Chapter 9: Joint Committee on Intelligence Hearing

Robert drove the town car up Independence Avenue and turned left onto New Jersey Avenue toward the Capitol Building. I looked at the Capitol Building in awe. I remember seeing it as a teen for the first time when my parents brought us here on one of our few vacation trips. It overwhelmed me back then, and I was even more so as an adult. Before, I had been a visitor, and now I was there to give a briefing to some of the most powerful people in the world about our mission. I was not afraid; I was petrified. If my anxiety was comparable to that of a college student approaching a fellow student for a date, this situation would have been exponentially more intense. I could lecture unaffected in a lecture hall full of students, and yet in a few minutes I was to give a briefing to seven members of Congress, three members of the House of Representatives, and four from the Senate. Nothing to be concerned about, right? Hah!

Robert drove the town car up to the gate and stopped. A uniformed Capitol Police officer came up to the driver’s door. Robert rolled down his window. The guard asked, “Name?”

Robert answered back, “Dr. James Mercer.”

The guard consulted his clipboard, looking for the name. Obviously, finding it, he gave Robert instructions to continue to the far side of the House Triangle and let me out there. I would meet my minder there. Then Robert was to turn and follow the street back out toward Southeast Drive. There would be a parking area off to the left where he could wait for me. The lot attendant would notify him when I was done. Robert proceeded as instructed. He stopped to let me out, rolled his window down, and wished me good luck. I turned and walked toward the Capitol as Robert went to find the parking area.

After crossing the street, I came up on a kiosk with a sign that said all visitors must report here first. I walked up to the bored-looking woman staffing the desk and gave her my name. She spoke to someone on the radio. She informed me that someone would be out shortly to escort me to my appointment. It seemed like it was instantaneous when a group of five people came hustling toward me. I immediately recognized one of the people in the crowd as Molly. She was dressed extremely well and had a million-dollar smile on her face. Well, that was a good sign, I thought. If she had a frown, I would have probably turned and tried to make a run for it.

As the group came up to me, Molly and I greeted each other. The others looked confused. Seeing the confusion, I explained, Molly was the one who met me at Andrews and saw to it that I had a hotel room last night. Molly looked relieved that I had spoken up to explain how I knew her. Since I knew her, it was group consensus that she was the temporary leader and spokesperson.

“Dr. Mercer, if you will, please follow us. We will get you prepared to be in front of the committee,” Molly said. “And thank you for calling the cab for me last night; I got home safely.”

That caused a few eyebrows to head north toward individual hairlines. I knew that the other women would wonder what went on between Molly and me and that I would call a cab for Molly. I left it for her to explain to her coworkers.

Molly and her coworkers directed me to an anteroom, where I was to wait. A desk for me to sit at if needed had a supply of pens, pencils, and legal pads for me to use. In addition, there was a table with a cup of coffee, tea, and cold water, as well as some snacks if I needed them. At the other end of the room was a door-marked washroom if I needed to make use of it before I was to go before the committee.

I sat down and decided to jot down an outline of things I wanted to cover and some questions I suspected I should ask. My outline consisted of my educational background, my work experience, and my expertise in analysis and computer modeling in regards to determining trends. I worried I would bore the congressional representatives; I figured none of them would be technically inclined, so I would only speak in the most general of terms. Any in-depth analysis I would talk about would leave them with the same glassy-eyed look I had seen on the faces of students during my lectures. Lastly, I wrote down some notes about the mission. What we were able to glean from it and, lastly, about the mission being betrayed by Mike. I would then tell them how the team had used our collective wits to make it out alive.

I was in the anteroom undisturbed for close to thirty minutes before an assistant came for me. I got up and took the notepad and a couple of pens for jotting down notes. It was a short walk to where the meeting took place.

