It was Wednesday evening and the four remaining members of the leadership of the Intelligence 100 were gathered at the Bethesda Hospital. Although the need to hold the meetings there had ended, they kept the meeting spot. They were talking about how to protect the handful of analysts of foreign origin that remained within the Intelligence Agencies.
Although Mike's conversation with Sanjay had triggered his interest in the topic, the real reason it was brought to the table was that another analyst, Amid abd Al-Jabbar, had been killed by a man who had lost his family in a terrorist bombing. Amid's job had been to wade through e-mail intercepts to identify the ones that were actually coded messages to operatives. He had been very good at it and his death was a significant setback. Mike looked across the table at Jack and said, "We have to do something to protect them."
"What can we do? We sure as hell can't assign them bodyguards," Jack said.
"All of our analysts are located in one part of the country," Mike said.
Tim looked at Mike and asked, "Are you suggesting that we spread out a little; move our agents to different locations around the country?"
"Yes, I am," Mike answered. He had given the matter a lot of thought and knew that in a densely populated region of the country that Sanjay wasn't safe. Sanjay would be a stranger to just about everyone around him and there were too many people who wanted nothing more than to take out a terrorist.
"How will that protect them?" Jack asked.
"We send them and their families to small towns where they will be known by the locals," Mike answered.
Tim looked at Mike surprised by the suggestion and then laughed. Shaking his head in amusement at Mike's audacity, he said, "I like the idea. They say that small towns look after their own. They'll get to know them and watch out for them."
"Exactly," Mike answered.
"It's not a bad idea. It could protect all of us," John said.
Taking a deep breath, Jack said, "I'll pitch the idea to the President."
"What is the next order of business?" Mike asked.
Jack looked across the table at John and sighed. John said, "The last item on the agenda is to discuss disbanding the Intelligence 100. We've met the conditions of our charter and it is time to end it. The foreigners influencing our policies have been eliminated and the intelligence agencies are providing assessments that are no longer politically influenced."
This day had been a long time in coming, but its arrival was bittersweet. Jack said, "I agree."
Tim said, "I agree."
"I guess it is unanimous," Mike said with a sigh. He wondered what he would do with his free Wednesdays and decided that he could spend them hunting down more terrorists.
Tim said, "We should continue to meet monthly to monitor the situation. I'm still not pleased with our solution to prevent excesses on the part of the agencies."
"I agree," Mike said. The first meeting of the oversight committee had been filled with arguments about every little item on the agenda. It had started before the meeting with the men disagreeing over the seating arrangements.
Jack nodded his head and said, "I'll let the rest of the Intelligence 100 know that it is being retired."
Sanjay parked his car at the far end of the parking lot at the diner where he was supposed to meet Mike for lunch. Walking along, he was thinking about what a surprise it had been when Mike had called him and suggested that they meet. He was about halfway to the entrance of the diner when he heard, "Sanjay, get in the car."
Looking around, it took Sanjay a moment to realize that it was Mike calling him from one of the parked cars. He went over and asked, "What's up Mike?"
"Get in the car, Sanjay," Mike said watching the rearview mirror like a hawk.
Hearing the tension in Mike's voice, Sanjay got into the car through the passenger side door. Once he had closed the door, he asked, "What's the matter?"
"I was pulling into the parking lot when I spotted someone I thought I recognized getting out of a car across the street at the Chinese Buffet," Mike answered.
Sanjay turned to look out the back window of the car. He said, "I don't see anyone. Who was it?"
"I'd swear it was Chang," Mike answered. He patted his pistol to make sure that it was there.
"Chang? What would Chang be doing here?" Sanjay asked wide eyed. The last person he expected to see in that area was Chang.
"I don't know," Mike answered. His intellect told him that he was wrong, but his gut was telling him that he was right. He trusted his gut more than his intellect. He said, "I intend to wait here until he comes out and then follow him."
"Good plan," Sanjay said. He reached into his coat and pulled out his gun. After checking it, he slipped it back into his holster.
Mike's stomach growled and he said, "I hope I'm wrong. I was really looking forward to having lunch with you."
"Same here," Sanjay said.
The men waited in the car for twenty minutes before an Asian man left the buffet carrying a package. Mike asked, "Is that Chang?"
"If it isn't, then it is his twin brother," Sanjay answered feeling his palms start to sweat. He could still hear Chang threatening to kill him.
