Six Seconds

38

Langley, Virginia

Some ten miles south of downtown Washington, D.C., in a secured Central Intelligence Agency conference room overlooking the Potomac Valley, experts from nearly twenty intelligence branches met to discuss papal and national security.

Special Agent Blake Walker was among the contin gent from the Secret Service.

Top of the agenda was a briefing by a high-ranking CIA officer who pointed to the man whose face stared at the group from the room’s large monitor.

“This is Issa al-Issa. Last week he was captured in Kuwait.”

Murmured reaction went round the table.

“As a result, what we’ve learned gives us reason to believe a major strike is planned during the pope’s visit to the U.S., and that the operation is well advanced.”

The agency had fragments of information indicating several key, but as yet unidentified, operatives linked to Issa’s network were in the United States. Those opera tives were said to be scientists or engineers in the fields

Six Seconds 241 of chemical, biological and atomic weaponry. These cells may be operating with other support cells who may provide access to money or resources.

“So what are we talking here?” asked a Homeland Security official. “Assassination by way of a nuke or dirty bomb?”

“Those are worst-case scenarios. The venues would provide an MCI and global exposure. The strike would be a grand slam in terms of symbolic meaning of a papal assassination on U.S. soil.”

A top military advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff pressed to know how the agency could ensure the veracity of the information.

“We’ve been down this road before,” the military advisor said. “Our understanding is that Issa was captured by mercenaries hired by a private international company contracted by the agency. The contractor was paid for its information in spite of a bad ending to Issa’s question ing under severe duress.”

The CIA officer studied his pen for a moment then said, “Unfortunately during his interview Issa passed away owing to a preexisting heart condition.”

“Look,” the military advisor said, “if Issa was tor tured in any way, it taints his information. He’d have told you any bull he thought you’d want to hear.”

A supervisor with the National Security Agency interjected.

“All that aside, the threat of a strike is consistent with some of the chatter we’ve intercepted that suggests something is underway.”

“Such as?”

242 Rick Mofina

“A number of ships steaming to U.S. ports reportedly with hostile cargo.”

“That kind of intelligence is a matter of routine,” the military advisor said. “And from what we understand, most of those reports have already been investigated and cleared.” The military advisor put his next question to those around the table: “Has anyone been able to link the information we think we have from Issa and the chatter?”

“What about this case of four Americans killed in Canada?” the man with the National Security Agency asked. “An investigative reporter from Washington, D.C., who’d reported on national security. Anything to this case that we should be concerned with?”

Blake Walker shook his head and took the question.

“We’re working with the Canadian Security Intelli gence Service in Ottawa and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta. At this point there’s no link. It appears to be an accidental wilderness case. They drowned in the mountains when their canoe capsized. It seems the RCMP has dispatched a member to Wash ington to follow up on Tarver’s background. I believe we’re covered.”

Walker’s colleague nodded for him to continue with other reports. Working with Egyptian and Italian secu rity agents the Secret Service had uncovered a plot by the KTK, a fanatical group out of Cairo, to kidnap the pope in the U.S. “The group had planned to televise their members holding a sword over the pontiff’s head while demanding the release of KTK members held in Israeli jails,” Walker said.

And working with German intelligence, the Secret

Six Seconds 243

Service and CIA had identified a small group of elite ex-mercenaries, veterans of brutal wars in Rwanda and Congo, who had been hired by an ideological group of disillusioned young aid workers. “They had conspired to kidnap the pope during his U.S. tour to draw world attention and aid to Africa. All conspirators had been arrested in Europe,” Walker said.

“It seems to me-” the military advisor looked at his watch “-that at this stage all we have are potential pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. And we’re not certain a puzzle exists. And looking at the files, we’ve got a growing number of threats that we’re still processing for analysis. We haven’t connected any dots here.”

No one challenged the advisor so he continued.

“We know the public grows threat weary, that we can’t always cry wolf.”

A few heads nodded.

“We’re seeing more church organizations who are concerned with security, urging the Vatican to shorten the visit. This is unprecedented.”

“Any word on the Vatican’s response?”

“We expect to hear soon.”

“Look, this presents all kinds of problems.” The State Department official launched into a discourse on Wash ington-Vatican relations and geopolitics.

The tension was growing. Blake was familiar with it; the time before a major event that robs agents of sleep, tightens stomachs and causes ulcers.

As the officers debated security, Walker glanced at his files and his calendar.

Time was ticking down on the pope’s arrival.

First, Boston, where the president would receive him, then New York, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles before moving into Walker’s zone, the northwest, then concluding the tour in Chicago.

Walker had already joined advance teams, inspected sites three times, worked with field offices and briefed local and state police and emergency personnel. Soon his group would fly to Seattle and pick up the visit there, joining the main teams who’d be with the pope the entire trip.

Walker’s group was responsible for the pope’s secu rity on his visit to Seattle, Washington, then a smaller event in Lone Tree County, Montana.

He flipped by Father Stone’s newsletter prematurely announcing the visit.

It renewed Walker’s thoughts about the Montana leg. Now, with the visit upon them, amid the intensifying rush of threats, Walker prayed Father Stone’s premature boasting to the World Wide Web would not be a factor.

Any further thought about it was pushed aside by the soft lowing of his vibrating phone. Walker had received an encrypted message from his supervisor.

VATICAN SAYS NO CUTS TO AGENDA. FULL-BORE VISIT AHEAD.

Walker absorbed the update then swallowed hard.