Author's Note: I apologize if I allowed my personal politics to influence this chapter a little. I will admit up front, I am no fan of President Bush or of the Iraq War. However, I tried to make this chapter as neutral as possible.
March 11th, 2003
After Christmas, Sarah sat around Langley for nearly three months. No assignment.
She didn’t necessarily mind – after all, she was still drawing a rather handsome paycheck. However, she was getting bored, and she could only spend so much time on the shooting range.
Finally, toward the middle of March, she got a call from Director Graham.
“Meet me in the main facility lobby,” he said. “We’re going for a little ride.”
Sarah met Director Graham, and they left and got into a Crown Victoria idling by the curb. He said only, “Drive,” and the car pulled away.
It was a few minutes before Sarah realized they were headed into Washington. “Where are we headed to, Director?”
“You’ll see in a moment, Agent Walker.”
She began to recognize tourist attractions as they approached the center of the city. However, when the car turned onto Executive Drive to pull into the White House complex, she just about had a heart attack.
“Director… why are we going to the White House?”
He turned and smiled. “Agent Walker, you’re about to meet your Commander in Chief.”
She was stunned. The President?
She was also a little annoyed. Why THIS President?
As they entered the White House, Sarah was frisked by a Secret Service agent, and given a pass which she was told she would need to wear at all times. Director Graham led her through a seemingly endless warren of corridors and offices. Nothing looked like it actually did on The West Wing…
Except for this office. The ante-room to the Oval Office. Sarah’s eyes widened when she realized where they were.
“Good morning, Director Graham,” the President’s administrative assistant said. “The President is on a phone call right now, but he’ll be with you in just a moment if you’d like to take a seat.”
Graham and Sarah sat. Sarah couldn’t stay still fidgeting and bouncing from nervousness, until Graham shot her a look.
Finally, the assistant’s phone rang. “He’s ready to see you now,” she informed them.
Graham got up and crossed to the door that led into the Oval Office. Sarah, practically trembling, followed.
The door opened, and Graham entered, Sarah right behind him. “Artie!” she heard a very, very familiar voice call across the room.
“Mr. President,” Director Graham replied. The President stood up behind his desk, and crossed around in front of it, approaching the Director to shake his hand.
“And you must be Agent Walker,” the President said, reaching out to shake Sarah’s hand.
“Yes, sir,” she replied.
“Didn’t know the CIA made agents that looked like you,” he joked, his accent starting to grate on Sarah’s nerves a little.
“Yes, sir,” she replied again, forcing herself to not roll her eyes.
“Have a seat, have a seat,” the President said, indicating the couches. Director Graham and Sarah crossed in front of the couches, but remained standing as the President approached the coffee tray on the side of the room.
He was halfway through pouring himself a cup of coffee when he noticed that they were still standing. “Seriously. Have a seat.”
“Yes, sir,” the said in unison.
“Artie, can I get you anything?”
“No thank you, Mr. President.”
“Agent Walker – your name’s Sarah, right? Can I call you Sarah?”
“Absolutely, Mr. President.”
“Can I get you something?”
She had no idea what to say. She really wanted a cup of coffee, but she felt like asking the President to get it for her was the ultimate in rudeness. However, no caffeine, and she might make an ass of herself.
Sarah’s need to remain poised won out. “If you don’t mind, sir.”
“Not a problem, Sarah, not a problem at all. How do you take it?”
“Black, sir.”
“Well, that’s easy, ain’t it.”
Director Graham was giving her a look like, Have you lost your mind?
She just looked back, trying to say, He asked!
The President came over to the couches, and handed Sarah her coffee. “Thank you, sir.”
“A pleasure, Agent Walker.”
He took a seat in a large easy chair at the end. “Alright, Director Graham, so why don’t you fill Agent Walker in on what you have in mind here.”
“Yes, sir,” Graham said. “Agent Walker, simply put, we’re sending you to Iraq on a covert negotiation mission with Saddam Hussein.”
Sarah, having just taken a mouthful of hot coffee, swallowed it too quickly and started coughing. She set the coffee cup down on the table in front of her, and when she finally recovered, gasped out, “What!”
“Agent Walker, I’m sure you’ve seen the evidence that Secretary Powell has been showing the United Nations regarding Iraq’s WMDs,” the President explained. “We want you to go in to Iraq, meet with Hussein, and tell him that if he steps down as President of Iraq and turns over his WMDs, we’ll let him go. Hell, we’ll give him a free trip out of Iraq.”
“Sir, with all due respect, I think that’s a monumentally bad idea,” Sarah said, still in shock.
“Agent Walker!” Director Graham snapped.
“No, no, Artie, if one of your best agents thinks it’s a bad idea, I want to hear it,” the President said, trying to shush Graham with a hand motion. “So, explain, please, Agent Walker?”
“Sir, Hussein has one of the worst track records on human rights and, for that matter, telling the truth, ever. If we allow him to walk off scot-free after everything he’s done, the opinion of the world will come crashing down on us. And quite frankly, who’s to say he won’t try again?”
“What about his WMDs, Agent Walker?”
“Remove them discreetly, sir. It’s bad enough that the world thinks he has them. If the Middle East ever finds out that he actually DID, it would tear itself apart in a frenzied panic.”
“Well, Agent Walker, that’s kind of what Secretary Powell and Dr. Rice have been telling me. The Vice President and Secretary Rumsfeld disagree – they think we should make a public example of the country. I sort of tend to agree.”
“Sir, make a public example of Hussein. Capture him, try him, hang him. But don’t let the world know he actually had the WMDs.”
“I like your way of thinking, Agent Walker. However, I still need somebody to go in there and give him the offer, so that we can say we exhausted every opportunity.”
