The First Commandment

CHAPTER 87

What kind of other plans?” asked Rutledge.

Vaile looked at him and replied, “Those five men must have been very important for their organization to risk so much to get them released.”

“Agreed,” said the president, nodding.

“We’re also worried that they’ve remained important enough that their organization will make good on its promise to retaliate for any of their killings.”

“I don’t see where you’re going with this.”

“Palmera and Najib are both dead, yet nothing has happened so far. Nothing.”

“Well, one was killed in Mexico and the other in Jordan. Maybe their organization doesn’t know yet.”

The DCI shook his head. “Everyone in the neighborhood knew Palmera, and his death was very public. Najib was a member of Syrian intelligence and while I have no idea what the Jordanians might have done with his body, Harvath allowed Al-Tal’s wife and son to live and they are definitely not going to keep their mouths shut. Word like this travels fast. Their organization knows. And yet I keep coming back to the fact that nothing has happened.”

The president thought about it a moment. “For all we know, they’re putting their people in place as we speak.”

“Oh, I think they’ve done more than that,” replied Vaile. “I think they’ve got one person and he’s already been in place.”

“Roussard?” asked Rutledge.

The DCI nodded. “If we maintain the reasoning that these five were so important that their organization risked all to spring them from Gitmo and then could be so angered by the deaths of two of them that it would make good on its threat to retaliate, then how could this same organization not know that Roussard was here and not know what he was doing?”

“He could be acting alone. He’s obviously got a vendetta against Harvath.”

“He might be acting alone in carrying out his attacks, but he’s getting a lot of support from somewhere. This kind of operation takes money, intelligence, weapons, forged identification. There’s no way, just over six months after being released from Guantanamo, he could pull this off completely alone. His people know what he’s doing, and I think this has been their plan from the beginning.”

The president was quiet while he thought about this from as many angles as possible. Finally, he said. “It’s an interesting theory, but can you prove it? Because you’re asking me to risk the lives of tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of American children on a theory.”

“No, sir,” answered Vaile. “I can’t prove it.”

Rutledge rubbed the hairline scar where his right index finger had been reattached, an ever-present reminder of his own gruesome kidnapping several years ago, and said, “Well, there’s one thing I can prove. I can prove that these people already hijacked one school bus and killed its driver. Those victims and their families were terrorized and traumatized beyond belief. It made national headlines, and as president, I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that never happens again.

“So I am going to allow DHS to issue the alert and I’ll deal with the Baltimore Sun or whomever else I have to deal with if and when they become a problem. In the meantime, I am ordering you to find Scot Harvath and stop him. No more excuses. You tell your people to do whatever they need to do to get their job done. And damn it, you remind them that when I said dead or alive, I meant it.”