He turned in his high-backed blue leather judge's chair and pointed at Secretary of State Natalie Cohen.
"I think Frank can answer that better than I can, Mr. President," Cohen said. "He was there."
"I'll rephrase, Madam Secretary," Clendennen said, a long way from pleasantly. "Presuming Mr. Lammelle told us the truth and nothing but, how much of what this Russian told him can we believe? Make that two questions: How much of what the Russian told Lammelle are we expected to believe, and, two, how much can we believe?"
If she felt insulted, it didn't show on her face or in her tone of voice.
"Mr. President, I always like to start with what we do know. In this case, we know the Russians were involved with the bio-chem laboratory in the Congo. And since they know we call this substance Congo-X, and that some of it was delivered to Fort Detrick and some left for us to find on the Mexican border, I suggest that it is safe to presume they have more of it. The threat, therefore, is real."
"Natalie, we don't know that," DCI Jack Powell said. "For all we know, the stuff they sent us may be all they have. This whole thing may be a bluff."
"I asked her, Jack," the President said. "You'll get your chance."
"I think, Mr. President," Cohen said, "to respond to your questions directly, that they expect us to believe everything they told Frank, and I think we should."
Clendennen grunted, then looked at Powell.
"Okay, Jack, your chance," the President said. "Do these bastards have more of this stuff, or not?"
"Off the top of my head, Mr. President, I would say they have at least a little more, enough of it so they can leave us a couple more samples."
"And that's all they have?"
"Mr. President, we leveled and then burned everything in a twenty-mile radius of the Fish Farm. Either we somehow missed this, or they had some of it in a laboratory in Russia. Or someplace else. My gut tells me there's not much of Congo-X anywhere."
"But we don't know that, do we?" Clendennen asked.
"No, sir, we don't."
"Why would Putin do something like this?" Clendennen wondered aloud.
"Was that a question, Mr. President?" Mark Schmidt, the director of the FBI, asked.
"Does that mean you have an answer?"
"No, sir. Just that I've been thinking about motive."
"Well, out with it."
"For one thing, we humiliated the Russians when we took out the Fish Farm," Schmidt said. "For another, Castillo and his people-"
"My predecessors' loose cannon and his merry band of outlaws humiliated the Russians?" the President interrupted, sarcastically incredulous.
"Yes, sir. Castillo and his people have not only humiliated the Russians-which is to say Putin-all over Europe and South America but-according to what the Russian told Frank-has killed a lot of them. I think it's credible that Putin did know some of them personally, and wants revenge."
"Madam Secretary?" the President asked.
Natalie Cohen nodded her agreement with Schmidt's theory.
"And he could well be reasoning that we really don't want a confrontation when that could be avoided by returning their two defectors. We can't give him Castillo, of course-"
"Why can't we?" the President asked.
"Jesus Christ!" Lammelle exclaimed.
"Let's go down that road," Clendennen said. "No. Of course we can't give him Colonel Castillo or any of his people. As much as I might want to. But we can go along with that notion…"
"Let me go on the record here," Natalie Cohen said. "I will not be part of any agreement which will turn over the two defectors, much less Colonel Castillo or any of his people, to the Russians."
"Duly noted," President Clendennen said. "Let me finish, please. I said we can let the Russians think we're willing to give them all three of them. So far as the Russians are concerned, we weren't responsible for their defection."
"Castillo flew them out of Vienna on his plane, Mr. President," Powell said. "And if he hadn't, we had a plane waiting at Schwechat to do the same thing."
"If they had gotten on a plane sent by the CIA, Mr. Powell," the President said coldly, "we would have some sort of moral obligation to protect them. They didn't. Castillo was not acting on behalf of the U.S. government when he flew them to South America. Therefore, we have no such moral obligation."
"I don't agree with that at all, Mr. President," Powell said.
"I don't care, Mr. Powell, if you agree with it or not. I'm telling you that's the way it is."
He let that sink in for a moment, and then went on: "Madam Secretary, I want you to call in the Argentine ambassador and tell him that it has come to our attention that there are two people in his country illegally… what are their names?"
"Presumably, Mr. President, you are referring to Dmitri Berezovsky and Svetlana Alekseeva," she said.
"… for whom Interpol has issued warrants alleging the embezzlement of several millions of dollars."
"Excuse me, Mr. President," Mark Schmidt said. "Interpol has canceled those warrants at the request of the Russian Federation. Three days ago. Berezovsky and Alekseeva are no longer fugitives."
"You're sure?" the President said.
"Yes, sir. I'm sure."
"Well, so much for that idea," the President said. "That would have been easier. We'll have to come up with something else. So here's what we're going to do: Lammelle, get in touch with your Russian and tell him he has a deal."
"Am I to tell him the deal includes Colonel Castillo?"
"Yes. I told you I was not about to turn over an American to those Russian bastards, but if they think I am, so much the better for us."
"Yes, sir."
That sonofabitch is lying through his teeth. He'd happily turn Castillo over to the Russians, or anyone else, if it would get him out of this mess.
"The next step is to locate the Russians. You think they're in Argentina?"
"I have no idea where they are, Mr. President," DCI Powell said.
"Well, I want them found and I want them found quickly. Do whatever has to be done. Send as many people down there-or to anywhere else you think they might be-and find them. Run down the people who used to work for Castillo. See if they know where the Russians are. And Castillo is."
"Yes, sir."
"This is a no-brainer, Mr. Powell. If we can get these Russian bastards to keep that stuff out of the country, and all it costs us is giving them back two traitors, that's a price I can live with. I've always thought that people who change sides are despicable."
"Even if the side they change from is despicable, Mr. President?" Natalie Cohen asked.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you say that, Madam Secretary," the President of the United States said. [THREE] Penthouse B The Grand Cozumel Beach amp; Golf Resort Cozumel Quintana Roo, Mexico 1310 7 February 2007 A good deal of conversation and thought had not shot many holes in the scenario of what was probably going on, but on the other hand it also hadn't done much to confirm it.
Neither had "all the agency intel" that Casey had furnished. The CIA's analysts also seemed to feel the Congo-X sent to Fort Detrick and left for the Border Patrol to find on the Mexican border had most probably come from the Fish Farm in the Congo. But they had no idea how it had been moved from Africa to the United States, and apparently had not considered that the Tupolev Tu-934A might have been involved.
Castillo had called Casey and asked him to see if his source could find anything about Tupolevs moving anywhere, and again asked him to send any intel, no matter how unimportant or unrelated it might seem.
The only thing to do was wait for something to happen. Everybody was frustrated, but everybody also knew that sitting around with your finger in your ear-or other body orifice-waiting for something to happen was what intelligence gathering was really all about.
So everybody but Castillo, Svetlana, Pevsner, and Tom Barlow had gone deep-sea fishing on a forty-two-foot Bertram owned by the Grand Cozumel Beach amp; Golf Resort.