by Bob Blanton
“Stay on point!” said Agent Caruthers.
“Sorry. About that time Agent Caruthers received another phone call from Ranger Zero informing her that the assassin had signaled someone outside, and that the kid had neutralized the assassin.”
“Any questions?”
“Yes, why the silencer?”
“We believe that he wanted to avoid alerting the outside security of his presence in the room. If the sarin had gone off, then with the panic in the room, he would likely have been able to exit through the rear door, shot the two agents there and made his escape,” Agent Caruthers explained. “As it was, Mr. Brandt said the silencer sealed the deal; when he saw it, he immediately recognized the threat and neutralized the assassin.”
“Is the assassin talking?”
“Not as of yet, but we’re holding him under the Patriot Act, so we believe he will break. Now other related events. Sayid Al Jabar was found shot to death in his hotel room in the Bahamas on the 5th. Two other top men we associate with Islamic terrorists were also found assassinated, one in Spain, and the other in the Netherlands. We suspect as punishment from the failure of the mission, but we’re still investigating.
“Probably because of the missing two hundred million,” Matthew said to himself.
“Sayid is suspected of being connected to attempted assassination of the prince, the bank incident in D.C. and the attempted car bombing at Dulles International Airport. After the bank incident, thanks again to Ranger Zero, we captured the terrorist who did the planning; he’s led us to others involved in that incident and the bombing attempt. We also gained access to Sayid’s set of burner phones, so anytime he made a call, we could trace his whereabouts and that of the person he was calling. This allowed us to disrupt the car bombing and roll up several terrorist cells.”
“Do we know how Ranger Zero got inside this operation?”
“No, unfortunately his handler was killed last January in the incident in San Diego. He had been texting intel to me in the weeks preceding the D.C. bank incident. I assume he contacted me since I was the lead agent on the response team in San Diego. He continued to contact me as he gathered new intel as the incidents I described unfolded, but is unwilling to provide a way to contact him. We can only assume he is deep undercover and is afraid of being exposed,” Agent Caruthers said. “He’s a very resourceful agent, and we hope he can continue to aid us.”
