Loose Ends (The Hammer Commission Book 3)

by John Van Stry

  "I'm agent Mark Levin," Mark said looking around, "I work for a number of organizations, the ones most relevant here are Interpol and the FBI. This is my partner, FBI agent Michael Sykes."

  "Now, quit stalling, you all know you're in trouble, so tell me what I want to know."

  "I must protest! We've done nothing wrong!" Spencer said, standing up as the others all started to talk.

  Michael put a hand on Spencer's chest and pushed him back into his seat.

  "Listen up!" Michael said, raising his voice. "We all know that the sample that was stolen from your laboratory today was stolen from another laboratory on the east coast!"

  "Are you accusing us of corporate espionage?" one of the other men, who had a bandage around his head spoke up looking outraged. "That is hardly a federal affair!"

  Michael smiled, "It is under the Federal Economic Espionage act, but then there is also the small matter of conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to commit murder, and conspiracy to murder a federal agent."

  Mark spoke up again, "Those of you involved in this affair know that the sample involved in today's attack was illegally obtained from LevGen. You also undoubtedly know that LevGen was attacked, an attempt to kidnap the president took place, and several other crimes were committed, which resulted in multiple deaths. And now you have ended up with a sample which we know came from those labs."

  "Looks to me," Michael said, "like you all were involved in those crimes in order to get your hands on that sample. I see a long jail term in your future, ladies and gentlemen. Very, very, long."

  "Hold on a moment," the man with the bandaged head said, raising his hand, "we had no part in any of that."

  "Then maybe you should start answering my questions," Mark told him.

  "Are you by any chance related to Thomas Levin who owns LevGen labs?" he asked.

  "My brother," Mark said. "And you would be?"

  "Anthony Reese, I'm the company president. And I must protest your being here! How do we know that you won't steal our secrets and give them to your brother!"

  Mark stared down at Reese, looming over him. "You mean, like you stole from him? Just to be clear, I'm not the officer in charge of the investigation, however I am the officer that they tried to murder and did in fact kidnap by mistake.

  "So while my involvement may be just a tad personal, it's not for the reasons you imply," Mark said, almost growling. "Now, who are the others?"

  "Janet Stapleton, my secretary," Reese, starting to look a little worried said as he pointed to a serious looking younger woman sitting next to him. "Rebecca Nash, head of marketing, Chris Lloyd, my vice president, Chester Mackay, our CFO, and Donald Wong, head of research."

  Mark nodded to each of them, "Thank you. Now, which of you don't have direct knowledge of the stolen sample, and by that I don't really care if you know how it got here."

  "Why do you wish to know that?" Reese asked, curious.

  "It's an old cold war era bio-weapon," Michael said, sticking to the line that the government had decided to pursue. "It was stolen and sold to LevGen under false pretenses. So we're dealing with a matter of national security. The kind of matter," Michael turned and faced the company lawyer then, "that can cause people to disappear for a very long time."

  "What!" Reese said, looking shocked. "I, we had no idea!"

  "Neither did my brother," Mark told them, "but he's still having his background gone over with a fine tooth comb, his company records audited, and will be kept an eye on for many years to come. The person who you got the sample from however, he knew exactly what it was, and where it came from."

  "Well, why don't you go after him?"

  "We did," Michael said, "he's dead now."

  "I was involved with the research," Donald Wong volunteered suddenly, raising his hand. "We were given some preliminary results which I would now guess came from your brother's lab. I personally had no idea where the sample or the results came from."

  Mark nodded, "Thank you, Mr. Wong. We will have a few of our experts out here in a few hours to debrief you, your team, and to go through all of your records to make sure anything sensitive is expunged."

  Mark looked at the rest of them, "Any others?"

  Chris Lloyd raised his hand, "I saw the initial reports, as did Tony here. Also both of us and Richard there knew were it came from."

  "Chris! What are you doing?" Reese yelled at him, while Richard shouted for him to not say another word.

