Executive Treason (10 page)

Maluku, Indonesia
Wednesday, 20 June

Umar Komari did as promised. He took one scrawny, diseased man out of the makeshift Shabu manufacturing plant—actually little more than a hut with a tin roof and the requisite burners—and beat him in front of his co-workers. He chose the man partly because he was the first to have eye contact with him and partly because he had three worthless daughters who would not serve the cause for which Allah had chosen him. So, the sins of the daughters now fell on the father, and Amjad Mohammed suffered a twenty-minute caning which left him weak, yet alive. With the last lash, he collapsed on the floor and broke his nose.

“If you want to feed your pitiful family, you’ll get on your feet and return to work!” Komari ordered. He signaled for a fellow worker, little more than a slave, to help him up.

“Do you see what happens when you fail?” Komari shouted to the other twelve half-starved men. “You are punished. This time, one of you. This time, he lives. The next time, you will all feel the bite of my stick. And two of you will die.”

Amjad spit out the blood that had filled his throat, and forced himself to a wobbly stance. He diverted his eyes for fear of further reprisal.

“From now on, you will triple your output because you have shorted me. And it will be the finest Shabu you have ever produced.”

No one dared object.

“I don’t care which one of you is guilty. You all share the burden. Everyone works harder, or you die a traitor’s death.”

Komari had another stop to make—an arms supplier twenty-five kilometers away, across a stretch of calm seas. He would be lucky if he got half his order of AK-47s, 40-mm GP-25 under-barrel grenade launchers, Russian-made VSK-94 sniper rifles, semi-automatic high-velocity 9x21mm Gyurza pistols, and the most prized possessions: Stinger missiles.

He would not be getting the tube-fired missiles he sought or all of the Kevlar-piercing ammunition. The new cache provided him with less than enough weapons to turn his growing army into a formidable force. Komari also had to buy food and medical supplies for his men. Because of failures on the manufacturing side, his dream of raising a mighty sword for Islam and striking a deadly blow in Allah’s name was delayed. The Christians in the Malukus would live awhile longer, perhaps through late August. Then he would cleanse his beloved islands of the pagans. Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch blood would flow from the fishing villages into Jakarta’s gutters. A reborn Indonesia, a fully Muslim Indonesia, would rise, and the world would acknowledge the name Komari.

As Komari brushed by Amjad Mohammad, the beaten man struggled to stand. He kept his eyes lowered, but a small curl formed at the corners of his mouth. It made his swollen face hurt. It wasn’t the kind of expression that suggested happiness. It was more relief. However, Komari read only insubordination.

A smile? He dares to ridicule me? In one swift move, Komari unholstered his pistol, and with absolutely no remorse, put a bullet in the forehead of the slave laborer.

“Let that be a lesson for all of you. I am Commander here. I will not abide insolence.” To his own shocked men, he demanded, “Take him out.”

Washington, D.C.

“Alma, get me in.”

In the first months of Lamden’s presidency, Alma Coolidge had already put through calls from the county’s biggest political egos and the world’s greatest leaders. In order to reach the President of the United States, they went through her first. Everyone. Congressmen, kings, dictators, prime ministers, department heads, and Boy Scout leaders. Most people knew her by her first name. The FBI chief did. She could distinguish between a calm greeting, noting no real sense of urgency, to a rapid-fire, curt hello, which didn’t invite any small talk in return. She measured the importance of each call by the tone of the first words. She’d been tutored by the best, Louise Swingle.

The FBI director’s intent was unmistakable. He didn’t invite anything other than a proper business response.

The president’s secretary clicked to a screen showing the day’s calendar. “Five forty-five, sir?”

“Earlier.”

It wasn’t a question. Robert Mulligan needed to see the president immediately. Alma didn’t ask for a reason. She quickly scratched a note to herself on her phone log. She’d move a meeting with an FCC commissioner.

“Thirty-five minutes, Mr. Director? Twelve fifty?”

“Good.”

“Can I have any lunch waiting for you?”

“No.”

His answers were all short and deliberate. The hair on the back of her neck prickled her skin.

