The Iscariot Factor (Half Staff Book 2)

by Rick Mitchell

  Both men looked at each other and responded that it would be fine with them. Director Lake asked Pat to stick back for a few moments. He also asked Agent Simms to step out of the room.

  “Pat, I hope you don’t mind me letting the team have a night off. I know this has to have been a lot to take in.”

  “It's been a chaotic couple of days for sure; I’ll get them to Groom by late morning.” Pat replied.

  “Not too early, it will take the night and a good part of tomorrow to get your offices fully operational. Let’s talk about you for a minute. I am going to need you back in Washington within the next couple of days. There is a lot of internal chatter about bringing you on board as a Deputy Director so I will need you to make an appearance.

  “Once confident that Agent Collins has acclimated to his new position, head back to Washington for a few days. I expect that your wife would like to see you at some point. It will take Wilson and Lansing some time to gather enough information that your team can act on. I expect it will take all of two days just to get their monitors positioned correctly.”

  “Not a problem; let me get them settled and I will head back. What would you have me do with Agent Watts? I’m sure the Behavior Science Unit might want her back at some point.”

  Director Lake looked surprised, “How the hell did you know she was with BSU?”

  Pat smiling, “I didn’t for sure; but thanks for the confirmation. I know the President felt the need to confirm that no one on the team leaked the information I feel sure Watts will report back that none were involved.”

  “She already has,” Don replied; “she cleared them all. But that brings us to another point; I need the two of you to visit Reed Morgan just to be one hundred percent sure that he didn’t write the brief. I believe he is living somewhere in Colorado. Why don’t you two see him before you head back to Washington?”

  “Yes Sir,” Pat replied. “Still didn’t answer me about Agent Watts.”

  “Keep her on the team. She knows the whole story, and the President wants anyone with full knowledge on a tight lease. Tell her you know who she is I am sure she will be relieved. Let her be your admin officer and she can pull double duty by keeping an eye on the team. After meeting them it's clear they might just need the help,” the Director said smiling.

  “One last question, what about Willis and Moore? How do they play in all this?”

  “They know absolutely nothing about the mission and we need to keep it that way. Saying that, I do fear when it hits the fan, if it does, you are going to become a target if your team starts making too many waves.”

  “I rather doubt that. What would they gain by getting rid of me? I don’t think I am even on their radar,” Pat replied.

  “If I heard the story correctly, you were sent to meet Reed Morgan to turn the body of his brother over to him. You ended up in Louisiana saving his family from a Mexican drug cartel, allowing President Ward his greatest hour; arresting Hector Fuentes on Air Force One.”

  “Next, you uncovered evidence that Secret Service Agent Doyle Preston was a traitor. That he orchestrated the assassination of President Stephens on the South Lawn. You then saved a damsel in distress from Agent Preston.

  “Please tell me again why you aren’t a worthy target; wait, I just about forgot the rest. You then gain a deathbed confession, gathering information leading you to one of the conspirators. Who then ended it all by jumping out of a perfectly good skyscraper? Yeah, I have to agree with you, there is absolutely no reason why these people would hate you,” the Director said sarcastically.

  “When you say it that way you make a good point.”

  The Director having called out the door for Agent Simms to get the car ready says, “Send Agent’s Willis and Moore back to Washington. If I believe it is warranted I will assign them to you again. If that day comes we will also need to make some decisions about your wife’s safety. Am I making myself clear?”

  “Perfectly clear; have a safe trip back to Washington; I will see you in a few days.”

  “Feel free to check in with the President. I know he wants to hear from you but is probably worried about breaking the chain of command on my count. He thinks highly of you Pat and it’s important to keep that relationship intact. If this thing blows up in our face he will need solid friends around. When you speak with him, tell him that I love the new jet; you should see this thing.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Gabriel traveled three and a half hours into Pennsylvania to buy a toy drone. He then spent hours back in the hotel room modifying the four engine electric flying machine to meet his needs. Having never seen one before, the small Parrott AR Drone was surprising technical.