Mike started his car and put it into gear. Four minutes later he was following Chang's car down the street. The traffic was pretty bad and Mike nearly lost him several times. He swore and said, "We can carry a gun into work, but we can't take a cell phone."
"I know. I would give anything for a cell phone right now," Sanjay said. He noticed Chang pull into a parking lot and said, "Drive past him. I know where we are."
"Where?" Mike asked just in time to spot one of the converted Internet Cafes.
"This is one of my locations," Sanjay said feeling a chill go down his spine. He stared at the parking lot where Chang was parked almost directly across the street from the office. Looking at Mike, he asked, "Do you think he is here to kill me?"
"I'm not sure. He might be here to take out the whole place," Mike answered pulling into the parking lot of a tire company. With a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, he said, "He might not be the only one here. What's happening in China?"
"Things are not going well. The American market has dried up and they are having problems buying oil. A number of their research programs have run into significant problems," Sanjay answered. The problems in China ran deep. The experimental foray into capitalism was failing because of a drop in the demand for consumer products and high energy costs. He added, "The only market they have left is the weapons market and the Middle East is their primary customer. Although we initially thought that all of the missiles that were used to destroy the Israeli defenses came from Iran, we just discovered that they were of Chinese origin and had been shipped through Iran."
"You might not be aware of this, but China was paid a hundred million dollars in oil to kill Donald and a couple of other CIA agents," Mike said. There was a rumor that it was a Chinese spy who had disabled the Israeli nukes, but Mike didn't have any confirmation of it.
Sanjay was silent for a moment and then said, "Let's take that bastard down."
"It looks like he's not alone. Let's warn our people that an attack is immanent," Mike said looking over at Sanjay.
Sanjay followed Mike into the tire store. Mike didn't waste any time with niceties. Holding up his ID, he approached the counter saying, "Hang up that phone, right now."
"Yes, sir," the poor kid at the counter said.
"Sanjay, call your office and get out the word," Mike said putting up his badge and pulling out his pistol. While Sanjay called his office, Mike watched the parking lot where Chang was meeting with a group of men. Without looking at Sanjay, Mike called out, "Let them know there are about a dozen of them across the street. Pass the word to every site."
Sanjay didn't bother to answer. He was busy providing the details to the Marine in charge of security. The kid at the counter was listening with wide-eyes and an open mouth. When Sanjay hung up the phone, he pulled out his ID and said, "Don't let anyone out of the store for the next thirty minutes."
The kid nodded his head and ran into the garage to spread the word. It took two minutes for everyone who worked in the tire store to gather in front of the store window in the hope that they could see what was happening. Sanjay said, "Get away from the window. You don't want to get killed, do you?"
Mike said, "It looks like they are about ready to make their move. It's a mixture of Muslim and Chinese."
Sanjay looked over in the parking lot in time to watch a Muslim man get into a car. He said, "This looks like the attack on the White House. They will drive the car into the office and then the rest of them will attack the survivors."
"I think you're right," Mike said.
"We have to stop them," Sanjay said. His voice had suddenly gotten very hard and businesslike. Chang was going to kill the men who worked for him unless he could prevent it.
"We aren't going to stop them from here," Mike said glancing over at Sanjay. He was pleased to see the determined look on Sanjay's face.
"Let's get in the car. We'll ram the bastards," Sanjay said.
It seemed like no time had passed before Mike and Sanjay were driving straight for the car headed towards the building. They managed to intercept the front of driver's side of the car at the gate leading into the parking lot of the Internet Café. The collision was spectacular. Mike had the accelerator pushed to the floor and didn't even dare try to slow down. The driver of the other car was taken completely by surprise. The air bags exploded to cushion them, but Mike and Sanjay were already trying to get out of the car before it stopped spinning.
Gunfire erupted from both sides of the street with Mike and Sanjay in the middle. Mike crawled out of his side of the car feeling a little dizzy. Without even hesitating, he shot the driver of the other car. Sanjay made his way out of the car on Mike's side and opened fire on the group that had already started across the street. He spotted Chang and emptied his pistol at the man.
The car they had struck exploded. The explosion blew Mike and Sanjay twenty feet away. Fortunately for them, their car was between them and the explosion. That was the last that they could remember of the event until waking up in a hospital hours later.
Wheelchairs are fun for about one minute and then they grow old. Mike, seated in his wheelchair, looked very agitated. He couldn't even move around on his own, but had to depend on someone to push him. There were bandages around his left leg where they had removed some shrapnel.
