by David Archer
“Give the world a common enemy, and they will happily surrender their liberties,” Gary said softly. “That was one of the things Kissinger said.”
Dawson nodded. “Exactly,” he said. “In this case, the common enemy will be each other. There’s a corollary to that, however, and that is the fact that when you have a common enemy, you also need a common savior. Germany will be the one to come to the rescue of all the other European nations. That’s how they come out on top, and the world will be introduced to a new world superpower.”
Noah shook his head. “There has to be a way to stop it,” he said. “How can we identify the rest of the major players in the organization?”
Dawson grinned and looked at Jenny. “Turn her loose on the people I’ve already named,” he said. “Most of them are politicians, they’re not going to have the strength to resist serious interrogation.” He winked at Jenny. “Especially her style.”
Noah glanced at Jenny, who was trying to stifle a grin at the prospect. “We may have to do exactly that,” he said. “What about their current plans? What’s the next big thing they’re up to?”
Dawson leaned his head back for a second, as if thinking. When he looked at Noah again, he was grinning. “There’s a move coming that’s going to be pretty devastating to most of the West,” he said. “The Director has been working for quite some time to get certain people in position where he wants them, so that he can have people under his control in powerful offices. I can’t give you exact details, but I know that there are at least a few Western world leaders who are going to be replaced in the near future. Some of them will be assassinated, some will be lost to accidents, and a few of them are simply going to be taken out of office after being exposed in some sort of scandals. The organization has long reach, and they can definitely touch anybody. When it begins, it’ll be like a string of dominoes toppling over; one right after the other, and it’ll happen too fast for anyone to stop it.”
“And what’s the goal? Simply to have his own puppets in place?”
“Tell me, Mr. Camelot, how much control would you have over the world if you could pull the strings on five or six of the most powerful world leaders? We’re talking about enough power to essentially rule the whole planet, simply by making sure the most powerful nations do things the way you want them done.”
Neil stared at him, and then he sneered. “Another bid to rule the world? Do you know how many of those we already stopped?”
“Did you?” Dawson asked. “Some of the earlier attempts to reach that kind of power had been absorbed right into this one. And before you get all cocky, you might as well understand that if this one were to get taken down, parts of it will still survive. The basis of any attempt to take over the world is always going to be a philosophy, and the philosophy in this case is one that has been around for centuries. It’s based on the idea that the majority of the people are simply too stupid to know what’s good for them, so they need a government that’s going to make those decisions on their behalf. As long as there are politicians being voted into office, this philosophy is not going to die out.”
“I don’t think there’s much chance of eliminating the democratic process,” Noah said. “The best we can do for now is simply to eliminate the threats as they appear.” He cocked his head and looked closely at Dawson. “Tell me something,” he said. “Why are you being so cooperative? I get the feeling there’s more to it than just a hope to stay alive a little longer.”
Dawson grinned at him. “Did you ever have a job you didn’t like?” he asked. “Just because I took the money doesn’t mean I agree with everything they want to do. Spear lost a few people over the last couple of years, and the losses were just enough to slow them down a bit. If it hadn’t happened the way it did, a lot of this would already be happening now.”
“And you are behind those losses?” Noah asked.
“Some of them, yes,” Dawson said. “A few of them were not mine, but I suspect there might be someone else within the organization who feels like I do. We can’t stop it, we’re too small. The best we can hope to do is slow them down, or at least that’s what I was trying to do.”
“And you don’t know who else might have been working against them?” Jenny asked.
He looked at her. “I’m afraid not,” he said. “If I did, I’d probably pretend I didn’t, anyway. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want anybody else inside the organization knowing what I’ve done, if you know what I mean. Whoever else was working against them probably wouldn’t take kindly to me dropping in and offering to help.”
“I can see that,” Noah said. “So, at least one or two of you decided you didn’t want to see their plans materialize. Do you think there’s any way we can spread that further into the organization?”
Dawson sucked his bottom lip for a second. “I don’t know how you could,” he said. “One thing you can be sure of is that nobody inside the organization actually trusts anybody else. If someone had come to me and said they were trying to recruit from within to put a stop to what they were doing, I can guarantee you my first move would have been to let the Director know who approached me. The chance that it was a test would be too great a risk.”
“Of course,” Noah said. “You really wouldn’t have much of a choice. All right, so there’s not much hope of infiltrating the organization and taking it down from the inside. What we’re going to have to do is identify the most powerful players one by one. You’ve given us a few names, and we can build on that list. Excuse me for a few moments.”
He got up out of his seat and moved to another part of the airplane, then put a call through to Allison once again.
“Camelot, report.”
“It turns out Spear is a lot more ambitious than we thought,” Noah said. “I recorded everything on the server, so you can download it for analysis. In the recording, Dawson gave us the names of several people who are involved in the organization council. I would very much like to get the lot of them together, where Jenny can have a talk with them.”
“Jenny? This must be pretty serious. All right, Noah, I’ll get on it. I’ll call you when I’ve got things arranged.”
