Shattered Lies

by Kathleen Brooks

  Lizzy, Valeria, and Grant looked at each other. National Guard? Cromwell continued to nod. “I want to make sure I understand my orders. You want me to stop the governor from visiting the bombing site and withhold all information about the investigation from him?”

  “That’s interesting,” Lizzy whispered as Val and Grant nodded their agreement.

  “Yes, Ms. James is here. One moment.” Cromwell walked over to her and handed her the phone. “The president wants to speak to you.”

  Lizzy stood up and took the phone into her hand. She put it to her ear. “This is Elizabeth,” she said as she walked down the street far enough so that Cromwell wouldn’t be able to hear her conversation.

  “I got hold of Alex. He’s minutes away. He has information with him that connects Governor Benning to Mollia Domini. I want this information to get to Cromwell, but he can’t know where it came from. I want to see Orson in handcuffs in front of the camera crew he’s bringing along.”

  “What’s going on, Birch?” Lizzy asked, dropping her voice.

  “Orson is on his way there with the New York National Guard. He’s declared martial law as well as declaring me a terrorist sympathizer and demanding the immediate reopening of the exchange. Alex found illegal payments from Manuel Hernandez, along with emails outlining a conspiracy to have me overthrown through a military coup. CBL Services Group and Brandon Locke play into his plan as CBL will be taking over security in place of the feds.”

  “Well, you won’t have to worry about Locke. He’s dead.” Lizzy paused. “And so is Jason.”

  Birch was quiet for a long moment. “How?”

  “He shot Locke so he couldn’t detonate the bomb, and then with seconds remaining on the timer, he took the bomb and stuffed it into a large cement planter. It helped minimize the damage. Because of his actions the people running from the exchange’s side doors were saved and the building itself was saved. There’s damage, but it’s superficial. Dalton is with his body.”

  “I’ll make sure I put in an order for Jason and Dalton to clear the medical examiner’s office ASAP and arrive home with full military honors,” Birch sighed.

  “He told us he was finally free to be with Michelle again.” Lizzy turned her back to the FBI and wiped the tears forming in her eyes.

  “They will both be honored. I swear to it.” Birch paused again and took a deep breath. “I’ve also gotten a phone call from Sebastian and a message from Bertie Geofferies asking when the stock exchange will reopen. The president of the exchange was smart enough to defer to me for the time being, but those two are putting immense pressure on him to reopen as soon as the building is cleared.”

  Lizzy pushed the hurt and pain of loss back down inside of her and focused on the now. “I know why. Their artificial intelligence software must be ready. The best time to test it is when the market is headed toward a big movement. And it’s going to most likely plummet if it’s reopened too soon.”

  “The question is, did they know about the attack?” Birch asked, finally addressing the possibility that his best friend could be the head of Mollia Domini.

  “I don’t know, but I have a plan.”

  “The operation is in your hands. Take them down by any means necessary. Now.”

  Lizzy took a deep breath. “Consider it done.”

  26

  “This is real?” Agent Cromwell asked as he looked at the stack of papers Roxie had shoved in his hands before running off.

  “Governor Benning is guilty of treason,” Lizzy said matter-of-factly as her team surrounded Cromwell and handed him back the papers after reviewing them. No other agents were allowed near them. They were too busy keeping Orson away from the active crime scene. “You have the authority to arrest him. Verify the information, personally, right now and then see what Director Kirby has to say. I would say it would make your career, but I’ve heard about you from other agents. You’re not the kind to care about that.”

  “No, but I am the kind to care about treason.” Cromwell said in his graveled, no-nonsense voice. “I’m guessing you’re not going to tell me how I was suddenly handed this?”

  “Nope. And since you don’t know the person who handed it to you, you can honestly testify to it being from an anonymous source,” Valeria pointed out.

  “I haven’t figured you out yet. I’ve run background on you all. You’re active military, you’re a disgraced DEA agent who works as a bartender, and you’re a disgraced FBI agent who owns a bar while working for SA Tech. Yet you have access to extremely sensitive information and the president wants to talk to you.”

