by Bob Blink
"If that is the case, then we should expect the situation to still be a problem, and for them to make some other move," Jim said. "We should also look at these potential cases with a deadline in mind."
"It's too bad we can't mobilize a number of agents and have some of these people monitored for any sign of unusual activity," Jake noted.
Susan had just stepped into the conference room and overheard the last of their discussion.
"If we find something we consider worth following up, the Director agreed to put someone on it. He'll make certain those doing any checking are unaware that we are the ones asking."
"What about those friends of yours?" Jake asked.
"They are available for selected tasks as well," Susan replied. She had contacted a couple of retired agents she knew well, and who she believed could be trusted. If there was any checking to be done where they wanted to keep the Bureau officially out of the loop, they could call on them. Jim Laney also suggested a Philly cop he knew, and Jake had a couple of friends on the West Coast they could tap. Jake's usual approach of poking into something, and then Back-Tracking around it, was an approach they were hesitant to employ this time.
"Did you find something?" Jim asked, seeing that Jake was staring at the computer monitor in front of him as he talked.
"I don't know," Jake admitted. "This guy could be one of them. Unfortunately, he's the one I didn't get that close a look at."
Jim and Susan hurried over and looked over his shoulder.
"He hasn't got the beard," Jake pointed out, "and that makes it harder to tell. He probably wears the beard to mask that scar."
"John Smith," Susan scoffed. "I'm sure that's not his name. He looks more like an Antonio to me. Where did this photo get taken?"
Jake scrolled through the data.
"New York City," he said finally. "It's a couple of years old. He was picked up on suspicion of being involved in a shake-down of a shop owner."
"Do you think we should have this one followed up?" Susan asked.
"I can't really tell," Jake admitted, "but it's as close as we have come. It would be interesting to find out his real name and where he is now. It'll probably turn out he's in jail somewhere and can't be our guy."
"I'll ask the Director to put someone on it. There has to have been several unexplained murders in New York the last couple of days that he can become a suspect for. That would give someone a justifiable reason to be looking for him, and not lead back to us."
Jake pushed away from the monitor. There were no more 'possibles' to sort through at the moment.
"Are you still insistent on going home tonight?" he asked Susan.
"I need a change of clothes," she said. "I think it is safe enough, especially since I am forewarned, and you plan on being there ahead of me. If anything happens, you can Back-Track to now and I'll change my plan and we'll set a trap."
They had decided that Jake would leave separately and early, and slip into Susan's place. He'd also spend the night in the guest room, just as a precaution. Norm wasn't due back for another couple of days, something Susan was a little stressed about. She hoped they could have a breakthrough in the case before then and avoid the need to talk to him and formally take him off the persons of interest list.
"What if these people simply drop their attempts against me?" Susan asked. "Then how do we proceed? There is a good chance we aren't going to find a lead, and they could wait weeks or months before attempting a move again."
"As I mentioned to Jim earlier, I think there is an urgency about their actions, which means whatever prompted their initial attempts remains in place. They will be under pressure to resolve this whole thing."
"They'll be more cautious," Susan said. "The last two failures will have them worried and concerned. They are probably keeping an eye on me, and by association both of you. Maybe Shaun as well. We don't know how they get their information."
"Do you think they might attempt a snatch again?" Jim asked. "If they can't get to you, grabbing Jake or myself might give them a chance to ask questions about what we know."
"I don't think we can ignore the possibility," Susan said pondering. "What do we do if they make an attempt?"
"We need to be equipped with a signaling device that whoever is snatched can quietly activate to alert the rest of us something is underway," Jake said. "I think that I then immediately Back-Track again, so I can preserve my memories of the attempt. It's getting to be a real annoyance reliving all the in-between days, but it's the only way I know of. Then, knowing what is going to happen, we discretely prepare the area where it takes place with cameras and video. That could give us better indications of those involved."
"It sounds like you want to allow the attempt to continue unchecked," Susan said.
"Until we learn something of use in identifying these people," Jake confirmed. "We won't attempt to capture them. We'll be listening in and watching, and hopefully tracking them wherever they take whoever they grab. The minute we have key information, I Back-Track again, we avoid the event or set a trap for them. Either way, we know something that reveals who they are."
"Aren't we forgetting they have their own Back-Tracker?" Jim asked. "What if their person elects to Back-Track before you during this event? What happens then?"
"Then we lose whatever we hoped to learn," Jake admitted, but unless their person Back-Tracks farther than I do the first time, we still know of the attempt. But why would they do that? It would defeat their entire plan? With everything going as they hoped, there is no reason for them to abort the effort and Back-Track out of it. They might as well have never made the attempt."
"And if they find our tracking devices and cameras?" Susan asked.
"Then we'll Back-Track and locate the electronics somewhere else. But we'll have to try to be clever in the beginning. I'm certain you have people who can come up with something they are unlikely to find."
"I'll call Tony," Susan said. "You remember him. He is someone I trust, and he would have access to some things I'm sure our people wouldn't even know about."
