Reprisal!- The Eagle's Sorrow

by Cliff Roberts

  Yousef informed three of the five men with him about the inside layout of the harbor master’s office. They then slipped from around the side of the harbor master’s building and entered it through the back door that Yousef and the old man had exited. They quickly stepped into the crew lounge and shot both men they found there using their silenced 9 millimeter Berettas. To ensure the kill, one of the terrorists stepped over to each of the men as they lay on the floor and shot them twice more in the head before he followed his comrades towards the front of the building.

  Checking the next room and finding no one, they stepped into the front office and found the attractive, young blonde woman sitting behind her desk with a puzzled look on her face, having heard sounds from the back office, which she could not identify. Before she could react, she was shot once in the head; but unlike the two men in the crew lounge, no one shot her again to make sure she was dead.

  Stepping to the side of the desk, the shooter saw a large amount of blood pooling on the floor beside her head and decided he didn’t need to waste another round on her. He failed to realize that head wounds bleed a lot, making them seem far worse than they were. In reality, they could be quite minor, yet still bleed a great deal.

  To the young woman’s credit, after the man had shot her, she fell to the floor and lay still, holding her breath for as long as she could, waiting for the three men to leave. They moved quickly, gathering up five sets of hats and jackets—one for each man on the team—that they found in the lunch room where they had dispatched the first two victims.

  The hats and jackets had the words “Harbor Master” stenciled on them. This would come in handy when they boarded the LNG tanker a short time from now, plus provide some much desired warmth.

  While the men made the rounds of the harbor master’s office, Yousef and the other two team members loaded the cartons from the other boat on to the harbor master’s boat and were waiting there when the others returned.

  Remaining still until she was sure the men had left, the secretary listened intently to the sound of the boat moving off downriver. Only then did she sit up slowly. She had to wait for several minutes, leaning against the desk, for the waves of dizziness and nausea to pass. Once they had, she called the local police as she held a wad of tissue to her head, trying to stop the bleeding.

  With the police called, she decided to send an alert by radio to all of the ships at the moorings outside of the river’s mouth, letting them know that the harbor master’s dock had been attacked and to be cautious until they received further notice. She, however, like the man whose job it was to kill her, failed to do the job completely. She had alerted the ships to the fact that the harbor master’s dock had been attacked, but failed to warn them that they might be in danger, as well.

  This oversight was understandable with the traumatic nature of the incident and the fact that she had been shot; but her lack of warning left the ships at the moorings completely unprepared for what was to happen next.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The New York Times ran with the story on the front page above the fold. In big, bold headline letters it proclaimed: Senator Bains Under Investigation!

  The story claimed that “Highly placed sources in the Justice Department were looking into conflict of interest and influence pedaling charges leveled against the three term senator, Sarah Bains, Republican from Georgia. The senator is the chairperson of the Armed Services Appropriations Committee and a member of the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee, both of which had heavy involvement in the procurement process.

  “The charges were connected to the securing of sweetheart contracts for Kilauea Corporation, run by multi-billionaire Steven Howard, one of the world’s richest men.

  “The investigation is centered on the Pentagon’s contract for its newest computer system named Arsenal. The system is supposedly so far advanced in the field of encryption that its codes are unbreakable. Industry sources contacted for their take on this claim say that it is impossible to create an unbreakable code.

  “It is alleged that the senator, a frequent guest for lunch with Steven Howard and retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Charles (Chip) Clarett, lobbied other Armed Services Appropriations Committee members and individuals at the Pentagon on behalf of Kilauea Corp. The contract is said to be worth over twenty-five billion dollars to be paid over the next fifteen years.

  “When asked for comment, Senator Bains refused, and retired General Clarett is out of the country at an undisclosed location. In February of this year, he renounced his citizenship and became a citizen of the Cayman Islands. Steven Howard, through his public relations spokesperson, also offered no comment.”

  *****

  Senator Bains wasted no time calling Steven Howard, demanding he do something about the article. He did his best to reassure her that there was nothing to worry about as he hadn’t done anything wrong and she hadn’t, either. Their lunches all occurred after the fact, and DOD had been following the situation closely at the time. He let it slip that he had separate copies of the file the White House had fabricated and that the actual file was part of the Congressional Record.

  He explained he knew the official records showed that DOD had both himself and General Clarett under surveillance per court order as part of the Justice Department’s attempt build a sting operation against them. The sting failed; and the federal prosecutor initiating the probe had been fired for violating Steven’s civil rights. The judge who had authorized the probe stepped down rather than be impeached for his role.

