by Tom Haase
They spent the meal talking of old times and the adventures they experienced in the army. Matt concluded with his tale of the raid in Virginia and his quitting the FBI, but didn’t mention the events of the previous night. On her part, Bridget told Matt about her adventures, including the episode with Schultz, ending with her departure from Greece.
“I have one other thing I need to tell you to get you up to date,” she said. “I contacted Jonathan McGregor for help in identifying the icon in the picture you sent. He has information and will be here in Washington tomorrow to tell me about it.”
“Do you trust him after what you told me about the two times he sort of one- upped you?” Matt asked.
“No, but if he has the information you need, I’ll be glad to listen to him.” She took a sip from her drink. “What about you? You quit the FBI yesterday. What are you going to do?”
Matt waited for this question. After spending most of the previous night trying to decide how best to respond. He looked down at the table for a few seconds.
“Come on, give. I know you. You’re up to something. Tell me,” Bridget said.
“Actually, I have a proposal,” he said and stopped.
“Don’t you think it’s too soon?”
He chuckled. “Not that kind of proposal.”
“Okay, give.”
“You’ve held a government security clearance in the past so when I say this is compartmented information at the highest level, you know what that means?”
“Of course. If I ever talk about it, I’ll spend years in a fed pen.” Bridget looked around to see if anyone listened.
Matt decided the time arrived to reveal his plan.
“I want you to come and work with me on a project. You remember when we successfully completed the mission in Saudi to stop the nuclear detonation and what the president offered us for accomplishing it?”
She nodded. She followed his every word now. He could tell he’d grabbed her attention.
“We have the same opportunity again. The director wants me to put together a secret team to carry out covert operations for the bureau that are off book. I can’t use anyone in the FBI except my one-person contact, but we would have all the assets of the bureau at our disposal. Based on what you’ve told me, you’re looking for a way to make money for your debt problem. Are you interested?”
“Are you going to pay me five million dollars?” she asked with a dismissive wave of her hand.
“Wish I could, but I have a plan that might get you what you want. We worked together as a team years ago. I think together we can form a new one with great potential. Understand I’m legally an FBI agent, but to the world, I’m not. So, the bureau’s rules are not a ring around my neck.”
“How do you think I can solve my problem?” Bridget asked.
“First, are you in or not?”
“You always were one for directness in an operation. Is that what we’ll be doing, conducting operations? If so, what’s the target?”
“You haven’t answered the question. To get read in on the op, I need a commitment.”
“Okay, I’m in. But there are conditions. This will be a working relationship. We’ll be equal partners and you share all with me. No holding anything back. Agreed?”
“Damn, you drive a hard bargain.” He paused for a few seconds, then said, “I agree.”
“What’s our target?” she inquired.
“First, we get you outfitted with some weapons as we might need them. Let me tell you why.” He relayed the events of the previous night. “I don’t want to sugar coat it. This could well be dangerous. Our target is a Russian who is selling arms to homegrown terrorists. I have some video of him I took during the raid. We’ll look at it tomorrow. I’m staying at a safe house instead of my apartment after last night.”
“That makes sense. I still don’t see a lot of money in this. Admittedly, I don’t have anything else that might solve my problem right now.”
“I think I may. First, I need you to get the information from Jonathan. We need to know all we can about that icon. I have a feeling it’s the key to this first op for the S.O.E.”
Bridget nodded. Her lips stretched up in a wide smile and then she said, “I can’t believe this.”
“I feel the same but I want to assure you, we’ll again be going into the line of fire, into harm’s way as they say.”
CHAPTER 20
Alexandria, Virginia
Bridget felt like she might have a new lease on life. After the defeat she’d suffered in retrieving the Crown of Thorns and then the subterfuge that cost her the Bible of Constantine along with losing her job at the university, this might be something she could do. She needed all of those losses reversed so she could move forward. What Matt now offered her would serve as a lifeline and she intended to take it.
Matt prepared to stand up from the table, but he first looked out the window. She started to follow his gaze, but before she could, he reached over, grabbed her by the neck and pushed her towards the floor. At that same second the glass shattered as a bullet went screeching over their heads.
Bridget rolled towards the side wall and crawled around the corner. She heard Matt right behind her. When they were out of sight of the window, she stood up.
"Stay here. In one minute, go and get my car. Here are the keys," he said. “Keep your cell handy.”
“Damn, Higgins. You haven’t forgotten how to show a girl a good time. You must quit treating me like a prim and proper damsel.”
She received a quick smile and watched him head toward the front door, pulling out his weapon, before anyone else fully realized what happened. She waited until he departed. Then, along with all of the other now terrified restaurant patrons, she dashed towards the exit.
* * * *
When Matt looked out of the restaurant window, a truck turned the corner beside the restaurant and its high beams illuminated a figure standing in the park area opposite him pointing a rifle. At that sight, he instinctively reached over and grabbed Bridget, dragging her down. Now he needed to go after the shooter. Once they reached safety behind the wall and were not visible through the window, they had stood up. He needed her help in a plan that rapidly formed in his mind.
