WASHINGTON, DC
Please tell me you’re calling because you’ve got something good to report,” said Gary Lawlor.
From his office at the Pentagon, Lieutenant Colonel Sean Olson replied, “I’ll let you judge for yourself how good this is.”
Lawlor grabbed a pen. After finding a clean sheet of paper on his desk he said, “Go ahead.”
“The men your agent identified in New York City are definitely active-duty marines. At least they were as of their last fitness reports.”
“Which was when?”
“Eighteen months ago.”
“Eighteen months ago?” replied Lawlor. “Don’t the Marines conduct fit reps every twelve?”
“Yeah,” said Olson, “but for some reason the paper trail on these marines stops exactly eighteen months ago.”
“Any idea why?”
“Based on what you’ve told me, I think that’s when someone took them off book.”
“That would make sense,” said Lawlor. “Were you able to find out anything else?”
“They were all Marine Security Guard School graduates and had been doing embassy security.”
“Where?”
“Pretty much all over the place, but one thing they had in common was that they each had requested high-risk postings.”
“What do you mean by high-risk?”
“They wanted to serve embassies that were operating under very high threat levels, like Bogotá, Athens, Kabul, Baghdad…you name it, and these guys were not only willing, but wanted to go.”
“Can you place them together at MSG school or in one of the embassy postings? There must be a bigger connection.”
“That was one of the first things I looked for, but they all graduated from different classes and never served at the same embassy at the same time either.”
“So what’s that leave us with?” asked Lawlor.
“Those avenues in particular don’t leave us with anything, but I dug a little deeper and found something that may be helpful.”
“I’m all ears.”
Olson pulled a file up on his computer and said, “While they’re deployed, the Marines are under the operational control of the State Department, but their coordination, logistics, and training is still handled by the Marine Security Battalion out of Quantico, and here’s where it gets interesting. The battalion maintains a low-key group of force readiness officers responsible for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of Marine Security Guard details in over one hundred and thirty embassies and consulates worldwide.
“The same force readiness officer filed very complimentary reports for the three marines whose names you gave me, as well as at least fifteen more, all of whom had their trails wiped clean as of eighteen months ago.”
“You think this guy recruited these marines into whatever off-book operation we’re looking at in New York?”
“All I can say is that I think it’s worth checking into.”