by David Capps
“Did they pay you more than a hundred thousand dollars?”
Her delay time lessened. She nodded.
“If it were me, I’d keep the money in an offshore bank account, something I could access from anywhere in the world. Was that what you thought, too?”
She delayed again, this time a little longer, and then she nodded.
She’s testing what I’ll tolerate, Jake thought. Smart lady. “Is that a yes, Sylvia? I need to hear you clearly.”
“Yes,” she said almost immediately.
“I’ve read your file. You seem to do well in social situations. Is doing well socially important to you?”
She looked directly at him for the first time since he sat down. She didn’t respond.
“It’s nothing personal, Sylvia, it’s just a yes or no question. So say yes or no.”
“Yes.”
“The people who recruited you, were they from a higher social class than you?”
She seemed embarrassed.
“Just yes, or no, Sylvia.”
“Yes.”
“That must have been an honor. Being brought in by people who were socially important like that.”
She paused again and lowered her head.
“Is that a yes, Sylvia?”
“Yes.”
“You must have felt good, being a part of something so important. Didn’t you?”
“Yes,” she replied with only a small delay.
“Joining such an elite group. You must have been very proud. I would have been. Weren’t you?”
“Yes,” she replied, sitting up a little straighter.
“You want them to rescue you, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she said immediately.
“But they don’t have any idea where you are, Sylvia. It’s just you, me, Honi and Pettigrew. No one else knows. You understand that, don’t you?”
She didn’t respond. She just sat frozen in fear.
“They’re not coming, Sylvia. You agree they have to know where you are in order to rescue you, don’t you?”
She nodded.
“Yes, or no, Sylvia.”
“Yes.”
They don’t know, Sylvia. You understand that now, don’t you?”
Her shoulders slumped. She slowly nodded.
“Yes, or no, Sylvia.”
“Yes.”
“They’re gone. You’ll never see or hear from them again. Never. You can see that, can’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Did they threaten any harm to you if you said anything about them?”
“Yes. They made it clear they would kill me if I betrayed them.”
“They can hurt you only if they can find you, true?”
She nodded.
“Sylvia?”
“Yes,” she replied. Her pride and strength were draining away. She appeared much more submissive.
“You’re never going to see any of the money, either. You know that, don’t you?”
She glanced around the jail cell. “Yes,” she said quietly.
“It’s time,” Jake said firmly.
Pettigrew unlocked the cell door. Jake stood. Sylvia stood cautiously and moved slowly to the open door. She had that “deer in the headlights” look.
“You can come up front and talk with us some more, or you can go in the back with Pettigrew. It doesn’t matter to me. Your choice.”
She looked at Pettigrew, who stood there with a stone cold look on his face. She slowly turned toward the front of the offices and started walking. Jake glanced back. Pettigrew winked.
Jake and Honi led her into an interrogation room and closed the door. Jake placed a digital recorder on the table and turned it on. He stated the date, time, who was present and the reason for the interrogation.
“Sylvia, the charges against you are very serious. We have your phone records. We have your access records, the watch from your place, the burner phone you used from your home. We have Giles’ sworn statement about the affair, and everything you wanted him to do. I can get the most serious charge, treason, either reduced or dropped, depending on how much you help us right now. Do you understand?”
She nodded.
“You’re going to have to respond verbally, Sylvia, for the recording.”
“Yes.”
“We know you are connected to the Phoenix Organization. They have committed murder and stolen a nuclear weapon. You are now an equal participant in those crimes and will face the same penalty as the others. I’m offering you a way out. Do you want out?”
She looked up, a glimmer of hope returning to her face. “Yes.”
“Tell me about the watch and the people who contacted you.”
“I received the countdown watch along with a million dollars in a numbered Cayman Island bank account. My job was to keep my contact updated on what was being done inside the NSA regarding certain subjects.”
“What subjects?”
“Any NSA surveillance of senior government officials, military generals or major defense contractors,”
“Any specific names?”
“No. Just anybody who fit those categories.”
“The countdown watch. What is it counting down to?” Jake asked.
She leaned forward slightly. “They refer to it as ‘the event.’ The true nature of ‘the event’ was not explained to me, but at one time my contact referred to it as Ellie, and said that only members of the Phoenix Organization would survive.”
She’s thinking the name is some kind of code word. If no one survives except the members of the Phoenix Organization, it’s not Ellie, it’s ELE. An Extermination Level Event.
“Who is your contact?”
She shook her head slightly. “No names were ever used, so I don’t know. I actually talked to two different people. The first person I had never seen or heard before. He recruited me and gave me orders. When I had something that was very important, I spoke with a second person.”
“And this second person you recognized?”
“Maybe, I can’t be sure.” She glanced around the room again. “At one time, early on, I tried to run the phone number through the system. You know, just out of curiosity. It was unidentifiable.”
“Would the person have known about the check on the phone?”
“I doubt it. The phone was off at the time, and the burner phone changes once a week.”
