The Gillespie Five (A Political / Conspiracy Novel) - Book 1 (42)
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Heat rose to her face as she accepted, quickly wiping her eyes and apologizing.
"Nonsense, Jane. I doubt I could tell a story like yours about someone I care for without doing the same. And I find it quite admirable what you are doing and why, though it must be difficult to get the same understanding from very many people."
"True. But I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Of course. We do what must be done in order to better the world."
Jane had heard the emphasis he had put on the last sentence. Despite her reservations, she decided to take a chance. "Even if what we do is wrong?"
"Pardon?"
His voice had gotten quiet. Her inner voice screamed that she still had time to back out. Straightening her shoulders, she looked him directly in the eye and asked, "Would you do anything to bring down these hackers, sir?"
"Well of course! They have proven to be a nightmare to our country. They must be stopped."
"Even if it meant that innocent American citizens were being held and charged for crimes they didn't commit?"
Gillespie shot out of his chair, his eyes flashing. "Exactly what are you getting at?"
Jane stood and tried to meet his now steely gaze. The change in his demeanor had been so abrupt, it took her a moment to respond.
"I'm talking about the five people we are holding."
"Are you trying to tell me they are innocent? We have tons of mounting evidence that says otherwise."
"Evidence that didn't exist until a few weeks ago, sir."
"Is this what you came for, to accuse me of charging and holding innocent people?"
"No, sir! In fact, I hadn't planned on saying anything to you about this."
"Then what did you come for?"
Jane looked down at her hands. "I'm not sure. I-I've been struggling with this for weeks. Trying to figure out what, if anything I could do. I know they are innocent."
"And you know this how?"
"Because I interrogated them. For weeks!"
"I know about your reputation, doctor. It is the reason I brought you in when they were finding nothing. But, interrogations are rarely reliable. That is why I insisted on Barrett finding hard evidence."
"With all due respect, sir. My methods are far from unreliable. I am the person they call in when other means have failed, and the information I've gathered is almost always found to be accurate. You can look at my record if you doubt me."
The senator studied her for a long while and Jane tried not to squirm under his scrutiny. Finally he said, "Doctor Lyndsay, I appreciate you bringing me this information. I will deal with it accordingly. Now, if you have nothing else, I have another appointment."
"Please, sir. I know this must be hard for you to accept. I am sure your campaign is a good one and I'm not asking you to drop it. But these people, they are innocent. I-"
Jane stopped short at the cold gaze Gillespie gave her.
"Thank you, doctor. I really must insist that you leave now."
Jane nodded and turned to leave. Numbly she walked to her car, started it up and headed for the airport. She had been so sure that he wouldn't allow such a thing to happen. Now she wondered if she hadn't just made the biggest mistake of her career, and her life.
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Gillespie stared at the door for several minutes after Jane had left. He was upset with himself for letting his anger get the better of him.
How dare she accuse him of charging innocent citizens?
He wanted to call her superiors and let them know just exactly what she had done, but he knew that he was not in a good frame of mind to speak just yet.
His mind raced, recalling the story she had told him. Slowly he began to calm down and let reason take over. While she seemed nervous, she had not seemed like a liar. This was a woman with conviction and passion. It had taken courage for her to come to him, even if she was wrong. And she must be wrong. Barrett had assured him that they had more than enough hard evidence to convict the detainees.
Evidence that didn't exist until a few weeks ago.
Jane's words echoed in his head, stirring his earlier doubts.
The evidence had seemed to appear rather suddenly. He remembered thinking that they had appeared almost conveniently, not too long after a rather heated conversation with Barrett.
Gillespie let his mind wander back over past conversations, the doubts beginning to grow until he found himself reaching for the phone and making a few discrete calls. Once he had given his instructions to a variety of people, with somewhat nebulous titles, he turned his attention back to his calendar and awaiting meetings. He was confident that he would get the responses he expected no later than tomorrow. And the response he expected was affirmation that the detainees were, in fact, guilty, and the doctor had just made a mistake. If not, heads would roll.
Chapter Fifty-One
"What do you mean she visited Gillespie? What about?"
"We're not sure. We caught nothing on her phone or her communications. She must have used the hotel lobby phone or something."
Fessacchione!
Yuri clenched his jaw to keep from actually saying the thought out loud. As his jaw began to ache, he willed himself to unclench his teeth. Instead he told his brother, "Find. Out. Now!"
Slamming the desk phone down, Yuri began pacing the floor.
Tutto per la famiglia, he kept telling himself. Everything for the family. But Gregor's screw ups just kept mounting. Could he never do anything right?
Maybe it was time Gregor met with an accident.
