Tragic Desires

by A. M. Hargrove

  “You ready?” Blake asks.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be. Listen, I want you to send two teams out. One goes to the storage unit in Austin and the other hits Vegas. I want them to bring back whatever Gemini’s mother left for her in either location. Use threats, break in at night, do whatever you need to. Just bring back what’s there. If the file is there, it’s most likely on an old floppy disc.”

  “We’ll get it, Drex. And you need to take it easy.” Blake looks at me. “I mean it. If you get hurt, who will she rely on?”

  “I got you, Blake. And thanks. Find out everything you can about where she’s being held.”

  Huff says, “Drex, man, let me go with you.”

  “You can’t. No time for explanations. Find my girl and let me know how I can get her. As soon as I’m done with Michaels, I’m going after her.”

  “Drex, you’re gonna need more than three guns and a couple of knives.”

  “You’re wrong, Huff. I’ll only need my bare hands.”

  MICHAELS IS WAITING for me in the parking lot across the street from my demolished warehouse that I used to call home. Just looking at it pisses me off. But when I see him, the top of my head wants to blow.

  My feet hit the ground and I walk with a purpose. The thing is, I want to punch his lights out, but I can’t. I need him. I need his information. But after I get it, then I’ll punch his lights out.

  “What do you have for me?”

  Michaels gives me an eat-shit grin and asks, “What do you have for me?”

  “Are you fucking with me, because right now, I’m about to come unglued. First of all, the goddamn terror cell knows I’m CIA and now I find out that somehow your man was involved with Gemini. Tell me how this all worked out for you, Michaels. And how did Nick Lowry end up dead? How did you guys manage to fuck this up so badly?”

  “Who told you about Lowry?”

  “Are you guys that stupid or do you just have your heads so far up your asses you don’t know what the fuck is going on out here? Is Leo aware of this?”

  When his face turns a tad paler, I can tell I’ve hit on something big. “What is it, Alex? You sneaking around behind the boss’s back? Is that it? Leo doesn’t even know you’re here, does he? He doesn’t know anything about you and your involvement in the Sheridan case, does he? So who’s paying you off and who did you pay to try and implicate me in all this mess?”

  “Wait a minute!”

  “No, you wait a goddamn minute. Whatever you’re doing smells rotten. I see sellout and double-crossing all over this shit. And I can call in the big guys right now if you don’t start talking. It looks to me that you’ve gotten pretty fucking cozy with Aali Imaam. How else would they know about Gemini and her mom? How else would they have gotten information about me? Only a few select people even know I work for the CIA. Hell, the fucking CIA doesn’t even know I work for them. And Aali Imaam knows? So you tell me and tell me something fast, or I’m making that goddamn phone call and you’re gonna have all sorts of shit crawling up your ass. Tell me what the fuck you know.”

  He’s even whiter than he was before and I know I have him cornered.

  “Lowry was recruited to keep an eye on her right after her mother was killed. But when she had the damn accident, she got so schizo on him, he went haywire on us. I’m not sure what happened with him. He was way too involved with her because he went fucking nuts. Started making all kinds of threats so we had to take him out.”

  What the fuck! They took out one of their own. “You guys are unbelievable. You don’t even think about helping people anymore. Your answer is a bullet to the head. End of story. Is that what you did to Michelle Sheridan too?”

  “No. We wanted her alive. She has something that …” His mouth clamps shut so hard, I hear his teeth click.

  “Go on,” I urge.

  “Nothing. There’s nothing.”

  “What the fuck turnip truck do you think I fell off? With the smarts I’m dealing with out here, I’m surprised every single one of our government secrets hasn’t been given away yet. You guys are incredible.”

  His fingers hook into his collar and he pulls it away from his neck, trying to loosen it a bit. Then his head jerks around, avoiding my glance.

  “You really can’t stand to look at me, can you?”

  “That’s not it. I just have nothing to say about that.”

  A laugh escapes me. “Well, I suggest you come up with something fast because time’s running out. Tell me everything you know, dickhead.”

