The Art of War

CHAPTER FIVE

Coffee cup in hand, Jake Grafton walked down the hall to the director’s office. After a short word with an executive assistant in the outer office, he punched in the code on the door and went in, closing it behind him. Today rain was hammering against the double-pane security glass of the office window and wind was shaking the branches of the nearby trees, which Grafton could have seen if he had looked, but he didn’t.

Acting director!

He didn’t know where to start. Soon, perhaps tomorrow, he would have to talk to the department heads, see where the agency’s budget was and how the draft budget for next year was coming together, review all the big irons in the fire … and he was going to have to find someone to run Middle Eastern ops. There was no way he could do the director’s job and that one, too.

The CIA was a huge, global operation. Not that the agency’s staff was the sole outfit in the government charged with gathering foreign intelligence, because they weren’t. Still, this agency was supposed to collect, analyze and pass on the intelligence it collected to the director of national intelligence, Reinicke, who was supposed to pass it on to senior decision makers in the White House, and in military and civilian agencies and departments.

Well, he decided, the more he knew about what was going on in the world, the sooner he could get on top of this job. He set his coffee cup on the desk, opened the director’s file cabinets and started in where he had left off.

An hour into the mess, he found a Top Secret memo, or report, generated by the Pentagon’s IT staff. If had been forwarded to Tomazic by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Copious amounts of Tomazic’s green ink were all over the margins and footers.

The Chinese had hacked into the Pentagon’s computers. The signature of Chinese computers was unmistakable in the telltale mouse droppings. U.S. Navy operational schedules were compromised. Apparently all of them. Nuclear submarine schedules and missions, aircraft carrier task groups, port calls, manpower problems, projects, budgets … It looked as if they had seen everything except technical data and ship plans. No, wait. Maybe they had cracked into those files, too.

When he finished the printed report, he started on Tomazic’s handwritten notes. “Chinese espionage a huge problem. Their new stealth fighter an obvious clone of the F-35. Must get a handle on this. Our encrypted communications are obviously compromised — if the Chinese know what the messages might say, then they are easier to crack. How do we keep them out of this closet? Can we keep them out?”

He stared at the memo. After scanning it quickly, he reread it slowly, carefully, ensuring he got every word and nuance.

“Or should we simply let them look?” Tomazic had written in the right-hand margin.

Grafton took out his pen and wrote in blue ink, his favorite, “Can we get into Chinese navy’s computers?”

The phone buzzed. “Mr. Merritt, sir.” Robin must be overcaffeinated, he thought, calling him sir. The last time she got on a sir kick she wanted a promotion and pay raise.

Jake opened the door. “Come in, Harley.”

“I just had a long talk with Sal Molina,” he said. “Congratulations.”

“I didn’t ask for this job,” Grafton muttered as he sat down on the couch, “permanently or on an interim basis.”

“I didn’t either,” Merritt said blandly.

“The job was offered, so I took it. If it had been offered to you, you would have taken it, too.”

“Yes, I would have.”

“Harley, I need your help. If Tomazic was murdered, we have a serious can of worms buried somewhere. We’re going to have to turn over every rock to find it. If there are physical clues that the killer left, the FBI will find and follow them. They will look into Tomazic’s private affairs, family life, military career, old enemies, all of that. We must start on our end, a motive due to his job as director of this agency. I want you to head up that staff review you ordered this morning. We have got to rule out people inside the Company, if we can, and try to decide if anything the Company has going could have stimulated a foreign government to kill him. Someone wanted Mario Tomazic dead for a reason. Let’s see if we can find it.”

“We may find a half-dozen reasons.”

“Or none,” Grafton said wearily. “Tomazic wasn’t the CIA; he was one man. You can’t kill a bureaucracy, no matter how hard you try.”

“We don’t know that he was murdered,” Merritt objected reasonably. “Assassinated. We may be snipe hunting.”

“Assume it’s murder until I tell you it wasn’t.”

