“Can you get somebody to let me in?”
“Why?”
“I’m running out of straws,” said Fisher.
Chapter 18
When Howe told McIntyre what had happened, his new vice president for government affairs told him he sounded as if he were making a sales pitch for the Advanced Military Vision radar. And his offer to lend the device and the aircraft that were currently outfitted with it made it seem even worse.
“Why?” Howe asked him.
“Because nobody does anything for nothing in this town,” said McIntyre. “Probably not in the whole country.”
“Isn’t it our duty to do something?” asked Howe.
McIntyre sighed. “I like you, Colonel, and I owe you a lot, but boy, do you have a lot to learn.”
“Other people have a lot to learn,” said Howe.
McIntyre looked as though he were about to launch into an extended lecture about the facts of life when the telephone cut him off. It was from Nelson; Howe told McIntyre to wait and then picked up the phone.
“Colonel, what are we doing with this UAV business?” asked Nelson as soon as he got on the phone.
Howe explained the situation briefly. Nelson was already well informed enough to point out the NSC objection: The UAVs they’d found in Korea had no engines.
“An engine could be supplied,” said Howe.
“Just follow channels on it,” urged Nelson. “All right?”
“Yes, sir,” said Howe. He hung up.
“Nelson gave you flak?” said McIntyre.
“More or less.”
“Well, this isn’t the military,” said McIntyre. “You don’t work for him.”
“He’s head of the board.”
McIntyre shrugged. “The person you have to worry about is the President. Besides, right now they need you a heck of a lot more than you need them.”
“So they all think I’m trying to sell the AMV radar system?” said Howe.
“Yeah.”
“But I’m not.”
“You have to take a step back.” McIntyre’s hand jangled a little, a twitch Howe had never noticed before. “People are a little scared of you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Yeah. It’d be like a four-star general calling up out of the blue and saying, ‘Hey, this a problem.’ ”
“A general would have his calls returned.”
“You’d be surprised,” said McIntyre.
“So I should just sit here and do nothing?”
“Yup.”
“I can’t, Mac. It’s way too threatening.”
“Then you have your staff do it,” said McIntyre. “Have them talk to the military people, government agencies. They get the ball rolling.”
“That will take way the hell too long,” said Howe. “I can’t just hang back.”
“Sometimes you have to if you want to get things done,” said McIntyre.
Chapter 19
“So, what did it mean that the three slimebag terrorists who’d live in the Washington Heights apartment had actually lived there, with stuff and everything, unlike the apartment Faud had blown up?”
“Jesus, Andy, that’s a real question?” asked Macklin as Fisher sat down on the couch in the living room. “It means they lived here.”
“So Faud must have another place to stay? Besides his apartment.”
“That a question or a conclusion?”
“Both.”
“Maybe you should talk to them yourself. They’re at the new Special Prisoner Holding Area on Plum Island.”
“What are they going to tell me?”
“Jeez, if I knew that, you wouldn’t have to talk to them.”
Fisher got up and went to the kitchen, where Macklin had left the inventory of the items they’d removed. The DIA techies had managed to retrieve most of the files from the hard drive; the inventory included a rundown. It appeared that the three students were running a term-paper Internet site from the apartment. It brought in about six or seven hundred bucks a week, barely enough to support the rent and other expenses.
“What sort of tickets did they have?” Fisher asked Macklin, looking at the inventory. “Parking tickets? They have a car?”
“No. Bastards had tickets to the NCAAs. They even have four tickets to tonight’s finals. Four of ’em. Those suckers are so valuable, I had to take custody of them myself.”
Fisher gave him an odd look.
“I’m just kidding, Andy.”
“Where are they being held?” asked Fisher, grabbing his coat.
The Special Prisoner Holding Area had been constructed off the shore of a secure testing area controlled by Homeland Security at the tip of Long Island. It consisted of two large barges that had once been leased by New York City as temporary jail facilities. The water around the barges was filled with coiled razor wire; there were two posts with machine guns on land and a pair of small patrol craft, also armed with machine guns, patrolling in the water. Fisher had to run a gamut of high-tech sensors to get onto the barge where the three men were held; he was wanded twice and had to turn over his cell phone, all of his weapons, and most importantly his cigarettes before being allowed inside. Even Macklin, who was head of the task force and had been there several times before, was carefully searched before being cleared. The doors were all operated by remote control; none of the guards had keys of any kind.
The first man had given his name as Ali Muhammad, which was a little like calling himself James Smith. Immigration had just identified him as an Egyptian student named Ali al Saad, which was also probably an alias, though Fisher was not particularly interested in his specific identity and said nothing when Macklin quizzed him on it.
“ Syracuse or Kentucky?” Fisher asked the prisoner.
Ali gave him a blank stare.
“Thanks,” said Fisher.
“That’s it?” said Macklin.
“That’s it,” said Fisher. “Bring in the next one.”
Chapter 20
Howe tried to follow McIntyre’s advice and hang back, but when one of the generals he’d contacted earlier got back to him and offered to forward the preliminary report, Howe couldn’t stop himself from saying yes. The
