In the morning they heard that the murdered woman found in the trunk of the Dodge had been officially identified as Sergeant Jenny Pullman, a parachute rigger with the 82 ^ nd Airborne who had been hitching back from the coast after seventy-two hours' compassionate leave. She was an innocent victim who had been unlucky enough to hitch a lift with the wrong person.
The wreckage of the destroyed farmhouse was sifted through item by item. The body had been blown apart and pieces had been found over a wide area.
One arm was found sufficiently intact to take fingerprints. They were identified as belonging to Akio Taro, a Japanese freelance journalist doing an assignment on FortBragg. Chifune's agent.
The Dodge found by the state police had been rented by Kathleen Fitzduane. The rental company recognized Kathleen's photograph and the driver's license number checked out.
There was no longer any doubt about the identity of the kidnap victim.
They had also heard that apart from the terrorist attack on the special-forces exhibition, an explosive device concealed in a large, self-propelled floor-cleaning machine had gone off in the Oak Creek shopping mall in Fayetteville. The place was packed with shoppers at the time, including thousands of off-duty airborne soldiers and their families.
The cleaning machine was capable of washing, drying, polish application, and buffing, and contained tanks for its consumables. These tanks had been packed with more than two hundred pounds of miniature steel balls suspended in a gel. An odorless gas contained in a cylinder in the built-in storage compartment – normally used for spare buffing pads – had been released in advance.
The explosives combined with the gas to create a destructive effect considerably more powerful than the explosive on its own would have achieved. It was, in effect, a fuel air bomb.
The American military establishment was being attacked where it was most vulnerable by an unknown enemy following an unknown agenda. In strictly military terms, the casualties were of little significance.
But internationally, the political symbolism of the actions was considerable.
9
The meeting had been progressing for twenty minutes.
It had started calmly with a factual description of what had happened and the progress the various agencies were making, but the dispassionate recital of facts was beginning to give way to acrimony.
'In summary,' said National Security Advisor Vernon Slade, 'we have had a total of seven terrorist attacks on U.S. soil over the last six months and we appear none the wiser as to who is behind all this or why they are doing it or where they are based. Giving the resources we are deploying, that might be interpreted as a failure of leadership.'
The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Webster Grant, flushed. Slade had not mentioned any names, but the implication was clear. Since the FBI had statutory authority to investigate internal terrorism, their failure to date to identify and arrest the perpetrators could be attributed to him. And he was not a Slade supporter.
'Mr. Director?' said the President. Someone might have to be sacrificed, but he did not particularly want to play Vernon's game. He liked his FBI Director and did not want to lose him.
'Mr. President,' said the FBI Director, 'it is not true to say that we have made no progress in our investigations, or indeed that the terrorists have had it all their own way. Frankly, the problem seems to be that we may be after more than one organization. So far we have identified several members of Yaibo, a Japanese extremist group, two Iranians, and a number of other fundamentalists with connections in Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria. We also have two bodies we cannot identify. Both seem to be from Latin America. One is definitely of Indian extraction.'
'Probably Cuban,' said Slade. 'Fidel had not changed his spots.'
'They could be Americans, Vernon,' said the President heavily. 'We have citizens of every race, color, and creed these days. We cannot point the finger merely because someone looks as if he could be Cuban.'
General William Frampton, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cleared his throat. He had a thoughtful, almost pensive face and the pouched eyes of a bloodhound. His uniform seemed the wrong attire for his scholarly demeanor.
He should have been in tweeds, the President thought. On the other hand, the Medal of Honor that he wore looked more appropriate with army green. He had commanded the 82 ^ nd Airborne Division earlier on in his career, he remembered. The two incidents in Fayetteville would have hit him particularly hard. Paratroopers and their wives and girlfriends and children had been killed and injured in both.
'Mr. President,' General Frampton said quietly. 'I would like to know more about the motives of these people. Horrible though these incidents are, these terrorist acts have no real military impact on us at all except in media terms. I do not wish to belittle the importance of public opinion, but I would like to understand better what these people hope to achieve.'
The Director of Central Intelligence had been unable to attend the meeting. He had been laid low with a virus and an ever-increasing distaste for Vernon Slade. In his place he sent his Deputy Director of Operations, William Martin.
'Mr. President,' said Martin. 'Do you mind if I make a contribution here?'
The President nodded.
Martin continued. 'I read a report recently by a man named Lee Cochrane. He runs the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism. He puts forward some interesting theories.'
'Cochrane argues that we, in America, interpret terrorism far too simplistically. A terrorist blows up a building and we assume that the destruction of that specific building is the object of the exercise. The choice of building, in fact, is probably irrelevant. The significant element in many cases is the symbolism of the act of terror – not the specifics.
'Cochrane further states that we are evaluating acts of terror in the wrong time frame. We think in terms of immediate results. In contrast, many of the cultures we are up against are prepared to think in terms of decades or even longer. They have a strategic vision that we lack.'
GeorgieFalls knitted his brow.
'Let me give you an example,' said Martin. 'I'll use Yaibo, the Japanese terrorist group, but the principles could apply to any other faction.'
The President looked encouraging. General Frampton's drooping eyelids had risen a fraction. His interest was fully engaged. The hunt for these people was personal. No one was going to fuck with the 82 ^ nd and get away with it.
'Yaibo were quite successful in Japan for a while. Leaving out their long-term political aims, their acts of terror gave them influence. Corporations paid them protection money. Politicians voted in certain ways at their request. Senior government officials bent regulations or made other accommodations. All did this because they were afraid of Yaibo. So Yaibo had power and influence out of all proportion to their size. They were unable to change the Japanese political system fundamentally as their manifesto demands, but in other practical ways they were effective. Terrorism worked.
'Yaibo overreached themselves and, after losing much strength, they got forced out of Japan. They fled who knows where to lick their wounds and consolidate, but Lee Cochrane surmises that they are determined at some point to return to Japan. Accordingly, they are mounting attacks in the U.S. to raise their stock in Japan. They are saying, in effect, if we can strike with relative impunity at the most powerful nation on earth, then we are a force to be reckoned with and you people in Japan should pay attention.'
'Why the U.S.?' said the Director.
'Because we give them the most media bang for their buck,' said Martin. 'Because we don't take terrorism seriously and we are vulnerable. Because we are the big guy on the block and they are jealous. Because we are constrained for all kinds of reasons from reacting properly. Because we are a shackled giant and we put on our own shackles.'
Frampton rubbed his jaw slowly. 'So Yaibo, for instance, attack soft targets in the U.S. instead of hard