Merritt thought about that, then nodded once. “Okay.”

Grafton eyed the man, sizing up his body language. Yeah, Merritt was disappointed, but he was a professional.

“I didn’t want this job,” Jake said, “but I’ve got it. Let’s talk about how we can get me up to speed.”

He had a short interview with both of Tomazic’s executive assistants, telling them he had been told the president was going to appoint him interim director and he wanted them on the job tomorrow morning at eight o’clock. Then Jake Grafton left. He went to the parking lot, got in his Accord and motored off for the beach to pick up Callie. The gate guard gave him his usual friendly wave. Fortunately he was on the front end of rush hour so got around the Beltway and over the Bay Bridge without much trouble.

As he drove he thought about Callie, his wife, about how she would take the interim appointment thing. They were married after the Vietnam War, while he was a young attack pilot. She had loyally supported his naval career, done all the things officers’ wives were supposed to do, while she continued to work as a teacher of languages at the college level. Hell, she knew seven or eight, last he heard. On the other hand, lately she had been dropping not-so-subtle hints about retirement. He spent too many hours at Langley. With his navy retirement pay as a two-star, bumped up some due to more federal service, they didn’t need any more money to live comfortably. They were already socking away a large chunk of his salary now.

Retirement. He had done a couple of years of that before going to the CIA. Flew all over the country in his Cessna 170B. Still had it, but hadn’t flown it in six months. No time.

What was he doing at Langley that someone else couldn’t do? Couldn’t do as well or better? Didn’t he and Callie deserve a few years of retirement while they were still hale and hearty? After this interim thing. Then, he thought. Then. Get the plane out. Go on some cruises. See some of Europe. Maybe Israel. Spend some time with daughter, Amy, and the grandkid.

Jake Grafton promised that to himself.

He arrived in Rehoboth Beach on the Atlantic about seven o’clock Monday evening. Callie was packed and ready. After a kiss, he hit the bathroom, showered, shaved and changed clothes. He felt better. At least the director’s office had a shower, and he vowed to use it. He topped off his suitcase, loaded their bags into the car, locked up the house, and off they went the other way, back toward Washington.

“It was on the evening news Saturday night that Mario Tomazic is dead,” Callie said. “Big write-up on Tomazic in the newspaper this morning. I kept a copy of the Post in case you didn’t see it.”

“We couldn’t sit on it,” Jake explained. “The local sheriff was there, plus the county coroner. There was a news chopper overhead before I could get out of there.”

“Drowned!” Callie exclaimed. “With his daughter and grandchildren asleep in the house. How horrible!”

“Yep.”

Jake concentrated on driving.

“Was it an accident?” Callie asked suspiciously. She could read him like a book.

“Maybe. Maybe not…” He decided to be honest. “Probably not.”

“Who in the world?”

“Damn if I know.”

“So is Merritt going to run the agency until a new director is confirmed?”

“No. I am.”

“You? For Christ’s sake, Jake! You?”

“Yep. President’s choice, according to Sal Molina. I didn’t want the job — don’t want the job — but thought it over and said yes.”

“Oh, my God!” his wife moaned. “There went our holiday season!”

“You getting hungry? I thought we could stop somewhere ahead and get a hamburger.”

“Amy is coming in two weeks, bringing the grandbaby,” Callie said bitterly. “And you’ll be locked in at the office. Damn it!”

“No, I won’t. You’ll see.”

“Why can’t you just retire, for God’s sake?”

“Tomazic was probably murdered, Callie.”

“Maybe, you said.”

“It’s just an interim appointment. I’ll be acting director. Get to use the director’s parking place for a couple months, shower in his office, deal with the Beltway trolls for a while, make lots and lots of new best friends, then that will be that.”

His wife sat watching the countryside go by. Jake had been lukewarm to the idea of retirement in the past, told her he’d think it over. Now this!

The silence was broken several minutes later when Jake asked, “You want a hamburger or Subway for dinner?”

“Whatever.”

