominations first. One attracted Berg’s attention immediately. Frederick Shelby, director of the FBI, was nominated and unanimously appointed to the position of principal deputy director of National Intelligence. This move signaled the beginning of the end for the CIA’s current leadership. The True America fix was in, and it went far deeper than Berg ever imagined.
The final investigative report detailing the events surrounding the June 2007 coordinated bioterrorism plot against the United States had meticulously and conclusively separated the link between the rogue True America spin-off group, led by disgruntled founders Jackson Greely and Lee Harding, and the mainstream True America movement sweeping its way to the White House. Once Shelby was nominated for the post at DNI, Berg held little doubt that the director of the FBI had purposely steered the investigation clear of any potentially messy connection in exchange for an even bigger seat at the table. If Shelby could be co-opted by True America, there was little hope that the rest of the intelligence community’s senior leadership positions hadn’t been predetermined by backroom deals and dirty handshakes.