“I’m counting on you to keep this to yourselves. You are the only ones to have this document. If this gets out, I’ll know who did it. Tomorrow, we will discuss any questions you might have and I imagine there will be plenty,” the Chief opined.
“Thank you, Chief.”
“Sir, we’ll do our best to make the country and Bureau proud,” Trent promised.
The newly engaged couple had to sit through traffic and Whitney had to curb her impatience to rip open the folder in the car. She controlled herself until they got home and into their apartment. The Bureau had set them up in plush accommodations with leather furniture and rich mahogany tables and desks.
They sat down at a table and she tore open the top of the folder and pulled out a thin dossier. It was only about fifteen pages long and the heading was marked, ‘President’s Actions Involving Foreign Governments’. They read the entire document twice and Whitney realized why the Chief had looked so bad.
The disturbing file touched on the most serious matter Whitney had ever encountered. The current President had just taken over four months ago and Whitney really liked Alan Gergen, the former Governor of the state of Redinell. She couldn’t even imagine that the sweet-looking old man could be behind all the nefarious activities described in the dossier.
After sitting in silence, Trent said, “You realize what this means if true, right?”
“It means our President is a traitor. Plain and simple. If true though, of course. Do you know who Erick Emerson from the IA of Beraglenn is?”
“Can’t say as I do, but I do have a lot of friends in the IA community in Beraglenn. They have organized crime over there too. Let me make some calls and see what I can find out,” Trent told her.
Beraglenn was one of Adoxia’s closest allies and the two countries always shared intelligence with each other. Whitney waited impatiently and tried to figure out both ends of the conversation as Trent called his friends. He hung up after talking to five people about the matter.
“And?”
“Five for five. They all say they would bet their life that whatever information came from Erick, is the stone cold truth. They didn’t have one bad thing to say about the man, which is amazing. I was skeptical when I heard someone had paid Erick to find the info in the dossier, but this all checks out. It seems like we need to really dig in on this and see what’s going on,” Trent said.
“I would have never imagined they would give the two newest people this case.”
“He probably didn’t want to believe it. He did say it was preliminary, but the last guy I talked to said that they know about this in their Intel Agencies and have warned our guys about it,” Trent revealed.
“How can that be?”
“Because, he said the President has put people in place to cover this up. He said we should be prepared for an incoming fake case to divert the agencies away from the real story. He said all this even bigger than the dossier could indicate. ‘It runs so deep’ were his exact words, I believe,” Trent said.
Whitney turned on the TV to check the weather for the next day. The news channel had a report on about the arrest of a Representative of Adoxia by the East Coast Branch of the Bureau of Investigation. Apparently, Terry Gerst had been caught in a relationship with a seventeen-year- old girl. Whitney watched as the agents were removing items from Terry’s house.
“That’s pretty crazy,” Trent said.
“Guess he didn’t learn his lesson the first time. He was just busted for something like this a few years ago. Why are they clearing out his house though?”
“Not sure. That does seem kind of strange for sure,” Trent agreed.
“So most of these names in the dossier are masked, how can we start to figure out who they are?”
“That is going to be tricky and to be completely honest, I don’t know how we can even start to verify this information. We can’t just drag in all the people who are named and try to get them to talk. Let’s talk to the Chief and see what he has to say about it,” Trent told her.
The next day, Whitney sat next to Trent in the boss’ office.
The Chief asked, “Did you get a chance to look at that item from yesterday?”
“Of course. We found out that EE comes with shining credentials from everyone who knows him. Why did he put the report together in the first place?”
The Chief said, “He was paid by a political opponent of Mr. Gergen. He runs a private intelligence firm and uses his sources from more than thirty years of field experience. I was afraid he was right about this, but I’m wondering why we don’t have any of this intel. It just doesn’t make sense.”
“My contacts have stated that our President has appointed people to the heads of the intelligence and justice community who are extremely sympathetic to his cause. Everyone other than you, apparently,” Trent said with a laugh.
The Chief let out a boisterous laugh. “I’m surprised he let me stay on then. I’ll find out this information and get it to you guys. First, I need to find out who the rats are that I have to bypass to get what we need.”
“So what can we do to find out if this is really true?”
“It’s going to be difficult. Most of these events happened in the past year, but not within the last four months. My biggest worry is that everything has been deleted or shredded already and we’re embarking on a wild goose chase,” the Commander said.
“We can still get to stuff if it’s been deleted, shredded not so much. I’m willing to do anything to get to the facts. Do we know of any money trail? That might be the first place to start,” Trent suggested.
The Chief said, “You’d better practice great restraint on this one. If there is something afoot, we can’t set off the alarm bells. I don’t want anything you work on to end up in the press. Am I understood?”
Trent and Whitney agreed with the Chief.
“I need to get all the foreign intercepts concerning communication from any members of the government of Goldera, particularly those involving the Gergen team of advisers. That should be a start.”