  "Oh, can it, the both of you!" Chris yelled back, "I told you I wasn't crazy about dealing with that Smith guy, but you both vetoed my objections and threatened my job if I didn't play along! Well, now it's bit us in the butt. How many of our people are dead out there today?" he asked while motioning to the hallway with his hand.

  Mark noted that Reese looked rather stricken, while Richard shut up and the rest of the people in the room turned pale.

  "Flat out Tony, I'm calling the board and I'm going to ask them to fire you the moment I get to a phone. Same for you, Richard. This one is on the two of you and I can just imagine what the board is going to do to all of us when they find out."

  Mark turned back to Morrison who had been following things closely and was looking a little shocked, probably by the bio-weapon revelation.

  "Take those four," he said and pointed to Reese, Spencer, Wong, and Lloyd, "and hold them each in isolation, separately, until the debriefing team from Washington shows up. The others," Mark looked at them, "can go."

  "What do we need to be debriefed about?" Wong asked.

  "We need to know what you discovered about the sample," Michael told him. "We need to make sure you all understand the severe legal penalties that you will be subject to, should you discuss it with anyone, ever again, even each other.

  "All of your research staff involved with that project will also be debriefed, and we'll have a cyber team out here to verify that nothing of it is left in your records."

  "Did LevGen get the same treatment?" Lloyd asked, looking up at Mark.

  Mark nodded, "Yes, but unlike you folks, I simply had to sit on my brother and threaten to punch him in the nose if he didn't cooperate." Mark smiled then, "And because he's my little brother, he had to do it, or I'd sic our mother on him. So LevGen rolled over for the government completely and has agreed to cooperate. They didn't even make us get a search warrant."

  "So, what about the people who did this?" Janet Stapleton asked in a soft voice. "Do you have any leads?"

  "We can't discuss that with you," Michael told them.

  "But if we could," Mark said looking around; "we'd tell you some people aren't as protected as they think they are."

  Mark was sitting at a large table next to Michael; they were at the local FBI offices, sitting in a secure conference room, talking to Woods on a secure line. They had dossiers on several of the attackers who had been identified by the survivors, as well as from some security footage from one of the hidden cameras that hadn't been destroyed. Several of the men had quite a history and after reading through their records Mark wasn't looking forward to having to deal with any of them.

  "The folks at the CIA have all but confirmed it," Woods said. "It was Carlos Santiago. He flew in this morning, bribed his way past immigrations, met with his crew that had flown in two days ago to set it all up, and then they all flew out of the local airport within minutes of the attack."

  "How the hell did they know about this place, when we didn't?" Mark grumbled.

  "I'm guessing that Carlos has people embedded in all of the major labs now. We're going to have to alert each of them to possible security holes and have them tighten down their own hiring procedures."

  "So, what's our next step?"

  "It's out of our hands now, Mark. It's out of the country."

  "You mean it's out of your hands," Mark sighed. "I'm with Interpol. It's still something I'm going to have to deal with."

  "Normally I'd complain about that, but I saw the casualty count," Woods said with a heavy sigh.
"I've gotten the initial reports from the debriefing team, and the Department of Justice is looking to prosecute on the espionage charge."

  "We didn't read them their rights on that," Mark said.

  "Doesn't matter, that Lloyd guy has rolled over completely. He's pretty upset over all the people who got killed and blames himself as well as the other two."

  "What about the others?" Michael asked.

  Woods snorted loudly over the phone, "I think they're more upset over their own injuries and what this is going to do to their stock options."

  "Any idea what the government's reaction is going to be? Are they going to send someone in to bomb the place or something?"

  "We're on good terms with Guatemala, where they're operating out of, so any kind of bombing mission is out. Right now I understand that there are a lot of diplomatic messages flying back and forth, but as far as I know, it's all deadlocked at the moment. It'll probably be weeks before anything happens."

  "A lot can happen in a couple of weeks," Mark complained.

