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His passenger, Casey, says, “Problem?”
Sylvester downshifts; the truck sighs and grumbles. “I don’t think so,” he says.
“Good. I don’t have to tell you we’re on a tight schedule.”
“We’ll be all right.”
“Better be,” Casey says. “Maynard is depending on us.”
Sylvester just shakes his head, slows down more, then comes to a halt. He’s been on the road with a quiet Casey for the past three hours. Between them is a folded copy of that day’sUSA Today,a McDonald’s bag still holding two Egg McMuffin sandwiches, and a couple of other important items. There’s a fender bender up ahead involving a white Volvo and a dark blue Range Rover, and a Virginia State Police cruiser is pulled behind the two vehicles. A trooper is coming their way, holding up his hand.
Casey says, “Looks like the poh-lice.”
Sylvester says, “I got it, don’t worry.”
“You’d better.”
The trooper makes a rolling motion; Sylvester lowers his window. The trooper pulls himself up, looks in, and says, “Jesus, this is one big rig you got. When I was in college, I used to work for a repo company, and that truck was a Matchbox car compared to this.”
“I’m sure,” Sylvester says.
The trooper peers at the back of the rig and says, “Lots of chains you got there.”
“We like to be prepared, sir.”
The trooper shakes his head. “Sorry, I’m going to need to write you up. Those chains should be properly secured, and from what I can see, they’re not.”
Sylvester sighs. The traffic ahead is moving. Time is really starting to get tight. He smiles. “I understand, sir,” he says, and he slides his hand underneath the copy ofUSA Today,picks up his Ruger .357 revolver, and shoots the trooper in the face.
The trooper grunts, falls back in a cloudy mist of blood and bone. Sylvester puts the truck in drive and manages to get past the scene before other drivers notice what happened.
Next to him, Casey rubs his left ear and says, “You know what?”
“What?” Sylvester asks, picking up speed. Probably some motorist back there saw their license plate, but it doesn’t matter. By the time word gets out about the shooting, they’ll be at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue backing this tow truck over the sidewalk with guys waiting nearby to secure the truck’s chains to the fence.
“Traffic’s still a bitch,” Casey says. “Think we’ll keep to the schedule?”
Sylvester says, “You got your checkpoint pass?”
Casey pats the leather dispatch case between them. “Right here, along with yours.”
“Then don’t worry.”
After they travel a few miles, Casey says, “When I was a senior in high school, my history class went to DC for a White House tour. I was home sick that day. Always regretted missing it.”
Sylvester says, “Today your high-school dream comes true.”
Chapter
118
In early August1957, Leo Hoegh, head of the Federal Civil Defense Administration, expressed his concerns to President Dwight Eisenhower regarding the previous month’s four-day national civil defense drill, Operation Alert.
This drill simulated an attack on the United States by the Soviet Union, and one key aspect of the exercise was the evacuation of the president from the White House by helicopter. However, in a classified after-action report, the feasibility of using a helicopter to evacuate the president was questioned, since helicopters assigned to the White House might not be able to complete their mission due to sabotage, bad weather, or engine malfunction.
So a secret working group consisting of the Secret Service, the U.S. Army, and the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police came up with a classified plan to remove the president from the White House by vehicle. This plan—named Operation Wrangler, a reference to the president’s fondness for novels about the American West—called for the Metro Police to block key intersections in the District of Columbia and allow only official vehicles to enter and leave the White House grounds. The drivers of these civilian and military vehicles were to carry a pass allowing them to go through police blockades. Operation Wrangler would be activated by a phone call from the head of the Federal Civil Defense Administration—or his or her designee—to the DC Metro Police chief. An exchange of code phrases would set the plan in motion.
Operation Wrangler was tested only twice, both times via tabletop exercises, but it remained in effect over the years as the Federal Civil Defense Administration became the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, then the Office of Civil Defense; eventually, the division’s responsibilities were taken over by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which, in March 2003, became part of the Department of Homeland Security.
