Highest Order_An Action Thriller Novel

by David Archer

  Once again, he had excelled in his position. A few years down the road had seen him move through a number of posts until he was finally named as a deputy director, only a couple of steps down from the director, himself. That’s where Allison had found him five years earlier, when E & E had been created and dropped in her lap.

  Donald had never been the squeamish type; on a few occasions back in Brussels, he had been forced to eliminate some of his potential recruits who were attempting to subvert his operation. Allison had come across references to him in some of the reports she had analyzed, and remembered him when POTUS had tapped her to build and operate an assassination division.

  It was actually Donald who had suggested an expansion, adding “Eradication” to “Elimination.” Eradication, in his view, meant making it appear that someone had been killed in order to achieve a greater purpose than his death would bring about. Allison had liked the idea, and immediately named Donald as her second-in-command.

  He had been there ever since, almost since day one of E & E’s existence. He and Allison had become close friends and confidants, sharing not only the day-to-day burdens of operating the organization, but also learning that they could lean on one another even during personal tough times.

  Donald, who had been married for more than twenty years, had even toyed with the idea of a romantic involvement, but Allison had carefully failed to recognize the one time he had actually flirted with her. He knew from the look on her face that she caught it, but her words seemed to assume he was only joking. He got the message, and the thought was never allowed a moment in his mind again.

  All of this went through his thoughts in a matter of minutes, and then he got up from behind Allison’s desk and went to the conference room. Molly was already there and waiting for him, and he explained quickly what had happened.

  “Team Unicorn is coming in to be briefed,” he said. “Under the circumstances, I’m going to let you handle it. Get hold of idea development and get them started, and let Wally know they might be coming out. Call Georgette down in the travel office and get the necessary arrangements made. Remember, they are going in as a diplomatic mission. We got an email packet earlier today from Noah, telling about the arrangements he made with President Abimbola regarding the new military base. We want that, even if the secession fails.”

  Molly was staring at him. “They want to arrest Noah and his team? But why?”

  “It’s got something to do with the Morgan Mafia mission in Arkansas,” Jefferson said. “At the moment, it looks like they’re trying to say we aren’t authorized to operate within the U.S., but the charter specifically refers to ‘within and without the United States.’ I’m meeting with Doctor Parker and our attorneys in just a few minutes to try to figure out what we can do about this.”

  Molly shook her head. “Okay,” she said. “Please keep me posted, will you? And find out if I can go visit Allison. That might help her while she’s going through this.”

  Jefferson chuckled. “I suspect she’s going to be pretty busy, just reaming the asses of whoever was stupid enough to try to question her.”

  “Yeah, but find out anyway.”

  Jefferson went back to Allison’s office and arrived just as Parker got there.

  “What did POTUS say?” Parker demanded instantly.

  “I haven’t called yet,” Jefferson replied. “To be honest, I think he’ll respond better to you than to me. Since he’s been in office, I’ve found that I don’t have nearly as many friends on the Hill as I used to.”

  “Fine,” Parker growled. “Gimme the damn phone and hit the button.”

  Allison, like many of the senior directors of organizations dealing with national security, had a direct line to the President of the United States. Jefferson handed over the receiver as Parker took the chair in front of the desk, then pressed the green button that would dial straight to the president’s body man.

  “Dog robber,” said Keenan Davis. He served as body man to the president, making sure that the Chief Executive of the United States always looked perfect and had everything he needed.

  “Keenan,” Parker said, “it’s Parker. What’s he doing?”

  “At the moment, he’s talking to the British ambassador. It’s not official, they were just both passing through the rotunda. Is it something important?”

  “Would I bother calling if it wasn’t? Get him on the damn phone.”

  In Washington, D.C., Davis’ eyes went suddenly wide. “Yes, sir, just a moment.” He muted the phone and approached the president, holding it out and waggling it to get attention. “Mr. President? It’s Doctor Nathan Parker.”

  The President of the United States smiled at the British ambassador and promised to invite him to lunch at the White House very soon. The two men shook hands and the president turned to Davis, taking the phone and putting it to his ear, then taking it down again to unmute it. He put it back to his ear and said, “Parker? Why are you calling me?”

  “To find out what kind of idiots are running loose in the Senate,” Parker said. “The damn Senate permanent select committee on intelligence has had Allison arrested.”

  “They did what? Why would they do something like that?”

  “Well, I would suggest, Mr. President, that you get somebody to ask them that question, because I sure as hell don’t know. They are claiming that the agency has been operating illegally in the United States, probably back to that Arkansas situation.”

  “I’m headed back to the Oval Office,” the president said. “I’ll get on this the minute I get there, and I’ll call you back. I don’t know what they think they’re doing, she doesn’t answer to them.”

  “Hell, she doesn’t answer to anybody. She has presidential autonomy authority, remember? As far as operating illegally in the United States, our charter specifically authorizes actions within the borders of the U.S.A., as well as outside the borders. Somebody is playing games, and that’s a dangerous occupation when it goes to messing with the Dragon Lady.”

