"You understand this is off the record. My opinion only. The way I read the situation."
Stephanie nodded, once. "Off the record."
"The DCI has made some bad decisions. He's under a lot of pressure. You've made us look bad. I mean, how the hell does a small group like this do what you've done? We're the CIA, for Christ's sake, and you make us look like amateurs. I think Lodge's days are numbered."
Monroe was about to burn a bridge. "Hood wants his job. He's brought me along the whole way. I owe him. He's getting old and if he's going any further, it has to be soon. So, he tells me to come over here and find out how you do things. That's why I'm here."
"To help Hood become the next DCI." She paused. "And keep your career track moving along."
Monroe said nothing. He didn't have to.
"What do you think, Nick?" Stephanie twisted a bracelet on her arm.
"I'd rather see Hood running Langley than Lodge. If having Lucas here helps that happen, I'm all for it."
"Selena?"
"Hood got us in and out of Pakistan. He kept his word. Let's give it a chance."
"Ronnie?"
Ronnie grunted assent.
"Lamont?"
"I owe you guys one for Khartoum. So I'm good with it."
"That's your first lesson, Lucas."
"What do you mean?"
Stephanie waved her hand around the room. "Teamwork. Agreement. We're all on the same page and we work at it. We get through the bullshit. If anyone was against you being here, you'd be gone. That's how we operate. You can tell that to your boss."
"All for one and one for all?"
"That's right."
"When Hood sent me over here I didn't think I was going to end up with the three musketeers."
They all started laughing. "Ow, that hurts," Selena said.
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
"What have we got?" Nick massaged his shoulder.
A storm was coming in from the Midwest. By dark there'd be snow on the ground and the Beltway would be a skating rink for all the road warriors who thought four wheel drive made them invulnerable. Carter wasn't looking forward to the drive back into the city.
"Langley's got nothing." Monroe looked grim. "There's nothing to show where the bomb went after they took it from Bausari."
"We can eliminate anything that doesn't mean a big population kill and a lot of damage," Steph said.
"That's nice. Still leaves the whole country. Every major city and then some."
"The solar eclipse is tomorrow." Selena tried to get comfortable on the couch. Stephanie had filled Monroe in on their thinking. "If we're right about this, that's not much time."
"What about the Bureau?" Carter asked Stephanie. "They have anything?"
"Nada. No one saw or heard anything where Bausari was killed."
"What makes something worth a nuke?" Nick pulled on his ear. "We can't be everywhere. Hell, the guy could choose Kansas City because he doesn't like steak. Or Philly, because of it's symbolic significance. Or Boston, or New York."
"Or right here in Washington," Monroe said. "Lots of symbols. The seat of power. The White House."
"He could put that bomb in the trunk of a car and no one would ever know it. How do you check every possible target and access to it?"
"You can't." Selena looked at Nick. "Time to play assumptions again."
"Assumptions?" Monroe said.
Carter explained. "We found the base in Mali because Selena translated some old documents and found clues that led us there. We assumed the truck with Bausari was in the area and we knew AQIM had hideouts up there. Then we got lucky, if you call being shot down lucky."
"Go on."
"We picked up the truck heading west and lost it again. We assumed they were making for the coast. We went to Mauritania and made more assumptions. It was logical, a process of elimination. We decided to go north. Then we got lucky again. Steph picked up their heat signatures. But Bausari was gone when we got there."
"And?"
"Then Hoover's boys happened on Hemmings and the mosque. You know about that. More luck." Monroe nodded.
"Hemmings overheard Bausari's guys talk about going north. That figured, because Bausari is dying. No way he'd go across country. He's running out of time. We made more assumptions, ended up with Seattle and passed it on. Then somebody cut Bausari short, right out of the picture."
Selena thought of the photo of three headless terrorists. She stared at Nick. "I don't believe you said that."
Nick shrugged.
"So all of this has been guesswork?" Monroe was incredulous.
"Not guesswork." Selena turned to face Monroe. "Deductive reasoning. Like Sherlock Holmes." She glanced over at Stephanie. "Same with Pakistan. My research in Mali pointed us toward the assassin base. That gave us more assumptions. Langley cooperated and found the spot. We went in. But no bomb."
Stephanie said, "The intel we got blows a lot of their networks, but doesn't mention the bomb. It does mention their Imam."
This woman is interesting, Monroe thought. A lot going on there. No ring. She's single. He looked at her. She met his look and something passed between them. Some primal recognition. Monroe brought his mind back to the subject.
"What Imam?"
"His name is Hassan-i-Sabbah. He took the name of the founder of the assassins. He believes he has a personal connection with the Mahdi."
"So did Bausari."
"Sabbah is different. He has visions, had them for years. His followers think he's got a direct line to God. So does he. We think he has hallucinations. Maybe a brain tumor, if we're lucky."
Monroe looked down at his shoe. As if he'd just stepped in something. "A fanatic with a nuclear weapon who thinks God is talking to him."
"That's right." The room was silent for a beat.
"So," Selena said, "let's assume. Let's look at targets, narrow it down. What do you attack to create the most confusion? Sabbah wants to initiate the end of days, Muslim style. How do you do that?"
"You start a war," Nick said.
"That's the easy part. The bomb goes off, the shooting starts. But we just had a war and Rice managed to squash it before it went nuclear. War isn't enough, unless it's world wide."
"That is a scary thought," Ronnie fingered his deerskin pouch.
Lamont arched his back and tried to get the cast comfortable. "If what we just saw in the Middle East isn't enough, what could be worse? Enough to guarantee World War Three with nukes raining out of the sky?"
"Okay." Carter looked at the others. "Assumption number one is that Sabbah wants to start a war."
There were nods all around.
"Assumption number two is that he has to make certain it escalates. How do you do that?"
Selena took a breath. Winced from the pain of her ribs. "Eliminate the people who could stop it. Like the President."
"The assassins were killing people," Lucas said. "It didn't start a war."
"They didn't try for the President. Or any of the world leaders. They were trying to point us toward Iran and wreck the peace process in Afghanistan. They succeeded in that, almost."
Carter tapped fingers on his knee. "Then assumption number three is the bomb, or some kind of coordinated attack, has to take out all the big guys at once. The President and the others. That wouldn't be easy."
"Yes it would." Everyone looked at Stephanie. Her face was white.
"There's an emergency meeting of the Security Council tomorrow at the UN. China and Russia are upset about the new sanctions on Iran. Every international leader of importance will be there, including the President. If Sabbah set that bomb off in New York, he'd get them all."