Operation: Unknown Angel

by Margaret Kay

  Both Remi and Annaka confirmed they were.

  “This is crazy. Did the FBI contact you both very early this morning too? My God! They picked me up at five this morning, insisted my wife and son come with us too. I was at the research office. I had to call Sonia in early to cover and I had to wake my wife up. Neither were very happy.”

  “Didn’t they tell you?” Annaka asked him.

  All three of their eyes went to the door as it opened again. The seven members of the advisory board filed in and went to their seats at the head table. Remi recognized them, had met with them on several occasions. She told Clint and Annaka who they were.

  “Dr. Ipsen, your group is to be seated at that table,” Commissioner Bird said, pointing to the table they stood near. He was an older, Native Alaskan gentleman.

  “Thank you, Commissioner Bird,” she replied. She led Annaka and Clint over to the table just a few steps away. Then she dropped her voice to a whisper. “He leads the board. We definitely want him on our side.”

  “We’ll wait for the delegation from Carstairs Gas and Oil. They are on their way,” Bird said.

  “Tell me what?” Ames asked.

  “Remi and I were evacuated last night,” Annaka whispered.

  “Just what the hell is going on?” Ames demanded. “The FBI have my wife and son in a safehouse right now.”

  Their conversation halted as five men in suits entered the room.

  “My family was held at gunpoint yesterday. I filed a false report to this agency, giving them the green light from all of us to allow Carstairs seismic survey to commence.”

  “You did what?” Ames demanded, just a little too loudly, getting everyone’s attention in the room.

  “Excuse me?” Commissioner Bird asked. “Is there a problem, Dr. Ipsen?”

  Remi forced a nervous smile and looked at the table in the front of the room. “No problem, sorry.”

  “Gentlemen, please take your seats,” Bird said, pointing to the other table.

  “They said they’d kill my family if I didn’t,” Remi whispered. “They were watching everything at the office yesterday, through the cameras on our computers. I had no choice and you would have done the same thing,” she told him sternly.

  “Besides, we’re here now to give our verbal report and testify in front of this committee,” Annaka said. “So, it doesn’t matter what was in that written report.”

  “The agency Annaka’s boyfriend is with arranged it all,” Remi said.

  “We’re ready to begin,” Bird announced.

  Annaka glanced around. All seven members of the board were settled in their seats, as were the five men from Carstairs Gas and Oil. She pulled one of the seats out and sat. Clint and Remi did the same. Her eyes went to the nearby chairs behind them that Danny and most of his group sat in.

  “I was contacted at my home very late last night by the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. His call came from his home in Washington D.C. where it was early morning. I was informed that the report that was filed by the researchers at the Anchor Point Research Center yesterday was done so under duress. I was also advised that the lives of two of the researchers were threatened and that a military operation to free one of them and her family from kidnappers took place last night. I was urged to convene this meeting to hear the reports firsthand.”

  Clint Ames was surprised to hear this. His questioning eyes scanned the two women beside him. Then he noticed that Annaka’s boyfriend and several of his coworkers who had investigated Annaka’s kidnapping in December, sat in the seats behind them. He didn’t know they were back in the area.

  “I consider these events to be very serious as well as troubling. To think that anyone would go to such lengths to have an erroneous report made to this body is shocking to me. That report has been thrown out. This meeting will be the only testimony that will be considered in the matter of the petition from Carstairs Gas and Oil to be granted permission to conduct a 3D seismic survey in the untapped federal waters of the lower Cook Inlet, twenty miles due west of Homer halfway between Kachemak Bay in the lower Kenai Peninsula, including upon completion of the survey, the drilling of exploratory wells.”

  “That petition was approved several weeks ago,” one of the men at the Carstairs table said.

  “Yes, and we were informed earlier this week that the validity of the research findings that in part swayed this committee into approving the petition, was in question,” Bird answered. He glanced at those seated at both tables. “At this table are representatives from Carstairs Gas and Oil. Please introduce yourselves, gentlemen.”

  One of the men stood. “George Abernathy, lead council for Carstairs Gas and Oil Company. This is my colleague, Theodore Grimes,” he said, pointing to the man who pulled up one of the spare chairs and sat at the far end of the table. “Charles Devlin, Vice President of Alaska Operations at Carstairs, Troy Davis, Alaska Operations Manager for the offshore platforms, and Shane Robertson, Assistant Alaska Operations Manager,” he introduced while pointing to each man.

  Lambchop recognized Shane Robertson. He was who they’d spoken to in December. Troy Davis was a good decade older than Robertson and had a corporate air about him. Charles Devlin was about the same age as Davis. He wore an expensive Armani suit.

  “Thank you for rearranging your schedules with such short notice to participate in these proceedings, gentlemen,” Bird said. Then he turned to the researchers. “Please introduce yourselves as well.”

