Tom Clancy's Op-Center_ Divide and Conquer Part 1

Tom Clancy's Op-Center_ Divide and Conquer.

by Tom Clancy.

PROLOGUE.

Washington, D.C. Sunday, 1:55 P.M.

The two middle-aged men sat in leather armchairs in a comer of the wood-paneled library. The room was in a quiet corner of a Ma.s.sachusetts Avenue mansion. The blinds were drawn to protect the centuries-old art from the direct rays of the early-afternoon sun. The only light came from a dull fire that was smoldering in the fireplace. The fire gave the old, wood-paneled room a faintly smoky smell.

One of the men was tall, stout, and casually dressed with thinning gray hair and a lean face. He was drinking black coffee from a blue Camp David mug while he studied a single sheet of paper resting in a green folder. The other individual, seated across from him with his back to the bookcase, was a short bulldog of a man with a three-piece gray suit and buzz-cut red hair. He was holding an empty shot gla.s.s that, moments before, had been br.i.m.m.i.n.g with scotch. His legs were crossed, his foot was dancing nervously, and his cheek and chin bore the nicks of a quick, unsatisfactory shave.

The taller man shut the folder and smiled. "These are wonderful comments. Just perfect."

"Thank you," said the red-haired man. "Jen's a very good writer." He shifted slowly, uncrossing his legs. He leaned forward, causing the leather seat to groan. "Along with this afternoon's briefing, this is really going to accelerate matters. You know that, don't you?"

"Of course," the taller man said. He put his coffee mug on a small table, rose, and walked to the fireplace. He picked up a poker. "Does that scare you?"

"A little," the red-haired man admitted.

"Why?" the taller man asked as he threw the folder into the flames. It caught fire quickly. "Our tracks are covered."

"It's not us I'm worried about. There will will be a price," the red-haired man said sadly. be a price," the red-haired man said sadly.

"We've discussed this before," the taller man said. "Wall Street will love it. The people will recover. And any foreign powers that try to take advantage of the situation will wish they hadn't." He jabbed the burning folder. "Jack ran the psychological profiles. We know where all the potential trouble spots are. The only one who's going to be hurt is the man who created the problem. And he'll recover. h.e.l.l, he'll do better than recover. He'll write books, give speeches, make millions."

The taller man's words sounded cold, though the red-haired man knew they weren't. He had known the other man for nearly thirty-five years, ever since they served together in Vietnam. They fought side by side in Hue during the Tet offensive, holding an ammunition depot after the rest of the platoon had been killed. They both loved their country pa.s.sionately, and what they were doing was a measure of that deep, deep love.

"What's the news from Azerbaijan?" the taller man asked.

"Everyone's in place." The red-haired man looked at his watch. "They'll be eyeballing the target close-up, showing the man what he has to do. We don't expect the next report for another seven hours or so."

The taller man nodded. There was a short silence broken only by the crackling of the burning folder.

The red-haired man sighed, put his gla.s.s on the table, and rose. "You've got to get ready for the briefing. Is there anything else you need?"

The taller man stabbed the ashes, destroying them. Then he replaced the poker and faced the red-haired man.

"Yes," he said. "I need you to relax. There's only one thing we have to fear."

The red-haired man smiled knowingly. "Fear itself."

"No," said the other. "Panic and doubt. We know what we want, and we know how to get there. If we stay calm and sure, we've got it."

The red-haired man nodded. Then he picked up the leather briefcase from beside the chair. "What was it that Benjamin Franklin said? That revolution is always legal in the first person, as in 'our' revolution. It's only illegal in the third person, as in 'their' revolution."

"I never heard that," said the taller man. "It's nice."

The red-haired man smiled. "I keep telling myself that what we're doing is the same thing the founding fathers did. Trading a bad form of government for a better one."

"That's correct," the other man said. "Now, what I want you to do is go home, relax, and watch a football game. Stop worrying. It's all going to work out."

"I wish I could be as confident."

"Wasn't it Franklin who also said, 'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes'? We've done the best we can, and we've done everything we can. We have to put our trust in that."

The red-haired man nodded.

They shook hands, and the shorter man left.

A young aide was working at a large, mahogany desk outside the library. She smiled up at the red-haired man as he strode down the long, wide, carpeted corridor toward the outside door.

He believed that this would work out. He truly did. What he didn't believe was that the repercussions would be so easy to control.

