The men around the table nodded their heads. “It’s just too early, Mr. President,” said Dunning with almost a sigh. “We’re putting everything we have on the streets. By this time tomorrow we might have a lot more, or nothing,” he said. “Except for the border incident, which can be explained away, that’s all we have so far, sir.”
The President looked around the table. “Okay, let’s go around the table and let me know what each of you has.”
The meeting lasted another hour. All the intelligence services had a piece of information. Of course none wanted it to look like they were behind any of the others in their efforts. Basically, it was just like Dunning had outlined in the first place. It was very frustrating.
The President closed his eyes and shook his head. “Never seems to fail. Anytime I feel like things are going well, somebody throws a wrench into the works,” he said. He sat forward again. “Okay, I know our ambassador and his team in Colombia, tell me about our ambassador in Venezuela.”
“Craig Jonas was appointed by your predecessor. He’s done a pretty good job so far. He negotiated a couple of trade deals and was able to get that kid out of jail down there two years ago. I understand he has made progress getting to Parente,” said Branson. “I understand he keeps a tight rein on his staff and even our intelligence people, but that’s just his management style. He says he just wants to make sure he knows about anything that goes on through the embassy.”
Dunning was grimacing. “A couple of times we have had to let him know that he cannot interfere with our operations. He makes our resident a little nervous with all his questions.”
“I understand what he’s trying to do,” said Branson. “When you’re dealing with President Parente, it’s best to have a lot of information in your pocket so that you can fend off questions. Parente has a habit of trying to crawl all over ambassadors to get his way. Jonas knows when to fold and when to bluff. I phoned him personally two hours ago and he is going to do everything he can to help out.”
The President nodded. “I want every asset moving on this. We have to find out where these people are and who has them. Right now we are not sure if they went into Venezuela or not, so let’s be looking in all the neighboring countries. Is there a chance they were taken out by plane or ship?”
“It’s possible,” Dunning said. “But no ships have left port and the only aircraft we have seen are commercial or military. We started monitoring the traffic immediately after we got the news.”
“Good. I want to know when you find out something,” said the President. He turned to General Black, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “General, once we find out something, what can we do about it?”
Black didn’t blink. “It depends on where it is, who it is and a whole lot of other factors. This isn’t like the big one we had where we could throw a lot of things at the problem. This one will have to be handled like a surgeon. We get in, get the hostages and get out, hopefully without getting our people killed in the process. We have teams that can do that, but we need to know a lot more first. I’ll have our people begin drawing up some plans and contingency ops to get started. Then as information comes in we can start churning,” he said with confidence.
The President nodded. He knew Howie Black would get the job done, but he had to ask in front of his cabinet just to tie up the loose ends. “Approved. Now I want everyone at this table talking to each other. At some point we may have to use our military and I do not want people killed because someone held back information they had. Does everyone have all the resources they need?” he asked.
Everyone around the table nodded.
“Then this is our number one priority until I say so. The politics and the election will take a back burner till this is over. I want briefings every morning and at three every afternoon. Let’s find some answers and make some plans. I have a press conference at eight to get read for.” He turned to some of the men at the table, “I need the CNO, the Chairman, State, CIA and FBI in my office immediately after this meeting. Are there any questions?” There were none. “Let’s get to work people,” the President said rising from his seat and quickly leaving the room. He was followed closely by the men he designated.
It was a short walk to the oval office. All along the way the detail opened the doors and made way. The men walked past the President’s secretary pool and into the office. President O’Bannon walked to his easy chair and sat while the others filled the couches and other seats.
The President looked at the men around him. “Okay, now let’s talk a little more about intelligence.” He turned to State, “I need your frank opinion about Jonas. I know you don’t want to trash our ambassadors in front of the rest of the staff, but now I need to know the real skinny.”
The Secretary took a slow breath. “He’s almost an unknown. Jonas was placed there by your esteemed predecessor after we had gone through two ambassadors in three years with Parente. Jonas helped him get elected and was the Governor of Idaho for a term. Then he came to Washington bucking for a position. I wonder if he wasn’t placed there to get him out of the President’s hair. In my opinion, he’s not too bright but is fairly astute in politics. As I mentioned in the briefing, since going to Venezuela he has been moderately successful. He has gotten a few minor trade agreements set up and helped get that kid out of jail two years ago when he tried to protest on Parente’s doorstep. So I can’t say he’s all bad, but like Dunning said, he asks a lot of questions,” he said.
“Do you trust him?”
“As far as it goes. He hasn’t done anything to cause us to mistrust him. I get the feeling he’s a political wannabe hoping for his big break.”
The President nodded. “Alright, then let’s get him spooled up. Call him up and tell him what is going on then ask him to beat some bushes. I wouldn’t tell him we know the truck went to that country, but say we are checking out all options. Tell him we need to know about that truck. See what he says. I also want to know how he is operating and if he can handle something like this. If he turns everyone loose and gets the information, great. If not…” he said leaving the rest unsaid.
The President turned to Dunning. “Get the same orders to our people on the ground. Beat the trees. I need information about that truck and our people if they can.”
“What about the ambassador? If he can’t handle it….”
“We’ll handle that if we have to. In the mean time get things rolling. Your people can report to us directly. What about satellite assets?”
“We are already repositioning a KH-14 over the area,” Dunning said. “We’ll start getting images this afternoon. I talked to our people and they know what to look for as long as it’s out in the open. Once we determine where they are we can use it for a lot more. The KH-14 will give us that real-time capability that helps in these situations.”
“I agree. Use whatever you need,” said the President. He turned to Kurt West from the FBI. “Kurt, let’s open some more communications down in the neighboring countries to eliminate some of the possibilities. At the same time, let’s send someone down to Caracas. Coordinate our efforts with their investigative people. But I also want a good watch on Jonas.” He held up his hand. “I know, he’s probably just a mediocre government official, but I want to make sure he can handle things right.”
“We can do that. I’ll finesse it with them and send someone down today. If we run into problems, what do you want me to do?”
“Just let me know and we’ll figure that out.” The President turned to the CNO. “Now let’s talk about a friend of mine. Perry, what do you think he’ll do?” he asked with a twinkle in his eye.