by T C Miller
“It would have been, if Yancy and crew hadn’t shown up.”
Jake brought Banner up to date on the attack, their escape up the ravine, and the subsequent capture of Joanna Davies. “How do you want me to handle it?”
“Before I decide, let’s back up and go through the intel we have point by point.”
“Yes, sir. I revived Pyotr and questioned him. He doesn’t have a lot of intel, but brought up a name I’ve heard before.”
“Who?”
“Not who, but what, the Consortium….”
“Where have you heard the name before?”
“Classified CIA briefing. They’re a shadowy organization that sells their intel services around the world, and it sounds like Yancy is a customer. Pyotr didn’t have much detail, but overheard Yancy refer to a facility in Deer Trail, Colorado.”
“The Consortium may be the reason Yancy has evaded us for so long. We shouldn’t say more on an open line, so we’ll talk about it when you have a secure line.”
“Yes, sir. I am puzzled about this thing with Licia, though. Yancy is a major league criminal with fingers in a dozen pies, so why is he anxious to get his hands on a college student? Pyotr even quoted Yancy as saying his troubles would be over when they capture her and have hundreds of millions in secret overseas accounts.”
“That would be worth killing for.”
“We should keep Licia as far away from Yancy as we can.”
“I’ve already directed a Secure Witness Transfer Unit to pick her up. They’re ETA is less than two hours if they can get a chopper up in the bad weather. Same for the Prisoner Transport Unit I’m sending.”
“Weathermen say this storm is supposed to get a lot worse over the next couple of days. It sneaked up on them and us.”
“Sure did. Most ski resorts are closed until they can clear the roads, including Hogadon.”
“The skiing trip was out, anyway. Star will be better off if we get her back where she feels safe. The attack hit her hard.”
“What about Licia?”
“Licia has such a strong core it doesn’t seem to have affected her. Star’s the one I’m watching.”
“You seem worried about both of them.”
“They’ve become like little sisters, so my protective instincts are bristling,” Jake replied. His next words were spoken slowly, and with intense feeling, “I know I need to stay focused on the here and now, but getting Joanna back is my number one priority.”
“I understand, and we’ll talk more tomorrow. I need to run, I have a department head meeting in five minutes.”
The call ended, and Jake sat in silence as his eyes filled with tears. He wiped them away with his shirt sleeve. Can’t help her if you’re a basket case. Mount up and get back to work.
The jet-black helicopters with tail numbers registered to a corporation in Panama sat down in the driveway of the underground house two hours later.
Bob Onkst stepped off the skid and shook hands with Jake and Doc. “I hear you got a couple of hombres you want me to take off your hands. They ready to go? Wicked weather’s heading this way, so we need to scoop and scat.”
“Hello to you, too,” Licia said as she gave the venerable tactical team leader a quick hug. “Have you missed me?”
“Of course, although, it seems like whenever I see you there’s trouble.”
“Not my fault, I promise.”
Jake shook hands and pointed to the garage entrance to the underground home. “Perps are in the building.”
Onkst and two of his team members followed Jake and Licia into the entrance building where they stood in a circle stomping their feet to shake off loose snow.
Jake introduced them to Doc and Mary, and they trudged down steps into the mudroom.
“Nice place you got, Doc,” Onkst noted. “Would have thought the building upstairs was the only thing here. Must be nice and cozy, even when there’s a storm brewing.”
“Thanks, and the forecast says it’s going to get much worse in the next couple of hours.”
“Guess we need to shake hands and run. Our window of opportunity is closing fast, so it’s time to mount up and get the heck out of Dodge.”
Onkst turned to Jake. “Mission briefing said you’re coming with us. Aren’t enough seats on the bird for everybody, and it looks like there won’t be time for two trips today. Anybody left will have to leave by ground after the highways are cleared, or wait till tomorrow.”
“What about my truck? It needs minor repairs.”
