by Tom Haase
“Have you in sight,” Bridget said.
“When you stop, open the trunk.”
She did as he requested and he deposited the unconscious body into it. Then he jumped into the car and, without a word, Bridget moved off not exceeding the speed limit as police were arriving in the area in response to numerous 911 calls from the restaurant.
“Do I get combat pay with this new S.O.E thing?” Bridget asked.
“Double pay. Two times zero equals combat pay.”
“What’s new?” she laughed.
“We need to get this guy debriefed. I have to make a call to Liz for help. We need a new safe house. If they followed me there last night they know its location,” Matt said.
“Listen, we have to be equal. You can’t treat me as special. I have the same training and background in combat operations as you. You don’t have to protect me and push me around. Hear me?” Bridget said.
“Loud and clear. Next time I won’t push you down. I’ll just let the bastard shoot you.”
“How did they find you tonight?” Bridget asked.
Matt knew this embodied her way of switching the topic of conversation and he figured that would be the best thing to do now. He needed to think about what she said, but his instincts told him he needed to do things himself and not rely on anyone else.
She continued, “That’s the real question. Did you take anything from your home they could have bugged?”
“Nothing but this car.” Matt stopped at that thought. Before he could say anything, Bridget pulled the car into a parking lot at the Metro station.
“You call Liz and I’ll take care of the car,” Bridget said.
Matt reached Liz and gave her a situation report.
“Damn, Matt, in twenty-four hours you shoot three people. At this rate the terrorist population in the U.S. only has a few years of life left.” Liz typed on a keyboard judging from the clicks he heard over the phone. “Okay, here’s the address to go to. It has an interrogation room. Let me know what you get from him. Do you want a doc to come?”
“He’s not going to die from it, but have one come by tomorrow morning. A little pain will do him good for trying to kill us.”
“Us, who is us? You forgot to mention that,” Liz said.
“The director ordered me to put a team together. Bridget Donavan is my first member.”
“The woman from the Schultz kidnapping. The one you almost had us lose our jobs over? That one?”
“The very same. Good night, Liz.” Matt put up his cell.
Bridget reentered the car. She held up a round plastic devise. “There’s the tracking unit. These guys are really out to get you for some reason. We had better find out why.”
“That guy in the trunk is going to tell us.”
21
Washington, D.C.
The ten by ten windowless interrogation room had only one door. Bridget watched Matt as he secured the shooter to a chair with plastic binds in the basement of the safe house. He searched the man and found keys and a wallet. He opened it.
"Well, at least now we know who this person is," Matt said.
"I don't want to be here during your interrogation. Why don't I take those keys and go back to the area and get his car? I'll pick up Scott to help me drive it back here. Is that okay?" Bridget gathered the keys in her hands.
"Sounds like a plan. That car could give us more clues. I’ll call Liz and tell her what we have. She can run our shooter through the databases." He handed her the keys.
Bridget drove to Scott’s apartment in Alexandria. She phoned him on the way and told him what she needed. Scott walked around outside of his building on her arrival and he jumped into the car. She brought him up to date on what transpired earlier in the evening.
"My God, you were almost killed. Do you have any idea of why they shot at you?" Scott asked.
"I don't think he was shooting at me. I believe Matt was the target. And he hasn’t been able to come up with a good reason why they are after him. There’re many possibilities, but he hasn’t been able to narrow it down. Perhaps the man that he‘s interrogating will be able to provide that reason," Bridget said as she drove towards Old Town Alexandria.
Once in the vicinity of the restaurant where the shooting occurred, Bridget slowed the car and then clicked on the auto key ring as she drove around the area. Little traffic existed there after midnight. After circling five or six blocks, she noticed a car’s lights blink on when she pushed the unlock button.
"I'm going to drive that POV back to where Matt is. You take his car and drive it to your apartment and we’ll meet up later," Bridget said.
"Take care of yourself," Scott said as Bridget exited. She watched him scoot over to the driver’s side and the car moved away.
Bridget opened the car door and drove it back to the safe house. Once she arrived and opened the trunk she found two small black bags. She took a quick look inside of one, a wallet and a set of keys. She zipped it back up and picked up the other one.
"Matt, I'm home," she shouted with a bag in each hand. This made her smile to herself. She figured he couldn't hear her if he worked downstairs in the interrogation room so she got away with it. As she descended the stairs to the basement, the door to the room opened and Matt came out.
"What did you learn?" Bridget asked.
"I think I now know why these guys have been trying to eliminate me. It has to do with the raid outside of Roanoke,” Matt said. “Seems like they wanted to pay me back for killing some of their members. How they found out it was me isn’t known to this guy. He doesn't know much since he was only directed to make the hit and the only thing he heard his leader talk about concerned a payback for Roanoke. I'm going to turn him over to Liz in the morning. Her team can continue the interrogation to see if they can get any more information about his organization. I’ll continue to question him until she gets here. We need to know more about their operations and their arms purchasing.” Matt ran his hand through his hair and paused. “What about you? Did you learn anything?"
