October 20, 1977

 

After resting and spending time with Jack, Rip, and Bernadette and getting a good sleep, Peter eased out of bed at 6:00AM Monday. He used the bath down the hall to keep from waking Bernadette. God, what a woman and warrior. He’d sooner have her at his back than any man he had ever known. Terry was good, but she was better.

Peter grabbed a cup of coffee and some homemade coffee cake and slipped out the door. He needed to talk to Frank at the CIA. The information he had couldn’t wait. Not having a secure line handicapped communications but he could get the most important information to him. Peter headed east on A1A, the back way to Jacksonville. He didn’t want the CIA to know he spent time on Amelia Island. No one should ever completely trust an intelligence officer or the organization. They have their own set of priorities and ethics that do not always apply to their agents, which is what he was. A damn good one, he knew, but still expendable.

Peter stopped at a shopping mall in Jacksonville and called Frank. Frank’s secretary answered, and when he gave her the name Frank had given him, he was put through immediately.

Frank said, “You’re up early.”

“Yes. I’ve been a bit busy and have some very timely information.”

“Okay. I’m ready. I’m going to record this if you agree.”

“And if I don’t you will anyway.”

“In most cases that would be true but I’m under the strictest orders to do what you want and never to make any effort to locate you. Your performance has earned that respect.”

“Okay. On Tuesday morning a team of IRA killers tried to kidnap, torture, and kill one of my people. Those killers are now all dead. During an interrogation of the head man, whose real name is Sam Conners, we learned he took his orders from an IRA fund-raiser with the name O’Hara who used a back room at O’Keefe’s in Boston for his headquarters and that his mission was to kidnap and bring my person to D.C. to case some federal building near the White House. When he got back in Washington he was to pick up and guard an RV full of explosives from a bomb-building site in the mountains of West Virginia. The bomb building site and this operation had KGB support. A Russian using the name Harris is in charge, according to Sam Conners.

“When Conners expressed some concern over the high-risk of a bombing in Washington, D.C., O’Hara said, ‘Not to worry, I have a source in the American Parliament who will alert me if anyone is on to us.’

“Conners was frightened. The interrogation was quite skillful. I have no doubt he was telling the truth. Which brings me to the question, did information about my last operation in West Virginia go to anyone in the Congress?”

“The honest answer is I don’t see how. But I will check as soon as I hang up. Call me back in twenty minutes.”

“If you want us involved further, please tell me then.”