An Unlikely Hero (1)

by Tierney James

  “Those junkyard dogs are going to bite you in the ass one of these days. Now what do you have?”

  “Secretary Jackson,”

  “Of the Department of Energy?”

  “The same. He phones me at 2a.m. and wants a meeting. Turns out Essid worked for the DOE for the last two years.” Tobias heard a disgusted exhale on the other end of the phone. He could almost see the usually calm leader of Enigma start to redden with anger. “The FBI missed this during the interview process. He has a pretty good background profile. No problems with the lie detector test. He’d lightened his skin, dyed his hair and even wore blue contact lenses. He looked more American that you!”

  People in high places-the White House, FBI, CIA, NSA and Homeland Security knew that Benjamin Clark was the half-brother of the Prime Minister of Israel. His hawkish good looks and no nonsense disposition made him a favorite of the spy business. When the president needed to meet or talk to Ben’s brother off the record, it was handled through Enigma without the other agencies ever knowing about it. The hint that Benjamin Clark wasn’t a full fledge card carrying American had come up before. Several CIA agents still limped from that misconception.

  “Sorry, Ben. You know what I mean,” Tobias cleared his throat. “Anyway, Jackson shows up at my place looking like a scared rabbit. Thinks he’s being watched. Always was a little paranoid if you ask me. Anyway Essid left Washington last week but not before he tried to hack into the Oak Ridge National Laboratory schematics and security system. We think whoever is assisting him may have the information needed to bring down the lab.”

  “So why is he so skittish? What are you not telling me, Tobias?”

  “One night the two of them ended up at the same party. You know Jackson,” Tobias hesitated, “doesn’t like the ladies, if you know what I mean.”

  “I don’t like where this is going, Tobias!”

  “Apparently Essid goes home with Jackson, gets him drunk followed by a little rough slap and tickle. When Jackson wakes up the next day he’s tied to a toilet, buck naked. Fortunately, his cleaning lady shows up in the afternoon. Not only was he embarrassed but his place had been ransacked top to bottom. He refused to let the cleaning lady call the police, thank God, and sent her home. Like the idiot that he is, he’d given Essid his protected password that enabled him to have a look around in both Oak Ridge and Los Alamos. He tried to contain the mess by changing all the security codes and alert both labs of a possible breach. But the damage had already been done.”

  “And he waited to tell Homeland Security until this morning!” Ben barked with exasperation.

  “He’s in the oval office even as we speak with his letter of resignation. We have a clean-up crew standing by in case of blood spatter.”

  Benjamin grinned knowing how cowboy the president could be. “I thought you took all the president’s guns away from him.”

  “Hell! You know how the president is. He might cut Jackson’s heart out with a letter opener.”

  “Hope it’s a dull one so it takes longer.” Benjamin looked at the large clock hanging on the wall with Eastern Time written below it. He had clocks all around the room that told the time in any given time zone around the world. “What else you got for me?”

  “You aren’t going to like it.”

  Essid calmly turned on the television, muting the sound immediately. He activated the button for hearing impaired so that only the words would scroll across the bottom of the screen. He tried twice before finding CNN. Nothing about the bomb made it into the news. Essid frowned then hurled the television remote at its screen. Another obstacle. He turned around to check on his prisoner who still slept on the cot near the warehouse window. There was no movement.

  Essid hoped Jericho Crawley hadn’t died during the night. He needed him a little longer. He wasn’t confident that the information extracted last night could be counted on as credible. The old man had fought them at first, refusing to give any hint about where the isotopes were kept. Jericho Crawley knew not only where they were kept but where they were manufactured and shipped. Some things never changed, not even after 9/11. The old man had warned them, but too many gaps in security plagued the nation at the time. No one listened to a crazy old scientist. Fortunately for Essid he’d uncovered the letter of warning from Crawley during his two year stint at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The weaknesses noted and possibilities realized directed Essid’s path to California where he’d been observing Jericho Crawley for six months. He knew Jamaal to be a bumbling idiot. He just didn’t realized what a total failure he would turn out to be. It had been the plan to take Crawley after chaos ensued in Sacramento. Had it been the will of Allah for the bomb to land in Crawley’s yard? His men believed this to be true. Essid wasn’t convinced.

