David had never met CIA director Roger Allen.
Not in person. Not even over the phone. But as he entered the director’s secure conference room on the seventh floor, where Tom Murray and Jack Zalinsky had arrived moments before, he immediately recognized the graying, somewhat aristocratic sixty-four-year-old former senior senator from Connecticut who had long served as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence before President Jackson had nominated him to run the Agency. Introductions were made quickly, and then David took a seat with Eva on one side and Zalinsky on the other.
“I want to begin with good news,” the director said. “The president is out of surgery and is in stable condition at George Washington University Hospital. I just talked to the First Lady and the president’s physician. They both say it looks like he’s going to be just fine.”
David breathed a sigh of relief, along with the others. He deeply disagreed with Jackson on policy matters, especially those related to the Middle East, but he just as deeply respected the office of the president and wished no personal ill toward his commander in chief. Just the opposite — he was willing to sacrifice his life, if necessary, to protect the president and the country.
“How’s he feeling?” Murray asked.
“It’s somewhat of a mixed bag,” Allen conceded. “The First Lady told me he is taking President Ramzy’s death hard, though obviously he’s very glad Prime Minister Naphtali is okay. As for himself, he suffered a combination of second- and third-degree burns. He also cracked a rib when the Secret Service agents tackled him. But on balance, he’s lucky to be alive.”
“And Agent Bruner?” Eva asked. “How is he doing?”
Allen lowered his eyes. “The White House isn’t ready to release that information to the public yet. They’re still looking for his wife, to inform her. But I’m afraid Mike passed away about thirty minutes ago. The president wants all of you to know that his number one priority is making sure another war doesn’t erupt in the Middle East,” Allen said. “He knows there will be all kinds of calls, especially from the Republicans on Capitol Hill, for retaliation, for reciprocity. But he wants us all to know our jobs are to keep cool heads, go about our work carefully and methodically, identify who was responsible, and develop options for him. But war, he stressed, is not one of them. Moreover, the president wants the Israelis to be kept on a tight leash. Naphtali is going to take this personally, and he’s going to be inclined to hit Iran. The president insisted we do everything in our power not to let that happen.”
David was stunned. Not go to war? What were they talking about? Of course they were going to war. Someone — probably the Iranians — had just tried to kill the American president and the leaders of the nation’s two key allies in the region. They needed to hit somebody, hard and relentlessly.
“Sir, with all due respect, dozens of Americans have just died in the worst terrorist attack on American soil since this president took office,” David said. “How can the Agency — and the entire US government, for that matter — not be going into war-planning mode?”
“Agent Shirazi, that’s out of line,” Murray said.
“No, no, that’s all right,” the director said. “Look, David, I understand your point. But we don’t make policy here. We follow the orders of the commander in chief. And our orders are to stop the next war.”
“Director Allen,” David replied, “if we don’t move fast and hard, the next war just might wind up with mushroom clouds over New York, Washington, and Tel Aviv. This fire is already burning. It is spreading rapidly. Everyone in this room feels terrible about the attacks that happened today in New York. But what’s coming is ten thousand times worse if we don’t use this moment to hit Iran’s nuclear weapons program with everything we have.”
“We haven’t confirmed who is responsible for the attack in New York,” the director said.
David was incredulous. “Does it matter? Sir, this was a decapitation strike, designed to cut off the heads of the only three countries on the planet with the will to stop both the mullahs in Tehran and now the Twelfth Imam from building their Caliphate and annihilating Judeo-Christian civilization forever. Of course we should go after the specific terrorist cells responsible for this attack when we find them. But we don’t need to wait to hit Iran. We already know Iran has tested nuclear weapons. And the fact is, if we don’t hit the Iranians in the next few days, we may never have the chance again.”
Tom Murray was livid. “David, that’s enough,” he said, barely able to keep his voice down. “You weren’t invited into this room to lecture the director of the Central Intelligence Agency or try to goad him or the president into a war with Iran — or with anyone else, for that matter.”
