Dark Secrets

by Doug Pountain

  “That’s not a problem, said the Chief, but what about the flask”?

  Graham assured him that it would be taken somewhere very safe, “Without a detonator attached to it nothing can happen”.

  Graham looked at his team. “Well you don’t very often go out and then return with a bomb do you? We now need to see just how co-operative Director Colby actually is, you all go back to the hotel and pack, and we need to be out of there tonight for our own safety. I will give you an hour and then I will call him, so if I don’t return or I don’t contact you, just get out the country anyway you can, don’t wait for me is that clear”?

  The men knew that there was very little they could now do but to prepare for their next move, and after saying their goodbyes to Graham they went on their way. Graham firstly contacted Sir Richard in London.

  “Is this a secure line Richard”? And a second later he replied “All lines are now secure”. Graham then explained all that had occurred and his immediate plans but no more than that.

  “I think our friend has served his purpose don’t you agree”? Richard was of course referring to the American Liaison officer at GCHQ.

  “Yes I fully agree with that”. Replied Graham.

  “Oh and by the way, your friend from the swimming pool incident who you left with a hole in him has been very talkative with a little help, but remember you are still on your own, so be careful, don’t trust anyone and keep me informed”.

  “Thanks Richard, speak to you later”. And Graham made the call to Director Colby and told him just enough, but not all of the details, he didn’t want him rushing out and shooting people through over excitement.

  “I will send some specialists to meet you, just give them the package and walk away”. Colby said to Graham.

  “It doesn’t work like that said Graham. As of this moment I still don’t trust you, and so I will go with the package to make sure that it goes to the right place if that’s alright with you, and also just to let you know we will be observed”. Graham thought he would throw that one in regarding being observed as he was still very unsure of his own personal safety.

  “What do I have to do for you to trust me”? Said Colby.

  “As I said, let’s just see how the package is handled, and maybe after that we could be friends. But as with all friendships it shouldn’t be rushed, now come and get me, I will text you the address”.

  Graham stood with the fire Chief in front of the station and within a very short time a large black van pulled up outside the depot and the Chief again shook Grahams hand before one man from the vehicle went inside the depot with the Chief and then four others who were with him in the back of the van brought out a metal box into which Graham placed the flask. As one of the men was about to carry the box away Graham took it from him.

  “I think you will find that belongs to me for the time being, and if you have a problem with that I suggest you call your boss”.

  The man now very reluctantly handed it over and they all climbed into the Van, and a few minutes later they were joined by the person who had gone into the depot with the fire Chief to speak to him. The truck drove away and Graham looked around at his fellow passengers who were not obviously used to someone with Grahams attitude.

  “What a lovely evening for a spot of radioactive material collection don’t you think”?

  But not a word was spoken. Graham thought to himself. “What a bunch of zombies”.

  The journey lasted a further 2 hours before the vehicle finally stopped and Graham heard the unmistakeable sound of large steel doors opening, the van then drove very slowly forward, and he then heard the engine stop and the steel doors close behind them. This was the time that Graham would be at his most vulnerable, he had no idea who would be waiting for him outside or what his fate would be, but there was nothing further he could do, he just had to play the game and go along with whatever was required.

  The doors of the truck were opened and the men got out. “Please Sir, would you join us please”? And Graham very slowly got up and walked down the steps from the van carrying the box, he was then greeted by a fairly short man compared to the stature of everyone else present.

  “Please let me introduce myself properly, I am Director Colby, head of the FBI and I assume you are Graham is that correct”? Graham recognised him from the video call in the Ambassadors Aircraft, but he played his cards very close to his chest for the immediate future.

  “It could be, but I still don’t trust you, and so I need to carry out my own checks and to do that I will need secure internet access”.

  “I am afraid that will be impossible” Colby replied.

  “Well in that case you might as well finish me off now because there is no way I will let this box go willingly, so do what you have to”.

  This was a now a standoff that Colby could have easily solved by killing Graham and no one would have been any the wiser. Even Graham’s team would have been of no use against the FBI and the might of America, but the Director was well aware that Graham was of much more use to him alive than dead.

  “You push your luck a great deal, so what you know had better be well worth it”. Said Colby.

  “That is why I need internet access to speak to someone who will confirm your identity and guarantee my life, so the choice is yours”.

  “Alright give him a laptop and let’s get this over”.

  Graham placed the box on the floor and sat on it. He quickly logged on bypassing all of the security settings that were installed on the computer much to the dismay of the FBI officers, and then Graham Skyped Sir Richard on a secure line.

  “I am sorry to wake you Richard, but I need clarification on a few details please”.

  “Where are you”? Asked Sir Richard.

  “I am not sure but it’s a bit of a shithole, but I would like you to identify a man for me”. Graham turned the laptop around and Colby stepped now forward.

