"Yeah, absolutely. Thanks."
She put the phone down as it rang again.
"Graham."
"Agent Graham, doctor Cordelia Palmer, from the Memphis Medical Examiner's office."
"Doctor Palmer, yes ma'am."
"I have some additional information for you, is this a good time?"
"Yes, I'm on the road, but tell me what you have."
"Ok, we have identified five of the victims from the university last night, in addition to the young grad student you saw at the hospital, Sasha Gomez."
"Sasha? That was her name?"
"Yes. One of the other fatalities was a graduate student working with Dr. Saenz in his lab, and another was Dr. Saenz himself."
"Yes, and the others?"
"The others we have identified so far are all graduate students working with a Doctor Shallenger. They were found in the lab at the opposite end of the building. So far we have not found Dr. Shallenger."
"I don't believe you will Doctor Palmer. Have more bodies been found?"
"So far, it appears there have been thirteen fatalities in all, which fits with those reported missing. We are still working on identification of the remaining eight, but they were all found at the end of the building away from Dr. Saenz's lab."
"Thank you, Doctor Palmer."
"There's one more thing Agent Graham, something Chief Thorn asked me to pass along to you."
"Yes?"
"You had asked about a safe? He said they did find the remains of a safe in Dr. Shallenger's office, but that it was destroyed in the explosion. He said it looked like it was at the center of one of the explosions."
"They did determine there was more than one?"
"Oh, yes, I'm sorry, I thought you knew. There were at least two explosions; one in Dr. Saenz's lab, and one in Shallenger's office."
"Thank you, Doctor Palmer. Oh, did they say anything about the anthrax?"
"They didn't find any live spores of Anthrax. However, they did find equipment in Shallenger's lab that would be used for that type of research. I'm sorry I don't know more."
"That's enough Doctor Palmer, believe me; that's enough."
Emily drove past the Atoka Cinema and saw the feature of the 'Week of Classics' was Goldfinger, with Sean Connery. She shook her head, "Where the hell is James Bond when you need him?"
She shook her head as she thought back over the past four days. So many crazy things had taken place, including this Colonel Chambers and his secret army planning to drop a nuke on the most active fault line east of the Rockies. Could those people really be that stupid?
The thought pushed her back in her seat. Of course not. Emily jerked the car to the side of the road, reached for her phone and jabbed at the buttons.
"Colonel Reyes, Emily Graham. Listen, I can't explain right now, but I need you to dig me up a phone number."
Chapter 77
Two miles before she reached the river, Emily pulled onto Route 181. According to her GPS, the next turn should be less than a mile. She knew she couldn't explain it to anyone if they asked, but she wanted to see this bridge up close; before it became just another pin on their map. She turned onto Bungie Road and followed the slow curve to the south. Just before driving under the high span of the bridge, she turned onto a dry mud path, stopped her car, and walked to the riverbank. She heard the whine of the traffic crossing the bridge above her head. For someone growing up around the river, places like this just felt peaceful; for now.
She watched the muddy water slide under the bridge; imagining the invisible line down the middle that separated Tennessee, where she stood, and Missouri, where she was going next. Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, and now Missouri; she wondered just how much further this adventure was going to take her.
She pulled the phone from her pocket and entered the number Reyes had texted her. It rang.
"Chambers."
"Colonel Chambers, Agent Emily Graham here. With all respect, Colonel, I just wanted to ask how far you were planning on letting that thing go this morning if someone hadn't asked you about New Madrid?"
Silence.
"Agent Graham, we need to talk."
"Yes sir, I think that would be a good idea. Just how..."
"Not like this, Graham. Where are you?"
"I'm standing under the Caruthersville Bridge at the moment Colonel."
"Good; here's what you do. Are you familiar with the casino at Caruthersville?"
"Casino? No sir, I'm not..."
"There is a little bar and grill there, a place we can look like a couple of gamblers and not be noticed. I'll meet you there in two hours."
"Are you in Caruthersville Sir?"
"I will be in two hours."
Click.
As she lowered her phone, she noticed that she had a missed call. She pressed the callback button.
"Dasilva."
"Agent Dasilva, I'm sorry I missed your call. Cell service has been in and out around here."
"Not a problem Agent Graham, thank you for calling me back." Dasilva sounded bright and bubbly, which made the hair stand up on her neck. "Do you have a moment?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good, I won't keep you long."
"No problem sir."
"Graham, I just wanted to say how impressed I was with how you handled that military thing this morning."
"Oh, well, thank you, sir." Just where the heck was this going?
"I have to say, and I mean no offense here Emily, but it is more than clear that I did misjudge you before."
"Yes sir.” Emily said in place of “What a jerk!”
"Graham, when this thing is done, I think we should sit down and have a conversation. I believe you have a lot more to offer the agency, and I'd like to see if I can help open some doors for you."
"Well, thank you, sir, I appreciate that." She said as she picked up a small stone and threw it into the river, imagining Dasilva was out there.
"That's all I wanted to say for now, Emily. I'll let you get back to work."
