The Nabatean Secret

by J C Ryan

Sean Walker was on his way to A-Echelon headquarters to discuss the morning’s headlines when he got a call from Irene O’Connell.

  “Sean, where are you?”

  “On my way to see you, about fifteen minutes out.”

  “Good. Make it ten. We’ve got problems.”

  Sean stepped on the accelerator, pushing the speed limits all the way to A-Echelon. He arrived about ten minutes and thirty seconds after taking the call and sprinted to James’s office, where he found James and Irene waiting for him with their eyes on their watches.

  Irene would normally have made a joke. The fact that she didn’t alarmed him more than anything else.

  He listened without interruption as Irene rapidly filled him in on their concerns about Carter and Mackenzie. She handed him a slip of paper with the address of their last GPS location.

  “On it,” he said. Ten minutes later, he and three of his men rendezvoused and he jumped into their SUV. While one of the men drove, Sean opened his laptop so he and the other two could check satellite views of the house online. Balancing the need to determine Carter and Mackenzie’s situation against public safety, they were relieved to learn the house backed up to a vacant lot. Though there were houses on both sides of the one where they hoped Carter and Mackenzie still were, the lot behind had several trees and bushes but no building.

  At 1:10 by Sean’s wristwatch, they drove past the front of the house at the GPS coordinates. Two government SUVs bearing the insignia of INSCOM were parked in the driveway. Baffled, Sean directed the driver to turn the next corner and stop. A quick discussion with his men convinced him there was something strange about this situation.

  INSCOM? What were those guys doing with Carter and Mackenzie? This might be one of those times when all was not as it seemed.

  He concurred with the assessment that there was no way to reach the house by stealth. It was the middle of the day. They were wearing civilian clothes, and the weather was cool, so they were wearing jackets that would conceal their weapons. But if they approached openly and it went sideways, they’d have lost the element of surprise.

  It might be best to storm the house simultaneously from front and back, and apologize later if that was warranted. Either way, the situation was dicey. They’d have to be careful. And hope no one started shooting, especially with Carter and Mackenzie potentially in the crossfire.

  ***

  While Sean and his team were discussing their approach, Kelly and hers unlocked the door to the room where Carter and Mackenzie were being held. They ignored the questions of the EA bodyguards, who by now were highly suspicious and getting a bit agitated.

  Kelly and her two team members took their seats as before. All three agents faced Carter and Mackenzie, who had their backs to the door. As the agents sat in unison, all three bent forward slightly to pull their chairs closer to the table. It was the unguarded moment Carter and Mackenzie anticipated.

  Carter shoved the table with every ounce of his strength. The sudden move caught the INSCOM team by surprise. The edge of the table caught the three of them in their stomachs, doubling them over the table and knocking the breath out of them. Inertia aided the Devereuxs as they slammed the agents’ heads down on the table.

  Mackenzie had claimed Kelly, who had infuriated her earlier. She used both hands to smash Kelly’s forehead into the table and stun her. Carter used one hand on each of the other agents, putting a bit more effort into the shove he gave the male agent, to make sure he was out of the fight immediately.

  It was over almost before it began, with the male agent unconscious and the two females dazed. Carter and Mackenzie worked like the team they were to quickly disarm the others. Mackenzie got two guns in her hand and pressed one into each female’s forehead. She hissed, “Be quiet and don’t move.”

  Carter relieved the male agent of his gun, located some linen napkins in a drawer in the china cabinet, and used them to gag the three agents. He assumed the guards in the foyer would be able to see them on video—they had to move quickly. He took Kelly’s keys and unlocked the door, his finger already on his lips to silence his bodyguards.

  Mackenzie handed Carter her weapons, and he gave one to each of the EA guards then signaled them to come in.

  Finding the INSCOM agents stunned and gagged, the EA guards finished the job of neutralizing them by securing their hands with cable ties. Now their only barrier to escape were the two remaining INSCOM agents out in the foyer.

