Mission of Honor (20 page)

While Seronga wiped up stray streaks of blood, Pavant checked the veranda. There was no one outside. The men slung the bodies over their shoulders. Even with the loss of blood, the corpses were lighter than Seronga expected. Obviously, Deacon missionaries did not eat very well. The dead men were also still very warm. Eager to get his mind off the killings, Seronga wondered if Dhamballa’s ancient magic would be potent enough to rouse two such as these. Not just men who had died of natural causes but men who had been murdered. Seronga wished he could spend more time with their leader. He wanted to learn more about the few phenomena he had witnessed. About the ancient religion he had embraced on faith.

In time, he told himself.

For now, Seronga would continue doing things he did not enjoy. That was how Botswana had become free once before. Whether he liked it or not, that was how Botswana would become free again.

Washington, D.C. Thursday, 4:35 P.M.

It was a busy afternoon for Paul Hood, the kind of afternoon when information flowed so quickly that questions provided their own answers. And each answer generated two or three new questions.

Unfortunately, none of those answers provided the key the OpCenter director was searching for.

Still, Hood was happy to get out of the morning alive. For the first time in over a week, Senator Fox’s office did not call and ask to see OpCenter’s daily work sheet. That was the duty roster Congress used to apportion budgets. Evidently, Fox was satisfied with the cutbacks Hood had already made. Nor did any other members of the Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committee contact him. That meant Mike Rodgers had been able to keep his new intelligence operation under wraps for over a day. In Washington time, that was equivalent to a year.

Even the tension between Darrell McCaskey and Bob Herbert had been defused, at least for the moment. The only lingering problem was not OpCenter’s. At least, not directly. That was the tension between Darrell McCaskey and his wife. The way Herbert described it, Maria Corneja took the assignment “like a pit bull at a rib roast.” She was not going to give up fieldwork. They had all suspected that would be the case. Now they knew it. The fact that Maria had made this decision without consulting her husband made it even worse. It was ironic. McCaskey was a great listener in interrogations or conferences. He was without equal when it came to sifting answers for truths or following voice inflections to fertile new lines of questioning. But when it came to his personal life, McCaskey tended to do most of the talking and none of the hearing. That was going to have to change.

Look who’s giving advice, Hood thought. He himself was a man who had listened to everything his wife had said. And meant to do most of it. He just never found the time.

But there had not been time to dwell on small triumphs or major shortcomings. Not long after returning to his office, Hood received a call from Edgar Kline. The Vatican security officer reported that Deacon Jones had heard from Father Bradbury. According to Jones, the priest was still a prisoner.

“Is he in good health?” Hood asked.

“Apparently,” Kline informed him.

“You don’t sound happy about that,” Hood said.

“Father Bradbury asked about the parish,” Kline went on. “Unfortunately, Deacon Jones told the father that a temporary replacement was en route from Washington.”

“Shit,” Hood said. Obviously, African missionaries had lost some of their tactical finesse since the closing years of the nineteenth century. In those days, the Boers used clergymen to spy on the location, movements, and strength of Zulu tribesmen. “That means Dhamballa knows about the bishop.”

“One has to assume that,” Kline agreed.

“Are you going to change his travel plans?” Hood asked.

“That would signal to Dhamballa that we are afraid of him,” Kline said. “We will not do that.”

“What about your Spanish undercover operatives? Have they arrived?” Hood asked.

“Yes,” Kline replied. “The leader of the group is going to introduce himself to the deacons in the morning. Several members will shadow them and watch out for the bishop.”

“That’s good,” Hood replied.

“I’d also like to send over our E-file of photographs that were taken at Dhamballa’s rallies,” Kline said. “There are some photographs of Dhamballa. We thought you might be able to search your own databases on the off chance that there’s a match.”

Hood agreed to do so. Then he told Kline’ about Richard Stiele’s activities. Kline did not seem overly concerned. Nor would he be. Whatever the Europeans were doing probably would not impact the Vatican directly. Hood told Kline that he would keep him abreast of any new developments, whether or not they appeared to relate to Father Bradbury.

“Just to keep you fully in the loop,” Hood said pointedly.