“All right,” Noah said. “We’ll be landing in Rio several hours from now, and hopefully we will be able to take out the Director by the end of the day tomorrow. The people Dawson gave us will know more of the names, and we are going to need to take each of them out as quickly as we can. The organization has plans that are going to be devastating to the world if they don’t get stopped quickly.”
“Very good,” Allison said. “I’ll be sharing this information with the rest of our own agencies, and possibly even some of our allies.”
The line went dead again, and Noah leaned back in his seat. With Jenny watching him, Dawson wasn’t going anywhere. It was time for a much-needed rest, but first, he had one more call to make.
“Noah to Sarah,” he said, and the delight in his wife’s voice almost made him smile when she replied.
TWENTY-TWO
Galeao International Airport serves the Rio de Janeiro area, and is one of the busiest airports in that part of South America, serving over fifteen million passengers per year. The Gulfstream touched down on the runway at just before noon local time, and taxied toward the terminal.
Noah had been notified two hours earlier that Molly had already arranged for their transportation and accommodations. When they came off the plane, the local E & E liaison was waiting for them.
“Mr. Wolf,” the man said, “my name is Emanuel Garza. Welcome to Rio de Janeiro.”
Despite his name, Mr. Garza’s accent bore no trace of local flavor. In fact, he sounded like someone who had grown up in the southern U.S.A. Noah shook his hand and smiled. “Good to meet you,” he said.
“And you, sir. We’ve heard a lot about you, and it’s a pleasure to finally shake your hand. Please, all of you follow me. I have cars waiting for you, so you don’t have to put up with all the BS at the rental counters.”
“What about customs?” Noah asked.
Garza grinned. “All taken care of,” he said. “One of the nice things about being in South America is that it’s absolutely amazing how easy it is to cut through red tape with a little green paper. Just about everybody here is open to what we call 'negotiable cooperation.’ We try not to think of it as bribery, but hey, whatever works, right?”
“My kind of people,” Neil said. “Who needs red tape when there’s a little money to throw around?”
They followed Garza through the terminal and Noah noticed that some of the police officers standing around seemed to pay a little attention to them, but no one moved to stop them. A moment later, they stepped out through the front doors and found a pair of Range Rovers waiting for them. Both of them were silver, and guards handed keys to Noah and Neil.
“Ms. Hansen said we were supposed to provide you with weapons,” he said. “You’ll find them in the back of each car, but I’m afraid the best we could do is some Beretta handguns.”
“That’s all right,” Noah said. “We brought some with us, as well.”
Garza’s eyebrows rose. “And you were planning to take them through customs?”
“False bottoms,” Noah said, tapping his suitcase. “These are good enough they’ve never been spotted before.”
The liaison whistled and rolled his eyes. “You’re a braver man than me,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe what they do to people who try to smuggle weapons into the country here. Anyway, you’ll find a file in each car telling you about your hotel. Rooms are already arranged, and there is also a healthy supply of local currency. My direct cell number is in the file, so if you need anything else, all you have to do is call me.”
Noah thanked him and he walked away. Noah, Gary and Dawson got into the first Land Rover with Dawson riding shotgun and Gary in the back seat. Neil and Jenny took the second, though it took Neil a moment to get the seat back far enough for him to get inside and drive.
Noah glanced into the file and found the name of the hotel, the Hilton Copacabana, along with its address. The car had a GPS system, so he punched it in, then followed the directions to get to it. They checked in and went to their rooms, with Noah, Dawson and Gary sharing one room while Neil and Jenny had another to themselves. Once they were settled in, they all gathered in Noah’s room and Noah nodded to Jenny.
Without a word, she produced Dawson’s blue cell phone and handed it to him. He turned it on and waited until Neil gave him a nod before dialing Joshua’s number. Neil had his computer out and was playing a background noise that sounded like the interior of a commercial jet. The muted roar of jet engines could be heard, along with the random chatter of passengers and flight attendants.
He hit the dial button and waited for the call to connect. A moment later, Joshua’s voice came on the line.
“It’s me,” Dawson said. “Did you get hold of him?”
“There’s a lot of background noise,” Joshua said. “Are you still on the plane?”
“Of course,” Dawson said. “We don’t land for a few more hours, but it was time to call in. Did you make the arrangements?”
Joshua hesitated for a second, and Dawson’s eyes narrowed.
“I did,” Joshua said finally. “I can tell you that he was not pleased that you wanted to meet so soon, but if you are going to Rio, you can find him at the Marriott on the beach. He’ll be in room six fourteen, but don’t go there. Call him and he’ll meet you in the restaurant.”
“All right,” Dawson said. “If you hear from him, tell him I’ll be in touch in a few hours.”
He ended the call and handed the phone back to Jenny, who stuck it back in her pocket, then turned to Noah.
“Room six fourteen at the Marriott,” he said. “If we move now, we could get this done before they even know I’m in the country.”
“Not just yet,” Noah said. He looked at Neil. “Can you confirm?”