  "True, but didn't your people say that doing another ritual like that Oregon woman wasn't very likely?"

  "Pretty much," Mark admitted. "But I'd still rather not chance it."

  "I'd still love to know why they did it," Michael asked. "What possible use could they have for the stuff, anyway?"

  "It enhances muscle tissue," Mark said. "That was why my brother was looking at it, to help people who'd lost most of their muscle tissue and strength. It would help re-grow the lost tissue and build up its strength so those people could function again."

  "And?" Michael prompted.

  "Remember how strong Beth was?"

  Michael swore.

  "Exactly, just think of a drug lord with an army of super-strong soldiers."

  "That's not a pretty thought," Woods said from the phone.

  "No, it's not. And being as it's all coming from something inherently evil, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it would have mental effects associated with it as well."

  "Yeah, but those guys are already evil," Michael sighed.

  "Trust me, they can always get worse."

  "Well, I don't have anything further for you two, finish up your reports and go back to Portland. I'll talk to you tomorrow if anything new comes up."

  "Yes, Boss," Michael said.

  "Sure thing, Chief," Mark said and turned off the speakerphone as Woods hung up.

  Mark looked at the paperwork on the table before him. It was a list of identified suspects and their dossiers. Another list was of the people who had been murdered, complete with pictures. All of them had been shot in cold blood, some apparently for no reason at all. Then another list of the ones shot, but not killed, again with pictures, and again apparently just for the hell of it. Last of all were the statements from the survivors in the labs on what they'd seen and heard.

  "Let's get out of here," Mark said, gathering up all of the documents and leaving the table. He'd read it all again later, when they got home. It was senseless and it was brutal and he could see that even Michael had been affected.

  Later that night as they were flying back to Oregon, Michael suddenly looked at Mark and said, "I'm in."

  "What?" Mark said.

  "Whatever you're going to do, I'm in. I want to help."

  Mark looked at him, "What makes you think I'm going to do anything?"

  "Never try and bullshit a bullshitter, Mark. You've had that look on your face since we left the office. You're thinking about doing something. They attacked your brother, and both Jess and Gail have made it pretty clear how you feel about family."

  "He's not your brother," Mark pointed out.

  "What was that, dad?" Michael said with a smirk on his face.

  Mark snorted, but couldn't hide his own grin.

  "So, why the sudden desire to help?" he asked Michael.

  "Because the idea of that stuff getting into the hands of the local gang-bangers scares the hell out of me?" Michael said, and then shrugged, "Or maybe the thought of what my own wives are going to say if I let their father run off on his own and something happens to him.

  "But let's face the facts here, Mark. I actually have the power to do something about it now, and walking around that place," Michael sighed and shook his head, "I could smell the fear on everyone, and the blood, and yeah, even all of that death. Ever since Jess and Gail made me start going to church again, I've been thinking, with great power comes great responsibility. What was done there was wrong, evil even."

  "Is that all?" Mark asked.

  "Well that and I don't want to turn into another Beth!" Michael said and actually shivered in his seat. "Denise and I have had some pretty serious conversations about it; we even talked with Steve and Mary when we were back in DC. We've been given a gift, and one that's meant to be used. But we need to be damn careful how we use it, lest we start abusing it."

  "So, what you're saying is, that you want the opportunity to kick ass and take names in a manner that won't get you in trouble, and will do a world of good?"

  "Well, yeah," Michael laughed. "Isn't that what you're already doing?"

  "So just what are you going to tell Woods?" Mark asked.

  "That I'm going on my honeymoon while you're off and other wise engaged."

  "I think your going to Guatemala would be kind of a give away," Mark said. "Plus I don't know that there are all that many resorts there."

  "Guatemala, not really," Michael agreed, "but Belize is rather nice, plus it's the off season."

  "Been there before?"

  Michael nodded, "Last year, and I've wanted to go back. So hopefully that won't raise any alarms."