Kline thanked him.

A few minutes after Kline hung up, Hood’s computer beeped. He had received a file containing the address for the secure Vatican Security Organization web site. The download came with a password to access the Dhamballa file. The password was adamas. From four years of high school Latin, Hood remembered that was the word for diamond. Someone in the VSO had a clear sense of the region. Or else they knew more than Kline was letting on.

Hood forwarded the information to Stephen Viens. Until recently, Viens had been the Satellite Imaging supervisor at the National Reconnaissance Office. A college classmate of Matt Stoll, Viens had always given OpCenter’s requirements top priority. For that reason, among others, Viens was scapegoated for two billion dollars in funding that did not reach its targeted black ops programs. Bob Herbert helped to prove the man’s innocence. OpCenter was punished by having their needs given VLP status-very low priority. Fortunately, Viens still had friends at the NRO. He did not go back to his former post. He now worked as OpCenter’s internal security chief. Viens’s duties included setting up a photo analysis program for Hood. Hood also sent the Vatican address to Herbert and Rodgers.

As Hood finished sending the data from the Vatican Security Organization, Emmy called.

“Paul, that was a terrific lead you gave me about Albeit Beaudin,” she told him.

“How so?” Hood asked.

“It turns out Mr. Stiele wasn’t the only Beaudin associate who liquidated assets within the last few days,” she said.

“Who else?” Hood asked.

“Gurney de Sylva, who is another Beaudin board member,”

Emmy said. “He sold his minority interest in six different diamond mines yesterday.”

“Where are the mines located?” Hood asked.

“Throughout southern Africa,” she replied.

“How much did he net?” Hood asked.

“About ninety million dollars,” Emmy replied. “He turned around and put most of that money into corporations that are invested in oil operations in Russia and Mexico.”

“Maybe he thinks oil is a better long-term investment,” Hood speculated.

“Possibly,” Emmy said. “But some of the profits also went into the corporation that holds Stiele’s land leases in China.”

“So the oil deal could be a smoke screen to keep anyone from looking too closely at China,” Hood said.

“Or he could pull those investments at some point and put them into China,” Emmy pointed out. “He did not indicate his long-term plans in the filing. Then again, he is not the most forthcoming investor we’ve ever tracked. He once avoided capital gains taxes by donating millions of dollars to a charity for the homeless, the Rooftop Angels.”

“Weren’t they shut down in 2001 for money laundering?” Hood asked.

“They were,” Emmy said. “For every hundred dollars they received, the Angels gave back eighty dollars in cash. It was distributed through safe-deposit boxes, traveler’s checks, and other monetary media. We could never prove that Stiele received any of what was doled out. None of his accounts showed any unusual spikes.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Hood said. “The cash could still be sitting somewhere. Hell, he could be using it for groceries.”

“Absolutely,” Emmy said. “But that’s an ongoing investigation, which is why the red flag went up on his latest stock sales. So far, we haven’t been able to find anything that violates international law. However, I did discover a tie between de Sylva and Peter Diffring that goes beyond the Beaudin board. One that has nothing to do with China.”

“Oh?”

“With several local businessmen, Diffring co-owns the construction company that did geologic and environmental site surveys on hotel sites in Botswana,” Emmy said. “The sale required a filing with the Land Valuation division of the Department of Surveys and Mapping.”

“Who did they buy the land from?” Hood asked.

“It was purchased from a tribe, the Limgadi,” Emmy told him.

“Did they indicate what the land was to be used for?” Hood asked.

“The stated purpose is to ‘develop transportation facilities,’ ” she informed him.

“How long ago did Diffring buy into that construction company?” Hood asked.

“Four months ago,” Emmy replied. “The land office in Botswana says that so far, Diffring’s group has put in a small landing strip. Nothing more. All of this could mean absolutely nothing, Paul.”

“I know,” he said. But his gut told him otherwise.

“It’s not exactly uncommon for people to set up synergistic businesses in areas they plan to develop,” she said.

“Of course,” Hood replied.

There was a vast distinction between the kind of conspiracy Hood was envisioning and sound business opportunities Emmy had just described. These activities might have nothing whatsoever to do with Dhamballa and his group. It could all be a trick of timing.