After he told her to get the car, he ran outside to pursue the man. He estimated the shooter had a ten-to-fifteen second lead on him. Matt also guessed he would be trying to escape as fast as possible.
On exiting the restaurant, he saw the shadowy figure running deeper into the park. Matt gave chase and ran as fast as he possibly could. Running immediately after eating that delicious meal probably slowed him down but he pushed ahead with every ounce of strength he could muster.
The man ran out of the park and onto a track beside the Potomac River. The lights along the path made him visible. He dressed all in black, with black hair, and carrying the rifle in both hands. The man approached an area of blackness in which Matt feared he would lose him.
Pulling his gun up into firing position, he exhaled a deep breath, took aim, and fired at the target. The man fell landing facedown. Matt rushed to where he lay. From the distance of about ten feet he could see the man still moved.
"Freeze. I've got you covered. Any movement and I’ll put another bullet in you."
The man ceased all movement. Matt approached cautiously and bent over, and pulled the rifle away from the man who now suffered from a wound to his right thigh. Matt reached down to roll the man over.
"Why did you shoot at me?" Matt asked.
"Go to hell." At the same time he said this, a knife appeared in his hands swinging towards Matt's throat.
With the speed and force of a jackhammer, Matt used the butt of his weapon against the right temple of the man's head. The shooter went unconscious.
Matt dialed Bridget.
“Come to the south side of the park. Keep this line open.”
“Wilco,” came Bridget’s reply in military response. She indicated receipt of the order and would comply.
>
Matt picked up the man in a fireman’s carry and moved to the edge of the park and the road where he hoped to see Bridget any second. A car approached and blinked its headlights.
“Have you in sight,” Bridget said.
“When you stop, open the trunk.”
She did as he requested and he deposited the unconscious body into it. Then he jumped into the car and, without a word, Bridget moved off not exceeding the speed limit as police were arriving in the area in response to numerous 911 calls from the restaurant.
“Do I get combat pay with this new S.O.E thing?” Bridget asked.
“Double pay. Two times zero equals combat pay.”
“What’s new?” she asked.
“We need to get this guy debriefed. I have to make a call to Liz for help. We need a new safe house. If they followed me there last night they know its location,” Matt said.
“Listen, we have to be equal. You can’t treat me as special. I have the same training and background in combat operations as you. You don’t have to protect me and push me around. Hear me?” Bridget said.
“Loud and clear. Next time I won’t push you down. I’ll just let the bastard shoot you.”
“How did they find you tonight?” Bridget asked.
Matt knew this embodied her way of switching the topic of conversation and he figured that would be the best thing to do now. He needed to think about what she said, but his instincts told him he needed to do things himself and not rely on anyone else.
She continued, “That’s the real question. Did you take anything from your home they could have bugged?”
“Nothing but this car.” Matt stopped at that thought. Before he could say anything, Bridget pulled the car into a parking lot at the Metro station.
“You call Liz and I’ll take care of the car,” Bridget said.
Matt reached Liz and gave her a situation report.
“Damn, Matt, in twenty-four hours you shoot three people. At this rate the terrorist population in the U.S. only has a few years of life left.” Liz typed on a keyboard judging from the clicks he heard over the phone. “Okay, here’s the address to go to. It has an interrogation room. Let me know what you get from him. Do you want a doc to come?”
“He’s not going to die from it, but have one come by tomorrow morning. A little pain will do him good for trying to kill us.”
“Us, who is us? You forgot to mention that,” Liz said.
“The director ordered me to put a team together. Bridget Donavan is my first member.”
“The woman from the Schultz kidnapping. The one you almost had us lose our jobs over? That one?”
“The very same. Good night, Liz.” Matt put up his cell.
Bridget reentered the car. She held up a round plastic devise. “There’s the tracking unit. These guys are really out to get you for some reason. We had better find out why.”
“That guy in the trunk is going to tell us.”
CHAPTER 21
Washington, D.C.
The ten by ten windowless interrogation room had only one door. Bridget carefully monitored Matt as he secured the shooter to a chair with plastic binds in the basement of the safe house. He searched the man and found keys and a wallet. He opened it.
"Well, at least now we know who this person is," Matt said.
"I don't want to be here during your interrogation. Why don't I take those keys and go back to the area and get his car? I'll pick up Scott to help me drive it back here. Is that okay?" Bridget gathered the keys in her hands.
"Sounds like a plan. That car could give us more clues. I’ll call Liz and tell her what we have. She can run our shooter through the databases." He handed her the keys.
Bridget drove to Scott’s apartment in Alexandria. She phoned him on the way and told him what she needed. Scott walked around outside of his building on her arrival and he jumped into the car. She brought him up to date on what transpired earlier in the evening.
"My God, you were almost killed. Do you have any idea of why they shot at you?" Scott asked.
