Deep Cover (The Extractor Series Book 4)

by Mike Ryan

  “Stand by.”

  As a few FBI agents came near him, Bridge wandered even farther away from the house, getting closer to the street to avoid any listening ears. It was a good three or four minutes before Pinnacle One got on the phone.

  “Luke, what’s the emergency?”

  “I just ran into our friend Greg Kenny.”

  Pinnacle One hesitated for a second. “So he is here.”

  “Yes. And he’s got friends, apparently.”

  “What happened?”

  “Got a lead on a woman,” Bridge said. “Met her, she lied to my face, then we followed her to a house, where she met Kenny and another guy I haven’t identified.”

  “They got away?”

  “Temporarily. I tried to do what I could, but they outnumbered and overpowered us.”

  “I see.”

  “There’s something else. They also had Chris Abbott as a hostage.”

  “Gary’s brother?”

  “Yeah. Now what would they be doing with him?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Is he somehow involved with you as well?”

  “No. I swear to you he’s got no involvement with us.”

  “Well, Kenny’s got him for a reason. Just have to figure out what it is.”

  “Where do you think he’s going?”

  “I don’t know yet,” Bridge answered. “I was hoping I could come in, look at some of your files, put some names to the faces.” Pinnacle One was silent for a few seconds. Bridge knew he was hesitant to allow any unauthorized personnel into the building. “Listen, if you wanna find this guy, and quickly, you need to help me as much as you can. I can do some of this on my own, but it’s gonna take longer. If I can look at some of the people that Kenny’s known to be involved with, maybe I can make them out, and we can piece together where he plans on going.”

  “Fine. How soon can you get here?”

  “Half hour?”

  “I’ll have someone waiting for you in the lobby.”

  “Good. Thank you.”

  After hanging up, Bridge looked down the street and sighed. He then held his head. “What is all this about?” he said to himself.

  Bridge headed back inside. He found Nicole and Happ standing next to each other, still talking. He tugged on her arm.

  “We gotta go.”

  “Wait, where are you going?” Happ asked.

  “We have to see a former… associate.”

  “Let me in.”

  Bridge shook his head. “Sorry, bud, can’t. It’s not up to me. Just us going into the building is against protocol. It’s only supposed to be active agency employees who are working on that project.”

  “What’s the project’s name?”

  Bridge grinned. “Can’t say.”

  “Where’s this building located?”

  Bridge’s grin got even bigger. “Can’t say.”

  “What can you say?”

  “That I can’t say.”

  “Well, do you think you’ll be able to loop me in when you’re done?”

  “I would think so. We’ll see. Depends on how classified the information is.”

  Happ sighed. “I have a feeling you’re gonna freeze me out.”

  “I won’t. I’ll tell you everything I can. You know how it works with secret government agencies.”

  “No, I don’t know. How is it?”

  Bridge smiled again. “Can’t say.”

  “Are you gonna say anything?”

  Bridge shrugged. “See you later?”

  “Gee, thanks. You get this place shot to pieces and then hightail it somewhere else and leave me with the cleanup.”

  “At least there’s no bodies.”

  “Yeah. Thanks.”

  Bridge tapped his friend on the arm. “The least I could do.”

  “The very least.”

  “You sure you wanna go back there?” Nicole asked.

  Bridge shrugged. “Why not? I don’t have any unpleasant memories.”

  “Maybe it’ll make you wanna sign back up again.”

  Bridge laughed. “Nothing could make me wanna do that again. Too dangerous.”

  “Yeah, like what we do now is so safe.”

  13

  It was familiar, but different. The layout was pretty much the same as the last time Bridge had been in there. There was a receptionist’s desk in the middle of the lobby, but not much else. It’d gone through an upgrade in its design, though. Everything looked brand new. And expensive. Alternating marble-colored tiles on the floor and stone tiles on the wall. It was a ten-floor office building. At least that’s how it appeared on the outside. Bridge and Nicole immediately looked at their surroundings as they walked in.

  “Can I help you?” the receptionist asked.

  “Yeah, I am expected,” Bridge said

  “Your name?”

  “Luke Bridge. This is my assistant, Nicole.”

  The receptionist immediately got on the phone to let someone know of the visitors. Bridge and Nicole stood there until someone came down for them. They crossed their arms and discussed the building.

  “Nice place,” Nicole said.

  “Believe me, it didn’t look this inviting when I worked here.”

  Nicole looked around. “You ever wonder about places like these?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Look around. A high-level CIA building here in New York and anyone can waltz through those doors. No guards on the stairway, an elevator right past a receptionist who probably couldn’t stop anybody, and front doors that aren’t locked or guarded or anything.”

  Bridge smiled. “You can tell you spent all your time at Langley.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “What’s the number one rule if you wanna blend in somewhere?”

  Nicole shrugged. “I dunno. Act like you belong there?”

  Bridge nodded. “So if you have a top-secret field office somewhere, that you don’t want anyone to know about, what would you do?”

  “Act like it’s not a field office.”

  “There you go.”

