The Greatest Good

by Craig N Hooper

  I scratched my head and thought about Simon’s hearing next week. I was screwed. Even if my name was miraculously cleared by then, the damage may not be reparable. Maybe I’d lose visitation rights forever. Could a judge do that? Suddenly I found my right fist gripping the car’s center console. Karla put her hand on my shoulder, which stopped the tension in my body.

  Looking back at her, I said, “If we find the kid, you should do the talking. I seriously may waterboard him.”

  “So what’s the plan?” she said. “Talk to me about that.”

  “We need to dump this car,” Mick said. “As soon as we can.”

  I nodded. “Bars have been closed for a while now. The owner has probably called the cops already. And we stole this right by the waterfront, so it won’t take the cops long to put two and two together and issue an APB on the vehicle.”

  “We need to get off the road and find a base of operations,” Mick said.

  Karla looked at Mick. “A base of operations?”

  “Yeah, some sort of headquarters,” he said.

  I knew where Mick was going with this. “A seedy place, naturally.”

  “Of course,” Mick said. “Sketchy at best.”

  “A place where Visa and MasterCard are shunned,” I said.

  “And they’ve never even heard of American Express,” Mick added. “Cash only.”

  “Alright, fellas, enough with the boys’ club. What are you talking about?”

  I looked at Karla in the rearview mirror. “We can’t keep driving around, we’re too exposed. We need to find a shady motel.”

  “Somewhere where prostitution and drug deals happen on a regular basis,” Mick said.

  “Got it,” Karla said. “Some place where the check-in clerk is tight-lipped and hates cops, right?”

  “I know the perfect place,” I said.

  After the video of me ‘disciplining’ the Marine went viral, the press showed up at my front door and camped out for two weeks. I’d holed up in a seedy motel in the heart of Compton. Nobody had bothered me there.

  I drove to Compton in complete silence. Karla and Mick were deep in thought, as was I. About fifteen minutes into the drive, as we traveled south on the 710, we saw the amber alert. The sign stretched from one side of the freeway to the other. The vehicle color, description, and plate number were spot on. Nobody said a word about it. I casually exited off the freeway and took surface streets to the motel. It was creatively named: ‘MOTEL’.

  “Pull around back,” Mick said. “Try to find a parking spot in the darkest area.”

  I found a good spot and shut off the car.

  “You two check in, then meet me back here. I’ll take care of the vehicle situation and the weapons.” Mick rifled through his pockets and pulled out a small screwdriver. Karla looked confused, but I knew what he was doing.

  “Come on,” I said to Karla, “I’ll fill you in later.”

  Sure enough, the check-in guy barely looked up. I peeled sixty bucks out of my wallet. The clerk grunted something and handed me a key. When we returned to the car, Mick was sitting on the back seat with the rifle case on his lap. Karla and I took the front seats.

  Mick handed the .50 caliber over the seat.

  I tucked it into the back of my pants.

  “Alright,” he said. “I gotta leave you two for a few hours. Need to check in on Julie and the girls. I’m sure they’re fine, but I’m a little nervous if I’m being honest.”

  “You stash them far away?” I asked.

  “Not too far. They’re in Big Bear at a remote rental cabin my dad and I used to fish from. They have no cell coverage or internet there, so I have to check up on them in person.”

  “Of course,” Karla said. “Chase and I should have this figured out by the time you get back.” She smiled.

  Mick did, too. “Okay, so I need to steal a different vehicle for the time being. While you were gone, I swapped some license plates around. This car now has clean plates, so it won’t draw any attention, but don’t take it anywhere. Just wait for me to get back. I’ll dump my stolen car as soon as rental agencies open in the morning. Then we’ll use that vehicle if we need to get around.”

  “You can’t pay for a rental in cash,” Karla said. “And they’ll track your credit card.”

  “Not to worry, I have a couple of aliases that are untraceable. Trust me.”

