“Mr. Secretary,” Lonsdale started in a strained, casual tone.

England was not to be denied his moment, though, and once again refused to yield. “The United States military has a long history of policing itself. On the rare, and exceptional, occasion when they have failed to do so, the Justice Department has intervened. But never,” roared England, “in the history of this great country has the Justice Department moved to investigate an incident so clearly under military jurisdiction a mere forty-eight hours after it has occurred.”

“Mr.-” Lonsdale tried to speak.

“Which,” hollered England, “leads me to the conclusion that this entire thing is politically motivated.”

“How dare you come before my committee and put forth such baseless allegations?” Lonsdale shot back.

“Baseless… Please explain to me, Senator Lonsdale, why your boy at Justice would only bother to get a statement from one person involved in this incident?”

“Because,” Lonsdale shouted, matching England’s intensity, “he was the aggrieved party.”

“Did your man think of getting a statement from General Garrison? He was, after all, the only neutral party to the incident.” England took a quick look at the panel and saw all heads turned to Lonsdale to hear her response. After an uncomfortable silence, England waved the document in the air and said, “Never fear, the air force did it for you. They are actually quite competent at this kind of thing.” England motioned to a staffer that was sitting to his left. “Please do me a favor and hand these out to the committee members.”

“Mr. Secretary,” Lonsdale said, her anger barely in check, “I do not need to remind you that all documents are to be submitted to this committee in advance…”

“I’d like to make a motion for an exception.”

Lonsdale didn’t have to look. She knew Gayle Kendrick had made the motion. She reached for her gavel, but before she could get her hand around the mallet, the motion was seconded by another half dozen senators from both parties.

“The long and short of it, ladies and gentlemen,” said England, “is that General Garrison corroborates Mr. Rapp’s testimony, and says that Captain Leland has either misremembered the events of that evening or has made them up.”

Lonsdale felt as if she were drowning and someone had just thrown a brick at her head. Her mind splintered, running off in eight different directions trying to find a way to regain control and momentum. She felt a touch on her shoulder and out of habit leaned back. Wassen was there, as he’d always been. He threw her the lifeline she needed to stay afloat by giving her a question.

With her cheeks still flushed from the embarrassment of England’s revelation, she grabbed her microphone and said, “I would like to remind the committee that Mr. Rapp striking Captain Leland is but a single issue before us. Secretary England, as long as we have you here, I would like to know why you don’t seem at all bothered by the fact that an employee of the CIA put on the uniform of a United States Air Force officer and snuck onto one of your bases with the express intent of circumventing the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions.”

The room fell quiet, and all eyes turned to England for his response. With an incredulous shake of his head he said, “That’s his job, people. This is what he’s supposed to do.” He made eye contact with several of the senators who were nodding agreeably. “We might not want to talk about it in civilized circles or, God forbid, in public, but his job is to go kill these bastards before they kill us.” England’s plain words had a sobering effect on the committee. In a softer tone he added, “We get caught up in all the crap that goes on in this town, and we forget one simple thing.” England pointed at Rapp and said, “He’s on our side.”

CHAPTER 58

AFTER Secretary England had walked out of the committee room, several members called for a fifteen-minute recess so they could read General Garrison’s statement. Lonsdale made no attempt to defeat the motion, for the simple reason that she needed to regroup and figure out how she would proceed. She went back to her office in Dirksen and huddled with Wassen and a few other senior staffers. They were all of the opinion that she needed to table the Leland issue for now and let the air force finish their investigation.

As no one had yet read General Garrison’s statement, one of the committee staffers eagerly did so while the debate about what to do roared around her. When she was finished she offered her boss the hope she was looking for. Nowhere in Garrison’s statement was there any mention of how Rapp had abused and mistreated the prisoners. Unlike Leland’s statement, which went into specific detail about Rapp’s abuses. Wassen was skeptical of this, raising the point that Leland’s entire statement was now cast in doubt because his commanding officer had all but called him a liar.

Lonsdale, though, needed something. She wasn’t going to call the whole thing into recess after just having been embarrassed by England. She wanted her pound of flesh from Rapp, and she was going to get it. Lonsdale announced that she would hit him hard on his abuse of the prisoners and directed the group to hastily assemble a list of questions while she went back and got things started. There would be a good five to ten minutes of motions and procedural nonsense before they got back to questioning Rapp.

On the way back to the committee room, Lonsdale asked, “What’s wrong? You were awfully quiet back there.”

Wassen looked down at the ground and said, “I’ve been with you long enough to know when I’ll be wasting my breath.”

“You don’t agree with me?”

“There are plenty of times I don’t agree with you.”

“But you usually speak your mind.”

“I have made myself very clear on this matter, and I think Secretary England framed the issue rather nicely.”

“Secretary England is a capitalist windbag,” Lonsdale said, while flashing a passing senator a fake smile.

“Have you ever stepped back far enough to really look at what’s going on here?”

Lonsdale didn’t answer immediately. “Of course. I do it all the time.”

“Bullshit,” Wassen said flatly. “All of you politicians are like parents. You adopt an issue and it’s like it’s your child. You lose all objectivity.”

“That’s not true.”

“It’s absolutely true, and the secretary of defense just proved it.”

“How?” Lonsdale asked.

“When he reminded us that Rapp is on our side.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Lonsdale said dismissively.

“God,” Wassen groaned, “you are impossible sometimes. You think the terrorists are on our side?”

“Don’t be silly.”

“Then tell me… just whose side is Rapp on? Based on his record I think he’s pretty firmly in the let’s-kill-all-the-bastards camp.”

“Then you tell me, Ralph,” Lonsdale said in an irritated voice, “just who in the hell is on the side of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?”

“History is your Achilles’ heel, Barbara. I don’t think you want to go there with me.”

“Just what in the hell is that supposed to mean?” Lonsdale asked as the committee room came into view down the hall on their left.

“Those two documents are bathed in blood. They did not spring forth from the pen of men like Jefferson and survive on high-minded ideals alone. They have been bathed in blood over the years.”

“You are so damn dramatic sometimes.”

“And you are as pig-headed as ever.”

Lonsdale stopped and grabbed Wassen by the arm. “So you think this is a mistake?”

“Barbara, you just got your pretty little ass kicked by the secretary of defense in your own backyard. That’s not supposed to happen.”

“What would you have had me do?” she hissed at him.

“Maybe nothing.” He shrugged, “I warned you from the outset not to rush into this.”