"Well, I did bring the car back here and here are the two small black bags I found in the trunk. One contains a wallet and keys and I checked and it’s the same in the other," Bridges said as she handed him the bags.
She watched him open one and extract a wallet. When he opened it and looked at the identification inside, she saw a smile appear on his face.
"Well, this is one of the men who attacked me in my apartment. My guess is that the man we have acted as the controller monitoring the outside and he kept their wallets and identifications with him. That’s why we found nothing on the two dead men. Now we’ve got their identification and Liz can go to work on it. We’ll turn these over to her when we give her our guest."
"I didn't let Scott follow me back here. I didn't want to compromise this location for you. I’ll return your car tomorrow. You okay?" Bridget asked.
“We've had a hell of a night."
"Like I said, you sure know how to show a girl a good time. I see McGregor tomorrow. I’ll call you after I meet with Jonathan."
"We're just getting started," Matt said.
22
Alexandria, Virginia
Jonathan McGregor arrived in Washington’s Dulles International Airport at 3:15 P.M. A car from the archdiocese of Washington met him and deposited him at his hotel in Alexandria. The driver informed him he would be available for the duration of his visit.
After he signed in to the hotel, Jonathan called Bridget. He’d thought about what he needed to do, what the cardinal ordered him to do, and how he intended to get Bridget to cooperate. That last point would be the most difficult, he knew. She would definitely be suspicious of anything he told her or any conditions he needed to impose.
When she answered, he said, "I'm in Washington. Can I pick you up at your brother’s in an hour so that we might discuss things?"
"I'll be outside."
Jonathan rang off and now prepared himself mentally for his meeting w
ith Bridget. He picked her up in exactly one hour. He instructed the driver to take them to Haines Point. On arrival there, he escorted Bridget out of the car. They walked out to the end of the park. This movement broke the silence that held throughout the trip to the park. They stopped at the guardrail and looked out over the Potomac River.
"Jonathan, what did you learn about the image that I sent you?" Bridget asked.
"Well, I did learn a few things about that icon." He waited. Bridget now seemed to remained in a combative mood. He gleaned that from her silence on the ride over. She would be a hard sell.
"Go ahead and tell me something. You came all the way over here to meet with me. You must want something," Bridget said.
He pointed off to his left where they could see the National War College in the distance and suggested by his hand movement that they walk. She spoke the truth, but he planned to be careful on how he would divulge information about this particular item. His instructions from the cardinal were to retrieve it. At this point in time, he didn't even know if Bridget knew its location or if it resided in somebody's possession, the identity of whom she might know or not know.
"From our study, the item in the picture was stolen from the Vatican Museum in 1945. Its history goes back to the Crusades. The actual icon is from an earlier time, but the Vatican acquired it at the end of the second Crusade. Our researchers believe its origin are from sometime during the 10th century, somewhere around the capital of the Russian Empire, Kiev at that time.”
"Well, that is some new information. Do you have any idea of its value?" Bridget asked.
"The actual monetary value may be about a million dollars, but like any piece of art that has a significant history, its value is probably beyond monetary terms."
"Nothing is beyond monetary value," Bridget said. "In other words, it could be worth millions?"
"Yes, I suppose it could be." Jonathan decided he really needed to stop talking about the icon and see if he could get some information from Bridget. He felt as if he gave some information and now he wanted to receive some. "Tell me, why do you have an interest in this particular icon?"
Bridget then relayed to him the events of the raid near Roanoke, and the subsequent attempts on Matt's life and perhaps hers. She insisted she wanted to help him and for that reason she wanted to know about the icon. Jonathan suspected something more in her motives.
"So from what you’re saying, I have a feeling that you and Mr. Higgins are forming some type of team, arrangement, or company to find out about this. I understand Mr. Higgins is no longer an FBI agent," Jonathan said.
"How did you know that? That only happened yesterday. Have you been spying on him?" Bridget asked.
"I had our people here in the States do a little investigative work and found out Matt Higgins had turned in his badge," Jonathan said. He decided to wait for Bridget to talk first at this point. He didn’t have to wait long.
"I smell a Vatican rat. You’re not telling me the real reason why you’re looking into this particular icon. There has to be more to it than simple interest in a lost artifact from the Vatican archives, one which has been missing for over seventy years. Why are you after it?" Bridget asked.
"The Vatican sent me because the item was stolen from the Vatican Museum, and they want their property returned. Since they knew you and I shared two previous adventures together, it was logical that I come and talk to you about this particular item." Jonathan thought he delivered a successfully evasive answer that gave nothing away.
"Bullshit," Bridget said.
This took Jonathan back. He didn’t expect her to be so blunt and at the same time so incisive in her analysis. She obviously knew a lot more existed about this icon. The fact the Vatican sent him probably signaled an over play of their position. From her perspective, his quick arrival, his knowledge about Matt, and his intense interest in this icon gave her more than enough ammunition to perceive that things were not simply a retrieval of a lost artifact.
