The Mason Walker Bundle 3

by Alex Howell

  Clara could perfectly well step over the light marked by the glistening sheen herself, but she figured that Jason was just trying to be a gentleman, so she accepted. But after she had already stepped over the laser beam, and began walking with Jason across the field, Jason continued to hold her hand.

  Only when Clara began to forcefully pull away did he relent, giving her a sheepish grin and letting go. Blushing a little bit at the thought, Clara realized that Jason most likely would have kept right on holding her hand all the way to Patrick’s house. This was a life and death mission, but Jason was still treating it like he was out on a date.

  She was both deeply flattered and a bit unnerved at his open affection toward her. And feeling like they needed to get back on task, she asked him, “So now what, we walk right up to the front door?”

  Jason taking the lead as they marched through the overgrown brush that surrounded the property shook his head, “Hell no—we’re going to the back door.”

  Jason coughed, before remarking, “It’s a little-known fact, but almost everyone with a security system keeps most of their cameras pointed toward the front—the back however is a typically neglected blind spot. And we are going to take full advantage of it.”

  Jason then directed Clara, “Okay, we’re going to have to crouch low once we’re within about 20 feet.”

  Clara asked, “What happens after 20 feet?” Jason informed her, “Any cameras he might have installed back there would begin to clearly pick us up after we come within 20 feet.”

  Clara then asked the obvious, as she inquired, “And then what?”

  To which Jason answered, “Well—I guess we will find out.”

  With this, the two then began their trek through the cornfield, and as Jason advised, they stopped just shy of about 20 feet behind the house. Jason staring at the house then announced, “Okay… I’m going to use the smart lens on my glasses to zoom in and see what we got here.”

  As mentioned, Jason then busily moved his eye back and forth to scroll through options on his smart screen before selecting the zoom feature. He then rapidly blinked his eye several times, the detected motion causing the lens to magnify and zoom in on what he was seeing.

  He could then see the back of the house as if it were right in front of his face. Scanning around the back of the home, Jason only saw one security camera. A classic swivel camera installed right on the back corner. This camera slowly moved from side to side, keeping a watch on the back, as well as the right side of the home as it moved back and forth.

  Seeing this setup gave Jason hope as he announced to Clara, “Alright! We are in luck!”

  Clara asked, “How so?”

  Jason then exclaimed, “All the guy has is an old mounted swivel head camera.”

  Clara not quite understanding, asked, “What does that mean?”

  Jason then explained, “It means that the camera is slowly moving—panning back and forth.”

  “And why is that a good thing?” Clara inquired.

  Jason then intimated, “Because when the camera is taking its time to turn from the back to the right side, that gives us time to make a run for the house—we can run right to the backdoor, and if we’re fast enough, we’ll get there complexly unaffected.”

  Jason then turned to Clara and asked, “Can you sprint? Can you run fast?”

  Clara nodded, “Yeah—I’ve been training to be a runner almost my whole life.”

  Jason smiled, “Awesome—okay just wait for me to give the signal.”

  Jason then watched as the camera swiveled to the back and then began its slow journey back to the side. As it began to point away from their location, he gave the signal, “Go!”

  That was all the cue that Clara needed and they both took off like wildfire. Reaching the door just before it swiveled back to their position, Clara and Jason came to a screeching halt at the doorstep, well out of the outward pointing camera’s reach.

  Jason then put his lock picking skills to use, by using a credit card to open up the door. Clara watched in amazement as he expertly worked it around the locking mechanism to pop it open.

  After this, the two were inside. They stayed close together, making sure the place was empty. After taking a look around, Jason declared, “The coast is clear.”

  Clara then took the initiative and made her way down the hall. Looking to her immediate left she saw what appeared to be an office. Peering inside she could see a desk, with a traditional desktop computer and monitor in place.

  Realizing she most likely hit the jackpot, she turned toward Jason who was roaming around on the other side of the house and announced, “Hey Jason! I think I’ve found the treasure trove.”

  Jason called back, “Good job Clara! Just keep looking!”

  Stepping into the office, Clara began to take a seat. But remembering her dad’s training when it came to staking out unfamiliar places, she exercised some restraint before she made herself completely at home. Her father had once relayed a story to her of a time that he had made just such a mistake. He was on the trail of an extremist group when his then partner and future wife Raina had been taken hostage.

  The extremists then proceeded to use her as bait in order to get him to make an appearance at an abandoned warehouse where she was being held. Mason then bore witness to the frightful sight of Raina locked inside an iron cage suspended from the ceiling. In retrospect the situation seemed like a trap from a bad James Bond movie, but at the time he was so overcome with emotion that he immediately raced over to a nearby control bank to lower the cage.

  The only problem was that the controls were coated with a neurotoxin. As a result, Mason lost consciousness shortly thereafter and very nearly lost his life. In the end he managed to free Raina and himself unharmed but he learned a valuable lesson, never touch anything in unfamiliar situations!