Jake smiled. He hadn't seen Tony in a while. He was someone else they might want to bring in, assuming he was available.
Chapter 15
Sunday, May 8
"Exactly who is this Bob Trask?" Jeff asked. Paul had used some people who owed him to do some checking into Carlson and those around her. It had taken longer, but he hadn't had to use his uncle's resources and place them at risk.
"My source tells me he is a contractor that the FBI uses from time to time," Paul explained. "Carlson must have brought him in to help out with this special White House project the Director assigned her to. Maybe he was part of whatever project they are preparing to brief the White House on."
"Maybe he should be the one we go after?" Jeff suggested.
"I don't think so," Natalie objected. "For one thing, he wasn't even on this coast when we made our first attempts at Carlson. I can't see where he'd know anything that might help us."
"Also, he's probably staying in one of the better hotels," Paul pointed out. "It would be a lot harder to pull off a snatch under those conditions. I think we go after this Jim Laney fellow. He's been her partner for a number of years, and if anyone knows anything, I'd guess it would be him."
"I still don't see exactly what we are trying to accomplish," Jeff asked. "According to Natalie, since she did this BackSliding thing of hers, Carlson and the Feds aren't aware of either of the attempts we made against her. So, they don't know we exist, and are after her. What are we going to learn?"
"They may not know about us exactly, but they may have some preliminary indication that someone is up to something. I couldn't Backslide back far enough to prevent some of the early planning you and Paul were engaged in. We want to know if they have any hints of that early planning, which might help us understand how they knew about our final plans. I also want to know what she might have done to follow up on Anne's phone call to her."
"I thought
you said that she hadn't contacted Anne?" Jeff asked.
"As far as we know, but we don't know everything that might have taken place since that initial call. Anne might have called her again while she was away from work, or they might have met, and we don't know about it. We need to understand what's going on from their side. Right now, I can't see how we can make another attempt against Carlson and hope it works this time until we know more, and we can't simply walk away."
"There's other advantages to grabbing her partner," Paul pointed out. "More than anyone else, he ought to know what she knows. We might learn something we simply don't know enough to consider at this point, and by taking this agent, whatever they have heard might be construed to mean the plans were being made against him and not specifically targeting Carlson. It'll certainly stir matters up, and might give us a shot at her that wouldn't otherwise exist. She's pretty much locked away inside their Headquarters with this special assignment. Having her partner killed ought to get her out trying to find out why and by whom. Opportunity, right?"
"So, we plan to kill this guy once we're done with him?" Jeff asked.
"Of course," Natalie replied. "We can't leave him around to tell the others what he might recall. Right now there's nothing to link us to anything, and we want to make sure it stays that way."
"Yeah, but now you want to kill a second FBI agent," Jeff complained.
"Maybe not," Paul injected into the exchange. "A lot depends on how things work out and how well your sister can actually work this special ability. Holding one of theirs might get us a shot at Carlson, and it might not. Depending on what we learn, how things work out, and whether Natalie can really perform this loopback, we might decide it's best to let her do that and allow the guy to live. That has the advantage of them not knowing what we have learned."
"When do we decide this?" Natalie asked.
"Once we have the guy and see what he knows," Paul said. "My uncle indicated he wouldn't mind seeing something happen to Carlson, but I don't think he'd be too happy if we start a major war with the Feds. If killing one more Fed is required to remove her, I can probably sell it, but I'd rather not have to."
"When do we do this?" Jeff asked.
"We know enough about where he lives and the schedule his wife follows, right?" Paul said. "We still have that empty hunting cabin we can use for any questioning. If you can come up with a couple of reliable men to help out, I'd say we make our move tomorrow night."
"We don't tell anyone else," Natalie insisted.
"Not even the two men Jeff is going to round up for us," Paul agreed. "All they need to know is what we tell them to do as it's going down. Jeff will bring them to this Laney's home when we're ready."
"We use his wife for leverage," Natalie said, nodding her head. "We can be in place when he arrives home. Hopefully he'll come alone. Jeff said sometimes he brings that consultant with him. They appear to be friends."
"If he does that, we'll just have to adapt. Two would make matters much more difficult, so perhaps we need to monitor whether they are coming home before we make the move on the wife."
"I can follow him home and let you know if he's alone," Natalie said.
"Then I believe we are set," Paul said. "Jeff, you should go and verify the men you said you can get will actually be available. Call me if there are any problems."
Natalie watched Paul as he escorted her brother out of the apartment. It was almost as if it were his place, the way he moved confidently, with complete familiarity with the place. She felt a shiver of sexual anticipation. She knew what would be on Paul's mind once her brother was gone. Sometimes she wondered how she had ended up with someone like him.
On the surface, he was a cultured professional. He was an experienced corporate lawyer with impressive credentials from Harvard, her own alma mater. That was something they had in common, and one of the things they'd been able to share in the beginning. Just as her father had made certain she could go to the best, consistent with her superior intelligence, Paul's family had made a point of seeing him groomed, to be of maximum use to the Organization, and be someone to some day be able to step into a top level, if not the very top position in the Organization.
