Removal (36 page)

‘But, Sir, what if you’re wrong?’

‘I’m not wrong. Even if the Senate does something stupid, the American people will know the right thing to do. So I will speak to the American people, and we’ll go from there.’

Martha swallowed hard. ‘But you won’t tell me what you’re going to say?’

‘My advisers think it would be better if I kept that under wraps for a short time. Even from you. Isn’t that right, Dick?’

Martha glanced at the Attorney-General. He looked almost as tense as she was herself.

‘Yes, Mr. President.’

Martha stood. ‘I’ll go make the arrangements.’

‘Thank you. Oh, and Martha, just so you know, I have a meeting with the Joint Chiefs tomorrow afternoon. We’re not notifying anyone, so it’s unlikely you’ll get any questions, but if you do, you know nothing about it.’

Martha looked up abruptly. ‘The Joint Chiefs? I don’t have that on my calendar. Have I missed something? Do we have a situation going on abroad some place? What about a briefing?’

Wade stood.

‘You know nothing about it,’ he repeated firmly. ‘But if it will put your mind at rest, no, we do not have a situation going on. Now, you’ll have to excuse me, Martha. Dick and I still have one or two things to discuss. Let me know when everything’s arranged for my broadcast.’

T
ED
L
AZENBY
WALKED
briskly into the large situation room which had been set up several days before at FBI Headquarters to monitor the rising tide of demonstrations across the country protesting against the impeachment of President Steve Wade. Initially, he had regarded the demonstrations as a matter of concern only to local police departments, but phone calls from a number of police chiefs had convinced him that there was more to it. The demonstrations were not massive, but there was evidence that they were being coordinated across state lines, and the chiefs thought it was something the Bureau should be keeping an eye on. Lazenby instructed every FBI field office across the country to work with the local police, and to send as much information as possible to Headquarters as soon as it came in. He placed Kelly Smith in charge of receiving and evaluating the information, and assigned Jeff Morris to assist her. Technically, Jeff should have returned to his duties with the District of Columbia Police Department, but Lazenby had been impressed by his cool, clear head. He also realized that Jeff’s presence was keeping his personal assistant in a positive frame of mind, and given the workload Kelly was carrying, that was another strong reason for not letting him go. He talked Chief Bryson into letting him stay until the crisis had passed.

Kelly and Jeff were seated near the door at the large table which occupied most of the situation room. The table was packed with computers, telephones and masses of paper, and some twenty agents were working on the task of coordinating and analyzing the rapidly increasing volume of information about the protests. Large flat screen televisions on the walls were tuned to all the major news channels.

‘Anything new?’ Lazenby asked.

Kelly looked up as if to reply, but the red telephone by her side rang before she could speak. She held up one hand and picked up the phone with the other.

‘Not a lot, Director,’ Jeff replied. ‘But it’s not going away. Everyone seems to be expecting more demonstrations this evening. It’s reaching as far as Minneapolis, St. Paul, in the north, and there’s word that Miami may be involved by tomorrow.’

Lazenby frowned. ‘It’s spreading right across the country, isn’t it?’

‘Looks that way.’

‘Jesus Christ, how did we miss this?’

‘I’m not sure we did,’ Jeff replied. ‘We just don’t know why it’s got so far so fast. There’s no pattern to it yet. Once we find out who’s behind it, we should have a better idea of what’s going on.’

‘I hope so,’ Lazenby said.

Kelly placed a hand over the mouthpiece of her telephone and turned to Lazenby. She seemed hesitant.

‘Director, there’s someone down at reception to see you. You’re not going to like it, but I’m going to advise you to see her anyway.’

Lazenby raised his eyebrows.

‘Who?’

‘Mary Sullivan, from the
Post
.’

Lazenby turned his head away in disgust. ‘Forget it. The woman costs us one of our best agents, and now she has the balls to ask for an interview. Tell her to go screw herself.’

Kelly bit her lip. ‘I understand how you feel. But she’s not asking for an interview. She says she has information. She’s here in person, and off the record. That’s highly unusual, to say the least. I think you ought to listen to what she has to say.’

