by Ethan Cross
Nic slapped him on the shoulder and said, “She took that gun from you, didn’t she?”
Burke frowned. “I don’t think that’s relevant at this point.”
Nic laughed. “I hate to admit it, but you’re a pretty impressive guy, Dr. Burke. I told you before that the members of my team are my brothers. You’ve more than earned that title.”
Burke thought about that a moment and replied, “Nic, I already have three brothers. They’re all assholes. But I’d be honored to call you my friend.”
“The honor would be mine,” Nic said. “I’ve got your back. Any time. Anywhere.”
Burke smiled. “Good. Now … you guys want to go get some pancakes?”
Chapter 103
The briefing room at the CIA headquarters was brightly lit and elegantly furnished. The conference table was obsidian in color and surrounded by a dozen chairs. The space smelled of vanilla. Carter wasn’t sure why the whole scene seemed so wrong to him. He supposed it was because he expected men and women like the ones seated around the table to be meeting in secret in a dark basement somewhere.
He glanced around at the directors of the CIA and FBI and the several other high-ranking division heads who had been asked to attend this meeting. The assembled group consisted of the most powerful leaders in law enforcement, national security, and intelligence in the country. Carter had already explained everything that had happened, and the secrets that had been revealed.
When he was done, the CIA director said, “Yoshida was obviously a rogue agent working entirely on his own to develop these alleged biological weapons and this battery and drone technology. It’s nothing that anyone here at the agency sanctioned or had any part of.”
Carter leaned back and steepled his fingers. These men and women were some of the most powerful people in the country. They could certainly crush his career with a word and probably have him terminated in a more permanent sense just as easily. And Samuel Carter couldn’t have cared less. He wasn’t the least bit afraid of them.
“I don’t think the people who nearly died from that designer pathogen would call the program ‘alleged,’ director,” he said.
“I’m very glad that all of those men and women were able to be treated and are doing well. I simply meant that—”
“I know what you meant, and you can save the line of bullshit for the Senate subcommittees. I don’t intend to push the issue or investigate who else in the CIA was involved. Although, I hope that you decide to do a bit of housecleaning on your own.”
The CIA director narrowed his eyes and said, “Then I guess we’re done here.”
“I didn’t say that my silence and cooperation wouldn’t come at a price.”
“You have the balls to come in here and try to extort money out of—”
“I wasn’t referring to a payoff. What I want is very simple. I want to do my job. I want to catch criminals and make the world a better place. I genuinely believe in that whole protect and serve thing. I take it seriously. As you know, Kruger’s remains were not among those recovered from the fire. I want the authority to hunt him down and to hunt down an elusive criminal named Mobius.”
The FBI’s chief of Transnational Organized Crime said, “We’ve been after Mobius for years and can’t even prove he exists. He’s a ghost. We don’t even have a picture or know anything about the man.”
“I have a young woman who’s met him in person.”
The other agent’s eyebrows furrowed, and he sat forward. “How reliable is your intel?”
“Very. But let’s cut to the chase, gentleman. We both know that the CIA and FBI have black budgets and secret facilities and task forces around the globe. All I want is the latitude and support to form my own task force. My own small team, handpicked by me. We’ll start by hunting down Kruger and Mobius. In order to do that, I’m going to need support and intelligence from both the FBI and CIA. That’s the price for me being a good soldier and keeping my mouth shut about all the dirty little secrets we’ve uncovered.”
The directors of the FBI and CIA exchanged glances and seemed to communicate with their eyes. Then the FBI director—a stern but highly intelligent woman who Carter had worked with before when she was head of the New York office—said, “Okay. You have your task force and your support to investigate Mobius. But we will expect results.”
“Don’t worry, ma’am. I expect to give you results.”
“Good. What do you want to call this task force? We have to give it a designation for the bean counters. Even when it comes out of the black budget.”
Carter smiled. “I hadn’t really thought about it. I suppose you can just assign some random meaningless code name like usual.”
He shook hands with the men and women at the table and stood to leave, but halfway to the door, Carter stopped in his tracks and turned back to the director.
“Actually, ma’am,” he said. “I do have a code name for the task force. Call it Spectrum.”
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