She was drawn to this image of him, yet she knew the hidden violence that he held suppressed also appealed to her. Clearly, she was her father's daughter. She had learned through her brother that Paul had wheedled some of the old school types that had kept his uncle in power all these years into exposing him to the darker side of the Organization, and he'd earned the respect he commanded by his actions there as well. Paul had killed before, and not just once. That was why she had known she could approach him with the Carlson problem.
She heard Paul enter the bedroom where she had gone to prepare, knowing that was where they would end up. He smiled as he closed the door and began to unbutton his own shirt.
Chapter 16
Wednesday Evening, May 11
"I'm home," Jim hollered as he closed the door behind him, placing the bundle of keys into the woven bowl along the hallway as he walked back toward the kitchen area. He was less than halfway down the hall when a man who he recognized from Jake's sketch stepped into view, a small shiny revolver pressed to side of Clarissa's head. She looked totally terrified.
"My god!" Jim exclaimed. He had considered the possibility he might be a target, and maybe even Clarissa, but for some reason he hadn't believed anything would happen this quickly. He'd planned to have a talk with his wife about visiting her family out of state for a couple of days. Slowly, so as not to excite the man, he raised his hands above his shoulders.
"Your gun," the man said sternly.
"No problem," Jim agreed. "It's on my hip. Do you want to get it, or should I take it out?"
"Slowly, or you know what happens," the man warned.
Jim did as asked, slowly pushing aside his suit jacket, and reaching back for the weapon. As he unsnapped the Glock, he let his fingers grab the butt of the composite frame and slowly withdrew the weapon between his thumb and first finger, setting it on the counter off to one side, then stepping away from it.
"Well done," the man said. "Are there any other weapons? You know the consequences if there are."
Jim shook his head and did as he was told. Two other men, one with a beard who could be the other person they had a sketch of, waited with guns drawn. An extremely attractive young woman sat off to one side watching him carefully. He had no idea who she might be. Jake hadn't mentioned a woman at any point up to now.
"Jacket off," the man he didn't recognize ordered.
Jim stripped off the jacket and handed it over as ordered. Then he stepped forward to be searched.
The one who had held the gun to Clarissa's head pushed her into the room, and watched with his gun ready while Jim was searched.
"He's clean," the clean-shaven older man said after carefully checking Jim, relieving him of his spare magazine and the handcuffs. From the care with which he made his search, Jim was surprised that Tony's special belt had gone unnoticed. If everything worked as Tony had promised, when Jim had removed his gun from the holster, he had also moved the small magnet stuck to the Glock's slide far enough away from the triggering mechanism in the belt to activate it. Jake and Susan should have received an alert when he did so, and so would be aware of what was happening.
"Sit," the man he'd encountered in the hallway ordered. Apparently he was in charge. "Over there, in that easy chair."
Jim carefully slid into the overstuffed chair. He'd have liked to sit next to Clarissa, but she was across the room, next to the one with a beard who was holding a copy of the Colt Government Model with a long suppressor screwed onto the barrel in his left hand. A south paw. Something to remember. While Clarissa looked scared, Jim was pleased to see a spark of anger and determination showing in the depths of her eyes. That might come in handy along the way.
"You received it also I hope," Susan said as she hurried into the conference room where Jake was still wor
king through the latest batch of photos that had been flagged by the computer as it worked through the various DMV files.
"I did," he replied. "I was just about to Back-Track."
He pointed to the speaker Tony had set up where a number of voices could now be heard. Jim's home was beyond the range of the tiny transmitter in the belt, but Tony had installed booster transmitters in both Jim and Susan's residences, and in the hotel room where Jake was staying. The receiving unit in Susan's conference room would trigger a message to their phones, with an App that would allow them to monitor the incoming audio remotely.
"There are a number of them. Jim has been good with his use of key words to indicate how many. He's seen both of those we are searching for, and there's another man and a woman we haven't run into before. From what I've overheard, they were waiting for him with Clarissa as a hostage."
"Go," Susan urged. "We'll talk this through when you loop back."
Jake Back-Tracked a full ten days, the upper limit he could make in a single jump. He wanted to retain the knowledge learned should the other side Back-Track to change something, and that mean a long enough time loop to encompass anything the other side might do. He felt confident somehow that the ten days was enough, even if living through the period again was going to be a nuisance. At that, going much farther back would mean he'd have to relocate to California, since he hadn't been in Washington long enough to go farther. Besides, there was no reason for their suspects to be doing any Back-Tracking at the moment. This was just a precaution. He hoped.
"They are going to be waiting for me when I get there?" Jim asked, when Jake described what was about to happen that evening when those they sought made their move. Jake had relived the repeat days and they were almost back to the time Laney would have the encounter at his place.
"That's what Susan and I overheard before I Back-Tracked," Jake agreed. "We didn't take time to verify much about the situation. We'll get that this time around."
