Target America

57

When Pope at last broke through the firewall on Kashkin’s hard drive, gaining full access to the encrypted data, it wasn’t necessary for him to translate the Chechen text in order to know which city had been targeted. The myriad photographs of Washington, DC, were obvious in any language.

He grabbed for the phone. His call to Edwards was answered on the first ring. “White House Chief of Staff Tim Hagen speaking.”

“This is Pope. Get the president.”

The president of the United States came on the line. “What do you have, Robert?”

“Mr. President, you need to order an immediate evacuation of Washington, DC. I still have to translate the Chechen text to English”—he was rapidly paging through a series of JPEG files—“but I’m looking at dozens of photos taken in and around the capital. All of our most important buildings have been photographed in detail; multiple telescopic photos of security points around the White House and the Capitol building.”

“How fast can you remit those files for evaluation at our end?”

“I’ll translate them immediately and send them within the half hour, Mr. President, but in the meantime, sir, I strongly recommend you order the evacuation.”

“I’ll do it immediately. Now, forward those files as soon as you can.”

“Yes, sir. There’s something else, Mr. President.”

“What is it?”

“Our interrogation of Haroun al-Rashid revealed nothing,” Pope said, “but his sister-in-law told us that her husband, Akram al-Rashid, is on his way to Gil Shannon’s place in Montana to assassinate him.”

“Okay,” the president said. “Then it’s lucky that Shannon is with you. I assume his wife is moving to a safe location?”

“Not exactly, sir. She’s still on the ranch, and she’s not answering the phone. I’ve cleared Shannon to fly to Montana in the Gulfstream V.”

There was another typically long pause at the president’s end before he made his reply. “To be frank with you, Robert, I’m getting tired of losing my temper — especially with you. So let me make something perfectly clear without shouting… Shannon and his team are not your personal army. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“Are they in the air now?”

“They are, sir. I’ve already alerted the Montana Highway Patrol and the local FBI office in Helena.”

“Excellent,” the president said. “In that case, we’re going to allow the local authorities to do their jobs. You do realize that Shannon’s team gunned down six off-duty police officers and a young woman during the Vegas operation.”

“Mr. President, the young woman was shot by one of Faisal’s men, and there was no way we could have anticipated out-of-town law enforcement getting involved. It’s the fog of war, sir.”

The president grunted. “Well, fog or no fog, Shannon and his team have served their purpose. I’m going to order them back on the ground and fully debriefed.”