by Finian Blake
The Director’s voice brightened considerably, “I just love your thinking.”
Randal drove out to a quiet restaurant and called the number that he was given for Tom. After two cups of coffee Tom walked through the door. “Tom over here…” After the waitress took Tom’s order Randal started in, “The director made me the agent in charge on this case.”
Tom smiled, “Did he offer it to you?”
“No he more or less crammed it down my throat smiling as he did. The only thing I could say about that is at least he didn’t laugh at me.”
“So, he told you about Felix Owens.”
“And that the Sweeper incident from two years ago is somehow tied into this. How do you know this Cherry Newly?”
“Pauline Rider was the last survivor from the ‘Sweeper Program’. Pauline is now Rhonda Savage and Cherry Newly is her secretary.”
“Tom, how did she get that job?”
“Rhonda proved that she could keep her mouth shut, the only leak that we have is from Felix at the DOJ. She lives in the same general area that I live in. I bumped into her at the supermarket and called her Pauline. She pretended not to know me but that extra-long scarf she wears hides a ten-inch scar.”
“All right tell me about these terrorists.” Randal could no longer wait to broach the sensitive subject.
“Well we have four that we are tracking and we just gave them a promotion which gives them two company cars between the four of them. They have company cell phones plus their personal cell phone numbers. They rented a storage locker in Owenton which I hope does not catch fire because they have 1,000 pounds of black powder and 10,000 rounds of ammunition stored in the lockers. They each buy three to five pounds of powder and a few hundred rounds at various gun shops every day. Their leader Maalik hits the gun shows for AK 47s and Glocks giving them to their machinist Haroun to modify to full auto. Right now we have two apartment addresses and one house besides a storage locker. They have girlfriends but I have not been able to tell if they are terrorists or not. All of their names are in your file. It does not appear that they have selected any targets as of yet. Maalik wants to do something 9 1 1 style that will make big headlines.”
Randal shook his head as he read all of the information. “This is really complete when are you going to do something?”
Tom laughed, “The CIA has been read in if there is something to do overseas, but this is a FBI operation, and that is a question for the agent in charge.”
Randal’s eyes opened wide as Tom touched his finger to his chest and Tom nodded solemnly. “Shit…,” Randal muttered.
“Randal, there is good news. Come with me and I will show you.” Randal followed Tom out of the restaurant starting for his car, but Tom started walking down the front of the strip mall to a store front that was at the very end. Heavy white cardboard covered all of the glass on the inside, with big red letters painted on the cardboard proclaiming ACME TEMPORARY.
Tom opened the door to reveal a twenty-foot width by twelve-foot office front with two cheap wooden desks. Without saying a word, he went through a door turning on the lights. There was a twenty by forty-foot open room with television monitors, the desk and five chairs separated the rest of the room with a divider. To the front of the room were lounge chairs, television and a refrigerator in the middle and two single beds that were at the rear of the room next to the rest room. Two roughly built wooden tables held six desktop computers all of which appeared to be functional, and next to that was a large gun safe.
“I had this storefront equipped for a time when the FBI would get involved,” Tom smiled. “The phones are secure and will show that you are calling from Baltimore. I want you to use these satellite phones instead of your cell phones especially when you call your reports in to the office. The technology to tap satellite phones is extremely expensive. We have a gun safe that is chock full of unauthorized goodies and the code is eight six.”
Randal was waiting for the rest of the number. “What’s the rest of it?”
“Just key in eight six and wait five seconds, and hit the enter button, if you hit more numbers it will lock the safe for twenty minutes.”
“Tom, who in the hell has a two-digit security code?”
“That is the point you have to know when to stop.” Tom held out the keys. “There are a few conditions no cars with government plates and no suits.” Tom pointed to an aerial map that took up the whole wall pointing to a pin with a note on it that READ: ‘YOU ARE HERE’. “Remember no booze, no broads and no loud parties. There is no maid service so you will have to clean up after yourself.”
