Everything he knew led to the White House, he had to keep telling himself; Lee, Croft, the decision to send the Seventh Fleet into the Sea of Japan. And he was setting himself up to make an action that was nothing short of a challenge to the Constitution. The thought frightened him more than anything he’d ever faced in his life. He’d felt like this when he’d been led to believe that his parents had been spies for the Russians. But this was even worse.
“How are you doing, Mac?” Murphy asked, his face a mask. He was holding his anger in check.
“I may not be the man for this job, General. But as long as I have it I’ll do my best.”
“I’ve heard no complaints except from Archives.”
“I pulled Otto out of there this afternoon. In fact he’s going to stay here in the building until we’re finished with his operation.”
“Did he turn up anything?” Murphy asked patiently, as if he were trying to drag the answers from a reluctant student.
“He found out that Joseph Lee was pumping a lot of money into the President’s election fund, along with the funds of a half-dozen senators and a bunch of congressmen. That’s for starts. And he found out that Tony Croft was passing information back to Lee.”
This part was news to Murphy, and his eyebrows rose. “What kind of information?”
McGarvey had to be careful now. “White House policy on the Japanese. Lee was probably working for or with MITI. But we’re still looking into that part.”
Murphy’s jaw tightened. “Are you telling me that Lee was buying information? Croft was a spy for the Japanese government?”
McGarvey nodded. “It’s probably why he committed suicide. He couldn’t see a way out because of what’s happening over there now. Sooner or later someone would have started to ask the wrong questions.”
“Like you,” Murphy said.
“Yeah, like me.”
“You were in Croft’s way, so he had Lee arrange for your assassination, and they didn’t care how many people they killed doing it.”
“That’s a possibility we can’t ignore, General,” McGarvey said. “And since I’m still in the middle of it, I’d like to come with you tonight.”
Murphy took a moment to answer. “Croft is dead, so there’s no reason now for them to come after you.”
“Unless Lee is somehow involved in what’s going on between Japan and North Korea. He might think that I’m coming after him. Which I am. I’d like to step the pressure up a notch.”
“What are we getting from our Japanese networks?”
“Nothing. They’re all closed down, either arrested or gone to ground, so we just don’t have those answers yet. But the Japanese are making a concerted effort to keep a lid on what they’re up to.”
“War?” Murphy asked. “Are they actually going to try to invade North Korea?”
“They’d be justified,” McGarvey said. “But I just don’t know yet.”
Murphy eyed him skeptically. “What’s Otto working on now?”
“He’s still trying to nail down a link between Lee and the Koreans.”
“Why do you want to see the President tonight?” Murphy asked directly.
“Somebody has to tell him about Croft,” McGarvey answered without flinching. Murphy wanted to ask the next question: Is Lindsay himself under suspicion? McGarvey could see it in his eyes. But he did not.
“The briefing has been pushed back again. This time to ten o’clock. It’ll give you time for a final update to the NIE and Watch Report. There’ve been some new developments in the Sea of Japan that he has to deal with now because the Seventh Fleet is going to be in position soon, and nobody knows what’s going to happen when they get there.”
“I’ll be ready by nine-thirty,” McGarvey said
“I don’t like surprises, Mac,” Murphy said. “If you and Otto come up with something I want to know about it first.”
“You’re the boss.”
It was still a full hour before nightfall as the Bertram trawler turned back downriver below White’s Ferry. The lone man on deck was still in civilian clothes, and he kept up a running commentary on the intercom. River traffic was beginning to thin out. By nightfall there would be very few boats out and about. Even so they would have to be careful not to be observed when they launched.
Kondo and the others below had already changed into their black night-fighter jumpsuits, and he supervised the final preparations. Weapons, radios, night-vision oculars and black paraglider chutes. One man would remain aboard the trawler to drag them into the air on a long cable and then would ground the boat on the riverbank just below the safe house, where he would take up a defensive rear position near the driveway to warn if they had unexpected company. At the correct time he would meet up with them at the helicopter’s landing zone.
Kondo looked out a window. The countryside was really quite pretty here, he thought.
When Elizabeth McGarvey came downstairs, her mother was in the corridor by the front door in deep discussion with Paul Isaacson and one of the outside guards, whose name she couldn’t recall. She was famished, and now a little annoyed that she wasn’t being included in whatever they were talking about.
“Am I interrupting anything?” she asked peevishly, reaching the bottom of the stairs. They looked up.
“I was just about to come get you for dinner,” Kathleen said. “Are you feeling any better now?”
“I’m fine,” she snapped. “What’s going on?”
“Your mother says that you’re getting jumpy,” Isaacson said. “But there’s no reason for it. You know the setup here; everything is covered. There’s no way for anybody to get to you short of mounting an all-out invasion.”
Liz glanced at the other man. His name was Stuart, she thought. He was an instructor at the Farm. “Maybe that’s what they’ll do.”
“We’re ready for them,” Stuart said with a confidence she didn’t share.
Todd Van Buren appeared at the kitchen door. “Soup’s on,” he announced.
“I had one of my people run the path, and we had him on he monitors before he got ten yards,” Isaacson said. “If someone tries to get in we’ll know about it. And if need be we’ll call in reinforcements. The Maryland Highway Patrol knows what’s going on out here, and they’ve agreed to come running if we need them.”
“What about the river?” Liz asked.
“That’s more than a mile away. Anyway, they’d still have to cross our perimeter motion detectors to get to the house. So no matter what, we’ll find out they’re coming long before they get within firing range.”
Kathleen laid a hand on her daughter’s arm. “You see, Elizabeth, we’re safe here until your father straightens out this ness,” she said. “How about something to eat? You must be starved.”
Elizabeth looked at her watch. It was already 9:30 P.M. and dark outside. “Sure,” she said, not really very hungry suddenly.
‘You didn’t tell him,” Dick Adkins accused.
“He wouldn’t have let me get within a hundred yards of the White House if I had,” McGarvey admitted. “But if Lindsay s involved in whatever the Japanese are up to, he’ll have to think that I know something about it when I show up for the briefing.” McGarvey pointed to the leather-bound folder. “I put in the stuff about the incidents in Germany and Santiago. If nothing else that’ll send him a message he can’t ignore.”