  This was a cardinal rule that Clara now took to heart as she grabbed a bottle of spray sanitizer, she always carried with her and heavily sprayed down the seat, desk, computer, and everything else in her immediate radius. She then put on a pair of plastic gloves which she knew would be good for not only protection from any potential unknown chemicals or contaminants but also as a way of ensuring that she did not leave behind any fingerprints.

  Only then did she sit down and begin searching through the absent man’s files, folders, and belongings for some clue as to his recent dealings with international terrorism. For better or for worse, she was now fully immersed into the world of the wizard himself; Patrick McCafferty.

  18

  Just Taking Some Notes

  Clara was already busily shuffling through paper work she found on the desk when Jason poked his head in and asked, “Did you find anything?”

  Clara looking up from the paperwork informed him, “Still looking…”

  In contrast to her previous caution, Clara had just dumped a cannister of receipts onto her lap and was sorting through them. Although most were in regard to miscellaneous office supplies and business expenses—one of the financial statements immediately got her attention.

  It was a receipt for a wire transfer from Istanbul, Turkey to a bank account in Baltimore, Maryland. The money that had been transferred totaled over 100,000 dollars. ‘Just what business does a retired CIA operative have in Turkey that would lead to such a large transfer of cash to his personal bank account?’

  Clara thought to herself. Knowing that such a transaction could be noteworthy later on, Clara took out her phone and quickly snapped off a picture of it. She didn’t want to outright take the recent, because the goal was to try and leave Patrick none the wiser that anyone had ever been into his home in the first place.

  It was for this reason that Clara pressed out the receipt onto the desk as flat as she could make it, and then took several clear photographs. If need be, the digital copies could serve as stand ins for the original as evidence in court. After capturing some images of the receipt, she then returned it and all the others into the canister and was careful
to put it back where it had come.

  Clara had always been a very organized person, and her dad had always admired her growing up for the way that she always put things back where she had found them, and in the case of clandestinely gathering data from someone, this skill proved to be invaluable as she consistently covered their tracks during the course of their impromptu investigation.

  Just as she was putting the container of receipts back in place, Jason then came over and happened to notice that the computer was turned on. Staring at the clinking light he muttered, “Shit this thing is on… It’s just the monitor that’s switched off.”

  Having said that, Jason then pressed the button that turned the monitor on and to his pleasant surprise he found that Patrick’s open desktop lit right up. Acknowledging the uniqueness of the find, Jason remarked, “Damn… this guy must have just left. This computer hasn’t even been long enough for his screen to lock up.”

  Clara then sat down in the chair and pulled up the search bar. Searching the whole computer, she typed in the words that she thought would be most telling, she typed into the search engine, “important contacts”.

  Jason was incredulous, as he muttered, “What? Do you really think he would be that stupid? To label…”

  Jason’s mouth dropped right open however, when he saw the files load onto the screen which detailed several known international terrorists that both of them recognized from watch lists, that they had been given a cursory study of.

  Feeling a mixture of both triumph and sadness to have found the smoking gun to use against his old instructor, Jason muttered to himself, “Wow...”

  Jason then wondered out loud, “But what is the point?” He sighed, “My main question for all this is—why?”

  Clara looking at the contacts saw that they were all high-level extremists operating in and out of the Middle East. Most of them were old guard figures who in many respects were past their heyday, when it came to being part of militant extremism.

  Something within Clara told her that these figures were probably individuals sickened by the modernism and in particular—the trend toward atheism that had swept through the Mid-East in recent years and were wishing to turn back the clock. Considered in this light, their motives were rather clear, but as for their American spy, Patrick McCafferty, the reasons could be legion.

  But all Clara knew in that moment, was that she had found just what she needed to exonerate her father. And pulling out her phone she began to take several pictures of the data. She knew that she didn’t have time to download it all, but pictures shown to the right people would be enough to get a search warrant later.

  Just then the ever-vigilant ears of Jason thought that he heard the slamming of a car door. He bolted down the hall, and looked out the window before hissing in a loud whisper, “Clara! He’s back! We’ve got to get out of here!”

  Knowing that if they were caught, termination from the job and possibly prison time would await them, Clara heeded his warning. She hurriedly put everything back where she got it, shutting drawers and putting documents back in their place, hoping that Patrick would be none the wiser.

  She even pushed the chair back in just as Patrick had left it. Clara then heard another warning from Jason as he stood as a lookout, “Hurry Clara! There’s no time!”

  This was then followed by the even more ominous warning of the sound of footsteps hitting the porch as Patrick made his way to his front door. Clara quickly rushed out of the office, but at the last minute realized she had forgot one crucial thing—Patrick’s monitor was off before their arrival, yet she had just left it on.

  Most people who came home to such an aberration would most likely assume that they just forgot to turn their monitor off. But Clara wasn’t going to take any such chances with Patrick, she was obsessed with the idea of not leaving any trace or indication that anyone was there.