  A single charge would keep the craft aloft for more than fifteen minutes; plenty of time for to execute the mission. The four outside propellers, protected by a foam frame, provided remarkable lift for its size. Wi-Fi controlled, the drone has a range of roughly one hundred meters. If it flew beyond the range, it hovered until the user gains back the signal.

  If that ingenuity wasn’t enough, Parrot had mounted two video cameras on the little beast. One would allow you to navigate the direction headed, while the second provided ground shots. Gabriel chose to use an Apple IPad as his controller instead of his I-phone; downloading the software straight off the Parrot web site.

  After maneuvering it around the hotel room he began shaving the craft’s cover; lessening its weight. Once accomplished he mixed two compounds to activate the epoxy resin. He used an aerosol can to inject tiny air bubbles into this mixture; also to lessen the weight. He used the epoxy to adhere the C4 explosive to the frame. He worried the heat from the epoxy would melt the foam, but the aerosol spray minimized the temperature increase.

  He then opened the Drones electronic heart, connecting a set of wires that would allow him to control the detonation using the IPad. Gabriel checked the final weight of the Drone, satisfied the little craft would perform well. He flew it around the room for a few more minutes and placed the machine in a backpack in his closet He reached for his cell phone; it was time to tell Chloe goodnight.

  It would be hours before his head would hit a pillow. He would spend this night staking out his first target. He made a mental note that when back in Vancouver he wanted to visit area hobby shops to see if he could find one of these drones for himself.

  -----

  Pat was glad to find everyone on his team had made it back to their suites in one piece. As expected, the Commando team was up at the crack of dawn. As expected, the others were passed out in their rooms. Agent Waits kept saying that he was starving so Pat told the four to head down to the buffet for breakfast.

  He would get the others up and see if they wanted to join them at the buffet. He knocked on Agent Watts door but heard no sound coming from the room. He headed across the hall to Wilson’s and Lansing’s rooms and knocked. They yelled back that they were up, which Pat knew was code for, “we are getting up now.”

  As he was headed back to Emily’s door she appeared from down the hall in sweats. She told him that she had been running since a little after daylight. Within fifteen minutes the last three were headed down to breakfast.

  Pat later joined them at their table and told Agent Watts that he wanted the team on the plane by ten. It was 10:24 a.m. when the Gulfstream landed on the dry lake bed. As Pat stepped off the plane he was met by no other than Agent’s Willis and Moore. Both smiled at their Deputy Director as he came down the stairs.

  Pat asked the agents if the twins had behaved the night before. They told him that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Pat laughed at the joke and turned to catch both Lansing and Wilson smiling at their chaperone’s answer. They were taken to the Command Center where each was given their credentials to enter the testing range.

  Doliver remarked he was tired of getting credentials and was more than ready to get this show on the road. They were taken to an old metal hangar that looked to be from the Cold War era. Once inside they were greete
d with a modern office complex. It contained conference rooms, glassed-in offices, and what appeared to be a bank vault in one corner.

  Above the vault someone had taken a cardboard box flap and written, “Twinsville.” Wilson and Lansing looked over to Pat like they were two kids asking permission to go to the restroom. Pat told them to go, but be back in the conference room at 1:00 p.m. An Air Force Captain escorted the remaining team members to their private quarters. Collins, Pat, and Emily Watts, stayed behind in the complex.

  In the early sixties there was a phenomenal growth at Area 51. These structures included, administration buildings, commissary, maintenance, and machine shops, and three surplus Navy hangars. The team’s hanger, one of the newer constructions, was north of the others and was simply named, Hangar 7.

  Base housing also came by way of the Navy in the form of 130 surplus Babbit duplex houses. Originally housing workers who built the Hawthorne Navy Ammunition Depot in Mineral County, Nevada? The construction village became known as Babbit, Nevada. Relocated to Groom Lake the Babbit houses would serve as residences for Pat’s team.

