by Ali Vali
“I doubt it.” Berkley smiled. “You’re not an intelligence officer, but you’re highly intelligent.”
“What she said,” Wiley added, pointing at Berkley again. “All this stuff that’s happened isn’t even a scenario they cover during battle-strategy classes at West Point, and up to now, all I’ve done is read about it in the paper with a sense of disbelief. I was happy in my little cocoon in New Orleans, but you guys have been neck deep in this since it started.”
“We’re sorry to take you away from that,” Aidan said. “You really do have a beautiful family.”
“Thanks,” Wiley said, running her finger along the top of her cup as if she couldn’t sit still. How she managed the stillness of the nest baffled Berkley. “It was a change for sure.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” Berkley said, and Wiley lowered her head. “How did you end up with a kid who looks and acts just like you?”
Wiley laughed, her head still down. “The thrill General Greenwald’s team promised was hard to turn down, and when I made the cut right before graduation, I took the offer without talking it over with Aubrey first.”
“Uh-oh,” Aidan said, and Wiley nodded. “Let’s go to my office to finish this. It’s no one’s business, and I don’t want anyone listening in.”
They walked together, and Berkley was surprised Wiley went so willingly. Talking about herself was never her forte during the years they’d known each other. “I can understand the allure. It’s the same thing with me and jets,” she said when Aidan closed the door.
“I figured a year with Carl and I’d be set, but that turned into a few years of me going out when called and home to Aubrey when I was on leave.” Wiley sounded almost disgusted with herself. “I was at the point then where I’d had enough and was trying to either transfer or muster out and settle in New Orleans with Aubrey. It was that last job, though—it had legs that followed us home. We’d just landed, and I had the phone in my hand to call Aubrey when I watched most of my unit die right in front of me. One guy had just been welcomed by his whole family, and they were all gone just like that. I didn’t want that to happen to me, and my only thought was to keep Aubrey safe.”
“And you left for her sake?” Aidan asked, her voice the very definition of compassion. “God, that must’ve been so hard.”
“I did, and I couldn’t even really tell her why. For years I buried myself in death and missions, trying to forget the pain of walking out I’d caused until I realized I couldn’t erase her from my heart through the Black Dragon.”
“Damn, Wiley, I had no idea. Why didn’t you call me?” Berkley asked.
“I was like a wounded dog who didn’t want comfort from anyone, and if serving was bad, retirement was its own death sentence of loneliness. It stayed that way until Aubrey reached out and said it was past time for me to fulfill my obligations.” She told them where she’d found Aubrey and Tanith, and what she’d done to free them from the trouble they were in. “The danger’s still there, but I couldn’t walk away again without bleeding to death from the pain.”
“I’m glad for that, Wiley. You’ve given enough to deserve every bit of happiness you have now,” Berkley said.
“We’re going to have a baby,” Wiley said, and her face took on an expression of wonder.
“Really?” Berkley stood up and pulled Wiley into a hug. “Congratulations, buddy. What the hell are you doing here then?”
“I’m here to watch over you so you can experience the same things I have now, and also because Aubrey insisted I not turn the assignment down. She said, if ever I was needed, it was this go-round. By telling you, I’m hoping you’ll walk faster once we’re on the ground. I’m not interested in anything but getting home to my girls.”
Aidan laughed and hugged Wiley as well. “Congratulations, and we do want the same things. Aubrey seems like a wonderful and understanding woman.”
“You two are probably a lot alike. I always knew Cletus would pick someone good and that it’d be for life,” Wiley said as she released her. “I’m glad she found you.”
“Wiley Gremillion, sappy?” Berkley asked, slapping her hands together. “Write that down, baby, because I doubt it’ll ever happen again.”
Wiley stared at Aidan before taking her hand. “Are you sure about this one? If you go through with the wedding, put me on speed dial. I have a pellet gun at home that’ll help keep her in line.”
“It’s a deal,” Aidan said before her intercom buzzed. “Yes?”
“Captain, Command is requesting an earlier link. Would you like it in your office?”
“Patch it through.”
Carl, Neil, and Preston appeared on the screen right after that, and they all appeared serious. “Good, you’re all together,” Carl said, skipping his usual greeting. “There have been some new developments.”
“What now?” Aidan asked, almost sorry she had when each man spoke in turn.
* * *
Erin Mosley stood in the White House Situation Room and took a deep breath to settle herself before she started through her presentation. She’d been working on it for the last couple of days and had backup for everything she’d found. At Quantico her instructors had always preached that any case without proof was merely speculation.
“Agent Mosley, whenever you’re ready,” Olivia Michaels said. Erin knew Olivia had postponed the announcement of her vice president because of this meeting, and she wanted to make sure it was worth the wait.
“Thank you, ma’am.” Someone dimmed the lights for her when she put up her first exhibit. “Six months ago, President Khalid asked for and received Army General Homer Lapry’s resignation.”
“Good call on his part,” Carl said. “The man’s an idiot, but that didn’t take away from his arrogance.”
