by Bob Blink
"Everything that Mark just told us," Ed directed. "See what they want to do. We might want to target this guy."
"I'm concerned there was a burst of communications to several people. They might have spotted Burrows and Mitch and are planning a move against them."
Janet had been bringing Mitch up to speed while Mark and Ed were talking. She now put the conversation on speaker, so everyone could hear.
"We just left Sully fifteen minutes ago," Mitch explained. "He basically confirmed that one of the two top men was likely a clone, but it appears you have it nailed down. He said he was concerned someone was on to him. My guess is they are planning on going after him. We've been careful and watching our backs. No one is tailing us, so it can't be that we are the targets."
"You need to warn him," Janet insisted.
"He was headed back to the Hoover Building," Mitch said.
"Into the lion's den," Ed said unhappily.
"They won't do anything while he's there, but once he leaves he'll be an easy target," Mark warned. "Can you guys be there, and watch the place. We'll head into town and meet you. Hopefully before anything happens. Don't engage these guys alone. You'll lose, and they'll still get Sully. It sounds like there will be five of them."
"What about Jack's men?" Mitch asked.
"I don't think they are up to making a move against FBI headquarters, especially if we tell them who we suspect of being a clone. They'd want proof, and the Senator would have to approve their involvement. We haven't got the time," Ed explained. "This has to be our move."
"Okay," Mitch said. "Burrows knows where we can park and be able to see if Sully leaves. Once we are in place we'll call him and give him a warning. Maybe he'll want to leave with us and we can get away before they are in place."
"Just be careful," Ed warned. "You don't want to bring attention to yourselves. You're at risk from both the Feds and the aliens or whoever they send."
"How long," Mitch said.
"Under an hour if we hurry," Janet said. "Too bad we have to worry about speed laws."
"He's not here," Mitch said over the net a short time later, alerting Janet and the others to the new problem. Burrows has been trying to reach him with no luck and finally got one of the other agents. He had me talk to the guy because he didn't want his voice to be recognized. Sully isn't around. He left this morning, obviously for his meeting with us, and never returned.
"Might be the wisest thing he's done lately," Janet commented over the net.
"Not if we can't reach him and warn him," Mitch countered.
"Call him on his cell," Ed said.
"In case you've forgotten, Burrows and him aren't exactly buddies," Mitch replied. "Burrows says he doesn't have his cell number. The dispatch people would have it, but they aren't good about passing that info around to strangers, and if Burrows identifies himself, not only is that going to cause a fuss, but it'll alert the Director guy that something is up. Burrows wants to know if he should risk it. It'll mean revealing a lot of what we have been keeping secret."
"Hold on," Janet said. "Mark says he might be able to get the number through his co-worker at NSA. They have databases that made that kind of thing easy, even for finding information on Federal agents. Fortunately he brought one of our 4G capable laptops with us just in case the guy wanted to contact him. What's this guy's name?"
"Special Agent Sully Morgan," Mitch replied after checking with Burrows.
It took almost five minutes to contact Fred, and then for him to locate Sully's personal number, but he even came up with the address of Sully's home. Janet passed it to Mitch, who in turn relayed it to Burrows, who typed in the digits as they were spoken by Mitch. The phone began to ring, but Burrows knew that was a simple pacification to make the caller feel that something was happening on the far end. The phone he was calling probably wouldn't actually ring for another fifteen or more seconds when the system verified the phone was on the network and made the connection.
"Yeah, who is it?" a familiar voice answered after what seemed like an eternity.
"Sully, this is Burrows. You've got trouble coming your way." Burrows said this even though he wasn't certain, but the situation suggested that the FBI Assistant Director wouldn't be getting a suspicious call around the same time Sully had been poking into matters.
"Your timing is impeccable Burrows," Sully replied. "Trouble is right outside my door, ready to ring the bell."
"Who?" Burrows asked.
"The man himself. Assistant Director Richard Baker has come to pay me a visit. I thought this call might be him."
"Don't answer that door," Burrows warned. "I have reason to believe he's come to deal with you, just as I warned."
"Well, he brought lots of help," Sully said.
"What kind of help?"
"Four people dressed like FBI agents. One's a woman, who looks kind of familiar, but I didn't get a good look at her. She and two of the guys have gone around back."
"Maybe they are FBI agents," Burrows suggested, even though he had real doubts.
"Nah. You get to be able to recognize another agent. I've never seen an agent that looks like these guys. They are trying to appear to be something they aren't. Besides, they are carrying some strange looking weapons."
"Stay away from those," Burrows warned. "They are deadly and what killed Geller."
"Which one?" Sully asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Baker has a small pointy one, and the others have a larger, somewhat bulky device. Which is deadly?"
"You better assume both. I've only seen the larger one in action. It'll kill you in a second. I'm betting the other is just as lethal."
"What do you suggest I do?" Sully asked, a hint of panic creeping into his voice.
"Stay inside with the doors locked. We are close. Fortunately your house is closer than the office where we thought you were going."
Sully didn't pick up on the meaning, but because of the location of his home, Ed and the others would be getting there faster than expected.