The Chief warned, “Be careful not to go for everything at once. I know it’s frustrating, but until I can get more support behind this, you two are all I have. Make me proud.” He let out a big belly laugh and dismissed the two agents.
They were walking to their car and Whitney heard another whisper, “You need to drive out of the city to meet an old friend. I’ve pre-programmed your GPS so all you need to do is get in and follow the directions.”
“All right, let’s do this,” Trent said.
“Wait, you heard that too?”
“Of course. I heard it in the office too, but that sounded like it was only meant for you. I don’t mind getting out of the city for a little bit,” Trent said.
“Me too.”
The directions took them west and they had to drive for a while to get to their destination. The sun slowly crept behind the jagged peaks of the mountains in the distance. Whitney started to get excited with only a few more miles to go.
They left their car in the lot at the state park and walked toward the hills. The emerging half-moon kept disappearing behind the gray clouds as the sky turned an unusual shade of reddish purple. A strong wind began to stir and kicked up the dusty earth. Whitney covered her eyes for protection as the heavy breeze continued.
When she opened her eyelids, Trent grabbed her and started dragging her back toward the car.
“What are you doing?”
“Did you see that thing back there?” Trent asked pointing at a tall, golden skinned man.
“Wait, stop, that’s my friend Darominius. Hey, buddy.”
The dragon shifter slowly lumbered over as Trent squeezed Whitney’s arm. She shook herself loose from Trent’s grip as Darominius came to a stop and bowed.
He said, “My lady, good sir. I don’t think I’ve ever been called buddy before, so there’s a first time for everything.”
“Trent, this is Darominius. So, uh, did you just drop
by to say hi, or uh…?”
Darominius shook his head, “Impatience is something I’ve never found on a list of virtues, my lady. I am here to help you, as I said I would. I am going to take you to remote places for events that have occurred in the past.”
“We’re going to travel through time?” Trent asked.
Darominius said, “To be precise, I am going to travel through time while you two hang on to my back. We won’t be going back very far, but I will be taking you to events that are pertinent to this case.”
“So I guess the dossier is true then?”
Darominius answered, “You are about to find out.”
He started to walk away and kept growing bigger and bigger. His skin changed from soft and reptilian to what appeared to be shingled pieces of golden steel. The transformation only took about thirty seconds and Whitney stared at the dragon.
“Get on my back and hold on with all of your strength or you might die. Don’t be scared and make sure to get your hands under the scales. Don’t worry, you won’t hurt me,” Darominius instructed.
The couple hesitantly climbed onto the dragon’s back and the shingled surface felt as hard as stone. They both secured themselves near the dragon’s shoulders, just above the wings. Darominius began to flap his wings and Whitney almost fell off.
She dug her hand under the huge scale and squeezed hard. The dragon rocked around as he started to ascend off the ground. The aerial earthquake turned into a smooth upward climb and they quickly reached the dark clouds.
They changed directions and streaked through the water molecules clinging to the clouds. Whitney could also feel a weird sensation of electricity as they raced forward. The speed kept increasing and Whitney had to shut her eyes because of the harsh wind.
Suddenly, her golden friend began a sharp dive straight toward the ground. Whitney felt like she was going to be sick as they dropped at a tremendous speed. They hit a pillow-like landing and Whitney opened her eyes.
She stood next to Trent in an office meeting. There were people translating a language that Whitney didn’t understand.
“Boo,” a voice sounded from behind them.
Trent and Whitney both screamed. She was scared that the people in the meeting had heard them, but everyone carried on as if nothing had happened.
“They can’t hear you. Can’t see you either. That’s the great thing about this type of travel. However, if you drift off more than a mile in any direction, all bets are off. Anything can happen then. For now, we’ll probably just stay in this room,” Darominius told them.
“When and where are we?”
“That I cannot tell you. Remember when your family of friends from another world told you that there are certain rules the intermediaries have to follow. I can take you places, but I can’t tell you any more than that,” the dragon shifter said.
“Well, I can see the Golderan flag in the middle of the table.”
Six men sat at the rectangular table, three on each side. She vaguely recognized a few of the men, but wasn’t sure exactly who they were. It appeared to be a meeting between representatives of Goldera and Adoxia. The two countries had been adversarial toward each other for quite some time and the relationship was at an all-time low. Goldera was located in South America.
One of the men on the Adoxia side said, “We would love to repair the broken relationship between our two great countries. I think that would be of great value to get more trade going once again.”
A man from the Golderan side spoke and Whitney listened as the person next to him translated, “If this possibility were to happen, what would your candidate like to see out of the agreement?”
The same man from Adoxia spoke again, “Our mutual friend is not guaranteed to win this election as you may already know. We could use some extra support on this matter.”
The translator explained this to his associates before speaking in Adoxian. He slowly said, “We can help with election. We have many people in your country who owe us a favor or two. We have people that work at polling stations and we know some people that work on the ballot devices themselves. We can make you win.”