Sanjay, seated in his wheelchair, was looking over at Mike taking in the fact that his left hand was once again in a bandage. He commented, "Your left hand seems to be in a bandage most of the time."
"The bastards shot half of my middle finger off," Mike said in disgust. The finger had actually been severed by a piece of glass that had been launched in his direction when the car had exploded. It would have been one thing to take off a finger that was useless, but to lose a perfectly good finger was just too much.
Attempting to sound very serious, Sanjay said, "That's what you get for waving it at them."
The comment forced a laugh from Mike. There were times when Sanjay really surprised him. He said, "I guess so."
"What happens now?" Sanjay asked. They had been wheeled into the conference room and told to wait there.
Mike shrugged his shoulders; wincing in pain that the motion produced. He had dislocated his right shoulder when he had landed on the sidewalk. The doctors had dug a couple dozen pieces of shrapnel from various parts of his body, but most of the wounds were localized to the left side that had been facing the car that had exploded. He said, "I guess one of these days we'll get tired of staying here in the hospital. I'm half tempted to get up and walk out of here right now."
Sanjay hadn't faired nearly as well as Mike. He had suffered a broken leg when he had landed on the curb and was now encased in a cast that went from hip to toe. His arms had taken quite a bit of shrapnel, but they had protected his face. He'd have quite a few scars, but his clothes would cover them. Tapping the cast, Sanjay laughed and said, "I'll only be doing that if Teva uses 'The Voice' on me."
"Not the voice," Mike said chuckling. He could hear the quotation marks in Sanjay's comment.
Sanjay thought back to the day of the attack. A lot of pain had passed between then and now. He felt that the pain was worth saving the lives of so many people. He said, "I guess we saved my guys."
"That's what they said," Mike said. Two locations hadn't been so lucky and the attackers had managed to inflict significant damage.
A couple of men entered the conference room and looked around the room with significant expressions on their faces. Neither Mike nor Sanjay recognized them, but Mike recognized the look. Leaning over to Sanjay, he said, "It looks like someone's bodyguards have arrived."
"Yes, but I must wonder whose body they are guarding," Sanjay said glancing back over at Mike.
The Director of the CIA, James Wentworth the Third, entered the room and headed over to Mike and Sanjay. He looked down at them and said, "Don't you two look like a mess."
"I suppose," Mike answered.
"We'll wait for your families and colleagues to get here to begin the ceremony. I wanted a chance to talk with you two before anyone else arrived," James said with a smile. The descriptions of the event taken from the people at the tire store were quite colorful. They made it sound like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood had strapped on their six shooters and gone out to take down the bad guys.
"Okay," Sanjay said when Mike didn't say anything.
"You two men did a great job. Just a rough estimate would say that your actions probably saved fifty to a hundred lives. They attacked over ten of our locations and only two suffered much damage. Your warning allowed the Marines to stop the attackers," James said. He had been fighting distributing the agents around the country. After this episode he was rethinking his position.
"It was luck," Mike said shrugging his shoulders and grimacing at the pain the action brought.
"It was because Mike is very observant," Sanjay said. He smiled over at Mike knowing that Mike would be irritated at having attention drawn to him.
"Well, you saw something and acted on it. That's what is important," James said. He had read the files on the two men and had come to the conclusion that their word carried far more weight than explained by their position in the organization. Stories about a CIA inside the CIA called the Intelligence 100 were still heard around the water coolers. There were rumors that Mike was a member of it. He wondered if Sanjay knew anything about Mike's involvement. He wondered if Sanjay was a member.
"We did what anyone would do in our position," Mike said. He gestured over to Sanjay and said, "It was his idea to ram their car."
James shook his head at how the two men were giving each other credit for what had happened that day. He gestured to the men who had preceded him into the room. One of them stepped outside and then returned. He was followed by Teva holding the hands of her two daughters, her mother carrying Karen, Colonel Robert Bowman, Louise Bowman, Admiral Vincent Dougherty, Sally Dougherty, and four dozen of the men and women who worked with Mike and Sanjay. Mike waved to little Karen, but the baby was oblivious.
The ceremony in which the Distinguished Intelligence Cross was bestowed on the pair of men was simple. James described the heroism displayed by the men during the event that lead up to the award. Teva was proud that Sanjay was considered a hero among his coworkers. Sanjay's face lit up when James described him as an American Hero.