"I'll be in the basement," Sully hollered as he broke the connection and ran for the stairs that led under the house, drawing his service weapon as he fled.
It was another five minutes before Mitch pulled onto the street their GPS unit said Sully lived on. The houses were old, and Burrows suspected that this was the neighborhood that Sully had grown up in.
"Look behind us," Mitch said, and Burrows spotted a familiar vehicle. Ed and his team had made remarkable time, and was now right behind them. The arrival of the rest of their group made Burrows feel much better about the situation going ahead. If Sully's count was accurate, they'd at least be numerically equal to the group engaged at the house up ahead.
There were no sounds of gunfire as they pulled up at the address Fred had given them, but Burrows spotted two official looking cars parked in the driveway and on the lawn. The house itself was in better shape than that of most of the neighbors, all but the front door anyway. The door, or where it had been, was a gaping hole as if several large explosive charges had been triggered to blow it in.
Mark was already headed for the front door, his weapon drawn and ready. Ed headed after him, signaling the others to loop around back and come in that way. They were marginally armed for the situation, with Mark, Burrows, and Mitch carrying handguns. Only Ed and Janet had the more powerful AR rifles with large capacity magazines.
Ed and Mark had barely gotten a start into the interior after a careful entry into the front of the house when they encountered Assistant Director Baker and another man they didn't recognize coming out of a hallway. Both carried strange appearing alien weapons, Baker's something unlike the weapon they had turned over to the Senator's team, and the other man the more familiar vanishing firearm. Both were quick to raise their devices leaving Mark and Ed little choice but to take quick action. Mark's pair of sharp reports were louder than the suppressed series of shots from Ed's rifle. Taken in the head, Baker tumbled to the floor, while the
unrecognized man that Ed shot vanished, as the series of small .22 bullets ripped into his chest. Ed had reacted to the threat based on years of training, and had instinctively gone for the center of mass, while Mark had shot hoping to retain the body.
"Shit! Sorry," Ed said realizing his mistake.
His words were accented by more shots from the back of the house. Both a handgun and Janet's suppressed rifle could be heard. Ed and Mark moved in that direction, encountering Janet and Burrows midway through the house.
"Three down," Janet said. "We were only able to keep one from vanishing."
"Five down," Mark said, mentally tabulating the count. It had been quick, but they probably hadn't anticipated resistance. That should be all, but they still needed to find Sully and assume there might be another.
"Where's Mitch?" Ed asked.
"Gone," Burrows said, his voice hoarse. They jumped us and nailed Mitch with one of those weapons that vaporize you. That's why we had to react quickly, and didn't get all headshots. Damn it! Sully warned Mitch about being with me."
"It's not your fault," Janet consoled the obviously distraught agent.
"We need to move," Ed warned. "This isn't the kind of neighborhood that is quick to call the cops, but enough shots have been fired to attract attention. Let's clear the place, and see if we can find this Sully character."
Mark had a bad feeling given there had been no yells or hollers for help. It took only a couple of minutes to find the blasted door in the basement, leaving them certain that Sully had been found and dispatched before they arrived.
"I set him up too," Burrows said, looking around the small storage area where Sully had died.
"Let's go," Mark warned. "We should carry the bodies out. They might tell the Senator's medical guys something useful."
Janet and Burrows headed toward the back of the house to retrieve the woman they had killed, while he and Ed returned to pick up Baker's body. Mark pocketed the strange weapon the Director had been carrying before they picked up the dead agent who they quickly dumped into the trunk of Ed's car. Janet and Burrows brought out the woman and her weapon. Mark realized the woman was a Monica clone.
"They like to copy the same people over and over," Burrows noted, as the weapons were added to the crowded trunk. He'd recognized her as well.
"Did you recognize the guy I shot?" Ed asked.
Mark shook his head.
"No, he was someone new. They obviously had more than just the eight of us converted."
Quickly they loaded up and drove away. If the police had been called, they were late in arriving, or were coming in silently. They drove to a mall, parked the car and transferred to the car Burrows and Mitch had been using. With Mitch gone, there were only four of them. Ed called the number Jack had given them and told him what had happened, and where the bodies could be found. Then they headed back toward the camp.
"Maybe it's time to join up with the others," Janet suggested.
"We'll talk about it tonight," Ed said, but Mark had already been thinking the same thing.
Chapter 44
"Now who is going to tell me just exactly what in hell happened here?" a very visibly pissed off Senator Conroy asked when he arrived and the door was closed on the thirteen men and women gathered to discuss the current situation.
It was 7 PM the day after the killing of Sully and the five individuals who had attacked him. They were gathered in the large conference room in the sealed area in the lower levels of the Pentagon that they were using for their headquarters. Present were the remaining six members of Jessie and Mark's team, Tom Burrows, General Hunter, Dr. Art Thompson, Colonel Mack Jones, who was running the day to day operations for the Chairman, Major Chuck Garcia who dealt more directly with everyone on a daily basis, Chief Engineer Norm Hayes, and of course, Senator Conroy. Some fancy maneuvering had been required to get him here unobserved, and his mother wouldn't be happy that he wasn't going to make their Friday night card game. It had happened once or twice before, and a stand-in would be there to ensure the game went on, but it wasn't the same for her. Mark guessed correctly that the stand-in would be Jack. If anyone figured out the Senator hadn't gone to the game, it would hopefully be too late to check where he was.