“Tom, we’re already at war,” David said. “The president authorized this Agency to use all means necessary to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Now they have at least eight, after their test. Doesn’t the same national security directive not only authorize but command us — those of us in this room — to find those weapons and the people who built them and neutralize them before it is too late?”
13
Jacques Miroux was Reuters’s chief Mideast correspondent.
“Your Excellency, on Thursday in Mecca, you said, ‘We seek only peace. We wish no harm against any nation,’” Miroux shouted. “But you also said Iran now has nuclear warheads, of which you have full control. Just now you spoke of the annihilation of Israel, saying it is coming and implying that it is inevitable. A moment ago you spoke of jihad as your goal. Is it your intent to threaten a thermonuclear war against the Jewish state?”
“I bring a message of peace. That is my message, and that is all. To those who want peace, I welcome you with open arms.”
“Well, at the very least, Your Excellency,” Miroux followed up, “are statements like these provoking the Israelis into what could be a massive first strike on their part?”
“Islam cannot be defeated. Period. Islam will be victorious in all the countries of the world. The teachings of the Qur’an will prevail all over the world. Even in Palestine. Especially in Palestine and the holy city of al-Quds. Why should a lion fear the mosquito, so tiny, so annoying, but so inconsequential?”
With that, the Mahdi flashed a smile and turned to wave to the masses. Then Javad guided him into a white armored SUV for the brief drive north from the airport to the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, where an estimated 160,000 Hezbollah members were eagerly awaiting the Twelfth Imam’s address in a facility built for a third that number, at best.
David could feel the tension in the room spiking.
But he didn’t care. Their country had been attacked. The president was too weak to respond. The director of central intelligence was covering his behind. Someone had to speak up. Why wasn’t Murray? Why wasn’t Zalinsky?
“Director Allen, may I speak?” Eva suddenly asked.
“Of course, Eva; what is it?”
“Well, sir, I’ve known Agent Shirazi for some time now. You know full well that Jack and I worked together to design his cover story. We worked hard behind the scenes to get him hired at Munich Digital Systems along with me, working undercover. We designed and oversaw his operations in Pakistan. And Jack and I designed this mission for him in Iran and are running it together. You know that I’ve traveled into Iran with David, and you know that if it wasn’t for him, the entire operation would have been blown the first day.”
“Your point, Agent Fischer?”
“My point, sir, is that I know the extraordinary risks David is taking. Every moment of every day that he was inside Iran, he was putting his life on the line for his country, for this Agency, for each one of us. Because he believes in this stuff. His family wouldn’t be here in the US, or probably even alive, if it weren’t for this Agency, and for Jack in particular. So this is very real and very personal for him. David takes his job very seriously, and I am absolutely amazed by how well he’s doing it. My expectations were quite high from the beginning, but they’ve been blown away. And I’d submit that none of us — not a single one of us — could be doing what he’s doing. He’s gotten us inside Esfahani’s operations. He’s gotten us inside the defense minister’s office. Inside the Revolutionary Guard Corps. Inside the Supreme Leader’s office… and quite possibly inside the inner circle of the Twelfth Imam. He found us Dr. Najjar Malik and got him out alive. He got us Dr. Saddaji’s computer and all his backup discs — intact. And much of what we know about how serious this situation is, we know because of what David has done. It wasn’t his plan. I grant you that. It was Jack’s plan and mine. He’s made some mistakes. But so have we. David isn’t an experienced strategist yet, but in my view he’s an unbelievable tactical operator… and the best shot we have right now to get back inside Iran and stop this nuclear program while we still have time. But we can’t send him back in — and that’s our plan, is it not? That’s what we’re about to do, right? — well, we can’t send him inside and ask him to risk his life day after day unless he has a reasonable expectation that his country and this Agency are going to back him up every step of the way. Director, my point is this: if the president isn’t serious about having us execute his own national security directive, then you need to tell us that right now so we can readjust our goals and retask our team, and that would start with not sending David back in.”