Executive orders - Tom Clancy [98]
What do you mean? Ryan asked.
The way the gun came up, the way he took the shot, the way he just stood there and watched. Like a golfer, it's called follow-through. He must have waited a long time for the chance. He damned sure thought about it for a long, long time. He must have dreamed about it. He wanted the moment to be perfect. He wanted to see it and enjoy it before he went down. She shook her head slowly. That was one focused, dedicated killer. Price was actually enjoying herself, chilling though the subject of the meeting was. More than one President had treated the Secret Service agents as if they were furniture, or at best nice pets. It wasn't often that big shots asked their opinion of much more than narrow professional areas, like where a bad guy might be in a particular crowd.
Keep going, CIA said.
He must have been from outside, a guy with a totally clean record, no connection at all with anybody who made noise in Baghdad. This wasn't a guy getting even for somebody taking his mother out, okay? It was somebody who worked his way up the system, slow and careful all the way.
Iran, CIA said. Best guess, anyway. Religious motivation. No way he'd walk away from the hit, so it had to be somebody who didn't care. That could also mean straight revenge, but Ms. Price is correct: his people were clean in that respect. Anyway, it wasn't the Israelis, wasn't the French. The Brits don't do this anymore. The domestic angle is probably taken out by their vetting procedures. So it wasn't for money. It wasn't for personal or family motives. I think we can discount political ideology. That leaves religion, and that means Iran.
I can't say I'm familiar with all the intelligence side, but from looking at the tape, yeah, Andrea Price agreed. It's like he was saying a prayer, the way he killed the guy. He just wanted the moment to be perfect. He didn't care about anything else.
Somebody else to check that out? Ryan asked.
FBI, their Behavioral Sciences people are pretty good at reading minds. We work with them all the time, Price responded.
Good idea, CIA agreed. We'll rattle the bushes to ID the shooter, but even if we can get good information, it might not mean anything.
What about the timing?
If we can stipulate that the shooter was there for a while-we have enough tapes of public appearances to determine that-then timing is an issue, CIA thought.
Oh, that's just great, the President opined. Scott, now what?
Bert? SecState said to his desk officer. Bert Vasco was the State Department senior desk officer for that country. Rather like a specialist in the trading industry, he concentrated his efforts on learning everything he could about one particular country.
Mr. President, as we all know, Iraq is a majority Shi'a Muslim country ruled by a Sunni minority through the Ba'ath political party. It has always been a concern that the elimination of our friend over there could topple-
Tell me what I don't know, Ryan interrupted.
Mr. President, we simply do not know the strength of any opposition group that may or may not exist. The current regime has been very effective at cutting the weeds down early. A handful of Iraqi political figures has defected to Iran. None are top-quality people, and none ever had the chance to develop a firm political base. There are two radio stations that broadcast from Iran into Iraq. We know the names of the defectors who use those transmitters to talk to their countrymen. But there's no telling how