Mark and the remainder of the crew had decided earlier in the day to come in and join the rest of the team. This decision came after a long night of discussing the pros and cons, but the loss of Mitch had reduced their force by twenty-percent, and with the FBI matter having been dealt with, Burrows had already announced he was going in. That would have left just the three of them, too small a force to be effective against the aliens. Every time they had a confrontation, they had lost someone, in most cases several someones. Now they were here, but Mark was wondering maybe it would be better to be back in camp. He recalled that not too long ago, they had the Senator prisoner. Now, in a certain sense, the situation was reversed. Those that held all the power, answered to him.
"I thought we were working together on this thing, but it appears not," the Senator added, his florid face redder than usual and his eyes hard as he scanned those in the room, but mostly Mark and his friends. "My career is all on the line here, and you are working around me."
"Blame me," Mark said, speaking up even though he sensed the Senator wasn't finished, but not interested in hearing more disparagement. "I had an idea, but no idea if it would work or if it was even possible to implement. I also knew someone who could possibly do the coding and get it into the system, but it would be risking his career to even try it, so I thought it best to hold off mentioning it until there was some reason to believe it might produce results. It could have turned out to be a complete bust. When the first 'hits' came in, I felt it would be a good real time test of the whole idea." Mark didn't add that he had wanted to see what the Senator's group would do with what they had before revealing everything to them. There had been the very real possibility the man would have gone running to someone and blown the whole thing.
"I'm just as much at fault," Tom Burrows said, when Mark finished. "We were certain the FBI had been breached, and it is the duty and responsibility of all loyal agents to see that corrected. We didn't have the proof, and I thought I had a way to get something. I couldn't see you going up against the Bureau management with no way to verify the claims. So I pressured Sully into doing what I was unable to do as an outsider. He was the one agent I could be certain wouldn't reveal my situation."
"Somehow I don't see how killing the Assistant Director of the FBI can be expected to make our task any easier," the Chairman of the JCS pointed out. "You seem to have made the step without feeling a need to coordinate with us."
"You realize that Director Baker is being searched for, and that Jessie and the rest of you are being blamed as the likely candidates for his kidnapping or murder," Senator Conroy added. "We have not only killed him, but are hiding the fact he is dead, and are performing medical experiments on his remains. The list of crimes we all could be charged with is exceedingly long."
The truth was that the discovery that Baker was missing had fired up the news media, and resurrected a whole host of stories, speculations and theories that had been starting to die away. Now the media was filled with pictures of Jessie, Mark and the rest of the crew, something they could have done without.
"Not exactly," Dr. Thompson pointed out, contradicting the Senator's last point. "While we did take an MRI of the corpse and verify that Baker was indeed a clone with the strange node, it wasn't an invasive test. Afterwards, we placed him in one of the cold lockers for keeping, until it is time to reveal this mess and others can verify what we know. That's hardly experimenting with his remains. We have, however, been busy dissecting the brain of the woman that was delivered, another clone copy of one of Mark's companions, who has seen the same treatment before. The fact this subject was more recently deceased than previous subjects had allowed us to learn several key things, that I believe will prove useful later."
"That doesn't resolve
the issue as to why we weren't brought into this matter much earlier," the Senator said, still angry.
"None of this was planned, and the situation developed rapidly," Mark explained, defending their actions. "My NSA contact was alerted to the fact that several messages using the alien preamble were being transmitted, and discovered that one of the phones in use was in the Hoover Building. It wasn't difficult to identify the phone as belonging to Assistant Director Baker. Seeing that Special Agent Sully was meeting with Tom Burrows, and had expressed concerns that he might be under observation, we believed we needed to act quickly to get him somewhere safe."
"So you decided to act unilaterally," Colonel Jones said.
"We contacted Burrows and told him what was up, and set off for the Hoover Building where we thought Sully had gone. Burrows was going to contact him, and we were going to escort him to our camp where we believed he would be safe enough. Yes, we had some hope of spotting one or more of the clones as verification that our monitoring idea was working."
"Sully hadn't gone to the Hoover Building as he'd led us to believe, and Mark's friend was able to get us his personal phone and address. We headed that way in hopes of getting to him in time. When I reached him on the phone we learned that Baker and four others were already there, armed with the familiar alien weapons. Actually, a second weapon we'd never encountered before was being carried by Baker."
"You could have called us at that time," Senator Conroy pointed out.
"We were five minutes away, and there is nothing you could have done to mobilize quickly enough to make a difference."
"Even if you'd elected to do so," Mark added. "You would have wanted to know the background, understand how we were certain Baker was one of the clones, and whether there were other options. As you have said, making a move against the FBI isn't something to be done lightly."
"So you went ahead," the Chairman said. "And just what did this ill-conceived action yield?"
"We lost a man," Jessie said immediately before Mark or Burrows could answer.