Rick knew at that point the chess match had begun. Player One chose a bold start, leading with their Knights, moving twice at the open, much to Player Two’s chagrin. Rick waited patiently for the DDI. The countermove was his as the DDI introduced him as the Lead Analyst for Special Access Program Thorny Rose, the determination of and elimination of an active terrorist threat to Washington, DC. He slid his chair slightly to the side and turned toward Rick, giving him the microphone.
Rick cleared his throat. He had taken a drink of water before the Senators arrived, but suddenly, his throat was dry again. He quickly took another drink.
“I want to thank you both for having me here today. We stood up Thorny Rose ten days ago after NSA identified a crucial conversation between Da’esh in Syria and someone we determined to be in the United States. With the assistance of DHS, we built a Tiger Team of Joint Terrorism Task Force professionals. Lieutenant Colonel Travis Strong from the Pentagon and I built a redundant collection plan, maximizing the strengths of each agency within the IC. DOJ’s Becky Jahring and the FBI’s team of watch-standers responded in short order that someone who’d recently appeared on their radar answered the description based on our presumptions.
“We refined the questions, and the FBI determined that an individual they had under surveillance was active in plotting a terrorist event in DC. When that determination was made, the FBI took the lead. They will be in a better position to brief on the HRT raid when they talk to you.”
“I believe you can tell us now.” The Chairman seemed to be in a foul mood. He always presented a pleasant face when he was on the Sunday talk shows. Unperturbed they called him.
He seemed plenty perturbed, but Rick set that aside. “It’ll be my pleasure, Mr. Chairman. The FBI coordinated with Public Works while putting their people in place to cordon off the Bagdad Market. With snipers providing oversight, two FBI Agents executed a removal of suspected supporters from the front of the store before the HRT accessed the back rooms. They achieved the element of surprise in the first of a series of rooms, where each led to another. In the first room, accessed by a door located behind the counter, they found the store’s owner and what appeared to be armed security, who attempted to engage the HRT.
“These threats were quickly neutralized, but the team was engaged by an unknown number of targets in the next room who fired through the wall. The team continued into that room, where they eliminated the threat, before coming under fire again by targets shooting through the wall. This time, though, the enemy used armor piercing rounds, which impacted the Assistant Team Lead. The HRT eliminated the remaining threat in the third room while the prime target blew a breaching charge and attempted to escape through the wall into the back alley where he was intercepted and arrested.”
Rick took a long pull from the water bottle in front of him, watching for any indications from the Committee members regarding his play. Will his pawn get attacked?
The Chairman seemed amused. “If I understand correctly, the person who intercepted what you called the primary target, was actually you, Mr. Banik. The man was trying to escape, and you captured him, without the benefit of arms or training. You also killed a second man who was similarly attempting to escape. I have to say, Mr. Banik, we get many visitors to the Hill. All have some kind of story to tell about why they are the greatest. Part of our job is to weed through their claims to find the truth. In your case, you didn’t even mention that part. What do you think, Kathy? I believe we have a ‘hero’ in our midst.”
Rick didn’t feel honored. The way the Chairman said the word hero grated on his soul. He made something that should have been a compliment into a pejorative. Smiling tightly and nodding, Rick looked away from the Chairman. The DDI came to the rescue.
“Of course, Rick isn’t going to bring that up. The HRT has a team member in the hospital, and that hit us all hard.” A statement without accepting blame or suggesting any incompetence. A masterful play, Rick thought, almost entirely detached from the personal nature of the conversation.
“Do you know how she is?” Senator Finklestein asked.
Rick immediately wanted to answer with the single word ‘yes,’ because he did know how she was. He wished people would be more precise with their questions. “She is recovering in ICU. Travis and I stopped by to see her yesterday, and she seemed in good spirits, despite the fact that she probably will not walk again.”
Senator Finklestein nodded and made no further comments.
“Mr. Banik, is our city safe?” That was a more open question than he expected.
“Sir, this is the greatest city on the planet. More political power is wielded here than anywhere else. We will always be a target.” Rick looked at the DDI, who nodded almost imperceptibly. “We believe the activity at Bagdad Market was a part, a big part mind you, of a greater planned attack. Before you ask, we simply cannot be positive that the takedown of Bagdad Market will stop the next one.” Rick drank the last of his water. That was probably more direct than the DDI intended, but Rick was being himself, and they didn’t give him sufficient time to be more tactful. Their fifteen minutes was up.
“I would suspect so. They only have to get lucky once. Another terrorist attack on the greatest city would tell the world that maybe we’re not so great. If something happens, we won’t be able to impose our will on other countries. Even our allies will lose confidence. You give my staff a list of what you need, and I’ll make sure we respond.” After a harrumph from Senator Finklestein, Senator Webber added, “We will make sure we address your needs, as my distinguished colleague from the left coast has reminded me.” His drawl seemed to get heavier, almost as if his glass of water wasn’t water. Rick wondered, but wouldn’t get the chance to check.
The Senators departed as they arrived, through the back door, with everyone standing as part of the Committee meeting’s formality.
