by JC Ryan
~~~
Later, back at Ryan and Emma’s place, Ryan put Emma to bed with a headache tablet and then once again summoned the young people to a conference outside. Swearing them both to secrecy, he revealed his business to them. Although he didn’t have one at hand, his company manufactured a counter-surveillance device that was small, portable and powerful enough to disrupt listening devices at a distance of about ten yards in circumference. Luke had used his that afternoon when letting the two older women in on the secret. Daniel’s sense of humor warred with his need to be serious and not offend Ryan, but eventually overcame his ability to behave. “Like a cone of silence?” he asked.
“What?” Ryan’s voice revealed he didn’t remember the series.
“Like Maxwell Smart,” he explained. “He and agent 99 had a cone of silence. Okay, I guess you had to be there,” he added, abashed. Then Ryan’s memory kicked in and he laughed.
“Not exactly, but good analogy.” He went on to tell them that he would pick one up from his lab the next day for their use.
Their plan was to spend just the next day in Colorado, and get Sarah back to her classroom in time for her Tuesday lecture. That should give Luke time to reach out to his contacts and maybe it would all be over after that.
Chapter 21 – The Langley Connection
Luke wasted no time in putting out feelers among his friends who were still actively on duty in the CIA. Without going into detail, he called each one, made small talk, and then as if it were a bit of a joke, asked if they had heard anything unusual about aliens, pyramids or Atlantis lately. Most took it as a joke and laughingly told him no, nothing that the nutcase conspiracy theorists hadn’t beaten to death already. Only one responded seriously. “Not on the phone,” he said.
With that corroboration that something may be on the radar of the CIA, Luke made plans to fly to Washington, DC for an in-person talk with his friend. He left on a red-eye flight that would get him in early on Monday morning, while Daniel and Sarah were still in Boulder, hoping to be back before they flew out the next day.
Luke arrived in DC at midmorning, and a taxi deposited him near the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, VA, CIA headquarters. Finding himself back in his old stomping grounds made him slip easily into the field craft that had kept him safe during his years as an active agent. Even when he had ‘come in’ and become a desk-bound analyst, he practiced hyper-awareness of his surroundings. Thus, he was both annoyed and alarmed when his contact failed to show up at the planned meeting place.
After more than half an hour, Luke decided that something had kept his contact, and that he should just have lunch and make another call. Just in case, he would buy a throwaway cell phone, but even so he couldn’t risk more than a few seconds on the call. He knew as well as the next man that all calls to CIA headquarters and even to the employee’s personal cell phones were monitored.
Luke chose an open-air deli for his lunch, a favorite from his years in the area. It was close enough to GBC that he could monitor the comings and goings from the main entrance. Of course, there were other entrances, and exits, but this was the most convenient to street traffic, and therefore the most likely to be used by his contact. Nevertheless, an hour later he still hadn’t seen the man. It was time to secure transportation and a place to stay for the night. Given the circumstances, he called Sally and told her not to expect him home for several days, asking her to pass the message to Sarah. This looked to be more complicated that he had at first believed.
Two days passed with the same frustration. He had called the man he was there to see on his personal cell phone in the afternoon on Monday, saying only his phone number without the area code. A few minutes later, his man called from a pay phone.
“Sorry, Luke, I got tied up. Try it again tomorrow?”
“I’ll be waiting.”
But the following day was another no-show. This time, the call came in only half an hour after the planned meeting time.
“Not sure I’ll be able to get together. Something’s going down.”
“Our subject?”
“Not sure. I’ll call.”
And with that cryptic message, Luke had to be satisfied until the next call came in. At least he now had a rental car, and could cruise around town, maybe see some old friends that had nothing to do with the CIA. On the morning of the third day, he called several friends to see if they were available for a visit, or to have dinner with him. He was between calls when the new cell phone rang. His friend sounded out of breath.
“No time. Forget this, can’t talk. Go home.”