  It wasn’t difficult to predict the trajectory of the wayward missile carrying the small bomb. If Crawley hadn’t been out in the middle of the night moving around in his yard their sensors would never have known for certain which house to invade. Essid smiled with satisfaction knowing his plan still could be salvaged.

  The old man took a beating pretty good, Essid had to admit. He even spit on one of the interrogators, Jamaal, at one point. It wasn’t until Essid opened his laptop and sat it in front of Jericho Crawley, that he saw pain and fear in his eyes.

  “Yes, Mr. Crawley, take a good look. It’s a live feed.” Essid waited patiently. Jericho’s half closed eye tried to focus on the screen. “What do you see?”

  Jericho batted his eyes for clarity. “No!” he moaned.

  Essid smiled as he bent down and looked at the figures moving on the screen. “So you recognize them. Good. I believe that one is Sean Patrick, and oh look! There’s Heather hugging her daddy’s neck. I wonder where Daniel could be. Let’s scan a bit out,” Essid said kindly as he touched a button. “There he is! And with a fetching park ranger, I see.” Essid straightened and folded his arms across his chest. “Honey is not as sweet as her name, I’m afraid.” The screen was pulled away by another captor. “Now, I need to know where you created the super vault that stores the isotopes. It’s not on the schematics. I want those isotopes before I level the lab. So be a good boy and tell me.” He grabbed the computer again and turned it around carefully. The sound of children laughing as they played flashlight tag reduced Jericho Crawley to tears.

  “Don’t hurt them. Please.”

  “I have no wish to harm children, Mr. Crawley. Just give me the information and I’ll make sure they continue with their vacation.”

  The old man had nodded in surrender. It took him only minutes to fill in the missing pieces of information Essid needed to complete his work. Afterwards, Crawley was given food and water before tying him to his cot.

  “What now?” Jamaal ask timidly as he handed Essid a cup of hot tea. The interrogation the night before had frightened him. He had blundered the bomb and gotten men killed. Jamaal now walked a thin line of life and death.

  Essid turned his now brown eyes on the failure before him. To make matters worse Jamaal managed to end up in Captain Chase Hunter’s possession. If the captain had wanted Jamaal to remain captured there would not have been a successful escape. Experience taught him the captain could be devious. The contempt brewing inside him remained hidden behind a veil of calm. “You have made quite a mess in the last twenty four hours, Jamaal. What have you to say for yourself?”

  Jamaal rubbed his hands together nervously. “It wasn’t my fault, Essid! I...”

  Essid impatiently held up his hand in protest. “Stop,” he whispered. After picking up Jamaal the day before, it was assumed that he’d been bugged. Taken to a carwash, Jamaal was forced to strip naked and lie on the hood of their rental while he suffered the beating of twenty jets of hot water. Essid was well aware of skin absorbing trackers. Although bruised and burned by the jets of hot water, Jamaal survived to face a much more frightening fate: Essid.

  “I have a little job for you.”

  “Anything, Essid,” Jamaal said a litt
le too quickly. “How can I make this right?”

  “Help Honey when she kills the Scott family.”

  Chapter 10

  Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), located in northern New Mexico, had become one of the largest science and technology institutions in the world since 1943. Its research in renewable energy, medicine, nanotechnology and supercomputing competed for a $2.2 billion budget along with the departments that conducted program research in national security, outer space, and renewable energy. Most Americans had no idea that isotopes used in medicine were created here along with the design of nuclear weapons.

  Carter Johnson stood impatiently with Vernon and Sam in the conference room of the Biosafety-Level 3 facility waiting for Alan Yates, the chief security officer, to join them. Carter had worked here many times and felt comfortable navigating the numerous ins and outs of LANL’s sprawling complex. NASA had sent Carter here to do research on projects that correlated with the military base at White Sands.

