The Resurrection File (8 page)

But their idyllic life did not last. Audra longed for a baby but could not get pregnant. She threw herself into her painting and created a successful career as an artist. Her showings increased around the country. Tensions grew in the marriage. Audra moved out of Generals' Hill—just a temporary separation, she told Will—but he was too proud to ask her back. He had stared at the phone a hundred times, thinking about calling her at her apartment in Georgetown, but each time he had decided against it. She would call Will from time to time. He had lived for those calls, carefully disguising how much his heart and soul were dying without her.

And then one day the calls had stopped. When he learned of his wife's terrible death during the robbery of her apartment, the walls of Will Chambers' life had started crumbling down around him. More than anyone else in the world, Betty and Jacki had had ringside seats to Will's slow-motion collapse into cynicism and booze.

Will lost track of time as he sat at the kitchen table. But he suddenly became aware of the news report on the television. The announcer had said the words “nuclear weapon just outside New York City.”

Will bolted up and stepped into the living room.

The news anchor was dialoguing, in a steady but tense voice, with an on-location reporter outside the FBI office in New York. The reporter was talking.

“Unconfirmed reports have come in that the rental truck was bearing Vermont license plates. Also unconfirmed, at least as of right now, is what kind of weapon the truck was actually carrying. There is no word yet on what seems to be the foremost question on all our minds: Is this rental truck, with its cargo, tied to last year's bombing on Wall Street? Some are wondering whether today's activities signal an all-out terrorist attack on the United States.”

The anchor solemnly took over. “The FBI has refused up to now to specify exactly what was in the truck. However, sources in the State Department have reported that—and I am quoting here from one source—it was ‘apparently a device designed for mass destruction.' And when we pressed the issue with one high-ranking source in that department, asking whether it was in fact a ‘thermonuclear weapon,' that source refused to comment. Jim, are you hearing anything on that down there at the FBI headquarters in New York City?”

“No, but there is plenty of speculation that the truck may have been carrying some type of thermonuclear device. But, of course, no one will admit or deny that,” the reporter responded.

“Jim, what about the fact that the State Department is tied into this incident?” the anchor continued. “We usually think of the State Department as having oversight only in matters of foreign policy. But here we have it involved in domestic national security. What's your take on that?”

“That is one of the strange twists in an already very strange story,” the reporter said, and then glancing down at some papers in his hands, he noted, “yet we do know this. On April 1, 1999, in a move that really did not make many ripples in Washington, there was a bureaucratic reorganization of sorts. That in itself is certainly nothing new. What happened was that the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency was merged with the Department of State. So ever since that time, there has been within the State Department an Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs. The present undersecretary is Kenneth Sharptin. He is also doubling in his prior capacity as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Or as most folks would know it, ‘Middle Eastern' affairs.”

“So,” the anchor announced, “filling in the gaps, the State Department has an interest in this case from an arms-control or international-security standpoint?”

“That's certainly the speculation down here on the street. Which only fuels the idea that the weapon on that truck may have been—well, the kind of weapon we reserve only for our worst nightmares.”

“Thank you, Jim.” Then the news anchor turned full face to the camera.

“In case you have just tuned in, we have a breaking story. This morning, a rental truck entering New York City was apprehended as it exited the New Jersey Turnpike for what appears to be a major weapons violation, at the very least. And potentially a very grave risk to our national security.

“Action was taken by the U.S. Joint Forces Command, a joint military and law enforcement network created back in 1999—in this case, the Defense Department, the National Security Agency, the State Department, and branches of the military, together with the FBI, and working in conjunction with the New Jersey State Police and the New York City Police. As a result of investigation by this massive task force it was learned that a truck, carrying what officials are now calling only ‘a very menacing and very dangerous weapon,' might be heading toward New York City. Such a truck was in fact stopped. Its driver, a middle-aged man of Syrian descent, but a citizen of Jordan—Rahji Ajadi—was arrested. There were no passengers in the truck. The contents within the truck are—at this time—still a mystery. But
unconfirmed reports within the State Department have suggested that it may have been carrying some type of device of mass destruction—possibly a thermonuclear weapon.

“The driver, Mr. Ajadi, is in custody in New York City at an undisclosed location. We have been told at this time only that he does not possess a valid passport. We know of no criminal charges as of yet. But we will certainly keep you apprised of any further details as we receive them.

“But one final interesting note. Jim Williams, our reporter in New York City, has already commented that this is a story of ‘strange twists.' Well, here is yet another one.

“In a twist of remarkable irony, the truck was stopped by a New Jersey State Patrolman, Ezer Nabib, an Arab and apparently a devout follower of Islam. He had been put on the alert for the make and model of the truck. Apparently the United States government had also received an anonymous tip that the truck might be carrying a very dangerous weapon, and federal authorities and the military all converged on the scene.

“By the time the FBI and the Pentagon and all the other high-powered agencies had arrived, Officer Nabib already had the driver under arrest and the truck secured. Clearly, if there is one hero that is emerging in this story, it is State Patrolman Ezer Nabib, who just may have single-handedly averted one of the worst terrorist attacks in the history of our nation.

“Lastly, there is of course much speculation that this incident may also be tied to Abdul el Alibahd, one of the world's most-hunted international terrorists and a suspect in the Wall Street bombing of last year. Folks up in Manhattan who have had to recover from the horrendous World Trade Towers tragedy, then had to deal with the truck bombing may nearly have had to face yet another terrorist attack—but this one much worse. It is too early to tell—yet—how close we may have come to the brink of nuclear destruction within our own borders if it had not been for the courageous work of New Jersey State Trooper Ezer Nabib.”