  “What exactly do you know?”

  “No, no, no, Michaels! That’s not how this works. I’m asking the questions now. So if you don’t want my fist in your face, you’d better get talking, and fast.”

  He looks at me, hard. “The Sheridan case goes back to 1993. The Company approached Rachel Miller, aka Michelle Sheridan, to get information about her lover, Hakeem Assaf. The dossier reads that she didn’t have a clue who or what he was. She only knew he had money. They were most definitely in love, because from all accounts, she was broken after she turned him in. Although she didn’t really turn him in. She gave us the means to capture him. And when we did, he asked us how we found out. According to the story, he crumbled and cried like a baby when he found out it all came from his beloved mistress and mother of his daughter. He begged and begged them to let him see Amira and Rachel one more time, but The Company refused. They were already placed in the program and had new identities. Her death had been set up and the day it appeared in the news, the account of his reaction says he had to be sedated. He thought she took her own life. Of course, it looked perfect for us, but he obsessed over Amira. They assured him she would be okay, but every day, his condition worsened until they were forced to put him in the psych unit. When he finally recovered, he supplied them with everything they asked in return for a life in solitude within the confines of our prison system. He lost the desire to live and he knew he could never return to the Middle East. They would hunt and kill him, but he didn’t care. He didn’t want them to find his daughter. So we changed his name but he died a few years later of cancer.”

  He’s telling me the truth because most of it coincides with what Gemini’s mom wrote.

  “Okay, Michaels, if what you’re saying is true, what kind of info did you glean from Rachel Miller and why are you still after her daughter?”

  He’s back to being that twitchy guy he was a couple minutes ago.

  “Okay, first off, it wasn’t me. It was a group of people before my time.”

  “Whatever. You’re involved in this and from what I can see, you’re in deep. Start talking.”

  “She turned over all of his connections. Financial docs of where he sent his money. Lists of who it went to. Remember, this was in ’93, well before the encryption that we have today on personal computers. They taught her how to tap into this stuff and then send it to one of The Company’s computers. From there, they hooked into other records and got everything they needed.”

  “So what happened? What aren’t you telling me?”

  “She found a shitload of info on how the US was involved in supplying arms to the Afghans during their war with the Soviets. And how a lot of those arms ended up in the hands of terrorists. But she also ended up with a file that we didn’t know about. And we need that file.”

  “Why didn’t you just ask her for it?”

  Now he tugs on his shirt collar. This is bad. He paces.

  “We didn’t know until recently that she had it.” He looks me in the eye and now I’m beginning to understand.

  “How recently?” I know when I ask this I’m not going to like the answer.

  “About the same time they did.”

  “They, as in Aali Imaam?”

  “Yes.”

  “Michaels, they claim they didn’t kill her. Did you guys?”

  He scrubs his face. “It was an accident. We were trying to get her to stop so we could talk to her, but she wouldn’t. It all happened so fast. That
’s when we put Nick on the daughter. Then when the daughter went missing, we thought they found her. We went round and round with Nick on going to the authorities. We didn’t want him to do it, but he went against us. He was really worried about her. And that was our biggest mistake because he fell in love with her.”

  “Fuck. So what did Rachel take?”

  “I can’t …”

  “Goddammit, Michaels! I don’t have time to fuck around with you! They have Gemini and will kill her if I don’t get to her.”

  “They won’t kill her, Wolfe. At least not yet. They need her to get what they want.”

  I’m on him like a fucking pit bull. My hand wraps around his neck, my thumb against his trachea. It wouldn’t take much for me to kill him and he knows it.

  “You better fucking tell me something fast because I’m at the end of my rope with you.”

  He struggles for air and ekes out, “They need her. And I’ll tell you if you release me.”

