“Yeah, he’s gotta be - what - early teens, max? That's way too young to have to deal with something like this.”
"We're about to call Social Services for him."
"Umm, no," said Reid, "Let's not do that just yet. I’m gonna take this kid back to the office. I think he needs very special handling, not just because of his mental and physical state but also because of what he seems to be in the middle of. If anybody asks, you and your team know nothing about his whereabouts, OK?” Reid walked towards the cabin. He is also the only survivor which means someone likely wants him dead. I need to make sure he stays under wraps.
۞۞۞۞
A few hours later back at DHS Homestead, Reid was trying to digest both the tacos he had hurriedly eaten for lunch and the things he had seen at the cabin in the Everglades. Neither was easy. Although this was Reid’s first major crime scene with the DHS, his supervisor felt he had handled the on-site investigation well and, given that the matter involved an immigrant boy, DHS asserted jurisdiction and Reid were given charge of the case.
Dana Warren, one of the agents assigned to help Reid with the investigation, came in with some lab reports.
"Well," she said, "We have some answers."
"That's always good," said Reid.
"There are varying degrees of good," said Warren. "The man with the single shot to his head is Gamze Nezaket.”
"Oh, a household name for sure!" said Reid, his brow furrowing. “Who is Gamze Nezaket?”
“Entrepreneur of the Middle East: Founder and CEO of the Turkish Petroleum Corporation. He’s one of the world's wealthiest individuals. And from the looks of it, the rabbit hole that you just discovered is deeper than it appears,” Dana commented as she put pictures of the bodies on Reid’s desk. “Apparently our friends in Langley are very interested in him. However, we aren’t paid enough to know why.”
“Fantastic!” remarked Reid. “Ok, as of this minute on my authority this whole business goes need-to-know with my permission only. Generate a cover story for the police and backstop it as well as you can. Make sure that the forensic team and anyone else who was out there gets orders to talk to nobody but the team about this.”
“Already working it,” Dana replied
“What about this guy,” asked Reid as he pointed to the photo of the man found in quicksand.
“Still a John Doe. We ran his prints through all our databases and got nothing.”
“CIA database, too?”
“Negative, not an overwhelming surprise. I am not sure if it's genuine or we are getting the usual CIA misdirection.”
“Hmmm. Well then, I guess that’s next on the to-do-list,” said Reid. “I’ll make a call to the CIA; maybe they have someone who can shed some light on this scenario.”
“Even if they do, do you think CIA will want to work with us?"
“At a minimum, they will be interested to hear of Gamze’s death, assuming they don't already know.” Reid put all the photos into the folder. “Let's see how deep this rabbit hole goes.”
Chapter 3
It was 6:37 pm and Senior Analyst Dante Tucker was still at his desk in the Counterintelligence Threat Analysis department in CIA Langley. He had been informed that an agent Reid out of Florida DHS would be calling him about a case and was asked to wait. Tucker had to chuckle when the secretary said that because they both knew he wasn't leaving anytime soon. Being an over-achiever did not leave much room for personal life, but what he did he did well, and he enjoyed it. He briefly took his mind off his work to look around the office. Tucker had spent many long nights and weeks in this room over the past five years, and yet for some reason today, it hit him that his walls were absent of anything.
His epiphany was short lived as the phone rang and stole his attention.
“Dante Tucker.”
“Hi Mr. Tucker, this is Agent Reid from DHS down in Florida. I’m in charge of a case that has hit a brick wall, and I was wondering if I could tap into your expertise on the Middle East?”
Tucker had taken the time to look up the agent beforehand. It was his habit to know who he would be working with. He found that the agent was new to DHS but had a couple of years as a state trooper before he got into DHS, enough that he was not green but far from seasoned. Tucker had to wonder what case this guy was in charge of. “Yes, Agent Reid, How can I help you?”