  “But I mean… anyone can walk right in here.”

  “Not really. For one, nobody’s going to walk in here that doesn’t have business here. And just by chance, if someone does happen to stumble in here, or an enemy or something, they’re not going anywhere.”

  Nicole pointed to the stairs. “Uh…”

  “Yeah. If someone were to blow in here and run past her and go up those steps, there’ll be some gates that close, preventing them from coming down, effectively trapping them in.”

  “If they get to another floor?”

  “All the doors are sealed close. They have a scanner attached. They only open if you scan your ID badge.”

  “I’m assuming the elevator works in a similar fashion?”

  “You can hit those little numbered buttons until you’re blue in the face, those doors are not opening unless you scan your ID badge first.”

  “So you’re basically locked out of going anywhere unless you’ve got a badge?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “So if I ever wanna break in here, I should probably follow someone home, steal their badge, then break back in?”

  Bridge leaned in and whispered to her. “You do realize they can probably hear everything we’re saying right now, right?”

  “Oh.”

  Bridge smiled. “It is a CIA building after all. Hidden and concealed mics everywhere.”

  “Right. Just kidding about that stealing the badge part. And breaking in. And the rest of it.”

  About ten seconds later, the elevator door opened. A younger man, probably in his mid-to-late twenties, stepped off. Bridge knew the type. He was probably the designated gopher who had to greet all visitors who came in and take them to their designated location. He walked up to Bridge and shook his hand.

  “Luke Bridge?”

  “That’s me.”

  “Follow me.”

  As Bridge and
Nicole started walking to the elevator, the man stopped and turned around. He looked at Nicole.

  “I’m sorry, I was told to only expect one of you.”

  “She’s with me,” Bridge said.

  “Only authorized people are allowed to go up.”

  “I authorized her.”

  “My instructions were to bring you.”

  “She goes where I go.”

  “I’m sorry, but—”

  “Listen, she’s also a former agent who’s had a top-level security clearance. There’s nothing up there that she hasn’t seen before.”

  “My instructions were still—”

  “Listen, I don’t care what your instructions were. We either go up together, or I walk out of here right now. And I don’t think your boss will like that.”

  “Just a moment.”

  The man went over to the desk and grabbed the phone to make a call.

  “Thanks for standing up for me,” Nicole said.

  “Always. It’s not really his fault. He’s just trying to do what he’s told and not make a wrong step.”

  “I get it.”

  The man put the phone down and walked back over to them. “Both of you follow me.”

  Bridge kept a stoic look on his face, not wanting to show the man up by having a cocky grin on his face for being right. They went over to the elevator, the man scanning his badge, then hitting the button for the tenth floor. They stepped inside.

  “Oh, getting the grand tour, huh?” Bridge asked. Nicole looked at him, wondering what he meant. “Usually in these buildings, the higher the floor, the more important the people.”

  Nicole looked at the corners of the elevator. There was something unusual about them. They had small grates in all the corners. She tapped Bridge on the arm and pointed them out.

  “Oh,” Bridge said, recognizing it immediately. “They’re for extreme security breaches. If someone did have a fake badge and got on here, there’s hidden cameras embedded in the walls, and the elevator is monitored. So someone would manually lock the doors to prevent them from opening on any floor. Then some type of toxic gas would be unleashed and kill whoever was in here. Or knock them out so they can be questioned later.” Bridge then leaned forward to talk to the other man. “Which one are they doing these days?”

  The man looked a little annoyed to even talk about it. “I really can’t say.”

  Bridge took a step back, looked at Nicole, and shrugged.

  “What are the other floors for?” Nicole asked.

  “Each one has a specific task. Top floor was usually offices for the top brass, as well as a situation room, and the analysts’ station. That way if something went down, the top guys just had to go down the hall instead of going up and down floors. The other floors are usually support roles. IT, Psych, interview rooms, things like that.”

  “Seems a lot more intricate than what I worked at. Not as much cloak and dagger where I was.”

  “Well, to be fair, where you were, everyone was already aware of what that building was. This is secret.”

  “True.”

  Just as they got to the tenth floor, and the doors opened, the man turned back to his guests. “Remember the protocols as a visitor.”

  “I got it,” Bridge said with a grin. “Don’t make any sudden turns, go in any rooms I’m not invited into, don’t make notes about what’s going on, and definitely don’t remember anything I see on any screens. I’ve worked here before. I think I know the drill.”

  “Follow me.”

  “Well, you are leading the way.”

  They stepped off the elevator and walked down a short hallway, with several doors on each side, all of them closed. They came to the end of the hall, which then split left and right into longer hallways. They went right. They were soon greeted with glass doors, which needed an ID badge to get through. There were a few more doors, also closed, and then another glass door, badge also required.

  “You sure this is an office or a maze?” Nicole asked.

  “Maybe a bit of both,” Bridge replied.

  They took another turn, left this time, and walked past a huge room with glass windows. They saw a bunch of people sitting at desks this time, with monitors on the wall. Bridge looked over at Nicole and whispered.

  “Situation room.”