  “Does it matter?” Lizzy asked with a shrug.

  “You of all people should know I can’t let this go.” Cromwell thought about it. “I got it. You work for SA Tech. Sebastian Abel’s company. The same Sebastian who just so happens to be friends with the president.”

  Lizzy smiled but didn’t say anything.

  “You’re not going to say anything, are you?”

  “I’m a civilian now. There’s nothing to say. I don’t have the power or the authorization to do anything. But when I see a wrong, I try to right it. It’s in my FBI blood after all.”

  Cromwell looked at her, but before he could ask more questions a helicopter landed a block away, and Director Kirby and his staff hurried toward them. Conrad Kirby had obtained his job as director because of his connections with the late President Mitchell, but Dalton had discovered Kirby and Senator Epps were actually trying to investigate Mollia Domini. Well, Kirby and Epps had investigated as best they could while confined to legal restraints Lizzy and her team didn’t necessarily follow. Now, standing next to Agent Cromwell, they appeared to be two peas in an FBI pod. Kirby was a decade older but had the same crew cut as Cromwell. The main difference was the mustache Kirby sported.

  “Agent Cromwell, what do you have?” Kirby looked to the right and solemnly nodded his head at her. “Lizzy. I was surprised to hear you were here.”

  Cromwell noticed the informality but didn’t say anything. Instead, he briefed Kirby and handed him the papers Roxie had given him. Kirby’s eyes widened, and Lizzy knew he was putting it all together. The missing bomb he and Senator Epps were looking for, Phylicia’s death, Sandra’s disappearance, and Orson Benning initiating the beginnings of a military coup. He looked at Lizzy and then back to Cromwell. “Did she give these to you?”

  “No, sir. I don’t know who the person was. An attractive young woman with glasses and multiple ear piercings gave them to me.”

  “The president is close behind me. We need to show him this and then act. I’ve had reports of Benning waiting to get here to hold a press conference. If this pans out, we’ll arrest him for treason. In the meantime, get a judge to give us a warrant for Manuel Hernandez. Do it all yourself. I don’t want any of this leaking out.”

  “Yes, sir.” Cromwell shot off with his phone to his ear.

  “Now, would you like to tell me what’s going on?” Kirby asked as he grabbed Lizzy’s arm and pulled her away from her team. Lizzy smiled as Grant and Valeria simply followed.

  “We were just in the right place at the right time and were able to help evacuate the area.”

  “Bullshit.”

  Lizzy shrugged. “We’ve given our statements. You know we didn’t plant the bomb. It was a person named Brandon Locke. Never heard of him, but Cromwell knew who I was talking about. I believe we’ve done our civic duty. I need to get back home. I have a bar to run after all, and you know how those FBI and DEA trainees get when they don’t get their drinks on their nights off.” Lizzy looked to Grant and Valeria as they heard another helicopter approaching. “Let’s go.”

  “James,” Kirby called in a warning voice.

  “If you have any questions, you know where to find me,” Lizzy yelled back with a wave of her hand. “Birch is arriving. We can’t be seen with him. It was enough that he asked to talk to me, but there can’t be any photos of us together,” she said softly to her team.

  �
�Alex is waiting for us. Dude, his hacker girl is hot,” Grant whistled.

  Valeria smacked him on the back of the head. “Dude?”

  “It’s contagious,” Lizzy smiled. “I need to tell you what Birch told me. We have orders. But to pull off my plan, I need to get back to Quantico.”

  “Then let’s go,” Valeria stated, pulling out her phone and calling Crew.

  “You can call someone, but you can’t call me? Dude . . . Roxie and I have been worried sick,” Alex called out, running toward them as Valeria told Crew to pick them up at the top of Sebastian’s hotel. “Where’s Dalton and Jason?”

  Their faces must have told him the answer. “No,” Alex whispered.

  “Jason saved us. Dalton is escorting his body back to DC,” Lizzy told him as Roxie took Alex’s hand in hers.