Callie Grafton was peeved, but as she sat watching the road unwind before them she tried to put it all into perspective. She had known Jake Grafton was a warrior when she married him, way back when, and he had proved it many times since. Mario Tomazic was not Jake’s personal friend, but he was a brother officer, and Jake stood by his fellow warriors. It was in his DNA. Tomazic’s fight was his fight. She bought it when she married Jake and she bought it now. She sighed inwardly. She was ready to ditch it all and do the grandparent thing, let life slow down, hang out with other retirees. Jake obviously wasn’t. And perhaps he never would be. He could smell a fight from a mile away, and he found the prospect irresistible. That was who he was.

She had never liked the president, had voted for the other man, but thank God the stupid SOB had the sense to appoint Jake as interim director. He couldn’t have found a better man if he had scoured the earth for candidates. No doubt Sal Molina had something to do with it: Callie had heard Jake mention his name several times. Molina was the president’s right-hand man, his brain trust, if any of those idiots in the White House had any brains. Many pundits assured their readers daily that they didn’t.

“I love you, Jake,” she said.

He glanced at her, flashed that grin that had always warmed her and said, “I love you, too, Callie.”

The Graftons got subs and soft drinks at a gas station/convenience store, and when they were rolling along munching and slurping, Callie asked, “Didn’t Tomazic have some bodyguards? Where were they?”

“He always gave them the weekend off. Didn’t want them underfoot when he went to the Eastern Shore.”

“So will you get bodyguards?”

Jake glanced at Callie. That had slipped his mind. “Well, I guess so. When the interim appointment gets announced.”

“Twenty-four/seven, or are you going to do the free-weekend thing like General Tomazic?”

Jake put the rest of his sandwich back in the bag. He thought about bodyguards as he drove along.

Callie wouldn’t let it lie. “If someone somewhere wanted the director of the CIA off the board, you may be next.”

Jake pulled over to the side of the road and removed his cell phone from his pocket. He scrolled through his contacts, picked one and touched the screen.

A two-week vacation was a rare treat for me. My name is Tommy Carmellini. Forty-eight weeks a year I am a wage slave for the CIA as a tech-support guy, which means I install and monitor listening devices, break into computers, bug embassies, that kind of thing. However … every now and then I get dragooned by Jake Grafton, head of Middle Eastern ops, for special assignments. I had just returned to the States from one of those in Egypt a couple of weeks ago and managed to finagle a vacation.

An old college buddy and I had used the last eight days to free-climb some cliffs in Yosemite. It had been a few years since I had that kind of a workout. I was sore as heck the first few days. Feeling fit and studly now. Mom’s bathroom scale said I had dropped seven pounds. My trousers were loose, and I was using a new belt notch.

It had been a delightful interlude … until I got a good gander at her new boyfriend, Cuthbert Gordon. He was in his early seventies, short and not carrying any extra weight, with a huge white handlebar mustache and a tan that looked as if it came from a bottle. And he was a talker.

I could hear a cell phone ringing. In the kitchen. I felt my pockets. Maybe I had left it there.

Gordon was prattling on. “… retired from the university on Long Island and decided to try California. Teaching a couple of courses on investing at the community college here just to keep my hand in. A mutual friend introduced me to your mom. Wonderful lady. We’re thinking about an Australian vacation next month. It’s spring down there. I’ve been to Australia and New Zealand about a dozen times through the years and love it. Skin diving, the beaches, sightseeing … I think it’s perfect for your mother. I’ll pick up the tab, of course, and—”

“Tommy,” Mom called from the kitchen, “it’s for you.” I kinda thought it would be, since it was my phone. “Some man named Jake.”

Uh-oh. A call from Jake Grafton out of the blue was not good news. Hadn’t been yet, and doubtlessly never would be.

“Excuse me,” I said to Mr. Wonderful. I put my glass of merlot on the stand beside the chair and went into the kitchen.

Mom held her hand over the telephone mouthpiece and whispered, for the eighth or tenth time, “Isn’t he terrific?” She was smiling brightly.