  “Good morning Sir Richard”.

  “Well hello Director Colby, I trust you are looking after Graham and his team for me just in case something should happen to them or they get injured or even die of a cold if you know what I mean”.

  “Look Baxter” said the Director.

  “No, let me stop you right there, replied Sir Richard, if you want the help of the British Government, then we would all like a little respect, so let us start again shall we”?

  “Richard, I don’t mean to sound obnoxious, but your man is sat on a box with possibly two Kilos of some kind of radioactive material plus God knows what else in it”.

  “Now you see I don’t find that very strange at all, he is after all British and that’s the sort of thing we do. But I am also certain that he has other information that you would like, otherwise I assume he would be dead by now and we wouldn’t be having this conversation would we? So I suggest you start to work with him immediately in order to save possibly many American lives, don’t you agree”?

  Graham turned the laptop back around. “So you can confirm he is Director Colby”?

  “Yes he is, and I can also confirm regardless of what you have just heard, that he is indeed a very good man”.

  “Thanks for that Richard, now we must get on, I will do my best to keep in touch”. And Graham cut the link.

  “Alright we now have a little trust and understanding Director”.

  “Right, well in that case give my men the box”.

  “Not so fast, I will give them the box, but I need to see exactly where it is going”.

  “Alright, you are going to enter one of the most secret and secure places in America. It is where we store some very special weapons including small missiles that can carry anything from a war head containing poison gas, to a nuclear head. This particular place is known only to a very small number of people who I personally vet and approve. If we were ever forced as a Nation to fight at very close quarters in our own Country, we could deploy these weapons to do maximum damage over a very small contained area”.


  Graham now handed over the box and it was very gently opened and the flask was removed. He then followed Colby through several very heavy blast doors guarded by very heavily armed men before they entered a large area with metal racks containing, as Colby had said dozens of missiles, mostly no longer than one metre but without any warheads fitted. They passed through one more door into a room where the temperature was maintained at a constant 5 degrees.

  “What you see before you are war heads fitted with nerve gasses of every description plus nuclear heads, this room is designed to withstand a direct hit without damage to any of the contents, and this is where the material you retrieved will be examined and stored”.

  The flask was taken from Graham by a man wearing a protective suit which looked very strange to him as he and Colby were only dressed in suits. The flask was then placed back in its original box and put on a rack where it was attached with a specific number and photographed.

  “The people here will examine it carefully to ascertain exactly what it is and also its origin”. And Graham turned to Director Colby.

  “Does this room mean that you have a plan in place should this country ever be threatened from within its own borders”?

  Colby was a little unnerved by this question, it was obvious that he was not used to such direct examination. He then replied. “Very much so, the problem with all Democracies including your own is that you never really know who your friends really are, and the special relationship that exists between our two countries is indeed very special. What you see before you in this room does not all belong to the U.S. Some of its contents belong to the U.K. and they are stored here should they ever be required by your own government to protect your country should you have to fight an enemy within your own borders, there would obviously be many casualties, but your Democracy would be safe and that is all that matters. Sometimes people have to die to protect their way of life and their freedoms and they have to accept that it is a necessary evil”.

  “I have told you these things even though you have no security clearance in this country, but I am led to believe that you and you team are very good people, so let’s leave this place while my team examine the package and go somewhere very private where it will be your turn to tell me what you know”.

  “Before we do that I need to ensure the safety of my own team”. Said Graham.

  “That’s not a problem”. Replied Colby.

  “Well it could be, because if the people that are behind this find out that we now have FBI involvement then the whole thing will go tits up and neither of us want that”.

  “OK how do you want to play it”? Asked the Director.

  “I need to move my team tonight to a Safe Hotel”.

  Colby said to Graham “Tell your team to go to the Warldorf Astoria, and at the reception ask for Rupert Castle’s suite, the hotel will call me immediately and I will confirm the reservation. The suite has 3 bedrooms and is completely secure and so they will be safe there and it will be clean with no connection to us”.

  Graham quickly telephoned Carol and explained everything and told her that everyone should leave straight away but not to go directly to the hotel, but to make several taxi journeys through the night to different locations to avoid being followed, Carol was also very relieved to hear Grahams voice. “Are you safe Graham”? She asked.

  “Yes I am and I will see you later”.

  “Alright, but please be careful, I love you, see you soon”.

  Graham and Colby returned to his car, and they left the facility followed closely by the truck with the heavily armed men in it. The Directors driver took several variations in direction before they finally emerged into Manhattan and drove directly into an underground secure car park. They got out of the car and walked towards a large steel door where they were observed by many security cameras before Colby leaned forward to a security point on the wall, where a retinal and voice scan were carried out before a green light came on and the large security door opened.