"Thank you, sir. I appreciate the call."
The line went dead three seconds before she remembered the call from Carrie Williamson and missed the opportunity to ask him how he enjoyed the drinks in New Orleans. But what was all that buttering up about? It may have been honest, or it may have been an ego trying to share the little victory over Chambers. Or, maybe, just maybe, it was how a mole kept in contact with someone who had information worth collecting. Emily walked back to her car, got in, and sat. She needed to go find that casino, but part of her wanted to pull back out onto the interstate and see how far west she could get before someone found her. The Grand Canyon should be pretty this time of year.
The phone again.
"Graham."
"Well hi there, what are you up to no good today?" Dad sounded like he had ten years ago.
"Hi, dad. Not much, still working."
"Are you involved in that thing on the river; with the boat?"
"Yep, I am."
"I've been watching that on the TV, damnedest thing I've ever seen. It just ain't right you know."
"What do you mean dad?"
"I mean, it just ain't right. They’ve been saying they think the crew is involved; helping them, you know. That's bullshit. There ain't no real towboater would have anything to do with something like this. Especially that boat; the Francis B. That's one of Gil Arbel's boats and I can tell you for a fact that old Gil wouldn't put up with shit like that from his people."
"Oh yeah, you know him, don't you?"
"Know him? Hell, yes I know him. I ran boats for him for a while; got his ass out of some pretty tight jams sometimes too. He wanted me to come and work in the office too, but I told him that wasn't for me."
"He told me that."
"You met Gil? How is the son of a bitch anyway?"
"He's fine dad, and he told me to say 'hi' to you."
"He's a good man. That's why I know none of his people would be involved in this
thing unless something was really screwed up."
"Screwed up...what do you mean?"
"Well shit, you know as well as I do that a real towboater has river water running through his veins; and they're not going to do anything to screw things up. Most of us wanted to be on the river since we was kids; that's why we put up with the things like having to be away from home so much. That's the only part that hurt, the only thing we cared about as much as the river was our family, and what being away from them was doing to us."
"I know dad."
"The only way anyone on that boat is helping with this is if they got real problems at home; something messing with their heads, you know? That's the only way. Who's the captain on there now?"
"Charlie Graff dad."
"Well hell, there you go. I helped Charlie get started. There's no way in hell he'd be involved in something like this. Who’s the pilot?"
"Frank Maddox."
"Don't know him. He been around long?"
"He's been with Arbel for a few years."
"Yeah, well he may be OK. But I'll tell ya Em; you want to know about a river-rat, look at their family. If home is OK, we're good. If something’s messed up at home, it eats at us twenty-four hours a day."
"Ok, dad."
"Gotta to get some lunch. You be careful."
"I will dad. Thanks for calling."
Click.
Emily's head was spinning as she drove into Caruthersville, following the signs to the Lady Luck Casino.
Chapter 78
Emily walked into the casino's bar and grill an hour before Chambers was to arrive, so she decided to have lunch. She selected the blackened chicken sandwich, sweet tea, and at the last minute threw in an order of fried green tomatoes. She started to count up the points but stopped. Emily knew she didn’t need to go to a weight-watching group. She went because she liked the routine, the structure; keeping track of those points. In her job, in her entire life really, it helped to have some things that were just that simple.
She sipped her sweet tea and made the call to Agent Loren Erikson back in Louisville.
"Loren? Hi, Emily Graham. How are things going?"
"Oh, hi Emily. Nothing much here; I was going to send you an update later this evening."
"Excellent."
"We released Alma Hendricks from any further involvement. We also went through records at Arbel’s office, and it does appear that the Francis B. was the only boat that was involved. As for Alex, we're still digging, but all the paths we've followed into his background have been dead ends so far."
"It sounds like you've been busy. As for Alex, I'm not surprised. My guess is that we're never going to find out much more about him. But yeah, keep looking. I have one other thing for you at this point."
"Yes?"
"We did brief backgrounds on the crew of the Francis B., but I'd like you to take that up a notch."
"Full backgrounds?"
"Yeah, as much as you can find, especially looking at their families."
"Families? Immediate families?"
"Yeah, start there. But let's take it a level or two beyond that; immediate relatives, things like that, you know?"
"Absolutely. Anything particular you're looking for?"
"Nothing specific, but just wanting to know if any of them have any situations back home that might be causing them undue stress, things like that."
"Got it. We'll get going on that now."
"Thanks, Loren.'
Click.
Emily put down the phone as a plate was put in front of her, filled with a sandwich large enough for three, and another bowl with what looked like a dozen tomato slices covered in batter. Emily smiled. These casinos knew how to keep people happy.
As she reached for a tomato, a shadow fell across the bowl.
"Agent Graham, it looks like you have things under control."
The voice was Colonel Chambers, but the look caused her to hesitate. The uniform had been replaced by a pair of jeans and an old St. Louis Rams sweatshirt.
"Colonel, you're early. I was just..."
"It looks good." He turned to the young waitress, "Bring us another of these, just like this; make it two."
"Two?" Emily said, "you must be hungry."