  “I’ll call you back,” the president said, and the line went dead. Parker passed the receiver back to Jefferson and leaned back.

  “He says he’ll find out what’s going on and call me,” he said. “Have you called Noah out yet?”

  “Not yet, no,” Jefferson replied. “He’s got a mission phone, and I’ve got to get the number.” He picked up the phone on the desk again and called out to the ID development department. It took a few minutes to get the right person on the line, but then he got the number of the special satellite phone Noah was carrying.

  Parker had gotten up and walked out of the room while he was on the line, but Jefferson didn’t feel he needed to wait. He punched the button on the desk phone for the number designated as Horatio, then dialed the number he had written down.

  It rang several times before coming to life. “Hello? Horatio?” Noah said as he answered.

  “Hey, Jim,” Jefferson said. “I hate to bother you, old buddy, but there is a problem. Are you by yourself?”

  There was the sound of footsteps and a beep. “Yes,” Noah said, “and the phone is scrambled.”

  “Good,” Jefferson said. “God help us, Noah, Allison’s been arrested. Apparently, there was a secret Senate committee investigating some of our operations, and it’s been decided that the Morgan Mafia case violated the civil rights of Morgan and his crew. We don’t know what’s going on for sure, but it seems like some kind of witchhunt. We’ve got FBI on the way down here to go through our records, but they’ll play hell trying to break through our encryption. And, Noah—they’ve got warrants for you and your entire team. The only one with you at the moment who is safe is Jenny, because they don’t have anything on her. You need to abort your mission and get out of Algeria as quickly as possible.”

  “Will anybody else be coming in to take over? I think this is an important mission…”

  “Team Unicorn is already being briefed. Make whatever excuses you have to, but get out of that country. Cut
all ties with any of our intel assets over there and make whatever exit you can. If CIA gets dragged into this, and they almost certainly will, you could have crosshairs painted on all of your foreheads before morning.”

  “Right at the moment, we’re at a dinner with the new president. It’ll take a couple of hours, I’m sure, before I can even get out of this building. What about our cover identities, are they compromised?”

  “Not yet, but I don’t know how long they’ll be clean. Noah, this almost feels like some kind of coup. According to some of the rumbles from the feds, there is already talk of replacing the entire senior staff here, including me and Parker.”

  “All right, let’s look at it from another angle. Who would be out to get Allison?”

  “I’ve no idea,” Jefferson said. “I’m sure she has a lot of political enemies, but I am frankly shocked that even the Senate could pull this off. We’ve got a call in to the president, now, but we haven’t gotten a response yet. This all went down about twenty minutes ago, and I’ve been swamped until just now. Get the rest of your team, let them know what’s happening, and get out of that country. If you can make it to Barcelona, we have our own station chief there who will give you whatever support you need. I’ll text you the number.”

  “All right,” Noah said. “We’ll get there as soon as we can.”

  “Good,” Jefferson said. “Get to Barcelona, any way you can.”

  He hung up the phone and leaned back, once again running his hands over his face. He was still sitting like that when Parker came back in.

  “The damn lawyers are here,” Parker said. “They’ll be in here in just a moment. Do you have the copy of the warrant?” Jefferson passed it over, and Parker read through it quickly. “This is bogus, Donald. Somebody is playing games with us.”

  “Yes, but what’s the goal? I can’t see this actually standing up, can you?”

  “We are living in a crazy time,” Parker said. “I’m not sure of anything, right at the moment.”

  The phone rang suddenly, and Jefferson snatched it up. “Donald Jefferson,” he said.

  “Mr. Jefferson, this is Kathy, out front. I have the president on line two.”

  “Thank you,” Jefferson said. He passed the receiver to Parker and punched the button for line two.

  “Hello,” Parker said.

  “It’s me,” said the president. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we’ve got a situation. E & E is a creature of my predecessor, but I’ll be damned if the Democrats aren’t trying to find some way to use their existence to impeach me. What the hell is going on over there? I’m hearing about Allison selling assassinations on the black market, for crying out loud.”

  “That’s bull,” Parker said. “Not only has no such thing ever happened, Allison would kill anybody who tried it, and that’s with no pun intended. She agonizes over every single sanction request, and believe me on that, because I know. I’m the one who gets the phone calls at three o’clock in the morning when she can’t sleep because she isn’t sure she made the right decision. On top of that, the particular mission this is based on was requested by the DOJ, and she damn near turned it down. If it hadn’t been for the fact that the people involved were so dangerous, she probably would have.”

  “Who is Lee Ringgold?” POTUS asked. “Apparently, he testified that he was present when the request was made, and that it only included six people. The way the committee got it, your people went to Arkansas and had a killing spree. Were there really forty-five dead in that mission?”

  “I don’t have the file in front of me, but I know it wasn’t that many. We also managed to expose dozens of corrupt law enforcement officials and prosecutors. All in all, I’d have to say the mission was a rousing success. It sure as hell isn’t something to use to shut us down.”

