Then the President said into the phone, "Sweetheart, Charley Castillo just walked in the door. I'll have to call you later."
With a little bit of difficulty, the President replaced the handset in a wall rack, then stood up and walked to Castillo. As Castillo started to get up, the President waved his right hand to order him to stay seated, and then offered the hand to him.
"Good to see you, Charley," he said, and then turned to Torine. "And you, too, Colonel. I was a little surprised to hear you'd flown the Globemaster down there, but then I realized I shouldn't have been. You and Charley are sort of a team, aren't you?"
"Yes, sir. I suppose we are."
"Is it still hot outside?" the President asked, as he walked to the head of the conference table and sat down.
"Hot and humid, sir," Torine said.
"Wise people don't come to Mississippi in the middle of the summer," the President lightly proclaimed, "or go to Minnesota in the middle of the winter. Wise people go to South Carolina during any season and never leave."
There was dutiful laughter.
"Two things are going to happen right away," the President quickly said next, his tone now serious. "The first, because I simply can't stay here for the funeral as much as I would like to, is that we're making a photo-op ceremony of taking Mr. Masterson's casket from the airplane. Including a band. They're setting that up now. I understand we'll have about fifteen minutes. Which is time enough to set the second thing that's going to happen in motion."
He reached under the table and came up with a well-worn leather attache case. He opened it and took out two sheets of paper and handed them to General Naylor.
"Would you please read that aloud, General?"
"Yes, sir."
Naylor took the sheets of paper, glanced at them a moment, then began to read.
"Top Secret-Presidential.
"The White House, Washington, D.C. July 25, 2005.
"Presidential Finding.
"It has been found that the assassination of J. Winslow Masterson, chief of mission of the United States embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina; the abduction of Mr. Masterson's wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Lorimer Masterson; the assassination of Sergeant Roger Markham, USMC; and the attempted assassination of Secret Service Special Agent Elizabeth T. Schneider indicate beyond any reasonable doubt the existence of a continuing plot or plots by terrorists, or terrorist organizations, to cause serious damage to the interests of the United States, its diplomatic officers, and its citizens, and that this situation cannot be tolerated.
"It is further found that the efforts and actions taken and to be taken by the several branches of the United States government to detect and apprehend those individuals who committed the terrorist acts previously described, and to prevent similar such acts in the future, are being and will be hampered and rendered less effective by strict adherence to applicable laws and regulations.
"It is therefore found that clandestine and covert action under the sole supervision of the President is necessary.
"It is directed and ordered that there be immediately established a clandestine and covert organization with the mission of determining the identity of the terrorists involved in the assassinations, abduction, and attempted assassination previously described and to render them harmless. And to perform such other covert and clandestine activities as the President may elect to assign.
"For purposes of concealment, the aforementioned clandestine and covert organization will be known as the Office of Organizational Analysis, within the Department of Homeland Security. Funding will initially be from discretional funds of the office of the President. The manning of the organization will be decided by the President acting on the advice of the chief, Office of Organizational Analysis.
"Major Carlos G. Castillo, Special Forces, U.S. Army, is herewith appointed chief, Office of Organizational Analysis, with immediate effect."
General Naylor stopped reading and looked at the President.
"The finding is witnessed by Miss Cohen as secretary of state, Mr. President."
The only sound in the room was that of cold air flowing through ports in the ceiling.
"That deafening silence we're hearing, Major Castillo," the President said softly, after a moment, "suggests to me that everyone is trying to come up with good and solid reasons why I should tear that finding up, and how these objections can be brought diplomatically to my attention. So let me save everybody the effort. This finding is not open for debate."
The President looked around the table as he let that sink in, then continued:
"I not only want the bastards who murdered Masterson and Sergeant Markham brought down, but I want to send a message to whoever is behind them, and to anyone else who thinks they can get away with murdering an American diplomat, that this President will be as ruthless as necessary to keep this from ever happening again, and this is how I've decided is the best way to do that."
"Mr. President," Ambassador Montvale asked, "may I ask what my relationship to the major will be?"
"I'm glad you asked, Charles," the President said. "Let's make sure everyone understands this. It also applies to Natalie and Tom, of course, and to the other secretariesand the attorney general. You, and they, will provide to him whatever he feels is necessary to carry out the mission I have given to him. But he answers only to me. Everyone clear on that?"
"There are some potential problems that immediately come-"
"Charles, you can discuss those with Major Castillo," the President interrupted. "You did hear me say, didn't you, that this is not open for debate?"
"Yes, I did, Mr. President."
"Okay, this is Ground Zero," the President said. "What I would like now is for Major Castillo to tell us where he believes we are, and where he's going from here." He looked at Castillo. "Okay, Charley, go ahead."
Castillo realized that he was sitting erectly on the edge of the armchair seat, like any other junior determined not to miss a word of what would be said by the President or any of the others so vastly senior to a major.
As a Pavlovian reflex he started to stand up as a mark of respect and subordination to those seniors.
Wait a minute!
If I do that, it will signal that a lowly major is delivering a report to his seniors that they can consider with their greater wisdom and accept or reject.
I don't think the President wants me to do that.
Instead of standing up he slumped back in the chair and crossed his interlocked hands on his chest, as if gathering his thoughts, which happened to be true.
He saw that General Naylor and Colonel Torine were looking at him incredulously.
Well, let's see if I can get away with this.
"Mr. President," he began, sitting up, "when Mrs. Masterson was being interviewed at the German Hospital by Mr. Darby, who is the CIA station chief in Argentina and was a close friend of the Mastersons, she professed to know absolutely nothing about her abductors. I thought she was lying-"
"You decided, Major, that she was lying?" Montvale interrupted incredulously.
"Yes, Ambassador Montvale, I did," Charley said, meeting his eyes. "And later, both Mr. Darby and Ambassador Silvio agreed with that judgment."
"Lying about what, Charley?" the President asked.
"More of an omission, sir, than a mistruth. She said she could recall no details whatever of her abduction. I didn't believe that."
"The woman," Montvale said, "was obviously under the most severe-"
The President held up his hand to silence Montvale.
Castillo looked at the President, then continued: "Just before we took off from Ezeiza-the Buenos Aires airport-I gave Mrs. Masterson the medal, the Grand Cross of the Great Liberator, which had been pinned to the colors on Mr. Masterson's casket by the President of Argentina. She expressed to me her regret for Sergeant Markham's death and the wounds suffered by Special Agent Schneider. I'm afraid I was less than gracious to her. I had just come from the hospital, where Special Agent Schneider was lying in pain with her jaw wired shut, and sixty seconds before, I had walked past Sergeant Markham's casket.