Black Hawk Day Rewind: An action packed spy thriller (Mark Savannah Espionage Series Book 1)

by Dominick Fencer

  She didn’t like the bar anyway, it was far away and had been awfully renovated with lime green walls and neon lights that made it all terribly cold and made one’s skin complexion veer towards green, giving the effect of seasickness. Anaïs hated the place even if Jago C. Green liked it a lot. According to him, it was the ideal place for those meetings that required a certain type of privacy, and he was really fond of the old pinball machine and jukebox that still worked.

  Skylinep92 had never met Jenkins, so she’d told him to meet her at the counter of the cafe next to the candy displays, telling him that she would be wearing a burgundy neck scarf.

  "Hi, I'm Samuel Q. Jenkins," said a voice behind her. "Good morning, Anaïs Degann,"

  "I see that for the moment there is not a free table,” said Skylinep92, shaking his hand. “What can I get you?"

  "A cup of coffee, thanks. It doesn’t matter, let's stay here, and we can move later if a table becomes available. Green told me that you wanted to ask me some questions about Mark Savannah."

  "Yes, in fact,” smiled Skylinep92. “I made the appointment because of this. I’d like you to tell me everything you know about Savannah. I'm conducting an investigation for Colonel Reed and although he’s only a fleeting bit player, I’d like to know more so that I don’t miss anything that might be relevant to the investigation."

  "Where do you want me to begin?” asked Jenkins. “I guess you’ve already obtained the file on the guy, since he got burned after the crime he committed. Among other things, his motive is still unclear and the investigators are now at a dead end. They believe that Savannah was corrupt and involved in drug trafficking, and that Reed somehow discovered his activities."

  "Yes, I read the dossier,” Skylinep92 said dryly. “How did you become familiar with Savannah? What was your impression of him?"

  "I met him during a joint operation with the British secret service in France a few months ago, he was in command of the operation. He’s a particular kind of guy, hot-tempered and self-centered, rather unpleasant, but extremely knowledgeable and reckless. He’s a cool and merciless eliminator, not one of the targets survived and everything was done in less than ten minutes, including the final clean-up operation."

  "Have you ever talked to him?" asked Skylinep92.

  "No, never, except when we were in the cafeteria and Reed arrived. I just took orders from Savannah. I never spent any time with him."

  Jenkins, while lying, shifted in his chair and Anaïs sensed his discomfort, but she gave nothing away.

  "So you don’t have any clue where he might be now? Have you ever overheard any conversations of his that might help me in my search?"

  "Savannah’s a silent type, a psychiatrist, a manipulator. I only heard him talk business and, when he drank his coffee, he did it alone, never with someone else. I have no idea where he might be now. I repeat…he never spoke."

  "Tell me about what happened here in the cafeteria between him and Richard Reed, please," said Skylinep92.

  "Savannah and I were at that table," replied Jenkins pointing across the cafeteria with his finger. "Reed saw Savannah. They said ‘Hello’ to each other and afterwards Richard came over to chat at our table; clearly Reed and the Englishman knew each other."

  "And then?"

  "They began to argue,” continued Jenkins, “Savannah began to accuse Reed of supporting drug traffickers, and Reed replied that he had seen him on the Pakistani border negotiating the passage of a heavy vehicle, a vehicle that was certainly carrying a load of opium. Did you read my statement?"

  "Yes, of course, I read it. But what exactly was Savannah doing in Pakistan?" asked Skylinep92.

  "He was sent by the British service to carry out an anti-terrorist operation, but for obvious reasons they haven’t disclosed any other information. It’s certain he was seen at the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, negotiating with the guards. The investigators are still investigating whether he double-crossed the intelligence service or was working for a corrupt intelligence unit.

  “In fact, in order to work in that country and negotiate with the locals a foreign agent must have weight and a means of exchange which in these cases normally means drugs, which are then used to finance guerilla warfare operations.