Two of the Senator’s staff made a beeline for Rick. He stepped back to let the DDI lead the way. Until a hand in his back pushed them into their incoming path.
They introduced themselves, but Rick forgot their names instantly. The way to the Senator’s heart was through his staff, so Rick needed to get their names again, maybe even write them down. The DDI came to his rescue.
“Candace, Greg, always a pleasure to see you here. Usually, the circumstances are grimmer. It’s nice to celebrate a win every now and then, huh?” They both nodded vigorously. “We’re going to need a couple assets from other agencies to liaise with us at Langley. We’ll provide a list of who we would like if that’s okay? We’ll accept a capability in case one of our sister agencies can’t part with the individual we request. We won’t ask for much, trust us! We’re the CIA.”
The only one who didn’t laugh was Rick. He thought of himself as an analyst with EPEC. He forced a smile so he didn’t look like the odd man out. The DDI slapped Rick heartily on the back, enough to make him cough.
Rick thanked them both as they shook hands and excused themselves for their next meeting starting in ten minutes. Rick and Race Banyon were left alone in the room with the master at arms. “That it?” Rick asked. The DDI nodded and shrugged.
“I think we made good progress today. It’s important to get that list to them quickly. Though the Senators said they’d make sure we got what we wanted, even they need time to get things done. So we’ll need two courses of action. We’ll call course one the ‘no money’ variant, and course two, will be the ‘50% of what we need’ version. We have to ask for enough that when they give us half of it, we’ll still be able to get the job done.
Race laughed at Rick’s confused look.
“I’ve been in this gig a long time, and that’s how we need to do it. Right now, I think we can count on the second course of action. Let’s make that work for us.”
When they walked out, Rick wasn’t surprised that the DDI’s vehicle was waiting with the door open. Rick hadn’t seen anyone make a call to alert the driver. It was almost like magic. He’d ask, but not
today. There were more important things to think about.
Building a New Team
It wasn’t even ten in the morning and they were already back at their desks. When the DDI said we, he meant that Rick would create the list, and then they’d send it from the Deputy Director’s email. His direction was to ask for what he wanted, double it, and send it upstairs.
So Rick asked for ten people, by name, nine watch-standers from Thorny Rose and one from EPEC. By adding a billable EPEC employee to the payroll, Rick hoped he might get to keep most of his pay raise.
One of the people on his list was Xandrie Kovak. She deserved a chance to be an advisor, even if they only put a STU-III in her home.
Rick sent a text to Travis with his new STU-III number and requested that he call.
Rick had to talk with the Special Access Program Officer, who shut Rick down cold when he tried to create a new code name as a successor to Thorny Rose. He thought Broken Tile was a great name, but she was having none of it.
She awarded him a none-too-pleasant toothy grin and program title of Amber Rose. He thought it better than Thorny Rose, but not by much. In his mind, nothing changed. The FBI raid on the Bagdad Market was a red herring. He couldn’t let the faceless man fly safely under the radar.
Rick looked at his old collection matrix. He skimmed the entries, thinking back a week when twenty-five people were working each line, digging through all the haystacks looking for that one needle.
He needed the NSA to spin up their algorithm, and it wouldn’t cost anything to do that. That was on the no-cost course of action because it had already been put into the system. All Rick needed was to confirm it was still running and that he’d get notified if something popped up.
Searching for multi-entry visa holders who made a last minute change for a return flight to the Middle East would take people and time. That was a course two option. Rick took out his pad and added items in the columns to best help the DDI visualize what was most important and how the 50% course of action would deliver the information they needed to help him find the faceless man.
Rick sat back and looked at the caricature on the board. The faceless man, a man of mystery, a man of international intrigue. He drew a suitcase with tags from various countries and a passport bursting with visa stamps. Then he added two other passports. Rick guessed that he traveled under multiple names which would make it difficult for them to track a single man.
His phone rang while he paced in front of his desk.
“Rick, my man, do you want to initiate?” Travis asked before Rick turned his key and initiated the secure connection between the two telephones.
“Travis, I know you thought I’d grow more distant since I’ve been vaulted to such ultimate loftiness.” Rick waited for the profanity-laden tirade ended before he continued. “Met with the Senate Select Committee today, and I think we can bring you into the successor of our other project. I asked for you as number one. As DoD, you’re not afraid to task anyone to get what you want, and that’s what I need.”
“I don’t know what to say, Rick. Any time away from the Pentagon is good time. I don’t have enough rank to do anything important here. My boss won’t even let me sit in on status meetings. When do I start?”
“I hope soon,” Rick said. “I’m afraid there aren’t too many of us working it.”
“How many is not too many?” Travis asked suspiciously.
“Well, when you’re on board, that’ll make two.”
“Not sure I would have expected anything different, but thanks for saving me from my meaningless existence. I have to say that my life has gotten a whole lot more exciting since I met Rick Freaking Banik,” Travis ended with a flare.
“I also asked for Xandrie to be on the team,” Rick added quietly.
“Hey! She still needs to rest and recover. She’s barely out of ICU, Rick. What the hell are you thinking?” Travis demanded unexpectedly.