  Both men turned out to be ultra-liberals who were trying to find anything they could to embarrass the Republican administration at the time. Internal probes after the fact found that they were illegally investigating over a dozen conservatives, but the cases were never pursued since both men no longer worked for the government. In an interesting twist, both men now worked as lobbyists for a major Washington law firm specializing in import/export law.

  Upon ending the call with the senator, Steven called Bill in Bryson City. “Bill, it’s Steven. You got a few minutes?”

  “You’re the boss. I’ll make time for you. What’s up?”

  “Have you seen the New York Times?”

  “Yeah. We expected this would happen. I don’t think it’s any big deal. Just more rumors from Washington,” Bill said, giving his assessment of the situation.

  “Well, Bains is not so sure. She’s running scared. She’s afraid just the rumor of scandal will hurt her in the election,” Steven shared.

  “She’s probably right, but what would you have me do about it?” Bill asked.

  “I don’t know. Everything I can think of is illegal, and that would make us no better than they are,” Steven replied.

  “I can think of a thing or two that might change the subject on the front page of the Times,” Bill stated conspiratorially.

  “Like what?”

  “Well, for starters, we can start throwing rumors around ourselves. I’ll drop some info in the computer files at the Times that suggest that Combs is driving around in a car that was bought and paid for by campaign funds,” Bill stated with a bit of a snicker.

  “Is that even close to the truth?” Steven asked.

  “I’ve been waiting until I had some other source to confirm and expand upon the intelligence our little computer program dug up. But it seems that Mr. Combs withdrew his entire life savings from the Senate Credit Union to buy his new car. Despite withdrawing everything he had, it still left him some eleven thousand short of the purchase price plus taxes. Somehow, he managed to dig up the money and bought the car two days later.

  “Then, the next day, the international wire transfer report came out. Guess who was on it?” Bill asked, but didn’t wait for Steven to answer before continuing. “Jason Combs. He transferred thirty thousand dollars from an account in the Caymans.”

  “The same account we knew he had?”

  “Yes, sir. The very same.”

  “So…this
is the smoking gun. We have Combs for sure. What about Starks and Bascome?”

  “Yeah, we definitely have Combs. We don’t have the others yet, but we’re working on it.”

  “He couldn’t have saved that much from his salary, could he? He’s got to make pretty good money as the chief of staff,” Steven inquired.

  “I looked into that. He makes three thousand six hundred and sixty-six dollars a week,” Bill explained, adding, “A hundred and seventy-six grand a year—the high end of the government pay scale. It’s on par with the salary I received while FBI director, more than thirty grand more than any other White House chief of staff in history. Then, I found out the wire transfer happened the same day he took a trip out of the country. ”

  “Really?” Steven stated as his mind played the information over in his head. “Why would he need to have a bank account in the Caymans?”

  “That’s not all,” Bill quipped. “I found that while Combs was there, he visited the National Bank of the Cayman Islands. So, I took a little initiative and had our team check into the bank’s transactions that day…and surprise, surprise. There was a withdrawal of thirty thousand dollars from an account with the code name of Lucky Louie. I don’t know for a fact that this is Combs’ account, but it matched perfectly with the time he was at the bank, and the wire transfer went to his Congressional Credit Union account. There was a small, thousand dollar wire transfer back in November from the same Cayman account to the same Congressional Credit Union account that Combs owns, but there’s more.

  “On the same day as the thousand dollar transfer, there were two other thousand dollar transfers sent at basically the same time—within a minute of each other. Combs hadn’t left the country that day, so I checked Bascome’s travel log and guess what? He had left the country that day. He took a day trip to the Caymans and visited the same bank.

  “Now, that really got me digging, and I found that one of the transfers went to a bank account in Bascome’s and his wife’s name at the Bank of Maryland. He pays his mortgage and other bills from that account. That led to another account belonging to Bascome—this one without his wife’s name on it—at the Virginia State Bank in Alexandria. This account showed regular deposits in the form of cash, two to three grand a month, just below the IRS threshold. None of it will generate any interest because it’s considered too small.” Bill took a deep breath and Steven remained silent, waiting for more.

  “Is this all we have to work with?” Steven asked when Bill didn’t speak up right away.

  “Is this all? That’s pretty interesting stuff, isn’t it? But in addition to the transfer to his Bank of Maryland account, there were several substantial transfers to a bank in Cyprus from the same Cayman account,” Bill shared.

  “So, how does this all fit together?” Steven asked.