  My hand eases up, just enough so he can speak. “Rachel Miller stole a file that contained locations of plutonium-238, cesium-137, and polonium-210. There’s enough of those substances to create dirty bombs for massive destruction that would make 9/11 look like a walk in the park. No one in Aali Imaam knew where that stuff is stored other than Hakeem Assaf, and then Rachel Miller. Our friends think Gemini has the file, or at least knows where it is. That’s why they want her. Nick was there to protect her. And you, you fuckhead, we’ve been trying to get you to call us but your assface wouldn’t return any of those calls. Not even after your fucking house was destroyed. Only a select group of people in the CIA knows about this.”

  “There’s still one question that remains unanswered. How the fuck did Aali Imaam know I work for the CIA when almost no one in the CIA knows?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “You’re gonna have to do better than that.”

  “Wolfe, you’re gonna have to search that one out for yourself ’cuz I can’t answer that.”

  Goddammit. Who the hell would know all this shit? It would have to be someone from inside. My hand releases and Michaels rubs his neck.

  My phone is in my hand.

  “What’s up?” Huff answers.

  “I want every goddamn security code in our system changed. Right now. Drop everything you’re doing and get that done. We have a breach.”

  “You know who?”

  “Not a clue, but I aim to find out and when I do, I’m going to nail his or her ass. Any word from the teams in the field?”

  “Our jet is en route to Vegas and we should hear something in a couple of hours. The other team has their jet chartered and wheels should be up any minute.”

  “Good. Any news on Gemini?” I need to get my ass back to the office.

  “Drex, no word or demands yet.”

  “I’m on my way back.”

  Michaels looks at me and says, “Let me help with this, Wolfe.”

  I flash him a withering look. “You guys have fucked this up so badly—what makes you think I want you along? So you can destroy this country?”

  “You have every right to think that, but maybe I can help. I don’t know.”

  “No. I don’t want you anywhere near Gemini when we find her. Your hands are dirty enough. You killed your own operative. I don’t want you getting anywhere close to her.”

  He has that look about him, one that tells me something’s up. “What now, Michaels?”

  “They want her dead.”

  “I know that.”

  “Not Aali Imaam. The CIA.”

  He’s stopped me dead in my tracks. “What did you just say?”

  “She knows way too much now and this whole operation has been compromised.”

  “That operation has been dead in the water for years.”

  “But it’s not, Wolfe. That’s why I’m involved. There’s a group of us that need that file. So we can shut this thing down.”

  “Oh, no. It doesn’t work like that. Not anymore. I’ll get that file. But I’m gonna do it my way. To ensure Gemini’s safety.” I watch his hand and there is it. “Goddamn you, Michaels.” He should’ve known I’d be the faster of the two of us.

  When he’s lying there with a bullet in his head, I realize that now I’m on someone’s hit list. I immediately pull on a pair of latex gloves and rifle through his pockets for his cell phone. Then I send the contacts list to my email and destroy his SIM card. After I wipe the phone clean of any prints, I slip it back into his pocket and pick up the pieces of the card. Holding his hand, I squeeze off one round from his gun. I scan for the bullet casing from my gun and stick it in my pocket.

  Next, I roll Michaels over, checking his wound to see if the bullet is still in him. We were at such close range, I’m hoping it was a through shot. When I find that it is, I now need to find the damn bullet that killed him. When I finally find it, I wash it off, pocket it, and head back to the office.

  It’s been a couple of years since I’ve had to kill anyone. My head is back to the night I shot that little kid. I can’t let this incident screw me up right now. I need to focus on getting Gemini back safely. Why did that fucker have to pull a gun? Who the hell is compromising me? And who are the moles in the CIA?

  As I storm in, everyone knows there’s something wrong. Huff pulls me into my office and closes the door.

  “Well?”

  “Sit. There’s a lot you don’t know and this stays between the two of us. I need that oath from you. Do I have it?”

  “Jesus, Drex. What the fuck is going on?”

  “The oath. Do I have it?”

  “Yes!”

  “I just killed Michaels because he was going to kill me. We need to get rid of these.” I pull out the bullet and casing. “This needs to be burned. I’m CIA. Not full-time, and only a select few in The Company know.” I explain how they recruited me after I left the military and I end with what happened with Michaels.