Lazenby raised his eyes to the ceiling. ‘God in heaven. Why did I ever take this job?… All right, have them bring her to my office. You come with me. Jeff, you too.’

Kelly looked at Lazenby in surprise. ‘You think you might need witnesses?’

Lazenby was striding through the door. ‘No. I might need a couple of strong people to pull me off her if I decide I have to kill her.’

Mary Sullivan was subdued as she shook hands formally with Lazenby and his two assistants. She declined coffee and sat down in front of the Director’s desk.

‘Thank you for seeing me, Director Lazenby,’ she began hesitantly. ‘I know this is irregular. And I guess the first thing I want to say is how sorry I am about your agent in Oregon. I’m probably not supposed to know about it even now…’

‘That’s correct,’ Lazenby said.

‘I heard about your operation through the grapevine, obviously, after the event. I knew nothing at the time. I checked with all my sources. None of them knew anything. I know there’s nothing I can say that will make it better. But I want you to know that I would never knowingly have placed him in danger. I haven’t been able to sleep since it happened. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I don’t know what to say, Director. But I want you to know I’m truly sorry.’

Lazenby bowed his head. Kelly watched him closely. It was some time before he replied.

‘I appreciate what you’ve said, Miss Sullivan.’

‘Thank you,’ Mary said.

‘As a matter of fact, we don’t officially know whether we have lost him or not. We just haven’t heard from him for a long time. He’s officially listed as missing. But, if he were still alive and in good health, we would probably have heard something from him by now. Anyway, Miss Sullivan, I’m assuming you didn’t come here just to talk about that.’

‘No, I didn’t. I’m here because of something else I picked up from a source out of town. It may be that you have similar information, but just to be on the safe side, I thought I should pass it on to you. It may have something to do with the demonstrations, but it has a different angle.’

‘Go ahead.’

‘I have a local source in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who is convinced that a number of white supremacist groups from out west, including the Sons of the Flag, are beginning a quiet but organized movement of personnel towards Washington.’

Lazenby glanced across at Kelly, his eyebrows raised. ‘Personnel?’

‘That was the word my source used. He says they’re moving in groups which should be too small to invite suspicion, but there may be a lot of them. And they may be armed.’

Lazenby opened his eyes wide. He turned towards Kelly and Jeff, who were staring at Mary Sullivan in amazement.

‘What evidence does your source have of this?’

‘My source was approached by a woman who supplies him with information from time to time. Local stuff. Nothing to interest me, or even him, most of the time. This woman is… well, she’s a member of a profession which doesn’t usually command the highest credibility…’

Kelly bit her lip to suppress a grin. ‘She’s a call girl?’

‘Yes.’

‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ Lazenby said.

‘No, Director, hear me out,’ Mary said. ‘Please. It may be important.’

Lazenby raised his hands. ‘Go ahead.’

‘Thank you. Evidently, this lady had been requested to attend at a certain motel to provide personal services for two gentlemen who were passing through on their way east. She said they had been drinking heavily, and they were rather careless about what they were saying. They told her they were part of some kind of plan to take over power in Washington, and that there were a lot of other people headed the same way for the same purpose.’

‘And the woman took this couple of drunks seriously?’ Kelly asked.

‘Not at first. But they had so much to drink that they fell asleep after she had serviced them. She says that when she arrived, she noticed a big metal chest against the wall by the television. As she was getting dressed to leave, it occurred to her to take a closer look. Maybe she thought there might be some additional compensation in it, who knows? So she lifts the lid of the chest, and what does she find but an assortment of weapons; handguns, rifles, semi-automatics, you name it, even a couple of things she thought were hand-grenades.’

Jeff Morris whistled quietly.

‘And she reported this to your source?’

‘Yes. My source would have paid her something. And the option of going to the police wouldn’t have seemed very attractive, given the circumstances.’

Lazenby drummed his fingers on his desk.

‘How reliable is your source?’

‘Very. He freelances for several local newspapers, does some television reporting. He’s honest, and he has his ear to the ground.’

Lazenby nodded.

‘All right. It may be nothing, or it may be something, but we’ll look into it.’

He stood and extended his hand.

‘Thank you for coming, Miss Sullivan. I appreciate it.’