At one o’clock Gerald Wringer called Rhonda. “The AG is sending me down to get those files. I will be down there at two.”
“Come down if you want to but I have an appointment at two. I will be able to see you at two thirty not a minute sooner.” Gerald arrived at a quarter of two only to find that the outer door was locked, so he went to the cafeteria to kill time. At five minutes to two he walked back to the office finding the outer door still locked deciding to wait by the door. At two ten, on a whim he pushed on the door finding it open. He walked in the office to find no one. He looked over the divider seeing a few papers on the desk and seeing no one around he decided to reach over for the papers. A voice came out of the wall, “If you touch those papers you will be detained.”
Cherry emerged from the office. “Rhonda will see you now.” Cherry made sure that Gerald was seated in the uncomfortable chair. Rhonda spun the monitor. Before you say one word I want you to watch this video. She hit the button and the screen came to life. It was the video of Felix’s attack on Cherry. He was surprised to find that it had sound too. He saw Cherry lean forward and Felix sucker punch her. Gerald could hear her cry ‘what did I do’ over and over again while it looked like he was cursing, hitting and kicking her. Finally, he picked her up by the waist and a breast slamming her face against the scanner holding her hand to the sensor. He could clearly see that Cherry’s bra was in Felix’s hand, with her pants around her ankles and his other hand was around her neck.
Rhonda scowled at Gerald, “Would you like to ask Cherry to drop charges against Felix?”
“I didn’t come for that. I came for the file.”
“Gerald I can’t do that you are not read into the file and even if you were read into the file it cannot leave the room.”
Gerald was getting desperate. “The file is for the AG.”
Rhonda slammed the flat of her hand on the desk. “The President isn’t read into the file either and even if he were it wouldn’t leave the room. Cherry, take Mister Wringer to the document room and show him why.”
Cherry stood and indicated that Gerald should follow her. When they reached the room Cherry swiped her badge to get in the outer room. Stan stood up immediately, handing Gerald the log to sign into the room. Cherry swiped her badge again, held her eye to the scanner while pressing her thumb to the pad. Stan walked in and took the chair at the long end of the steel table furthest from the door. Gerald took the indicated seat with Stan standing over his shoulder at the midpoint of the table. Cherry pulled three files out of various drawers placing them at the opposite end of the table.
“Thank you Stan.” He left without closing the door.
“Cherry isn’t he supposed to close the door?”
“Not any more. Stan…” The giant’s body filled the door. “What are you supposed to do if Mister Wringer gets frisky?”
“I am supposed to protect you no matter what I have to do to him.” Cherry had been very careful to instruct Stan not to directly threaten anyone. “Thank you Stan I need to explain things to Mister Wringer.”
Cherry held up a thick folder. “This is a restricted file and there are two pages of names of people that are read into the file and there are two names of people that can control this file.” She held up four more files giving the same story finally coming to the ‘Sweeper File’ holding it up. “This file only has eight names of people read int
o it and three of those people are dead with the names of just two controllers who are Rhonda and me so even if you serve me with that subpoena in your pocket you still need to be read into the file. I would also like to point out that Pauline Rider and Harry Tildon two of those five are dead due to freak accidents which proved to be fatal.” Cherry stood up putting the other files back into their drawer moving to a black file cabinet unlocking a paddle lock and removing a stainless steel rod before unlocking the cabinet to replace the file. Gerald started to rise out of his chair.
“How do I get cleared?”
“Rhonda and I just control access. We don’t Issue access.” Cherry smiled sweetly as she presented the Washington two step.
She called out in a nervous voice. “Stan…” He was at the midpoint of the table before Gerald could finish straightening his legs. “I believe that Mister Wringer is leaving.”
Stan stood inches away from Gerald, “Mister Wringer, were you leaving on your own or would you like my help.”
He felt a pinch in his neck causing him to look up at Stan. “I don’t believe that I will need any help.”
