by Kirk Russell
“It’ll take four people to lift them into a launcher, and even with four it’ll be awkward. Watch for a converted truck with a launcher welded on the back or something like that. They’re heavy, so there may be a hoist to assist in moving them. Maybe something used in construction that could be rented.
“We’ve talked with a couple of experts at the Pentagon who’ve suggested they may spread the missiles out. We may be looking for several sites with three to four missiles at each or as few as two missiles each. Look for extraneous vehicles, four-wheel desert-type vehicles, but they could as easily be in a warehouse and wheeled out onto a parking lot, or a mix of both. We know the fuel and general design, and missile experts put their range at seventy miles. The AI at Independence Base puts it at seventy-five miles, so I’d go with that.”
“We’re sticking with a seventy-mile radius,” Mara said. “That AI doesn’t run this office.”
“But it’s killer at math,” I said. “So don’t rule out the seventy-five-mile range.”
Mara nodded but said, “Okay, people, that’s the end of the meeting. Let’s get to it.”
After we broke up Mara wanted to talk alone with me.
He said, “The ASAC wants to meet with you.”
“Okay, but let’s not do it today.”
“That’s not yours to decide.”
“It’s not, but you know where we’re at today. What’s the meeting about? If it’s just so he can go on record with me and cover the list of infractions, let’s do it later.”
“I’m just delivering a message. If it’s a meeting you don’t have time for, you can tell him yourself. But between you and me, you’re making it worse.”
“I don’t see it that way.”
“I know you don’t, and I know you’re feeling isolated when you should be in the thick of things. I saw your face in the meeting, but you need to man up to the realities.”
“Man up?”
“All right, I’ll put it another way. Get over yourself. Esposito has a job to do same as you and me. He’s always been your advocate, and so have I. But today I’m going to be blunt. I don’t want to endanger another agent by assigning them to work with you. Your physical issues are significant and limiting. If that’s hard to hear, too bad, it’s the truth and we’re through dancing around it.”
“Who’s we? You and Esposito?”
“Grale, I was told that you were in a room sleeping on a bench an hour ago. I know you were up all night questioning Stetts and Wu, but you’ve questioned suspects all night many times before and then worked the day after and longer. It’s not good for squad morale to have agents see you sleeping.”
I hadn’t been sleeping, but that was beside the point. I said, “I get it. I’ll work alone. I’ll stay on Dalz, but in doing that I’m part of the search for missile sites. I can search alone.”
“We need everybody searching so we’ll figure that out, but knock off the martyr crap. You’ve worked alone plenty. That was the best idea we could come up with to keep you on the squad. If you come up with a viable Dalz lead, I may put two able-bodied agents on checking it out. That’s the new reality, and I don’t want any static from you about it. We just cleared this drug mess and you’re limping, so I don’t want to hear a single word about who I team you with or don’t. I can fill an auditorium with agents who like and respect you, but I can’t fill a small closet with agents who want to go out on a dangerous assignment with you as a partner.”
“How sure are you of that?”
“Don’t ask.”
52
“Do you have a TV screen or something?” Ralin asked. “Indie may have found the truck by reviewing older video.”
“Yeah, we can run it on a screen. We need just a few minutes then send it.”
Ralin had called with a lead, and I was trying to figure out the AV console in the conference room.
“Run what?” a voice asked, and I turned and saw Esposito.
Before I could answer, Ralin said, “It’s what you described. From two thousand feet up, they still look like coffins. A truck ran right past the base. I’m ready when you are.”
“Keep talking,” I said as I plugged in the screen. It lit up right away. “We’re watching,” I told Ralin, “and so far, it’s just cars and other trucks.”
“Give it fifty seconds, it’s coming.”
“What about other vehicles near the truck?” I asked. “Can we pull license plates from them?”
“We can do that. No one wants you to stop this attack more than me.”
“I don’t know about that,” Esposito said.
Ralin came back with, “Whoever just said that doesn’t know me and how long we’ve worked on Indie.”
We watched from above a spread-out flow of traffic passing in both north- and southbound directions. I focused on the northbound lanes as Esposito asked, “What are we watching for?”
“A flatbed semitrailer carrying three missiles in plywood boxes that look like long coffins,” Jace said from the doorway.
She softly shut the door behind her and stood watching with her hands on her hips as the drone’s cameras zoomed in on a truck approaching from south of Independence Base. The image changed in an instant from fuzzy to perfectly sharp.
“How is the AI getting it this clean with drone video?” Esposito asked. He kept on with questions we didn’t have time for, but who could blame him? We were like people from an earlier time marveling over the invention of color TV. We were so used to black-and-white, and often fuzzy, video, the clarity and depth of Indie’s imaging was stunning.
“It’s rerunning the video and simultaneously cleaning it up,” Ralin said and answered more of Esposito’s questions until we all went quiet when a truck with plywood coffins passed underneath the drone. We watched it disappear from sight then replayed it as Ralin sent us a string of vehicle license plates that included the make and model of the vehicles ahead and behind.