The call was disconnected before he could protest that he couldn’t forget it, couldn’t go home, because it involved his niece. The instant redial reached a number that had been disconnected. Frustrated, he considered throwing the phone across the room, but decided it may still come in handy, so he curbed his temper. He would have to start over to find someone who could tell him something.
As Luke pulled into traffic later that evening, he was looking forward to seeing his old college roommate for dinner. When he had called that morning, Jack’s wife Cindy insisted that he have dinner with them. Luke had been the best man at their wedding, and their long friendship had kept the two couples close over the years. As frustrating as this trip had been for the purpose of information gathering, at least he would be able to see his old friends.
He had booked a flight home tomorrow, since he was stymied at every attempt at finding someone to talk to him about Daniel and Sarah’s research, or about the murder of her colleague. Bitterly disappointed at his failure, what he needed now was a chance to think about something else—anything else—for a few hours.
At the first red light he encountered, his calm was shattered by a quiet voice in his ear. “Hello, Luke.”
“Holy shit!” he exploded. “Son of a bitch, who are you?” The light had turned green and the motorist behind him had already honked impatiently. Without waiting for an answer, he drove forward and pulled over. The face that he could now see in his rearview mirror was as familiar to him as his own.
“David!”
“Keep driving, Luke, and don’t look back.”
“Got it. What are you doing here, trying to give me a heart attack?”
“You’re slipping, pal. You didn’t look in the back seat.”
“You’ve got me there. Seriously, David, what the hell?” Although his heart rate had returned to normal, Luke was annoyed, both with himself and with his old friend and colleague. Surely there would have been a safer way to get in touch with him. Luke thanked his lucky stars that David had at least waited until they were stopped at a traffic signal, otherwise there might easily have been a traffic accident.
“I hear you’ve been asking about something on the down-low over at the Shop.” David’s voice held a slight question, as if he was waiting for Luke to confirm or deny.
“Where’d you hear that?” Luke’s neutral tone of voice belied his consternation that his inquiries had caused talk.
“Doesn’t matter. Listen, I think I can help you, but you’ve got to keep this under your hat. No talking to anyone but me, got it?”
“Got it.”
“Good, now listen, don’t talk.”
Luke suppressed his almost automatic ‘okay’ and waited. David’s voice was hypnotic as he began.
“Luke, we think we have a mole in the division that looks into all this X-Files type stuff. You knew that we did that, right?”
Luke did have an idea that a division of the CIA was tasked with investigating every new lead, no matter how far-fetched, that had security implications for the United States. He had heard some crazy rumors, such as they were experimenting with remote viewing and psychic control. As unbelievable as it was, the movie ‘Men Who Stare at Goats’ was based on a true incident that was later repeated and brought about a huge study of paranormal powers. What it had to do with the Great Pyramid, he didn’t know, but hoped to soon find out. He nodded.
Receiving t
he non-verbal affirmation, David went on, “I can’t emphasize enough that if your questions come to the notice of the mole, it could jeopardize you and your wife, as well as our investigation. You talk to no one, and I mean no one, except me.”
The veiled threat to Sally got Luke’s attention in a way that little else could. He cocked his head, in a signal that he needed more.
“You’re wondering what this has to do with your niece’s research?” Luke jerked, causing the car to swerve. How did David know anything about Sarah, even that she was his niece?
“I can see you’re startled, so I’ll explain. We’ve known for a long time that there is information hidden in ancient texts and other places, lost to the world. Some of it is dangerous in the extreme, and when it turns up, we have to suppress it. I think you were at least partially aware of that.” David paused for Luke’s nod.
“To keep abreast of discoveries, we have informants and in some cases undercover operatives in all the best archaeology departments in the world. Needless to say, we’re aware of the buzz in academic circles about anomalies and coincidences in the Great Pyramid at Giza. We agree with Daniel Rossler that there is a message hidden there, and in fact we’ve been aware of that for years. But despite our best efforts, we haven’t been able to crack it.” Luke was no longer capable of being shocked that David also knew about his niece’s boyfriend. But this information was going a long way toward explaining what they had gotten themselves into. How to get them out of it was high on his priority list. He continued to listen without speaking as David went on.