Then again, maybe it was not. Paul Hood and his team were paid to assume that whatever was on the surface was a front. Effective crisis management had to presume guilt, not innocence.

Hood thanked Emmy for her efforts. They made dinner plans for the following week. The woman had gotten married a few months before, and she wanted Hood to meet her husband. Hood was glad for her. At the same time, he felt sad for himself. This was the first time in twenty years that he would be odd man out at a social dinner.

As Hood was finishing up with Emmy, Mike Rodgers came to the door. Hood thanked Emmy. They agreed to talk again later in the day. Rodgers entered and took a seat. The general looked better than he had in weeks. He seemed energized, engaged, focused.

“How’s the team shaping up?” Hood asked.

“Aideen Marley and Dave Battat are ready to go over if we need them,” Rodgers said.

“They got along all right?” Hood asked.

“They got along well enough,” Rodgers replied. “They’re not running off to get married, but they’ll get the job done.”

“Where’s the rub?” Hood asked.

“David knows his stuff and likes to beat you over the head with it,” Rodgers told him. “Aideen has a solid foundation, somewhat less experience, but a whole lot more tact.”

“Who’d be the better mission leader?” Hood asked.

“In this situation? She would,” Rodgers said. “I already made that call. She will interact with ordinary people better than he will.”

“Battat is okay with that?” Hood asked.

“To get back in the field? Yeah, he’s okay with that,” Rodgers said.

Hood regarded the general. Military people looked at things differently than civilians. Hood liked to have harmony on his staff. Rodgers put the emphasis on efficiency.

“Don’t worry about them, Paul,” Rodgers said. “Battat knows that Aideen will be in charge. They’ll be fine.”

Hood hoped that Rodgers was right. He had not anticipated fielding the new intelligence team this quickly, but OpCenter needed people on site. Given the haste, Hood also hoped that he had been right giving Mike Rodgers this assignment. He respected the hell out of the general. He admired Rodgers’s ability to command. But Rodgers had suffered a heavy blow with the loss of the Strikers. Psychologically, both Hood and Rodgers were in uncharted territory.

Until recently, Paul Hood had not believed in psychiatry. He felt that character came from dealing with your own problems. Then Harleigh was taken hostage at the United Nations. OpCenter’s staff psychologist Liz Gordon and other mental health specialists helped see the girl through her blackest days. They gave Harleigh her life back, and they gave Hood his daughter back.

He changed his thinking about psychiatry.

The change prompted Hood to take an unprecedented step of involving Liz in his own decision-making process. A few days before talking to Rodgers about the new intelligence team, Hood had spoken to the psychologist about it. The question he asked her: Would an officer who lost his squad be overly cautious with the next one or more aggressive? Liz told him that it depended upon the officer, of course. In the case of Mike Rodgers, she thought he might be reluctant to take on a new command. He would not want to risk any more lives. If he did accept the post, she believed he might experience a mild form of substitution hysteria. The need to re-create a failure and make it come out right.

Fortunately, this was not a military operation. The participants did not have to stay until the matter was resolved. They collected intelligence until things became too dangerous. Then they left.

“Since everything seems to be set, it’s probably a good idea to get them over to Botswana,” Hood continued. “I suspect things are going to heat up when Bishop Max arrives tomorrow.”

“We can get Aideen and Battat on a plane today,” Rodgers told him. “Travel documents are being prepared. Right now, I’ve got them in Matt Stoll’s section, reading what we have on the Father Bradbury situation. They’re also going over files about Botswana and Albert Beaudin. Bob told me that he and his people might be involved.”

“It’s possible,” Hood said.

“I also had a chat with Falah Shibli on the drive over,” Rodgers said.

“How is he?” Hood asked. Falah was an extremely capable and humble man. Those were a good combination in any man. In an intelligence operative they were invaluable. They made him invisible.

“Falah’s still working as a police officer in northern Israel, only now he’s running the department,” Rodgers said. “He said he has his hands full keeping peace on the Lebanese border, but he’d be happy to take a short leave of absence to do whatever we need.”