Page 460 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

"Well, Stan's wrong," said Florence. "Because we never see a pointed gun. We have no way of knowing who is about to commit a terrorist act. We don't have intelligence of that quality in Lebanon--we never have. So we'll end up killing people who we think might be planning terrorism."

"Perhaps we can improve the reliability of our information."

"What about the reliability of the foreign nationals? Who will be on these five-man teams? Local Beirut bad guys? Mercenaries? International-security-company Eurotrash? How can you trust them? How can you control them? Yet whatever they do will be our responsibility--especially if they kill innocent people!"

Tim said: "No, no--the whole operation will be arm's-length and deniable."

"It doesn't sound very deniable to me. The CIA is going to train and equip them and finance their activities. And have you thought of the political consequences?"

"Fewer kidnappings and bombings."

"How can you be so naive? If we strike at Hezbollah this way, you think they will sit back and say: 'Gosh, the Americans are tougher than we thought, maybe we'd better give up this whole terrorism idea.' No, no. They will be screaming for revenge! In the Middle East, violence always begets more violence--haven't you learned that yet? Hezbollah bombed the marine corps barracks in Beirut--why? According to Colonel Geraghty, who was the marine commander at the time, it was in response to the U.S. Sixth Fleet shelling innocent Muslims in the village of Suq al-Gharb. One atrocity brings another."

"So you're just going to give in and say nothing can be done?"

"Nothing easy can be done, just hard political work. We lower the temperature, we restrain both sides, and we bring them to the negotiating table, again and again, no matter how many times they walk out. We don't give up and, whatever happens, we don't escalate the violence."

"I think we can--"

But Florence was not yet done. "This plan is criminal, it's impractical, it has horrendous political consequences in the Middle East, and it endangers the reputations of the CIA, the president, and the USA. But that is not all. There is yet one more thing that completely rules it out."

She paused, and Cam was forced to say: "What?"

"We are forbidden by the president to carry out assassinations. 'No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.' Executive Order 12333. Ronald Reagan signed it in 1981."

"I think he's forgotten that," said Cam.

*

Maria met Florence Geary in downtown Washington at the Woodward and Lothrop department store, which everyone called Woodies. Their rendezvous was the brassiere department. Most agents were men, and any man who followed them in here would be conspicuous. He might even get arrested.

"I used to be size thirty-four A," said Florence. "Now I'm thirty-six C. What happened?"

Maria chuckled. At forty-eight she was a little older than Florence. "Join the club of middle-aged women," she said. "I always had a big ass, but I used to have cute little boobs that stood up all on their own. Now I need serious support."

In two decades in Washington, Maria had assiduously cultivated contacts. She had learned early on how much was achieved--for good or ill--through personal acquaintance. Back in the days when the CIA had been using Florence as a secretary, instead of training her to be an agent as they had promised, Maria had sympathized with her plight, woman to woman. Maria's contacts were usually women, always liberal. She exchanged information with them, giving early warning of threatening moves by political opponents, and helped them discreetly, often by assigning higher priority to projects that might otherwise be sidelined by conservative men. The men did much the same.

They each picked out half a dozen bras and went to try them on. It was a Tuesday morning, and the changing room was empty. Nevertheless, Florence kept her voice low. "Bud McFarlane has come up with a plan that is complete madness," she said as she unbuttoned her blouse. "But Bill Casey committed the CIA." Casey, a crony of President Reagan's, was head of the CIA. "And the president said yes."

"What plan?"

"We're training assassination squads of foreign nationals to kill terrorists in Beirut. They call it preemptive counterterrorism."

Maria was shocked. "But that's a crime, by the laws of this country. If they succeed, McFarlane and Casey and Ronald Reagan will all be murderers."

"Exactly."

The two women took off the bras they were wearing and stood side by side in front of the mirror. "You see?" said Florence. "They've lost that sit-up-and-beg look."

"Mine, too."

There was a time, Maria reflected, when she would have been too embarrassed to do this with a white woman. Maybe things really were changing.

They started to try on the bras. Maria said: "Has Casey briefed the intelligence committees?"

"No. Reagan decided he could just inform the chair and vice chair of each committee, and the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate."

That explained why George Jakes had not heard about this, Maria deduced. Reagan had made a sly move. The intelligence committees had a quota of liberals, to ensure that at least some critical questions were asked. Reagan had found a way to sideline the critics and inform only those he knew would be supportive.

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