“I’ll go, sir, but you’d better have the Marines ready to march into Iraq as soon as I’m done, because he’ll know that his time is up the moment I give him the offer.”
They spoke for a few more minutes, and then left. Director Graham was silent until the Crown Vic had left the White House grounds.
Finally, he spoke. “What the hell was that all about, Agent Walker? Telling the President that something is a monumentally bad idea?”
She sighed. “May I speak candidly, sir?”
“As always.”
“Sir, with respect to the President, he is not an intelligent man. He needs a dissenting voice in his ear, telling him the best course of action. If he doesn’t, he’ll end up taking the advice of the Vice President and the Secretary of Defense and God knows who else, and five years from now, we’ll be mired in Vietnam part two.”
Director Graham shook his head. “That’s impossible. If we invade, we’ll capture Baghdad within a couple months, and we’ll be saying ‘Mission Accomplished’ by Christmas.”
He handed her a manila folder. “That’s your cover. Study it. Become it. You leave in a week.”
Sarah Walker quickly became Mary McConnell, State Department negotiator. She had her hair cut short, just above the nape of her neck. She began wearing the garb ordinarily worn by female staffers in the Middle East.
On the March 18th, she flew out of Langley Air Force Base on an unmarked jet. It landed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she was met by the Deputy Chief of Mission from the American Embassy, in addition to a translator. Together, the three moved to a Saudi Air Force Gulfstream, which flew them to Baghdad.
From Saddam Hussein International Airport, a limousine picked them up and took them to the Saudi Embassy, where they would spend the night of the 18th. The 19th would be the day for negotiations.
The morning of March 19th came too early. Sarah rose at 6:00 AM and went through martial arts exercises for half an hour to wake up. Then she headed down to breakfast.
At 8:00 AM, the limo retrieved them from the Saudi Embassy and took them into downtown Baghdad, to the Presidential Palace. The closer they got, the more Sarah felt like she was being surrounded by pure evil.
The streets were quiet. No horns honking, no people on the streets. It just seemed wrong for such a big city to seem so empty.
When they reached the Presidential Palace, they were kept waiting for one hour, two, three. Finally, just after 11:00 AM, an escort of the Republican Guard entered the room they sat in, followed by the man himself – Saddam Hussein.
Sarah rose from her chair, and began to speak. “Mr. President, my name is Mary Mc-“
She was cut off by one of the Republican Guards screaming in Farsi at her. The translator quickly interpreted, “Silence, devil whore. You will not speak until his Greatness has spoken to you.”
Sarah looked daggers at the translator, who seemed to shrink into her seat. Being called “devil whore” did not exactly make her day.
Then Hussein himself spoke. In fluent English. With a tone so smooth that he sounded like a snake-oil salesman.
“My apologies, madam,” he smarmed. “My guards are a bit… zealous, shall we say?”
He took a seat across the table from Sarah, and indicated that she should follow suit. “Now, shall we begin?”
“Yes, Mr. President,” she replied, sitting. “My name is Mary McConnell. I’m with the State Department.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Ms. McConnell,” Hussein replied. “And what message do you carry to me from your President?”
“Simply put, Mr. Hussein, the United States demands that you step down from your post as President of Iraq and turn over your weapons of mass destruction to the International Atomic Energy Agency.”
Hussein stared at Sarah for a long moment, making her feel very uncomfortable. When he finally spoke, it was not what she expected.
“You have magnificent breasts, Ms. McConnell.”
Sarah’s eyes widened, and she blushed. “Excuse me, Mr. President?”
“Magnificent indeed. And such a wonderful body. You have been truly blessed. You would make an excellent concubine.”
Sarah was starting to get very aggravated. “Mr. President, no disrespect, but can we please return to the business at hand?”
“This is the business at hand, Ms. McConnell. My guess would be that any man who won the pleasure of a night with you would be quite exhausted the next morning, no?”
Sarah had had it. She stood up, and leaned across the table, not caring that she was staring eye to eye with the man known as the Butcher of Baghdad. “Mr. President, let me make something very clear to you. Republican Guard or no, I know over a hundred ways to turn you into a corpse before they even had the safeties on their weapons turned off.”
Implacable, Hussein stared back at her. “So, the President sends a CIA agent to negotiate with me, then? It’s quite obvious that that’s what you are, Ms. McConnell, if that is indeed your real name.”
He rose from the table. The others did the same. “With that knowledge, I now realize that your President was being entirely serious when he posed the same demand publicly earlier in the week. However, now that it has been conveyed to me in person, you may convey my answer back to him in person.”
He leaned across the table, and got close enough to Sarah that she could smell his breath.
“No,” he hissed. “I will NEVER step down from the Presidency, and should your country be so foolish to oppose me, then the rage of the Arab world shall rain down upon your President, just as the debris rained down upon Manhattan.”
And with that, he turned and marched out of the conference room, followed by the Republican Guard.
Sarah was trembling in anger. The Riyadh DCM looked at her with unveiled contempt. “Good job, CIA,” he muttered.
“Give me a break,” she protested as they departed. “There’s no way he was ever going to accept the offer. The President knew it. You knew it.”
The DCM didn’t say anything. He just ignored her. All the way back to Riyadh.
When Sarah reached Riyadh, she got back on board the CIA jet, and flew back to Langley. Just after taking off, she called Director Graham on the Airfone, and said one word.
“Go.”
Sarah Walker personally considered her first real assignment to be a failure, but to the administration, it was nothing but a success.
At 5:34 AM Baghdad time on March 20th, 2003, American forces, in addition to forces from several other Coalition nations, invaded Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. President Hussein fled Baghdad, and on April 9th, the city fell.
On May 1st, 2003, President George W. Bush landed onboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to declare “Mission Accomplished”.
Nearly five years later, American forces STILL remain in Iraq, battling what has evolved into a civil insurgency.
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