“And would you like Mr. Gilmore there?”

“No.”

The president felt better when his chief of staff, his confidant, was present. She thought he might want to reconsider.

“Are you certain?” she said matching his delivery. Telling more than asking she continued, “You know that the president values his opinion.”

“Thank you, Louise. Tell him I want fifteen minutes alone. After that, he might want to have Billy around, Evans, and, hell, maybe the CIA chief and the whole National Security Council. I’m on my way.”

Robert Mulligan scanned the notes he took over the telephone from the LAPD officer. His folder also included an e-mail jpeg of the victim. It would be difficult for the president to view, but part of the process of identification was confirmation. Henry Lamden would have to look at the startled and pained expression on a young and beautiful face: an expression frozen forever. Fingerprints and dental records would also provide indisputable proof.

Mulligan framed his thoughts in the backseat of the six-minute chauffeured drive from the Hoover Building to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. On some level, Meyerson’s death was like hundreds if not thousands of others every year: a woman attacked and killed in the act of robbery, rape, or attempted rape. He could have someone research the exact statistics, but it didn’t matter. What made her death different, notable, and newsworthy, was the fact that this victim worked in the White House, directly under the eyes of the president. And then there was his other concern.

Right after talking to Ellsworth, Mulligan ordered his Los Angeles team to work with the LAPD. With his next call, he sent his most experienced D.C.-based investigator to Meyerson’s apartment.

Alma Coolidge tried to read the FBI director’s expression as he entered. There were no signals, but there were no pleasantries either. The FBI head usually chatted with the 58-year-old mother of five. He’d normally ask about her children and grandson, her mother, and her husband who worked as a cab dispatcher. Not today.

“Alma.”

“Mr. Director.”

She didn’t get anything more. He hurried past her desk, only calling out a thank you with his back to her.

He knocked on the door.

“No need, you can just go in, sir,” she said. “The president is waiting for you.”

Coolidge had alerted Henry Lamden that the FBI director had been absolutely insistent on seeing him right away. Not ever liking to be blindsided, a carryover from his days as a battleship captain, the president asked if Mulligan gave her any reason for the unexpected visit.

“No, sir. I tried.”

The “no” meant trouble. He could feel his heartbeat quickening.

As Mulligan entered, the president’s secretary could see Henry Lamden gazing out the window. She understood that somehow the very act of looking into the Rose Garden instinctively became a way to deal with the unknown. The openness of the grounds provided every president the way to surround impending troubles with natural beauty, if only for a moment.

Mulligan closed the door.

“Mr. President, thank you for seeing me on such short notice.”

The president didn’t turn around. As if reading the FBI director’s thoughts, he began, “Imagine what Lincoln thought as he looked out these windows. Do you think he found any solace in the Garden while America was at war with itself? What about Woodrow Wilson, when he desperately tried to convince the country that the League of Nations was a good and necessary idea? Or President Kennedy, at the brink of a third World War? Where were his thoughts? Out there? Wishing he could be playing in the fall leaves with his daughter, Caroline?

Lamden slowly walked away from the window, and greeted the man he had asked to stay as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “I understand you have something urgent.”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“Then put your things down, Bob. A pleasantry first. How are Molly and the girls?”

“All fine, Mr. President. And Joanne?”

“Missing the ranch. Like me. Now sit. Please. Some water?”

“No, thank you.” Mulligan gingerly crossed the magnificent rug that lay in front of the president’s desk in the center of the Oval Office. The chief executive’s seal was woven into it. Guests automatically walked over it lightly, out of a sense of guilt. He took a seat in one of the two modest cherry wood courthouse chairs. He removed a sealed document and placed it on his lap.

Lamden took his favorite seat, a handcrafted, button-tufted, brown leather Teddy Roosevelt Room chair from the Kittinger Furniture Company. His choice. The president noted the file, but didn’t ask about it yet.