“What you may not know is that we believe there are many such messages, from pyramids in the New World to the moai on Easter Island and other such monuments. But, we have reason to believe that the message in the Great Pyramid holds the key to all the others. It’s of critical importance to us to discover what that message says first, so that if it’s a national security issue, we can suppress it, or at least keep it out of the hands of the bad guys. Does that make sense?” Once again, Luke only nodded, not wanting to stem the tide of no doubt classified information that was reaching his ears.
“Okay. So it should also make sense that we flag everyone for domestic surveillance who starts asking questions about the Great Pyramid, whether academic, student or reporter. We monitor their phone conversations, internet activity, email, everything. It all goes to our friends and neighbors, the NSA, for execution and interpretation. Your niece and her boyfriend have dropped off the grid, after some very provocative communications. Want to tell me about that?”
“Why don’t you tell me? You seem to have more than I do anyway.”
“Very well. Your niece’s department head is one of our undercover operatives. She may not know, but he’s not only an expert in his archaeological field, but also an expert linguist. Shortly after he reported a breakthrough in her research with her boyfriend, a known associate of hers was killed and she was considered a suspect for some hours, along with Rossler. As I said, we believe there is a mole in the department, and that he’s looking to find the answer first. Your niece is in danger.”
For the first time, Luke was unable to suppress his need to speak. “Do you have any suspects?”
“Not specifically. We do know of an organization that seems to parallel our research, but they’re too slippery to pin down. Sometimes, we discover that something we want to quash has already been suppressed by someone else. They don’t leave tracks, more like holes where something is supposed to be. We do think they aren’t good guys.”
“That’s terrifying, man,” Luke exclaimed.
“Tell me about it. At various times, we’ve suspected mythical organizations like the Illuminati, all the way to big pharma and oil companies. They’re well-established, well-funded, and elusive as hell. We can’t even discover anything that’s illegal. Whoever they are, we now suspect that one of them is also one of us.”
“So, what does all this mean for Sarah? Can the Company protect her?” Luke’s agitation was beginning to get the best of him. This was bigger than he had suspected, too big for Ryan and him to handle on their own.
“Not much. If they see us sniffing around her, they’ll know their cover is blown, at least partially. The best I can do is meet with your niece and her boyfriend discreetly, give them some pointers, and try to convince them to let this go. It will have to be arranged carefully, though. In person only.”
“I understand. Give me a day to see them, set something up. How can I reach you?”
“You can’t. I’ll text you on your new toy.”
With a chill across his shoulders, Luke knew that his throwaway phone was already compromised. But David seemed to think it was safe to use, so he would follow instructions. David was an old and trusted friend, and would never betray his trust. After all, he had saved the man’s life twice when he was still active. David was saying something about dropping him off. Oh, at a Metro station. Fine, and also fine that he should continue his evening as planned. Only a few minutes late, he pulled into Jack and Cindy’s driveway, prepared to feign a carefree retirement when they asked him what he was up to.
~~~
Back in Providence Sarah paid Martha a visit to see how she was doing.
“I’m fine, dear. Of course I miss Mark terribly, but he wouldn’t want me to pine away. You know that.”
“You’re right, Martha. He’d want you to be happy.”
“I think happy might be a stretch, for a little while. But I’ll get there. By the way, Sarah, there’s something I need to give you.” Martha handed her a small black object. Sarah looked at it in wonder. The flash drive! Why in the world hadn’t Mark given that up? Then she realized that he probably would have been killed anyway. It had been such a senseless attack. One thing was certain, though. If they hadn’t gotten what they were after, the bad guys would still be after Daniel and her.