A man with glasses from the Adoxia side said, “Our associate is prepared to pass some favorable legislation for Goldera if you are ready to share in the vast wealth it will bring to your country.”
The translator said, “Are we talking what I think we are?”
“The embargo and all the sanctions will be lifted. We’ll pass it off like we are teaming up to keep the rest of the world safe,” the man from Adoxia promised.
The translator told the other men, “We will need to set up a clandestine channel of communication and figure out a way to hide the vast amounts of money you gentlemen are about to receive.” He started to laugh and the rest of the men at the table joined in.
Whitney looked at Trent. “I can’t believe what we are hearing. Goldera has a horrible human rights record and they fund global terrorism. Not to mention they slaughter their own citizens to keep them in line. The government is basically a mob running the country. Maybe that’s why we were selected to take on this task.”
Trent answered, “Maybe. This is treason here. They are selling foreign policy to the highest bidder. I don’t think these guys have any idea what they are getting into. Goldera will use this to hold over these guys because this country has no real law like we do in Adoxia.”
“The embargo and sanctions were put down as a reason to curb their imperialistic tendencies. It’s no mystery why in our briefings, they warned us several times about dealing with people from Goldera. They are always trying to glean evidence that they can use against a person.”
Trent walked over to the table and looked at a newspaper. “This meeting was on June 26 of last year. This was back when it looked like President Gergen didn’t stand a chance. I told you it was fishy how he won the election.”
“It was the story about how his opponent, Lott, was sending government secrets to hostile foreign entities. That’s what did Rick Lott in if you ask me. They still haven’t found any evidence of those emails or phone calls yet, the Chief has reiterated a few times. He gets really weird when he talks about it though.”
“I noticed that too. I thought it was a bogus smear at the time, but boy, was it effective. People hated him after those stories ran. I really don’t want to believe this is true, but we just heard it. Do you recognize any of these guys from our country?” Trent asked.
“No. I hate politicians and don’t really pay attention to them unless they are running for President or they are in my state or local area. I hate those slimeballs.”
“Me too, so I don’t know who they are either. Take a mental image of all three so we can find out who they are. This has to be the Vondlee deal from the dossier though,” Trent said.
“I thought so too, but all the Adoxia men were masked in that document. These guys from Goldera were named in the dossier, although I can’t remember their names. And to think it gets even worse from here is so scary.”
Without warning, a great gust of wind blew against the front of Whitney’s body. The violent surge pushed her and Trent against the wall behind them. The people at the table were undisturbed as Whitney felt like she was being pulled into the wall. She closed her eyes and the pain dissipated.
When Whitney opened her eyes, she and Trent were clutching onto the back of a golden dragon, flying through the night sky. The bright moon and stars made the armored scales shine and Whitney marveled at the experience. She didn’t want to look down because she had always been a bit fearful of heights.
They glided through the sky for another half hour before the dragon started to dip and dive. Darominius landed with a soft thud and his two passengers got off.
The dragon said, “I hope that helps. I must be off to give assistance to another deserving soul. My lady, good sir.”
Whitney’s hair blew back from the rapid wing beats as Darominius rose up in the air. She watched as his golden image disappe
ared into the darkness.
2
Whitney sat next to Trent in the meeting room of the Bureau. The Chief stood up front at the podium and organized his papers.
Chief McTalbot said, “Alright, I’ve called everyone in here because we have a new development in the Rick Lott story. We are reopening the case. Our East Coast Office has found forty thousand new emails in which there might be dangerous classified information being passed to one of our enemies.”
Whitney noticed that the Chief looked uncomfortable and kept yanking at his collar and tie. Delegate Rick Lott had lost the election to Alan Gergen. Most people would argue that it was due to the rumors he had been passing nuclear secrets to Adoxia’s enemies. He had been favored to win the election up until the final two weeks.
Her boss cleared his throat and continued, “This is going to involve a massive amount of work because the secret information has been reportedly inserted into a regular looking email. They will look normal at the beginning and end, but what we need is rumored to be smashed in between. Some of these emails are hundreds of pages long too, so bring a fine-toothed comb and lots of coffee.”
The Chief pulled a handkerchief out of his chest pocket and wiped the sweat from his shiny forehead. He said, “This case is our main priority now. Our national security may have been put at risk and it’s up to us to uncover the facts. Let’s go find the truth, everyone.”
The agents started to flood through the exit and the Chief stopped Whitney and Trent. He invited them back to his office to discuss a few matters. They got inside and he closed the door and shut the blinds. They all sat down and Whitney waited for her superior to say something.
The Chief appeared to be disturbed until he finally spoke. “There is a massive amount of pressure coming down on this one from every direction and I’m pretty sure I know why. This diversionary tactic lends more credence to the dossier because there’s no real reason for us to search these emails.”
“Where did they even come from?”
“They found them on Representative Pernell’s laptop that they confiscated from his house after the arrest yesterday,” the Chief explained.
The Whitney Powers Paranormal Adventure 3 Book Bundle Page 14