“And you, Bob. You’re doing okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine, sir.” He was still getting used to his newest employer—different, more measured than his predecessor. “But I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

Lamden had heard these words many times before. They were never a good start to a conversation. From his navy days, it usually meant a pilot was down, a helicopter was lost, incoming fire. Now the president realized this was his first time, as commander in chief, anyone started a conversation that way.

“Come sit down and tell me about it.” The president reached for the same warm words he had used years earlier.

Mulligan obliged. He realized he hadn’t forged a real relationship with President Lamden. Go slowly, he warned himself. He wondered whether Lamden truly had what it takes to be president. Could he exert the ultimate authority? Would he be willing to use extreme measures? A voice told him no.

Upon becoming president, Henry Lamden agreed to Morgan Taylor’s first recommendations: that the FBI director remain at his post; the same for three other key cabinet members—Secretary of State Norman Poole, Attorney General Eve Goldman, and Homeland Security Secretary Norman Grigoryan. However, Lamden made two notable changes. He elevated CIA Chief Jack Evans to the higher post of National Director of Intelligence and appointed David Jaburi, a second-generation American and devout Muslim, as Secretary of the Treasury. It was a calculated move designed to demonstrate how America embraced people of all faiths. The fact that Jaburi worked with Eve Goldman, a Jew, was a positive lesson to the Muslim world.

“Go ahead, Bob.”

“Sir, a junior member of your Office for Strategic Initiatives was killed last night.”

Lamden tensed.

“Who?” the president quickly demanded.

“A young woman. I only met her once myself. Lynn Meyerson.”

Lamden closed his eyes, lowered his head, and whispered, “Oh, my God.” Without looking up he asked, “How did it happen?”

“She was jogging in L.A. Apparently stalked and attacked. We’re still looking at the initial evidence.”

“She left my suite to go running. I gave her time off,” the president said in a self-confession.

“Yes, Mr. President. I know.”

The president’s shoulders collapsed under the impact of the news. He thought about Lynn’s promising future, now gone. Her energy. Her desire to succeed. He buried his face in his hands. “Tell me what happened.”

“As you noted, she left the Century Plaza Hotel shortly before your departure. She was seen running down Avenue of the Stars to Pico Boulevard and into a local park. At some point, she cut into an adjoining golf course. That’s where she was assaulted.”

“My God! I drove right by there on the way to the airport.” Henry Lamden looked up. His voice cracked as he continued. “How did she die?”

“She was stabbed, sir.” He paused, as if reading the president’s mind. “And no, we do not believe she was raped.” He paused. “Though it appeared that was intended.”

“So there was a witness who interceded?”

“Possibly.”

“But he still took the time to kill Lynn?”

“Yes. And we don’t know why.”

Mulligan turned to a page of his own notes, scanned them, exhaled, and mustered the courage to proceed with what he had to say.

“Mr. President, I have to ask you something. If, after you hear my questions, you believe you should consult White House counsel, then I advise you to do so.”

The president’s mood suddenly changed. Armor went up. “Say what you mean, Bob.”

“I need to ask what every reporter will also be asking you. Three important questions.” Mulligan was a former prosecutor, a devilishly manipulative courtroom attorney. He had his cross-examination down. He fixed an unblinking stare on the president, trying to read his very thoughts.

“There have been hundreds of similar deaths this year that the media will show no interest in. This one is different. The victim worked for the government. She worked in the White House. And she worked for the President of the United States. You.”

“Get to your questions, Mr. Director.” Lamden now showed dismay over where Mulligan was heading.

“Mr. President, did you have any relationship with this worm—?”

“No!” the president shot back before the final word was off the FBI chiefs lips. “That’s one. Next.”

“Sir, can you shed any light on why anyone would want to harm Ms. Meyerson?”

“No, I cannot. For Christ sake, she was the most liked person here. Two.”

“Did she have access to any classified information?”

This caught him off guard. “Classified information? Well, I suppose a lot of what she touched could be considered classified. Hell, she was in Strategic Planning. Where are you going with this, Bob?”

Protocol usually demanded you never answered a president’s question with another question, but Mulligan did.

“What kinds of things, Mr. President?” He voice was more urgent.