~~~
Luke changed his flight arrangements at the airport the next morning, hoping to catch the next commuter shuttle to New York. From a pay phone, he called Sarah and asked her to meet him there and bring Daniel. Then he called Sally to let her know he would be delayed one more day and sat down to wait for the flight. He would arrive in New York before Sarah, as the flight was less than an hour, but it would give him time to replenish his wardrobe, which hadn’t been packed for this long a trip. Engrossed in his planning, Luke was completely unaware that his face betrayed his worry, and that a watcher took note of it.
It was a weary and bedraggled uncle who greeted Sarah with a hug at the Little India restaurant where Raj and Daniel usually met. Daniel took in his appearance and grew concerned, but Luke waved it off as jet lag. Raj had declined to join them, and Daniel couldn’t blame him. As far as they knew, Raj’s involvement had not been discovered, and there was no reason to risk discovery now. They would fill him in later. After placing their late lunch order, Daniel and Sarah gave Luke all their attention.
It took Luke a while to get through the information David had shared, punctuated as it was with Sarah’s little cries of dismay. Both of them were thoroughly shaken when he told them that their actions had been observed by the CIA from the beginning. Daniel muttered something about Raj being right all along, who could have thought that?
They took the news even more badly that they were now possibly targets for some shadowy organization that apparently had all the resources and power they needed to get whatever they wanted. Simms’ murder took on a newly sinister cast, as if it hadn’t already been bad enough. Daniel was almost beside himself with rage when he put it together that his editor had put not only him but also Sarah in harm’s way by involving him with Prof. Barry, who then involved Sarah to keep an eye on him. Luke and Sarah calmed him with difficulty, Luke because he didn’t want to call attention to them in the restaurant, Sarah because she recognized the murderous intent in Daniel’s eyes from the policeman incident.
“What now?” Daniel demanded.
“I think you should meet with my contact, Davi
d, and listen to what he says,” Luke said calmly.
“Is he going to tell us to stop the research?”
“He may. Or, he may want you to turn it over to his department. Either way, I hope you’ll do what you must to remain safe, and especially to keep Sarah safe.”
Abashed, Daniel drew Sarah closer to him in the booth. “Of course. Sarah’s safety is the top priority.”
“But, Daniel,” she said. “We’re so close.”
“Maybe we can take it up later, sweetheart. This is too much to deal with. I can hardly take in how close we’ve already come to disaster. What if Martha had been at home when they came for Mark? What if you had been there? I can’t risk it.”
The stubborn set of her mouth told Daniel that Sarah hadn’t yet uttered her last word on the subject, but for now she was quiet.
“Luke, thank you for digging this up for us,” Daniel said. “We’ll take it from here.”
“All right, but give me your cell phone numbers so that David can get in touch with you.”
After exchanging cell phone numbers, the three finished their lunch and then Daniel and Sarah dropped Luke off at LaGuardia for his well-deserved trip back to Colorado and Sally’s arms. Since it was already Thursday afternoon, Sarah had come prepared to spend the weekend. They would see Raj, have a nice evening, and then Daniel wanted to finally show Sarah Black Rock. They planned a hike and picnic lunch for the next day.
By mutual consent, Daniel and Sarah avoided the subjects of pyramids, spy agencies, murder and mayhem for the rest of her visit. Until Luke’s friend David called, they would do nothing more on the pyramid research, although Raj continued his data entry and rendering tasks. Saturday morning dawned warm and sunny, a beautiful day for a hike. They picked up their usual picnic lunch at the corner deli. By nine a.m., they were on the road toward Cornwell, where he had last hiked with his friends almost a year ago. Daniel reflected on the events of the past six months as he drove.
Without a doubt, it had been the most intriguing, frustrating and yet the happiest few months of his life. No matter what else happened, even if he had to give up the quest to interpret the message of the pyramid, he had Sarah. Meeting and falling in love with Sarah was the most important thing that had ever happened to him, or ever would. A surge of adrenaline poured through him as he thought of the life they would make together, and he reached for her hand. Sarah looked over at him, then. He could feel her loving gaze on his face as he negotiated the curves in the road. With her by his side, he could be happy under any circumstances.