  I looked at Mick in the rearview mirror. “Get outta here. Hug your girls for me. I’m sure they’re doing fine. We’re in room eight.”

  As soon as we stepped into the room, Karla scrunched up her nose.

  “Whoa,” she said. “Definitely sketchy, not sure we needed the smell.”

  I plugged my nose. “Smells like a hundred dirty diapers are hidden somewhere.” Just to be sure they weren’t, I checked under the bed and in the closet. When I walked into the bathroom, the smell nearly knocked me over. “Here’s the source.” I closed my eyes and flushed the toilet.

  Karla was right behind me and backed out quickly. “Close that door.”

  I wedged the door shut while Karla opened the windows. Just as I was about to sit on one of the double beds, the snapcell in my back pocket rang. I looked at the number, then over to Karla.

  “It’s Stanley,” I said.

  CHAPTER 24

  Istabbed the talk button. “Where the hell are you, Stanley? We need to talk right now.”

  A brief pause.

  “Stanley,” I snapped.

  The kid sighed. “I know, Agent Chase, I’m sorry I ditched you guys. I’m so sorry. I’m so confused.”

  “You’re confused?”

  “We can’t talk on the phone.” He spoke in a hushed tone.

  “You said these phones are safe, super-encrypted or STU-encrypted or something like that.”

  “I don’t know what’s safe anymore, Agent Chase.”

  “What’s going on? What did your message on the mirror mean? Why don’t you know what’s real?”

  “Not over the phone. Let’s meet and talk. I’ll send you a text with location.”

  “Last time you were tailed, Stanley. You need to be more cautious. Drive around in circles before getting to the location. Make sure nobody is following you.”

  “Will do, Agent Chase.”

  “Listen, right now I don’t have a way to get there and—”

  “You’ll find a way. You’re resourceful.”

  “Listen, Stanley—”

  “I’m freaking out, Agent Chase. And this conversation is freaking me out even more.”

  “Calm down.”

  “I’m heading to our spot now. I’m sending the text. Delete it.”

  “Wait, Stanley.”

  “I’m out the door. I’ll meet you around back of that place.”

  “Stop.”

  “See you there.” Stanley hung up.

  I snapped the cell shut and glared at Karla. “I can’t believe this kid. He just took a play from our playbook.”

  She furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”

  “Remember at the waterfront when I told you to call Hornsby, and if he pressed you for a location or information, to get panicky, to tell him you’re freaking out and then hang up?”

  Karla nodded.

  “That’s what Stanley just did.”

  “He didn’t say anything else?”

  “Nope, he wouldn’t. He wants to talk in person.”

  “I guess we have to go.”

  I shrugged. “I guess.”

  The text came through. I memorized the location, then deleted the text. After a mini debate about how to get there, we decided on the stolen Japanese car. The plates were clean and the car was common enough to blend in. Karla drove and I lay low in the back seat, since every law enforcement agent in the county was on the lookout for me.

  The location was a mom and pop convenience store on the west side of Long Beach. Karla parked in the rear parking lot. I moved into the front passenger seat. Stanley wasn’t there yet. The only things
around were two large dumpsters, a bunch of broken-down cardboard boxes, and about ten red milk crates stacked against the convenience store rear wall.

  Karla looked at me. “Still want me to do all the talking?”

  I shook my head. “I think I’ve calmed down enough. The kid’s safe, unless he starts lying again.”

  “He’d better not, or I’ll be the one strangling him.” Karla brought her hands up and mimicked a choking.

  I nodded in agreement.

  A minute later, a maroon Chevy Tahoe pulled into the lot. Stanley was in the driver’s seat. He proceeded to back the vehicle into the spot to the right of ours. Since he was parked on my side, I rolled down the window. He didn’t look at us. Instead, the kid’s head snapped side to side while his eyes bounced around, clearly looking for something. I waved at him until he made eye contact, then I motioned for him to roll down the window and he did.

  “Shut it down and hop into the back.” I motioned to our back seat.