“Well sir, we have a dead body here that we have identified as Gamze Nezaket. However, we cannot access any information on him. Apparently he was flagged by the CIA, and I was…”
Tucker’s eyebrows rose at the mention of Gamze’s name. The man was a major focus of his department due to his affiliation with a radical group out of Turkey. Tucker had been keeping fairly close track of the man until a few months ago when he disappeared from the radar. Then it registered that Reid had mentioned the name in the same sentence as the phrase “dead body” and suddenly Tucker was focused on Reid's every word. “Wait! Hold up. Are you sure that body is Nezaket?” Tucker interrupted.
Reid fumbled with the phone as Tucker’s interruption and tone threw him off his train of thought. “Uh, yes sir.”
“You’re not convincing me here Agent Reid,” Tucker said.
Reid responded coolly, somewhat put off by Tucker's attitude. “I am positive sir. I looked up photos, and the fingerprint match was 97% positive.”
”Have you determined how he died?” asked Tucker.
“Single GSW to the forehead, fairly large caliber,”
"How did this land on your plate?" asked Tucker.
"Just doing a routine ID and address check on an Elvan Yamak out in the Everglades and there it was."
The senior analyst slid his glasses down and massaged the bridge of his nose. “We are not having this conversation anymore over the open line We are continuing this over a secure video link.”As he spoke, Tucker accessed the secure video conference room schedule and grabbed the first opportunity. "We have a slot at 8 pm. I want you to fax me everything you have and make sure everything is here by then."
“Um, I'm not sure how much of this is appropriate to share just yet,” Reid replied.
Tucker snapped again, "Agent Reid, we need your cooperation on this!"
Reid calmly replied, "Mr. Tucker, not to get all territorial and such but this is a DHS matter, and it is us who needs your cooperation. We can continue this conversation at 8 o'clock if you would prefer."
"Yes, we will," said Tucker and hung up.
Immediately, Tucker called the office of the Director of the CIA, to whom he had been on a direct report regarding Gamze Nezaket. The secretary answered, and Tucker greeted her. "Good evening, Mrs. Burton. Is the Director available?"
"Good evening, Mr. Tucker,' she replied.” I’m afraid he's in a meeting just now. Can I take a message?"
Tucker took a deep breath and said, "I hate to intrude on the director when he's busy, but I have just received some important news that I think he needs to hear without delay. Would you please ask him if he would take my call?"
"I'll check," said Mrs. Burton.
After a few seconds on hold, the Director picked up and said, "Yes, Mr. Tucker."
Knowing this was not a time for pleasantries, Tucker came right to the point. "Sir, I have just received information which I regard as reliable that Gamze Nezakat is dead, killed on American soil. He was discovered by a DHS agent named Reid, who was doing a routine address check and found the body. I asked for his information, but he asserted DHS jurisdiction. I called because, first, I know you would want to know and, second, I think that we need to have the con on this. DHS just doesn't have the scope to deal with what they are getting into, and they are too likely to hit all kinds of tripwires. I was hoping you could speak to the head of DHS, establish our lead on this, and get that communicated to Agent Reid."
The Director took a moment to think over what he had just heard and said, "Yes, Mr. Tucker I think that is the right thing. I'll make the necessary calls. Of course, you realize that even so,
we are technically not allowed to operate in-country so you will need to rely on DHS for surveillance and other such legwork."
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," said Tucker. "I have a secure Videocon with him at 8 pm to continue our conversations. Do you think this understanding will be in place by then or should I postpone?"
"Go ahead with it. If there are any snags, I will have Mrs. Burton get back to you. When you've finished your meeting, please stop by and debrief."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Goodbye."
As Tucker hung up the phone, the disbelief set in. Gamze was not a small time thug that could have been shot in a drug deal gone wrong. He was a man of military discipline and organization. Gamze never made a move without it being clearly thought out. His personal alert level jumped to DEFCON 1 as it hit Tucker that Gamze had managed to sneak into the US without being noticed and, on top of that, get himself killed. Once again Tucker wondered what that agent had stumbled upon.