  Carter sent a silent prayer of thanks for the carpeting throughout the house. One of the EA guards burst through the door into the foyer to catch one INSCOM agent reading on his mobile phone and the other watching TV. Before they could react, he’d moved out of the doorframe to give his partner room to join him.

  He shouted, “Don’t move! Put your hands in the air. Now!”

  One of the INSCOM agents shot his hands into the air as directed. The other was stupid and went for his gun. The second EA guard, who’d just burst through the door, fired about two feet above the agent’s head, and shouted, “Next one’s between your eyes! Don’t be an idiot. Hands up, now!”

  Carter threw each INSCOM agent off his chair and told them to stay on the ground, on their stomachs, hands behind their heads. One EA bodyguard covered them while the other efficiently immobilized them with cable ties and stuffed their mouths with paper found on the desk.

  Mackenzie walked in with her hands full of mobile phones and briefcases she’d liberated from Kelly and company. She’d also gathered the files they’d left behind and shoved them into the briefcases. While she, Carter, and one of the bodyguards located their belongings—their weapons, phones, GPS trackers, and incidentally the keys to the SUVs—from the security desk, the other found the landline into the house and ripped it out.

  Their last precaution was to look through the window and make sure there were no more INSCOM personnel or neighbors who might have heard the shot outside. Seeing no one, they rushed out.

  ***

  Sean and his partner had given the other two EA operatives a few minutes to get in place in the back of the house. When they clicked their throat mics to signal they were ready, Sean got out of the car and headed for the house, followed closely by his sidekick. They’d made it almost to the corner when they heard a gunshot. Both pulled their weapons and dashed for the front of the house.

  Carter, Mackenzie! We’re coming. A prayer came close on the heels of his first thought. Please don’t let the neighbors be home. As Sean sprinted, he keyed his mic. “Gunshot! We’re ten seconds out. Hit that back door, but be careful!”

  Then all his concentration was taken by the need to stay on his feet as he leapt through the landscaping and took cover behind a thick shrub. He motioned his partner to take cover as well.

  He flinched when the front door burst open but was under control again as he leveled his weapon at the emerging figures. As soon as he got a clear view of the first one, he lowered his weapon and spoke into his throat mic to the team approaching the backdoor. “Stand down.”

  The first figure, whom he recognized as one of his EA men, had cleared the door, and now the second came through, both cautiously assessing the surrounding area with guns at the ready.

  Following them, Carter, gun leveled and ready, and finally Mackenzie, carrying what looked like an entire office worth of briefcases. They were headed for one of the INSCOM SUVs in the driveway.

  Sean called out but didn’t leave his cover. With what must have been some excitement inside, he didn’t want to become collateral damage from a trigger-happy member of his own team.

  The four stopped and looked around cautiously. Sean called out again.

  “Carter! It’s Sean.” Only when the three men lowered their weapons did he stand and wave them over. “Let’s go!”

  Carter threw the keys to the INSCOM vehicles into the shrubs. A ride with Sean was better than a charge of grand theft auto on top of everything else they were already facing. When they got into the vehicle with Sean, he did
wish they’d brought one of the bigger cars. Eight people stuffed into a seven-passenger SUV wasn’t his idea of comfort.

  For Carter’s group, however, it still beat the room where they’d been held for the past several hours, and the company was also much friendlier.

  “What happened?” Sean asked.

  Because the members of Sean’s rescue team weren’t all read in on the top-secret information, Carter and Mackenzie had to keep their answers vague. However, what they gave Sean was enough to help him formulate a plan.

  He dropped his men, including Carter and Mackenzie’s bodyguards, on a street corner and told them to get a taxi or Uber ride to EA headquarters, and he’d be in touch.

  Then he drove Carter and Mackenzie to Bethesda, to one of the EA safe houses. As they drove, the two of them told him the rest—in detail.

  Sean agreed there was plenty to concern them all.