  “The bank in Cyprus is the same bank that we were led to after the investigation into the 9/11 attacks. We were stopped from investigating the bank itself by the State Department due to international concerns. I personally think that the Arabs pressured the Bush administration into backing off.

  “Anyway, Bascome has over two million in the bank there. All wire transferred there from the bank in the Caymans. Now, every month, there are deposits made to both Combs’ and Bascome’s accounts in the Caymans. Combs currently has just over two million five hundred thousand—just slightly more than Bascome has in the bank in Cyprus.

  “Combs received the first deposit three weeks after the Democratic National Convention, and Bascome started receiving deposits in December of last year.” Bill paused to check his papers again, and Steven remained silent, thinking.

  “Oh, yeah. There’s another interesting item, or rather, two interesting items, to go along with the info so far. Bank records in the Caymans show that another account was started on the same day as Combs’ account, but the amount of each deposit is much larger compared to Combs’ and Bascome’s deposits each month—a hundred and twenty five thousand and a hundred and twelve thousand, respectively.

  “This other account started at the same time and on the same day as Combs’. It consistently receives a deposit of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a month since it was opened, and most of it is still there, but there have been a couple of small withdrawals made. There was a total of four thousand dollars in wire transfers, including the one on the same day as Combs’ transfer, as well as three five thousand dollar cash withdrawals. The withdrawals for cash just happen to have been made on the same day and at the same time as both Combs’ and Bascome’s withdrawals and deposits were made.”

  “Holy shit! Whose name is on the other account?” Steven blurted out.

  “The transfers went to the same bank account each time. It’s a Congressional Credit Union account in the name of…” Bill let the suspense build before he shared the name. “It was…First Lady Chase Starks.”

  “What’s that?” Steven asked, unsure he heard correctly.

  “The account it was transferred to was Chase Starks’.”

  “Holy shit!” Steven blurted again. “This is confirmable? How do you know those are their accounts?”

  “We got the name off the bank account it was transferred to. But the only name on the Cayman account is ‘The Old Grey Ghost Rides Again.’

  “It’s the latest trend. Use a password phrase as your account name so that no one can tell whose account it is in case someone hacks in or the authorities manage get a copy of the customer list.

  “Bascome’s name is simply ‘Confidential’ and Combs picked ‘Lucky Louie.’”

  “How can we get it all to Justice?” Steven asked.

  “I wouldn’t send this to Justice,” Bill stated flatly. “They would focus on how Kilauea Corp. came across the information. Not to mention that Starks has them in his back pocket. They’ll bury it,” Bill explained. “The FBI will probably bury it, as well. We’ll have to find someone who can break the story and force their hands by using public opinion.”

  “That’s a tough call. The media people are completely enthralled with Starks. They helped push him into office, remember? They aren’t going to let a scandal involving his two top advisors and his wife ever see daylight,” Steven complained.

  “And then….there is the IRS issue. They haven’t declared any of this on their taxes for last year despite having received a good portion of it then. If we can somehow get Justice to work with the IRS, we could force Starks out of office for tax evasion and taking bribes. Talk about high crimes and misdemeanors,” Bill quipped.

  “I hadn’t thought about that angle,” Steven mused. “Keep working on that. We’ll have to have indisputable proof that the ‘grey ghost’ is Starks and not his wife to have a chance of forcing Starks out of office. In the meantime, keep it quiet. I’ll try and find someone who we can trust to publicize it,” Steven directed.

  “I can slip a rumor about Combs into the computer files at the Times and the Washington Post. Plus, the Drudge Report, Judicial Watch and Reuters, if you like, you know, as an unconfirmed rumor. If nothing else for the time being, the radio talk shows will report the rumors and start people thinking the right way,” Bill offered.

  “While you’re at it, see if you can place a rumor that a high-ranking Justice official has stated categorically that there is no investigation of Senator Bains and that the claim was a vicious rumor started by some left wing bloggers. Use some strong language to shoot it down.

  “Then I need you to go in the back door to Justice and retrieve everything they have on me or the general or the senator. I have a feeling that Bascome’s and Combs’ next trick will be to fake documents, and I want the originals before they try to delete them.

  “Also, get the minutes and notes from the Armed Services Committee, the Senate Appropriations and the Pentagon’s Appropriations committees, and the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee, too. I want to be well-armed and prepared to bury these guys when the time comes.” Steven stopped speaking for a moment, then added, “Oh, yeah.
Might as well get the General Accounting Office’s records, as well.” Then he had another thought. “Be sure to file Freedom of Information Act forms for everything. That way, we can use the files publicly if we need to.”