State Of The Union

“During the eighties, we had a lot of assets forward deployed in Europe. There was no point in having teams stateside that could lift off in under two hours if it was going to take at least six more to cross the Atlantic. The Dark Night operation evolved from a group of Army Intelligence operatives based in Berlin. They could not only quickly respond to terrorist incidents on the continent, but they had also been trained to blend in with the locals and organize resistance if the Soviets ever overran the wall and they found themselves behind enemy lines. They were expert marksmen, possessed exceptional language abilities, and were highly skilled in their tradecraft. In fact, the CIA used them to help train many of their own people. In short, they were not only highly trained counterterrorism operatives, but also some of the best intelligence agents the United States has ever produced. And the man in charge of them all was Gary Lawlor.”

Harvath raised his eyebrows and looked as if he was about to speak, when Hilliman held up his hand and continued. “After Vietnam, Gary remained attached to Army Intelligence. He retained his rank and received four promotions as he worked his way through the FBI. As far as they’re concerned it was because of his Russian skills that the government borrowed him to recruit foreign intelligence agents in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. In reality, he had been called upon by the Defense Department to assemble and coordinate the Dark Night team.”

“What about Heide, his wife?” asked Harvath. “I heard a lot of things in my debriefing with Secretary Driehaus.”

“She was a bona fide recruiter of foreign intelligence agents.”

“So that’s why she was sanctioned and not Gary?”

“Correct. But the reason she was sanctioned in the first place was because she was so good at what she did,” replied the secretary.

“What about what Driehaus said about her suspicions of Gary toward the end?”

“Like I said, she was good at what she did. That also made her a good student of human behavior. In the weeks before her death, there had been a lot of suspicious activity in some of the Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe. The Russians were moving nuclear missiles into places like Prague and Budapest. Gary and his team were sent in to investigate. Something he did had obviously made Heide suspicious and she looked into it. She spoke with her handler, and he came back and told her he couldn’t support any of what Gary had been telling her. Shortly thereafter, she was killed in the hit and run. We needed to develop a cover for Gary’s actions because other U.S. agencies that had no idea what he was really up to started looking into his life. The Dark Night operation had to remain out of their reach and totally classified.”

“Hence the alternate codename the president is using right now?”

“Yes.”

“And this facility?”

“Was created several administrations ago in case any of our established command centers were ever compromised. It was all part of the overall plan. The need for secrecy overrode all else. Though he fought it in the beginning, Gary eventually relented and agreed to let us put together the story about Heide being on medication and fighting severe paranoia and depression to throw off the pending CIA investigation. We used one of our doctors, backdated some files, records of office visits, prescriptions, and that was that. Heide’s people bought it and though Gary wasn’t too happy about sullying his wife’s reputation, he could see the bigger picture and went along with it.”

“He has always put his country first,” said Harvath.

“As did Heide, which I think was his one consolation. Somehow he knew she would understand why he had to do what he did. There was no choice. After the wall came down and Russia began to fold in on itself, we put the whole Dark Night operation out to pasture. In fact, all of the guys, except for Gary, eventually retired from the military.”

“You never replaced them?” asked Harvath. “You didn’t update the team with active operatives?”

“As far as the Defense Department was concerned, we had won the Cold War and the need for the team had passed.”

“But you left the nukes in place.”

“They were hidden well enough and it was easier to leave them there than to try and smuggle them back out. We looked at it as sort of an insurance policy. If the need ever arose, we’d have them on the continent ready to move.”

“But not the men to move them.”

“That,” said the secretary, “was a possibility we hadn’t fully considered.”

“You’ll have to find replacements for the Dark Night team.”