understood that better than most, even while the council looked at him as a knuckle dragger. America no longer had the luxury of going it alone in the world. With globalization, everything was intertwined.
Then there was the domestic problem. If the Taskforce was exposed, nobody in the room had any illusions of how it would play out. Best case, the political apparatus would have a brief seizure, with a few weeks of twenty- four-hour talking heads frothing at the mouth and the usual rounds of congressional testimony before it faded from the national consciousness.
Worst case, the damage would be permanent.
Either way, all in the room knew it would be permanent for them. At the back of everyone’s mind was the election less than six months away, with the opposition furiously trying to find something to harm the president.
On the heels of Kurt’s brief was the latest intel on the attack. The chatter had continued unabated, with nothing concrete. The only new intelligence gleaned was a cryptic reference to the attackers being “homegrown,” which, coupled with the lost EFPs, scared the hell out of everyone in the room.
The council was split in half on whether to let the team follow the trail to Budapest. Like a hung jury, they had argued for the better part of ten hours, and were now simply going to toss the problem into the president’s lap. Let him make the decision. Kurt thought it was cowardly, but he didn’t get a vote.
Without fanfare, the door swung open and President Warren entered. Caught off guard, everyone jerked upright, some standing, others attempting to do so.
“Keep your seats. Sorry to make you wait. Other things going on.”
The room gave a collective nod as he took his seat at the head of the conference table. Kurt surveyed the crowd to see who had changed demeanor at the president’s arrival. None appeared to do so, probably out of exhaustion.
“Well, what have we got?”
Alexander Palmer, the president’s national security advisor, was the man chosen to brief both sides of the argument. He cleared his throat and said, “Well, sir, we have a significant ability to stop the attack, but the risks may well be worse than the aftermath.”
Warren took that in, then nodded for Palmer to continue. Palmer relayed all that had happened in Prague, ending with the lead on the terrorists attempting to get explosives in Budapest for the EFPs.
Warren didn’t need a map drawn out. After a lifetime of politics, he instantly calculated the risks of what the team had done. As well as the rewards.
When Palmer was done, he said, “Okay. What’s the vote?”
Palmer said, “Well, the vote’s split. The potential repercussions are enormous. May already be enormous. But the terrorist plot is real. No doubt. Given the EFPs, they don’t plan on a single assault. It’s going to be big.”
Warren smiled. “And you want me to make the vote.”
Everyone shifted in their chairs, looking left and right.
Warren said, “Kurt, what do you think?”
Kurt pulled his head off the wall, leaned forward, and said, “I think this is why someone’s called the president. Let ’em get out their views. But
Warren narrowed his brow. Kurt refused to glance away from the most powerful man on earth, but he softened the blow. “Sir, there aren’t any easy answers. I could tell you what I think, but I’m not the president. Hear what the council thinks, then ask me.”
Kurt saw Secretary of State Brookings staring at him. For the first time without contempt.
Warren said, “Okay, give it to me.”
Palmer went first. “Well, there’s no doubt what they did was a good thing. I mean, Jesus, they saved twelve girls from a lifetime of pain. But they probably destroyed our entire counterterrorist infrastructure. Personally, I’d like to fucking hang Pike from the nearest tree. The guy doesn’t understand what he’s doing. We can’t have him running around like this. Lord knows what he’ll do in Budapest. He’s leaving a trail that can be unraveled by anyone with an Internet connection.”
The director of central intelligence cut in. “Hang on. I don’t want to act like I’m on his side, but Pike’s been better at this shit than anyone I’ve seen. He did screw up in Prague. If you can call saving twelve innocent girls a screwup. But he managed to divert attention from it. It’s very, very shaky, but nobody knows who it was.”
Palmer came back, now agitated. “Bullshit! So he saved twelve girls. Who the fuck cares? How many girls are there in the world getting screwed over right now? His mission is to defend the United States. Not run around saving whatever he thinks is right. Jesus, your guys go through enormous training for this very thing. Don’t get involved in the source’s life. Get what you can out of them. Don’t get attached. Pike got attached in about fifteen minutes.”
Kurt cut in. “Wait a minute. It was more than that. He found out a source inside the house had information on the Arab’s next moves. That’s why he did it. If he hadn’t assaulted, we wouldn’t be debating the next step. There wouldn’t be a next step.”
Warren raised his hand. “Okay, I got it. What’s the status of the hit?”
Brookings spoke up. “Well, we were lucky in the regional security officer. He’s a career guy who actually cares more about America than his job. Pike left the girls in a van outside the embassy, then called the RSO anonymously to let him know what he had, to include the house Pike had hit. Basically, he hand-fed the Prague police a political coup. They got to take down some bad guys that were already subdued by Pike’s crew, then crow about breaking up a white-slavery ring. It’s a win-win as far as anybody knows. The RSO also followed Pike’s instructions about keeping it close-hold, even from the ambassador. My report from the Prague mission was exactly the cover story Pike devised. The Czech police raided the house, arrests in abundance, prosecutions forthcoming, yada yada yada. The ambassador has no idea what occurred, and neither do the Czech police. And they won’t look too hard, given the penetration the Albanians had in their department. They’ll pat themselves on the back and let it go.”
“So we’re at square one with this? No harm, no foul?”
Palmer spoke up. “Yes, in theory, but we still have Pike at the helm. This worked out. But it might not have. We need to look at the repercussions holistically. Pike saved twelve teenage girls, and that’s great, but in so doing, he put this entire effort in jeopardy. I’m against letting him go to Budapest. We’re on the verge of compromising the entire effort. It’ll be too easy to connect the dots if we give him authority for Budapest.”
Palmer quit talking but looked like he had something else to say. Warren waited a beat, then said, “Get it out. This isn’t a time to go back home wishing you’d said something.”
Kurt watched Palmer look his way, and knew it would be bad.
“Well, if we decide to do this, we need to face the repercussions. If it blows up, we’ll be crucified — and I’m not talking about our careers. That’s a given. We might stop this attack, but we won’t stop the next one. Or the one after. In fact, if this operation gets out, we might very well be
Nobody said anything, the truth of the statement speaking for itself. Kurt wondered how it had come to this. How everything he had done to prevent just this problem had proven insufficient.
“Either that,” Palmer continued, “or prepare a story ahead of time if things go bad. Mitigate the damage to the greatest extent possible.”
Warren addressed the secretary of defense. “What do you think?”
“Sir, I think we let them go. We know two things: There’s an attack coming, and the method of the attack involves explosives gleaned in Budapest. Without the explosives, the EFPs fail. We don’t know where the attack is going to occur, but we can affect the acquisition of explosives. Pike’s methods have proven risky and unpredictable, but in the end, he’s all we have. I say let them continue.” He paused for a minute, then said, “And I mean for the record, as the secretary of defense, I say let them continue.”
Brookings and Palmer began to talk over each other at his statement, causing the secretary of defense to