  “No way.” Stanley shook his head. “It’s safer for us to be in separate vehicles, Agent Chase. I tried my best, but someone may have followed me. And if they did, we can peel out of here in different directions. I don’t want to endanger you guys any more. You have a son and Agent Dickerson has a husband.”

  Karla leaned over. “Listen, Stanley, you have to cut the crap and tell us everything. We just met with your dad and he told us all about your NSA recruitment. Why did you never mention that?”

  Stanley looked at Karla, then back to me. “I have to ask you one question before I say anything. You have to answer me truthfully. It’s important.”

  I didn’t respond right away. It was hard to let him dictate the terms of our conversation.

  “Please, Agent Chase.”

  I looked at the kid and held up a finger. “One question, and it had better be quick.”

  Stanley unbuckled his belt and leaned my direction. “Did you apply for a position with the SCS? Tell me you did. Please tell me that.”

  I squinted at him. “That’s your question?”

  “I have to know. It’s important.”

  “No, Stanley, I didn’t. Before today, I didn’t even know the SCS existed.”

  Stanley squinted back at me. “You’re not just saying that, right? To keep it secretive or to throw me off?”

  I sighed.

  Karla intervened. “He said he didn’t, Stanley, so leave it at that. Tell us what you’re talking about.”

  Stanley sat back in the seat. It was the most deflated I’d seen the kid. He stared straight ahead and didn’t say anything.

  “Stanley,” Karla prodded. “What’s going on? We need answers.”

  He turned slowly and looked at me. “They told me this was all a field test, Agent Chase.” He paused.

  “A field test? What field test? Who’s they?”

  “I was told that this was your field test, that the last couple of days were all about testing you. I swear that’s what I thought.”

  I shook my head. “You’re not making sense.”

  Stanley adjusted his hair, looked around, then back at me. “Let me back up.” He took a breath through his nose. “I was told you’d applied for an operative position within the SCS. I was told all candidates who applied for this job were put through an extremely stressful situation, a situation that wasn’t real but appeared very real to the candidate. In other words, a real-life field test, Agent Chase. The whole point of these last couple of days was to test you, to see how you reacted to threats against me, to know if you could handle the line of work you’d applied for.”

  “Talk about crazy,” I said. “This is crazy talk. Tell me the truth, Stanley. Now.”

  His eyes went big. “I am, Agent Chase, I promise. At first, I was excited to be a part of it all. But things got hectic right away, with me being shot, then Agent Labonte being shot. Every time I questioned what was happening my contact told me it was part of the field test; that it absolutely had to be as close to real as possible.”

  He looked away and banged on the steering wheel. “I’m an idiot. I know that now. Everything was so elaborate and over the top that I was having a hard time believing it. But I was told this was how it worked, that you’d applied for one of the most intense jobs on earth and the government would go to any length to test a candidate for readiness. When I asked why on earth I was shot, for example, they told me it was to see how you reacted to the sniper. They told me the shot was deliberately aimed at my clavicle to minimize damage and ensure complete recovery. My contact told me that Agent Labonte’s shooting was staged. The gunshot was a blank. Apparently Agent Labonte had fake blood and guts taped to his stomach under his shirt. When the blank went off, he pierced the bag and faked being shot.”

  I looked at Karla. She shrugged like she had no idea what was going on.

  Stanley continued. “Any time I had a question or doubt, I was given an answer and reason for everything. And I was being tested in all this, too. That’s important to know. I knew they were watching me to see how I reacted. They wanted to know if I could take a bullet, too.”

  Karla leaned in my direction. “What do you mean, you were being tested?”

  Stanley ignored the question. “When Agent Cranston joined our gang and said he was sent to kill me, I started freaking out. It suddenly felt like a thousand degrees in that car. Remember how crazy I was acting then?” Stanley looked at me, then at Karla. “And remember how I asked Agent Cranston if he was really sent to kill me? I texted my contact, not my father as I’d told you guys, and asked about Agent Cranston and what was really going on. The reply was straightforward, that he’s lying, that it’s part of his cover.”