Not that it matters, he thought as a security guard opened the door for him and he stepped into the sunlight. He pulled sungla.s.ses from his shirt pocket and slipped them on. he thought as a security guard opened the door for him and he stepped into the sunlight. He pulled sungla.s.ses from his shirt pocket and slipped them on. This has to be done, and it has to be done now. This has to be done, and it has to be done now.

As he walked down the paved drive to his car, the red-haired man held tight to the notion that the founding fathers had committed what many considered to be treasonous acts when they forged this nation. He also thought of Jefferson Davis and the Southern leaders who formed the Confederacy to protest what they considered repression. What he and his people were doing now was neither unprecedented nor immoral.

But it was dangerous, not just for themselves but for the nation. And that, more than anything, would continue to scare the h.e.l.l out of him until the country was firmly under their control.

ONE.

Baku, Azerbaijan Sunday, 11:33 P.M.

David Battat looked impatiently at his watch. They were over three minutes late. Which is nothing to be concerned about, Which is nothing to be concerned about, the short, agile American told himself. A thousand things could have held them up, but they would be here. They would come by launch or motor-boat, possibly from another boat, possibly from the wharf four hundred yards to his right. But they the short, agile American told himself. A thousand things could have held them up, but they would be here. They would come by launch or motor-boat, possibly from another boat, possibly from the wharf four hundred yards to his right. But they would would arrive. arrive.

They had better, he thought. He couldn't afford to screw up twice. Not that the first mistake had been his fault. he thought. He couldn't afford to screw up twice. Not that the first mistake had been his fault.

The forty-three-year-old Battat was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency's small New York field office, which was located across the street from the United Nations building. Battat and his small team were responsible for electronic SOS activities: spying on spies. Keeping track of foreign "diplomats" who used their consulates as bases for surveillance and intelligence-gathering activities. Battat also had been responsible for overseeing the activities of junior agent Annabelle Hampton.

Ten days before, Battat had come to the American emba.s.sy in Moscow. The CIA was running tests in the communications center on an uplink with a new high-gain acoustic satellite. If the satellite worked on the Kremlin, the CIA planned on using it in New York to eavesdrop more efficiently on foreign consulates. While Battat was in Moscow, however, Annabelle helped a group of terrorists infiltrate the United Nations. What made it especially painful was that the young woman did it for pay, not principle. Battat could respect a misguided idealist. He could not respect a common hustler.

Though Battat had not been blamed officially for what Annabelle did, he was the one who had run the background check on her. He was the one who had hired her. And her "seconding action," as it was officially cla.s.sified, had happened during his watch. Psychologically and also politically, Battat needed to atone for that mistake. Otherwise, chances were good that he would get back to the United States and discover that the field agent who had been brought in from Washington to operate the office in his absence was now the permanent New York field director. Battat might find himself rea.s.signed to Moscow, and he didn't want that. The FBI had all the ins with the black marketeers who were running Russia and the Bureau didn't like to share information or contacts with the CIA. There wouldn't be anything to do in Moscow but debrief bored aparatchiks aparatchiks who had nothing to say except that they missed the old days and could they please get a visa to anywhere west of the Danube? who had nothing to say except that they missed the old days and could they please get a visa to anywhere west of the Danube?

Battat looked out over the tall gra.s.ses at the dark waters of the Bay of Baku, which led to the Caspian Sea. He raised his digital camera and studied the Rachel Rachel through the telephoto lens. There was no activity on the deck of the sixty-one-foot motor yacht. A few lights were on below deck. They must be waiting. He lowered the camera. He wondered if the pa.s.sengers were as impatient as he was. through the telephoto lens. There was no activity on the deck of the sixty-one-foot motor yacht. A few lights were on below deck. They must be waiting. He lowered the camera. He wondered if the pa.s.sengers were as impatient as he was.

Probably, he decided. Terrorists were always edgy but focused. It was an unusual combination, and one way that security forces zeroed in on potential troublemakers in crowds. he decided. Terrorists were always edgy but focused. It was an unusual combination, and one way that security forces zeroed in on potential troublemakers in crowds.

Battat looked at his watch again. Now they were five minutes late. Maybe it was just as well. It gave him a chance to get a handle on the adrenaline, to concentrate on the job. It was difficult.

Battat had not been in the field for nearly fifteen years. In the closing days of the war in Afghanistan, he had been a CIA liaison with the Mujahideen guerrilla fighters. He had reported from the front on Soviet troop strength, arms, deployment, tactics, and other battlefield details. Anything the military might need to know if the United States ever fought Soviet or Soviet-trained soldiers. That was back when the United States still had people on the ground collecting solid, firsthand intelligence instead of satellites gathering pictures and audio transmissions, which teams of experts then had to interpret. Former operatives like Battat who had been trained in HUMINT-human intelligence-called those experts "educated lucky guessers," since they were wrong just as often as they were right.