۞۞۞۞
Just before 8 pm, Tucker sat down in the secure video conference room. He entered his personal ID number, the meeting ID number, the meeting access number, his authorization code to start the teleconference, and some other departmental and task codes that helped bill the call costs to the proper budget account. I bet that if we got rid of the people who fuss over the budget, we would have twice as much budget, he thought, grumpily. The system chime and a synthetic female voice asked him to say his name.
"Tucker," he said.
The system said no one else was in the call, and please waits. While he waited, he examined the anechoic panels on the walls; they looked like Styrofoam egg crates and were designed to absorb the sound of voices so no one could eavesdrop. He had already reviewed everything Reid had sent him, which wasn't much, and so he sat and waited. Tucker considered himself a patient man, but for something this serious, patience took a back seat. Come on, Reid! He thought. I booked this for an hour which should be plenty unless you're fifty minutes late! Finally, the system chimed again, and Reid's voice said, "Agent Reid" followed by the synthetic voice saying "...has joined the meeting". The face of a young man appeared on the screen. On camera, this guy looks even more like a freshman. “Hello, Mr. Tucker. Sorry, I'm late, I was checking for any late-breaking developments. Did you get the information I sent?” Despite his youthful appearance, Reid seemed comfortable giving the briefing, although he was clearly having trouble getting ahead of all the information flowing into him. Tucker allowed a smile to come across his face as he was reminded of himself when he was sent to Iraq years ago.
“Yes, thank you. Agent Reid, I need you to tell me everything you can about the scene.” Tucker started with a hint of frustration.
“Very well. You have the photos of the cabin and the room where the killing happened. We found five bodies at the scene, four buried in shallow graves outside the cabin and one in a pit of quicksand. Three of those buried were bodyguards to the fourth, Gamze Nezaket, all we have been able to find out about him is that Gamze Nezaket was the CEO of Turkish Petroleum Corporation, a.k.a. TPC. I figured that there had to be more to his story, and that's why I called the CIA.”
“He’s a little more complicated than that. Gamze is the alleged leader of the Kilij, a radical ultranationalist group in Turkey. They have a simple desire: to bring back the old ideals of the Ottoman Empire. Kilij simply means sword in Turkish, and it’s a perfect representation of their methods. However all attempts to make definitive connections between Gamze and the Kilij have failed,” Tucker reported as he saw Reid writing down everything he could. “Agent Reid, you’ve stumbled upon one of the most powerful and connected terrorists in the world. We’ve been trying to find this man for months. Now you’re telling me that he snuck into our country unnoticed. Do you have any idea how he did that?”
“We don’t actually know. We can't find him coming in through any airports. I called some friends over in ICE, and the only thing they could find was Gamze’s son arriving two weeks ago using the alias Elvan Yamak. We assume that he was responsible for burying the bodies of his father and the bodyguards.”
Why would he bring his son? What’s the point of putting him in harm's way? Tucker let those questions stay to himself for right now. “How is the boy doing?”
“He looks like he’s been to hell and back. We have him here at HQ for protection, and personnel is with him making sure he’s comfortable. The medical guys are advocating rest and seclusion for both mind and body and the psych consult agrees.”
Tucker nodded his head, in agreement, “I wouldn't wish that experience on anybody, let alone a kid. However, I’ve got to give him credit. He dragged four adult bodies and buried them. I don’t know many adults who could do that given the situation. Anyway, I digress. You mentioned five bodies being found but only debriefed me on four. Anything about the fifth body that I need to know?”
“Oh yes, the fifth guy was found in a pit of quicksand not too far from the crime scene…..” thumbing through papers.
“I know there has to be more on Mr. Sandman?”
“Actually, nada,” Reid replied while he continued to shuffle through his documents. Tucker tapped his pencil while waiting for him to continue. “No hit on fingerprints, no service record, and no listing of working for any agency. I even tried dental and it went nowhere. It is as if the guy didn’t exist. Another reason we called you.”
“Was he part of the group that killed Gamze?”
“No gun found although he was wearing a holster, empty. Probably lost the gun when he fell into the quicksand.”
