“Call me Ari, please. I don’t like to be associated with that woman from the news.”
“If you want to get out of here anywhere near the sunny side of 2004 you’ll start offering me some information. First of all, is Marks’ story true?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Your friend John said that he knew Marks had led us to you. What contact did you have with Marks? Why did he decide to come to the CIA?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s an asshole.”
“So you’re saying that Marks had a valid reason to come see us?”
“I am not.”
“Why would Marks come to the CIA with such a wild story if he wasn’t telling the truth?”
“What am I, a psychiatrist? I don’t know why crazy people do crazy things.”
“Okay, then. Let’s say that Marks is lying with his crazy story. There is one thing that he said that wasn’t a lie. He gave us your name. I send my guys to just ask you some questions and we get into a fuck-for-all. You’re already in this way too deep to keep banging the innocent bell, sweetheart. Tell me if Marks’ story is true.”
“Go to hell.”
“Okay, if you don’t care about rotting in a holding cell for months, maybe you do care about your friends. John may be hurt and in need of help. If you help us find him you could save his life.”
Ari folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow.
“The other thing to consider,” continued Devonai, “is the well-being of your other friends, namely Raymond Bailey and Christie Tolliver. We’ve got case officers waiting for them at their residences, too. It’s only a matter of time before my operatives have another confrontation. You can help determine the outcome of those meetings, namely, prevent it from becoming another brawling shootout. Our agents are prepared to defend themselves, as you’ve seen, and I can’t guarantee that your friends won’t get hurt. Only you can.”
“You’ll never find the others now that you let John get away.”
“Maybe so. Then again, are they going to just walk away from you? You may be a world-class jerk but I doubt they’ll be so willing to leave you to gather dust in our custody.”
“They’ll probably do just that. There is too much at stake to risk a rescue.”
“What’s at stake, exactly?”
“Go... to... hell. Remember?”
“I don’t expect your friends to stage a rescue, Ari. I’m hoping that we can simply open up a dialog and come to an arrangement that we can all be happy with. As I’ve said, my mission is to determine what happened to the Portland. Do you know why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you know why I’ve been assigned to the Portland investigation?”
“I don’t know. Is it a slow day on the vice squad?”
“My interest in this is national security. I need to know if there’s a threat to this country. Navy vessels being reduced to dust sounds like a pretty substantial threat to me. Whether the truth is as simple as a new weapon invented by our enemies or as fanciful as a spacecraft stealing the metal for its own purposes, I need to know how it is going to effect the security and safety of the United States. For such a significant task, my officers and I are authorized and willing to do whatever it takes to succeed.”
There was a knock at the door.
“Nice speech,” said Ari.
“Enter!”
Richter poked his head into the room. “Major, there’s someone here to see you.”
“Can’t it wait?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Who is it?”
“I think you’d better come see for yourself.”
21.
John could feel Seth’s presence as soon as he pulled the Expedition into the cargo bay. John let Seth in long enough to tell him to close the ramp. Ray was waiting nearby. John hopped out of the Ford.
“It was that rat son of a bitch Levi,” said John, livid.
“Whoa, slow down,” Ray said, “just take it easy and tell me what happened.”
John made for the bridge as fast as he could walk. Ray spun on his heels and followed him.
“There were men waiting for us at Ari’s place. They identified themselves as the CIA. Things went to hell immediately.”
“They just started attacking you?”
“They kicked down the front door, Ray! One of them said they just wanted to talk to us, well shit, that’s a pretty lousy way to start a conversation!”
John charged up the stairs to the bridge. Christie and Dana were sitting in the new chairs. Friday leaped down from the counter and scurried into the corner.
“Your buddy Levi sold us out!” John yelled at Dana.
“What happened?” Dana asked, shocked.
“Ray said they took shots at you?” asked Christie.
“The CIA has a funny way of investigating leads,” John said. “But we know Levi went to them now. How else did they get Ari’s name and address?”
“Whatever Levi’s intentions were,” said Dana, “I’m sure he never meant for anyone to get hurt.”
“John, sit down please,” said Ray. “We can’t plan our next move until we’re all calm.”
“I don’t want to sit down right now, Ray. I’m sorry if getting shot at leaves me with a little excess energy!”
“Okay, stand then. Just take a deep breath and tell us what happened from the beginning.”
John followed Ray’s advice. When he had caught his breath he nodded.
“Right. Ari and I had gone over to her place to pick up some stuff. The CIA must have had men waiting outside because we weren’t there for more than five minutes before somebody knocked on the door. Then these two guys kicked in the door. Ari took out the first one before he had a chance to act.”
“Wait, what do you mean she ‘took him out?’”
“You know, she defended herself. The guy had a gun out and Ari used her Aikido to disarm and disable him. She and I fought with the second man until Ari shot him. We made a break for it but there were two more men coming up the stairs. Ari had gotten ahead of me and she ran right into one of them. He disarmed her and then stunned her. Then he took a shot at me as I was coming to try and help Ari.”
