he could spill the beans ….
242
He spilled the beans. The guy thought he was passing the information on to a reporter. It turns out the reporter is a former KGB agent who is now operating for himself and selling his secrets abroad. The rest of the story is highly classified, and I can’t go into what we found out It’s an ongoing operation.”
“You’re using the kid to feed him misinformation, aren’t you?” Kennedy waited for an answer. Roach shrugged his shoulders and said, “Director Stansfield knows all about it.
We’re working in cooperation with the Agency.” Roach walked around to the other side of his desk and sat.
McMahon sat forward and said, “I’m going to have to talk to everyone who was involved in this.”
“No, you’re not,” answered Roach. “Brian, if this Coleman is our guy, all of this information about Fitzgerald is going to have to come out in the indictment.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, but for now I don’t want Fitzgerald’s name and Operation Snatch Back mentioned in the same sentence. Do what you have to do to investigate Coleman, but keep Fitzgerald out of it. I assume I can get ahold of Admiral
Devoe at the Pentagon?”
“No, he’s down in Norfolk.”
“All right, I’ll talk to him personally, and you’d better put a list together of all the people that know Snatch Back was leaked.
Madeline Nanny is going to want to talk to you about this.” Mike Nance took the short walk from his corner office to Stu Garret’s. Passing Garret’s secretary, he smiled and said hello. The door was open and Nance closed it behind him. Nance sat in one of the armchairs and crossed his legs. “How is the President today?” Garret finished what he was writing and pushed himself away from the desk. Taking his cigarette out of his mouth, he blew a cloud of smoke toward the ceiling and said, “He’s doing great. We just got the results back from the most recent Time/CNN poll, and almost seventy percent of the people surveyed are behind his decision to get the military involved.” Garret shoved the cigarette back in his mouth and took a deep drag. “He’s very happy. Much more relaxed.”
“Good.” Nance looked down and flicked a speck of lint from his wool pants. “How are you doing?”
“Fine. I could use a little more sleep, but otherwise I feel pretty good.”
“Are you more at ease than you were yesterday?”
“Yes.” Garret was slightly embarrassed by the question. “I had a meeting with our friend last night.”
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“How is he doing?”
“Not well. He’s very uneasy about your lack of emotional control.”
Garret’s face went flush, and he stabbed his cigarette out in the ashtray. “Why?”
“He heard about your demeanor in the meeting the other day.”
“What meeting?”
“The one where Special Agent McMahon played the tape of his conversation with the terrorist.”
“Why did you have to tell him about that?”
“I didn’t. Someone else did.”
“Who?” “One never knows with Arthur, Stu. He has a lot of contacts.”
“What did he say?”
“He’s concerned that you won’t be able to keep your mouth shut.”
“Who am I going to tell?” Nance turned his palms upward and raised his eyebrows.
“Come on, Mike. I’m not that stupid. If I talk, I go down too.”
“I agree, but he doesn’t.”
“Why? I haven’t done a fucking thing to make him think I would say anything. Why in the hell would I say anything? I’d be cutting my own throat.”
“I agree, but he seems to think that you might fold under pressure. He thinks if someone were to put the screws to you, you’d talk in order to save yourself.”
“That’s ludicrous.” Garret grabbed his pack of Marlboros with a shaky hand and fished out a fresh cigarette. “He wants me to give you a message.” Nance rose from his chair and walked around the desk.
Leaning into Garret’s ear, he whispered, “Arthur says if you breathe a word of this to anyone, he will have you killed.” Garret dropped his cigarette and stood. “Why?”
Nance put a hand on his shoulder. “Just calm down, Stu, and you’ll have nothing to worry about.”
244
MICHAEL O’ROURKE AND SCOTT COLEMAN WERE RUNNING A COUPLE
OF minutes late. They had met at the cabin earlier and finalized the plans for the mission.
Because of the lack of preparation time, they had decided to keep things as simple as possible. If Arthur stepped out to smoke a cigar, they would grab him.
