Dick Henna was the new director of the FBI, one of the only important presidential appointees that Congress had so far approved. As always, self-serving political squabbling in the House was holding up the work of the federal government and costing the taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
Henna was a career snoop who had managed never to step on the wrong toes. He had plodded his way through thirty years in the bureau, never grabbing headlines but always garnering respect. He had an exemplary family life, a modest slice of suburbia to call home, and absolutely no skeletons in any closet. Knowing of his reputation, the opposition party in Congress had not bothered with any serious investigation into his past.
The President, who liked Henna for his unshakable integrity, smiled when he saw the director enter his office. The smile faded when he realized that Henna, never a neat man, looked terrible. His eyes were puffy and bloodshot. The jowled lines of his face were blurred behind thick stubble. His suit was rumpled, his shirt looked as if it had been slept in, and his tie was cocked off and stained.
“You look like you could use some coffee, Dick.” The President tried to put cheer into his voice, to penetrate the air of gloom that had permeated his office. His effort was as effective as a candle in a dark forest.
“I could use something a bit stronger, sir.”
The President nodded toward the Regency table which acted as a bar, and Henna helped himself to a triple Scotch.
Henna slumped into the seat opposite the President, the one formerly occupied by the African ambassador. Settling his attache case on his lap, Henna opened it and withdrew a thin, violet file. The file was stamped PEO. President’s Eyes Only.
“What’s going on, Dick?” The President had never seen Henna so morose.
“Sir,” Henna started shakily, “this morning, just after midnight, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration ship Ocean Seeker was reported missing about two hundred miles north of Hawaii. Search planes have been dispatched and found only debris in the water. A nearby freighter is assisting in the search, but so far it doesn’t look promising.”
The President had gone slightly pale; his fingers clenched. He had not obtained this office by being overly emotional and his mind was clear and sharp. “That’s a terrible tragedy, Dick, but I don’t see how it concerns you or the FBI.”
Henna would have been surprised had the President not asked that question. He handed the file across the desk and took a sip of Scotch. “Please read the top sheet.”
The President opened the file and began to read. Seconds later, the blood drained from his patrician’s face and tension lines around his eyes tightened so that he squinted at the paper.
Before he finished reading, Henna spoke. “That was brought to my attention two days ago, after it was proven to be Ohnishi’s handwriting and not written under duress. When I received it, I checked with the coast guard and the navy. They didn’t have any scheduled traffic to or from the islands, so I figured we had a little breathing room.” Henna’s voice broke. “I didn’t check with NOAA, I forgot all about them. I had been warned that any government ship steaming outward from Hawaii would be destroyed. I had a goddamn warning. Those people didn’t have to die.”
The President looked up. Pain and guilt and failure were etched into Henna’s face. “Take it easy, Dick. How many people know about this?”
“Three besides the two of us — a mailroom clerk; my deputy director, Marge Doyle; and a handwriting analyst.”
The President glanced at his watch. “I’ve got lunch with the speaker of the house and if I cancel it… I don’t want to think about the consequences. The rest of my day is booked solid. We’ll keep things normal here in Washington, but I’ll have all naval traffic to and from Hawaii suspended, just like this letter demands. I’m not about to give in to Ohnishi, but we need the time. I’m also going to put the military at Pearl Harbor on full alert. They’ve been on standby ever since the rioting started two weeks ago, but I think it prudent to up their readiness status. Let’s meet tonight at nine in the Situation Room to discuss the situation and our possible responses. Use the tunnel from the Treasury Building so you don’t arouse suspicion.”
“Yes, sir. Is there anything you want me to do in the meantime?” Henna was regaining his composure.
“I assume you’ve already started a full background check on Takahiro Ohnishi.” Henna nodded. “Find out what he’s all about. We’re all well aware of his racial views, but this is an outrage. Also, I want to know where he got the capability to destroy one of our ships. Someone is supplying him with arms and I want it stopped.”
“Yes, sir,” Henna replied, and left the office.
The President touched the intercom button on his desk. Joy Craig, his personal secretary, answered instantly.
“Joy, set up a meeting in the Situation Room for nine o’clock tonight. Call in the chairman of the joint chiefs; the directors of the CIA, NSA, and NOAA; the secretary of state and the secretary of defense.”
Most of those men were only acting heads, until their confirmation, but this crisis warranted trusting them as if they were already sworn into their respected offices.
The President sank back into his chair, his face blank, and stared at the gold braid-trimmed American flag near the office door. In his lap, his hands trembled.
The rain looked like Christmas tinsel in the headlights of the taxi parked outside an Arlington, Virginia, brownstone. The passenger gave the driver a crisp fifty and told him to keep the change. The back door opened, and in the glow of the domelight, the man grabbed the handles of his two soft leather bags and exited the cab.
Philip Mercer had always believed that international airports were a type of stateless limbo, sovereign nations allied only to each other with no allegiance to their host countries. His flight had touched down at Dulles an hour and a half earlier, yet he only now felt that he’d returned to the United States. Although the cool rain soothed his dried sinuses, Mercer still groaned as he inevitably tried the wrong key on the Baldwin lock of the front door. He no longer wondered why he always tried the wrong key when his arms were full, yet chose the right one when they were empty.
Home at last, Mercer thought, as he stepped into the foyer of his house, then chuckled. In the five years he had lived here, this was the first time that he had ever thought of the brownstone as home.
“Must be settling down,” he chided himself mildly.
From the outside, the brownstone was as innocuous as the fifteen others on his side of the block. Yet once through the door, any similarity to the other 1940s-constructed row houses ended. Mercer had gutted the three-story building and completely redesigned the interior. From a thirty-foot-high entry that took up the front third of the seventy-five-foot-deep building, Mercer could see up to the second-floor library, and further up to his master bedroom. An ornate curved staircase salvaged from a nineteenth-century rectory connected the three levels.
All of the furniture was in place, yet the house still lacked many of the personal items that would make it a home. Tables and shelves were empty of mementos and the walls were barren of pictures. The design of the house showed much of the character of its sole occupant, but many of his subtleties lay hidden in cardboard boxes.
Mercer dropped his bags near the front door and walked across the little used formal living room toward the back of the house. Passing an oak-paneled billiard room and the kitchen, he went into his home office and slid his slim briefcase across the wide leather-topped desk.
He used the back stairs to climb to the second floor and on the landing he swore under his breath. The television in the rec room was on, the volume barely a mutter. The lights around the mahogany bar had been muted to an amber glow. Snores rose from a blanketed lump on the couch. Mercer walked behind the bar and placed a Clapton disc into the player. With a wicked smile, he pressed play and turned the stereo to maximum volume.