Covert Warriors (Presidential Agent 7)

“There’s considerable proof that he’s not playing with a full deck. For example, he staged that business at Langley and fired Porky Parker for disloyalty. Then he went bananas because we walked out on his speech. And then he started this swap-Abrego-for-Ferris business.”

“But?” Leverette asked.

“The possibility exists that he’s not being paranoid about a coup d’état.”

“Jesus Christ!” Miller said.

“Who would be behind that, Charley?” Torine asked dubiously, and then had an additional thought and incredulously asked, “Montvale?”

Castillo nodded.

Miller said, “Jesus Christ! Are you serious, Charley?”

“I may be wrong. I hope I am wrong. But, yeah, the more I think about it, the more serious I become.”

“How long have you had this dangerous idea?” Miller asked.

“When I smelled something wrong in that letter—where the President wanted Martinez to tell him where he wanted Abrego to be sent. What the hell is that all about?”

“He didn’t,” Torine argued. “McCarthy wrote that letter.”

“Even worse,” Castillo said. “How could McCarthy know about the Oaxaca State Prison? He’s been on the job only a couple of days.”

“So where did he get it?”

“Supervisory Secret Service Agent Mulligan probably knew about it.”

“You’re suggesting Mulligan had a hand in writing that letter,” Leverette said.

“Yeah, I am. When Montvale was director of National Intelligence, he had the secretary of Homeland Security in his pocket. And the Secret Service is part of Homeland Security. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to wonder if he had this Mulligan character keeping an eye on Clendennen for him. And if Mulligan did slip Oaxaca State Prison into that letter—why would he do that unless Montvale told him to?”

“Why, Charley?” Torine asked.

“Try this scenario on for size,” Castillo said. “Abrego is taken to this prison in the middle of nowhere in Mexico by U.S. Marshals. I don’t know whether they’re planning to exchange him for Ferris or ‘allow him to escape.’ It doesn’t matter, the plan blows up. Abrego gets away and Ferris is whacked.

“They find him with his head cut off, or hanging from a bridge overpass in Acapulco, or both. The press starts to run down the story. The letter from Martinez is leaked—” He paused in thought, then went on, “Going off on a tangent, Clendennen is pushed over the edge at this point. He publicly accuses Crenshaw and Cohen of betraying him. Since they haven’t betrayed him, they deny it. Clendennen starts looking like a lunatic.

“By this point, the press is hot on the story. They learn from the Bureau of Prisons that they were ordered by the attorney general to take Abrego from Florence to the Oaxaca State Prison—something that is against long-standing U.S. policy and has never been done. The attorney general says Clendennen ordered it over his objections and that Natalie Cohen not only was there when he did it, but was also given a letter by him—this letter—which set up the whole thing.

“At this point, either Clendennen resigns or impeachment proceedings start in the Congress, or—and I think this is what Montvale is shooting for—Clendennen really starts frothing at the mouth, which will cause whatever authorities make decisions like this—the Cabinet?—to conclude that his mental condition is such that he cannot discharge his duties as POTUS, whereupon . . .”

Jake Torine finished: “Whereupon the Vice President steps forward and says he is forced to assume the President’s responsibilities until such time as the poor man recovers his faculties.”

“And what happens then?” Leverette asked.

“Uncle Remus, we can’t let it get that far,” Castillo said.

“So how do we stop it?” Leverette asked.

“We follow that military adage of ‘When you don’t know what to do, doing anything is better than doing nothing.’”

“Are you going to translate that, Charley?” Leverette asked.

“All I can think of is snatching Ferris or Abrego or both of them, before, during, or after the exchange, escape, or whatever at Oaxaca State Prison and then wait to see who—beside the Mexicans—comes out of the woodwork looking for them.”

“And how are you going to do that?” Torine asked.

“And how does all this tie