The First Commandment

CHAPTER 75

Despite the intense heat of the steam room, Vaile’s body turned to ice. “Who are you?” he demanded. “What do you want?”

“You’ll forgive me, director,” said the voice, “if I save us both time and ask the questions.”

“My security people are—”

“Not even in the locker room and won’t expect to see you for a little while still.”

Vaile recognized the man’s voice but couldn’t place it, at least not right away. “I know you.”

Harvath came down off the upper bench and took a seat next to the DCI.

When the curtain of fog parted, Vaile couldn’t believe his eyes. “Harvath. Are you crazy? Aren’t things bad enough for you? Now you pull a gun on the director of the CIA?”

“First,” responded Harvath, “I don’t see how things could get much worse for me. And second, I didn’t pull a gun on you, I cocked one that wasn’t even pointed in your direction.”

“I’ll make sure to note that subtlety when I report this meeting to the president.”

“I know we’re in a steam room, but let’s not jerk each other off, okay?”

“Listen,” replied Vaile, “we both know what this is about. The president was forced to make a deal with the devil and—”

“And the people I care about are the ones who are paying for it.”

“We had no idea things were going to turn out this way.”

Harvath was ready to punch the DCI’s lights out. “But now that they have, I don’t see anybody doing a hell of a lot to stop it.”

“You don’t know the first thing about what we’re doing,” snapped Vaile.

“What do you mean, we?”

“The president asked me to put a covert team on the case.”

“He assigned a CIA team inside the United States?” asked Harvath. “In addition to the FBI?”

Vaile held up his palms. “The president wanted hefty counterterrorism experience on this and that’s what I gave him.”

“But they haven’t made much progress, have they?”

Vaile didn’t bother responding. It was painfully obvious that his people hadn’t made much progress.

“Were Morrell and his Omega Team in charge of that too?”

The DCI shook his head. “No. We fielded a separate team. I picked them myself. They’re all solid operators with Spec Ops experience, there’s just not enough for them to go on.”

Harvath shook his head. “And you saved Rick Morrell for the real dirty work so that you could use our friendship against me, didn’t you?”

“It was the fastest way to get the information we needed.”

“I should have known better.”

The DCI took a deep breath and then let it out. “Scot, negotiating with these terrorists was a bad choice, but it was the only choice the president had. We weren’t going to let these animals kill American kids. And we’re still not. That’s why you’ve got to turn yourself in.”

It wasn’t an easy call. Harvath didn’t want to provoke terrorist attacks on American children, but the fact that Vaile’s people hadn’t made any progress in catching the person responsible for hunting his loved ones only served to reinforce his decision. “I’m not stopping until I nail this fucker.”

“Even if it means you’re putting countless American lives on the line?”

Harvath was tempted to tell the DCI what he’d learned from Tammam Al-Tal in Jordan — that his operative, Najib, had been sprung from Gitmo in exchange for Al-Tal relinquishing his contract on Harvath, but at this point he was in no mood to share intelligence with anyone, especially the director of the CIA. Instead he said, “Whoever this guy is, he came looking for me. I didn’t start this.”

“Either way,” replied Vaile, “the president gave his word that we wouldn’t go after these men once they were released from Guantanamo.”

“One of them has attacked Americans on American soil. That right there should invalidate any deal the president made. As far as I’m concerned, these five shouldn’t be handed a get out of jail free card for the rest of their lives.”

“I agree with you,” said the DCI. “They shouldn’t, but there’s only one left now.”

Harvath didn’t understand. “One?”

“You killed Palmera and Najib, and we’ve recently located two others.”

“Which two?” asked Harvath. “Where are they?”

“Morocco and Australia,” said Vaile. “They’re under surveillance and are very close to being picked up by those countries for engaging in terrorist activity since their release from Gitmo. Which leaves—”

“The fifth detainee released that night. The Frenchman.”