  Mark nodded, "Well, we'll have to see what we're dealing with. Let me call my office tomorrow and see what Interpol has on this, and what the Commission's stance on all of this is going to be."

  "You don't think they wouldn't want it dealt with, do you?" Michael asked.

  "I'd be surprised if they didn't," Mark admitted, "but I need to check with them first, I do work for them, and besides, if they're backing it, they have to pay for everything."

  Guatemala

  23: San Benito, Guatemala

  Mark was sitting in the pastor's office in Santa Elena's with Judith. After some discussion it was agreed that he'd go under his diplomatic identification, this would keep it out of Interpol's jurisdiction and would also be less likely to bring him to the attention of the Guatemalan government. Considering the amount of crooked and corrupted officials in the later, it was considered to be a good idea. Enough people flew in on church business every year that no one would even look twice at Mark.

  "So, what have you got for me?" He asked her.

  Judith pulled a file out of her briefcase, which had been marked as diplomatic papers, so no one at customs had been able to look through them. Then again, as it was marked 'Vatican', few really cared to see what was inside it. Church business all being so dull and boring.

  "The lab is to the northwest of here, about fifty miles; it's inside the boundaries of a national park called 'Tiger Lagoon', or Laguna Del Tigre." Judith looked at him and shook her head, "What is it with Latin Americans calling every cat a tiger, anyway?"

  Mark shrugged and picked up the satellite pictures, "Don't ask me, I just work here."

  "Do you have any better photos than this?" He asked her paging through them. They showed a series of twenty long buildings linked together in two rows of ten, with a square building across from them. He wasn't sure of the exact scale, but he'd guess they were maybe a hundred feet long each, the square one being a hundred feet on each side.

  "No, sorry. I pulled those from Interpol's general files. Any higher definition ones would have to be justified, as they're confidential. Did you think about asking your friends at the FBI to reach out to the CIA and get something better?"

  Mark shook his head, "It didn't even occur to me. They'd probably have them, too."

  Judith nodded, "Undoubtedly."

  Mark loo
ked over the maps, "Well, it looks like we can just drive to this area," he said tapping a spot on the map, "hide the car off the road in the woods and then just continue in on foot over these hills the last ten miles or so."

  "What are you planning on doing there, exactly?" Judith asked him. "The place has got to be full of guards, workers, men, and who knows what else. And there's just you and me, a couple of handguns, and some holy water."

  Judith shook her head, "That's hardly enough to take down a drug lab run by a major drug cartel."

  "You brought Clem along, like I asked you to, right?" Mark asked.

  "He's still in training, what good is he going to do? Plus getting him to follow orders sometimes..." Judith sighed shaking her head.

  Mark chuckled, "Yeah, he's got a bit of a stubborn streak, he'll mellow out once he fits in with the rest of the organization. But don't worry, he'll listen to me."

  "Okay, so now that's three of us."

  "Four," Mark corrected, "my son-in-law should show up tonight. I have to go out and pick him up when he gets here."

  "Son-in-law?" Judith said, surprised.

  "Yeah, he's also my partner at the FBI currently. Seems he hooked up with two of my daughters. He wanted in on this, and well, I thought it would help."

  "Okay, so four. But still, we can't just walk in there and take them all on, and I don't think they're going to look kindly on any requests to inspect their laboratories and shut down any demonic cultures that they might happen to be growing."

  "Oh, we're not going to have a stand up fight with them, not that I don't think we can't win, we're monsters after all. No, I have a much better idea," Mark said and gave Judith a truly evil grin.

  "We're going to terrorize them."

  Mark pulled the old Land Rover he had rented off the road and parked. It was well past midnight, and he'd told Michael where he wanted to meet him, and had even given him some rough coordinates. Michael wouldn't be carrying much; it wouldn't look good if anyone spotted a cougar crossing the border with a pack on its back. It was about eighty miles from where Michael and the girls were staying in Belize, but Michael felt that they could drive close enough to the border so that they'd only have to cover about thirty miles.