by Eason, Mary
After hours of searching, and chasing scraps of paper that seemed to hold some promise, all I’d managed to come up with was more questions than answers. I’d reached nothing but a dead end.
It was then that I decided to try another approach. The document that had been passed along to me by Noah. I had known the second that I’d opened it that it contained important information. Information that I believed could be incriminating to my brother. Where had it come from originally and how had Matt gotten the document in the first place.
Normally I wasn’t privy to such details. Part of the security tactics that Noah had put into place. We all had a specific job to do, but the less we knew, the less likely we were to be a security risk should someone threaten us. That was one of the reasons The Organization had been so successful. Secrecy. We were given only the information that was pertinent for us to do our job and nothing more.
Now, for reasons all the wrong reasons I was about to commit another job infraction. I needed to know how Matt had come into possession of this document.
The second he heard my voice, he suspected something. Matt was surprised to hear from me. For the most part, we rarely spoke to other members of the team outside of our meetings or as worked demanded.
“Cameron I thought you’d be in school today?”
“No, turns out I’m off after all. I made a mistake on my schedule,” I told him while trying to remember what I’d actually told the team about my work schedule. I knew I’d lied to Noah, I just didn’t realize Matt had overheard.
“Oh...well, what are you up to today?” Which really meant why are you calling me?
“Not much really...listen Matt, I’m working on the document Noah gave me and there’s something I need to ask you about it. I need to know where you got this piece of information originally.”
“Cameron...what are you up to? Have you found out something already?”
“No...I mean I’m not sure yet. But I need some background on this particular piece.” Matt’s silence told me how odd this request must sound to him. “Look, I know this is unusual, but it’s also important. This is a difficult piece to decode. I need the background.”
“Cameron, you know that’s not normal procedure...” I could tell that Matt wasn’t buying my little story, but at the moment, I didn’t care. “Why, is this one so different? Why do you need to know?”
“Matt, I, of all people, know that this is not normal procedure. But there are exceptions to that rule, and I’m telling you this is one of them. I need to know where this thing came from to get a handle on its exact interpretation.” Okay, so that was an out and out lie. I’d already started translating the piece, but for personal reasons, I was curious.
“You know I’ll have to check with Noah first, don’t you? I mean, he has the final say in changes to procedure. That is of course, unless you’ve already spoken to him about it?”
I stood with the receiver in my hand, trying to decide just how far I was willing to take this crusade. How desperate was I to prove my brother’s innocence?
“I’ve talked to him about the document Matt.”
My answer was followed by another uncomfortable silence in which I fully expected Matt to challenge this. Matt was waiting for me to say something else, reassure him that Noah knew what I was up to. When I didn’t Matt, asked me to hang on while he brought the information up on his computer.
He suspected that I was lying--I could hear it in his voice, but Matt wasn’t ready to confront me with my lie just yet.
I listened while Matt mumbled to himself as he scrolled through the endless pages of information kept on his computer. In my mind, I always pictured Matt hunched over his computer day and night squinting and typing away.
You see Matt designed websites for a living. He had taught Noah the tricks of that trade as well, although it was more of a hobby for Noah than anything else, but it served as a very good cover job for Matt. He was very good at what he did. It gave him the freedom to pretty much set his own schedule and work out of his home. Somehow, I couldn’t ever picture Matt working a nine-to-five job.
“Okay, here it is...you want me to send you what I’ve got?” That surprised the heck out of me. Matt never offered to share his files with anyone. Including Noah. They were sacred to him. But then I think he believed in some strange way that I was going to be the key to figuring out what Elijah Jacobs was really up to in D.C.
“Sure that’d be great.” I told him, trying to keep the surprise out of my voice.
“Okay, but you have to promise that you’ll let Noah and me know as soon as you find out anything. You know how critical this is.”
After I’d sworn on my life that I’d pass along any information I found, I was finally able to get Matt off the phone.
I sat in front of my computer and waited for the file to arrive, which only took a few minutes. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading through Matt’s notes on the document and was surprised to find that there was very little real information to go on in them.
What it boiled down to was the document had been sent to Matt from an anonymous source. Although Matt had tried to trace the sender’s address, he’d run into another dead end. Most of the information Matt sent was merely speculation on his part. He believed that quite possibly the document was a hoax--meant to throw us off what might really be in the works. There was little else in the information that I found useful. I had to wonder if that was the real reason Matt was so willing to share it.
I opened the document once again and stared at it. For reasons that I could not explain to myself, I was hesitant to learn what was written there. Unfortunately, the words spilled out in before me in that old familiar language, bringing unexpected tears to my eyes.
My father had taught me to first read Aramaic and then to speak it when I was around six possibly seven. Dad loved the old obscure languages. It was like a hobby to him. And me, being a little girl that adored her father, well I was only too eager to learn anything that I could from him.