I went in and took a seat behind a small table, upon which there was a glass and an insulated carafe of cold water. In front of the small table, the congressional representatives would sit at a larger table. A few minutes later, the Congressmen strolled in with their staffs in tow. The underlings stood and squatted down behind their bosses, always close by if needed. I thought there had to be a better career move than to be an assistant to some congressional representative. I thought back on my days as a graduate assistant. There was not much difference between then and now—still the same groveling, just a different boss who held your career in their hands. As soon as the senators and representatives settled, the committee chairman called the session to order. He gave a brief overview and a short introduction. I looked down at the row of assembled legislators. I only knew four of the seven assembled in front of me. This was mostly from reading about them and seeing them on TV. One of them was the representative from Michigan, who came from the greater Detroit area. He came off as a champion of the working class and, for the most part, was a man of integrity, I thought anyway. Three were from the Senate. Two of the senators were in the middle of the road, probably representing the values of the constituents. The last one is Senator Nathan “Jeb” Stuart, also known as Senator Asshat. He was, in my opinion, a complete ass, and he did not disappoint. Most of his questions later had nothing to do with the mission, and his only purpose, I thought, was to say he was a point man for whatever cause he supported that week. He was annoying, but harmless. The one I sensed to watch for and make sure I had on my side was the Representative from Michigan. He had an aura of intelligence and integrity. Too bad he was not from Chicago; he was one politician I liked.

The committee meeting went pretty much as I had predicted. I gave my background and my work experience, and I lost them all except the congressional representative from Michigan when I discussed my expertise in computers and modeling. When it came time to discuss the mission, they requested that I tell the whole story of my recruitment and my impressions of everyone involved. I told them that from the start, the team seemed to bond well, all except Mike. At first, I assumed he was the team leader until we were halfway through training and preparing for the mission. It was then that I understood I was to lead the mission, as I had the technical knowledge needed to do the assessment and gather materials to support our conclusions. The Congressmen were concerned at first that a woman was part of the team during such a dangerous mission. I quickly explained that, even though she was a woman, she was very capable of taking care of herself. She had the technical skills needed to assist me in my on-site evaluations. It was then that I described our first snag when Mike was overtly flirting with Andi and her rejection of him. I said that was when I noted his not bonding with the rest of the team and how it affected the team’s cohesiveness.

I briefly went over our training regimen of physical conditioning, small arms combat skills, and unarmed combat training. I was asked about my opinion of such training, and I told them I wholeheartedly supported it. It was what saved us from death and capture, I informed the committee. Several committee members made notes about my comments.

One congressional representative asked me to describe the mission almost minute by minute. I started with our flights from the USA to Scotland and then went on the submarine. I made a point of saying that the military and civilians we had to work with were strictly professional; as a country, we had nothing to worry about as long as they were in uniform and doing their duty.

My description of the mission started with how we landed on the Russian coast and made our way inland, using a van left for our use, arranged earlier by one of the agencies involved in the mission. I praised Andi’s language skills. Without her, the mission would have failed. In my opinion, the team’s cohesiveness, despite Mike, made the mission work.

I glossed over being inside the computer center. The Congressmen sat intently as I described how we went about gathering intelligence that I thought was relevant. I said we were in and out in 20 minutes. Once we came out, all hell broke loose. I said we took automatic AK-47 fire from the general location where Mike had situated himself. The rifle fire pinned us down, and the van that we had parked in front of the center rendered it useless to us. I reported that the barracks for the soldiers and technicians across from the center also came under AK47 fire. I concluded that this was a deliberate act to get the team killed or captured. As a stain on an otherwise successful mission, the team witnessed Mike escaping the compound, leaving us subject to small arms fire.

I didn’t even get to finish my report before a committee member asked how we were able to escape. I told the committee we were able to create a diversion using an incendiary device provided to us. It was to destroy the center if we were not able to gather any evidence of how sophisticated the center was. I said we were then able to use a nearby motorcycle and sidecar to make our escape from the compound, as the device had created a huge fire and was causing general confusion inside the compound.

Another asked why we did not head back to the beach and the submarine. I informed the committee that our communication equipment had been sabotaged. The damaged radio kept us from contacting the submarine and arranging a pick-up. We had to use our own resources to escape from Russia with the intelligence we had gathered.