“Why did he shoot at you?”
“What do you mean, why? We were in combat.”
“Did you have your weapon drawn?”
“You bet your ass I did.”
“Then that’s why he shot at you. What happened next?”
John took a breath. “Okay. I stopped in my tracks when he fired the shot. He told me to drop my weapon. Almost immediately another agent came around the corner and started firing at me. These were not warning shots Ray, he meant to kill me. I ran back upstairs to find some cover. The man who had Ari identified himself as a CIA agent and demanded that I surrender.”
“What did you say?”
“I didn’t have a chance to say anything. One of the first two men came around and drew his pistol. I lunged at him and managed to kick him before he could fire. As he fell over his weapon went off. It looked like he was knocked out so I glanced back down the stairs. By that time the other agents had given up on talking and were dragging Ari down to the street. I followed them. When I made it to the street they shot at me again. They shoved Ari into the back of their car and took off. I knew there was no way I could follow them so I called you.”
John collapsed into a chair.
“This is unbelievable,” said Christie.
“What are we going to do now?” Dana asked.
Ray shook his head. “I don’t know. This is pretty messed up.”
“This is serious, Ray,” John said. “The CIA isn’t fooling around here.”
“It sounds to me like they went in hard and then got hit hard. You guys fought back with lethal force and they had no choice but to retaliate in kind.”
“Whoa, hold on there a second. They’re the ones that started the fight! They broke down the door and
came running in with their weapons drawn. They raised the bar from the get-go. It shouldn’t surprise them in the least that we fought back like we did.”
“I’m not saying you did wrong, John. It just seems to me that there was a lot of misunderstanding during this whole incident. They may have had a genuine interest in opening up a dialog with you but everything went to hell too quickly. It seems to me that they did intend to arrest you, though. If they were only going to question you why did they do a hostile entry?”
“Exactly.”
“A Navy vessel crumbles to dust,” said Dana. “I’m not surprised they were so aggressive.”
“All right,” said Ray, “let’s think about this. The CIA has Ari in custody. What are our options? We could contact the CIA and try and talk to them on more even footing.”
“And say what?” Christie asked. “We have nothing to bargain with.”
“Christie is right,” began John, “we can’t hand the Faith over to them. The best we could offer them is a tour of the ship. They won’t be satisfied with that.”
“How else are we going to get Ari back?” Dana said.
“Why don’t we ask Seth for help?” said Ray. “With all this alien technology, maybe there’s a way for the Faith to help us find Ari.”
“Friday, come here,” said John.
Friday walked over to John and jumped into his lap. Ray looked at Friday.
“Can you help us find Ari?” he asked.
Seth’s voice filled the bridge. “Ari is not here.”
“Yes, and we need you to locate her,” said John. “Can you do it?”
“Each of you is always with me.”
“You mean you can track her?”
“I know where Ari is.”
“Great, where?”
“I need John.”
“I’m right here, Seth.”
“I need your mind. Ari isn’t strong. You have her life force in you.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Each of you has her life force in you. John has the most. If you allow me to join with your mind I will be able to locate her.”
“He’s not making a ton of sense,” said Ray.
“I’m not sure what he means either,” said John, “except that I have to be in contact with the orb in order to find her.”
“That is correct,” said Seth.
“Wait a minute,” Christie said, “I thought that you could be linked with Seth from anywhere in the ship.”
John nodded. “I can, but the strongest telepathic connection is when I’m in physical contact with the orb.”
“Okay, so let’s do it,” said Dana.
“There is a problem,” Seth said. “I cannot locate Ari without... transmitting a signal. To create a Doppler signal as you required for gephentrefol operations would prevent the signal from detecting her.”
“Gephenter... what?” asked Ray.
“That’s the word Seth used to describe matter-energy conversions,” said John. “I didn’t understand it myself until Seth showed me what he meant in my mind. Seth, from now on use the term ‘matter-energy transfer.’”
“I understand,” said Seth.
“Seth used a lot of words that I didn’t understand when the two of us were linked. Often I tried to translate them before I passed along the message.”
“Oh. So if we find Ari, then ASTRA will be able to detect the signal?” asked Dana.
“Presumably,” said Christie.
“So what?” said Dana. “They’ll get a pinpoint signal location. Then we move and they can’t find us again.”
“Good point,” said Ray.
John sighed. “All right. Let’s take the Faith to a random location as a red herring. Then I’ll use the orb to find Ari.”
“Okay. Seth, put us a thousand feet above Little Haystack.”
__________
Devonai had never seen the man seated across from Lauren Hill. Both he and Hill regarded Devonai with what looked like unforgiving ire as he entered Hill’s office. Devonai was quite used to that look from Hill but so far, to his knowledge, he hadn’t screwed up yet. The man was obviously military, as he sported an appropriate haircut and the familiar Navy peacoat.