“Jim Johnson and Jessie Matanane will fix it up enough to drive back to FE Warren. The girls will fly out later today or tomorrow, depending on the weather.”
“Have you cleared this with the team leader?”
“News flash for you, champ, you are the Acting Team Leader.”
“I’m what? Since when?”
“A few hours ago. Banner sent me to escort you back to FE Warren where an executive jet is waiting. Wants to brief you in person. Now, if you’re ready, we need to fly.”
Jake handed his keys to Johnson and strode over to
Licia and Star. “I’ll call to reschedule skiing.”
Star peeked out from under her sweatshirt hood and meekly asked, “Are your weekend trips always this rough?”
Licia elbowed Star in the side. “This wasn’t planned, right?”
“Not exactly,” Jake replied. “I am grateful you two made it out okay.”
“Me, too, but I wish Joanna was here,” Licia said.
Jake nodded because he was afraid his voice would tremble if he spoke. He cleared his throat. “Johnson, would you please escort the girls to FE Warren.” “Sure, Ja…uh, Boss, whatever you say.”
Jake joined Bob Onkst in the helicopter as the bird leaped into the air.
“You okay?” Onkst said on a private headset channel.
“Yeah…no, I’m really not. It feels like part of me has been ripped out.”
“I understand. Don’t worry, we’ll find Joanna and tear Yancy a new one. Nobody messes with our people, right?”
“Right, not now, not ever,” Jake replied as he stared out the window.
Consortium Headquarters Geneva, Switzerland
“I want information now,” the Commissioner bellowed to the gathering as he slapped the massive walnut conference table with a meaty hand. He sat at the center of one side with a dozen of his senior staff facing him. “A thermonuclear explosion occurred in a facility we controlled, and the Division Manager is missing. How did this happen? I want answers without delay.”
“I may have information pertinent to the incident.” Gottfried Langenmeier raised one finger from his position halfway down the massive walnut conference table.
“Yes, Gottfried, continue.”
“My communications analysts say local emergency personnel responded to the scene of a helicopter crash north of Kansas City, in Missouri….”
“I know where Kansas City is located.”
“Of course, sir. I was not implying otherwise.”
“Very well, go on.”
“We backtracked the flight. It left the Denver airport and was spotted on radar later near the Deer Trail site. It made one stop at a small landing field near Kansas City and subsequently crashed forty miles away. Emergency personnel found only the body of the pilot.”
“Where is Gunter Wilhelm, and why has he not contacted us?”
Langenmeier shrunk back into the luxurious armchair. “I am not privy to such information, sir. I have my people scouring our communications worldwide to locate him.”
The Commissioner turned to the other end of the table and addressed Henri Bouvier, “Henri, as Chief of Internal Affairs, can you can shed light on the situation?”
“As a matter of fact, I can,” the squat Frenchman replied. A member of Bouvier's staff had placed a note before him a minute before and quickly left the room.
Henri read from the note, “Gunter Wilhelm contacted my office twenty minutes ago using the correct secu
rity protocol, but with an incorrect daily password.”
“Are we sure it was Wilhelm?”
“The only aberration was the use of yesterday’s codes. Wilhelm explained he had no access to today’s codes, due to the untimely destruction of the Deer Trail facility. I took the liberty of ordering him to
report here for further explanation.”
“Very well, when does he arrive?”
“Tomorrow morning, Commissioner.”
“Then we will have answers. He will either be exonerated, or dead.”
***
Chapter Fourteen
Vacant Farmhouse Near Harrisonville, Missouri
Jack Morgan pulled the blindfold off Gunter Wilhelm with a single tug. “Sorry about the delay, sport. I’m busy running three ops at once. Do you have any idea taxing it can be? Oh, that’s right, you do.”
Gunter rolled his head around and squinted while his eyes adjusted to the semi-darkened room. It appeared to be the dining room of an abandoned farmhouse. A blanket hung haphazardly over sagging wood-frame windows, and a yellowed shade blocked the view. A door in a built-in china cabinet hung by one hinge, and faded roses decorated peeling wallpaper.