  The team, minus the twins, had lunch together in the Mess Hall before heading back to the complex for their meeting. About five minutes after entering the conference room Wilson and Lansing arrived. Pat had already relieved Agents Willis and Moore to return to Langley.

  Pat had everyone sit down around the conference table, “It has been a crazy couple of days for all of us. I know that Director Lake shared a great deal with you last night, so I am just going to get down to business. This may seem redundant to some but with the new team members I think it would be good if we started at the beginning.

  “I know that each of us has heard the phrase, the head of the spear. I believe that is an accurate definition of our mission. Fourteen months ago we lost a President to an assassin’s bullet. The same gunman also took the life of the visiting President of Mexico.

  “That day I was traveling with then Vice-President Ward on a campaign trip to California. I will never forget that day. As members of the Secret Service Protective Detail we awake each morning wondering if this is that day.

  “The world is not a good place and unfortunately there is always someone, or even groups of someone, who want to kill the President. Douglas Morgan, on the South Lawn of the White House, changed the world in the blink of an eye.

  “At the end of that horrible day we had already concluded it was the action of a single gunman. Although we searched for the answer, we never came up with a single motive for Airman Morgan to want to kill the President.

  “A couple of days after the assassinations I met with Doug Morgan’s brother, Reed Morgan, a lawyer in Dallas. He came by private jet to D.C. to pick up his brothers body. My assignment was to meet him at the airport and get him on his way before anyone found out we were releasing the body.

  “I screwed up the meet and ended having to take Reed to Honor Guard Barracks at Bolling to pick up his brother’s belongings. I soon began feeling sorry for the guy. He told me that he had no clue as to why Doug would do such a horrific thing. I saw him off and thought that it would be the last time we would cross paths.

  “A sat phone call was intercepted between Hector Fuentes, the Mexican President’s brother, and a member of his cartel. They spoke of a revenge killing for his brother’s death. Unfortunately they did not name the target during the call. We narrowed it down to the Morgan family or a lower probability, the Secret Service Agent in Charge of President Stephens protection detail, Doyle Preston.

  “Since I had shared time with Reed Morgan the President asked me to head a team, travel to Louisiana, and get the Morgan family to safety. I enlisted these four men, who until a couple of days ago were Air Force Commandos.

  “As the assault on the home was about to unfold a taxi pulled up to the house and a young woman stepped out. Reed Morgan had stayed behind in the house, refusing to leave. As she walked up to the door I had Reed look through the peep-hole to see if he recognized her?

  “As far as we knew she could have been a member of the assault team. Our hidden cameras had already picked up two men coming around the back side of the house. We quickly determined that she wasn’t a threat and pulled her into the front door seconds before entry was attempted at the rear of the home.

  “After the attack we found out the young lady was Lisa Grant, a woman who worked for an escort service in Washington. A few weeks before the assassinations she had been paid by someone to date Doug Morgan. She said that although she never met the person who had paid her, she had been told that it was to cheer up a soldier a long way from home.

  “When she saw the news the day of the assassinations she feared her involvement with Doug might have been connected in some way. She escaped Washington and found herself gravitating toward Doug’s family in Louisiana. She wanted to tell them she was sorry.

  “We brought her back to Washington with us to follow up on her story but we could not find any trace of payments. I know something about fear; this girl was convinced she was in danger. Until we could sort it out we decided to move her to a safe house.

  “One evening at my home, I received a phone call from a, still to this day, unknown party. The caller told me the assassinations were a part of a larger conspiracy. He went on to say that if I wanted to know the truth I would need to look closer to home. The phone call was made from a phone booth in Georgetown, Maryland.

  “I sent a CSI team to the scene but we could not gain solid prints, or DNA. Next we analyzed the Secret Service recording of the call. As the Agent in Charge of the detail, all my incoming calls are recorded. The analysis of the voice recording proved to be of no use to us; we had no way of knowing who phoned me.