  “They are not trying to shut it down,” the president said. “What they’re trying to do is take it away from me. They want to put it under senatorial oversight, maybe even make it report to the intelligence committees in both houses, and use it to undermine my entire administration. Now, I’ll be honest, I’ve read through everything my predecessor wrote about needing such an agency, and I agree with every bit of it. On the other hand, Allison Peterson is the only director of any agency who has real autonomy. I think that’s what has them scared.”

  “As you know, Mr. President,” Parker said, “the reason your predecessor gave her autonomy is because he trusted her judgment. He didn’t want anyone to be able to order her to approve a sanction, and that reasoning is still valid and still stands. If E & E goes under the supervision of any of the committees, you’ll end up with politicians demanding sanctions on their rivals. Mr. President, you don’t dare let this happen.”

  “I may not have the power to stop it,” the president replied. “I’m going to keep digging, but you need to see what you can learn on your end. There is somebody behind this, and I don’t have any way to find out who it is.”

  “Trust me, Mr. President,” Parker said coldly. “I intend to get to the bottom of it.”

  * * * * *

  Parker stormed out of the office as soon as he got off the phone with the president, and ran into Molly Hansen as she was coming out of the conference room. She gave him a weak smile, and he waggled a finger to call her closer.

  “You got the relief team on the way?” Parker asked her.

  “They’ll be leaving within the next three hours,” she replied. “Doctor Parker, do you have any idea what’s happening? How is Allison, do you know?”

  “We don’t have any contact with her right now. As for what’s going on, it’s some kind of convoluted nightmare. Officially, the Senate permanent select committee is trying to say that we’ve violated some rules that keep the CIA from running their own clandestine operations within the United States, but they don’t apply to us. There’s a lot more going on in the background, but I can’t say what it is at the moment. Trust me, as soon as I’m able to let you in on details, I will. We’re going to need that brain of yours, I guarantee it.”

  “Just let me know,” Molly said. “I’ll do anything you need me to do.”

  Chapter SEVEN

  Allison was taken to the parking garage level and pushed into the back seat of a black SUV. Marshal Howard slid into the back seat beside her while two others got into the front seat and the rest climbed into another vehicle.

  “So where are you taking me?” Allison asked. “Somehow I doubt you’re going to haul me to the county jail.”

  “Our orders are to take you to Denver,” Howard said. “The committee feels you might be an escape risk, considering the kind of people who work for you. There is a special facility in Denver that they believe is secure enough to keep you.”

  Allison laughed. “You think I’m going to try to escape and run away? That’s ridiculous, especially since this entire case is nothing but a whitewash of some kind. I don’t have a clue who is behind this, but somebody is trying to make fools out of all of you people. If you took a look at the charter of my organization, which came from the President of the United States during the last administration and was ratified by the current one, you’d find that I am immune from prosecution for any actions taken in the performance of my duties. I can be removed from my job, but I cannot be prosecuted. Trust me when I tell you that you, and a lot of other folks, are going to feel really stupid when this is over.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Howard said. “I feel pretty stupid already, if you want to know the truth.”

  Allison narrowed her eyes and looked at him. “You do? Why is that?”

  “Because I work for the government, if you must know. I’ve been a U.S. marshal for more than twenty years, and I’ll tell you that I haven’t seen nearly as much ridiculousness in all that time as I’ve seen in the last six months. It’s like there’s some kind of mental illness spreading in D.C. You’ve got Democrats blaming the Republicans for everything, Republicans are blaming the Democrats and nobody seems to want to take responsibili
ty for anything. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see just how crazy they’re all acting, does it?”

  Allison nodded and let a grin appear on her face. “Well, well,” she said. “An honest man. Don’t see many like you anymore. Of course, I understand you’re just following orders and doing your job, so I’m not blaming you for this at all, but there surely has to be some kind of madness going on.”

  “Ma’am,” Howard said, “I couldn’t agree more.”

  * * * * *

  The plane landed at just after two o’clock in the morning, and Noah and the others thanked the flight crew profusely as they took their luggage and walked into the terminal. Their diplomatic passports got them through customs without anyone bothering to check them out, and they got into a cab as soon as they got outside again.

  “Americans, yes?” The cab driver was a local, and spoke very good English. “Tourists? I can show you around, if you like.”

  Noah smiled at him. “Well, it’s a little late for sightseeing,” he said. “How about showing us a cheap hotel?”

  “Ha. You’re in Barcelona, my friend. The words cheap and hotel don’t go together very well, here.”

  “Oh, come on,” Noah said. “There’s got to be something. We had a mishap on our flight, and my credit cards were lost. I won’t be able to get them replaced until tomorrow, and I’m running low on cash.”

  The driver shook his head. “Not in hotels,” he said. “There is a hostel, though, run by my cousin. You can get rooms there for only ten dollars American.”

  Noah grinned. “Sounds like just the place,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  The driver smiled and cranked his meter, then put the minivan in gear and drove off. The cab was in rough condition, and the transmission didn’t seem to want to shift into high gear until the engine was revving so fast Noah expected it to blow up. Somehow, however, it got them where they were going. The driver hopped out and helped carry luggage for the two women, then kicked the front door of the building until a sleepy woman came to open it.