  “What can I do?” she asked in a soft British voice.

  “If I turn a phone on that has a GPS tracker on it, can you both trace who is receiving the GPS coordinates?” Lizzy asked as they began their trek toward Sebastian’s hotel.

  “Sure. Think of it this way,” Roxie said as Grant slung his arm around Alex and began talking to him, “if someone can access the phone to see where it is, then we can use the phone to access who is snooping around on it. You just need to know what you’re doing.”

  “And you know what you’re doing?” Valeria asked. “You’re like, twenty.”

  “Twenty-two, and I’ve been doing reverse hacks since primary school.” Roxie winked and Valeria grinned.

  “I like her. And she doesn’t say ‘dude.’” Valeria grinned before slapping Alex’s back. “Come here, dude.” Val wrapped her arms around Alex as the others walked on. “We’re family, and it hurts when we lose our family. But we need you now. Do you think you can help us bring the rest of these bastards down?”

  “You bet I can.”

  * * *

  Birch stepped off Marine One like a man possessed. He had wrapped his ribs and would be damned if he’d even flinch because of the pain. Right now the country was about to learn he wasn’t a president who bent to pressure. Tate had called, and the press release was ready. Flint was also working on a piece that would be released shortly after he decimated Governor Orson Benning.

  Kirby approached him as Humphrey kept anyone else from getting close. Humphrey motioned to his Secret Service team to keep people back, and they formed a large circular barrier around him, Humphrey, and Kirby. “Have you been briefed on Orson?”

  “Fill me in,” Birch ordered, hoping the information Alex had found actually made it through the wheels of justice.

  Kirby told him of the information and even added that Agent Cromwell of the New York office already had a warrant for both Orson and Manuel Hernandez’s arrest. “I wanted to ask you first, but it’s a clear case of treason on Orson’s part. We have Hernandez on bribing a public official, wire fraud, and money laundering. Of course, being in Mexico has problems. We can ask for extradition.”

  “Do it, but let’s give Orson enough rope to hang himself. Let him start talking, and you’ll know the right time to arrest him. Let Cromwell do it. You and I can stand together during my speech. Then I want to see you and your good friend, Senator Epps, in my office tonight at eight.”

  “Epps?” Kirby feigned confusion.

  “Yes, Epps. I know you two were looking for the bomb stolen from the FBI lab in Quantico. Subsequently, I think we found it when I was having dinner.” Birch looked toward the exchange and shook his head. “If you think Orson is the only one trying to bring me down, you’re naïve. There were coordinated attacks all over the world today that were stopped by good intel. That lets us know more’s at play than only one missing bomb. I’m ready to read you and Epps in because I need your help to bring the whole ring down.”

  Kirby was quiet for a moment. “You have your own intelligence? Geez, Lizzy is working with you, isn’t she?”

  “Lizzy who?”

  “Lizzy fucking James.” Kirby looked around. “She was just here.”

  “I know Lizzy James, but only through her father. Lance James and my father were war buddies. That’s beside the point, though. The point is you knew something was off, and you didn’t come to me. Why?”

  “I didn’t know who to trust,” Kirby admitted.

  “Well, I didn’t either. Now it’s time to take a leap of faith and bring you two into the fold. Are you ready to take them down, Kirby?”

  Kirby looked around him with a sad face. “If I’d been doing a better job, I would have caught this bastard before he got to you and your team. Damn right I’m ready to take them down.”

  “Then let Orson through and get ready to go.”

  * * *

  He smashed his fist on the table as Roland read the reports to him. His blood stirred, and by the end of the report, it was boiling. They had all failed! “Where the fuck is Sandra?”

  “I-I don’t know,” Roland stuttered. “But since she’s not here and there was obviously someone giving the authorities inside information, I can only assume she was flipped.”

  “What about Governor Benning?”

  “He’s moving forward with the plans. He’s declared martial law, has called in the state guards and CBL Services, and is about to give a press conference.”