“So who do you think this person is?”
She pursed her lips and breathed out. “I don’t want to accuse anyone. I just have a suspicion.”
“Based on what?”
“The sound of his voice, the tone, cadence, word choice, pauses, the minor mispronunciation of certain words.”
“And you’ve heard this person before?”
“I think so, yes.” She put her arms on the metal table and leaned a little forward again.
“Who did it sound like?”
She paused and breathed deeply a few times. Jake waited patiently.
“If you question him, or go after him in any way, he’s going to know. They’ll find me and kill me.”
“We can protect you.”
“I don’t think you can. They have people everywhere, even inside all of the government agencies. If you’re thinking Witness Protection, forget it. The Phoenix Organization has full access. I wouldn’t last ten minutes out there.”
Jake and Honi looked at each other.
“You, I and Pettigrew are the only people who know where she is. What if she stays here?” Honi asked.
“Sylvia, do you have any reason to think or suspect that Pettigrew is connected to the Phoenix Organization?” Jake asked.
“No,” she said firmly.
Honi turned to Jake. “Let me talk with Pettigrew, I’ll be right back.” Honi left the room.
“If we can keep you safe, will you tell me who you think this person might be?”
Sylvia looked down at the recorder. “I don’t want any evidence tying me to this.”
Jake reache
d over and turned off the recorder. “It’s just you, me and Agent Badger.”
Honi came back in. “Pettigrew has adjusted the records to show Sylvia was questioned and released. He has her swiping out that afternoon. He also has a single high security cell in the far back of the office. She can stay there. It’s not the greatest, but it’s safe.”
Sylvia fidgeted with her fingernails again, stopped and looked up.
“Who do you think it is?” Jake asked.
“Senator Thornton.”
“Majority leader and Chairman of the Finance Committee?” Honi asked.
“Yes. He also sits on the Appropriations Committee.”
Jake and Honi leaned back in their seats. That would make Senator Thornton almost untouchable.
“We know you accessed the data in the new project down in B6,” Honi said. “Who did you tell?”
“Nobody. I didn’t understand the data. I needed some kind of context, which I didn’t have, before I told anybody.”
“Were you listening in on a phone in Fort Belvoir, Virginia?” Honi asked.
“No.”
“Do you have any idea who might have been doing that?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Okay,” Jake said. “One last question. Where were you supposed to go, or what were you supposed to do when the count-down watch reached zero?”
“At the twelve hour mark, we were to receive a final go message. I don’t understand it all, but there was some question as to whether the Event was actually going to take place or not. If there was no go message, the event wasn’t going to happen and we didn’t need to do anything or go anywhere. If the go message came, I was supposed to go to a place in the mountains of West Virginia, not too far from here. I can give you that location. It’s the only one I have.”
“Yes, I’ll need that location. This is what we’re going to do,” Jake said. “You’re not going to be able to use the money in the Cayman account, but it can still help you. If you give me the account number and the passcode, I’ll have an undercover FBI agent, who looks like you, empty the account, then use your phony ID and take a flight to a country with no extradition agreement with the US. She’ll disappear from there. The Phoenix Organization will think you are gone. When this is over, we’ll make a deal with you that you can live with, agreed?”
“Thank you,” Sylvia said quietly.
* * *
Jake and Honi returned to B6, area 4, of the NSA building.
“Hey, Brett, I need you to add Senator Thronton’s phones to the project, see what burner phones are being used nearby, and don’t breathe a word of his involvement to anybody.”
“You got it.”
“Where are we in the new project?”
“We are at eighteen layers deep and over twelve million connections. I hope you guys have some plan for sorting all this data out, otherwise, we’re looking at years.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “I’ve got some ideas, but I want all of the data in the system first. I don’t want to miss something important. We just learned that the burner cell phones are swapped out once a week, so can you figure that in, based on GPS locations?”
“Sure can.”
Honi’s phone chirped.
“Badger.” She looked at Jake. “Okay, thanks.” She disconnected.
“Ken Bartholomew found the phony log at Fort Hood. He says the warhead was taken fifteen days ago. Stafford is interrogating people. He’ll probably be there all night.”
“Alright,” Jake said. “We could start interrogating General Teague and see what we can find out.”
“You don’t think Stafford would mind?”
“We can tie him in by secure phone.”
“That we can. Let’s go.”
Honi called Stafford on the way and had him put their names on the gate pass list for Fort Belvoir. When they arrived, they entered the CID building and asked that General Teague be brought to an interview room.
“General Teague has been transferred to a more secure facility,” the officer in charge replied.
“Which facility?” Jake asked.
“I didn’t recognize the facility designation. Since it was high security, I didn’t think I was supposed to know what it was.”
“You have the transfer order?”
“Right here.” He pulled the order from a drawer and gave it to Jake.
“This order is signed by Secretary of Defense Cooper,” Jake stated.