He struggled against zip-ties securing him to a worn-out, high-backed wooden chair. “I’ve done more without blinking an eye.”
Morgan scowled. “Are you sure you want to play a game of one-upmanship? I mean, you are the prisoner, you know.”
“So tell me, why am I here?”
“For starters, I have proof you are not who you claim to be, and certainly not who the Consortium thinks you are.”
Gunter feigned boredom. “So, you say, but so what? Do you think they will not suspect your so-called evidence is fake, or that you have your own agenda?”
Morgan slammed his fists on the dusty claw foot table in the center of the room. “Look, Wilhelm, I don’t have the time or patience for lies. You work for the US Government, and I could have sold you out to the Consortium a long time ago. I have bigger plans for you. For instance, I’m offering you the job of a lifetime.”
“Why in the world would I want to work for you?”
“A lot of reasons, like a boatload of money….”
Gunter gave the disgraced DEA agent a look of scorn. “Money doesn’t motivate me.”
“That’s for sure. I can’t believe you work for three hundred thou a year. You’re abilities and experience are worth a lot more than that, especially to me.”
“Do you actually consider abduction an effective recruitment tool?” Gunter squirmed in the chair and considered the odds of escape.
Two guards stood ten feet away with arms crossed, and another was visible through an open doorway. The musty smell and lack of outside noise told him the location was an isolated area. Help could be slow in coming, if it ever came at all.
Morgan turned another chair around and sat backward in it to face Gunter. “Snatching you was necessary since I couldn’t approach you without alerting your employers. Doing it this way makes it look like a rival intel group wanted to force secrets from you.”
“It will still put me in an awkward position with the Consortium.”
“True, but I’m not going to do that, which means you’ll be able to pass any interrogation from them,
including polygraphs and even sodium pentathol. You haven’t divulged any secrets. You can go back to work like nothing happened.”
“Except for the little matter of a nuclear explosion.”
“Not a problem. The Consortium will blame Gregori Yancy since he left mystery crates in the warehouse. The inventory report on your laptop shows them plain as day. I have a copy if you’ve lost yours.”
“It sounds like you thought of everything, although none of it explains why I was summoned to a nonexistent meeting far away from the site. How are you going to explain my absence from the Deer Trail site?”
“I’m not, bucko, you are. That is, if you don’t want Consortium hatchet men chasing you to the ends of the earth. By the way, I can help you there, too.”
“How?”
“There are coding indicators in the encrypted message you got that lead back to Justin Todd, a Consortium plant in NSA headquarters. Justin is under the impression he’s been talking to a Consortium controller I turned to my side months ago. We’ve been feeding bad data to the Consortium through him, setting him up for a huge fall.”
“Which, I’m sure, will earn him quality time in an NSA black site prison…”
“Oh, it’ll do more than put him in a hole for a few years. I also set Justin up to take the blame for a nerve gas attack on the NSA. I doubt he’ll ever see the light of day again. In fact, I seriously doubt he’ll see
Christmas.”
“Back to me, how do I fit in?”
“Really well, actually. You’ll have the ear of the Commissioner for a while. You’ll need to convince him you were set up, and I’ve given you the ammo to do that. You also need to convince the CIA you’re still
working for them….”
“The CIA?”
“Don’t be coy, Kraut lover. I have proof you collaborated with the Nazis….”
“I was a mere child….”
“Don’t give me the old ‘I thought they were like the Boy Scouts’ thing. You’ve been dirty since you were a kid and I don’t care. In fact, it makes you a better prospect. Now, where was I? Oh, yeah, working for me makes sense.”
“No offense, but I see no advantage for me.”
“C’mon, Hans, the answer is staring you right in the face. You don’t want to lay awake all night worrying the second most vicious intel organization in the world is coming after you.…”
“Second most vicious?”
