by Finian Blake
“Young lady I have an appointment with Rhonda Savage would you please show me in.”
“Of course Miss Savage is expecting you,” Cherry said with a warm smile. The Senator walked in the office without any further conversation. He walked in the room with Rhonda waving him to the uncomfortable chair in front of the desk.
“Have a seat Senator Belight what can I do for you today?”
“I specifically asked the director not to use names.” The Senator was visibly annoyed.
“Yes the director did not tell me who would be coming, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t recognize you.” The Senator seems somewhat relieved and took his seat in the chair. Rhonda smiled warmly as the Senator squirmed around in the chair trying to find a comfortable position. “Let me assure you that you have never been here and this conversation has never taken place.”
“Good, let me get right to business.” Rhonda nodded her acceptance to the request. “I am trying to make certain inquiries into a secret file and was wondering if you could help me?”
“Of course Senator, I understand you would like some answers regarding the deposition of the ‘Sweeper File’.” The Senator’s jaw dropped in shock and Rhonda continued before he could say anything. “I am in the intelligence game and more has happened with that file in the last few weeks than anything else has in the past ten years.”
“I… I…” Senator Belight struggled for words as Rhonda continued.
“You are the one that sent Felix Owens to examine the Sweeper File.” Rhonda pulled out the FBI pictures of Cherry sliding them across the desk to Senator Belight. “You could have called the director and made this request two weeks ago and my assistant would not look like this.” Senator Belight looked extremely uneasy in his uncomfortable chair. Rhonda pushed a button on her telephone.
“Cherry would you come in the office?” In less than a minute Cherry was standing at the side of Rhonda’s desk facing the Senator. Rhonda stood up behind Cherry grabbing the hem of her blouse lifting it up to her armpits. All that the surprised Senator could do was dropped his jaw in amazement. “Those bruises are taking forever to go away, and you are responsible for his actions.”
“You can’t talk to me that way! I’m a…”
“Horses ass, Senator…” Rhonda slammed her hand down on the desk. “This one time and one time only I will take you down and show you just a portion of the file. Cherry you will accompany us.” Rhonda led the way down to the vault instructing Cherry to do the security access while she gave Stan his instructions.
“Stan you are to log Cherry in as the only one entering the vault. Are we clear?”
“Crystal…!”
Rhonda closed the door of the vault while Cherry retrieved the file. Both women took a seat on one side of the table while Senator Belight took a seat on the other side. Rhonda opened the file selecting three pictures from the file laying them out side by side on the stainless steel table. The picture clearly showed a panicked naked young man with Senator Belight kneeling behind him. The other pictures were grossly more graphic.
“These are from Sean Manworth’s Black mail files since these pictures involve you I can show them to you. The rest of the file is restricted to those people listed on the file cover. It should be destroyed but I will need the permission of the whole over sight committee and the director’s full review. Would you like to present the full file to the whole committee?”
“GOD NO…!” There was a look of abject horror on Senator Belight’s face.
“Good, Cherry and I will be resigning with in the month and we will lose access to the file. Sean Manworth had twelve blackmail files and you would need to submit the whole file to god knows who if you called for a full investigation. Cherry and I will be bound by secrecy under the National Secrets Act after we leave. The file will be secured and nobody will know of its existence unless either you or Felix, press the issue.” Rhonda placed the three pictures back in the file looking at a devastated Senator Belight. Of course there is a possibility of totally misfiling this.”
“And where would it be misfiled?” The Senator sounded hopeful. Rhonda motioned to Cherry who left the room returning with a shredder.
“It could be filed here.” Rhonda removed the three pictures. “These will go in last. You may begin.” While Senator Belight fed the pages to the shredder as Rhonda made her promise. “These are the only copies, you checked personally, and the file never existed.”
Rhonda held up the three pictures smiling sweetly. “There is one more thing.”
“And that is?” The senator looked annoyed.
“Felix Owens will still be looking for the file and he is a lunatic about it. I would hate to see him have an accident. If Felix has a lapse of memory, I am sure that Cherry will have a lapse too.” Cherry readily nodded her agreement.
“The son-of a-bitch will be taking a one-month mental health leave.” Rhonda placed the three remaining pictures in the Senator’s hands watching as he fed them into the shredder. “And what if I change my mind?”
“Senator Belight, are you sure that the file ever existed? Felix Owens came into our office demanding a file that never existed and went over the edge when we couldn’t find it. You were never here and you never called the Director. I hope that the Senate Intelligence Committee never asks for the file.”
“You better fucking believe it!” Senator Belight jumped out of his chair pointing to Cherry. “How can I be sure that she will go along with your promise?”
“My assistant is not feeling well would you be kind enough to drive her home?” Rhonda turned her attention to Cherry. “You will do whatever the Senator requests. I will be home in exactly one hour.” Cherry nodded silently taking the Senator’s arm.
“I had better leave now,” the Senator said shifting his attention to Cherry.
“You can’t leave.” Rhonda smiled warmly.
“Why the hell not…?” The Senator said suspiciously.
“Because you were never here and my assistant never escorted you to your car.” Cherry lightly took Senator Belight by the elbow.
