trifles, to betray’s In deepest consequences
It’s blowback, plain and simple. The policy was kept from the American public all these years, and now we’re reaping the unintended consequences.
TUESDAY
TWENTY-EIGHT
“YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN GOD, BUT YOU DO HAVE SOME OF THE ANSWERS.”
McGarvey was seated in the back of the DCI’s limo headed east on 1-495
across the river, lost in thought, as Dick Yemm expertly maneuvered the armored Cadillac through the lunch hour traffic. Otto Rencke sat in back with McGarvey. Yemm had snagged him at his apartment before coming out to Chevy Chase. “Liz is going to want to see you,” McGarvey had explained to Otto. She’d sounded distant and frightened on the phone last night. He glanced over at Otto, who was staring out the other window, then at Yemm, who was watching in the rearview mirror.
Everyone’s imagination was working at full tilt. All of them were waiting for the next shoe to drop, for the next attack to come. And everyone was looking to him for support, for answers. They passed Temple Hills as an air force transport took off from Andrews a couple of miles away. He felt a spasm of fear for his daughter, for what this latest attack was doing to her spirit. Losing the first baby had been almost more than she could endure. Only Todd had been able to bring her back, to make her laugh again. This time was worse. The loss wasn’t a natural miscarriage. It was murder. He didn’t know how Liz was bearing the pain and the fear. And he didn’t know if Todd, who was suffering his own demons, would be able to be as strong this time as he had been the first. “I’m here, baby,” he mumbled to himself. “This time I won’t leave.” He wanted her to get the message loud and clear. “Mac, oh wow, are you okay?” Otto intruded. McGarvey came out of his thoughts. Otto’s eyes were round, his hair went in every direction. He was frightened. “I’m okay. How about you?” “I shouldn’t have called Mrs. M.” ya know. I’m sorry.”
There. That had been on McGarvey’s mind. Yemm said that Otto told him Katy deserved the truth. But that made no sense under the circumstances. Katy needed protection. There was something else. The scratching, nagging was still there. Coming on even stronger than before. “No. You shouldn’t have. I would have taken care of it,” he said, and Otto quickly looked away. What to make of his behavior?
Whom to trust? Larry Danielle would know. “What’s going on, Otto? I have to know. Talk to me,” Otto refused to turn back. “I don’t know what you mean.” “Yes, you do. It’s why I brought you out here this morning. So we could have a chance to talk.” “Nada” Otto murmured.
He laid his forehead on the window. “Nadu’s no longer an acceptable answer,” McGarvey pressured. “I don’t know…” “Lavender,” McGarvey prompted. “Start there. You’re searching for something, and it’s coming up lavender.” But Otto didn’t answer. They arrived at Andrews main gate, and the air policemen on duty saluted the car and passed them through. Yemm drove directly over to the VIP hangar, where the CIA’s Gulfstream would come after landing. The flight was still at least twenty minutes out, and there was no activity in or around the hangar, though the big doors were open. Yemm parked on the apron in front of the doors. “Take a walk, Dick,” McGarvey told Yemm. “Find out when the flight lands.” Yemm turned and looked at Otto who stared out the window toward the control tower, then at McGarvey. He didn’t think that it was such a good idea leaving the DCI here unprotected, even if he was with a friend. “I can call Operations.” “Get out of here, Dick.” Yemm looked at him questioningly. Under the CIA’s Standard Operating Policies he would be within his rights, as the DCIs bodyguard, to refuse a direct order if he thought that the DCIs life would be jeopardized because of it. It was the same SOP that the Secret Service agents guarding the President of the United States followed. He knew that McGarvey could take care of himself.
Nonetheless, he took his job seriously. But he nodded finally. “I’ll be back in ten.” When Yemm was gone, McGarvey got out of the limo, walked around to the front and leaned against the hood. An old KG-135
tanker came lumbering in for a landing. The Boeing 707 was still majestic after nearly a half century of service. He remembered as a kid riding one out to Saigon on his first assignment. “I don’t know what holds it up, ya know,” Otto said at his side. “Physics?” “Nah.”
“Then it has to be trust,” McGarvey said. “Sometimes that’s not so easy.” “Between friends.” “Yes, especially between friends. Real friends, ya know.” “I’d like to think that I have real friends.” Otto gave a little shuffle. He was becoming agitated. “You do, Mac.
Honest injun.” “Special Operation Spotlight.” “What?” “I want to know what it is. Why it’s lavender. And what it has to do with Nikolayev and your trip to France.” McGarvey gave Otto a penetrating stare. “I want to know what it has to do with me and my family.” “It’s nothing more than a research project. I’m running down a few loose ends that Elizabeth came up with in the archives.” McGarvey shook his head.
“Somebody tried to kill you, me and my wife, and now our daughter. And you tell me that you’re working on a research project? Bullshit, Otto.
Pure, unadulterated bullshit.” “My machines are running the programs while I’m looking for bad guys-” “Okay. What have you come up with?”
“It’s too early to say.”
Otto was backing himself into a corner, and McGarvey was worried that he was losing it. He was hiding something. But he always told the truth no matter how painful or embarrassing it might be.
“Give me one thing, then,” McGarvey said, keeping his patience. “For instance, tell me about Nikolayev. He worked for General Baranov in the old days. Does that have something to do with this?”
“Nothing…”
“That’s not true, goddammit,” McGarvey pressed. “You don’t spend that kind of computer time on a research project when someone is trying to kill you and the people around you. And you don’t come up with some bullshit operational title and go off commandeering a hyper sonic spy plane to take you to France.”
Otto was alarmed, he seemed to be vibrating. “That’s not true…”
“Louise was waiting here to pick you up when the Aurora landed. Dick saw the whole thing. Makes her an accessory. Do you want us to bring her in for questioning?”
Otto put a hand to his mouth.
“It wouldn’t do her air force career much good if the headhunters investigated her for murder and treason. Even if she was cleared, she’d be tainted in the eyes of the promotions board. She might even lose her clearances
“Why are you doing this?” “Because I’m tired of screwing around. I want the truth.” “I don’t have the answers, Mac. I swear to God,”
Otto cried in anguish. “You don’t believe in God, but you do have some of the answers.” Otto started to dance from one foot to the other.
His sneakers were untied again, his shirt was stained with something, maybe mustard, and the welts and scabs on his head punctuated the massive bruising all over the left side of his face. He looked pitiful, even crazy. But there was too much at stake to let him off the hook, friend or not. McGarvey had known that it would come to