“Yes, sir, it is.”
“Did you verify the order?”
“I didn’t have to.”
“Why not?”
“Because Secretary Cooper was the one who handed me the order.”
“He was here?” Jake asked, an obvious edge to his voice. “You sure it was him?”
“Oh yes, sir. It was him. I verified his ID through the system.”
Jake looked at the time stamp on the order. “Teague’s been gone for five hours!”
He pulled his phone and dialed Major Stafford.
“It’s Agent Jake Hunter. Lock down Fort Hood right now. Nuclear security protocol.”
I wondered why General Teague didn’t run when the warhead disappeared. He even stayed after he must have known Major Stafford was on to him. Add to that the billion dollars… “Yes,” Jake said. “Teague didn’t run when he had the chance, and a billion is too much cash for one warhead. He’s after another nuclear bomb, and my guess is it’s a big one, so lock everything down. And don’t take any orders from Secretary of Defense Cooper. That’s who sprang Teague. We’re on our way.”
Honi pulled her phone and called Brett at the NSA. “I need Secretary of Defense Cooper and General Teague at Fort Hood added to the new project.”
* * *
Major Stafford had made arrangements for the FBI jet to land at Fort Hood. The sun had set and darkness was closing in as the jet taxied over to a hanger. Major Stafford was waiting.
“Briggs has an APB out on the Secretary,” Jake said. “Nobody’s seen him since nine this morning.”
“No sign of Teague, either,” Stafford replied.
“Everything locked down and secure?”
“I don’t know. On the surface the base is on full security alert and everything is quiet. But there are a lot of soldiers here who are still loyal to General Teague. The fact that Teague hasn’t been located makes me nervous. It leaves me thinking it’s too quiet.”
“Where’s your most critical area?”
“NWSB, the Nuclear Weapons Service Building. Beyond that is the bunker farm where individual weapons are stored. The storage bunkers are designed to direct the blast up and we store only one weapon per bunker. That way, if one weapon somehow detonates, it doesn’t set off all of the others.”
“That’s not a reassuring thought.”
“Well, for people on the base it wouldn’t matter. No one would live long enough to realize something had gone wrong. You’d have to live in Austin or Waco to survive long enough to recognize something went to hell here at Fort Hood.”
“Wonderful,” Honi said.
“Then we start at the NWSB,” Jake said. “What’s the check-in procedure?”
“Each security team checks in by radio every fifteen minutes on a rotating one-minute interval. Team one is inside the NWSB, team two is on perimeter guard around the NWSB, team three is roving inside the bunker farm, teams four and five have the bunker farm perimeter.”
“And the other teams?”
“Secure the gates and the airfield.”
Jake looked over at the soldiers with M-16 rifles watching the FBI jet. They were there, alright, reporting in as scheduled. Jake couldn’t tell to whom they were loyal by looking at them. No one could. That was one issue that may get sorted out during the night, he thought. But at what level of risk?
Stafford, Jake and Honi climbed into a HUMVEE and the driver whisked them off toward the NWSB. The driver slowed and stopped at the perimeter check point.
“Any activity?” Stafford as
ked.
“No, sir. No one in or out since lockdown.”
“Have you seen or heard from General Teague?” Jake asked.
“No, sir.”
“Very well,” Stafford said. “Carry on.”
“Yes, sir,” the guard said as he saluted.
They continued on to the NWSB and pulled in front of the steel building’s main roller door. The guard approached, rifle at the ready.
“I’m Major Stafford. We need to inspect this building.”
“I received notice over the radio,” the guard said. “I just need to check IDs, sir.”
Stafford, Jake and Honi got out of the HUMVEE and presented their ID packs. The guard looked them over, handed them back, and opened the walk-in door.
The lights were on. Everything was clean and orderly. Jake and Honi looked at the four white, long bomb-shaped weapons with pointed, cone-shaped noses and four fins at their tail ends.
“Are those…?” Jake asked.
“B83 nuclear bombs,” Stafford replied.
“I thought they’d be bigger,” Honi said, “based on some of the photos I’ve seen.”
“The older devices used to be a lot bigger,” Stafford replied. “These are much more efficient. The older, bigger bombs have all been disassembled by the SALT I, SALT II and START treaties between the United States and Russia, eliminating a majority of the nuclear arsenals in both countries.”
“How big is this one?” Jake asked.
“The B83’s are twelve feet long, eighteen inches in diameter and weigh 2,408 pounds.”
“I mean…”
“Yield?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s the thing. They’re variable. You can program in how big you want the detonation to be.”
“Top end?”
“One point two megatons. It’s a two-staged thermonuclear device.”
“A hydrogen bomb?”
“Yes.”
“Is it okay to touch it?”
An army Captain stepped forward. “Sure. It’s completely safe. In fact, the B83 is designed as a bunker-buster. It can be dropped at Mach 2 and penetrate through reinforced concrete and still not go off until the control system tells it to detonate.”