“Yes, sir,” Erin said. “Lapry didn’t agree with the president’s changes to the troops, which were in his purview to make, and by all accounts, Lapry left voluntarily but has complained bitterly ever since about being pushed out.” She moved from Lapry’s official picture to copies of plane tickets and video of Lapry going through customs in South Korea. “Two weeks before the president’s assassination, Lapry traveled to South Korea on vacation.”
“That’s what he listed on his entry documentation?” Drew asked.
“Yes, sir, but he hired a car to take him to a small fishing village on the West Coast, as verified by the agents I had check. He sat in his small hotel room for a day until he hired a charter boat for a fishing trip.” She put up a map of North and South Korea. “After a little over four hours of fishing, the same car service drove him back to the airport in Seoul, and he returned to the United States.”
“What did you find so strange about this trip?” Pentagon Security Chief Rooster asked. “I mean aside from traveling an eternity for basically a four-hour fishing trip.”
“The South’s security forces have brought the charter captain in for questioning, and after hours of interrogation, he admitted his business is merely a taxi service at times.”
“A taxi service for who?” Olivia asked, narrowing her eyes.
“He waits at certain coordinates, and North Korean forces pick up his passengers, with an agreed-upon arrangement to bring them back. It’s a way to bypass any sign you’ve been in the rogue state,” Erin said, and she could see the ramifications of what this meant appear on everyone’s face. “According to the captain, Homer Lapry was one of the people requiring that unique service.”
“What was he doing in North Korea?” Carl asked.
“That I can’t verify yet, but it might be where Chandler is,” she said.
“The charter guy make many of these trips?” Olivia asked, and Erin nodded as Jonas stood up.
“We might’ve connected this to our ongoing investigation in DC,” Jonas said, and more than one person shook their head as if not understanding. “We’ve had Speaker Bonner’s assistant under surveillance for the last week, after one of our agents put together a pattern Ron Boll
inger has that raised a red flag,” Jonas said.
“Which is?” Marcus Newton asked. “The CIA could’ve helped with that.” He sounded irritated.
“If there’s a case to be made, we want it done by the book. Your guys can help as we expand our South Korean investigation,” he said, but Marcus still appeared peeved.
“I don’t like being left out of the loop. It’s like you’re trying to hide what you’re doing.”
“Excuse me,” Jonas said with heat.
“Back to the pattern,” Olivia said, sounding like a scolding mother.
“Ron Bollinger sits in a crowded mall, has lengthy conversations in hushed tones, and changes his phone every couple of days. He tosses the old one into a mall trashcan and the SIM card into another one. Yesterday we forced a quicker change, and he’s using a phone we modified.”
“Seriously?” Carl asked. “Can you do that?”
“We got a blind warrant that’ll stand up in any court, which covers us if Bollinger ends up in a regular legal channel. From what we’ve been able to find, some of his most frequent calls are to Homer Lapry and Speaker Bonner.”
“Bonner makes sense, since that’s his boss,” Marcus said in a tone that sounded like he was leaving “fucking idiot” off the end of his statement.
“It does, but it’s also possible that Bollinger is the courier between Chandler and Bonner,” Jonas said, and Olivia appeared shocked. “We’ve investigated the military, security intelligence personnel, but not one elected official.”
“And we should have,” Olivia said.
“Yes, ma’am, and if we can prove that this is accurate, the attempt your former lead agent made on your life makes total sense. If you were out of the way, the next in line at the seat of power would’ve been Chase Bonner,” Erin said. “If he’s really working with Chandler, what better way to pave an easy path to victory for Chandler?”
Olivia chuckled a little and Drew joined her. “Obviously Dick doesn’t know Bonner as well as he thinks he does,” Olivia said.
“What do you mean?” Erin asked, wondering if some big piece of her puzzle was missing.
“It would’ve taken another well-planned assassination to get Bonner to give up the Oval Office if he’d actually been sworn in.” Olivia gazed at her and winked. “You’re a good agent, but I’m familiar with politics and its ravenous power-hungry people.”
“True, but back to Lapry,” Drew said. “How’s he fit into all this?”
“When Captains Sullivan and Levine first uncovered this conspiracy quite by accident, they thought it had worked because only the lower ranks were involved. Captain Levine had used the term worker bees, but recruitment had to have started high enough to make the worker bees not fear serious repercussions if they’d been discovered.”
“Enter General Lapry,” Carl said.
“Precisely.” Erin nodded. “Anyone serving in your command might have feelings about this last election that mirrored Chandler’s, and up to now you’ve had to bear it until the next election. If it was a military general who told them it was their duty to work against the government, you’d probably snag quite a few recruits.”
“That’s true,” Carl said, “but Lapry is a certifiable idiot. He was promoted more from politicking than by merit.”
“It’s the authority of his rank, sir, not so much the man,” Jonas said. “Once he secured a few, they probably found like-minded people to swell their ranks.”
“So now what?” Olivia asked.
“We wait and listen, and once we have the evidence, we’ll remove Chandler’s eyes and ears within the capital. While we wait on that, we’ll continue to work on Rachel Chandler,” Jonas said.
“Any progress there?” Rooster asked.
“She has very colorful language, but none of it is relevant to this case,” Erin said.
“I bet,” Drew said with a smile. “The government’s case against Jeffery is almost done, so maybe it’s time to move Rachel to a more permanent home.”