"I don't think he was shooting at me. I believe Matt was the target. And he hasn’t been able to come up with a good reason why they are after him. There’re many possibilities, but he hasn’t been able to narrow it down. Perhaps the man that he‘s interrogating will be able to provide that reason," Bridget said as she drove towards Old Town Alexandria.
Once in the vicinity of the restaurant where the shooting occurred, Bridget slowed the car and then clicked on the auto key ring as she drove around the area. Little traffic existed there after midnight. After circling five or six blocks, she noticed a car’s lights blink on when she pushed the unlock button.
"I'm going to drive that POV back to where Matt is. You take his car and drive it to your apartment and we’ll meet up later," Bridget said.
"Take care of yourself," Scott said as Bridget exited. She watched him scoot over to the driver’s side and the car moved away.
Bridget opened the car door and drove it back to the safe house. Once she arrived and opened the trunk she found two small black bags. She took a quick look inside of one, a wallet and a set of keys. She zipped it back up and picked up the other one.
"Matt, I'm home," she shouted with a bag in each hand. This made her smile to herself. She figured he couldn't hear her if he worked downstairs in the interrogation room so she got away with it. As she descended the stairs to the basement, the door to the room opened and Matt came out.
"What did you learn?" Bridget asked.
"I think I now know why these guys have been trying to eliminate me. It has to do with the raid outside of Roanoke,” Matt said. “Seems like they wanted to pay me back for killing some of their members. How they found out it was me isn’t known to this guy. He doesn't know much since he was only directed to make the hit and the only thing he heard his leader talk about concerned a payback for Roanoke. I'm going to turn him over to Liz in the morning. Her team can continue the interrogation to see if they can get any more information about his organization. I’ll continue to question him until she gets here. We need to know more about their operations and their arms purchasing.” Matt ran his hand through his hair and paused. “What about you? Did you learn anything?"
"Well, I did bring the car back here and here are the two small black bags I found in the trunk. One contains a wallet and keys and I checked and it’s the same in the other," Bridges said as she handed him the bags.
She watched him open one and extract a wallet. When he opened it and looked at the identification inside, she saw a smile appear on his face.
"Well, this is one of the men who attacked me in my apartment. My guess is that the man we have acted as the controller monitoring the outside and he kept their wallets and identifications with him. That’s why we found nothing on the two dead men. Now we’ve got their identification and Liz can go to work on it. We’ll turn these over to her when we give her our guest."
"I didn't let Scott follow me back here. I didn't want to compromise this location for you. I’ll return your car tomorrow. You okay?" Bridget asked.
“We've had a hell of a night."
"Like I said, you sure know how to show a girl a good time. I see McGregor tomorrow. I’ll call you after I meet with Jonathan."
"We're just getting started," Matt said.
CHAPTER 22
Alexandria, Virginia
Jonathan McGregor arrived in Washington’s Dulles International Airport at 3:15 P.M. A car from the archdiocese of Washington met him and deposited him at his hotel in Alexandria. The driver informed him he would be available for the duration of his visit.
After he signed in to the hotel, Jonathan called Bridget. He’d thought about what he needed to do, what the cardinal ordered him to do, and how he intended to get Bridget to cooperate. That last point would be the most difficult, he knew. She would definitely be suspicious of anything he told her or any conditions he needed to impose.
When she answered, he said, "I'm in W
ashington. Can I pick you up at your brother’s in an hour so that we might discuss things?"
"I'll be outside."
Jonathan rang off and now prepared himself mentally for his meeting with Bridget. He picked her up in exactly one hour. He instructed the driver to take them to Haines Point. On arrival there, he escorted Bridget out of the car. They walked out to the end of the park. This movement broke the silence that held throughout the trip to the park. They stopped at the guardrail and looked out over the Potomac River.
"Jonathan, what did you learn about the image that I sent you?" Bridget asked.
"Well, I did learn a few things about that icon." He waited. Bridget remained in a combative mood. He gleaned that from her silence on the ride over. She would be a hard sell.
"Go ahead and tell me something. You came all the way over here to meet with me. You must want something," Bridget said.
He pointed off to his left where they could see the National War College in the distance and suggested by his hand movement that they walk. She spoke the truth, but he planned to be careful on how he would divulge information about this particular item. His instructions from the cardinal were to retrieve it. At this point in time, he didn't even know if Bridget knew its location or if it resided in somebody's possession, the identity of whom she might know or not know.
"From our study, the item in the picture was stolen from the Vatican Museum in 1945. Its history goes back to the Crusades. The actual icon is from an earlier time, but the Vatican acquired it at the end of the second Crusade. Our researchers believe its origin are from sometime during the 10th century, somewhere around the capital of the Russian Empire, Kiev at that time.”
"Well, that is some new information. Do you have any idea of its value?" Bridget asked.
"The actual monetary value may be about a million dollars, but like any piece of art that has a significant history, its value is probably beyond monetary terms."