Carlton had also implied the operation had political ramifications attached to it, and that it required the President’s approval before it could be implemented. More than likely, the political aspects of the operation had been the reason for his crankiness.
Playing politics, while putting America’s security at stake, was one of Carlton’s pet peeves—one of many.
He’d refused to tell me what the politics of the situation were, and after we’d said our goodbyes, I’d walked out of my boss’s office thinking I wouldn’t see him again for three months.
That had brought a smile to my face.
For the past six months, we’d worked together on three separate operations, and I was looking forward to some time off.
No, scratch that.
The only thing I was looking forward to in the next three months was spending time with Nikki Saxon.
Although Nikki and I had only known each other a short time, I’d surprised myself yesterday by asking her to marry me.
As soon as I’d put the ring on her finger, Carlton had called and invited me to drop by his townhouse in McLean.
“It’s nothing urgent,” he said. “Come by tomorrow around seven.”
“Should I pick up dinner for us?”
“Sure, grab us a pizza from Listrani’s. I’ll call it in.”
Of course, he would call it in. That’s what Carlton did.
I was a Level 1 covert intelligence officer at the CIA, and Douglas Carlton was my handler.
He handled things.
Most of the time, I let him.
* * * *
Carlton had ordered us an authentic Italian pizza with Genoa salami, Kalamata olives, portabella mushrooms, goat cheese, and mozzarella.
I wasn’t a big fan of goat cheese.
Carlton pointed to the white clumps on my plate. “You don’t like goat cheese?”
The two of us were seated across from each other in Carlton’s dining room.
Even though having a pizza didn’t seem to call for such a formal setting, I hadn’t been surprised when Carlton had directed me over to the dining table when he’d answered the doorbell.
When Carlton’s wife, Gladys, had been alive, she’d always insisted on eating the evening meal in the dining room. Even if she and Carlton had only been having sandwiches, she’d been adamant about this rule.
Following Gladys’s tradition, Carlton had laid out two china dinner plates, a full set of cutlery, and cloth napkins.
“Goat cheese reminds me of that goat farm in Afghanistan,” I said. “That’s something I’d just as soon forget.”
“Oh, yeah,” Carlton said, nodding his head, “the goat farm in Kandahar. I’m sure that’s not a pleasant memory.”
We reminisced for a few minutes about the operation that had cost the lives of two Agency personnel. Then, Carlton pushed aside his plate and said, “After you left my office yesterday, Deputy Director Ira gave me the go-ahead to begin preparing the protocols for Operation Rebel Merchant. That’s the assignment I told you about yesterday.”
“You never mentioned the name of the operation.”
“It didn’t have a name then, and, frankly, I was surprised the DDO signed the authorization to proceed. I didn’t think he’d do so without the President’s approval, but he said he wanted to have all the background work done on it when he takes it to the President’s desk in January.”
“January? Why the delay?”
“His timing has more to do with the political overtones of the operation than anything else, but you’ll understand more about that when I brief you on the details.”
He leaned across the table and pointed his finger at me. “Of course, you understand this is an unofficial briefing; strictly off the record.”
Carlton prided himself on not being a rule-breaker, and I had always worked hard to help him maintain that illusion.
“We’re just having pizza together. What’s official about that?”
* * * *
I followed Carlton across the hall to his office. Although it was only half the size of his study in his house outside of Fairfax—a country estate Gladys had always referred to as The Meadows—his office still contained an executive style desk and a bookcase full of books.
He gestured for me to take a seat in one of the guest chairs.
Once he walked around and sat down behind his desk, he said, “I’m guessing you must have figured out this was the reason I wanted to see you tonight.”
“Oh, sure,” I said, nodding my head. “I knew that.”
Actually, I didn’t have a clue, but it was never a good idea for your boss to know you were clueless.
“Since you’ll be back to active status in January, I’ve already put you down as the primary for the mission,” he said, opening up his laptop.
He paused and looked over at me. “That’s pending the DDO’s approval, of course.”
“After the success of Peaceful Retrieval, the Deputy and I are on speaking terms again, so I don’t think that should be a problem.”
Carlton didn’t say anything.
I took that as a good sign.
I felt certain he’d tell me if he disagreed with me, although I admit a few words of confirmation from him would have made me feel a little better.
As Carlton entered some keystrokes on his computer, he said, “The DDO has named the operation Rebel Merchant because the focus of the mission will be Jacob Levin, our missing contractor. As I told you yesterday, Levin was recently spotted in Yemen.”
“I don’t think I ever met the guy.”
“No, probably not. That’s why I wanted you to take a look at his PDS and tell me if anything jumps out at you.”
Although I knew Carlton didn’t have the Top-Secret file on Operation Rebel Merchant in his possession—Agency rules wouldn’t allow its removal from CIA headquarters—he was still able to access the CIA’s data files on his encrypted laptop, and, a few minutes later, I was reading Jacob Levin’s PDS.