  “Whatever you do, don’t pass me or you will be dead, this corridor is covered by a lot of fire power before we get to the next door to my building”.

  Graham didn’t need telling twice, he did as he was instructed and stayed several steps behind Colby. At the second door the security procedures were again repeated before they finally entered through the door and directly into a lift, but this lift was very different, it went down, and in seconds they were 10 stories lower. The doors opened onto a vast expanse of a floor with at least 100 people working there, it was now very clear that this really was the heart of Homeland Security. Colby’s own office was more functional than luxurious complete with several secure telephone lines and also a red phone direct to the President, and now Graham was starting to feel a little more at ease and relaxed about his personal safety.

  “Right let’s hear what you have to say, but it had better be good”.

  It was now Grahams turn to come up with the information, even though some of it was a little patchy.

  “I assume you already know of our original brief regarding the 10 billion dollars”?

  “Yes, it was partly my idea to use you, we knew of the expertise you and your team have and also your discretion”.

  Graham looked at him, now a little annoyed at his statement. “That’s all very well knowing our capabilities, but if you had come to us with the full story in the first place we could have done this job far better, but let’s move on. When we started this job we knew that the only information you had was that the money had been stolen but you didn’t know by who, you only thought it was a theft, obviously a very large one but still only a theft. But thanks to the bravery of Sir Alex Pinks working with our government we were we able to identify a very dangerous group of people led by the Russian Borya Aslanov who took control of the Russian Mafia during a very vicious power struggle after the FSB took out several of their leaders, but his connections to the Kremlin are the most worrying but not necessarily dangerous”.

  “What do you mean by that statement”?

  “Well I don’t believe for one minute that Russia would even consider trying to do anything that could cause a war that no one can win, alright your President has shown his utter contempt for the Motherland. But rather than use any form of direct aggression, I believe that this group are buying influence”.

  “So you are trying to tell me that the device we saw this evening has nothing to do with them”?

  “Yes I am, but let’s leave that to one side for a moment. Do you know of Senator Dixon”?

  “Yes I do, but why do you ask”?

  “We believe that he and several other Senators and leaders of the Armed Forces are planning a sort of coup by trying to push the President into attacking Russia in the Crimea on behalf of NATO to hand it back to the Ukraine, and then Dixon would appear to step forward as a peace maker for the American people who wouldn’t relish a war that could very easily go Nuclear. The money was for some very large payoffs, but my team have borrowed the money”.

  Colby looked at Graham. “I didn’t know that, so where is the money now”?

  “Let’s say it’s safe for the time being, but we are on the surface trying to do a deal with Aslanov who has taken out a contract on me, and he would remove it if we give him the money back, in fact he is still waiting for us to contact him to discuss the details”.

  “You mean he is in this country”?

  “Yes he is, and also his daughter, and she has already murdered her Father’s partner in crime, an Italian called Fermi, and the last time I saw him he was starting to smell a little, so maybe a call to the NYPD wouldn’t go astray, but obviously with no names, and maybe then we could do a proper check of his apartment”.

  “Give me the address and I will contact a friend at NYPD and maybe then we can move forward quickly and stop this bastard”.

  Graham replied. “Not so fast, you make all the arrangements and I will give you the details of Fermi’s address later”.

  Colb
y contacted his friend at NYPD, he told him not to do anything until we contacted him again later in the day with a specific time for a visit to the apartment, this would allow them all to arrive at the same time without it looking to suspicious. Director Colby looked at Graham in a much different light now that he had been given such startling news that he personally had no knowledge of.

  “I know we got off to a bad start, but I want to thank you for being so open with me, and I can assure you of my complete co-operation with anything you need. But I think we will also need to act fast as we still have very limited information and also no time scale for whatever is being planned, but what I can assure you of, is that we will get these bastards before any American lives are lost and possibly a preventable war, but in the mean time I will get a tracker on the crate in the warehouse”.

  “That’s a very good idea, the fire chief knows which one it is in the warehouse. Thank you Director for your assistance, now if you could drop me at our new Hotel I would be most grateful, I can then regroup with my team and plan our next move. The two men shook hands and Graham was escorted out of the building by Colby.

  “One last thing. I would prefer it if there was no CIA involvement, their methods are not very subtle, and I think that is what’s required if we are going to get to the bottom of all this”. And Director Colby nodded his head in agreement.

  CHAPTER 11

  The time was nearly 10am before Graham finally arrived at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. He had been in there several times before on previous visits to America to meet clients but never before as a guest, even to Graham the cost always appeared to be a little extravagant. He turned on a new mobile and contacted Carl, “Where are you”? He asked.

  “We are on our 4th taxi ride and about five minutes away from the hotel, we have driven all over New York for most of the night”. He replied yawning.