“Get it done,” Olivia said. “If there’s nothing else, we’re due on the Hill, and you should all know I’ve chosen Drew as my vice president. Once he’s sworn in, he’ll take charge of the day-to-day operations of this investigation. Commander Palmer will replace Drew as defense secretary at the Pentagon, but I’m sure he won’t mind if you still call him Rooster. Congratulations, gentlemen.”
The group gathered stood and clapped, obviously approving of the choices. “As for the rest of you, you’ll remain in your posts since we have a good team in place. You all were loyal to Peter, and I hope you’ll stay on and work with me to finally finish this.”
“We’ll follow you to hell and back, Madam President,” Carl said, saluting at attention. “To hell and back.”
Chapter Twenty-one
“Wow” was all Berkley could think to say when Carl was done. “If Lapry was one of his recruiters, was there someone similar in the navy?”
“Rodney James would be my guess, but he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Once Drew’s sworn in, I’m sure we’ll have more flexibility when it comes to interrogations that’ll actually get us somewhere.”
“Does all this change our timeline?” Aidan asked.
“Tomorrow at dusk you’ve been invited to dine with the South Korean and British captains as if you’re there for typical war games,” Carl said and pointed to Preston.
“The Apache that’ll deliver you to their ship will be accompanied by a few more, which will continue inland and deliver our team to the drop-off spot,” Preston said, and Berkley smiled at the large cigar in his jacket pocket. “You have however long it takes to get what we’re after, then make it back to the extraction point. That’s the only time you’ll break radio silence, as agreed.”
“Thank you, sir,” Berkley said. “Will you be updating the team tonight?”
“We’ll leave that up to you, Cletus, but this is strictly need-to-know. All of us must work from a compromised position in that someone is plotting against you. There’s no reason to give Chandler any more advantages,” Preston said. “Be careful out there, kid, and Godspeed.”
“Thanks again, sir,” Berkley said, giving him a casual salute. “We won’t be long.”
“See that you aren’t, and watch out for each other,” Carl said. “Buckston shared some good news with me, Wiley, so try to stay on Karen Tarver’s good side. If only to keep her off my ass.”
“Yes, sir,” Wiley said and laughed.
“Who’s Karen Tarver?” Aidan asked once the link dropped.
“My mother-in-law, and up till recently not my biggest fan. Aubrey’s dad was a SEAL, who was gone a lot, and Karen didn’t care for it. When I started dating her daughter, she didn’t want the same kind of life for her, and I figured it had more to do with that than anything about me personally. She wanted someone more stable for her little girl.”
“If she likes you now, let’s not do anything to fuck that up,” Berkley said, and Wiley nodded.
“Let’s go round up our need-to-knows, so we can take it easy for the rest of today. Tomorrow will be hard enough,” Berkley said.
They had an extensive strategy session with Baylor, and Jin joined them at his request. They all listened intently as Jin described again the layout of the main house as she remembered it, considering the short amount of time she was there. The two most important spots were the office and the master bedroom. If Chil hadn’t lied, the team going in would be quick once everything was unlocked and ready to take.
“Do you think Chil was being truthful?” Baylor asked Jin, cocking his head to the side as he seemed to study her diagram closely. “In my experience, nothing worth anything is that easy to walk off with.”
“My father also had many state secrets. The vaults where they are kept, according to him, would open with a certain combination, but it would also send an alert to his security forces,” Jin said, glancing between Berkley and Baylor. “He might have given you a combination, but it will turn o
ut to be a trap.” The question now was who to believe right before they found themselves in the middle of a hostile situation.
“So he’s lying?” Baylor asked.
“It is not completely a lie if the door opens, Major, but it is a half-truth if the key unlocks the means to your death.”
“Okay,” Baylor said, stretching the word. “How do we open the vaults without the death option? I don’t know about you, but I’d like to skip that part no matter how many shiny objects are on the inside of the safe.”
“If the setup is like my father’s, it is a fifteen-digit code,” Jin said.
“That’s a lot of possibilities,” Aidan said, whistling. “How do we open it?”
“Kim knows Chil is never going to return, so the nice house probably now belongs to the new enforcer, or some general,” Jin said, placing her hands in her lap. “That person should be our first target.”
“Seems to me, we’ll be in the same boat with a different captain, but the same results,” Baylor said. “It won’t matter if we capture the new landlord, if he or she won’t give up the combination easily.”
“You are in their land, Major, so you are allowed to play by their rules,” Jin said, as if that explained everything.
“I can be dense sometimes,” Berkley said with a tight smile, “but what does that mean?”
“Major.” Jin locked eyes with Baylor.
“Please call me Baylor. It’s easier.”
“Thank you.” Jin bowed her head slightly. “Baylor, if you had the choice between seeing your penis in my hand when I am across the room from you or opening a safe, which would you choose?”
“That’s hard to answer in a room full of women,” Baylor said and blushed a scarlet red, as if he hadn’t expected the question.
“We’re guessing you’d squeeze your legs together and cry softly while I rifled through your valuables,” Wiley said for him, not being able to stifle her chuckle.