  I looked straight out the window, trying to process his story.

  Stanley carried on. “That’s when I bailed out of the car – because I didn’t know what was real anymore. I went to the bathroom to calm down, but I couldn’t. Agent Cranston seemed to be telling the truth, which freaked me out even more. Because that meant I’d been fooled, and for some reason was really being targeted by the SCS. Say something, Agent Chase. Please.”

  I couldn’t.

  “Trust me,” Stanley said, pleading. “I wanted to tell you guys everything, but then I thought, what if Agent Cranston was an incredible actor, or just an incredible liar? If I told you guys everything, I would be blowing his cover and the entire operation. The only thing I could think to do was scrawl that message on the mirror and bail. I didn’t know what was real anymore. That’s why I had to ask you that question right away, Agent Chase. I absolutely had to know if you’d applied for an SCS position.”

  I finally looked at the kid. “Trust me, Stanley, I didn’t apply for any job like that. And now I’m the one having a hard time with reality, at least your version of it. You do know the government doesn’t test candidates like this, right? You understand that I hope?”

  Stanley blinked at me and nodded. “I do now. I feel so foolish. So stinking foolish.”

  “Stanley,” Karla said, “you need to go back to the beginning. Explain how you became a part of this, and what you meant by being tested.”

  I looked at Karla and nodded in agreement.

  Stanley looked around again, his eyes darting left and right.

  “Nobody’s around,” I said, sighing. “A car hasn’t even driven by since you got here.”

  “Okay, good.” Stanley wiped at his nose. “So I was recruited by the NSA out of high school. How much did my dad tell you anyway?”

  Karla responded. “He said that you’d been recruited out of high school, then attended the summer training program. You did really well in training, but were too young to go on the payroll. So before they hired you, you took a bunch of courses in their Cryptologic School. After that you quit.”

  “Or were fired,” I added.

  “I wasn’t fired,” Stanley said. “What my dad didn’t tell you, because he didn’t know, is that the top student in the summer training program is promised a job in any divisi
on within the NSA. Which was a huge bonus, and we all competed heavily for that perk. I graduated top of the class and, sure enough, was promised I could start my career in any division. So I took my time and did some research before making the decision. I had a whole year of taking courses at their school before I could request where to start.”

  Stanley quickly looked around.

  Before I could say anything, he said, “To make a long story short, the Agency was impressed with my computer and math skills from the very beginning, so I was concerned that I’d never see any field action or do any real spy work. And that’s all I wanted to do. If I didn’t choose wisely, I figured I’d be placed behind a computer for the rest of my life.”

  He banged on the steering wheel again. “And I definitely didn’t want that to happen.” He ran his fingers through his hair to calm down. “Anyway, in my research about the organization I learned of the NSA’s role within the Special Collection Service, so I requested to be transferred there. But they denied my transfer, citing all kinds of lame excuses. Excuses like I was too young, that technically the SCS wasn’t a division within the NSA, that I didn’t have the physical skills.” He paused.

  “What did you do, kid?” I asked.

  “I pushed back a few times, but was repeatedly denied the transfer. I won’t lie, Agent Chase, I was pretty upset by it all. But then I had a thought. Why don’t I prove to them that I have the necessary skills to be an SCS agent? So I broke into a secure portal and—”

  “Wait,” I interrupted. “How did you do that? This is the NSA after all.”

  “True, but they trained me really well. As I got to know more of their systems and protocols, I saw some holes, some ways to access their systems. I actually let them know a few things I’d discovered. That freaked them out and caused a number of internal changes within the NSA. I didn’t tell them every potential problem I saw, which came in handy. It enabled me to access this secure portal and download some highly-classified information about the SCS, mainly just the names and roles of the agents involved. That’s when I discovered who the chairman of the organization was.”