Now, dressed in black boots, blue jeans, leather gloves, a black turtleneck, and a black baseball cap, Battat was watching for a possible new enemy. One of those satellites Battat hated had picked up a communication during a test run in Moscow. For reasons as yet unknown, a group known as "Dover Street" was meeting on the Rachel, Rachel, presumably a boat, to pick up "the Harpooner." If this was the same Harpooner the CIA had missed grabbing in Beirut and Saudi Arabia, they wanted him. Over the past twenty-five years, he had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans in terrorist bombings. After discussing the contents of the message with Washington, it was decided that Battat would photograph the individuals and return to the American consulate in Baku for positive ID. After that, the boat would be tracked by satellite, and a special ops team would be dispatched from Turkey to take him out. No extradition debate, no political hot potato, just a good, old-fashioned erasure. The kind the CIA used to do before Iran-Contra gave black ops a bad name. Before "do something" was replaced by "due process." Before good manners replaced good government. presumably a boat, to pick up "the Harpooner." If this was the same Harpooner the CIA had missed grabbing in Beirut and Saudi Arabia, they wanted him. Over the past twenty-five years, he had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans in terrorist bombings. After discussing the contents of the message with Washington, it was decided that Battat would photograph the individuals and return to the American consulate in Baku for positive ID. After that, the boat would be tracked by satellite, and a special ops team would be dispatched from Turkey to take him out. No extradition debate, no political hot potato, just a good, old-fashioned erasure. The kind the CIA used to do before Iran-Contra gave black ops a bad name. Before "do something" was replaced by "due process." Before good manners replaced good government.

Battat had flown to Baku. Clearing customs, he had taken the crowded but clean metro out to the Khatayi stop on the sea. The ride cost the equivalent of three cents, and everyone was exceedingly polite, helping one another on and off and holding the doors for late arrivals.

The United States emba.s.sy in Baku maintained a small CIA field office staffed by two agents. The agents were presumably known to the Azerbaijani police and rarely went into the field themselves. Instead, they brought in outside personnel whenever neccessary. The emba.s.sy would not be happy to be presented with the action as a fait accompli. But there were increasing tensions between the United States and Azerbaijan over Caspian oil. The republic was attempting to flood the market with inexpensive oil to bolster its weak economy. That represented enormous potential damage to American oil companies, who were only marginally represented here-a holdover from the days of the Soviet Union. The CIA in Moscow did not want to inflame those tensions.

Battat spent the late afternoon walking around a section of beach, looking for a particular boat. When he found it, anch.o.r.ed about three hundred yards offsh.o.r.e, he made himself comfortable on a low, flat rock among a thatch of high reeds. With his backpack, water bottle, and bag dinner at his side and the camera hanging around his neck, he waited.

The smell of salty air and oil from the offsh.o.r.e rigs was strong here, like nowhere else in the world. It almost burned his nostrils. But he loved it. He loved the sand under his rubber soles, the cool breeze on his cheek, the sweat on his palms, and the accelerated beat of his heart.

Battat wondered how many foreign invaders had stood on these sh.o.r.es, perhaps in this very spot. The Persians in the eleventh century. The Mongols in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Russians in the eighteenth century, then the Persians again, then the Soviets. He couldn't decide whether he was part of a dramatic historical pageant or an ugly, unending rape.

Not that it matters, he told himself. He wasn't here to safeguard Azerbaijan. He was here to redeem himself and to protect American interests. he told himself. He wasn't here to safeguard Azerbaijan. He was here to redeem himself and to protect American interests.

Crouched among the high reeds at this isolated section of beachfront, Battat felt as though he had never been away from the field. Danger did that. It was like a fond song or a familiar food smell, a bookmark in the soul. He loved that, too. He also felt good about what he was doing. Not just to atone for Annabelle but because it was right.

Battat had been here for nearly seven hours now. The cell phone communications they'd intercepted said that the pickup was scheduled for eleven-thirty P.M. The Harpooner was supposed to be there to examine the parcel, whatever it was, then pay for it and leave.

Just then, something happened on the boat. A hatch door opened, and a man climbed out onto the deck. Battat looked out at the water. The man turned on a radio. It was playing what sounded like local folk tunes. Maybe that was a signal. Battat's gaze swept across the water.