"Okay," he said. "I propose we work together to return this icon to the Vatican."
"No frigging way,” Bridget said. “Every time you have screwed over my brother and me in the past. I don't trust you. I think you would do everything in your power to steal it from us if we were able to find it and you were with us. Remember, we have experience in your methods, both with the Crown of Thorns and with the Bible of Constantine."
"I'm sure we could come to some arrangement," Jonathan said. He realized he would have to negotiate but he did have some bargaining chips in reserve.
“Why is the Vatican so interested in this icon? Why send you? There’s more to this than meets the eye. What else are you hiding? Was something else stolen at that time? What is the real value of this precious relic?”
“It’s not a relic,” Jonathan responded. He stalled for time before she asked the same questions again. He would have to give her something to keep this negotiation going.
“Yes,” Jonathan said, “something else was stolen. There is another icon, a sister of the one you might say, that disappeared at the same time. My superiors sent me to retrieve the one you know about.”
“Where’s the other one?”
“It’s in Rome.”
“Where did you find it?”
“Recently, in St Petersburg. That’s all I know.” He said more than he wanted to. Now the time arrived to push for an agreement so he could use their talents to recover the item. His patience at her continual reference to their past ventures wore thin, but he waited for her to speak.
"I have some conditions if you are going to have any part in our search for this icon,” Bridget said. “If you can’t agree, then you’ll not hear from us or see us, and we’ll make sure that you have no access to anything we find." Bridget stopped and faced him with a hard, steady stare looking directly into his eyes. Determination plainly visible on her face. Without her cooperation, he knew it would be impossible on his own to find this icon.
"What are your conditions?" Jonathan asked.
"You’re not going to like them," Bridget said.
"I can't like or not like something that I don't know about. Tell me," Jonathan said.
"When, and not if, we secure the icon and return it to you, you will have the Vatican release that we discovered the Crown of Thorns and the writings of St. Peter. The Vatican will validate they are real and are not fakes as you claimed previously. That lie destroyed our professional careers. You will also admit you have the Bible of Constantine and that we were the ones who found it and returned it to the Vatican," Bridget said. She dropped her eyes and started walking back to the car.
"Is there anything else?" Jonathan asked.
"Yes, there is. I want five million dollars delivered to me on that day, in addition to the Vatican admitting its duplicitous connivance in the Crown of Thorns matter and also in the Bible of Constantine. These are nonnegotiable."
Jonathan knew these would be the conditions. He didn't know the exact amount of money that she intended to demand, but he guessed for sure she wanted both of those unfortunate events reversed in order to reclaim her rightful place in the academic world, not only for her but also for her brother.
"I’ll have to get back to you on these terms. By the way, why five million dollars?" Jonathan asked.
"With your stalling it just went up to seven. But to answer your question, unless I deliver that much to Mr. Schultz for the fake bible I sold him, the one you switched on me, I'm a dead woman.”
23
Alexandria, Virginia
Bridget sat with Gerti and Scott in his living room. She relayed what had transpired in the meeting with Jonathan McGregor. When she finished, she asked what they thought would be the next thing they should do.
"I think Scott and I should be on the next plane to St. Petersburg," Gerti said.
"Why?" Scott asked. “I don’t want to go to Russia. It’s cold there. Besides, why not go directly to Rome if that‘s where the other one is?”
"We n
eed to follow the trail of the icon that was found in St. Petersburg,” Gerti said. “We need to find when they had it, why they had it, who had it. That way we'll be able to delve beneath the cloak the Vatican is putting over its entire operation. There is more to this than a simple retrieval, I can smell it."
"I agree with Gerti. We need to track it from as far back as possible to determine exactly why the Vatican is so adamant on its retrieval. Do you think your father's connections can help you in this matter?" Bridget asked.
“I have the same connections he does, I think. We can employ them to help us follow the trail of the icon in St. Petersburg and maybe to the Vatican,” Gerti said.
“I suggest that Scott and you follow this line of investigation while Matt and I pursue the icon here in the States. You will be after one icon and we after another, but Matt will also be after the men who tried to kill him. Something tells me they may be directly connected,” Bridget said.
“Sounds like a plan,” Scott said. “It would be great to find out more about this twin icon. That might give us what we are missing on why the Vatican is investing assets on its reacquisition. We need to find out what’s behind this so Jonathan won’t be able to double-cross us again. We require some kind of trump card to be in our hands.”
“When will you leave?”
“In the morning. We’ll stop in New York to visit with my father for a few hours before continuing on,” Gerti said.
“Is there a reason for that?” Scott asked.
“Remember, I told father I would keep him in the loop. I think a face-to-face would garner us more than a simple phone call. Besides, he likes you.” Gerti said this with a twinkle in her eyes, then bent over and kissed him. “The sources we’ll use will undoubtedly contact him, so I want to be up front and show him we are doing everything to get his money back.”