Executive orders - Tom Clancy [41]
What could make you wrong? Ryan asked.
Potentially quite a few things, but there are practical considerations. For this to be anything other than the act of a single fanatic-no, that's not fair, is it? One very angry man. Anyway, for this to be a conspiracy, we have to assume detailed planning, and that's hard to support. How would they know the war was going to be lost, how did they know about the joint session-and if it were planned as a war operation, like the NTSB guy said, hell, ten tons of high explosives would have been simple to load aboard.
Or a nuke, Jack interjected.
Or a nuke. Murray nodded. That reminds me: the Air Force attaché is going to see their nuclear weapons fabrication facility today. It took the Japanese a couple of days to figure out where it was. We're having a guy who knows the things flying over there right now. Murray checked his notes. Dr. Woodrow Lowell-oh, I know him. He runs the shop at Lawrence Livermore. Prime Minister Koga told our ambassador that he wants to hand over the damned things PDQ and get them the hell out of his country.
Ryan turned his chair around. The windows behind him faced the Washington Monument. That obelisk was surrounded by a circle of flagpoles, all of whose flags were at half-staff. But he could see that people were lined up for the elevator ride to the top. Tourists who'd come to D.C. to see the sights. Well, they were getting a bargain of sorts, weren't they? The Oval Office windows, he saw, were incredibly thick, just in case one of those tourists had a sniper rifle tucked under his coat
How much of this can we release? President Ryan asked.
I'm comfortable with releasing a few things, Murray responded.
You sure? Price asked.
It's not as though we have to protect evidence for a criminal trial. The subject in the case is dead. We'll chase down all the possibilities of co-conspirators, but the evidence we let go today will not compromise that in any way. I'm not exactly a fan of publicizing criminal evidence, but the people out there want to know something, and in a case like this one, you let them have it.
Besides, Price thought, it makes the Bureau look good. With that silent observation, at least one government agency started returning to normal.
Who's running this one at Justice? she asked instead.
Pat Martin.
Oh? Who picked him? she asked. Ryan turned to see the discourse on this one.
Murray almost blushed. I guess I did. The President said to pick the best career prosecutor, and that's Pat. He's been head of the Criminal Division for nine months. Before that he ran Espionage. Ex-Bureau. He's a particularly good lawyer, been there almost thirty years. Bill Shaw wanted him to become a judge. He was talking to the AG about it only last week.
You sure he's good enough? Jack asked. Price decided to answer.
We've worked with him, too. He's a real pro, and Dan's right, he's real judge material, tough as hell, but also extremely fair. He handled a mob counterfeiting case my old partner ramrodded in New Orleans.
Okay, let him decide what to let out. He can start talking to the press right after lunch. Ryan checked his watch. He'd been President for exactly twelve hours.
COLONEL PIERRE ALEXANDRE, U.S. Army, retired, still looked like a soldier, tall and thin and fit, and that didn't bother the dean at all. Dave James immediately liked what he saw as his visitor took his seat, liked him even more for what he'd read in the man's c.v., and more still for what he'd learned over the phone. Colonel Alexandre-Alex to his friends, of which he had many-was an expert in infectious disease who'd spent twenty productive years in the employ of his government,