“Relax. I asked for a STU-III so she can work from home, whenever she’s released from the hospital, of course. She doesn’t strike me as the type of person who will relax to recover. I expect she needs to stay active.” There was such a long pause that Rick checked to make sure they were still connected. “So what do you think, Travis? I can pull the plug on the request, and she’ll never know.”
“No,” he said softly. “I think she would like to do anything other than sit at home.”
“So, tell me what happened after I left yesterday, which, I’ll have you know, wasn’t easy. It took me almost an hour to find the minivan.”
“She fell asleep after thirty minutes,” Travis said. Rick prepared a comeback about Travis having that kind of effect on women but decided to save it for later. “I didn’t say good bye, so I waited until she woke up, and we started talking again. Two hours later, the nurses chased me away.”
“Dude, sounds like you have a crush,” Rick blurted out before thinking. “Sounds like you’re helping her past the worst of it. You’re a good man, Travis. I feel horrible that someone got hurt on my watch, but, and there’s always a “but,” for the greater good and all that…” Rick’s monologue drifted off. Sacrifices have to be made, he told himself, Semper Fi.
“I know what I’ll be doing after work from here to who knows when. I may even take some vacation. I have plenty on the books.” He talked slowly as if trying to talk himself into something. “She makes me feel funny, Rick.”
“I don’t know what to say, Travis. You know me and the touchy-feely stuff. I’m happy that my wife was able to see through my cast iron armor to my gooey chocolate center. Enjoy your time off, my friend.” Rick hung up. With Travis, Rick instantly knew liked the man because he felt like he could trust him. In Rick’s world, trust didn’t come cheaply.
Tuesday Looks Just Like Monday
“Is every day Monday around here?” Rick asked the wall of his office, demonstrating his impatience, despite the DDI’s assurances that all things would come in time. He felt like he needed to do something.
So he called the Company’s liaison at the Department of State, hoping to set up an appointment. The liaison had forwarded his office phone to his cell phone and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow, where he could squeeze Rick in for fifteen minutes right before lunch, assuming none of the morning meetings ran over. Rick thanked the man profusely for any help he could provide, and they hung up.
Rick’s impression of the man wasn’t kind. “Another oxygen thief helping me look for you,” he told the faceless man.
“Be careful who you call that around here,” a well-dressed man said from the open doorway. He was short and looked familiar, but Rick couldn’t place him. After his brief hesitation, he walked toward the man, offering his hand.
“Sorry about that. Maybe I talk with myself too much,” he laughed and smiled, to put the new man at ease. “I’m Rick Banik, squatter, until we find that man and stop him.” He emphasized his point by stabbing a finger in the direction of the caricature.
“Rick Banik, EPEC. The man who took down Ahmed al-Suqami, recently bumped to acting SES, overseeing Amber Rose for us. I’m Dave Allister, Deputy Director of Operations, pleased to meet you.” He had a powerful handshake and a hard smile. He struck Rick as a man who had seen too much pain in his life but still did what he had to.
“I wanted to stop by and introduce myself. It’s not often we get analysts who act like operators but really want to be analysts. Most people think the world of Operations is sexy like you read about in the books. You served in the Corps, right?” He asked.
“I did some time. I had the pleasure of meeting all kinds of operators in Iraq. A sniper once told me that he peed himself to keep from giving away his position. I’m not good with that. I like my designer coffee, an ice-cold RockStar every now and then, and the mental chess match pitting me against him.” They both looked at the whiteboard.
“Not all operators get dirty. I think you would enjoy seeing what we have to offer.” Rick was taken aback. Was the DDO trying to
poach him from DDI? Or was this a loyalty check? He didn’t know how the senior personalities interacted.
Rick had told himself that he loved the mental chess match. He realized that he was playing more than one game at a time.
“And give up all this, Deputy Director?” Rick took in his small office with an arm wave showing the plainest of the plain. “I’m flattered, but I need to find this man, for me, for my family.” He turned to face his caricature.
“He’s your white whale. We all have one. Mine is a Russian, and I’ve seen his face, in the dark of my mind. How we deal with that makes us the men we are. I need you to find that man, too. For my family, Rick. Find him. Then we’ll talk again.” With one last glance at the faceless man, the DDO reestablished his neutral expression and left.
That was odd, Rick thought. I wonder if I passed the test, won the match, or whatever that was.
The Blackphone lying on the desk chirped with a new text. Travis sent, “X out of ICU!”
“Doesn’t get any better than that! Give her my best when you see her.” Rick sent texts without taking any spelling shortcuts. His kids laughed at the perfect grammar from their old man. It grated on his soul to see something like “R u there?”
Rick looked at his phone. He should give her a call, but wanted to talk with Travis tonight about the important things, like staying busy with work that matters and having the right people in your life.
There weren’t any secrets hidden in the blank screen. He had nothing to point him to the faceless man. He threw a rubber eraser at the caricature, and watched it bounce out the door to his office.
People Raged: and the Sky Was on Fire-Compendium (Rick Banik Thrillers Book 1) Page 16