  In turn, he told them about his day—how he tried to reach James and Irene as soon as he saw the headlines but was unable to get through. How he got a call from Irene while on the way to A-Echelon headquarters, and how he’d found them with the help of their GPS trackers’ last known coordinates. And he joked about how he’d almost had an embarrassing accident when he heard the gunshot.

  “You and that INSCOM guy both,” Carter bantered.

  The three of them laughed with the abandon of people who’d been in mortal danger and escaped.

  “There’s more to this than meets the eye,” Sean said after he’d stopped laughing.

  “Tell us something we don’t know,” Carter responded. He took Mackenzie’s hand and squeezed.

  Chapter 23 - Where they stood on the matter

  At the A-Echelon safe house, Carter and Mackenzie handed Sean the documents they’d been given to prove their guilt—of what, they weren’t quite sure.

  Although, they were pretty sure it would include treason, among other things. The three of them talked at length about how this false evidence could be connected to the A-Echelon scandal in the press.

  None of them believed the timing of their detention and those headlines had been a coincidence. A-Echelon had been compromised, somehow, and there was no knowing who was involved, but the Nabateans were definitely high on their list of suspects.

  Sean, Carter, and Mackenzie would have staked their lives that James and Irene had no idea about this. They were probably in the same or similar trouble to Carter and Mackenzie’s. Therefore, Sean couldn’t just walk in and ask to see them. By now, the INSCOM agents would have been found or at least missed. Carter and Mackenzie’s escape was bound to be the next big news story, and Sean could be put under surveillance if he were spotted.

  Their phones were no good to contact James and Irene, either. The ones they had with them weren’t encrypted, and even if they had been, the leak at A-Echelon might have compromised the decryption algorithm.

  Their only chance was to get a coded message to the directors to meet Sean and make one hundred percent certain they weren’t followed or under surveillance themselves.

  Sean left Carter and Mackenzie resting while he went out to make his arrangements. An hour later, Irene out of the blue got a delivery of her favorite treat, a Starbucks mocha latte, which she didn’t order. How thoughtful of James. When she handed the delivery boy a tip, he exchanged it with near-professional sleight of hand for a note she only noticed in her hand when she picked up the cup of coffee. How the hell?

  When she read the note, Irene went straight to James. “Sean’s got them,” she whispered. “Don’t say anything. Meet me outside.”

  Irene was waiting just outside the front doors of the office building where A-Echelon had its headquarters.

  When James came walking out, she said in a low voice, “James, don’t turn around. Look up and down the block.” As he followed her directions, she explained, “We need to meet Sean at the elevator on the third level in the parking garage at Tyson’s Corner Center. He wants us to arrive separately and make sure no one follows. Seven p.m.” She knew he understood when he gave a decisive nod and strode away from her toward a Metro station.

  She returned to her office and worked until five, telling anyone who asked she hadn’t seen James in a while and didn’t know where he went. At five, she left, retrieved her car, and drove to Tyson’s Corner, thirteen miles from downtown DC. She found a parking spot on the third level of the mall and made her way to the elevator, where she saw James loitering but didn’t speak to him. In a moment, a black SUV with tinted windows pulled up. It was identical to thousands of such vehicles in the DC area, but when the driver shoved the door open, she saw it was Sean. She got in, and James got into the back seat behind her.

  “What the hell is happening?” Sean asked, his expression reflecting the intensity in his tone.

  “We should have warned you,” James said. Irene echoed his apology. The two of them filled him in on the Shadow and Howard Crane situation. “We brought Carter and Mackenzie to DC to let them know there was trouble. I guess we underestimated how fast it would come down.”

  “You think?” Sean said. He was furious, but it wouldn’t help to blame the messengers. “Let me tell you what happened when they got off their plane this morning.” He brought them up to speed on the INSCOM angle and told them what Carter and Mackenzie had been reluctant to say. “There’s only one explanation for the way Special Agent White treated them and the direction of her investigation. They’re suspected of treason.”

