State Of The Union

There was the familiar hiss as the airlock released and the Situation Room door swung open. As Harvath entered, he expected to see a mass of agency heads seated at the long cherrywood table, but there were only three people present-the president, Defense Secretary Hilliman, and General Paul Venrick, commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. Though Harvath had no idea how they had gotten hold of it so fast, each of them had a small piece of his cake sitting in front of them.

Harvath took a seat where the president indicated and waited for the commander in chief to start the meeting.

“For once, I find myself in a meeting with no idea of how to begin,” said the president, with more than his customary economy of sentiment.

Harvath was at a loss by the show of emotion on the face of the normally rock-steady man. The uncomfortable silence that descended upon the Situation Room was broken when General Venrick took the lead, stood up from his chair, and saluted Scot Harvath. The General was quickly joined by Secretary Hilliman, and even the president himself. The men held their salute until Harvath rose from his chair and returned their expression of esteem.

No matter what followed, this moment was the greatest honor Scot Harvath had ever experienced in his life.

“Okay,” said the president, sitting down and stabbing at a piece of cake, “let’s bring Scot up to speed.”

Defense Secretary Hilliman was the first to speak. He described how the FBI, in conjunction with NEST teams from the Department of Energy, had been able to locate all of the sleepers’ nukes in each city and successfully deactivate them. Each had been hidden in a mausoleum with the same family name as the one Scot and Alexandra had uncovered in the Congressional Cemetery-Lenin.

While on the subject of Alexandra, Hilliman explained the high points of her debriefing. While waiting for Harvath outside the first mausoleum, she had heard something and thought it might be Draegar. She went to investigate, but it had been a ruse. Draegar drew her away from the mausoleum, and the next thing she heard was the explosion. By the time she saw Draegar again, he had already attacked Morrell and his men and was making his way back to the mausoleum where he was holding Harvath captive.

Hilliman went on to explain that Alexandra had been offered asylum, but had asked instead that General Stavropol’s journal be entrusted to her care. Other than that, all she wanted was a flight home. As those were her only requests, the United States had willingly granted them to her, after, of course, photocopies had been made and she had fully explained how to decipher the coded entries.

Once the report that Gary Lawlor was doing much better and would be transported Stateside soon was delivered, Secretary Hilliman turned over the meeting to General Venrick.

“The President,” began Venrick, “has asked me here to bring you up to speed on the operations end of things.”

“What’s our position with the Russians after all of this?”

“They still claim that the nukes we uncovered here had been stolen from them.”

“After everything that’s happened, they’re still denying it?” asked Harvath. “The Russians aren’t going to pay any price?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. They’ve definitely paid a price. Not only did you sink two of their Sokzhoi patrol boats, but thanks to you and the rest of the team, you were also able to sink theGagarin. That was a major tactical coup.

“In the meantime, we’ve got our people working around the clock on the notes and schematics that Dr. Nesterov left behind. The NSA already thinks they’ve found a way to subvert the Russian air defense system if they ever bring it back up on line.”

“What do you think the chances of that happening are?” asked Harvath.

“At this point, not so good. We’ve already quietly gotten word to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund about what the Russians have been doing with their aid money, and they are not very happy.”

“So what’s next?”

Defense Secretary Hilliman leaned forward and taking a handkerchief from his pocket, took off his glasses and began cleaning them. “Things are going to get pretty frosty for Moscow. They were a pain in the ass for us during the whole Iraq situation, and we’ve now seen that we can’t trust them at all as an ally. While it would be foolish for us to completely break off ties with them altogether, they are going to be relegated to a very low rung on our ladder of diplomatic and international priorities.”

The president stood and walked around the table. Upon reaching Scot he extended his hand and said, “You are one of the most valuable assets the United States has. Your patriotism, loyalty, and service to your country is something that we will always be grateful for. Don’t ever forget that.”

“Thank you, sir,” replied Harvath. “I won’t.”

“Good. There’s something else. Until Gary Lawlor is back on his feet, I need you to handle things at the OIIA. Do you think you can do that?”