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“The Achilles’ heel is water.”
“Water? You want to put water in the coke?”
“No, water under the coke. Seawater. Apart from one single land route up from Colombia to Mexico via the narrow spine of Central America, which is so easily controllable that the cartels do not use it, every gram of cocaine heading for the USA or Europe . . .”
“Forget Europe, they’re not in,” snapped Silver.
“. . . has got to travel over, across or under the sea. Even from Colombia to Mexico, it goes by sea. That is the cartel’s carotid artery. Cut that, the patient dies.”
Silver grunted and stared across his desk at the retired spy. The man stared calmly back, seeming not to care a damn if his findings were accepted or not.
“So, I can tell the President his project is ‘go’ and you are prepared to take it on?”
“Not entirely. There are conditions. I fear they are not negotiable.”
“That sounds like a threat. No one threatens the Oval Office. Back off, mister.”
“It is not a threat, it is a warning. If the conditions are not met, the project would simply fail, expensively and embarrassingly. These are they.”
Devereaux pushed his slim file across the desk. The chief of staff opened it. Just two sheets that looked as if they had been typed. Five paragraphs. Numbered. He read the first.
“‘1. I will need total independence of action within the ambit of absolute secrecy. None but the tiniest group around the commander in chief need know what is happening or why, no matter how many feathers are ruffled or noses put out of joint. Everyone below the Oval Office need know only what they need to know; and that shall be the least to accomplish the task required of them.’
“The federal and military structure does not leak,” snapped Silver.
“Yes, it does,” said the imperturbable Devereaux. “I have spent half my life trying to prevent them or repairing the damage later.”
“‘2. I will require presidential authority giving me powers plenipotentiary to require and receive without demur complete cooperation from any other agency or military unit whose cooperation is vital. That must begin with automatic patch through of every scrap of information reaching any other agency in the anti-narcotics campaign to the HQ of what I wish to call “Project Cobra.”’
“They’ll go crazy,” growled Silver. He knew information was power, and no one willingly ceded
even one smidgen of their power. That included the CIA, DEA, FBI, NSA or the Armed Forces.
“They all now come under Homeland Security and the Patriot Act,” said Devereaux. “They will obey the President.”
“Homeland Security is about the terrorism threat,” snapped Silver. “Narc smuggling is crime.”
“Read on,” murmured the CIA veteran.
“‘3. I will need to recruit my own staff. Not many, but the ones I need must be seconded to the project without query or refusal.’ ”
The chief of staff raised no objection until he came to number four.
“‘4. I will need a budget of two billion dollars, to be disbursed without check or examination. I will then need nine month to prepare for the onslaught and a further nine months to destroy the cocaine industry.”
There had been covert projects before and secret budgets, but this was huge. The chief of staff could see red lights flashing. Whose budget would be raided? FBI? CIA? DEA? Or would the Treasury be asked for fresh funds?
“There has to be supervision of expenditure,” he said. “The money men won’t bear the departure into a clear blue sky of two billion dollars because you want to go shopping.”
“Then it won’t work,” Devereaux replied calmly. “The whole point is that when action is taken against the cocaine cartel and industry, they must not see it coming. Forewarned is still fore-armed. The nature of the acquired equipment and personnel would betray the game plan, and that will assuredly leak to some investigative reporter or blogger the moment accountants or book-keepers take over.”
“They don’t have to take over, just monitor.”
“Same difference, Mr. Silver. Once they get involved, cover is blown. And once your cover is blown, you’re dead. Trust me. I know.”
It was an area the Illinois ex-congressman knew he could not dispute. He passed to condition five.
“‘5. It will be necessary to recategorize cocaine from a Class A drug whose importation is a crime in law to a national threat whose importation or intended importation is an act of terrorism.’ ”