A Personal Data Sheet (PDS) was the biographical summary on an Agency employee. It included background, areas of expertise, status, postings, medical history, and a dozen other potentially embarrassing private details about an individual.
The most embarrassing thing about Levin’s PDS was how often his colleagues had described him as “boring, nerdy, and geeky.”
But, except for one anomaly, there wasn’t anything in his background I considered a red flag.
Levin was employed by the Southridge Services Group (SSG), a private military company operating out of nearby Sterling, Virginia.
SSG was one of a number of independent military groups which provided the CIA and the Department of Defense with intel, research, and security in the areas of intelligence and defense technologies.
Levin’s official title at SSG was Operational Liaison, and, as often happened with independent contractors, Jacob Levin was a shared employee.
In Levin’s case, that meant he was working for both the CIA and the Defense Department, although it was SSG who was signing his paycheck every month.
I said, “The only odd thing I see here is that Levin used to work for the Pentagon.”
“Why does that strike you as odd?”
“To most people, leaving the Pentagon to work as an independent contractor would be considered a step down.”
Carlton placed his cursor on the entry which listed Levin’s employment at the Pentagon and tapped his touchpad. This brought up a separate document showing where Levin had worked at the Pentagon.
“Maybe this will change your mind about that oddity.”
As soon as I saw Levin’s work history at the Pentagon, I reconsidered my statement.
“Yeah, that explains a lot.”
Jacob Levin had been a research engineer/scientist with DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Pentagon, an agency responsible for developing cutting-edge technologies to protect America’s national security.
After scanning through t
he projects Levin had worked on at DARPA, I said, “So Levin was on the DARPA team that developed the drone detection device.”
Carlton nodded. “He’s the one who came up with the idea, and he was also the project manager. As soon as the device was ready for field testing in Iraq, he resigned his position at DARPA and went to work for SSG. I’ve already spoken to DARPA’s director, Dr. Kepler, who told me Levin resigned as soon as SSG was awarded the contract. He said Levin wanted to run the field trials on the prototype himself.”
“Does this device have a name?”
“It’s the Mobile Onsite Drone Detection system, and that pretty much explains its capabilities. The MODD system was developed to protect our troops from any hostile unmanned aircraft systems.”
“Are you saying the MODD system can locate an enemy drone?”
“That’s right, but its benefits are far more wide-ranging than that. Not only can the MODD system detect the presence of an adversary’s UAV, it can also identify, track, and neutralize it without causing any collateral damage.”
“You mean it can take out a weaponized drone without creating any casualties?”
Carlton nodded.
“How’s that possible?” I asked.
“That’s a discussion for another day, but I assure you, I’ve seen a video of it executing that maneuver perfectly.”
“I can understand why Levin was hired to field test the MODD system, but why would the CIA do a joint hire with Defense? What could Jacob Levin do for the Agency in Iraq?”
“I asked the DDO that same question five years ago when he told me someone from Defense had approached him about sharing the cost of hiring Levin.”
“Obviously, he must have said something that convinced you to hire him.”
“He told me Levin spoke fluent Arabic and was willing to act as a translator for the Agency. We were trying to find someone with a Top-Secret security clearance to head the team translating the documents seized from the raid on Abdel Fattah’s hideout in Karbala. That’s why I agreed to the joint contract.”
“Testing the MODD system sounds like a full-time job to me. When did Levin have time to translate the documents?”
“That wasn’t a problem. Since the system required the use of several of our drones, field testing was only done once a week. The rest of Levin’s time was spent at our base in Karbala.”
“Is that where the trials were held?”
“No, the MODD system trials took place in the desert around Al-Nukhib, about two hundred kilometers from Karbala.”
“Tell me about his time in Karbala. Did he—”
“You’ll get a full briefing on Levin’s activities once the President signs off on the operation. Right now, I want you to take a look at two of the men who were working with Jacob Levin in Iraq when he disappeared.”
Carlton pulled up two documents on his computer and adjusted the layout in order for me to view them side-by-side. Both of the documents had the same heading, “Southridge Services Group Personnel Record.”
The documents looked like standard employee files with a photograph of the employee on the left and a profile of the individual on the right.
After skimming through the documents, I said, “Nothing seems off about these two. Is there some reason you wanted me to see their files?”
Carlton pointed to the guy on his left. “Travis Zachary no longer works for SSG. He’s currently working for a security company in Springfield, Missouri. I thought you might want to stop by and pay him a visit on your way back to Oklahoma.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“Because he was the last person to talk to Jacob Levin before he disappeared.”
END OF CHAPTER 1
Five Years in Yemen is available on Amazon here. More information about Titus Ray Thrillers can be found on the author’s website: LuanaEhrlich.com and on TitusRayThrillers.com. Thanks for being a Titus Ray Thriller fan!
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