  He turned up the television as Benning stood in front of the bombing site at the New York Stock Exchange. He was six feet, but looked seven by the way he carried himself. Orson’s football muscles had softened as he approached sixty. Orson’s black hair was fading as gray now sprinkled through it. He liked Orson because he didn’t give a shit about politics. Orson gave a shit about himself. Always had as a kid growing up in the Bronx. Orson hustled and didn’t care if he crossed the lines to get what he wanted: power. And that meant Orson was pretty easy to predict and control.

  The news station zoomed in on Orson closing his eyes and bowing his head in a moment of silence for the asshole who had been killed, minimizing the impact of the bomb. Because of that bastard, the exchange was still standing and his plans were in the shitter. Although he did always have a Plan B. And right now Orson was enacting it.

  With a mix of sorrow and anger in his eyes, Orson opened his eyes and looked directly out to the first responders and lines of New York National Guardsmen who had been brought in to guarantee his plan went into effect. “I’ve failed you. I swore I would protect you, and I allowed this unspeakable act of terror to occur.”

  Orson shook his head with disgust. “I allowed it to happen because I fell in line with politics, and I knew better to do that. I knew when President”—Orson sneered the word as if it had a bad taste to even say it—“Stratton ordered me not to act on intelligence of a terror attack, instead saying the feds would handle it. Well, I should have known better. After all, the only person able to look after New York is a New Yorker.”

  The crowd cheered, and he smiled as Orson seemed to grow even taller as he felt the power the people were ready to hand over to him. “That’s why I am taking back our city, our exchange, and our state from the feds. New York will no longer be accountable to a sham of a president who purposely kept you, my New York brothers and sisters, in the dark, allowing terrorists to damage our beloved city. The New York Guard will be here to keep us safe as I kick out all the federal agents. I refuse to comply with their corrupt orders! The president”—Orson again sneered, looking off camera to where he bet Stratton stood—“no longer has any power over the citizens of New York. To show the terrorists of the world, including the president, it takes more than a failed attempt to scare us, I demand the exchange be reopened immediately!”

  “Amazing,” Roland murmured on the video conference screen as he watched the speech. He agreed. Orson was a natural. He’d need to be watched, though. If someone was able to manipulate others so quickly, he wasn’t naïve enough to think Orson wouldn’t try to take over his spot on the top. It was a delicate balance trying to find men and women who craved power, but who weren’t powerful enough to ta
ke his.

  He watched as the crowd cheered, and then a man a couple years younger than Orson in a dark suit and wearing an American flag pin slowly walked over to Orson, grabbed his left arm, and cranked it behind his back. His right hand was cuffed to his left. Even Orson didn’t react until he felt the bite of the handcuffs locking into place.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Orson screamed. The camera zoomed in on them and the cuffs.

  “I’m Special Agent Cromwell of the New York office of the FBI and you, Orson Benning, are under arrest for treason against the United States, sedition, wire fraud, bribery, and abuse of power in relation to your actual and active participation in the assembly of a group that the president of the United States notified Congress of his declaration of open war against. You have the right to remain silent—”

  He stared at the screen as Orson was dragged away in handcuffs. “Assembly of a group? Declaration of war? What does that mean?” Roland asked as he stared off camera at his own television.

  “Stratton knows about us.”

  * * *

  Birch watched Orson rant against federal authority and protest that they had no right to arrest him. He was governor after all. Well, was. Birch looked out to where the National Guard moved with their weapons toward Orson. The entire New York FBI office blocked their path, and Birch knew it was time to stop the escalation.

  Birch stepped up onto a pile of debris as the news reporters yelled questions and the Guardsmen looked confused on whose orders to follow. “This morning I have declared open war against a group who is secretly trying to overthrow not only the presidency, but also the rights of citizens all over the world. This group has killed world leaders, plotted these bombings, conspired with the world’s deadliest drug lord, and manipulated you through the use of the media. This group reaches from Hollywood actors, news anchors, and to the presidents of banks. From princes to presidents. From FBI agents to senior members of the Hill. They’re behind my attempted assassination, this bombing, and much more.