“Exactly.”
“If I can’t buy the Rockefeller Center, I’ll nuke it,” Rencke said.
“Something like that.”
“I’ll get on it,” Rencke said, and already McGarvey could hear the faraway note in the man’s voice which meant most of his mind was elsewhere; working on the problem at hand.
“I’ll call later,” McGarvey said.
“Oh, wait,” Rencke came back. “I almost forgot. Your name has come up again across the river. They want to make contact with you in a worst way. It has something to do with your daughter and ex, I think.”
“What about them?”
“I don’t know,” Rencke said distantly, and the connection was broken.
McGarvey’s call to Carrara’s home was automatically routed to his office at Langley.
The DDO sounded harried, even worried, but not at all surprised.
“Who have you got hacking for you?” Carrara asked. “My records people are having fits.”
“What about Kathleen and my daughter?” McGarvey asked, ignoring the question. “Has something happened to them?”
“They’ve been kidnapped.”
The air left the room. “By whom?”
“We don’t know yet. Evidently your ex-wife was visiting the school outside of Bern, and both of them were taken just a few hours ago. The general got the call personally from the Swiss Federal Police.”
“K-l?” McGarvey asked, dreading the answer he knew he was going to hear.
“We think so. It has all the earmarks of a Spranger operation. An instructor from the school evidently got in the middle of it and was shot three times in the head.”
“Any leads?”
“They may have been taken across the Swiss border into France. The Surete may have a lead.”
“Call Marquand,” McGarvey said. He was sick at his stomach.
“Already have. He’ll meet you in Paris.”
Chapter 40
At Roland Murphy’s suggestion the President had called his National Security Adviser Daniel Milligan and Secretary of State John Cronin to the Oval office for an 8
a. m. meeting. It was a few minutes after that hour and the three men were looking at the DCI, grim expressions on their faces.
“Let me get this absolutely clear, Roland,” the President said. “What you’re saying is that some group, or perhaps some individual in Japan is being linked to the STASI organization’s effort to steal the components of a nuclear bomb?”
“Yes, sir. Our best evidence seems to be pointing in that direction.”
“But it’s not the government,” Secretary of State Cronin asked. “You’re sure of that?”
“We’re not sure of it, John, but we don’t think it’s likely. There’ve been no indications whatsoever out of Tokyo.”
“Nor was there before Pearl Harbor,” Cronin grumbled.
“That’s not true,” Murphy said. “We had plenty of warnings before Pearl, but they were ignored.” Murphy turned back to the President. “The government or the military wouldn’t simply be after the parts, they’d be after the technology itself. A technology, I might add, that their own scientists could come up with.”
“I’m inclined to agree,” the President said. He turned to his National Security Adviser.
“Dan?”
“I tend to agree with Roland, as well. The Japanese government has no need to become a nuclear power. Hell, they lost the war but they’re sure winning the peace. They’re outshooting us with their currency, their technology, and before long maybe even their GNP. Why risk world censure by joining the nuclear club? They’d have nearly everything to lose, and almost nothing to gain. Nuclear weapons, at least so far as governments go, have become almost useless.”
“But not in the hands of a terrorist,” Murphy said.
“No,” Milligan said. “And we all knew it would happen sooner or later. What are the latest estimates of how much weapons-grade plutonium is missing each year? Enough to make a dozen effective bombs?”
“More,” Murphy said. “But this is the first time we’ve detected a concentrated effort to come up with all the components.”
“Except for Libya’s attempts a few years back,” Cronin said. “And more recently, Iraq’s.”
“I’m not talking about governments now, John. I’m talking about individuals.”
“This sort of thing would take a lot of money, wouldn’t it?” the President asked.
“In the tens of millions of dollars at the very least,” Murphy said.
“Which narrows down the field, somewhat, especially if we’re limiting ourselves to the Japanese.”
“There are a lot of rich people in Japan at this moment in history. My people are working on ways to narrow down the list, but it’s going to take time. We don’t even have a motive yet. In the meantime the Agency’s operations in Japan are all but shut down.”
“I’m sending John to Tokyo in a few days. He’ll speak with Prime Minister Kunihiro, but there’s no guarantee anything positive for us will come of it. Eight murders in a few days time in Tokyo, five of them Americans, has got everyone on edge.” The President sat back, his chin resting on a bridge of his thumb, forefinger and middle finger. “It was my understanding, Roland, that you had sent some additional people over there… someone not directly connected with our embassy.”
Murphy nodded. “We have even more trouble on that score, Mr. President. You may recall the name Kirk McGarvey.”
“He was involved in stopping the people who kidnapped that submarine of ours in the Mediterranean a few years back.”
“Yes, sir. And he was responsible for getting that shipment of gold through to Iran.”
“Yes. That was one of the reasons the Iranians cooperated with us when we kicked Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. If McGarvey’s involved now, the scale has been tipped to our side.”
“It’s very likely the STASI group has had the same thought,” Murphy said. “They may have found out he was involved and done something about it.”
No one said a thing.
“McGarvey is divorced. His ex-wife lives here in Washington. She came to see us yesterday morning. Somehow she figured out that McGarvey was working for us, and she wanted to get a message to him.”
“What message?” the President asked.
“It was nothing important. At least we didn’t think so. Before we could react, she disappeared from the Washington area. McGarvey has a nineteen-year-old daughter attending a school of design outside of Bern. His ex- wife showed up there last night, and she and her daughter were kidnapped by a person or persons unknown.”
“The STASI organization?”
“It’s possible. The Swiss, and now the French, are helping us. They may have a lead.”
“Has McGarvey been told?”
“Yes, Mr. President. He’s on his way to Europe at this moment.”
“If the STASI kidnapped them, was it to lure McGarvey out of Japan?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Into a trap?”
Murphy nodded. “We’re doing everything we can to help him.”
“Indeed,” the President said. “Because I want to make something else very clear to you, General. McGarvey has been of great service to this country.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And now, we owe him.”