A search for the truck began before we left the room, and we turned to other agents on the DT squad to help chase down the owners of the vehicles the border drones videoed near the truck as it passed by. I watched the full clip once more then picked up my phone.
“Who are you calling?” Esposito asked, and I hadn’t put it together that he was here to talk to me.
“Kathy Tobias, head of DARPA. It’ll be a quick call.”
When Tobias answered her phone, I said, “Kathy, it’s Agent Grale. We know what’s coming. They’ll be surface-to-surface missiles, a total of twelve with modern guidance systems. I’m sending you a video of what the Independence Base border drones along 95 picked up on. It’s a flatbed truck with three boxes strapped down. From the point you start the video, it’s one minute thirteen seconds before you see the truck coming from the south. The drone video is two days old, so they may have already arrived at wherever they’re going. We believe there were four shipments, two that went north, two south. Most likely looking for mobile missile launchers. Are Ralin and Indonal still in the building?”
“Yes, both are.”
“If they launch missiles from multiple directions simultaneously, what’s the level of confidence Indie can handle that?”
“I don’t think anyone can truly say.”
“I’d get Ralin and Indonal out of there.”
“You think it’s imminent?”
“We don’t know but it could be, so why wait? You said Indonal was a one-, maybe two-in-a-generation mind. Is it worth the risk to let him and Ralin help manage the defenses?”
“I’ll get on the phone, but it’s a DoD call.”
“Convince them, Kathy.”
When my call with her ended, I put my phone in my jacket pocket. As I did, I moved my arm too fast and was hit by a wave of pain. Esposito saw.
“Come find me as soon as you have a chance,” he said. “And I mean soon.
”
I didn’t get a chance in the next few hours. Or I didn’t make the time. I didn’t want to hear bad news from him with everything else going on. Whatever was on his mind was urgent but also private, or he would have said it in the room instead of waiting. I had yet to come to terms with what Mara had said to me earlier. I didn’t want a closed-door meeting in Esposito’s office, at least not yet.
I didn’t dodge the meeting out of disrespect for the ASAC. Esposito took it personally, but we had much higher priorities that afternoon. Why would my issues jump to the front? Maybe I didn’t want that answer either.
53
Jace
“How long until you’re ready to hit the road?” Jace asked Grale an hour later at an ad-hoc desk he’d set up.
“Soon.”
“Did you meet with the ASAC?”
“No, I’ll sit down with him after the missiles are found.”
“What are you thinking?”
“That whatever he’s going to tell me can wait.”
“That’s going to light him up.”
“I know.”
Jace knew Grale was recharging and liked being among other agents as everyone geared up. He fed on the energy. They were all headed out for long hours checking desert roads and possible missile sites that overhead surveillance had identified. Mara had cleared her to go with Grale but he’d also said, “This is the last time until he’s healthier.”
She knew Grale was aware of that and thinking it over. They could talk on the road. Grale was asking for trouble dodging the ASAC after Esposito made such a point of wanting to talk to him, but he knew that. Grale looked over at her now and smiled.
“Stetts and Wu,” he said.
“I know, totally crazy. I’m not even sure I believe it yet.”
“It happened.”
Jace was tired. So was Grale, and he was hurting.
“Let’s get something to eat before we go,” she said. “It can be out of a machine or fast food on the way out.”
“You’re right, it’s time to roll.”
She watched Grale rise awkwardly then heard ASAC Esposito call Grale’s name loud enough to quiet the room. Grale stopped and turned.
“There you are,” Esposito said. “You’re eating up way too much of my time, Agent Grale. Let’s go talk.”
“Let’s talk here.”
“I don’t think you’d like that.”
“Try me.”
“All right, if you want to, we’ll do it that way. Here’s my problem to solve. How can the FBI get the benefit of your investigative skills without endangering another agent? Agent Blujace will go with you today, but here’s my requirement for you. Within seventy-two hours after we find the missiles and shut these terrorists down, you take the active duty physical. You run. You do the whole thing. Are you prepared for the run?”
“If you run ahead of me.”
Agents laughed, some hard. Grale had to know what he was doing, Jace thought. He was just that proud, he wasn’t going to take it alone in an office when he got told things weren’t looking good for him. Grale probably knew Esposito had been told to schedule some gym time himself. But Esposito didn’t like the laughter. His face tightened and got hard.
“I’ll do the physical, or let you know that I can’t,” Grale said.
“Are you putting Agent Blujace in danger?”
“I don’t think so,” Grale said, “but why don’t I go alone?”
“I’m good riding with Grale,” Jace said.
Esposito turned and pointed a finger at her. “Stay out of this.”
Jace raised her hands in mock surrender and went to get food and coffee for herself and Grale. She brought it back to the desk, but Grale was gone. She was told that he and the ASAC went to the ASAC’s office, or what passed for his office here. She ate a leathery protein bar and drank lukewarm coffee as she waited.