‘You’re welcome.’

Mary paused uneasily.

‘I don’t quite know how to put this,’ she said quietly. ‘But Harold Philby told me to tell you that he spoke with the owners of the
Post
. If there’s anything the agent’s family needs, you know, we would like to…’

Her voice trailed away. Lazenby nodded.

‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘I’ll make sure that gets passed on to the appropriate people.’

Mary Sullivan stood and shook hands with Lazenby, Kelly and Jeff. She made her way to the door.

‘Miss Sullivan,’ Lazenby asked, ‘why exactly did you come to me with this? You could have added yet another scoop to your tally, and let us find out about it by reading it in the
Post
. That seems to be the way we get most of our information these days.’

Mary smiled. ‘The information indicated a possible violation of federal law, transporting arms across state lines. As a citizen, I have a duty to report it to the appropriate authorities.’

‘I was asking for the real reason.’

Mary paused with her hand on the door handle.

‘I hoped it might make me sleep better,’ she said. ‘Besides, I’ll still have my scoop. But I’m going to hold off on it for a couple of days, so you can do some investigation without having the suspects tipped off in advance. I guess it’s just another way to say I’m sorry.’

‘Classy,’ Kelly smiled at Lazenby after Mary Sullivan had left.

‘I hate to have to agree,’ Lazenby replied, ‘but you’re right. And it may explain the information we got from the Portland field office a few days ago.’

‘That small convoy of trucks heading out of the Sons of the Flag compound,’ Kelly said.

‘Right. What’s the story on that?’

‘They started out heading east. Seemed like they were in no particular hurry. We’ve been keeping track of them as a routine matter. But until now it was just a small part of the overall picture. We haven’t given it priority.’

‘Well, that just changed,’ Lazenby said. ‘As of now, it has top priority, at least until we know more about what’s going on.’

‘So what do we do?’ Jeff asked. ‘Have our agents find them and pull them over?’

‘Or have the local police do it,’ Kelly said. ‘Less obvious. Do we have probable cause for a search?’

‘We’ll find probable cause,’ Lazenby replied through gritted teeth. ‘But get satellite coverage first. Let’s see if we can find a pattern. Let’s not move too soon. Once we pull them over, we tip off whoever else may be involved. Sullivan has bought us some time. Let’s use it. Alert all police departments that we are interested in any traffic stops that seem in any way unusual. Let’s see if we can cross-check vehicles stopped with criminal records and known members of those extremist groups.’

‘I’ll need more people, Director,’ Kelly said. ‘That’s a big task.’

‘I’ll take care of it. Go to work.’

Kelly and Jeff returned to the situation room and gave the necessary instructions. They both sat down wearily at the table, and surveyed the ever-growing piles of emails and faxes. Kelly let her head sink down on top of the table.

‘I feel like I’ve been on duty for weeks without a break. Is this ever going to end?’

‘Not any time soon. Are you still on to meet Linda for dinner?’

Kelly sat up abruptly.

‘Oh, God, yes. I’d forgotten. What time is it?’

‘Six-thirty.’

‘All right, I still have time. Are you sure you don’t mind if I disappear for a while?’

‘No. I had lunch, remember, and I’m sure we’ll be making the daily pizza call before long. Go for it.’

‘OK. Love you. I won’t be long.’

Jeff Morris blew Kelly a kiss as she left the situation room. A female agent seated at the far end of the room called his name. He made his way around the table to where the agent sat, her fingers gliding rapidly over her computer keyboard.

‘What have you got, Jenny?’

‘We’ve been tracking the Portland convoy. But guess what? They’re not really a convoy any more. The field office thinks they figured out we were watching, and split up. They’re still moving in the same direction, but now they’re just individual vehicles.’

‘But still moving east?’

‘Yeah.’

‘All of them? Are you sure?’

‘Yeah.’

‘God damn it,’ Jeff said. ‘That means, if there are any more of them out there, they will all be doing the same thing.’

‘Yes, Sir,’ Jenny replied. ‘Our job just got a lot harder. Satellite coverage may not tell us much now. The only reason we’re in touch with the Portland trucks is because the field office is familiar with the individual vehicles.’