  “I had no idea what the caller meant when he said look closer to home, but I was getting paranoid. I even found myself questioning President Ward at one point. With no one in Washington I could trust fully, I again turned to my trusty Commando team to come to the rescue.

  “Together we went over the films of the assassinations until it came to a point where I believe we began looking outside the box. From that angle we began noticing little things that seemed out of place.

  “I don’t recall who noticed it, but they caught a glimpse of Agent Doyle Preston looking towards Airman Morgan before the shooting occurred. With that information we began noticing other irregularities; one irregularity being how fast Doyle Preston pulled his weapon and fired at Airman Morgan. It was almost a full second before other agents; younger agents, reacted to the gunfire. That seemed strange to us.

  “We decided to set up a stakeout of Preston to see if he did anything that might prove our hunch. He had nothing in the way of evidence against him. During that stakeout of Preston the team saw him stop at Lisa Grant’s apartment. She had refused further protection and had returned home days earlier.

  “The team witnessed Lisa leave the apartment complex with Doyle. Following Preston, about fifteen minutes into the drive, the team saw Lisa jump out of the car as he was stopping for a red light.

  “Lisa ran across the traffic and headed into the Landover Mall parking lot. Catching up to the team we searched the mall and found Preston holding Lisa hostage. Doyle had also taken the life of a mall guard during the event.

  “Unfortunately it came down to having to shoot Preston to save Miss Grant. As he was dying he told me where I could recover an ink pen with fingerprints of the person who hired him to set up Doug Morgan. He confessed to his part in the assassination of President Stephens and told me that his contact was a man he only knew as Matthew.

  “We ran the prints on the pen and Matthew turned out to be Charles King, a lawyer out of Dallas who happened to be the boss of Reed Morgan. I picked up Reed Morgan and took him to Dallas to confront King. I realize in hindsight, this probably wasn’t the best move to make.”

  “During the arrest of Charles King, aka Matthew, he told us that he was a part of something great. The plan to hire Reed as a lawyer came only after his
brother Doug was chosen for the USAF Presidential Honor Guard. From his own lips he said that his group, using Biblical names, had changed the course of history numerous times though the years. He then said he was already as good as dead, turned and ran through the plate glass window, off the 34th floor.

  “To hide the conspiracy until we could get a handle on it, President Ward provided a back story tying Charles King to Hector Fuentes. Reed Morgan, the only one in his family who knows the truth about his brother, is in witness protection; as is his family. Ms. Grant has again opted out of witness protection but is being monitored on a regular basis.

  “So, why are we here? A few days ago a conspiracy theory came across my desk. It was almost to the sentence the story I just shared with you. There are always conspiracy theories in play after assassinations; consider President Kennedy’s. Many steadfastly believe there was a second shooter that day in Dallas.”

  Pat handed a copy of the theory to those who hadn’t yet read it. He gave them a few minutes to go over it and then continued. “From skin level we don’t feel this document will ever escalate to the level of the grassy knoll. But it is apparent there is someone who wants this truth out; and we need to know who this someone is. So the burning question is where did it originate, and does it have anything to do with the call I had months ago?”

  Pat noticed that Lansing and Wilson were looking at each as if to ask the other who should speak first. Pat finally said, “Gentlemen, do you have something to add?”

  Cole Lansing spoke, “Director, we don’t know where it originated, but we know who wrote it; it was Jimmy.”

  Pat was silent for a moment before speaking, “I was of the impression you had not seen this before today. Actually, it was Director Lake who told me you had not seen it. I have heard great things about you two, but you just read this. So, how would you possibly know who wrote it already?”

  Brad Wilson took the next turn, “Director, we are what one might call conspiracy addicts. We spend some of our off time going over theories. We like to dissect them; they give us a window into the current players and trends.