Lisa asked, "What happened to your hand?"
"A terrorist shot off part of my middle finger," Mike answered holding up the bandaged hand and looking at it with disgust. He was seated in the soft leather chair in Lisa's office undergoing the first counseling session since getting released from the hospital.
"Do you have anything against your left hand?" Lisa asked.
Mike laughed and answered, "Not really. Sometimes I think there is a universal conspiracy against me ever having even partial use of it."
"So tell me about that day," Lisa said easing into the subject.
Mike told her about that day and how he felt about it. He recalled little details about what he had experienced. He remembered thinking that their plan wasn't very good just before crashing into the car. He recalled the surprised look on the face of the terrorist who had been driving as he shot him. It was the anger on Sanjay's face as he shot at Chang that Mike remembered the most. It made him realize just how loyal Sanjay was to his friends. That loyalty continued even after they died.
Making notes in her pad, Lisa listened to Mike cover the details of the event. She was impressed by the story and his genuine concern for the welfare of others. Their actions might have looked suicidal, but the motives denied that. They had acted without thinking of the possible negative consequences to themselves. She was convinced that he was getting over his depression.
Mike looked up at the situation board with a smile. Two more patches of green had disappeared. There were only a dozen left on the board and they had swollen as terrorists pulled back to concentrate their forces. The engagements had become much more violent, but the terrorists were losing. Every week the military went after another one and a green area would vanish.
Joe handed him two letters and said, "These just came for you by a courier."
"Thanks," Mike said. He opened up the top letter and read the contents with a satisfied smile on his face. The letter outlined the reorganization of the investigative and intelligence capabilities of the country. President Archer had restructured it to reflect how it was actually operating after the disastrous attack on the CIA, NSA, and FBI. The only real national security intelligence function was the sole mission of the Department of Homeland Security.
The remaining elements of the CIA formed the core of the Department of Homeland Security along with the NSA, the foreign investigation branch of the FBI, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Homeland Security was now tasked with protecting the homeland from all external threats to national security even if those threats had already reached inside national boundaries.
The main body of the FBI was split out of Homeland Security and was charged with its historic role of criminal investigations of Federal crimes. This included bank robberies, kidnappings, and other crimes of that nature. It operated with the proviso that all information associated with foreign individuals operating within the states was to be handed over to Homeland Security.
FEMA, which had long been an unwanted child within the Department of Homeland Security, was split off as well. It returned to its basic charter to deal with disasters regardless of whether they were natural or man-made. The management of FEMA was extremely delighted with that particular change.
The most surprising element of the reorganization was that all law enforcement responsibilities had been removed from the Department of Homeland Security. They didn't have the right to make any kind of arrest, but had to work with an appropriate law enforcement agency to uphold the law. They could collect data, issue warnings, and provide information upon request, but that was the limit of their authority. The days of dirty tricks and black operations were long gone. In exchange, they were given access to far more information than would have been tolerated in the past. Mike was pleased with this change.
Lessons learned as a result of the history of attacks against analysts had not been wasted. Employees of Homeland Security were allowed, even expected, to carry weapons for self defense. Each of them was to be issued a Federal Carry permit. For Mike, this wasn't that significant of a change since he already possessed one.
Mike opened up the second of the two letters. Mouth open, he read he had been promoted to Section Chief. He was now in charge of domestic counterterrorism. He had just finished reading the letter when the telephone rang. He picked up the handset and said, "Hello."
"I've been promoted to Section Chief over Asian Technology Assessments," Sanjay said in an excited voice. It meant that he was in charge of the analysts tracking the science and engineering efforts of the entire Far East. It was a very important position despite the fact that it wasn't directly associated with political assessments.
"Congratulations, Sanjay," Mike said, "I've been promoted to Section Chief of Domestic Counterterrorism."
"Very good, Mike!" Sanjay said. He couldn't think of anyone who would be better in that position.
Mike said, "I think I like the reorganization for the Department of Homeland Security."
"Same here," Sanjay said. A lot of the management structure had disappeared in the reorganization. He laughed and said, "Now that we're bosses, what are we going to do with all our spare time?"
Mike was silent for a moment and then said, "I was thinking that with your busted leg and my busted hand, we aren't going to get much fishing done this year."
"It saddens me that I have to agree with you," Sanjay said.