Suddenly, an elbow locked around Battat's throat from behind and yartked him to his feet. He gagged. He tried to tuck his chin into the elbow, to relieve the pressure on his throat so he could breathe, but the attacker was well trained. He had locked his right arm around his throat and was pushing Battat's head with his left hand so he couldn't turn it. Battat tried to drive an elbow back into the attacker's gut, but the man was standing to the side. Finally, he tried to reach back and grab the shoulder of the choking arm and pull the attacker over.

The attacker responded by tilting his own body back and lifting Battat from the ground. Although Battat was able to grab the man's shoulder, he couldn't throw the attacker. Battat's feet were in the air and he had no leverage.

The struggle lasted five seconds. The attacker's arm squeezed against the American's carotid arteries from the side, immediately cutting the blood supply to the head and causing Battat to black out. Taking no chances, the attacker kept pressing the arteries for another half minute. Then he dropped the unconscious body to the sand.

The Harpooner reached into the pocket of his wind-breaker. He removed a syringe from his pocket, pulled off the plastic tip, and injected the man in the neck. After wiping away the small drop of blood, he took out a flashlight and flicked it on. He waved it back and forth several times. Another flashlight answered from the Rachel. Rachel.

Then both lights went dark. Moments later, a motor dinghy lowered from the boat and headed toward sh.o.r.e.

TWO.

Camp Springs, Maryland Sunday, 4:12 P.M.

Paul Hood sat on an armchair in the corner of the small, TV-lit hotel room. The heavy shades were drawn and a football game was on, but Hood wasn't really watching it. He was watching reruns in his mind. Reruns of over sixteen years of married life.

Old pictures in my new home, he thought. he thought.

Home was an anonymous fifth-floor suite at the Days Inn on Mercedes Boulevard, located a short distance from Andrews Air Force Base. Hood had moved in late Sat.u.r.day night. Though he could have stayed at a motel right next to the base where Op-Center was located, he wanted the option of being able to get away from work. Which was ironic. It was Hood's dedication to Op-Center that had cost him his marriage.

Or so his wife maintained.

Over the past several years, Sharon Hood had become increasingly frustrated by the long hours her husband kept at Op-Center. She grew tense and angry each time an international crisis caused him to miss one of their daughter Harleigh's violin recitals or their son Alexander's ball games. She was bitter that virtually every vacation they planned had to be canceled because of a coup attempt or a.s.sa.s.sination that demanded his attention. She resented how he was on the phone, even when he was with his family, checking with Deputy Director Mike Rodgers on how the mobile Regional Op-Center was performing in field tests or discussing with Intelligence Chief Bob Herbert what they could do to strengthen the new relationship with Op-Center's Russian counterpart in Saint Petersburg.

But Hood had never believed that work itself was really the problem. It was something older and deeper than that.

Even when he had resigned his position as director of Op-Center and went to New York for Harleigh's performance at a United Nations reception, Sharon still wasn't happy. She was jealous of the attention that other mothers on the junket gave him. Sharon realized that the women were drawn to Hood because he had been a highly visible mayor of Los Angeles. After that, he had held a powerful job in Washington, where power was the coin of the realm. It didn't matter to Sharon that Hood put no stock in fame and power. It didn't matter to her that his replies to the women were always polite but short. All Sharon knew was that she had to share her husband again.

Then came the nightmare. Harleigh and the other young musicians were taken hostage in the Security Council chambers by renegade United Nations peacekeepers. Hood had left Sharon at the State Department's understaffed crisis center so that he could oversee Op-Center's successful covert effort to rescue the teenagers and the captive foreign delegates. In Sharon's eyes, he had not been there for her again. When they returned to Washington, she immediately took the children to her parents' house in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Sharon had said she wanted to get Harleigh away from the media zoo that had pursued the children from New York.

Hood couldn't argue with that. Harleigh had seen one of her friends seriously wounded and several other people executed. She was almost killed herself. She had suffered the clinical consequences of cla.s.sic stressor triggers for post-traumatic stress disorder: threats to the physical integrity of herself and others; fear and helplessness; and a guilt response to survival. After all that, to have been surrounded by TV lights and shouting members of the press corps would have been the worst thing for Harleigh.

But Hood knew that wasn't the only reason his wife had gone back to Old Saybrook. Sharon herself needed to get away. She needed the comfort and safety of her childhood home in order to think about her future.

About their their future. future.