The recurring thought traipsed through his mind, reminding him that it wasn't like they hadn't gotten rid of other family members before. Of course they had been traitors. But how much different was Gregor from them? In the end they had both fucked the family over.
He would have to think of that later though. Jumping online, he opened one of the private chatrooms and sent out an invite. Not waiting for a response he typed,
A second later the invitee entered.
Yuri, abruptly logged off and turned to his more immediate priority. Though they had gathered momentum, he and his team needed to continue to prod the hackers who had joined their cause toward ever increasing acts of outrageousness. Of course it had been so much easier than he’d anticipated. Thanks to the help from the Robin Hood wannabe, self-designated ‘watchers’, they were making more headway in the last several weeks than they had seen in years. It was a shame the idiot do-gooders didn’t realize it.
Even now, several of the world's governments – each prompted by key persons from supporting families – were readily passing new, or rewriting existing, laws around internet access and use. These stricter laws would allow the families to advance one of their agendas – to control exactly what people did and did not have access to – in all countries instead of just the few they already had control of. And all of it under the guise of protecting the innocent.
But they had just gotten started and too many officials seemed to need more prodding. The protest attacks in support of freeing the Gillespie Five were still too cautious. If they were going to keep building the momentum, that would have to change. And Yuri had a few ideas that should accomplish just that.
In the meantime, he would have to wait and see how, or if, Gillespie responded. He would also, unfortunately, have to take the doctor out of the equation.
Chapter Fifty-Two
The blaring sound of his phone ringing, pulled Barrett out of deep sleep. As the obnoxious sound continued, he glanced groggily at the hotel’s bedside clock. It was only five a.m.
Wiping the sleep from his eyes,
he noticed the caller ID. It was Gillespie. Barrett had expected a call, just not so damn early. After all, having spent the last several days chasing a lead they ended up losing, they had unexpectedly stumbled on another lead that looked promising. And this lead looked as if it might net them, not one, but two additional people to add to the current group of detainees. He had sent such a message to Gillespie late last night and was certain Gillespie would call to get more details and to congratulate him.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Excuse me, sir?"
"I just got off the phone with a few of my people and between what they have told me and what Doctor Lyndsay had to say, we really do not have jack shit! In fact, I have reason to believe all of the allegations we have against the detainees are nothing but a pack of damn lies!"
Barrett hadn't expected this.
"Sir, I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about."
"Do not give me that lame ass excuse. You know damn well what I am talking about! We are holding innocent American citizens!"
Barrett's mind raced. The doctor had obviously told him her version of things but she couldn’t have known they’d fabricated everything. He would deal with her later. But who else had Gillespie been talking to?
"Sir, I can assure you we are not holding innocent citizens. We have irrefutable evidence of their guilt. I am sure the doctor shared her lack of findings, and we never stated we found anything through our interrogations. In fact the detainees were remarkably resistant. But the evidence doesn't lie, sir. Doctor Lyndsay spoke with me herself and I assured her that while I had no doubt she was good at dealing with war prisoners, her techniques just didn't work here."
He paused, waiting. After several moments passed he said tentatively, "Sir?"
"I want you in my office tomorrow with everything you have and where and how you got it. Tomorrow! Is that understood?"
Barrett wanted to tell him that what he understood was that Gillespie was a pompous, self-righteous asshole who couldn’t tell a hacker from a hole in the wall. Instead, he replied with, "Sir, we are chasing down two possible real leads in your case that I think we may be able to close in the next day or two. And I’m not sure I can get a flight out of D.C. this late."
There was strained silence on the phone and then the clacking sound of someone typing on a keyboard, before Barrett heard, "Then be in my office first thing Monday morning! And, Barrett?"
"Sir?"
"If I have any reason to doubt what you show me, I will wash my hands of you and throw you to the press."
The line went dead and Barrett threw his phone across the room. It shattered on impact.
For a long moment he stared at the scattered pieces, then, picking up the office phone, he dialed a number that had become all too familiar to him.
"Hello?"
"The doctor has been talking to the senator."
"We know."
"You knew? When were you planning on telling me?"
"Not important. What did he say?"
Barrett tried to brush off his annoyance as he repeated what Gillespie had said and finished with, "He wants me there first thing Monday morning."
"Okay. You can handle the senator. But there has been a slight change in plans. Once you get the information in front of him, we need you to prompt him to expedite the transportation of the detainees to a federal facility and ready them for prosecution. As soon as possible."
"Why the hurry?"
"Too many people asking too many questions. It’s time to move forward. Can you make it happen?"
Thinking about how well the neurolinguistics training had worked on Gillespie before, Barrett responded with, "Sure. I can do that. But what about the doctor? I can start an investigation –"
"We’ll handle her."
Barrett heard the line go dead and swore. He was getting tired of people hanging up on him.