  “Damn! Nothing is ever easy with you, is it?”

  “No, not a goddamn thing. Now if you want your walking papers, I’ll understand. But if you’re going to stay, there are some key things you need to know about what went on with Michelle Sheridan.”

  Huff looks at me. “Do you think a little thing like this is gonna scare me off? You take me for some kind of pussy?”

  That actually makes me laugh. Hard.

  “No, not a pussy. Definitely not a pussy.”

  “Good. Glad we got that straight. So, the CIA, huh.”

  “Yeah. And not just them. Homeland Security and the FBI. Domestic shit, basically. Sorry I couldn’t say anything. Now that the fucking Aali Imaam cell and half the population in Denver seem to know about it, I suppose it’s not so top secret anymore. There’s a group in the CIA that’s dirty. They killed Lowry and Gemini’s mom.”

  “Our suspicions were true. So what’s next?”

  “As soon as we find out if the file is in Vegas or Austin, I go get Gemini.”

  “Not before?”

  “It’s killing me not to because all I can think of is what they’re doing to her, but they need her. At least that’s what Michaels said. I hope to fuck he wasn’t feeding me a line. If we have that file in hand, that’s her life insurance.”

  “Want me to go in and take a look?”

  My leg bounces. It can’t sit still. “Think you can get a camera in there?”

  “I don’t know about that. I can take a look, though. Wish we had a drone to do a flyby.”

  A thought plows into me. “Hang on a sec. My CIA pseudo-boss might be our Obi-wan Kenobi.” Grabbing my phone, I tap in some numbers and hear a familiar voice. I hit the speakerphone so Huff can hear this.

  “Leo Stanton. Drexel Wolfe here.”

  “Drexel Wolfe. What can I do for you?”

  “What do you know about Project Gemini?”

  “Doesn’t ring a bell.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Because your man, Alex
Michaels, sure did and he just tried to kill me. You can find his body across from my house. You know, the one that Aali Imaam blew up a few weeks ago.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  Huff mouths to me, “He doesn’t know.”

  I nod in response.

  “Look, Leo, you and I need to have a serious chat. How soon can you be at my office?”

  “I’m in Colorado Springs.”

  “Have one of those flyboys get you up here. One of my guys will pick you up at the municipal airport. We have a lot to discuss.”

  “I’ll call you when I have an ETA.”

  Ten minutes later Leo calls and says he’ll be here in forty-five minutes.

  “Huff, send one of the guys to meet him. He has the clout to get us a drone to scope out where Gem is being held and with the shit that’s at stake here, I think we can make this happen. But we have to play our cards right. Our guys in the air need to know what’s going on. No calls on any unsecured lines and in front of Leo. The radioactive shit will be our leverage to find Gemini.”

  Huff nods. “What will he do when he finds out he’s been played?”

  Snorting, I ask, “Right now I don’t give a damn. But in then end, if we get that file, then he’ll come out smelling like a rose.”

  “Right. I’ll call the guys.”

  AN HOUR LATER I present Leo with all this information and he’s pissed. He’s mad because he’s been played too.

  “Someone inside is dirty. All this stuff is news to me, but I’m going to break it wide open.”

  “We need a drone,” I say.

  “Oh, and you think I can pull one out of my ass? A drone? Come on, Drex. I’m not the Secretary of Defense.”

  “No, but we have a shitload of polonium, plutonium, and cesium somewhere in the US that Aali Imaam wants and will find. And Leo, if they do, we may be looking at doomsday here. Now get me a fucking drone so I can find Gemini. I have an idea where she is, but if I go in there, guns blazing, she might get hurt and the whole mission could be ruined. We need intel on what’s inside so they don’t kill her and we lose our opportunity at stopping them. You can give the order to have it launched from Peterson AFB. You were just there at Homeland in Colorado Springs. I know you have the connections to get it done, and I suggest you do it.”