Takedown

“Scot, you are a tremendous asset to this country.”

Harvath tried to interrupt, but the president stopped him. “It often seems to me that we should be doing more in return to thank you.”

“I don’t do it for the thanks, sir.”

“I know you don’t, and I also know you don’t do it for the money. There certainly are places that would pay you a lot more for what you know.”

Harvath couldn’t tell for sure, but he had a sneaking suspicion that the president knew he had been looking for another job lately. He made a mental note to get in touch with his contact at Valhalla out in Colorado to let them know that for the time being, he was going to remain in his current position.

“Well?” said Rutledge, snapping Scot back to the here and now.

Looking down, Harvath realized the president was talking about the envelope he was holding.

“In addition to signing the leasehold, we’re going to need to amend your file to show you as caretaker,” Rutledge added.

Harvath looked up and said, “I’m sorry, caretaker? I don’t understand.”

“Two days ago, I spoke with the secretary of the Navy. Are you familiar with the Navy’s Federal Preservation Office?”

“No, sir. I can’t say that I am.”

At that moment, the president’s chief of staff, Charles Anderson, knocked and poked his head into the Oval Office. After saying a quick hello to Scot, he pointed at his watch and indicated to Rutledge that they needed to get going.

The president pointed at the envelope and said, “All the information’s in there. Take a few days and then let me know what you think.”

Not really knowing what he was thanking the man for, Harvath shook the president’s hand, tucked the envelope inside his breast pocket, and left the Oval Office. Once he got outside, he opened the envelope and read its contents. Halfway through the first page, Harvath couldn’t believe his eyes.

Exiting the White House grounds, he made his way down Pennsylvania Avenue to where he’d parked his TrailBlazer and then got on the road and headed toward Fairfax County, Virginia. He had to see this for himself.

One Hundred Six

On several acres of land overlooking the Potomac River, just south of George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, was a small eighteenth-century stone church known as Bishop’s Gate. During the revolutionary war, the Anglican reverend of Bishop’s Gate was an outspoken loyalist who provided sanctuary and aid to British spies, which resulted in the colonial army attacking the church and inflicting great damage.

Bishop’s Gate lay in ruins until 1882, when the Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI, was established to seek out and report on the enormous post-Civil War explosion in the technological capabilities of other world-class navies. Several covert ONI agent training centers were established up and down the eastern seaboard to instruct naval attachés and military affairs officers on the collection of technical information about foreign governments and their naval developments.

Because of its isolated, yet prime location not far from Washington, DC, Bishop’s Gate was secretly rebuilt and funded as one of the ONI’s first covert officer training schools.

As the oldest continuously operating intelligence service in the nation, the ONI eventually outgrew the Bishop’s Gate location. The stubby yet elegant church with its attached stone rectory was relegated to a declassified document storage site. Apparently, the fate of Bishop’s Gate was not out of the ordinary. As Harvath read the letter, he learned that the Navy often was forced to mothball assets that served no immediate need, but might at some point in the future. This “laying away” of properties, many of them historic like Bishop’s Gate, might be for a short term, an intermediate, or an undetermined period. Regardless of how the properties might once again be used, while still under the jurisdiction of the Navy, the Navy was obligated to protect and preserve their historic significance, as well as maintain their physical integrity.

Most of the Navy properties suitable for use as dwellings were saved for high-level defectors and other political personages the United States government found themselves responsible for. In Harvath’s case, the secretary of the Navy, a former ONI officer, was apparently quite pleased to see such a distinguished American entrusted with the property. The fact that Harvath was an ex-SEAL probably didn’t hurt his standing with the secretary either.

Bishop’s Gate in its entirety-the church building and the rectory that had been converted into a nice-sized house, an outbuilding that had been converted into a garage, and the extensive grounds-were deeded to Harvath in a ninety-nine- year government lease with a token rent of one U.S. dollar due per annum. All that was required of Harvath was that he maintain the property in a manner befitting its historic status and that he vacate the premises within twenty-four hours if ever given notice, with or without cause, by the United States Navy.