  “I’m Dr. Remington Ipsen. I, Dr. Annaka Sanchez, and Clint Ames with the USGS,” she introduced as she motioned to each of them, “are all researchers at the Anchor Point Research Station. Our collective expertise is in environmental studies, geology and seismology, and marine biology. As part of our grants we conduct various tests and file reports with the Federal Energy Commission, the United States Geological Survey, the Department of the Interior, and the Environmental Protection Agency regarding the impact of the drilling operations in Cook Inlet and the forces that threaten those operations. Dr. Patrick Keeling was a member of our group until he was killed by federal agents in December. It was only after his death that we discovered that he had not consulted us, nor did he inform us that this petition was filed or granted. The three of us here today oppose the granting of this petition as does another colleague of ours, Dr. Claude Renault, glaciologist. Mr. Bird, you are correct that two members of this group have been threatened into submitting false reports. Dr. Annaka Sanchez was threatened and kidnapped in December. Annaka,” she prompted, pointing at her.

  “On December twenty-fourth at approximately ten p.m. I was alone at the research building monitoring our equipment. Two men forced their way in, holding a gun to our colleague, Dr. Patrick Keeling’s head. I was forced to enter values into a report that was due by December thirty-first, erroneous pollutant levels on samples collected around drill site C-Three operated by Carstairs Gas and Oil. These men knew the correct fields and the figures that should be entered to show that a leak discovered several weeks earlier had been repaired. The problem was, the true figures from the testing showed the opposite. The levels were increasing. After I completed the report as they instructed me to, I was kidnapped and held in a cabin for four days until I was rescued. During that rescue, Patrick Keeling was killed when he fired on federal agents after they had identified themselves. He was ruled complicit in my kidnapping for unknown reasons.”

  The five men at the table beside theirs whispered quietly amongst themselves. The board did as well in hushed expressions of surprise. Annaka was sure this was the first the board heard of it.

  “Several days later,” Annaka continued, “Clint Ames, who worked as Patrick Keeling’s assistant provided a recap of all the information that he knew, and he was under the impression Patrick shared with us but didn’t, including this petition.” She wished she could report about her house being blown up, but Danny’s group warned her not to. There was no proof yet that the gas leak was a murder attempt
.

  “I have my master’s degree in geology and have worked for the USGS for eight years. I have worked exclusively monitoring the gas and oil industry. I did not agree with many conclusions that Dr. Keeling came to, including the tremors that have been occurring in the Cook Inlet. He believed they registered because of the drilling operations. I believe they are low magnitude quakes resulting from the fault being unduly stressed by the drilling operations. Furthermore, I believe additional drilling will stress the fault further and could potentially trigger a sizeable seismological event.”

  The members of the counsel looked worried and murmured amongst themselves again. “By event, you mean an earthquake,” Bird clarified.

  “That is correct,” Ames said. “Drilling in areas that are seismologically active are proven to trigger quakes.”

  “I don’t need to tell you what a quake of a sizeable magnitude will do in Cook Inlet,” Remi said. “I know the data has been provided multiple times, but from an ecological standpoint the effects would be catastrophic.”

  “I study the beluga whales that make the Cook Inlet their home,” Annaka spoke up. “I have detected shifts in the whales’ behavior immediately before each tremor. The whales move out of the inlet, away from the drilling equipment. This further substantiates Clint Ames’ position that these are actual earthquakes that are occurring. The frequency over the past week has increased to fifteen per twenty-four-hour period. The three of us and our research partners at the Anchor Point Research Center have been collecting data and preparing our position for the last week on this petition that you granted with only input from Dr. Keeling. Collectively, we agreed on our findings the day before yesterday with plans to craft our report to you urging you to withdrawal the approval for the seismic survey and exploratory drilling.”

  “That evening, two men entered my house and took my family hostage at gunpoint. They set up a bank of seven laptops in my kitchen, each one showing the research office through the computer workstation’s cameras. I was told that I must not tell any of my colleagues, and that I must compose a report in which we all approved the petition, or my family would be killed. I filed that erroneous report yesterday.”

  Cooper and Madison sat on opposite sides of the room. They both watched the executives from the Carstairs Gas and Oil Company with great focus. There were a lot of quiet conversations between Devlin, Davis, and the legal counsel taking place throughout the researcher’s testimony. Oddly, they noticed that their legal counsel made no notes.

  “Is there anything else you would like us to consider?” Bird asked the researchers.

  “If a seismic event of any strength were to take place,” Ames said, “there could be multiple spills in the inlet. I think that until we can verify the condition of the fault, that the current drilling should be halted.”

  “Oh, come on,” Devlin exploded. “First you want to deny our petition, now you want to shut us down completely. Jerry, you’re not really going to consider this, are you?” He asked, looking directly at Commissioner Bird.

  “Charles, just calm down,” Bird said.

  “What proof do we even have of these allegations of threats against these people?” Devlin demanded.

