Executive orders - Tom Clancy [53]
Murray already knew that. Motive and opportunity. He scribbled a note to have the legal attaché in Tokyo take up the offer to participate in the Japanese investigation-but he'd have to get approval from Justice and/or State about that. For damned sure the offer seemed sincere enough. Good.
LOVE THE TRAFFIC, Chavez observed. They were coming up I-95, passing the Springfield Mall. Normally at this time of day-it was still dark-the highway was wall-to-wall with bureaucrats and lobbyists. Not today, though John and Ding had been called in, confirming their essential status to any who might have doubted it. Clark didn't respond, and the junior officer continued, How do you suppose Dr. Ryan is doing?
John grunted and shrugged. Probably rolling with the punches. Better him than me.
Roge-o, Mr. C. All my friends at George Mason are going to have a fine old time.
Think so?
John, he's got a government to rebuild. This will be a textbook case in real life. Ain't nobody ever done that before, 'mano. You know what we're going to find out?
A nod. Yeah, if this place really works or not. Better him than me, John thought again. They'd been called in for their mission debriefing on operations in Japan. That was ticklish enough. Clark had been in the business for quite a while, but not long enough to be especially happy about telling others the things he'd done. He and Ding had killed-not for the first time-and now they'd get to describe it in detail to people, most of whom had never even held a gun, much less fired one in anger. Secrecy oaths or not, some of them might talk someday, the least consequence of which would be embarrassing revelations in the press. Somewhere in the middle came sworn testimony before a congressional committee-well, not anytime soon on that, John corrected himself-questioning under oath and the necessity of answering questions from people who didn't understand any better than the CIA weenies who sat at desks and judged people in the field for a living. The worst case was an actual prosecution, because while the things he had done weren't exactly illegal, they weren't exactly legal, either. Somehow the Constitution and the United States Code, Annotated, had never quite reconciled themselves with the activities the government carried out but did not wish to admit in open fora. Though his conscience was clear on that and many other things, his views on tactical morality wouldn't strike everyone as reasonable. Probably Ryan would understand, though. That was something.
WHAT'S NEW THIS morning? Jack asked.
We expect recovery operations to be completed by this evening, sir. It was Pat O'Day doing the morning FBI brief. He'd explained that Murray was busy. The inspector passed over a folder with the numbers of bodies recovered. Ryan gave it a quick scan. How the hell was he supposed to eat breakfast with such facts before him? the President wondered. Fortunately, there was just coffee at the moment.
What else?
Things seem to be dropping into place. We've recovered what we think is the body of the co-pilot. He was murdered hours before the crash, leading us to believe that the pilot acted alone. We'll be doing DNA tests on the remains to confirm identities. The inspector flipped through his notes, not trusting to memory to get things right. Drug and alcohol tests on both bodies proved negative. Analysis of the flight-data recorder, tapes of radio traffic, RADAR tapes, everything we've managed to pull together, it all leads to the same picture, one guy acting alone. Dan's meeting with a senior Japanese cop right now.
Next step?
It will be a textbook investigation process. We reconstruct everything Sato-that's the pilot's name-did over the last month or so, and take it back from there. Phone records, where he went, whom he saw, friends and associates, diary if any, everything