"I have someone with me; he's in the john." Chambers sat down. "Go ahead and start; it’s no good cold."
"Thank you, Colonel. I hope you didn't..."
"Graham, if you think you embarrassed me this morning, you can put that out of your head. We were counting on you to call us on that plan."
"Me sir, and who is we, if I might ask?"
"Here he is now."
Emily turned, and the slice of tomato slipped from her finger.
"I believe you know Colonel Reyes?"
Chapter 79
Reyes smiled as he pulled out a chair and sat.
"Good afternoon Agent Graham. You dropped something."
"I already ordered for us Lance;” Chambers said. “Same thing she's having."
"Looks good to me." Reyes nodded.
Emily picked the slice from her lap, "OK, does one of you want to explain just what is going on here? Reyes, what are you doing..."
"Agent Graham, Emily if I may.” Chambers said. “Colonel Reyes and I go way back; we were in Desert Storm together. Saved each other's asses more than once."
"That's for sure," Reyes said.
"So..." Emily began.
"Graham, I don't know if you've noticed it," Chambers interrupted, "but there are some really fucked up things going on with this project you're involved in; on many levels."
"You noticed that too?" she said.
"Lance has been keeping me in the loop since he's been involved, and when I was given orders to get involved, we knew something was going on. We haven't figured it out yet, but one thing we know for sure is that you've got a snake in the nest; somebody playing for the other team, and they're somebody up high."
"I know. I just don't know who it is."
"We need to find out." Chambers said. "Unfortunately, that's just a piece of it."
Two more glasses of sweet tea showed up, and Chambers took a drink.
"Emily," Reyes said "it’s not unusual that Bill was called into this situation, but the problem is how it was done. It’s understandable that we should consider military options if things end up forcing us in that direction."
"Sure, but..." Emily began.
"Yeah, but." Chambers said, "They didn't ask me to consider possible military options. They hauled me in before a pile of politicians and office-jockeys and instructed me to do what I said in the meeting this morning; to stop the boat immediately, and at whatever the cost."
"Why?" Emily asked.
"I started to ask the same thing as a responsible officer,” Chambers said, “and was told point blank that my job was to follow orders or they would find someone else who would, and I would spend the rest of my career at Leavenworth."
"So Bill and I started thinking about how he could follow orders," Reyes said, "and still buy us time to find out what the hell is going on. That's when we thought of..."
"New Madrid," Emily said.
"Exactly." Chambers said. "It was a long shot, but Lance said there was no way in hell you wouldn't call us on it. I'm happy to see he was right."
Emily sat, staring at her tomatoes.
"What's wrong Emily?" Lance Reyes asked.
"I was just thinking," she said, "this is another situation when something happened, and then somebody told me they had planned it and knew how I was going to respond."
"Another?" Reyes asked, "What do you mean?"
"Ok, I've told you about this guy, Steve, who keeps calling me?"
Reyes nodded.
"He keeps saying how he knew they had made the right choice when they picked me. And then the guy on the boat, Dennis whatever, he said the exact same thing when he called me."
"Who's the they he's talking about?" Chambers asked.
"That's what I aske
d Steve. He said there are two groups, somewhere, and this whole thing is some kind of a fight between them. One of them wants to destroy things, and the other is trying to stop them. But he won't tell me who the hell they are."
"That confirms what we've been thinking Lance." Chambers said. "This isn't just another militant terrorist group or the work of some loner-outfit. This thing has been in the works for a long time and has legs that go in lots of direction."
"It’s amazing they kept it hidden for so long," Emily said.
"That's because some of those directions go up." Chambers said. "We just don't know how high-up. Anyone got any ideas about this little mole of ours?"
"Nothing specific," Reyes said. "How about you Emily?"
"Well," she hesitated.
"What is it?" Chambers asked.
"I'm not sure. It’s just that...well, Agent Dasilva."
"Dasilva?" Reyes asked.
"Yeah, I know," Emily said, "You know he spent the past couple of days back in D.C. for meetings?"
"Yeah," Reyes said.
"He said he just got back in time for the meeting this morning." Chambers said.
"Yeah. Well, I have it from a solid source that he was in a bar in the French Quarter last night, sitting and talking with someone."
"Last night? There could be a mistake; maybe it was someone who looked like Dasilva." Reyes said.
"It’s from one of our agents," Emily said, "someone who specializes in behavioral studies; personal identification, recognition, things like that. If she says it was him, it was him."
"Well, that's certainly interesting." Chambers said.
A few moments of silence.
"Ok," Chambers continued, "here's what we're going to do for now. Reyes, your folks are doing this photo thing in a couple of hours, so you need to stay on that. I need to go listen to the suits yell at me for screwing up their mission, and hearing how lucky we were that Agent Graham saved us from disaster. Graham, why don't you spend some time and see if you can start pulling these pieces together and see if you have any ideas for just what the hell is actually going on here. And Graham, see if you can drum up anymore about Dasilva, and why he lied to us this morning."
Disruption: A River Of Secrets And Betrayal Page 25