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The president grabbed one of the photos and asked again, “Who is this man?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Turbes leaned forward. “Sir, I’ve got the best people at the CTC looking into this. I’m hopeful we’ll get an ID on him within a day or two.”
“There’s one more thing, Mr. President.” Kennedy closed the file. “The Brits say the prince and this man met again in Cannes last Saturday. Apparently they had some problems with their audio surveillance so the tape of their conversation has yielded very little, but they were able to confirm one thing.”
“And what is that?”
“The Brits say the man was headed for America.”
“Why?” asked Hayes in confusion. “I thought he stated in the transcript that the target was Israel.”
Kennedy shook her head. “I don’t know, sir. We’re trying to sort this all out.”
“Irene,” the president said with a bit of a disappointed tone. “I know I’ve told you countless times to keep me in the loop, but I think all you’ve done here this morning is confuse me.”
“I would have much rather taken a day or even a week to flesh this out, but considering what happened in New York last night, I wanted to make you aware of it as soon as possible.”
“But why?” Hayes shook his head. “This transcript tells me the target of these two is Israel, not the United States.”
“Then why did John Doe leave France for the United States?” Rapp paced slowly behind the couch, not bothering to look at the president or his boss. “If his goal is Israel then he should be headed in the other direction, or maybe MI6 is reading too far into this or we’re taking the wrong meaning from it.” Rapp looked down at the president. “Arabs are famous for being shameless braggarts when it comes to Israel. They puff up their chests and throw around wild brutal ideas, but rarely do they ever follow through on them. What if all we heard on that tape was a business transaction that—” Rapp thought of something Kennedy had said in the meeting. “What if Prince Omar was involved in an arms deal with Ali and he got burned?”
Hayes looked at Rapp with a skeptical frown and asked, “Do you really think that’s what this is about, Mitch?”
“I’m not sure, sir. It’s too early to tell … . I’m just trying to throw out some other possibilities, before we get swept up in this blame Israel storm.”
The president didn’t feel like hearing any dissension this morning. Ben Freidman had abused the trust of his country’s greatest supporter and until someone gave him hard evidence to the contrary, Freidman would continue to be the focus of the president’s ire. “Mitch, do you trust Ben Freidman?”
Rapp didn’t waver for a second. “Of course not.”
Hayes nodded. “And you think he’s capable of something this reckless?”
This time Rapp took a moment to consider the full breadth of the question. “Absolutely. If it means protecting his country … I think he’s capable of almost anything.”
The president concurred with a firm nod.
“But,” Rapp added quickly, “one thing doesn’t quite make sense. I think the fact that the assassination took place in New York City leaves some doubt.”
“Why, because you don’t think he’d risk offending us?”
“Yeah.”
Hayes scowled. “I don’t think Ben Freidman worries about offending anyone.”
“But Prime Minister Goldberg does,” answered Valerie Jones. “His coalition cabinet is ready to fall right over the edge of the cliff. If he gets implicated in this the Knesset will vote him out like that.” Jones snapped her fingers in the air.
“Sir,” warned Kennedy, “all we’re trying to say is let’s be very careful about what positions we take until we know more.”
After sitting back Hayes thought about Kennedy’s cautionary words and sighed. Her advice went against his instincts. He’d lost all patience with Ben Freidman and his lying ways, but he knew Kennedy was right. He looked at her and nodded. “All right … for now we stay quiet about all this, but,” looking to Rapp and Turbes he said, “find out who this man is and if he had anything to do with Ambassador Ali’s assassination.”
Rapp nodded, but Turbes was preoccupied with reading an e-mail off his Blackberry. The director of the CTC glanced up from the small screen, a grim expression on his face and announced. “Three suicide bombs just went off in Israel.”
President Hayes placed a hand over his face and said, “Oh, God … this just keeps getting worse.”
55
The old house wasn’t i
