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Ke
"What do you mean, he's gone?" Ross asked in a far more subdued tone than he would have five minutes ago.
"He literally wasn't there," Ke
"And?" Ross asked, his curiosity fully piqued.
"The house was hit with a total of seven RPG rounds and over a thousand bullets. In addition to the four CIA employees killed, there were thirteen other bodies discovered."
"Thirteen?" Ross was shocked by the number.
"They were the men who we think were hired to attack the facility. They used three black Chevy Suburbans equipped with emergency lights." Ke
"Back up a minute," said Ross, "or move forward. You said the four guards were killed. There were other guards, right?"
"No."
"Then what happened to these thirteen guys?"
The president looked at Ke
Ke
"Why?" asked Ross.
"Why do you think?" Ke
Ross didn't like the sound of this. "So we have no idea where he is?"
Ke
"Have you identified any of the thirteen?" asked the president.
"We think they are members of a Latino gang based out of Alexandria."
"A Latino gang," Ross said. "Why in the hell would they want to kill Rapp?"
"Since we don't have anyone to interrogate, I'm going with the assumption that they were offered cash. Mitch has never operated in Central America. A gang like this would have no reason to go after him."
"What does the FBI have to say?" Ross asked.
Ke
"What?" Ross was shocked.
"Mark," Ke
"But we have four dead federal employees and thirteen dead…citizens. I assume these men are citizens."
"Mark," Ke
"It's a domestic federal facility, though. It falls under the FBI's jurisdiction."
"If we bring the FBI in on the investigation, we'll end up with reporters crawling all over this and you will end up sitting in front of a committee on the Hill answering some very uncomfortable questions, and all for what?"
"What about the…"
"Mark," Ke
"What about the fourteen guys?"
Ke
Ross started to speak, but the president reached out and placed a hand on his forearm. "Mark, trust me on this. Sometimes you're better off not asking questions. Let Irene take care of it."
It was clear Ross was struggling with this concept. He drew in a breath through clenched teeth and said, "Fine, but we need to find Rapp and make sure he doesn't embarrass this country."
Ke
"Because we are a nation of laws, and we can't have a federal employee ru
Really, Ke
"How about the thirteen dead Latinos?"
"Mark," the president said in a forceful voice, "forget about what happened last night. I don't want to hear it brought up again."
"Fine," Ross said, backing off a bit, "but we have to do something."
Ke
"Let's hear it," said Ross.
"For now, we only alert our station chiefs abroad. I can send out a flash message telling them if they are contacted by Mitch, or they hear anything about him, they are to pass it on to me ASAP. I can stipulate that I want him brought in for questioning."
"What about the embassies?" Ross asked.
Ke
"Not a big enough net." Ross shook his head.
Ke
"For now," Hayes said, "let's alert only the Agency people." The president noted that Ross didn't like this and added, "Mark, he's not going to reach out to anyone from State. If he comes up for help, he'll contact one of his Agency co
"But can we trust those people to turn him in?" Ross asked.
Both the president and Ross looked to the director of the CIA. The truth was that they could not trust the station chiefs, but Ke
This seemed to satisfy Ross, and Ke
The president thanked Ke