“Major, sit down please,” Hill said, gesturing. “This is Lieutenant Commander Guilfoyle of the Defense Intelligence Agency.”
“Major Kyrie Devonai. Nice to meet you.”
Commander Guilfoyle accepted Devonai’s handshake.
“Likewise,” he said.
“I wish we had something for you, commander, but our investigation is still in the preliminary stages.”
“I’m sure your people are doing a fine job, major. It has been the determination of the Department of Defense to turn this investigation over to the DIA.”
“Indeed? Interesting how you guys show up some fourteen hours late and demand control. Where were you when the Portland disappeared?”
“Washington. We didn’t have any personnel in the area at the time.”
“Exactly. If you guys want more involvement in things like this, maybe you should have more field offices.”
“Major Devonai,” Hill snapped, “you are out of line.”
“It’s all right,” said Guilfoyle. “I read your file, major. You’re kind of young to be heading up an investigation like this. Never mind the fact that your rank doesn’t reflect any military training.”
“Rank earned is rank earned. I proved myself as an asset to the agency and was granted officer rank to facilitate an operation. Since that operation was successful, it was determined to keep that rank as part of my official title.”
“Either way, this kind of case is way above your expertise and ability.”
“I beg to differ. Besides, let’s quit this idiotic banter and get to the point. Hill, does the DIA have the authority to take this investigation away from us?”
“Pretty much,” said Hill.
“Then why are we even discussing it?”
“Before you came in here and made an ass of yourself,” began Guilfoyle, “we were hoping to keep you in the loop. Hill seems to have a lot of faith in your abilities. If you’re not interested in acting like part of the team, however...”
“Look, I’m sorry if I’m being defensive, but this is a fascinating case. I’m more than a little curious to find out just what the hell is going on. I apologize for my remarks, commander.”
“That’s fine. Please understand that while the DIA does in fact have full jurisdiction in this case, in the interest of future cooperation we would like the CIA to participate. Hill has offered the conference room on the third floor as a command center. Meet me there in two hours ready to present your findings. Is that acceptable?”
“Yes, sir,” said Devonai.
“Very well, then. If you’ll excuse me...”
Guilfoyle smiled half-heartedly and exited the office.
“You didn’t mention Ferro,” said Hill.
“Neither did you,” Devonai replied. “So what gives?”
“She hasn’t given us anything useful yet. Therefore, I don’t see any point in informing the DIA of her presence.”
“Why are you interested in keeping her a secret for now?”
“Leverage. In case the DIA takes the investigation in a direction I don’t like.”
Devonai smiled. “Lauren, I’m impressed. You’ve got more ambition than I gave you credit for.”
“Ambition is like a charge card, major. It is best used infrequently and only when absolutely necessary. Didn’t they teach you that on the farm?”
“I didn’t spend all that much time there. Not like a normal recruit. What do you want to do about Miss Ferro’s recalcitrance?”
“So far she doesn’t seem to care about anything. We need to find something that she does care about, and exploit it.”
“She’s playing the hard-ass card right now. She doesn’t place much value on herself in whatever is going on here. She says her friends won’t contact
us or attempt a rescue mission. I’m more inclined to believe that they would.”
“Have we leaned on Marks as much as we can?”
“I think Marks has already told us everything he knows. The others hate his guts by this point, without a doubt. I think the only one we can appeal to is Dana Andrews, but we have just as little chance to contact her as we do the others. In my opinion, all we can do is continue surveillance on the other residences and keep ASTRA looking for more signals. If we’re lucky, the others will contact us themselves.”
Hill nodded. “Okay, until we can think of something else, proceed with that plan. I want you and Richter to scout out each of the residences like you were doing when you ran into trouble. If anything it will let our field operatives know that we’re serious about this surveillance. I have visions of them napping soundly out on location.”
“What about the DIA briefing in two hours?”
“I’ll handle it. I want you out in the field. If the commander doesn’t like it he can take it up with me.”
“Roger that. I have one more idea.”
“Oh?”
“Why not put Marks and Ferro in the same room? We can record their conversation. Maybe, if we’re lucky, one of them will slip up and reveal some useful information.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll see to it. Let’s just hope they don’t decide to kill each other in the process.”
Richter was the kind of man who solved problems. Marks could see that plainly. As a military man he could spot a squared away soldier easily, and Richter could be the poster child. Marks was tempted to engage him in idle conversation about his service, but squared away soldiers don’t engage in idle conversation. At least not with prisoners. Marks was beginning to feel more like a captive, despite his complete cooperation with the CIA so far. Richter, who was escorting Marks somewhere, didn’t seem like the sympathetic type. Asking him about what was going on would be a waste of time.
Reckless Faith Page 21