At the time, I hadn’t realized how bad things had gotten between Judah and my parents, or how troubled my brother truly was. I didn’t know that my father took refuge in interrupting those languages. I just loved the time I spent with him, sitting in his lap and listening to him as he spoke those languages. For dad it was a means of escape. It helped him forget about all the demons that controlled my brother.
I’d opened this document at least a half dozen times since it had been in my possession. Each time that I started to read it, I’d closed it just as quickly. I knew what I was up against. It was all there in those words. I just didn’t know how bad it was going to turn out to be.
As a rule of thumb, I never printed anything out. It was best not to leave any hard evidence lying around, just in case someone that I didn’t want knowing what I was up to came looking.
I sat in front of my computer screen and read that first line once again. To the few people who might actually know the language, that first sentence would seem a typical greeting from one friend to another. I knew differently. It wasn’t anything so innocent.
After those initial words jumped out at me with all the hidden hatred disguised as greeting, the writer’s voice took on a darker tone.
The next paragraph referenced words that I interrupted to mean ‘the whores of Babylon‘. I knew from previous interpretations that this was a direct reference to the Bureau. I’d seen that reference in other documents, mostly intercepted from the Red Jihad, but never in this particular language before. They were taking particular care to keep these words secret, which lent further proof to their legitimacy.
This type of rhetoric went on for several more paragraphs, but the implication was clear. Once I’d cracked the code that was. That had taken a little longer, given the complexity of the language.
What I found before me a very detailed reference to prominent places within the US border. There had to be half a dozen cities listed there. The implication was clear. A massive atta
ck on several major US cities was being planned. Cities known for their high tourist volume. This was huge. An attack this massive could literally cripple the country and make 911 look like a walk in the park.
The details revealed the extent of the plot, but it was what I was able to uncover about the participants that was most frightening. Code names for at least seven of the top terrorists known to be operating in the US who were well known to the Bureau’s surveillance. That in itself was alarming, but the fact that all of those named here were part of at least five separate terrorist cells held unimaginable possibilities.
These were members of deadly cells that had in the past claimed responsibility for terrible acts of terrorism against their own government. But these guys hated each other almost as much as they hated our government. They disagreed on just about everything. So how could they possibly put those differences aside and work together?
I stopped reading then and wondered if this was all just an elaborate hoax? Maybe Matt had been right in his initial assessment. Could this be just a forgery, as Matt had originally believed? Perhaps the writer had simply hoped to throw us off tract. Certainly, an attack of that magnitude would be hard to accomplish without some warning signs being triggered amongst the agencies watching out for just such an attack.
Could this really be the handiwork of Elijah Jacobs and the Red Jihad? I found myself considering other possibilities, because the only other explanation was as unheard of as it was unnerving. If someone were able to unite these groups under one common cause and leadership, then how were we going to prevent what was planned there.
It would take someone so charismatic that they could convince the leaders of those cells to put aside their differences and work together under one command. From all of the reports that I’d read about those guys, I knew that was virtually impossible. It just wasn’t possible. Because to these guys, it was as much about the power as it was the cause. It just wasn’t conceivable--was it?
Only someone special could make that happen. I didn’t believe that person was Elijah Jacobs or my brother.
Then who?
I thought once more of the man that had followed me the previous night. Like it or not, that guy had certainly appeared to be charismatic enough to fit the profile of such a leader.
Was that the real reason Judah had come back into my life after all these years? Was my brother trying to warn me of what was about to take place? Maybe even try to clear his name in the process. Could I convince Judah to turn himself in and give valuable information to The Organization in exchange for a new start on life?
That afternoon, I must have picked up the phone at least a dozen times to call Noah. I knew that he needed to know about what I’d found and what I suspected, but each time I couldn’t make that call.
I had to talk to my brother first. Somehow, I had to convince him to tell me the truth once and for all, no matter how bad it was. Or how deeply involved in the plot he was. And I had to do it before it was too late. Before the events in that document took place. Before it was out of my control. I was working against the clock. I’d seen the dates in that document and they were close. I figured I had a day, possibly two at the most, to figure out what was going on with Judah and to get my head on straight before I ended up dead.
Tonight I would have to go back to the place where I’d talked to my brother. I couldn’t let him continue to bear the blame for those things, if he was innocent. I knew I had to find a way to help Judah, but to do so I needed answers. I had to know the truth no matter how bad it was. Hopefully, I’d find out about my parents last days as well.
Tonight I decided not to make the same near-fatal mistake of the previous night. I put my spare gun in my handbag as backup while placing the harness that fitted close to my body next to it. I had to be ready to face anything tonight. That included the truth about Judah.
I was just as certain that I had crossed some line that I could never return from by not telling my boss or my colleagues what had happened to me so far or what I was planning to do to find out the truth about my brother. I believed that Noah would never forgive me if he knew what I was up to nor would he let me go through with it, which was all the more reason why I couldn’t tell him the truth just yet.