I didn’t have a high opinion of Mom’s taste in men. This one was even smarmier than the last one I met, three or four years ago. That one had been married five times and had all his chest hair waxed out every week or two … but I digress.

I relieved her of the phone.

“You’re calling about my promotion, right?”

“Hey, Tommy.” Yep, it was Jake Grafton. “Have you been following the news?”

“No. It’s called a vacation. Has war been declared?”

“That’s next week. How about coming back ASAP? I need you.”

I gave it a second to let him know I was unhappy, as if he cared, then said, “I’ll get a flight tomorrow.”

We said good-bye, and I hung up the phone. “My boss,” I told Mom. “I’m going to have to go back to Washington tomorrow.”

“Did you get a promotion?”

“No such luck.” Mom was also kinda slow on the uptake.

“I’m sorry, Tommy. I thought Bertie and I could take you into San Francisco for an evening.” Bertie, no less. Ye gods!

“Next time, maybe.”

When she broke the news to the boyfriend, he asked me, “Who do you work for, anyway?”

“It’s a government job,” I said evasively. I tried to remember what lie I had told Mom. Did I say I worked for the GSA or FHA? Or was it Freddie Mac?

“Tommy is in housing,” she told Mr. Wonderful with a proud smile. “Mortgages and all that.”

“Mortgages, eh?” he said. “I made a lot of money in mortgages — back before the crash, of course.” And away he went, regaling us with his adventures in secured debt instruments as we sliced up our dead animal and vegetables.

After dinner, while Mom made coffee, I flipped through her stack of old newspapers. Found that the agency director, General Mario Tomazic, had drowned this past weekend. More riots in Egypt, the revolution in Syria was heating up again, North Korea was making more threats, another city had filed for bankruptcy … looked as if life on this old planet was perking perilously along as I climbed cliffs. A call from Jake Grafton — could this be about Tomazic? Hell, drowned is drowned. Wasn’t a thing I could do for the guy, whom I had met only once, except wish him a happy hereafter.

Obviously something was up, but I wasn’t really curious. Sort of bummed about not getting to do some more climbing. On the other hand, one evening with Mr. Wonderful was quite enough.

“Would you like some dessert, Tommy? I fixed your favorite, blueberry pie. Bertie likes it, too.”

“Sure, Mom.”

Afterward I helped her clean up. Slipped a knife and fork that Mr. Wonderful had used into the side pocket of my sport coat when Mom wasn’t looking.

“That was a short call from that Jake,” she remarked.

“Yeah. He always acts like Ma Bell is personally charging him for every word.” I let it drop.

Curious phrase, “I need you.”

The last time Grafton thought that only I could properly handle a chore, I spent a couple of months camping in the African outback. I said a silent prayer. No more camping, please! And I damned well didn’t want to go back to Egypt. Or Iran. Or Iraq. Or …

Maybe Grafton just wanted me to bug someone’s embassy. As soon as possible, as if there were any other time schedule in the spook business. Knowing what the other guys were actually saying to each other, their real negotiating strategy, their real assessment of the international situation, was the gold standard of intelligence. I kinda hoped that was all there was to it, but doubted it. I knew Jake Grafton too well.

On the way upstairs after coffee and blueberry pie, I swiped a manila envelope from Mom’s tiny office and carefully deposited the filched knife and fork in it, taking care not to smear any fingerprints on the handles. I wondered if Cuthbert Gordon also waxed off his chest hair.

In Mom’s guest room I used my cell phone to make an airline reservation to get myself, complete with body hair, back to Washington, Sin City USA. Washington wasn’t hell, but you could see the smoke from there. And smell it. The good news was that when politicians died, they didn’t have far to go.

After I broke the connection I looked at that cell phone with distaste. I may be the only person in America under seventy who loathes the damn things. I left it in my stuff here at Mom’s when I went climbing, but now I was back tethered to the thing. Aaugh!