“Smart lady…” the Senator smiled wolfishly as he left with Cherry. Rhonda went back to her office typing a command into her computer which would turn on the cameras in her bedroom knowing exactly where Cherry would take him. Rhonda knew that the Senator would put himself back on the hook before the sun went down.
Rajiya walked back in the warehouse after dropping Jibril and Uzma off at the airport. Nabil had Felix dressed in a full hazmat suit but instead of a respirator he had a full hood over Felix’s head.
“Are you planning on taking that idiot with us?” Rajiya was staring at Nabil in disbelief.
“We can either take him with us or shoot him, because we have nobody to watch him. Take your pick personally I think that we should shoot him.” Nabil extended his hand with a pistol in it.
“You are right. We may need a hostage.” Killing thousands of people with a bomb was one thing, but shooting somebody while she looked into their eyes was quite a different proposition.
“Good,” Nabil said, “I will have you watch him.”
“Not me,” Rajiya said in disbelief.
“Then shoot him.” Nabil pressed the gun into Rajiya’s hand. Felix could not understand what was being said since he was wearing the respirator hood, but he did realize that a critical decision was being made. Rajiya removed the hood from Felix’s head causing him to scream pitifully, and despite her murderous intentions she felt sorry for him.
“It seems that I am supposed to watch you or shoot you. If you do not do exactly what I say, I will end your days.” Rajiya help Felix to his feet taking him to a support beam chaining his ankle securely. Nabil walked over to where she was standing next to Felix.
“Felix, if you do not listen to this lady I will have Maalik supervise you. I suggest that you listen to her and follow her wishes without hesitation or you will wish that she had shot you.” Felix clearly understood the threat and nodde
d his acceptance. Nabil returned to the truck giving everybody an explanation of the bomb.
“We will not pressurize the tank until we have parked the truck at the detonation point. There will be only one driver and he will open up all four oxygen tanks which will start to pressurize the system and we will all be in a Van driving behind the truck picking up the driver and moving to a safe location.” Nabil held up his cell phone. “Since this is not a suicide mission we will all be at a safe distance before triggering the bomb. We will then have four hours to make it to the airport from where we will be flying directly to Cairo and then to Riyadh.”
“What about the idiot?” Maalik flared following Nabil who walked into one of the side offices.
“I want him to think that we will release him or he will not cooperate. A man with no hope will do foolish things and he is a foolish man to begin with. Loading the truck will be complicated enough without any surprises.”
“What do you really want to do with him?”
“Maalik my friend, when the time comes I will let you strangle him. I think that time will be when we leave the Van at the airport. Over time I have observed that dead hostages are useless and when we reach the airport he will have outlived his usefulness.” Maalik reached into his back pocket producing a silken cord giving Nabil a broad smile. Maalik was a natural sadist and enjoyed inflicting pain.
Nadia threw a huge stack of pictures on the dining room table at Tom’s house. She could have worked the intelligence on her computer but preferred to make notes on each picture passing them around the room letting the others make their notes. After an hour’s worth of discussion everybody deferred to Ted for laying out the plan, since his expertise was in hostage rescue.
“According to Edward and Layla our conspirators will be doing their work during the daylight hours. We will be sure and have low light equipment available. With the timeframe that Nabil discussed the sun will be at our backs when the time for action arrives. With the sun at our backs it will be almost impossible to spot the muzzle flash. The first two rounds in each of the Barrett’s will be anti-personnel and we will use them on anybody at the front of the truck. The next four rounds will be anti-material rounds I want two shots each with the engine as a target and then target the top of the pressure vessel so that they cannot pressurize the tank. We will reload with armor piercing rounds and reevaluate over the com link. Arnold will take Sera and Eden to the right side of the door and I want Randal to take Rene and Layla to the left side of the door. Tom, that leaves you to coordinate the two teams and hold down the exit.” Tom looked visibly disappointed. “We need somebody with experience and judgment to evaluate any threats coming at us from the exit.”
“And what would you like Colleen and me to do?” Adam asked sounding more than a little disappointed.
“I would like you and Colleen in the other van watching the guards at the gate. You will have Tasers and tranquilizer darts and if there is any hint of a problem you can neutralize them without doing any permanent damage. I would like you in a Van just in case there’s a problem with the van that we’re using on the inside. We still don’t have an official sanction for this action so I believe that it would be best to leave quickly.”
“Now we come to the matter of the people that will be on-site. At this time, we will have five targets, and one hostage that will have to be dealt with. The teams on either side of the door will evaluate the possibility of rescuing the hostage. Based on the degree of risk we will take prisoners, however terminating the target will not be frowned upon. Each team will have tranquilizer darts and Taser’s with them for live capture. I would like to rescue the hostage although due to his unstable nature should it become necessary we will terminate the hostage also.” Ted through the package on the table and everybody took the pictures that applied to their specific areas.