Up in her office Rhonda was about to fall out of her chair laughing. It was now four o’clock and the beltway traffic was already bumper to bumper. Gerald was cursing up a storm waiting in line to get out of the parking lot and it would take him two hours to get to the far side of Alexandria. Worst of all, he only had bad news to deliver to Felix.
Edward decided to check on Maalik to see what he did in the morning. Maalik was seated at his dining room table with seven other people around him they were all drinking coffee. There were five men and three women, Maalik was clearly the leader, but many of the questions seemed to be going to Nabil who Edward was unfamiliar with. Maalik, Jamal, Khalid and Haroun worked for Four Diamonds. The three women were also mysteries since this was the first time that he had seen them Edward was glad that Layla also had the same abilities since he was not a voyeur. The three women did not live with the men since there were not any signs of female habitation in the two apartments or the house.” They dressed in a conservative western style, but covered their heads with scarves, called a Hijab. The woman known as Rajiya seemed to be most interested in Maalik, Safiyyah tended to pay more attention to Khalid who seemed to return the attention, and Uzma seemed to have her interest riveted on the map. Maalik was rejecting the choice of targets offered by everyone. If he was going to risk the lives of his team he wanted to make a grand impact by doing something that would tell these smug Americans that they were not safe in their beds.
He hated American ways and their lack of respect for Islam. He particularly did not like the fact that the Americans had military bases in Saudi Arabia which was the holiest of Islamic lands. Nabil was looking for a way to attack a public utility in a way that could not be ignored which would affect tens of thousands if not millions of people. A bomb from Jamal would only affect a few hundred at best. Maalik knew that he had a strong cell and did not want to waste them. He assigned everybody a specific gun shop to make their purchases at carefully tracking all of the purchases. Nobody ever visited the same gun store twice being sure to keep each purchase under five pounds of powder and 500 rounds of ammunition.
This was a day for celebration Nabil scored a job with the EPA monitoring super fund sites which put him in many of the most hazardous dumps in the area called supersites. All that Nabil had to do is keep Maalik from pouncing too early. The others wanted to show the Americans that they were vulnerable. Time was pressing Maalik, Haroun, Khalid and Jamal who had to get some sleep since they were just off shift at six AM. The meeting broke up with Nabil and the women getting in their cars and leaving first. Edward felt a presence that he recognized as being Layla. He thought that she should get the license plate numbers. He woke up and Layla continued to travel. Layla came back about five minutes later. They recorded their impressions and wrote them up. Around nine o’clock Edward and Layla started to match up their impressions. Layla stayed with the women long enough to learn that they were students at the University of Maryland and lived on campus in the dorms. Edward was able to catch the license number of Nabil’s car, but was too exhausted to follow him.
The constant out of body work was taking its toll. They both charged down stairs to find that the fridge was in need of restocking. They ate huge amounts of food while they were doing their out of body traveling. As relief from her out of body work, Layla started staking out the barn so that Tom would have a good idea of how the building would sit on the property. She had designed it so that it looked like a smaller version of a classic red barn with a hay loft. With the work on the barn, and the out of body work the house hold duties went by the wayside, so Edward volunteered to make the grocery run. The grocery store was only a few minutes away and just happened to be near an acceptable Chinese restaurant so in an hour he came back with a trunk load of groceries and a large bag of Chinese carry out food. Tom, Arnold and Sera rolled in the drive way in time to help with carrying the groceries in the house.
Sera, was pouting as Edward and Layla were wildly gorging themselves, eating out of the white cardboard containers. “I was going to cook a nice lunch.”
Edward stopped eating long enough to say, “I love your cooking. We were traveling and that eats up a ton of energy. I promise you that we will still be hungry.” Tom and Arnold refused any Chinese food for fear of upsetting Sera.
