Emerald Buddha

Chapter 51

General Brad Holt walked in measured steps along the Potomac River, whose jogging path was nearly empty at three in the afternoon. The wind ruffled his jacket as he stopped and looked across the river at where the center of the American government lay. After checking the time, he continued along the stretch until he reached a lone bench, where he sat, watching the breeze dimple the tall grass.

Colonel Sam Daniels appeared two minutes later from the opposite direction and sat next to him. Neither man spoke for several moments, and then Holt twisted to look at Daniels.

“We should have sent our team in. This is a disaster,” Holt growled.

“Hard to argue that in hindsight. But the odds were almost nil that she would have survived the crash, much less the rest.”

“You know how I feel about luck. There’s bad, and there’s worse. We just got both in one helping.”

Daniels nodded. “Yes, we did.”

“Who have we got in-country?”

“Several specialists are on their way.”

“If she goes public with what the damned boyfriend downloaded…”

“I know. So the question is, do we scuttle everything now and begin throwing up a smokescreen, or do we wait to see what happens?”

“There’s too damned much at play here. We can’t just pull the plug on some of these operations. They’ve been years in the planning, as you know.”

“Perhaps we should begin leaking our own snippets, to prepare the media for what’s to come? Diffuse the situation before it gets any worse? If we can control the spin, stay ahead of it…”

“How do we control the spin on domestic assassination, Sam? ‘They needed killing because they were onto us’ won’t wash, and we both know it.”

“In the end, it’s our word against hers. I’m thinking we need to discredit her before she can go live.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Maybe rumors of a drug problem? Orgies? Roommates that said she was taking antipsychotic meds?”

“Sure, but many won’t buy it. Those are the ones I’m worried about. Good Lord, think about how it will look if some of those documents were leaked in the New York Times? It could bring down the government.”

“We’d just deny they were genuine.”

“Right, but some of this speaks directly to what even a controlled press will construe as criminal. We won’t be able to play the national security card. There will be too many questions.” Holt turned to look directly at Daniels. “Questions we can’t answer. She’s got it all, Sam. The entire money chain. From the DOD, to the Saudis, to Wall Street, to you know who… we’re talking almost ten trillion. People will pay attention.”

“Then we’ll need to set up some fall guys. It worked with Iran Contra. We’ll find someone willing to take the heat for it who ultimately refuses to testify, who claims he was following orders. He’ll get a token sentence and then retire somewhere tropical with a ton of dough. It’s not like it hasn’t worked before.”

“There are too many enemies out there now — it’s a different world. Nobody’s buying most of our spin these days.” Holt shook his head. “We may have stepped on a real mine this time.”

Daniels frowned. “There’s always a way out of any trap. We both know that. The question is how we proceed from here. Hell, as complacent as most of the population is, it might not even matter that much. If the right talking heads say it doesn’t, then most of the country will believe it doesn’t. Look at what they’ve swallowed so far.”

“The problem isn’t just our own people. Think about the international repercussions. We’ll lose Latin America right off the bat if the truth about Venezuela slips out. And Europe won’t be far behind when the French learn about the magazine bombing. There’s only so much the market will bear. Christ, the Russians will go berserk once they have definitive proof about Ukraine. And eventually, even the dimmest taxpayer’s going to want their money back or someone’s hide nailed to a wall. I think we both know that we’re candidates for that honor.”

“Then obviously priority number one is to find her and neutralize her.”

“Obviously.” Holt stood. “I want you to personally supervise this. Get on a plane if need be. Do whatever it takes, pay off whoever we need to. She can’t hide forever, especially in that part of the world.”

“What about domestic loose ends?”

“I think we need to start sanitizing, don’t you?”

“It could get messy.”

“I’m sure it will. But put it in motion. There are some whom we simply can’t have testify.”

“I’m on it.”

“Keep me informed. You understand the stakes.”

Holt stood and marched away from the bench, his shoulders square. Daniels waited until Holt was out of sight to check the sound on the tiny voice recorder he’d used to tape the discussion. Daniels knew how the DOD operated, and he wasn’t about to be collateral damage. This tape would be his insurance policy. Better to see Holt hang for high crimes against the nation, after all, than himself.

If it really came down to it, Daniels could vanish in South America until enough of the shit storm had blown over. Assuming it ever did. There were some things that could cause seismic shifts in the globe’s underlying power structure; the knowledge that most of the industrialized world’s truths were actually lies propagated to benefit an elite coterie of super-rich was one of them. The sheep were complacent and apathetic, but history had shown that during times of great stress, that could turn on a dime.

This could be one of those times.

If it was, Daniels didn’t want to be within five thousand miles of ground zero.

The nation would forgive a lot in the name of patriotism, but some things were unconscionable no matter what the explanation.

“If only she didn’t have the money trail,” Daniels muttered as he stood. That was the most damning. There was no way to interpret it other than that the U.S. was being operated for the benefit of foreign and, in some cases, hostile interests — or rather, transnational interests that knew no allegiance to any country or ideology besides the accumulation of power and control.

Daniels walked slowly back to the parking lot where he’d left his anonymous sedan, just another man in a gray suit, unremarkable and uninteresting except for the hard gleam in his cobalt blue eyes and the way he carried himself, the years of drills and training impossible to hide even had he cared to.

He would do what he had to in order to protect his ass. Daniels hoped it didn’t come to that, but he wasn’t about to become a John Doe pulled out of the river, which was where it was all heading, barring a miracle.