Nelson Demille - The Lion's Game

"Good." He put out his hand and we shook. He said, "You're on."

I was going to say, "You won't regret it, sir," but I thought maybe he would, so I just said, "I'll do my best."

Koenig took a folder from Roberts and began leafing through it. I regarded Jack Koenig a moment and decided I should not underestimate him. He didn't get to this corner office because Uncle Sam was his mother's brother. He got here for all the usual reasons of hard work, long hours, intelligence, training, belief in his mission, good leadership skills, and probably patriotism. But a lot of people in the FBI had the same skills and qualifications.

What distinguished Jack Koenig from other talented men and women was his willingness to accept responsibility for catastrophes that he'd been hired to prevent. What happened this afternoon was bad enough, but somewhere out there was a bad guy-Asad Khalil, and others like him-who wanted to nuke midtown Manhattan, or poison the water supply, or wipe out the population with microorganisms. Jack Koenig knew this, we all knew this. But Koenig was ready to carry this burden and take the final rap if and when it happened. Like today.

Koenig looked at Ted, Kate, and me, then nodded to Roberts, who picked up his pencil. The John Corey job interview and attitude adjustment period was over, and Part Two of the JFK disaster was about to begin.

Koenig said to Kate, "I find it hard to believe that Flight One-Seven-Five was without radio contact for over two hours, and none of you knew about it."

Kate replied, "Our only contact with the airline was through the gate agent, who knew very little. We'll have to re-evaluate that procedure."

"That's a good idea." He added, "You should also be in direct contact with Air Traffic Control and Tower Control, and the Port Authority police command center."

"Yes, sir."

"If that flight had been hijacked in the air, it could have been in Cuba or Libya before you knew about it."

"Yes, sir." She added, "Ted had the foresight to have the name and phone number of the Tower Supervisor."

Koenig glanced at Nash and said, 'Yes. Good thinking. But you should have called him sooner."

Nash didn't reply. I had the impression that Nash would say nothing that Mr. Roberts could jot down on his legal pad.

Koenig continued, "It would appear that our February defector was on a dry run to see what our procedures are. I think we all suspected that after he bolted, hence the extra precautions this time." Koenig added, "If the February defector had been blindfolded, he wouldn't have seen the Conquistador Club, its location, or… how to unlock the door. So, maybe we should start blindfolding all non-authorized personnel, including so-called defectors and informants." He added, "Also, you'll recall that the February defector was brought in on a Saturday and saw how few people were at the Conquistador Club on a weekend."

Part Two, it seemed, was a review of policies and procedures, also called Closing the Cage After the Lion Escapes. Mr. Koenig went on in this vein for some time, speaking mostly to Kate, who was filling in for our fearless leader, George Foster.

"All right," said Mr. Koenig, "the first indication you had that everything was not going as planned was when Ted called the Tower Control supervisor, a Mr. Stavros."

Kate nodded. "That's when John wanted to go out to the aircraft, but Ted, George, and I-"

"I've already noted that," said Mr. Koenig. I sort of wanted to hear it again, but Koenig pushed on and asked Ted Nash a direct and interesting question. He looked at Nash and said, "Did you anticipate a problem with this assignment?"

Nash replied, "No."

I thought otherwise, despite old Ted's crap about only the truth is spoken here. CIA types are so into deceit, deception, double and triple crosses, paranoia, and bullshit, that you never knew what they knew, when they knew it, and what they were making up. This doesn't make them bad guys, and in fact you have to admire their world-class bullshit. I mean, a CIA guy would lie to a priest in a confessional. But admiration aside, it's not easy to work with them if you're not one of them.

In any case, Jack Koenig had asked the question and thereby raised the issue, but he let it go and said to me, "By the way, while I admire your initiative, when you got in that Port Authority car and crossed the runways, you lied to your superiors and broke every rule in the book. I'll let this pass, but don't let it happen again."

I was a little pissed off now and I said, "If we'd acted about ten minutes sooner, maybe Khalil would be in custody right now, charged with murder. If you'd instructed Hundry and Gorman to call and report on their cell phones or the airphone, we'd have known there was a problem when we didn't hear from them. If we'd been in direct contact with Air Traffic Control, we'd have been told the aircraft was out of radio contact for hours. If you hadn't welcomed this February bozo with open arms, what happened today wouldn't have happened." I stood and announced, "Unless you need me for something important, I'm going home."

When I used to pull this stunt with my bosses, someone would say, "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out." But Mr. Koenig said softly, "We need you for something important. Please sit down."

Okay, so I sat. If I was back at Homicide North, this is when one of the bosses opens his desk and passes around the seltzer bottle of vodka to cool everyone down. But I didn't expect any rule-bending here in a place where they hung warning posters in the corridors about drinking, smoking, sexual harassment, and thought crimes.

Anyway, we all sat there a moment, engaged, I guess, in Zen meditation, calming our nerves without nasty alcohol.

Mr. Koenig went on with his agenda and asked me, "You called George Foster on Kate's mobile phone and instructed him to put out a citywide."

"That's right."

He went through the sequence and content of my cell phone calls to George Foster, then said, "So you went back to the dome, and saw that Phil's and Peter's thumbs had been severed. You understood what that meant."

"What else could it mean?"

"Right. I congratulate you on an incredible piece of deductive reasoning… I mean… to go back and look for… their thumbs." He looked at me and asked, "How did you come to that thought, Mr. Corey?"

"I really don't know. Sometimes things pop into my head."

"Really? Do you usually act on things that pop into your head?"

"Well, if they're weird enough. You know, like severed thumbs. You have to go with that."

"I see. And you called the Conquistador Club, and Nancy Tate didn't answer."

I said, "I think we've been through this."

Koenig ignored this and said, "She was, in fact, dead by that time."

"Yes. That's why she didn't answer."

"And Nick Monti was also dead by that time."

"He was probably in the process of dying at that time. It takes a while with chest wounds."

Out of nowhere, Koenig asked me, "Where did you get wounded?"

"On West One Hundred and Second Street."

"I mean, where!"

I knew what he meant, but I don't like to discuss anatomy in mixed company. I replied, "There wasn't much brain damage."

He looked doubtful, but dropped that subject and looked at Ted. "Do you have anything to add?"

"No, I don't."

"Do you think that John and Kate missed any opportunities?"

Ted Nash considered this loaded question and replied, "I think we all underestimated Asad Khalil."

Koenig nodded. "I think we did. But we won't do that again."

Nash added, "We all have to stop thinking of these people as idiots. That will get us into a lot of trouble."

Koenig didn't reply.

Nash continued, "If I may say so, there is an attitudinal problem in the FBI and the NYPD Intelligence Unit regarding Islamic extremists. Part of this problem stems from racial attitudes. The Arabs and other ethnic groups in the Islamic world are not stupid or cowardly. Their armies or air forces may not impress us, but Mideastern terrorist organizations have scored some major hits around the world, in Israel and America. I've worked with Mossad, and they have a healthier respect for Islamic terrorists than we do. These extremists may not all be top-notch, but even bunglers can score once in a while. And sometimes you get an Asad Khalil."