  As such, she ate up precious time running back into the office and switching off the monitor. Even as she did so she heard a key rattle the lock to the front door and realized that Patrick McCafferty was just mere seconds away from entering his home. She was just getting ready to head out, when the door to the office began to creak open.

  Clara should have known that it was not humanly possible for Patrick to move from the outside front door to the end of his long hallway that quickly, but she still jumped all the same, when Jason opened the door. Normally Jason probably would have laughed at such a sight, but feeling every bit of the intensity of the situation he warned her once again, as he hissed, “Clara—we have to go—now!”

  19

  Don’t Hold Your Breath

  Clara and Jason hurried on out of Patrick McCafferty’s home office as fast their legs could take them without making undo noise and stomping all over the floors. They ended up toward the back of the house but before they could make it to the backdoor, they heard Patrick burst into the home. Jason could hear him walking toward their position.

  Unable to move back out of the hall, Jason led Clara to a back bedroom. Here they found a window already partially cracked open due to the summer heat. This they realized would have to be their point of departure. Jason then approached the window with the intent of propping it open so that they could escape.

  But right when he stepped past the bed to reach it, something reached from under the bed and grabbed his leg. It was the stuff of childhood nightmare, attempting to escape a creepy house in the middle of nowhere only to have some bogeyman from under the bed reach out and try to pull you under.

  Except this wasn’t a dream, and even though Jason was a fully-grown man, he was startled so bad; it took every ounce of his will and determination not to shout or curse from fright. Only years of training with the CIA had enabled him to keep his mouth shut as he looked down to find the source of his trouble. Looking up at him wasn’t the menacing face of the bogeyman, but rather the curious face of a grey and black cat, lodged halfway under the bed with its paw playfully raised in the air.

  Clara remembering her encounter with the bobcat during her training session with her father knew that the best way to avoid a confrontation with a cat was to slowly back away, which she silently bid Jason to do as they both backed up to the window. Unlike the encounter with the Bobcat, fortunately enough, this time their feline friend remained where it was.

  Counting his blessings, Jason then easily slid the window open the rest of the way and removed the screen. Unable to speak with words, he then pantomimed for Clara to jump out of the window. It was just a story down, but fearful of heights, Clara was having a hard time getting up the nerve.

  But the sound of Patrick moving around the home, and the stern look on Jason’s face was finally enough to convince her. Taking his hand as he helped steady her, she perched on top of the window sill, before gently dropping down to the ground. Thankfully landing on her haunches, and getting right back up unharmed.

  Jason then quickly followed suit—like a cat, landing right on his feet. The two then immediately made a break for it, running as fast as they could through the cornfields. They had made it some distance away when Clara tripped over a low-lying corn stalk and fell onto the ground.

  Jason seeing her fall, immediately kneeled down beside her and taking her by the hand asked, “Are you alright?”

  Clara her heart warmed by Jason’s constant vigilance for her safety looked him right in the eye as she softly intoned, “Now I am.”

  Jason seemingly always looking for an opportunity to get close to her—even in risky and dangerous situations such as they were in—then leaned forward and brushed his lips right against her ear as he told her, “That’s good.”

  He then began to drift toward her lips, as if he were going to kiss her right then and there as she lay on her back in the middle of a cornfield. His intentions came to a sudden halt however, when Clara abruptly sat up and announced, “Alright—we better get back to the office!”

  Jason obviously knew that this was a rebuff of his advances. He was a little
frustrated with the passive aggressive affection she displayed toward him, but he didn’t let it show. At any rate, he couldn’t hardly blame her reluctance considering the high-pressure circumstances they were under.

  So, for Jason Holmes, it was all just water under the bridge. And instead of being dismayed, he simply smiled and agreed, “You are absolutely right… Come on! Let’s blow this pop stand!”

  Jason then helped her the rest of the way to her feet, and led her back through the maze of corn to the other side of the field. It was then just a short dash back to Clara’s car where they had left it beside the old, abandoned slaughter house. As soon as they piled into the vehicle, Clara wasted no time in sending all of the pictures she took, over to her dad through a steady stream of text messages.

  She knew that this should be more than enough to exonerate him, and she wanted to make sure that her father had copies just in case something happened to her—her phone—or perhaps both. Clara then started her car and the two rolled out onto the country road from whence they came, and headed back to Baltimore, Maryland, with their target—Patrick McCafferty, none the wiser. As Jason looked over to Clara, the expression on her face said it all; triumph.

  20

  Back at the Office

  A SHORT TIME LATER IN MASON’S BASEMENT, BALTIMORE MARYLAND.

  Mason seated in his comfy, big armed chair going over text messages that his daughter had just sent him. He knew that she was working on his case, trying hard to clear the suspicion he was under, and now she had apparently done just that. She had proven that the leaks of information to terrorist organizations were not from him but from a master spy from the very CIA that had him under investigation in the first place.

  Patrick McCafferty was not a name that he had ever come across during his work with the SEALS or during his time conducting Special Ops missions, but he knew that if anyone knew of his history, it would be Luke Simon.