Hood shut off the TV. He put the remote on the night table, lay back on the bunched pillows, and looked up at the white ceiling. Only he didn't see a ceiling. Hood saw Sharon's pale face and dark eyes. He saw how they had looked on Friday when she came home and told him she wanted a divorce.

That wasn't a surprise. It was actually a relief in some ways. After Hood had returned from New York, he met briefly with the president about repairing the rift between the United States and the UN. Being back at the White House, being plugged into the world, had made him want to withdraw his resignation from Op-Center. He liked the work he was doing: the challenge, the implications, the risk. On Friday evening, after Sharon had told him of her decision, he was able to withdraw his resignation with a clear conscience.

By the time Hood and Sharon talked again on Sat.u.r.day, the emotional distancing had already begun. They agreed that Sharon could use their family attorney. Paul would have Op-Center's legal officer, Lowell Coffey III, recommend someone for him. It was all very polite, mature, formal.

The big questions they still had to decide were whether to tell the kids and whether Hood should leave the house immediately. He had called Op-Center's staff psychologist Liz Gordon, who was counseling Harleigh before turning her over to a psychiatrist who specialized in treating PTSD. Liz told Hood that he should be extremely gentle whenever he was around Harleigh. He was the only family member who had been with her during the siege. Harleigh would a.s.sociate his strength and calmness with security. That would help to speed her recovery. Liz added that whatever instability was introduced by his departure was less dangerous than the ongoing strife between him and his wife. That tension would not show Hood in the light Harleigh needed to see him. Liz also told him that intensive therapy for Harleigh should begin as soon as possible. They had to deal with the problem, or she ran the risk of being psychologically impaired for the rest of her life.

After having discussed the situation with Liz Gordon, Hood and Sharon decided to tell the kids calmly and openly what was happening. For the last time as a family, they sat in the den-the same room where they had set up their Christmas tree every year and taught the kids Monopoly and chess and had birthday parties. Alexander seemed to take it well after being a.s.sured that his life wouldn't change very much. Harleigh was initially upset, feeling that what had happened to her was the cause. Hood and his wife a.s.sured Harleigh that was not the case at all, and they would both be there for her.

When they were finished, Sharon had dinner with Harleigh at home, and Hood took Alexander out to their favorite greasy pit, the Corner Bistro-the "Coroner Bistro" as the health-conscious Sharon called it. Hood put on his best face, and they had a fun time. Then he came back to the house, quickly and quietly packed a few things, and left for his new home.

Hood looked around the hotel room. There was a gla.s.s-covered desk with a blotter, a lamp, and a folder full of postcards. A queen-sized bed. An industrial-strength carpet that matched the opaque drapes. A framed print of a painting of a harlequin whose outfit matched the carpet. A dresser with a built-in cabinet for a minirefrigerator and another cabinet for the TV. And, of course, a drawer with a Bible. There was also a night table with a lamp like the one on the desk, four waste-baskets, a clock, and a box of tissues he had moved from the bathroom.

My new home, he thought again. he thought again.

Except for the laptop on the desk and the pictures of the kids beside it-last year's school photos, still in their warping cardboard frames-there was nothing of home here. The stains on the carpet weren't apple juice Alexander had spilled as a boy. Harleigh hadn't painted the picture of the harlequin. The refrigerator wasn't stocked with rows of plastic containers filled with that wretched kiwi-strawberry-yogurt juice that Sharon liked. The television had never shown home videotapes of birthday parties, pool parties, and anniversaries, of relatives and coworkers who were gone. Hood had never watched the sun rise or set from this window. He had never had the flu or felt his unborn child kick in this bed. If he called out to the kids, they wouldn't come.

Tears pressed against the backs of his eyes. He turned to look at the clock, anything to break the steady succession of thoughts and pictures. He would have to get ready soon. Time-and government-stopped for no man. He still had professional obligations. But lord G.o.d, Hood thought, he didn't feel like going. Talking, putting on a happy face the way he did with his son, wondering who knew and who didn't in the instant message machine known as the Washington grapevine.

He looked up at the ceiling. Part of him had wanted this to happen. Hood wanted the freedom to do his job. He wanted an end to being judged and criticized by Sharon. He also wanted to stop constantly disappointing his wife.

But another part of him, by far the largest part, was bitterly sad that it had come to this. There would be no more shared experiences, and the children were going to suffer for their parents' shortcomings.

As the finality of the divorce hit him, hit him hard, Hood allowed the tears to flow.

THREE.