“I want to make one thing absolutely clear. These are old ammunition bunkers and if there is a blast it will come out the front of the building and up through the ceiling. Nobody and I mean nobody is to take a position on top or in front of the bunker. Nadia and I will leave our position as soon as we have fired five rounds each and join the teams on either side of the door once we cross the river. Tom will be evaluating the situation and nobody is to enter the bunker without his express permission. Tom will keep your body count for each side so that nobody will be left behind.” Ted pointed in the direction of Eden and René. “Eden you are assigned to Arnold and René you are assigned to Randal since this is the first mission for both of you, I want the orders followed to the letter.” Ted knew the hard part of the mission would be the waiting since there were so many new people in this mission. The one big question that Ted had was Colleen but she would be with Adam on the outside. If the guards get too interested put them out with the tranquilizer darts. We will move Nadia and Ted early, but the rest of the team will wait until our targets have started to load the fuel.”
“What about Jibril and Uzma have they left already?” Tom asked Randal.
“After we close the operation they will be placed on a terrorist watch list, but since they haven’t participated in any actions against our country before leaving that will be as much as we can do. Their names will be given to the Saudi Secret Police and we will have to let the Saudi police deal with the issue.” Randal did not sound at all happy.
“That’s all?” Tom was stunned. “We’ve done all this work and they can’t do a thing to them?”
“Not quite, our State Department will turn the matter over to the Saudi government and they have some unique ways of dealing with the issues. When this is over we can get Edward and Layla to let us know what happens to the other conspirators.”
Boris was just getting into the financial information of Sabir’s shell corporation. He had set up a completely false corporation which he would run the money through. Boris had to look carefully but he found five or six terrorist groups being funded by Sabir. Starting with just a few scraps of information Boris was able to run down several operations that he was funding. After a few hours Boris passed on the information to the NSA, CIA and the FBI. As Boris was backing out of all the connections, an alert flashed on his computer telling him that Rhonda’s bedroom camera was recording. He saw Cherry walking away from the camera hopping on the bed in her bra and panties.
“Rhonda, are you there?”
“Cherry darling, how did it go with the Senator?” Being the ease dropper that Boris was, he remained silent instead of joining the conversation.
“Wrong sex…”
“How could it be the wrong sex you are so talented?”
“I mean that I am the wrong sex. Remember that all the pictures of Senator Belight were with men. You would’ve been better off sending Boris.”
“That would not have worked either.” Boris injected quickly. “You might want to wait until Nicki gets here he enjoys TV.”
“What do you mean TV…,” Rhonda paused realizing what Boris was telling her. “Oh…”
“I mean the girlfriend that Nicki is bringing with him would not pass a close physical.” Boris said with a smirk. “Now tell me about Senator Belight.” Rhonda went into detail as to how the Senator was responsible for Felix’s interest in the file.
“Boris I didn’t want to get him interested in Cherry, what I was looking for was some insurance that would keep them out of our business. I don’t want to blackmail him. I would just like an edge.”
“No problem I will have something for you in a very short while. I will meet you at your place with everything you need.” Rhonda could hear a light tapping over the Skype connection. “Tamar is going to dinner at Tom’s house do you think that we could make it?”
“Of course we would love to join her,” Cherry said answering for Rhonda too. Boris blew a kiss to the camera wondering if he ever would have met Cherry and Rhonda if it had not been for the Senator’s odd habits. Boris broke the Skype connection promising himself that he would not be too vindictive in researching the Senator.
Cherry picked up her satellite phone from the night stand pressing number one on the speed dial. After only two rings Anna picked up her satellite phone.
“Cherry my dear, how is your project moving along? Are you really moving back to the states? Is this Boris your new love? And what about Rhonda?”
“Stop mother…!” Cherry wanted to take up the business part of her call first. “Anna I believe that our problems with Felix Owens will have been settled by the weekend. Senator Belight originally asked him to look into the file wanting to find Sean Manworth’s blackmail file. We had a discussion with him this afternoon bringing him down to the document vault and destroying the file. My new friend Boris has graciously agreed to remove any negative mention of any of our Amazon people from all of the databases. None of our people have damaged Felix Owens with the exception of Nadia’s new daughter Cher and she kicked three of his teeth out when he came at her with a pistol.”
“It is only being a little over a week and my new granddaughter is already taking up some of her mother’s habits,” Anna chuckled. “Tell me my dear how is your love life been lately.”
“Rhonda, Boris and I will be working the new business. I will be handling fashions and advertising, Boris will be handling computer security and Rhonda will be the overall administrator.”
“Tell me about this Boris, is he ruggedly handsome?”
“He is handsome, but not ruggedly handsome. The thing that I like about Boris is that he has a good imagination and takes it to bed with us, but most of all he loves Rhonda too. I think that the three of us really have something going.” Cherry said with unbridled enthusiasm.
“Aren’t you worried about things getting overly complicated?” Anna’s voice had a note of concern in it.
“Were you worried about Susan and Lynn when you and dad got together? Gregory and Terri were in the mix, then your sister Sarah was also involved and what about Grace.”
“That was not at all complicated.” Anna said with a tone of laughter in her voice. “Since things have calmed down out there Alex and I will come out to meet all our new relatives. Alex and I have purchased some property near Tom’s place and we would like to inspect it.” Cherry thought that the story sounded suspicious.