Dead Edge: the gripping political thriller for fans of Lee Child. Jack Ford

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СКАЧАТЬ the crew’s orders were not to radio for help under any circumstances… Now look, I’ve told you everything I can. You, Rosedale and Cooper will be leaving on Thursday, you’ll get all the other details later today. Levi, you’ll be doing the usual administration and base support stuff here at home. I’m flying to New York tonight so I won’t see you till you all get back. But let me say this. You three, I’m warning you. God knows I am. Locate the boat, then just come back here. That’s it. That’s the objective. Nothing else. Just do your job.’

WASHINGTON, D.C.

       USA

       20

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      Chuck wasn’t sure what it was about the White House coffee but it always tasted as if it’d been made with a splash of resentment. A spoonful of democratic antipathy towards anybody who wasn’t a liberal sympathizer.

      Putting his cup down, he faced President Woods. Crossed his mind how well the man looked, compared to the last time he’d seen him when he’d looked positively ill. Not that the President’s health was his concern, nor problem. His problem was Woods’ policies, which hindered, restricted, curtailing his ability to protect the country he’d spent his life trying to protect.

      Frustrated, Chuck snapped the top onto the silver fountain pen he never used. Faded away from his own thoughts and faded back up into the conversation, to hear – for what must have been the eighth, ninth time, in less than half an hour – the words ‘no way’ from the supposed people’s President.

      ‘No way, Chuck. Abdul-Aziz bin Hamad? He’s affiliated with Al Qaeda. No. We discussed it a few weeks ago at length and my same reply stands; it’s not even on the table.’

      ‘So you keep saying, Mr President, but I don’t understand your stance on this. Prisoner swaps, prisoner release, lifting sanctions and negotiation. These are nothing new. I don’t have to give you a history lesson but it’s been going on since the time of George Washington.’

      ‘And in some kind of shape and form it’ll continue, but prisoners who the United States government deem to be terrorists, will no longer be used as high value negotiation chips.’

      Chuck looked around at those present. Woods, Lyndon, who thankfully was keeping quiet and Teddy, Chief of Staff. ‘You know what keeps me awake at night, Mr President? It’s how to keep America safe. I ask myself the question, am I missing anything? Is there something more, however unorthodox, which I and the CIA should be doing? And it’s the unorthodox which helps keep my department one step ahead. What is detrimental to us is, as Donald Rumsfeld said, our failure of the imagination on what is likely.’

      Woods, not wholly without flippancy, replied, ‘I prefer to work on factual.’

      ‘To work solely on the basis of factual would be to fail in my duty, Mr President. It would be an impossibility to do so. Most times my field agents only have the luxury of factual when our imagination has worked out what is likely. Rumsfeld was right when he talked about how when we have the likely, the likely takes us down the road of risk and uncertainty, and only at the end of it, likely may turn into an actuality. It is after all about the known unknowns.’

      ‘But that’s exactly why we have you and the CTC. To find out those things, whether through human intelligence, data or visual technology.’

      ‘And it’s still HI which gives us the most intel, but that’s only because the CIA are able to negotiate with countries and governments who sympathize with the ideology of the terror groups. And as you know, Mr President, prisoner release using high value detainees, such as Bin Hamad, are essential to that negotiation for the CIA.’

      ‘There are other ways, Chuck, and I know other administrations have been more open to this course of action, but not this one…’ Woods paused, finally succumbing to the plate of chocolate cookies in front of him, then added, ‘I’m not changing my stance on this, Chuck.’

      Watching crumbs from the chocolate cookie flake off, at the point of entering Woods’ mouth, and float down onto the highly polished table to form a circular pattern, Chuck, irritated by what he saw as dangerous liberal thinking, shook his head. ‘You’re making a big mistake, Mr President.’

      Woods took a large gulp of the simple black coffee Joan had made him. He didn’t know what it was but there was something about the White House coffee; it always tasted pretty damn good. ‘I won’t go against the American people. As we speak, America’s afraid. We’re on code red. We’ve had bombs and suicide bombs and people are afraid out there. So we need to stand as a nation. That’s the only way we’re going to win the war on terror. To stand as one.’

      As was Chuck Harrison’s practice, he said, ‘Bullshit…! This isn’t a union address speech, or some campaign trail to pick up votes. This is real, Mr President, and I know what we’re up against. The only people who stand as one out there is us. The CIA. We’re in the field. On the ground. We go in way before you bring any of the red team analysts to weigh up the odds of collateral damage, before you sit around this table watching in real time the military offensive, and before any hi-tech drone strike. And the only reason why any of those guys can do their job is because we’ve paved the way. Alone. Without back up. Without assurances that what we’re getting into is really what it seems. So, with respect, the idea that somehow the nation stands at one, is complete bullshit.’

      Woods thought.

      Contemplated.

      Weighed up.

      Wondered if.

      Then decided not to haul up Chuck for the way he’d spoken. Passion often induced the versing of tongues towards the expletive. ‘I’m sorry, Chuck, but I made an oath to serve the American people, and I won’t, when they’re not looking, release the terrorists who’ve waged war against and masterminded attacks on our nation.’

      Chuck, in a tone which did not rise or did not fall, said, ‘You really don’t know what you’re doing, and a lot more people will get hurt unless you act now. You’re putting lives at risk.’

      Woods, using his tongue to dislodge a piece of cookie from one of his back molars, which needed fixing, pointed at Chuck. ‘I think you’re on dangerous territory, here. I don’t appreciate at all what you’ve just said, and I certainly don’t appreciate the way you’re saying it.’

      ‘You may not, but it’s a fact. A hard fact. Like it’s a fact that you want me to go into battle, but you’re sending me into the ring with my hands tied behind my back. I don’t have to tell you that war is not just played out on the fields. It’s behind the scenes. The communication. The negotiation… The deals we are compelled to do whether we like them or not. There’s been many a possible conflict which has been prevented by all of the above. And that’s what I’m saying is: to help us fight terror, Mr President, I need to be able to make deals. I need a way to find out about the whens, the wheres and the hows.’

      ‘Chuck, I have to call a close on this meeting soon, but to put it straight on the table, I don’t want the CIA being what it was. It’s a new dawn. More transparent. More ethical. The reputation needs to be rebuilt.’

      ‘I don’t know what you think we’re running here, Mr President, but trying to turn the CIA into СКАЧАТЬ