Part 25 (1/2)
”He did. Some in the Justice Department know about it, but not many.”
Kealty turned to Mike Brannigan. ”Mike. Tell me you didn't know.”
”I had no idea, sir. It must have been sealed. Whoever has given us this information, if it is true, must have gotten the information illegally through-”
”Can he do it?” Kealty asked. ”Was that legal, just waving a wand over a CIA black operator to say, 'no harm, no foul'?”
Brannigan did speak up with some authority now. ”A presidential pardon can clean your slate for most any federal crime. Civil, state, and local charges aren't affected, although I a.s.sume with a CIA operator, that wouldn't be a factor.”
Kealty's chest heaved with excitement, but then he deflated. ”Okay. So . . . if Ryan gave this meathead a pardon, sure, we could leak it, if we did it carefully. That will be embarra.s.sing for Ryan, but we won't be able to get to Clark. And without Clark in hand, up on charges, it won't be anything other than one-day news. You know how Ryan is. He'll wrap himself up in the flag and salute the camera and say, 'I did what I had to do to keep your kids safe,' or some bulls.h.i.+t like that.”
Thayer shook his head. ”Ryan pardoned him for his actions with the CIA. But there is one murder in the file that, apparently, did not happen as part of his CIA duties.” Thayer looked down to the pages in his lap. ”He supposedly killed an East German named Schuman, 1981, in Berlin. The file I have doesn't have a word on it. I checked other avenues, as well. As far as the CIA is concerned, even internally, this never happened.”
Kealty connected the dots. ”So if he is off the hook for killings while working his CIA job, and this murder was not a CIA job . . .”
Thayer said, ”Then the full pardon is irrelevant.”
Kealty looked to Brannigan. ”Is that enough to pick him up on?”
Mike Brannigan looked stunned. ”Mr. President. I am only just hearing about this. I really need to get together with my staff, some key people at FBI, and look over any information you have on Clark. I can tell you DOJ is going to need to know that this information would be admissible in court before they will go any further. I mean, who the h.e.l.l is this source?”
Kealty looked at the attorney general. ”If you can corroborate information in Benton's file through CIA or other sources, then you won't need Benton's file anymore. The source becomes a nonissue. It's just a nudge in the right direction.”
”Mr. President, I-”
”And Mike, I know you will do the right thing.”
Wes McMullen, the chief of staff, had been silent throughout the conversation, but now he leaned in. ”Isn't there a law that says we can't out a CIA agent?”
There were shrugs around the room, then all heads turned to Brannigan again. ”I believe that is for active employees. If we know, and I mean one hundred percent know, that this guy is out of the intelligence services, then he's fair game.”
Kealty looked relieved by this, but McMullen still had reservations.
”I'm worried this is going to look like sort of a lame Hail Mary. Like us digging up some thirty-year-old murder to try and pin tangentially on Jack Ryan here with just a few days until the election. I mean, really?”
Kealty said, ”It's not a Hail Mary. The information was dumped in our laps. I will stress this, and I will ask the question: If this was handed to us and we did nothing, how would that look? We came into this term promising to right the wrongs of the Ryan years, and boys and girls, I am still the President of the United States.”
Wes McMullen tried another approach to put this toothpaste back in the tube. ”Clark has a Congressional Medal of Honor. They don't just hand those out in a box of Cracker Jack, sir.”
”So? Big f.u.c.king deal! We throw in a line about how while we honor his military service we cannot condone acts of murder, blah, blah, blah! I'll mention that I am the G.o.dd.a.m.n commander in chief, for Christ sakes! Stop fighting me on this, Wes! I'm going forward. Mike, I need cover to do so.”
Brannigan gave an unsure nod. ”If we can get some bit of corroboration from CIA, anything, really, then I'll be able to, at least, bring the man in for questioning.”
Kealty nodded. ”I'll talk to Kilborn at CIA and tell him Justice Department investigators want to talk to everyone who worked with this John Clark.”
Thayer said, ”If we can get this to stick to Clark, it will affect Ryan, as it pushes the narrative that he acts above the law.”
Kealty was standing and pacing now over by his desk. ”f.u.c.k, yes, this will affect Ryan! This needs to come out in the next twenty-four hours so that I can use it on my last swing through the Rust Belt. I can ask the crowd if a President Ryan would just whack the president of Mexico the next time he doesn't get his way on a trade issue. It speaks to his past, it speaks to his present insofar as he is supposedly so strong on foreign affairs, but are you really strong on foreign affairs if you have to resort to sending out your goon squad to kill others, and then cover it up with a secret pardon?” Kealty was nearly breathless, but he thought of something else and spun in his patent-leather shoes to the three men on the sofas. ”And it speaks to the future of this country if we allow a man who works with and cavorts with a bloodthirsty killer like this John Clark to take over the Oval Office.”
Kealty looked to his chief of staff. ”Wes, I'm going to need that line. Write that down and hang on to it.”
”Of course.”
”Okay, gentlemen. Anything else?”
Thayer said, ”Clark has a partner. He was mentioned several times in the file. He is tight with Ryan, as well.”
”Does this guy have a full pardon?”
”I don't know.”
”Okay, let's get to work on him, too.” He saw a look of reticence in Thayer's eyes. ”No? Why not?”
”Domingo Chavez is the guy's name. He's Mexican-American.”
”s.h.i.+t,” Kealty said, thinking it over. ”There goes f.u.c.king Arizona and New Mexico. Won't affect Texas. I didn't have a prayer there.” He gasped. ”California?”
Thayer shook his head. ”You could carpet-bomb Mexico City with B-52s and you won't lose California to Jack f.u.c.king Ryan. Still . . . you will lose a s.h.i.+tload of Hispanic votes, all over the country, if the FBI goes after a guy named Chavez.”
”Okay.” The political wheels in Kealty's head turned. ”Bury the Mexico angle on the Ryan story. Let's go after Clark and Clark alone.”
Everyone agreed.
”All right. Mike, you go to Kilborn for access to CIA personnel, but Wes, I want you to get Deputy Director Alden over here tomorrow first thing. I want to see if he knows anything about John Clark. Alden is a suck-up. He'll play ball with me in a way Kilborn won't.”
Melanie Kraft did not mind working late in the operations center of the National Counterterrorism Center. Her work consumed her, especially after she'd been handed a project by her boss, Mary Pat Foley, the week before.
Mary Pat had tasked her with learning everything she could about a brigadier general in Pakistan's ISI named Riaz Rehan. A curious tip to CIA from a one-time-use overseas e-mail address implicated the general as a former operative in both Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. This was interesting, but NCTC needed to know what Rehan was up to now.
Melanie had worked the question from several different angles, and she'd struck out several times a day in the past week. But she'd been working the Rehan question all day, and she felt like she had something to show for it.
It was after midnight when she thought she had enough to go to the a.s.sistant director, and she knew Mary Pat was still in her office. She tapped on the office door, softly and somewhat reluctantly.
”Come in.”
Melanie entered, and Mary Pat's tired eyes widened. ”Dear Lord, girl, if you look that tired at your age, I must look like the walking dead.”
”I'm sorry to bother you. I know better than to troubleshoot theories with the boss, but my brain is fried and there isn't anyone else to bounce this off of.”
”I'm glad you popped in. Want to go grab a coffee?”
A minute later they were down in the cafeteria, spinning stirrer sticks in hot coffee. Mary Pat said, ”Whatever you have has got to be more stimulating than what I'm working on. DHS is asking me to help with a report for Congress. I'd rather be doing something substantive, but you kids get to do all the fun stuff.”
”I'm working on Rehan and his department at ISI.”