  They continued walking down the hall until they got to an office. The door was also closed.

  “Wait here.” Their host knocked on the door and went inside.

  “This has been fun,” Nicole said.

  Bridge put his hands in the pockets of his pants. “Yeah. A real blast.”

  “Like old home week for you. Miss it?”

  Bridge looked around for a few seconds, then shook his head. “No. Not at all. All this cloak-and-dagger stuff, it gets to you after a while.”

  “Can’t say what we do now is a whole lot different.”

  “Sure it is. Some of the jobs may be similar, but the way we operate isn’t.”

  “Maybe we should move our operations out of your hotel and find a place like this.”

  “Our hotel.”

  “Your hotel. I want a house, remember?”

  “Oh. Yeah. Anyway, too many doors to walk through here.”

  “Yeah, I imagine it gets annoying after a while.”

  “How many doors did you have to walk through where you were?”

  “Uh, two I think.”

  “Not too bad.”

  “I guess. Do you think when we go in there we can call him by his actual name now, or do we still have to deal with all the technical code name nonsense?”

  “Does it matter?”

  Nicole shrugged. “I guess not. Just seems kind of silly to call someone Pinnacle One to his face instead of his actual name.”

  “Then call him by his name, I don’t care.”

  A few seconds later, the door opened, and the man stood there, waving his guests inside. After they were inside, the man closed the door. Almost immediately, Pinnacle One was greeting them. He shook each of their hands.

  “Thanks for coming.”

  Nicole smiled at him. “Thank you, Mr… uh… One.”

  He laughed. “In here you can call me Joe. Enough of that technical code name nonsense.”

  Nicole looked at her boyfriend and smiled. “I like this guy.”

  “I hope bringing her doesn’t cause a problem,” Bridge said.

  Joe looked at Nicole and smiled. “Not at all. She’s ex-agency anyway, right? Nothing she hasn’t seen before. Besides, she brightens up the building.” He then walked past his guests and went out the door, everyone else following him. “We’re just gonna go down the hall here to another room where we have some people working.”

  “That main room with the glass?” Nicole asked.

  “No, that’s for major active situations that require all hands on deck. We’re just gonna go to a slightly smaller room. No windows.”

  “Oh.”

  They did go to a smaller room, but it wasn’t that much smaller. It just seemed more closed off since there were no windows. But there were around a dozen people working at their computer stations. And there were still plenty of monitors on the walls.

  “Since we spoke, Luke, I already had these guys starting to work on things.”

  “Good,” Bridge replied. “Come up with anything yet?”

  Joe went over to a desk and tapped one of the analysts on the back. “Pull up all of Kenny’s known associates.” The analyst nodded and brought up a bunch of pictures within seconds. Joe then looked at Bridge. “Any of these guys look like your mysterious friend at the house with Kenny?”

  Bridge noticed an empty chair by the analyst. “May I?”

  The analyst pointed to it and moved his over a little. “Sure. Be my guest.”

  There were pictures of six guys on the monitor, taking over the entire size of the screen. “None of these guys.”

  “Just use the mouse to scroll down for more, and it’ll bring a new setup.”
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br />   Bridge scrolled through a few more sets of pictures, not finding anyone that looked familiar. He was mostly paying attention to the face. Hair color and style could change easily and often did when dealing with people who were good at disappearing. He was about halfway through the pictures when one guy stood out to him.

  “Wait, that looks like him.” Bridge pointed to the top right picture on the screen. He looked back at Nicole. “What do you think?”

  Nicole leaned forward. She nodded. “That’s him.”

  Joe looked at the both of them. “You’re sure?”

  “Positive. He picked me up and threw me through a table. I wouldn’t forget his face.”

  “A table?”

  “Yeah.”

  Joe looked her up and down. “And you’re still standing?”

  “I always get back up.”

  Joe was impressed with her toughness. “You sure you wouldn’t like to get back into the agency?”

  Nicole smiled. “Thanks. But I got a job.”

  “I might be able to pay more.”

  “Thanks, but money’s not the only payment I like or get.”

  Joe raised his eyebrows and cleared his throat. Bridge closed his eyes and tried to remain emotionless. Joe sidestepped the remarks and focused back to her skills. “I remember reading your file, but I don’t recall you ever being in the field.”

  “Nope. Just an analyst.”

  “No field work?”

  Nicole shook her head. “Not until I met this guy.”

  “Remarkable. I think the agency missed its calling with you.”

  “Guess it’s too late now.”

  “If this guy ever terminates your employment, you come and see me, all right? There’d always be a position open here for you.”

  “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Bridge hung his head. Just what he needed. Another thing she could hold over his head to get her way. “Can we get back to discussing our guy here?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Joe said. “Who is he?”

  The analyst stepped back in and clicked on the picture. All the other pictures faded away, and the picture of Steele Magareth moved to the side. The other side of the screen was devoted to his information.

  “Steele Magareth,” the analyst said, “was one of Greg Kenny’s confidants in Europe when he was there.”

  “Agency?” Joe asked.