Edward had solved one problem so he turned to Tom. “We found four more terrorists three women and one man. We have license numbers and descriptions of the cars. Here is what we have now.” Edward handed Tom the notes. “Part of the problem is that we can’t stay with them. If we stay too long, we crash and if we crash that cuts down on future time. Maintaining the spirit independent of the body requires huge amounts of energy, so we can only stay out of body for a limited amount of time.” Edward waived his chopsticks in the air as he talked. “We need to have Cherry take some pictures of the other four so that everybody will know what they look like or do you have somebody else in mind to do it?”
“Ed, Cherry is a poor idea,” Tom added. “That clown Felix Owens is stalking her and I will have to shoot him if he gets too close. You will have to pick a different crew to take the pictures, perhaps Sera and Arnie.”
Felix was down at the FBI’s Computer Forensics department talking to the lead technician who was looking extremely frustrated, “Are you certain that you can’t salvage anything?”
The tech solemnly shook his head pointing at the ghost image of two rats, “The last image was burned into the screen. Do you see those two rats fucking?” Felix nodded, “That is the signature of Boris Baronov. He defected from Russia and the Chernobyl Virus is his ‘Mona Lisa’. I can tell you without a doubt that this is Boris’s Chernobyl virus. It has absolutely fried your logic circuits and your memory is toast.”
Felix could not believe his ears, “You mean Boris Baronov as in ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle’?”
The tech became deadly serious, “Now that you know his name don’t even think of getting some kind of revenge. The last guy that tried still can’t use anything electronic even his electric razor quit on him and it is battery-operated. Boris is the ultimate electronic genius and he loves to drive people crazy, especially people that screw with him.”
“Well if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be in this position. All the files I worked so hard to get are so much electronic trash. That’s why the unfortunate incident happened with Cherry.”
The tech sneered, “By your standards Hiroshima would be called an unfortunate accident too. One of my people processed the pictures from the hospital. It looks like you used her tits for punching bags. The bruise between her tits looks like a footprint. There isn’t one part of her body without a bruise and you are trying to kick that back on Boris. Take your lap top and give it a proper burial.”
As Felix left the tech pulled out his cell phone and poked number seven on the speed dial, “Hello Boris…”
Cher
ry was walking in the front door when her satellite phone rang, “Hello, this is Boris in tech how are you feeling this evening.” She listened to the accent and switched to Georgian Russian.
“How did you get this number?” Boris was thrown off by her switch.
“I wrote a program to detect satellite phones. I just listened to your conversation. It was not difficult to figure out who you were. These phones are for secure communications and I wrote the security programs for them. Where did you learn how to speak Georgian?” Boris was leery about her origins.
“My mother taught me. I speak it with my sisters and my aunt.”
“Who is your mother?”
“She left Russia several years ago when she became unpopular.”
Boris pressed, “I am familiar with many unpopular people, humor a curious man.” Rhonda had thoroughly warned Cherry about Boris, so she decided to give him some details that he would probably find out anyway.
“Her name was Seraphina in Russia. She changed it to Sarah.”
“Yes I know of her. Sarah did my papers ten years ago and she had me killed when I got them.” Cherry laughed at the comment since under his old name back in Russia he had experienced some kind of fatal occurrence. “She is an absolute artist. Sarah gave me a new Russian back ground so that I could defect. With my accent I could never claim to be anything but Russian. How is your mother?”
A little sob escaped Cherry before she could check it. “Sarah died from a heart attack two years ago.”
Boris switched back to English, “That is a shame I would have liked to have met her.” Boris’s voice was now sounding warm and sympathetic. “Do you know who is doing her work now?” This was her moment of truth and Cherry decided to gamble.
“I am doing her work now. What may I do for you?”
“I didn’t know that you were Sarah’s daughter. The reason that I called was to find out why you are using a satellite phone when your superiors are using cell phones. The government only issues those phones to critical personnel. You see I have several pictures of you and your bruises. The man that did this claims that it is my fault since my program fried his computer with all of his information. Rhonda Savage asked me to load some sensitive information on a disc along with my Chernobyl virus. She was once called Pauline Rider and also an unpopular person. I always believed that witness protection did her papers and from Felix’s e-mails he is checking out her name now.”