  “It’s an old story, he’s not a particularly intelligent guy. First, he gets caught with his fingers in the cookie jar, and then he cold-bloodedly kills the son of the CIA’s number three, a man elected by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to lead the fight in Afghanistan against drug production. A remarkable idiot!"

  Suddenly a man's voice broke forcefully into the conversation.

  "Inshallah, the reactions of a man are derived from previous actions, no witnesses must remain hidden! Forgive the intrusion, but I heard your conversation and I feel bound to intervene."

  The man, an Arab with rough, sun-hardened skin, had had his back turned to Anaïs for the entire time they had been chatting. Samuel Q. Jenkins awkwardly put a hand over his eyes, and for the second time Skylinep92 observed his uneasy reaction.

  Jenkins had made sure that no officer who had worked with Savannah would be in the H.Q. that day. Was it possible that he had missed someone?

  "Please, you might be very useful, I wasn’t expecting to be this lucky," Anaïs said in amazement. "My name is Anaïs Degann, I'm a U.S. Agent." She extended her hand to the Arab, who, with a gallant bow, and without saying his name, just touched it with his lips, leaving her even more surprised.

  Jenkins had fallen silent, hoping that the situation would dissolve like a soap bubble. He hadn’t introduced himself to the stranger, and this was also noted by Anaïs.

  The stranger continued talking in spite of the awkward atmosphere.

  "I’m a Special Agent and I spent every day of the mission in Afghanistan with Savannah. I'm sorry to contradict your impression, sir. I too have heard of Savannah, but who hasn’t heard of him in our business after the brilliant outcome of the anti-terrorist operation? The worldwide press has spoken of the operation!

  “I was with him the whole time he spent in Afghanistan and I didn’t notice anything. Of course, we crossed the border, but what drugs? There was no load of drugs traveling with us.

  “As for Savannah, I only can describe him as a champion, well-prepared and of uncommon intelligence. I hope this may help you in some way, Madam. Like you, I don’t understand his actions, but often things are different to how they seem. Excuse me again and have a good day, Allāhu Akbar!"

  The man nodded to Anaïs and immediately disappeared from the room. Jenkins realized too late that the Arab had not only avoided revealing his name, but above all had always been out of sight of the cameras: another man that didn’t exist to report to Colonel Reed.

  "I don't trust that chap at all, besides his interrupting our discussion like that without even introducing himself," said Anaïs watching for Jenkins’ reaction.

  "I totally agree with you,” he said, “probably he just wanted to get to know you and stuck his nose in things he doesn't know," replied Jenkins, obviously relieved.

  "Is there anything else that comes to your mind about Savannah or should we say goodbye?" asked Skylinep92.

  "I'd like to talk to you much longer, but unfortunately I have nothing to add about Mark Savannah; and in a quarter of an hour I have a meeting in my division offices. See you soon, Anaïs. It's really been a pleasure meeting you."

  "Thank you for everything, Jenkins. Have a good evening! I'll go back to Biosketch Technologies Inc. directly. If you happen to remember any new details about Savannah, please call me."

  "Of course I will. Have a good trip."

  Jenkins followed the special agent with his eyes until he saw her go up in the elevator, then, certain of not being seen, he also left the building.

  "Colonel, this is Samuel. Good morning, I have just finished talking to the girl. There was an Arab who said he’d been in Afghanistan with Savannah. Of course I had checked to make sure that there were no agent
s in Langley who had worked with him. No, he didn’t introduce himself and he practically said nothing, and anyway, Anaïs didn’t pay much attention to him. You must have checked yourself...so I suppose you were also unaware of any Arab-American agent in Afghanistan? Ah, well! I told Anaïs that he probably wanted to impress her. Thank you. See you soon, sir."

  79

  "Sir? Yes, it’s Jago, I need to talk to you urgently. Perfect! I'll be right there."

  Jago C. Green entered Colonel Walton I. Reed’s office carrying a dossier with a face grim.

  "Good morning, Jago. What's happening?"

  "At the moment we don't know exactly, but we’re receiving information from various rehabilitation centers that may be alarming."

  "That is to say?"

