Nodding, Foss signaled with his hand for them to be brought in. He then took his seat behind the desk as the three individuals walked into the room and stood before him. Looking up, he simply asked, “Is he in custody?”
Smiling, Maria Nelson replied, “Yes. We just caught him thirty minutes ago. We’re about to break the news to the media.”
Foss let out a deep breath, obviously relieved. “What more do we know about him?” he asked.
“We’ve looked into all of the people he’s been in contact with and his past activities. We know from the initial interviews we’ve conducted of his associates, fellow classmates, and professors that he believed President Gates was a fascist that needed to be stopped, and he felt compelled to act out of fear that his younger brother, who had been drafted into the Marines, would die in Asia if the President was not stopped.”
“Do we know if he had any foreign support or help? You had told me that he was an Antifa leader at his university.”
“He had led and organized a series of protests and work stoppages at a number of defense manufacturers in his local area. In doing so, he routinely met with the Northeast director of the organization and the international leader, a man by the name of Peter Talley who’s based out of London. As we dug further into Mr. Talley’s background and coordinated our findings with MI5 and MI6, we discovered that Mr. Talley had also been on their radar for several years. Apparently, they believe he may in fact be a man by the name of Vasily Smirnov, a major in the Russian GRU.”
Tilting his head slightly to the right, the President asked, “Are you saying the GRU is organizing or controlling the Antifa organization?”
Tom McMillan, the National Security Advisor, replied, “Not exactly. We don’t believe Antifa is an overtly Russian-backed or Russian-sponsored organization. However, they are being heavily financed and influenced by the GRU. The Russians’ goal is presumably to leverage any domestic groups, both liberal and conservative, that are against the war in order to disrupt or negatively influence the war effort.”
Clearing her throat, DHS Director Molly Emerson added, “The problem we have with Antifa is we now have credible evidence that their international director, a man who has traveled and met extensively with other Antifa leaders in the US, is a Russian spy. He personally knew and worked with George Philips. Mr. Philips was also receiving a monthly stipend of $5,000 a month from the international Antifa organization as a university leader. When we inquired further into the organization’s finances, we discovered that there are only three other Antifa leaders in the US receiving a stipend from the international organization. All the other leaders are doing this pro bono, volunteering their time and skills.”
Director Emerson continued, “In March of 2018, Mr. Philips purchased the rifle he used to kill the President. The rifle and the optical system he used, combined with the four months of shooting lessons he received, cost roughly $9,000. Several weeks prior to his purchasing the rifle, Mr. Talley, aka Major Smirnov, had wire-transferred that exact amount to Mr. Philips. Right now, we are working under the assumption that Major Smirnov knew Mr. Philips was susceptible to recruitment as an assassin and provided the material support needed to make that a reality. It is my assessment, and my department’s assessment, that the GRU ordered the assassination of President Gates and used Mr. Philips to achieve that goal.”
An awkward pause sat in the room. “The Russians ordered the assassination of our president, during a time of war?” thought Foss incredulously. He couldn’t wrap his head around that reality.
After a moment, Foss turned to Maria Nelson. “Is this the FBI’s assessment as well? Do you guys have an alternate theory, or is this where the evidence is leading you too?”
Maria took a deep breath in and slowly let it out before responding, “I’m not yet 100 % ready to make that same leap. The information we have is pointing in that direction, but we need to interrogate Mr. Philips first. I want more evidence before we firmly come to that conclusion.”
President Foss frowned a bit. He appreciated Director Nelson’s thoroughness, but it wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear.
“Mr. President,” interjected McMillan, “I concur with the FBI that they need to identify more definitive links between the GRU and the assassination of the President. However, the intelligence community and Homeland Security are not responsible for building an evidence-based case for a criminal conviction in this situation. We need to look at the circumstantial evidence that is not always sufficient in a court of law. Right now, we have corroborating information from MI6 and MI5 that Mr. Talley is a suspected Russian spy. We know Mr. Talley is the international organizer, financier and lobbying point of contact for Antifa. We also know he met and worked with Mr. Philips for more than a year. The intelligence suggests that Mr. Talley had at least provided material support to the man who assassinated the President. We don’t know if he directed the assassination, but at this point it doesn’t matter. He provided the assassin with the financial and material means to do it, which makes him just as culpable in our eyes. With your permission, I would like to move that we place Mr. Talley on our Top Most Wanted list, both domestically and internationally. We need to take him into custody and question him further.”
Maria’s countenance had changed during McMillian’s speech, as if she were visibly changing her opinion. “Mr. President, I agree with the NSA on this one. We need to apprehend Mr. Talley at once,” she urged.
“OK, let’s pick Mr. Talley up,” the President agreed. “Where is he currently?”
“Philadelphia,” answered Molly. “We’re tracking down the exact location, but we’ll have it shortly. We know he flew into Newark three days prior to the assassination. He spoke at Antifa rallies at Columbia University and the City College of New York. The day before the assassination, he led a protest march at Global Container Terminals in Jersey City. Their goal for the day was to shut down the port’s activity by chaining themselves to the terminal gates and creating human barricades across the streets leading to the container terminal. They essentially stopped the port operations until the police could break them up,” Molly said.
“What is that port terminal doing to support the war?” inquired the President.
“This terminal, along with many others on the East Coast, is responsible for loading the dozens upon dozens of transports moving munitions and other war stocks to Europe,” explained Molly. “What’s suspect about these types of protests is they always seem to happen when a Global Defense Force convoy arrives from Europe. If they were just targeting this one particular port, we could move the operation to another one. The problem is these protests hit every port on the East and West Coast that’s being used to support the war efforts in Europe and Asia.”
President Foss rubbed his chin. He had only been doing this job for eight days, and it still felt like he was drinking from a firehose. He’d heard a bit about protests from the nightly news, but his attention had been focused on other situations until now. He leaned forward. “Are other antiwar groups participating in these types of work stoppages? How much of an impact are these activities having on the war?”
Molly and Maria both turned to Tom, gesturing for him to take that question. “Antifa is the main culprit, but there is a large conservative group that also joins in from time to time, called Southerners Against the War. They largely carry out these types of work stoppages at the Southern ports. As to what kind of effect are they having on the war… a lot. Let me put it this way, Mr. President. A tank round is produced in a factory in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. On Thursday, the round arrives in port and is loaded onto a ship that same day. Saturday, that ship leaves in a convoy, and it arrives in Antwerp seven days later. Five days after that, the round is loaded into an M1 Abrams battle tank, and two days later it’s fired at a Russian tank. The time from when the round is produced to when it’s fired by one of our tanks is roughly seventeen days. If we flew that round on a cargo plane, then the time from factory to firing would be reduced to seven days.” He sighed. “We are so low on munitions in Europe that these work stoppages truly have the potential to be the deciding factor in whether our front-line forces have enough ammunition or whether they’re forced to retreat or surrender because they ran out of bullets or tank rounds.”