  Lambchop stood. “If I may,” he said, retrieving his badge and federal credentials from his back pocket. “I am Agent Landon Johnson with the NSA, assigned to a multi-agency task-force. In December, we were made aware of the disappearance of Dr. Annaka Sanchez and Patrick Keeling. I and three other team members were on site investigating their disappearance. It was my group that conducted the rescue of her and were fired upon by Patrick Keeling. It was also my group that arranged for the military operation that rescued Dr. Remington Ipsen and her family last night, killing the two men that indeed held her family hostage.” He made eye contact with Devlin. “Do you require more proof than a federal agent’s testimony?”

  That shut Devlin up quickly. He silently shook his head no, but he whispered more to the attorneys at his table.

  “One last piece of information for this board,” Lambchop continued. “Carstairs is aware of this, but you need to be as well. A federal warrant was served on Carstairs to obtain all emails regarding status updates. No emails regarding the leak from platform C-Three were provided. The platform managers confirm these emails were sent. Secondary warrants are being served at the headquarters both here and in Texas as we speak.”

  Devlin whispered to his counsel again. From where she sat, Annaka could not hear them, but the look on Devlin’s face was rage.

  It didn’t take long for the board to unanimously decide to revoke the approval for the seismic survey and exploratory drilling. They would not grant Ames’ request that all drilling should be halted. “Get us more proof and we will reconsider,” Bird said to Ames. Then he turned his attention back to Devlin. “And Charles, get me more proof of the safety for expanded drilling and you can refile your petition. This matter is now closed,” Bird said.

  Troy Davis approached the table where Annaka, Remi, and Clint had been seated, but now stood near. “I wanted to tell you all, that I am very sorry you and your families were threatened, but it wasn’t anyone at Carstairs behind it.”

  “Then tell us who else would have benefitted if this seismic survey would have been approved,” Annaka challenged.

  “The union the workers belong to, for one,” Davis said. “The more members that belong to the union, the more powerful they are. We were set to hire several hundred more people just to complete the seismic survey and to drill the exploratory wells. Had we established several more platforms, even more men would have been hired.”

  Annaka’s eyes went to Danny’s. He stood nearby, certainly within earshot. Lambchop stood beside him. They both gazed knowingly at her. Good, they had heard.

  “Doesn’t it bother you in the least that the area may be unstable?” Clint Ames asked. “You could be putting your workers in danger on those platforms.”

  “Of course, it does,” Davis said. “But I haven’t seen or heard any definitive proof that there is a threat of a sizeable earthquake building. Dr. Keeling didn’t think there was. We were in close communication with him.”

  “Until his death,” Annaka said. “As far as I’m concerned, any communication from Patrick Keeling is suspect.”

  “Dr. Keeling and I didn’t agree on much,” Ames said. “I think there is a risk even with the current operations continuing. Your men on those platforms won’t get any warning and we both know that a quake could trigger a leak that could cause an explosion.”

  “If you can get me some definitive proof, I’ll shut the rigs down today,” Davis said strongly.

  Clint Ames shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way in seismology, but I’ll see what I can find.”

  Troy Davis removed business cards from a shiny silver case. He handed one to each of them. “My cell number is at the bottom. Call me anytime, day or night, if you come up with something substantial. I know the narrative of the big bad oil company putting people and pristine waterways at risk is a popular one. It just isn’t true in this case.”

  Mother watched Davis and the other executives from Carstairs Oil Company leave the room with their attorneys. Only then did he and Lambchop join the researchers. “What did you think of him?” He asked the group as Cooper joined them, as well.

  “He didn’t have to come over and talk to us at all,” Remi said. She held the card up. “And he didn’t need to give us his number either.”

  “After hearing that Patrick had a role in my abduction, I think him quoting anything related to Patrick was insensitive at the least, insulting if it was deliberate,” Annaka said. “And he really did not address the reports forcibly altered in their favor, twice. His Mr. Nice-guy performance didn’t convince me of anything.”

  “If Mr. Armani suit would have come over, that would have carried more weight with me,” Remi said. “I think it is possible that the corporate office could have hired those guys and the local Operations Manager, D
avis, would not know about it.”

  “At least none of them had twangy Texas accents,” Mother added. He told Remi and Ames about the message they found in the deleted bin on Keeling’s phone.

  “So, now what, Danny?” Annaka asked.

  “We’re working with the FBI to relocate you and your families to safe houses while we investigate,” Cooper spoke up.

  “No,” Remi argued. “We have to get back to Anchor Point. We have work to do.”

  “I need to deploy some additional seismic monitoring units,” Ames added.

  “Our assignment is to secure the three of you and your families someplace safe,” Cooper advised.

  “That someplace can be at the research office,” Annaka insisted. “Look, my house is gone because of these bastards and I could have been killed, twice. But I want to do what I can to help get these guys or in the very least, shut them down completely.”

  “We have a better chance of doing that through research, proving that the drilling is making the fault unstable,” Ames argued.