"Can't you dig it out?" said Tucker curtly.
"Mr. Tucker," said Reid in a tone that let Tucker know he was being taken to school, "this is the Everglades. The soil mechanics are a lot different than Bethesda." Tucker caught the reference to his hometown. So, this guy does his homework too. Not bad.
Reid continued, "We're contacting some of the locals to see if anyone has a clever idea for fishing it out if it's there."
Tucker couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “What did the kid say?”
“He hasn’t said a word since I found him.”
“Ok, so we got nothing except dead bodies and a lot of assumptions. I can’t figure out what’s worse: the thought of Gamze being part of something, or that the group he was working with found him expendable.”
Reid had to nod in agreement. “And the only reason we know about it was because I was doing a simple green card check and walked into a bloodbath. This is like a bad movie.”
“Actually, this is pretty normal. Welcome to the big leagues.” Tucker stated casually. “Ok, we need to catch up to these guys. We need more information to find them. Is there anything else we can get from the bodies?”
“Autopsies will not be completed until tomorrow afternoon. Crime scene said the same for any trace evidence, potentially even longer depending on the tests they need to run.”
“Can I speak with the boy?” Tucker asked.
“The docs want him to rest.”
Yeah, I should’ve expected that. “This boy saw what went down. If we can't get that information, we’ll have nowhere to start. Tell them it is a matter of national security. If that doesn’t work, when I get there tomorrow I’ll explain it to them.” Tucker replied authoritatively.
“Hold it!" said Reid sharply. It had been a long day and, bureaucratic politics be damned, he was not going to have Tucker ride roughshod over him. "Look," he continued wearily," can we just ratchet this down a notch? It isn't about the docs letting us talk to the boy. It's about the boy not responding to anyone. The psych guy said that he's here physically but mentally his mind has pushed everything that has happened the last several days to the back of the brain. He can’t deal with that yet, when and if he is ready to accept the reality that his father is dead, shot in front of him and he is alone. Then he will start to remember, and hopefully he will talk and if you still think it's worth your while to come down, fine. I will assist you in any way I can. But understand t
he limits of what your authority can accomplish, call from the DCI or not.”
Tucker paused for a moment. Wow! Push him hard enough and this kid's got an iron spine! He could be an asset after all.
Tucker spoke more calmly. “I will be down in the morning. Have everything you can compile ready for me when I arrive. Whatever group is responsible for Gamze’s death, they executed him because he had served his purpose. A phase of some plan was completed. We need to figure out how far along they are before it's too late.”
۞۞۞۞
Sitting at her desk in front of Chief Winford’s office was Amelia Burton wearing her typical flowery dress. Mrs. Burton had been working for the CIA just as long as the Director, making her one of the director's most trusted employees. She was known for being a very polite lady, especially to Tucker. Tucker quickly learned that she was fond of younger guys, a bit of knowledge he would occasionally use to his advantage.
Mrs. Burton was a sleekly built Caucasian woman in her early sixties, and strangely enough, she managed to keep all her curves in the right places. She stood at 5’5, with a curly little gray bush mingled with speckles of blond sitting on her head. A layer of thick red lipstick covered her receding lips, but no matter what color outfit she wore it was always accompanied by her red lipstick. Frankly she could have easily replaced one of the Golden Girls.
Tucker often felt guilty as he imagined what she looked like thirty years ago, usually coming to the conclusion that she had to be an eye-catcher in her early years.
With a smile, Tucker greeted the lovely lady. “Good evening Mrs. Burton. How are you today?”
“I am fine; just another long day at the office.”
“I know exactly how you feel. You are here rather late?” Tucker inquired.
“Well someone has to watch out for the Director. He still thinks he can take that whole world on by himself.” She responded with a very concerned motherly tone. “Now, How can I help you today, Tucker,” she said as she offered Tucker her little basket of treats that sat on her desk.
“Are you trying to fatten me up, Mrs. Burton?” Tucker said in a joking flirtatious tone as he reached for a caramel filled piece of chocolate.
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