  "Analyzing the data we have collected and received, it seems that the patients of "Transtem 1.1" and those of "Brainexe" have altered behavior patterns in the last week..."

  "What the hell are you saying? Are you sure, damn it?"

  "Yes sir."

  "And in a week...call the team immediately, now. I want them all right here!"

  Within seven minutes, the whole team was sitting around the oval table in Colonel Reed’s office.

  "Ransley, what the fuck is going on, and why I wasn’t informed earlier?"

  Ransley Bain, the director of the project, got to his feet and with extreme caution and calmness began to speak; he knew Reed very well and the first thing to do was to cool him down and then try to explain him what happened.

  "Sir, as you know, the data arrives daily but we only analyze it weekly, to do it every day wouldn’t make sense because we couldn’t track the problems, except for major deviations with data very far from average values. That is what’s happening right now, so we’re obliged to monitor everything, allocating double resources to the field.

  “This week, for the first time in 4 years, we have found significant deviations in brain wave patterns, and the most unusual thing is that they are showing up in most of the patients."

  "Have you checked previous weeks?" answered Reed furious.

  "Certainly. Nothing unusual was found."

  The Colonel wasn’t convinced:

  “What about a virus in the system distorting the data?"

  Jago C. Green jumped up from his chair and answered in an agitated way:

  "No sir! Our firewalls are always subjected to hacker testing; they are impenetrable and updated all the time! It's not possible!"

  "What the fuck are you saying? Everything is possible, sooner or later someone will be better than you. Don't you believe it?" shouted Reed.

  Then, lowering his tone, he went on to say, "Green stop fretting, don’t take this personally, damn it. It was just a question! Are you sure that this is a phenomenon and not a false problem, maybe generated by a system failure? Last week, the satellites were down for about half an hour due to a strong solar storm, maybe somehow it also influenced our facilities."

  "Sorry sir," started Green again in a calm manner. "But I’d rule it out one hundred per cent. We have panels that cover the entire Biosketch Technologies Inc. complex to neutralize diverse waves, including electromagnetic ones."

  "I get it, and so what will you do?" asked the Colonel suddenly.

  "At this time we’re forced to consolidate the data every day to see if it shows a progressive or regressive trend. In addition, we have already sent a request to all the centers to add qualitative data concerning the behavior to the daily data. It will begin arriving tomorrow, today is too early to give you anything concrete."

  "Okay. How long before we can understand a little more after the qualitative analysis?"

  "A couple of days, I would say." Ransley Bain said.

  "Keep me informed and as soon as you get feedback, call me, even at night. I don’t like this at all. You can go, thank you. Green, please stay here, I need to talk to you."

  The entire team, feeling the pressure and worried about the situation, quickly left the Colonel’s office in silence.

  "The three Russians? Have they been affected by this?" Reed asked.

  "Yes, sir. Them, too."

  "Have you been contacted by an associate of Grigoriy Kozloy by any chance?"

  "No sir."

  "Well, then I’ll call him right away, before they do it themselves. They must have noticed, for fuck's sake! Stay here, we need to understand how to handle the situation with him and then call Anaïs. Jenkins for the time being has delivered a quick fix, but that fucking Arab..."

  "Yeah, but he really doesn’t exist, sir. And no camera detected him. As you requested, I carried out all the checks directly with Jenkins. Among other things, the two cameras in the hallway leading to the cafeteria were out of service, so he could have left the building directly through the parking lot without being recorded."

  "And the parking lot cameras? What the hell are they for?"

  "They do their job on a daily basis, the video quality is excellent. It's just that at least thirty people were impossible to identify, their faces turned away from the cameras, so the Arab isn’t the only one who didn’t want to be recorded. Colonel, you were the first, I recognized your shoes...so..."

  Walton I. Reed grimaced angrily at Green and abruptly picked up the smartphone.

  "I’ll call Grigoriy, you crappy little hacker..." he said sneering.

