Necessary Retribution (45 page)

He baited his line and flicked it into the water. He took a deep breath and let tension flow out of his body. It had been a tough nine months. Getting fired as Director of the CIA embarrassed him, but the subsequent criminal investigation terrified him because Chapple had much to hide. He pulled as many political strings as possible and the criminal investigation went nowhere. Then his political contacts went to work and got him a nice, cushy consultant job with a defense contractor. He smiled. More secrets I can sell to my Chinese friends.

All in all, Chapple felt good about his future and now considered the trouble he went though as a minor setback in his life…well, almost. His wife left him when a nosy newspaper reporter uncovered several of his extramarital affairs. In the end, he just considered the whole mess as his freedom. Now, he could have his affairs without worrying about his marriage.

Chapple felt a tug on his line and leaned forward in anticipation. Then a stronger tug hit his line and he leaned more forward. Suddenly, two black clad hands exploded out of the water and grabbed him by his jacket, pulling his body violently into the lake. He kicked and swung his arms at the assailant, but the hands were strong and they
took him further under the water. The man pushed him through an icy cold layer that made him take an involuntary breath…of water. In panic he flailed his arms and legs, his lungs screaming for oxygen. Then he was gone.

The man was clad in a wetsuit and used a rebreather, leaving no bubbles to rise to the surface. He pulled Chapple's body to the bottom and looped a cable around a large dead tree and wrapped the other end around the body. He put a waterproof time lock through the end loops and fastened it. Pushing a button on the lock, he started a thirty-six hour countdown.

The diver swam back up to Chapple's boat and took the rope he had used to hitch a ride during Chapple's run to the cove. He used it to pull the boat to another area of the lake, where he pushed it into tanglewood close to the shore so it couldn't go anywhere. The diver then swam to the small backwater where he had entered the lake.

He carefully surveyed the area before emerging and going ashore. He immediately disappeared into the woods. A short time later, he reappeared dressed in hiking clothes and carrying a large pack. Ten miles and two hours later, he stepped out onto a forest road as a Range Rover approached. The car pulled over and stopped. The man opened the back door and put in the pack and then climbed into the front seat.

“You okay, Rob?” Burke asked.

“Yeah, I'm good.” Robin punched Bill Grassley's number on his satellite phone.

“Hello.”

“Can't make it today.”

“Thanks for letting me know.”

Robin looked into the side mirror and saw his face bore the look of grim satisfaction.

Bill put down his phone. “It's done, sir. The body will surface in thirty-six hours.”

The president turned and looked out the window. “I don't relish what we've done, but there just wasn't any other way.”

“No there wasn't, sir. What Picushkin told the Russians was unnerving. Chapple's work for the Chinese was very damaging. A trial would have put several of our operatives in extreme danger and exposed top secret programs.”

“We're damn lucky the GRU thinks enough of Marlette to tell us about Chapple. We should've have known something was wrong from his conduct during the standoff.”

“That's a lesson we need to take to heart.”

The president turned back to Bill. “How do we really thank men like Robin Marlette and his team?”

“With Robin, I don't think he wants or expects thanks. I think the best way to thank them is make sure when we ask them to go into harm's way, it's for a good reason.”

“I hope we always know what a good reason is in this complicated world.”

Bill looked past the president through the window and into the world. He let the silence resting on the Oval Office be his answer.

THE END

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