One Rough Man - Brad Taylor [129]
“Pike, it’s more than the Taskforce. If we get compromised it will bring down the president. Not only that, but his entire administration, and would literally shock the nation to its core. Do-gooders would seize the opportunity to muzzle every other action against the terrorist threat. You think Internet wiretaps are hard to do now? After this, they won’t exist at all. In fact, it’s not hyperbole to say the best thing that could happen for Al Qaeda is for the Taskforce to be discovered in a foreign country killing terrorists. It would make Lillehammer look like a mild error in judgment.”
I knew all about Lillehammer, and the irony wasn’t lost on me that these terrorists had gone to the same country that caused Israel’s Wrath of God operation to blow up in their face. In June of 1973, Israel had sent a hit team to the small town in Norway to kill Ali Hassan Salemeh, otherwise known as the Red Prince, the man responsible for the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes. Instead of getting him, they killed an innocent Moroccan waiter by mistake. Rapid police work uncovered the Israeli connection, with several of the agents being arrested before they could get out of the country. The repercussions were immediate and profound, starting with the permanent dismantling of the Wrath of God teams and ending with Israel being vilified on the world stage, compared to the very terrorists they sought to kill.
I didn’t buy the argument. “Sir, I get where you’re coming from, but there’s a higher purpose here. Israel was simply conducting an attack based on revenge. We’re trying to preempt a WMD attack, to save countless lives, for Christ’s sake. It’s not the same thing, even if we get compromised. The repercussions are worth it. Would you rather have World War Three or some egg on the president’s face?”
“Pike, we don’t even know if the WMD is real. All you have is what Ethan gleaned from a single paragraph. It doesn’t make it fact.” He paused for a moment, then his tone softened. “Look, I get that there’s a threat out there, but the Taskforce isn’t the correct tool to use against it. Let me get this information into the system. Let the CIA and the Special Mission Units handle it. That’s what they do.”
“Jesus Christ! You sound like all the jackasses that said the Taskforce doesn’t need to exist. You know what happened with the first effort to create our unit. You put this information into the system and we’re going to get our wheels spinning for weeks, until someone believes it’s a true, distinct threat. You said it yourself. It’s just a paragraph on a piece of paper and the word of a discredited operator. Nobody is going to take that seriously, and we don’t have time to prove it. We can’t waste a week developing corroborating evidence to convince the National Command Authority to launch. That bomb’s going off before then.”
I looked at Kurt to see if anything I said was registering. When I didn’t get a response, I threw out my final trump card.
“In fact, because the Taskforce operates without constitutional constraints, we’re the only element that can execute. Everyone else will be waiting on DEPORDS and presidential findings. Please. I’m begging here. Think about what you’re saying.”
“Pike, I have a greater obligation to the nation. If you had something besides simple extrapolation of what you think is going on, I might do something. I simply can’t jeopardize the entire presidential administration and the future defense of the nation based on what you think.”
I grunted, sick of the conversation.
“Get back to Arlington. Drop Kurt off,” I said to Jennifer.
Turning back to Kurt, I said, “I’m not the only one who believes there’s a bad fucking event coming. Someone tried very hard to keep me from talking to you. I guess they could have spared all the death and destruction, since you don’t give a damn in the first place.”
I could tell