Counterplay

be at a high level. This should not be hard to figure out.”
“To organize a comm-link like that would involve the cooperation of several government agencies,” said Dan. “Which means someone at my level, the director level, could not do it. It’s been organized at a higher level than that.”
“What level would that be?” questioned the president.
“The deputy director of intelligence,” said CJ.
“And who is the DDI these days?”
“Jackson,” said CJ. “Admiral Jackson.”
The president reflected on that for a minute. “Jesus. Could the admiral himself have gone rogue? Pick him up,” he said to Tyra. “Pick him up and bring him to me. Next point,” he said, “what do we do with those damned conspiracy theorists? The Kumar escape could play into that. It certainly would if Kumar began to talk.”
The conspiracy websites spelled out a theory of the Colorado terror attack that was inconsistent with the findings of the Colorado Commission. This commission, chaired by the secretary of defense himself, was specifically set up to investigate the attack, how it occurred, and what could be learned from it, in the hope that attacks like it could be prevented in the future. The commission’s key finding was that the attack was perpetrated by a Canadian, Leon Lestage, and a number of drug lords in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Neither Yousseff Said al-Sabhan nor Kumar Hanaman were mentioned in the report. The drug lords who were named were all competitors of Yousseff’s drug smuggling operations. One of the kingpins of the plot was allegedly Leon Lestage, currently on trial in a court in Canada. The evidence was insurmountable and clear.
“Our communications team can handle it,” said Tyra. “It’s easy to paint them as lunatics. Flat earthers. Some of the people at the front of the movement are downright certifiable. For every website they put up, we put up two. Our polling indicates that most of the country thinks they’re nuts. We can out-fake them.”
“Dan, some of this conspiracy stuff seems to be coming out of your agency. You know, that little weirdo, Hamilton Turbee, and that bully he hangs with, George Lexia. Some of our intelligence points to them authorizing some of those websites. Can’t you put an end to that?”
“They deny it,” said Dan. “I’ve spoken to them both. I’m not sure it was them. What do you think, Tyra?”
“Unable to say,” Tyra replied. “Those guys are good at covering their tracks. But my gut says Turbee and George Lexia are involved. Dan, if they continue to piss us off, fire them. If that doesn’t straighten them out, just shoot the bastards. We should not be wasting our time and resources worrying about a couple of social misfit hackers. We have a serious issue here, with Kumar at large. We need to be focusing on that.”
“I guess we’re done here for today,” said CJ, looking at his watch. “We should connect on this again tomorrow.” He and Dan stood up and left, the door quietly swinging shut behind them.
“Pour me a shot of Jack, Tyra,” said the president, interlocking his hands behind his head and stretching luxuriously. “Stick around for a bit.”
“For sure, Matt,” she said quietly. “For sure.”

5
It was ten in the morning when the Jeep rolled to a halt in front of the American embassy in Islamabad and disgorged Richard and Zak with their prisoner, Kumar Hanaman. Ambassador Michael Buckingham was waiting for them.
“We’ve got him. Kumar Hanaman himself,” Zak said, motioning his head toward the diminutive man who was still sandwiched between him and Richard.
“Nice to be able to relax a bit, Mike,” Richard added. “We were involved in a nasty firefight at Inzar Ghar.”
“Follow me, you two,” said Buckingham. “I’m not so sure about the relax thing.” He pointed to the two Marines guarding the embassy gate. “See that Kumar doesn’t go anywhere. Give us a few minutes.”
As the three began walking toward the gated inner garden behind the main embassy structure, Richard turned to Buckingham. “Mike, what’s going on? If we can’t relax here, we can’t relax anywhere.”
“That’s about the size of it,” Buckingham said. “You can’t relax anywhere.”
Both Richard and Zak stopped and turned to Buckingham. Zak gave Buckingham a penetrating stare. “Mike, you were stationed in this embassy when Richard and I were kids. We’ve known you for more than thirty years. If something is going down that affects us, we need to know.”
Buckingham sighed and momentarily looked at the ground. “I received a phone call from the admiral about twenty minutes ago. Your cover is probably blown.”
“What cover, Mike?” asked Richard. “This was a mission. The admiral gave the order to us personally. We were sent to Inzar Ghar because we know the place, and the language. He ordered us to spring Kumar and bring him here. I think they want him to testify in front of some bullshit Senate committee. That’s what we have done. A straightforward little operation.”
“Guys, it was a rogue operation.”
“What?” asked Zak. “A what?”
“That platinum-plated gasbag in the White House ordered that Kumar was to remain in Inzar Ghar. Admiral Jackson and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Pershing, were directed not to spring Kumar Hanaman from Inzar Ghar. Specifically ordered not to, gentlemen. They disobeyed a direct order in breaking him out of prison.”
“Aw, come on,” said Richard, shaking his head. “Kumar was the second in command in the Colorado terrorist attack. He built the devices that were used. He worked hand in glove with Yousseff. He will easily be able to show how all of it happened. I mean, we’re all totally pissed with that Colorado Commission BS. Yousseff’s role was deliberately ignored. He was not even mentioned. CJ in his report pretended that Yousseff and Kumar did not exist. Now that Kumar has had a change of heart, he will fix this for us.”
“Yousseff is a friend of the White House,” Buckingham replied. “He’s powerful. They need him, I guess. They need him because they need Afghanistan. It’s pretty cynical.”
“How can something like this