Will kept the television on into the night, catching every detail of the news story. While there were a variety of opinions given by military and law-enforcement experts, authors on terrorism, and cultural and religious commentators—who noted the irony of an Arab Muslim foiling the apparent suicide mission of an Arab terrorist—no new information was forthcoming.

Will wanted to pick up the telephone and call someone—anyone—to talk about the news. But he realized he had no one to call. When his eyes were too heavy to stay open, he plodded up the curving staircase to go to bed. His faithful dog, Clarence, followed him close behind.

8

I
N PREPARING FOR THE DAY
'
S MEETING
, Kenneth Sharptin, undersecretary of the State Department, made sure that the committee members would not enter the State Department building through the main entrance at C and 22nd Street. The press, smelling a story connected to the frightening events of the day before, was already posted there.

Instead, he had his staff usher all the members of the committee in through two separate side entrances. All except one—Colonel Brad Buchingham, the special envoy from the Pentagon. By contrast, he made sure that the Colonel—in uniform, his chest heavy with medals—came in through the main doors in the front. That way he could be seen, with the full press corps there, coming to meet Kenneth Sharptin—coming to confer with Undersecretary Sharptin—coming to advise him.

Five minutes before the Pentagon sedan was to show up, Sharptin strode out of his spacious office and down the hallway with flags of all the nations of the planet arrayed along the top of the walls. He got on the elevator and headed down to the first floor. He glanced at himself, mirrored in the reflection of the smooth steel in the elevator. Perfectly razored Ivy League haircut. Blue pin-striped suit. Light blue shirt with a red tie, and a tiny American flag pin on his suit coat lapel. Just right.

Several dozen television cameras were already perched in the driveway in front of the State Department building. The entire gathering could be seen from a large stretch of C Street—in the heart of D.C.'s power lane of government real estate.

Two of Sharptin's deputy assistants were already waiting for him by the front doors with briefing folders in hand, at the security clearance gate. The guards stepped back and opened the doors for him.

The press was there waiting for him. And then Sharptin heard one of his favorite sounds—the click of handheld cameras and the whir of shoulder-mounted video units.

“This is not a press conference,” announced Sharptin as he smiled and paused on the front steps. “The White House released a statement yesterday, and we all stand by the President's words on the apprehension of the suspected terrorist and the rental truck yesterday in New York City.”

Then Undersecretary Sharptin, with a slightly furrowed brow, pleaded with the reporters: “Please—please, ladies and gentlemen, please let our special envoy from the Pentagon in.”

Colonel Buchingham was getting out of the sedan with a small briefcase in his hand. He didn't wait for the reporters to part. He cut, weaved, and dodged past them and through them, like a halfback.

He strode up the stairs to Sharptin, who was waiting with hands outstretched as if he were a high priest granting a bureaucratic blessing to the Colonel.

Sharptin extended his hand. But Buchingham did not shake it. Instead, Buchingham stopped directly in front of the Undersecretary, looked him in the eye, and said, “Kenneth, what you've got here is a media dog-and-pony show. Do not—I repeat—do not ever do this to me again.”

Buchingham did not wait for Sharptin, and walked past him and through security, directly to the elevator. Sharptin and his assistants scurried to catch up and caught the elevator just before the doors closed. On the floor above, the group exited and made their way to the large conference room.

As soon as the Ad Hoc Committee on Cultural Engagement convened and the roll call was recorded, Undersecretary Sharptin made a short introductory statement. He explained how fortuitous it was, in his opinion, that the regularly scheduled meeting of the committee just happened to land on the day after the terrorist truck incident of the day before. He assured them that there would, indeed, be some discussion on the truck incident. But he urged them to see that event within the larger picture of the agenda of the committee. Sharptin then reviewed the history of the Ad Hoc Committee and its ever-evolving mandate.

First, he reminded them of the announcement, a year before, of the disappearance of Saddam Hussein and his family members in Iraq. How they were presumed to have been assassinated in a coup in Baghdad. Sharptin reviewed how he acquired authorization from the Secretary of State to put this committee together as a means of dialoguing about the possibilities of democracy in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries.

This was followed by a few democratic reforms in Iran, and even talk of modest attempts at equal rights for women in countries like Saudi Arabia. The United Nations Conference on Women was ecstatic. The leading feminists from around the world began to meet and draw up hasty plans for combating patriarchy in the Middle East. All of this had kindled a wave of enthusiasm in the Department of State. Now, it seemed, was the time to take daring new steps to bring the Middle East into the new century—to make them economic and even cultural partners in peace.

And then came the classified reports from within the White House of potential oil shortages and projected petroleum production shortfalls for the United States in the coming years. As a result, there was renewed urgency in trying to find areas of common ground with the Arab OPEC nations.

But now, a Middle Eastern terrorist had been caught in the midst of an apparent plot to smuggle, and perhaps even detonate, a thermonuclear weapon within the shores of America.

“This is the time,” Sharptin said in concluding his introductory comments, “for us to embrace a whole new vision—a new way of thinking about international security and global peace.

“Let me suggest this as the question we have to face: Where can we find an ultimate common ground between the East, with its rich heritage of Islam and obedience to spiritual conscience—and the West, with its powerful belief in individual responsibility characterized primarily by the Christian tradition? Is there a way we can bring unity and peace between these two important traditions, and in doing that, really secure the safety of America more than we could have ever dreamed before?