When Gary Lawlor fed the names Harvath had collected at the two crush depth locations into the shared intelligence database, he once again came up empty-handed. They were ghosts, every one of them-figuratively and, unfortunately now, literally. But while sterilizing civilian backgrounds was one thing, Gary had a feeling that erasing a marine’s life might be a little bit different-especially if his only role had been to provide security.
Picking up the phone, he dialed the number for USMC Lieutenant Colonel Sean Olson. The ropy, five-foot-six Olson was a graduate of the FBI’s law enforcement leadership program known as the National Academy. Conducted on the Bureau’s Quantico, Virginia, campus, the program included courses in law, behavioral science, forensic science, leadership development, communication, and health and fitness. Its expressed mission was “to promote the personal and professional development of law enforcement leaders,” but many argued that the most valuable thing that was formed at the National Academy were the incredible relationships and vast network of contacts among its graduates.
Lieutenant Colonel Olson was head of the Law Enforcement Security amp; Corrections Branch for the entire Marine Corps. If anyone could get Lawlor the information he needed on the mystery marines, it was his fellow National Academy graduate, Sean Olson.
“I’m neck-deep in shit right now, Gary,” said the lieutenant colonel when his assistant put the call through, “so I’m going to save us both a lot of time. What do you need?”
Lawlor appreciated his colleague getting right to the point and he returned the favor. “Sean, we’ve got reason to believe that the bridges and tunnels in New York weren’t the only targets.”
“Jesus Christ,” replied Olson as his attitude shifted from impatience to genuine concern. “You think there’s going to be more?”
“We believe there already have been.”
The man was shocked. “Where? How come we haven’t heard of it here?”
If by here Olson meant the Marine Corps Security Division, it was easily explainable, but if by here he really meant the Pentagon, then Lawlor wasn’t so sure the deep crush attacks hadn’t been heard about. “This is a very delicate situation. The attacks I’m referring to were not civilian targets.”
“What were they? Military? Government?”
“That’s just it. We don’t know. We’ve got two locations in Manhattan that appear to have been involved in some sort of covert operations-there’s nothing about them or their employees that we can pull from any of our databases. The only connections we can find between them are that everyone was well armed and all the work they were doing was via paperless workstations.”
“And how were these locations attacked?” asked Olson as he shifted the phone to his other ear.
“From what we can tell, two assaulter teams hit each location and gunned down everyone inside.”
“What for?”
“We don’t know,” replied Lawlor.
“ Gary, I appreciate the update,” offered the lieutenant colonel, “but why are you telling me all of this?”
“Because three of those killed were U.S. marines. I need to find out who they were and what they were doing there.”
Olson was already running on an unstable fuel of adrenaline and pure hatred of Islamic terrorists, but to now hear that on top of everything else today the terrorists had purposely taken out three marines sent him around the bend. It took all he had to keep his anger under control and craft a professional, un-obscenity-laden response. “Believe me, I would like to help you, but this is way above my purview. You need to get in touch with DOD directly.”
“That’s just it,” replied Lawlor. “I can’t.”
“Why the hell can’t you? You’ve got three marines dead, not to mention a bunch of their civilian colleagues. I’m pretty confident they’ll make this a priority.”
“Just give me five minutes, Sean, to explain. If after that you still don’t think you can help me, I’ll find somebody else.”
Olson reluctantly agreed.
Three-and-a-half minutes later the lieutenant colonel had heard enough. He hung up with Lawlor, called his assistant into his office, and began giving orders. Getting to the bottom of what had happened to those marines was now one of his top priorities.