Tonight I would have to be on my game. I needed to have my head clear. I needed sleep. I figured if I took a nap, I could manage to stay up for however long it took. Unfortunately, I’d never been one to take naps during the day and today was not going to be any different.
When I finally drifted off to sleep, it was late in the afternoon. I couldn’t have been asleep more than a few minutes when I was awakened by someone holding my doorbell down.
The second I opened the door and saw Noah standing there, I knew why he was here, and I knew I was in trouble. Silently I held open the door and let him pass by before facing him.
“What are you doing here?”
“You lied to me, Cameron,” he said without so much as a hello, how are you. I‘ve missed you. “Why?”
I saw Noah’s reaction and knew I’d hurt him, but still I couldn’t tell him the truth.
“Matt called you.”
“What do you think? Why all this secrecy? What’s going on with you lately?”
“Nothing...I’m not being secret Noah...not really. It’s just, I don’t know.”
“Another lie? Cameron, you used to could tell me everything. What’s happened to change that? Is it me?” he asked in a voice that was so uncertain that I found it hard to credit as Noah.
“No, Noah it isn’t you. It’s just...everything I guess. The job, the fact that it’s close to the time my parents were killed...everything.”
Tell him the truth. My conscious shouted. Tell him about your brother--about his baby. I couldn’t do any of those things. The words wouldn’t come, and I wondered if that were the real sign that, there was nothing left for Noah and me.
“Why won’t you let me help you? You used to talk to me when you were feeling pressured with the job. What’s happened to change that?”
At the hurt in Noah’s voice, I was forced to examine my actions from his viewpoint for once. I didn’t really like the person I saw in Noah‘s eyes.
“I’m sorry, you’re right. I guess I’m just restless. It isn’t you, Noah. You have to know that it isn’t you?”
“Isn’t it? I’m not so sure anymore. Look, maybe we need to take some time apart. I want to give you the time you need to decide what it is you want from me--if you want me. Because right now, I’m not so sure that you do. You know I care about you, I’ll always care about you, Cameron. We both know how hard it is to make a relationship work under normal circumstances. With the type of work we do...well.”
As I looked into his eyes, I wasn’t seeing the Noah that had been my friend and my lover for so long. I didn’t understand what had happened to us either. Maybe we were no longer the same people we’d once been. Maybe it had all been an illusion. I only knew that I couldn’t fight it anymore. I was restless.
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe we shouldn’t have gotten this...involved with each other considering. Well, considering everything. We both knew it would eventually cause problems.”
Noah simply nodded and walked to the door before turning back to me. “You know I’ll always be there for you, don’t you Cameron? But maybe you and I need to take a break from each other. If you need to talk you know where to find me.”
“Yes, I know.”
And I did. But I also knew what Noah wasn’t saying. What I didn’t want to believe. What eventually I would need to accept. We were over.
Neither of us wanted to say it. But we both knew the truth. We were both tied to other needs. We had been foolish to expect a romance like ours to work in the first place. We were standing on the edge of goodbye.
CHAPTER FOUR
Even before I went out that night I knew I was slipping deeper into a place that I had business going. Quite possibly my cover along with my teams had been exposed.
I had no business going out on a personal mission on my own. I knew all the risks.
But that didn’t stop me.
Of course, I knew I had lost focus. I’d forgotten what should be the most important thing in my life right now. My unborn child’s safety and keeping my marriage alive. And then there was the fact that I had a very important job to do. One that quite possibly meant the difference between life and death for thousands of innocent people. Especially if what I’d unraveled in that document were true.
I’d let my obsession for finding out the truth about my brother and my parent’s death force me to taking risks.
Again tonight, I walked for hours taking the same path that I’d done the night before. I waited and prayed for Judah to appear but he never did.
It was well after midnight when my worst possible fears became reality and I found myself face to face with another danger of the night not nearly as charming or accommodating as my stalker from the night before had been.
I had a feeling this guy knew exactly who I was. Once again, all of Noah’s warnings went through my mind. Unfortunately, for me that reminder came too late.
The second I looked into the guy’s eyes I knew he meant business.
I took a step back, reached inside my jacket for my weapon, and then tossed my handbag aside. I wasn’t really afraid of this guy and that surprised me because I probably should have been. I’d run across his kind before and I was good. I knew what I was doing and what to expect from him and his partners. Most of the time these guys traveled in pairs if not groups. That was why Noah always insisted that we should do same.
I caught only the slightest movement beyond the guy in front of me right before he made some guttural, unintelligible sound and lunged at me.
Now I’m a small gal, not all that tall and pretty much ninety pounds soaking wet, so my size has a tendency to give certain dangerous elements--especially ones like this guy a false sense of security.