  “Oh, my God,” Irene exclaimed. “Kelly—” She bit off whatever she was going to say. James picked it up.

  “We’ve met Kelly White. In the past several weeks, we’ve given her a lot of information about A-Echelon and our activities. Also about Carter’s role and his and Mackenzie’s comings and goings. I never got the impression she suspected them of anything. Did you, Irene?”

  “No.”

  James went on. “There’s no way Carter and Mackenzie have committed treason. I’m certain of that. What’s their assessment?”

  Sean explained. “They’ve been framed, no doubt about that. Special Agent White has either been duped or is part of the conspiracy. The evidence against them has been very cleverly manufactured. Whoever is doing this to them has impressive resources.”

  “Where are they now?” Irene asked.

  “With all due respect, it may be better for you not to know. Suffice it to say, they escaped from Special Agent White, and they’re safe right now. But they’re fugitives from the law. To clear their names, they’ll eventually have to give themselves up. However, before they can do that, we’ll have to gather the evidence to show that they are not guilty.”

  James agreed. “They probably did the right thing to escape. It might have been a very long time before we found them if Kelly White had managed to invoke NDDA. What worries me is her failure to inform us of her suspicions.”

  “She told them she had your full cooperation, and you didn’t need to be there. In fact, she said that she had your authorization to question them,” Sean said.

  James had on what Irene called his Thunder-god look. It meant everyone better get out of his way. “Bitch!” he hissed. “She’ll hear from me the moment I see her again.”

  Irene suddenly sat up straight. “James, could this have anything to do with our meeting being cancelled?”

  They’d had a meeting scheduled with the President to assess the reactions of the media, the public, and Congress to the A-Echelon story and to plan their response. Daniella had called them just before Irene got Sean’s message to let them know the meeting was cancelled. She couldn’t give them a new time or, in fact, a reason for the cancellation and had only said she’d be in touch.

  Considering the revelations about Carter and Mackenzie’s day, it took on a new and worrying meaning.

  It felt like quicksand was about to swallow them. James’s temper didn’t improve when Sean added that Kelly White had repeatedly refused Carter’s and Mackenzie’s requests for him and Irene to be broug
ht into the interrogation to vouch for them and explain.

  “Who is this woman? Her methodology is as suspect as her motivation. For God’s sake, she’s got top-secret and Q Clearance, how the—” James didn’t get further.

  “Is she acting on her own, either out of a misguided passion to bring a pair of suspected traitors to justice or because she’d been duped? Or is she one of the bad guys?” Irene asked.

  “Perhaps working for the Nabateans?” James added.

  “I don’t know whether this is oversight or a trap,” Sean said, “but you guys haven’t mentioned EA’s name coming up in any of this.”

  “No, you’re right. It hasn’t,” said Irene. “But neither did any hint of Carter and Mackenzie being suspected of treason. I don’t know what to think.”

  “Until we know differently, then, we may be the only ones who can help. We can get messages through, and we can provide protection,” Sean suggested.

  “I appreciate that, Sean,” James said. “It’s part of the plan that we will soon be suspended from our duties pending the investigations that will follow. We won’t have the ability to directly talk to anyone, including Bill and especially the President. When we made that plan, we didn’t know Carter and Mackenzie would be caught up in anything like this. If INSCOM, or God forbid, the FBI get to Bill or the President and make a case against them, the whole house of cards could come tumbling down.”

  “I understand.”

  “I’m sure you do, but just to be certain we’re all on the same page,” James said, “if the President or Bill can be convinced by this false evidence that the Devereuxs are traitors, it will be bad not only for them but for us. We hired them, and we were supposed to be supervising them. Furthermore, we hired you. And if whoever manufactured that evidence wants to bring us all down, we’ll all go down together.”

  More discussion followed, with the pros and cons leading them to one dead end after another. There was no clear direction except to wait and see and meanwhile do what they could to try to understand what was going on.