“I’m the most vicious. You benefit in other ways, like being the second man in the most powerful intel
organization in the world.”
“Is that all?”
“Did I mention you’d be alive?”
Commercial Storage Facility, Beltsville, Maryland
Glenn Marks felt more relaxed after shedding the persona of Justin Todd than he had in years. Midnight was rapidly approaching, and fatigue filled every part of his being. The journey to Canada would begin after a quick nap in the RV.
He pressed a code into the security keypad, and a wrought iron gate rattled and clanked as it slid aside. He pulled the rental car in and waited for the gate to jerk back into the closed position to ensure nobody could sneak in behind him.
Harsh sodium vapor lights illuminated the vast storage facility with an eerie orange glow. Glenn pulled up to the overhead door behind which the bus-sized RV sat. It would be his means of escape from the DC area, and his sanctuary. A constant thrumming noise from nearby highways provided a background of mind-numbing sound, but, as tired as he was, sleep would come easily.
Glenn put out his cigarette in the cup holder of the rental car since ashtrays were no longer part of the design. A sticker on the dash noted smoking was not allowed in the vehicle. He retrieved keys from the center console to operate the powered overhead door, and stepped out of the car into the chilly night air. He would disconnect battery chargers, do a quick check around the home on wheels, and sink into the comfortable bed inside.
A quick scan of the driveway showed no one in sight. This was not the time to be confronted by a drunk vagrant looking for a handout. Satisfied he was alone, Glenn entered the security code on a pad and listened to the sound of a powerful electric motor as it labored to lift the heavy rolling door.
The hum of the motor and rattling sounds from the overhead door drowned out stealthy footsteps behind him. A metal loop slipped over his head and tightened around his neck. The initial shock caused Glenn to lose control of his bladder, and he clawed at the thin steel cable cutting into his skin.
The attacker pulled him into the storage unit.
Glenn tried to plead with his assailant, but could only manage gurgling sounds and animal-like grunts. Even those ceased after a few minutes. He st
ruggled and kicked a half-dozen more times before his body went slack. He stared at his reflection in the window of the shiny RV until his sight faded to black.
Executive Office Suite, NSA Headquarters
“Sorry I had to pull you in from the field, Jake,” John Banner began as he sipped a steaming hot cup of his favorite coffee. “Been putting out grass fires every day until well after midnight. I’m running on coffee and sandwiches, and I might be able to skip the sandwiches.”
They sat in easy chairs in front of the Director’s desk.
“You must be swamped with the colonel in a coma. Speaking of him, I’m still trying to wrap my head around what happened. I’m going by to see him while I’m here. We need to track down the person who ordered the attack and crush them. They may be the same ones responsible for kidnapping Joanna.”
“I think you’re right about that.” Banner cleared his throat before continuing, “You have the focused intensity we need right now to charge ahead on a number of fronts, which is why I’m changing your duty status from Temporary BSOG Team Leader to Permanent. The events in Wyoming proved you’re the right man for the job.”
“Thanks for your vote of confidence, sir, but I figured if something happened to Bart, Nora would take over as Team Leader.”
“She might, if Bart were gone,” Banner replied. “But he’s not, and she’s concentrating on his care, as any good wife would. Besides, I’m not sure she wants the position.”
“I’ll do my best, but I could use some help tracking down Greg Yancy and crew.”
“I agree and have transferred Ted Belk to your team for the time being. Bob Onkst and TRT-1 will also work with you. The search for Yancy and the stolen nukes is at the top of national security projects.”
“What about Joanna?”
“It gets a little sticky there. We can’t admit she’s been kidnapped….”
“Wha…why not? We can’t leave her at the mercy….”
“Slow down and follow my logic. The BSOG is one of the nation’s most covert teams. Disclosing her capture would open BlackStar to public scrutiny and compromise one of the most effective nuclear safeguards this country has ever had. I can’t let Yancy use her as a bargaining chip.”