  He once had made an emergency landing here in the space shuttle, Endeavor, after the pilot suffered a heart attack halfway through the fifteen day mission. A hurricane brewed in Florida and fog blanketed the west coast. White Sands had been the only other choice. NASA wanted to wait due to the expensive cost of flying in equipment to retrieve the shuttle after landing. That had been the beginning of the end for Carter Johnson when he’d refused to follow orders to save a fellow astronaut’s life.

  Afterwards, Carter found himself assigned to training other astronauts, lab experiments at Los Alamos and Cap Com during other flights into space. Although other astronauts worshiped Carter’s gutsy antics both in and out of the space program, the last president used him as an excuse to cut funding for the Mars programs. Carter’s romantic exploits in space with female astronauts, especially the Russian astrophysicist, had been the final straw. Out of frustration, Carter resigned under increasing pressure from NASA.

  When President Buck Austin took office he made sure NASA shored up its budget, put the Mars projects back on track, fired the current administrator and hired the man Carter Johnson suggested. Being a fellow Texan, Carter had been the president’s first choice. After listening to the president’s concerns on national security one weekend at Camp David, Carter met Benjamin Clark. While the president grilled some steaks, much to the chef’s protest, to a crispy well done, Benjamin explained about the new secret agency, Enigma. Being more of a thrill seeker than a nose to the grind stone kind of genius, Carter joined Enigma.

  “Did you hear that?” It was Benjamin on speaker phone.

  “Yes, sir,” Carter growled. “That changes our plans. We need to intercept those isotopes before Essid gets his hands on them. The outer perimeter has been secured. There’s no way of knowing if the nuclear reactor has been compromised for another 45 minutes when the computer does an automatic sweep.” Carter nodded to Vernon. “Vernon is on it now. He’ll find a way in.”

  “Get the remaining personnel out of there! If that place blows…”

  “Science research will be set back twenty years. Got it.”

  Carter signed off just as the chief security officer rushed through the door. “No one in or out in the last three hours since you joined us. However,” Alan Yates said shaking his head, “four men came in yesterday afternoon with Homeland Security clearance that is nowhere to be found.”

  Sam put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. “Let me guess. You just found the real HLS agents dead.”

  Alan nodded. “A guy found them off trail when he took his dogs for a run this morning. The police are just now getting around to contacting us to see if we were missing any employees. They were stripped of ID and clothes.”

  Mansur watched Honey Lynch appear out of the woods that stood near the Scott cabin. The frown on her face meant something didn’t go as she’d planned. Long strides with those tanned legs gave evidence of an athlete. As she reached up to tie her light brown hair in a knot, Mansur let his eyes slide hungrily across her breasts. Small wet circles had formed under her arms from being in the sun. She spied him ogling at her and jerked her arms down in anger.

  “Careful, Mansur.” Honey pushed past him to pick up the secure phone lying on the truck seat. She slid in with one leg dangling outside the door. Honey narrowed her eyes at Mansur after quickly dialing. “Wouldn’t want Essid to know that you…” just then the other end of the line connected. Honey kept her eyes on Mansur as he began to move road gravel around nervously with the toe of his boot. “They’re leaving.” Honey sighed. “I don’t know! I suppose to town. Those kids are nonstop motion. Mr. Scott looks worn out. He was up moving around pretty early this morning, checking windows and doors. After that he read until daylight then dosed off in his chair. Guess he’s spooked about the escaped convicts.” She switched the phone to the other ear. “Good. Who are you sending?” Honey’s face darkened. “And then can I shoot him?” The line disconnected.

  Never had Tessa imagined that a helicopter could be so loud when she’d boarded at the airport. Taking the Black Hawk would enable them to land at the lab. She covered her ears at first until Zoric gently placed a set of headphones on her head. He’d smiled, almost fatherly at her, and then changed the mood when he buckled her into the seat. His touch had been a little too personal. Jerking back into the seat to avoid his long boney fingers only drew a satanic smile from his narrow lips.