  "Hi Grigoriy, any news? I'm fine, thanks, and you? I’m happy for you, yes, that's right, it is the same with us. Have you already carried out any tests on them? You're a Nazi, Grigoriy. Blame anything but a Russian. Do you find the patients more aggressive? I understand, but against whom? Um...let's see how the situation evolves. This phenomenon could be a consequence of the transplantation and the subsequent conditioning.

  “It seems that civilian patients are less susceptible. However, I prefer a certain type of behavior from a soldier; we're not creating missionary nuns. I'm glad to hear that. See you soon. Bye."

  Walton I. Reed hung up and turned to speak to Green with a relieved smile on his face:

  "He’s satisfied with the work in progress. He’s already carried out some tests on their three patients. They proved to be less vulnerable to fatigue and much more aggressive..."

  "Aggressive? How exactly?"

  "Attacking people in their vicinity. They are trained for this, damn it! But, are you stupid or have they transplanted you with a banana scaffold in place of neuronal tissue?

  “Please call Anaïs. I want you to stay in the meeting, we need to understand the problem with Jenkins, if the loser succeeded or the girl smelled something strange in the air. By the way, has she fully recovered?"

  "She says yes, I’d say no, but you know her, she can’t sit still, however she still has an alarming color, poor thing. Savannah sure beat her up badly. I’ll call her on the phone now."

  Jago dialed Skylinep92’s cell phone number.

  "Hey, force of nature, the Colonel and I are waiting for you in the office to evaluate the situation and agree on the next steps... We’re waiting for you."

  "She’s coming Colonel. She’ll be here in two minutes."

  A short while later, Anaïs Degann knocked on Walton I. Reed’s door.

  "Can I come in?" she called.

  "Come in Anaïs, finally you're much better!” said Reed when he saw her enter. “That bastard Savannah hasn’t ruined your face, thank goodness!".

  “Good morning sir, hello Jago. If Savannah wanted to kill me he would have done that, and I think he deliberately avoided hurting me too much. But this, as I have already said, doesn’t have a rational explanation, or at least one I can find."

  Anaïs Degann didn’t sit down on the chair, but leaned against the desk, the light seeping through the curtains gave her a delicate appearance, almost ethereal.

  "Tell me about Jenkins and the meeting yesterday, my dear," said Reed.

  “Sure, you were right. He confirmed the official version of events given to me. Savannah is a corrupt and arrogant criminal, which coincides
with the psychological profile prepared by the British agency…then the Arab showed up."

  Anaïs paused to watch Green and Reed’s reactions and the non-verbal language of their body told her that they were on their toes.

  "The Arab didn’t introduce himself, he said he knew Savannah well because he had been his partner on the last mission in Afghanistan and that he had quite a different recollection of him; he was with him on the Pakistani border, but he reported that no drug negotiations took place. He was a liar, Colonel; he was probably bored and alone, and he just interrupted to learn my name. He was gallant; but Jenkins is right, he wasn’t credible."

  Anaïs saw that, after her speech, both relaxed and this annoyed her very much; now she was certain that she hadn’t been made aware of certain information expressly, but pretended not to notice. She would investigate the matter calmly and as usual she would move with caution.

  In fact, she remembered the winner of the number one danger for a secret agent: the risk of being manipulated; she raised her head naturally and looked out of the window, so that the two men couldn’t catch her eye.

  She had never trusted anyone and, although Colonel Reed had been her mother’s lover for years, she had always detested him: he was a powerful man and boastful, given to blatant gestures and at the same time to vulgar pettiness.

  Even if Reed had taken her under his wing, she was aware of being a stranger and a danger for him. She might reveal his long extramarital affair to his family at any time.

  "Well," Jago C. Green broke the unusual silence that had suddenly arisen. "How do you intend to proceed with the Savannah issue, Anaïs?"

  "I'll go back to Little Rock. He must have taken a bus to continue his journey. He knows he cannot escape all the cameras so, unless he has somehow managed to evade them with help, it means that he’s not in the city. The cameras lost track of him completely."

  "It could be a bluff, Skylinep92. Don't you think?" replied Green with an ironic tone.