The secretary of defense and the secretary of state were also attending the state dinner. So as to not raise too much attention, they left the room in intervals, the President being the last. When Stevens arrived in the Situation Room, Director Stansfield was on the phone and the secretaries of state and defense were standing off to the side talking to
Garret. The President approached his chief of staff. “Stu, what’s this all about?”
“Stansfield says a high-level CIA official has been abducted.”
“How high?”
“I don’t know, he hasn’t told us. He’s been waiting for you.” The thought of Arthur being the official in mind was something that Garret hadn’t considered. Arthur was, after all, a former CIA employee and lived in the United States. Garret assumed the CIA
employee in question must be someone stationed abroad.
Stansfield hung up the phone and approached the group. “Good evening, Mr.
President. I’m sorry to interrupt your party, but something very serious has come up.”
“What’s the problem?”
“The Agency’s former director of Black Ops, Arthur Higgins, was abducted from his home in Maryland at seven oh six this evening.”
Garret’s cocky attitude vanished instantly. His mouth fell open, and his face turned white. Stansfield noticed the change in the Chief of Staffs demeanor and focused in on him while he continued. “Right now we have no idea who has taken him or why, but we have to assume the worst if we don’t get him back soon. Higgins is in possession of a vast amount of highly sensitive information. If he is interrogated, our intelligence apparatus will be affected on a global scale.”
Garret’s reaction was so out of character that Stansfield paused for a second and then asked, “Mr. Garret, I didn’t know you knew Arthur.”
Garret stammered briefly and said, “I . .
. didn’t. I’ve.just heard his name mentioned before.” Stansfield crossed his arms. He knew Mike Nance and Arthur had a professional relationship, but he found it hard to believe that Nance would talk to Garret about Arthur. “What have you heard about him?”
“Nothing really, I just know he used to work for the Agency.”
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Stansfield stared suspiciously at Garret. It was obvious that he was lying. Garret was acting far too strange over something that shouldn’t affect him.
Instead of speaking, Stansfield let the silence build, increasing the tension and turning everyone’s focus on Garret.
“Do we have any idea who would have taken him?” asked the President.
Without looking away from Garret, Stansfield answered, “My people are putting together a list right now. Arthur has been retired from the Agency for almost two years, but he has continued to use his international contacts to conduct quasi-legitimate business endeavors.
We have kept tabs on him and even warned him several times to keep his nose out of official Agency matters.”
“What are we doing to get him back?” asked the President. “We have contingency plans in place for something like this. We’ve faxed photos of Arthur to all of the airports and police departments on the Eastern Seaboard. We are telling people that he is wanted for questioning in a murder and that he is to be approached with extreme caution. The Air
Force had an AWAC on patrol when he was kidnapped and they have launched another.
They are looking for any small-plane traffic that may be trying to fly under our conventional radar systems. As time elapses, we will alert our people overseas and have them meet incoming flights from the U.S.” The phone that Stansfield had been talking to
Charlie Dobbs on earlier started to ring. Stansfield excused himself and grabbed it.
“Hello.”
“Thomas, we found him,” exclaimed Dobbs. Stansfield breathed a huge sigh of relief and asked, “Where?”
“You’re not going to believe this. He’s at Stu Garret’s house.”
“What?”
“He’s dead. I’m watching it on the damn news.
His body is propped up against Garret’s fence. All three networks are at the scene filming live. The cops aren’t even there yet.”
“How did they get there so fast?”
“We don’t know.”
“Do we have our people on the way?”
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“Yes.” Stansfield’s mind raced to try to make a connection between Arthur and
Garret. “Charlie, hold the line for a minute.” Stansfield lowered the phone to his side and looked at the group. “We found him.”