  Relieved at seeing the captain jump into the front seat, Tessa watched him turn his eyes back to her then to Zoric. He patted the ghoul on the shoulder then mouthed Knock it off! Zoric fastened himself in next to Tessa. Reaching over he patted her hand in reassurance then withdrew.

  Tessa felt her stomach lurch as the helicopter lifted. This time no blindfold was needed. No threats to be quiet. The urgency had escalated to where everyone focused on something other than herself.

  Once more her family swam into her mind: laughing, singing, catching butterflies and dipping toes into the cool waters of Lake Tahoe. Picnics, fishing poles and star gazing were all a part of the paradise Tessa had sacrificed for her anger and pride. Never again would she be so careless with the gift God had given her. Did they miss her? Could Robert take good care of her babies? Please, God! Let them be safe. Send them an angel.

  Tessa had never viewed the Smokey Mountains from the air. Having traveled more than most, Tessa always compared the faraway places she visited to east Tennessee. Nothing came close to the beauty of the land or the hospitality of the people. “A slice of Heaven,” her father had said every summer when they’d made their annual vacation trip to Gatlinburg.

  “Daddy, I’m going to live here someday!” Tessa would proclaim.

  “I hope so, baby girl,” her father would laugh. “Then I can come see you all the time.”

  Growing up just outside Nashville in Franklin, Tennessee had given Tessa a normal childhood with all the trappings of living in a small, quaint town. Her parents had been childhood sweethearts, married, had three children, worked hard and gone to church every Sunday morning, evening and Wednesday night potluck for her entire life. Going off to college at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville had seemed like another world. Tessa knew she’d be close to her beloved Smokey Mountains and accepted the scholarship before even discussing it with her parents.

  Had that been when Tessa began down that road of independence? Hadn’t her father wanted her to go to Vanderbilt so she could come home at night? Her father allowed her to attend the Knoxville school as long as she didn’t let her grades drop below a B+. If they did she’d have to come home. Only twice did her grades drop: once because her brother had been in a car accident and she’d rushed home, missing a test, and when her grandmother passed away just before finals. By that time Tessa’s father had become a Tennessee Volunteer fan and never hinted she needed to return to Franklin. To think she was so close to home and couldn’t go visit her parents added another layer of guilt and regret.

  Tessa watched the lips of the three
men moving. They had her earpiece turned off. Why? And why did they need her to come along on this clandestine folly? It wasn’t like she had any special black ops training. Oak Ridge National Laboratory was synonymous with brilliant men and women. The mere thought of the periodic table gave Tessa a headache. Afraid of heights, rodents, earthquakes and unwashed hands before dinner padded her profile as the most unlikely of heroes. Yet here she was, strapped in a Black Hawk helicopter, surrounded by shadowy men carrying guns that looked like something from a science fiction movie.

  A fleeting thought concerning her new ability on how to trick a Middle Eastern terrorist entered her already confused state. Wouldn’t having her house shot up and being forced into a secretive government agency in the middle of Sacramento be included on her updated resume? Inwardly she smiled at the thought. The other soccer moms were going to love this story.

  Tessa caught her breath when she realized the captain was staring at her through his aviator sunglasses. Her earpiece came to life. “The reason you’re coming along…” Tessa squirmed. Could he read minds too? “You once worked for a Dr. Carl Haskin when you attended U.T., am I correct?”

  Tessa tried not to look surprised that the captain knew that information. After all, Enigma appeared to have made her life an open book for these nondescript men who had imprisoned her. With a quick nod, Tessa squeezed her eyes shut feelings the helicopter descend suddenly. Her hand went to her stomach before opening her eyes. The captain still remained focused on her.

  “Alright?” Again she nodded. “Other than being a nanny for his children, how did you assist Dr. Haskin?”

  “Is that why you dragged me here!” she sounded a little more contentious than intended. Swallowing hard, Tessa licked her dry lips. She thought she was going to be sick. “Yes, I was a nanny for his children. When I needed a graduate assistant position to continue with my masters, Dr. Haskin recommended me.”