When Grale and Esposito finally came back out, Esposito looked calmer. Grale was quiet as they carried their gear and headed out. It struck her as they hit the highway north that Esposito and Mara had never really acknowledged that it was Grale who kept talking to Ralin and found Indonal and got him to safety. Or that Grale had connected with the head of DARPA, had uncovered Stetts and Wu, and all in the long hunt for Frederic Dalz. Wasn’t it Grale they originally asked to look at the Metaline Falls video and photos?
Yes, his back was a big problem and he was hurting, but who’d done more with this investigation? Even hurting, Grale pulled a big oar. She broke the silence. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that leaving everything behind in the bowling alley including their DNA was a statement. A big fuck-you to us.”
Grale’s phone rang before Jace could answer. It was Mara. Grale put him on speakerphone.
“The CIA gave us some information I want to pass on to you and Agent Blujace.”
“I’m listening,” Jace said.
“This is from a redacted report. I’ll send it to you, but there are some things to bear in mind when talking to Ralin.”
“Go ahead,” Grale said.
“In 2001 a fifteen-year-old English girl in Bedford named Claire Henley died of a rare form of pneumonia that killed her inside of seventy-two hours. A year later a similar-looking young woman with the same name, Claire Henley, enrolled in an English-speaking school in Warsaw. Seven years later, the new Henley met an up-and-coming computer scientist named Mark Ralin at Stanford.
“At that point she was on her way to becoming a skilled coder. Her aptitude in computer design was how they connected. She also has unusual gifts with languages. The CIA believes her skills and aptitude were identified early, and she was pulled from public school and trained.
“The next part is very heavily redacted, but it compares—or at least it appears to compare—the very early identification of her gifts as similar to theories on Dalz. Big gifts. Genius level. Identified young, sequestered, mentored, et cetera. That’s all. I doubt it’s going to matter while you’re out there looking, but I wanted you to know it if you end up talking to Ralin.”
As Mara hung up, Grale’s niece called him.
Grale smiled but let the call go to voice mail. “My niece. You remember her?”
Jace looked over and smiled at the happiness in his voice. “Yeah, I do.” Her phone rang. “It’s Indonal.”
“Hi, Agent Blujace. Is now a good time? I remembered a little more about when we met Margaret Landis,” Indonal said. “It’s along the same lines as I said before but with more detail.”
“We want to hear it,” Jace said. “I’m putting you on speakerphone.”
“Okay. Do you remember I told you I thought something happened between Alan and her when I went to the restroom? Well, what’s coming back is me seeing Alan’s goofy look and her right up against him. Until she saw me.”
“She pulled away when she saw you?”
“Yeah.”
“And that’s bubbling up as even more weird?”
“Kind of, yeah, but she also had Alan’s phone and was doing something with it.”
“Did he know?”
“It looked like it.”
“So maybe no big deal?”
“The guy who was supposedly her boyfriend got to his feet right after.”
Jace glanced at Grale. This was more about anxiety and grief over Eckstrom’s murder.
“It’s haunting you,” Jace said.
“It’s doing a number on me for sure. She sits down on the night we’re quitting Indie. That’s not coincidence is it? She knew somehow.”
“How do you think she could have known?” Jace asked.
“She couldn’t. Right? I’m just thinking aloud. Maybe she could have already been there and watched us come in and order drinks? But I think they came in a little after we did. I just keep going over i
t all in my head. Maybe Alan told her we’d walked away, you know, quit?”
“What are you trying to say, Eric?” Grale asked.
“Alan must have told her before we went there. I mean, maybe he told her he’d broken up with his girlfriend and they decided to meet up that night. Maybe she knew he’d be there and they could hang out because he wasn’t going home. She was in control, and we were stupid. I know they got together after that night,” Indonal said. “I don’t know if it even matters, but it’s been bugging me, so that’s why I’m calling.”
“Where are you now?”
“At Indie.”
“What? You and Ralin need to leave. Hasn’t DoD talked with you yet?”
“We had a meeting this afternoon, and they said the risks have increased and they’ll support whatever decision we make.”
“No, you need to leave and not come back until we know it’s safe. It’s not worth it.”
“Mark won’t leave.”
“Why not?”
“A lot of reasons, I guess. But I’ll leave tonight. I get it. Talk to you soon.”
After the call ended, Grale said, “That was hard for him.”
“That’s pretty much what he communicated last time.”
“But he’s seeing it more clearly. I hear grief and regret now. They worked together for so many years without knowing whether it would work, had to trust their instincts and look out for each other. They blew off DoD’s warnings about strangers because they figured they weren’t working for the government anymore. Indonal knows all of this.”
“He feels guilt too,” Jace said.
“Yeah, and he wonders the same as we do: Did Landis take part in Eckstrom’s murder? We’ve got to keep him and Ralin alive.” Grale caught sight of a road sign. “Three miles to Tonopah. What do you want to do for dinner? Want to check in first then find a place?”