Neil already had his computer set up on the table and was tapping away on the keyboard. “First, I need to find a way into the Marriott security system,” he said. “That shouldn’t take long, and then I can check the video feeds around that room.” He continued what he was doing for another couple of minutes, then said, “Bingo! I’m in. Now, let me see—here we go, sixth floor. I’ve got the video feeds from twelve cameras on the sixth floor, but I can’t see the room numbers. Hang on another moment.” He opened another window and typed for several seconds, and then clicked on a link that showed him the layout of the building. He identified room six fourteen, then went back to the other window and found the camera that had it in the best view.
Suddenly, people appeared on the monitor, but they were moving much faster than normal. They were also moving backward, as Neil ran the recording back until the hallway went dark. At that point, he moved it forward again, taking ten second jumps. Each frame that appeared on the monitor stayed for about a second, and then switched to another. Whenever someone could be seen in the frame, he quickly hit a button to freeze it. Dawson would lean close to see if he recognized the person, but each time, he shook his head.
Most of an hour passed by while they were scanning the security feed, but then another person appeared and Dawson said, “Wait. Let me get a better look.”
Neil switched to another camera view that looked down the hall and managed to zoom in on the face of the person.
Dawson grinned. “That’s him,” he said. “That’s the Director.”
“It looks like he just checked in this morning,” Noah said. “Neil, can you tell if he is still in the room?”
Neil went back to scanning ahead on the video, and fifteen minutes later, he turned to Noah with a grin. “At the moment, I would say he’s there,” he said. “Nobody has left that room since he entered earlier.”
Noah looked at Dawson. “Are you ready?”
“I work for you, now,” Dawson said. “You give the orders, I follow.”
Noah nodded. “Let’s go, then. Jenny, you’re with us.”
The three of them walked out the door and went straight to the elevator. The Marriott was only a kilometer away from the hotel they were in, and would only take a few minutes to get there. Noah kept his subcom on, so that Neil could warn him if the Director was to suddenly appear in the hallway.
They got into Noah’s Range Rover and he drove quickly to the Marriott, parking the car out of sight of the main entrance. The three of them walked quickly toward the door and inside, then acted as if they belonged there as they went to the elevator and took it to the sixth floor. As they stepped out of the elevator, Noah checked in with Neil.
“Neil to Noah,” he heard. “No activity at the door. If he’s left that room, he did it out the window.”
“All right,” Noah said. He turned to Dawson and reached up under the back of his jacket to hand over a pistol. “One wrong move and you die instantly,” he said. He let Dawson see the small Russian PSS silent pistol that he held in his hand.
Dawson glanced at it. “Sweet,” he said. “No sound at all, right? Just a click?”
“Behave yourself and you won’t find out,” Jenny said.
Dawson grinned at her and turned toward room six fourteen. “How do you propose to get him to open the door?” he asked Noah.
Jenny stepped past him and walked ahead a few feet, stopping at the door and knocking on it. She put a smile on her face as she looked at the peephole. “Serviço de quarto,” she said in impeccable Portuguese. “Por favor?”
The light blinked out through the peephole and Jenny kept the smile on her face, and a moment later they heard the lock click. The door swung open and all three of them rushed through it, dragging the man behind the door into the room with them.
“What the hell?” he yelled, and then he got a look at Dawson. “Lancaster? What is this?”
“I’m afraid, Director,” Dawson said, “that it’s the beginning of the end.” He raised the pistol in his hand and pointed it into the man’s face, but Noah reache
d out and pushed it up toward the ceiling.
“Not just yet,” Noah said. He looked at the man who was now sitting on the bed, leaning back on his hands and his eyes wide. “First, we need some information.”
“Lancaster? You’ve turned on us?”
“Yeah, well, it seemed like a good idea. It was either that or die, and I’m kinda fond of living.” Dawson grinned at him.
Jenny picked up a jacket that was laying on the bed and found the wallet in the inner pocket. She opened it up and found an American driver’s license from Florida, which she handed to Noah.
“David Garrity,” Noah read. “Well, Mr. Garrity, I think you can figure out what’s going on. Mr. Dawson, or Lancaster or whatever his name is, has decided to terminate his employment with you. He’s coming to work for us, and part of the negotiation for his agreement was to allow him to terminate you personally. Before he does that, I wanted to give you a chance to negotiate for your own life.”
Dawson’s eyes went wide and he spun on Noah. “Wait a minute,” he said. “We had a deal, remember?”
“Every deal is subject to renegotiation,” Noah said. He reached out and took the pistol away from Dawson, then handed it to Jenny. She held it carefully, standing back out of reach as she kept both of the men covered. “If Mr. Garrity was to give us sufficient information, we might make another arrangement for him. I understand there are couple of fairly comfortable cells available in a special prison that we use just for people like him.” He turned back to Garrity. “Well?”
The man looked from Noah to Dawson and back. “That’s my choice? Spend the rest of my life in a cell or die here and now?”
“Yes, that’s it,” Noah said. “If you give us information that helps to take down your organization, you can stay alive. If not, then you are of no further use to us and I can let Mr. Dawson have things the way he wants them.”
“Unbelievable,” Garrity said. “I never would have believed that you would turn on me.” He shook his head, then turned to Noah. “I’m sorry, but this thing is bigger than I am. You can kill me if you wish, but it won’t make any difference in the long run. Everything we have put into motion will proceed as it’s supposed to, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