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The alarms sent Michael shooting out of bed and running for his computer. After not seeing any activity yesterday, he hadn’t been sure if the keyloggers were active. Being attached to his computer, he couldn’t imagine why Gillespie hadn’t logged in all day yesterday. He had just been speaking withµβ and wondering about how to get another set of keyloggers in the office, thinking the other's batteries had died or that something was interfering with their transmission. They already knew that the other keylogger had not made it to its destination, so this was their only chance.
Typing in a few commands, he read the messages and let out a loud whoop. The wireless keyloggers were not only active, they were recording. They had their in.
Shooting off a quick encrypted email toµβ, Michael started the process that would begin downloading all of the information to a shared server location. The first step would be to run a few customized programs, searching the captured data for accounts and passwords. Depending on how much data they had captured, this step alone could take several hours. And then there would be the not so fun task of sifting through all of the data looking for key terms that would hopefully net them exactly what they were looking for. Forgetting that he had gone to bed just a few hours ago, Michael began setting everything else up they would need, wondering what they would find.
Glancing at the clock, he realized that though it was past time for school, his mom had never come to wake him up. Absently he wondered if she'd even come home the night before. He hadn't actually seen her in several days. Just the odd text to let him know he needed to do some chore or another.
There was a brief flicker of disappointment, coupled with a little sadness that Michael was getting used too. But his thoughts and feelings were quickly erased in his excitement to find out exactly what flies they had caught in their trap. He imagined that the next series of attacks, armed with inside information, were going to be off the charts compared to the ones they had already executed.
He fist pumped the air in his excitement and then went back to typing.
Chapter Fifty-Three
John had been camping on top of a cliff for three days, watching the small fenced in area surrounding a barely discernable doorway. So far he had seen only a handful of soldiers and suits coming and going. But that type of activity in the middle of nowhere had been enough to keep him around.
It had taken a little over a week, since his arrival, before the tribal council would agree to allow him here. But he had not protested. The Ute did things their own way and he wasn't about to burn any bridges he might need later. Once the council had made their decision, it had been Kaib who’d led John to where he now lay hidden. On their way, Kaib - whose name meant 'Mountain' and, at 6'4, did the moniker justice – had explained that there was seldom activity in this area but that had changed a few months ago. He mentioned several military and black government vehicles had been driving in and out, bringing in people and equipment. But Kaib couldn't confirm if the people John was looking for had been among them. When John had asked about the door into the cliff, he'd received the answer he had suspected. The door led to an extensive, mostly undocumented, underground compound built in the early 1950's to house government officials in case of a nuclear attack. The government hadn't asked if they could build it on Ute territory. Like everything else, they had just taken what they wanted when they wanted it.
John smiled, recalling one of the tribesman's tales about how the chairman of the tribal council had gotten monetary retribution some years later with a combination of blackmail and good old fashioned cunning. That was one of many unofficial stories on how the Southern Utes had begun to pull themselves out of poverty when other tribal nations were drowning in it. But it was far from the only story. The Ute leaders had used their cunning and sheer genius to pull off several successful ventures that had served the tribe well over the years. John had long admired their skills and their determination to do more than try and preserve traditions the old fashioned way, and instead embrace those things that could keep them solvent and rele
vant in an increasingly careless world. He often thought other tribal nations could take lessons.
Sound from below caught his attention. Pulling out his antireflective binoculars, John zoomed in just as the door opened. Quickly adjusting his desert ghillie suit and equipment camouflage, he watched as a soldier came into view, followed by three civilians and another soldier. A few seconds later, two more civilians were led out. Turning on the bionic ear device he'd purchased several days earlier, he made sure the parabolic booster was oriented correctly, and settled in to listen and watch.
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Alex waited until the guards had retreated back to the door before approaching his nephew. He saw the shock on Tommy's face when he noticed Alex.
Alex tried to give him a reassuring smile, but winced when the small cut in the corner of his mouth opened. "Hey kiddo."
"Why did they hit you again? I thought they had everything they wanted."
Alex shrugged. "I don't know. Something about my time with the doctor and what she had been asking me." He didn’t add that the questions the guards and suits were asking also revolved around if he knew where she might have been for the last several days.
As if reading his thoughts, Tommy asked, "Have you seen Jane?"
Alex tightened his lips and shook his head. "No. Not since Monday."
He looked at Tommy, thankful that they had not started questioning him again. But he didn’t have the heart to tell Tommy that he wasn’t sure if Jane was coming back. Or, if she should. And that was if she was still alive.
"Do you think they'll come to ask the rest of us questions again?"
"No."
"How do you know?"
Alex gave Tommy's shoulder a reassuring squeeze and winked. "Give your uncle some credit, kid. I know things."