The Detachment - Barry Eisler [82]
The president said, “Our laws must be not only necessary, but also appropriate. It’s critical that in the course of combating the terrorist threat, we take care not to subvert our own values.”
“You slick bastard,” Dox said.
Another reporter shouted, “Mister President, can you comment on rumors that the deaths of Tim Shorrock and Jack Finch were related to these attacks? That they were intended to weaken your ability to respond?”
The president said, “Tim and Jack were American heroes who dedicated their lives to serving their country. I have no comment on rumors, other than to say that the work of the staffs they so ably led has continued unhampered, and that I will announce their replacements shortly.”
The president left to a cacophony of shouted questions, and the announcer started repeating what we had already just heard. Larison reached in and shut off the radio.
“Well,” he said. “Sounds like it’s all going more or less according to plan.”
“Other than the fact that we’re not supposed to still be alive,” Dox said. “We’re the goddamned fly in their ointment, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Then I saw it. What I’d been missing before.
“If it gets out that Finch was assassinated,” I said, “isn’t Horton worried people will wonder about the man who inherited Finch’s position?”
The others looked at me.
“Horton’s game is already high risk, but as this thing goes on, there’s bound to be talk about whether it was an inside job. And who’s the talk going to focus on? On the people who most obviously benefited. I mean, how big a leap is it from asking whether Finch was assassinated to wondering about the guy who replaced him?”
Larison said, “That’s probably why Hort wanted it to look like natural causes.”
“I thought the same thing,” I said. “But then Horton put out the story about the cyanide. Sure, it’s a great way of getting the whole U.S. national security state to try to hunt us down and permanently disappear us, but it also tends to implicate him, if only by highlighting the fact that he didn’t benefit from an accident, but from a political assassination, instead.”
Larison said, “I see your point. What do you think it means?”
It was frustrating. It felt like I was asking the right question, but I didn’t know how to answer it.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Other than…whatever Horton is really up to, I don’t think we understand it yet.”
A few miles down the road, we found a Starbucks, where I checked the secure site again. Another message from Kanezaki:
Intel and chatter permeating the community are all about Islamist sleeper cells and more attacks on the way. I don’t know how it’s getting introduced because it’s all bullshit, but it seems to be coming from multiple sources and a consensus is taking hold that it’s accurate. Plus, nobody wants to be the one to err on the side of underestimating what’s on the way in case the shit really does hit the fan. They’re all talking about that August 6, 2001 President’s Daily Brief about how al Qaeda was determined to strike the United States. How it made Bush look bad.
I have a friend with the National Security Council. He says the president’s key advisors are steering him to announce what will be called a state of emergency, whatever the hell that really means. They’re recommending a choice from among three possible courses of action: 1) Ride it out and let the FBI and local law enforcement handle it; 2) Declare martial law and a suspension of the Constitution; and 3) Declare a “state of emergency” and deploy the National Guard to protect key governmental and civilian targets. Obviously, compared to the political softness of the first and the demonstrable insanity of the second, the third looks like the sensible choice. Plus it gives the president flexibility to ramp things up or dial them down, depending on the course of events.
There’s also chatter about attacks on schools. I think administration insiders will leak this. Reporters will then ask the president if it’s true,