Rise of the Phoenix

by Gibbs, Dameon

  Edge noticed the architecture but paid more attention to all the security cameras visible on the building and in the trees and beds, assuming that there were others not so visible. A constant stream of people flowed into and out of the building, and others were standing, talking on cell phones or either in groups. When he noticed a young man walking towards them rather quickly.

  “Welcome Mr. Tucker,” Reid said at some distance away as he extended his hand. “I had security call me when you arrived.”

  Tucker had to smile; the man was set to go. “Greetings Agent Reid. This is Sgt. Pierce, a consultant I brought along,” he responded as he shook the agent’s hand. “Glad to meet you,” Reid said enthusiastically as he shook the sergeant’s hand. “So what branch of the military are you in?

  “Nice to meet you, Agent Reid. You can call me ‘Edge.’ It’s my call sign, and I’m used to it more than my name,” Edge responded.

  Reid looked puzzled for a second but decided there must be a reason. “Ok, Edge. Anyway, shall we head in? I got a room set up for us,” he added as he led them into the building.

  “Sounds good,” Tucker replied as the young agent spun around. The three men walked into the building where a security checkpoint lined the whole front lobby. Reid waved his badge to move them past the first checkpoint and on to a second where they were issued their visitor passes. The badge had a bright red "V" on it and a lanyard to wear around the neck. "Over your heart," said Reid, jokingly. Edge felt like something between a tourist and a target.

  Reid took them through a seemingly endless series of corridors and security doors. Should I be dropping breadcrumbs so I can find my way back? Thought Tucker. Finally, they came to a door that opened into a medium-sized conference room. Windows brought in a generous amount of daylight, and the shade of tan on the walls gave the room a relaxing feel, which was immediately undone by the stacks of papers and piles of coats and empty pizza boxes. There were two desks in the back and a large table in the middle. “Welcome to my temporary office for the past day or so. I’ve been tearing through all the documents you sent me and all the other stuff I’ve requested over the past god knows how many hours.” Reid said, letting his exhaustion show through. Tucker walked to the table and laid his satchel down. Edge walked over to the window and noticed that the overlooked the main entrance from three floors up.

  “When do we get to meet with Arslan?” Tucker asked. His more casual tone from the hallway had left and was replaced with a serious and focused tenor.

  “At the moment, he’s asleep.”

  Tucker raised his eyebrows in a mix of annoyance and surprise. “He has important information that we should get to.”

  “His sleeping patterns have been a little irregular lately," Reid said, allowing his annoyance to show just a bit. “As we discussed last night, he is really sleep deprived, and the shrinks say the more sleep, the better if we want him to open up to us. His body and brain are so exhausted that if we wake him up now, with what he’s been through, we’re not going to get anything.”

  “Given all he’s been through, I wouldn’t expect a conversation anyway.” Edge commented.

  “There hasn’t been much. I sent Agent Webster, one of our female agents, into talk with him a few times since he arrived here. He’s shown more response to talking to her than anyone else, but it's been nothing more than a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ While she was in there we had the psychologists watching on camera and sending her cues on where to take the conversations based on his reaction.” Reid paused as he scanned the two men’s reactions. Edge remained calm, absorbing every piece of information he was given. Tucker’s face once again had that look that Reid saw during their video conference that conveyed ‘Get to the point.’

  Reid went to continue when the door to his office opened, proceeded by a short knock, and in walked a female agent. Unlike Reid she was dressed in casual but professional attire. It was modest but still highlighted her athletic build. Her red hair was tied into a ponytail and was long enough to swing over one shoulder.

  “Ah, Special Agent Dana Webster, welcome. This is Dante Tucker of the CIA, and this is ‘Edge,’ otherwise remaining a man of mystery.” Out of reflex, Edge let his eyes scan her up and down. When he realized what he was doing, he tried to justify to himself that it was not because she was an attractive woman. Can’t let your guard down. Always expect the unexpected.

  “Hi, I work with Agent Reid,” she said as she shook Edge’s hand. When Edge’s eyes made it to her face, he noticed that as she greeted him, her eyes were examining him the same. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she greeted, Edge not being able to resist the urge, he slightly raised an eyebrow as she walked passed him to Tucker. Unexpected, just like that.

  “Greetings Agent Webster. Reid was just telling us how you’ve been meeting with Arslan. Has he revealed anything that will help move this thing forward?” Tucker asked. “About the incident at the cabin, no. He’s still locked down. I had three psychiatrists watching him for any nuance or reaction, but we couldn’t get him to budge. He’s standoff-ish, and doesn’t volunteer information. We can tell that he wants help, but he’s too proud to ask for it.”

  “No offense, Dana, but why did shrinks send you in and not one of their own?” Edge asked. She seemed to either not notice or care how quickly Edge jumped right to addressing her without the ‘agent.'

  “First, I have a graduate degree in psychology. Second, the psychiatrists and I agreed that as a woman, I was best able to come across in an unthreatening manner. We also felt that anyone walking in wearing anything official or businesslike would send him into defense mode. We needed to get him to relax. And I didn’t present a natural threat. It seemed like our best shot,” she responded confidently. “It didn't help us out as much as we wanted, but it seemed to put him a little more at ease. After a few visits, he calmed down enough to sleep.”

  Edge said, "Turkey is one of the most westernized countries in that region but women still don't generally have that high a stature there. Is that a factor in his response to you?

  Tucker raised an eyebrow. "Since when did you become so knowledgeable in foreign affairs?"

  “I have found that it pays to have a deeper understanding of my area of operations than just what I get in mission briefings," Edge replied, "especially the ones you guys give."

  Dana responded, "It doesn't seem so. He seems to be from a more educated and cosmopolitan mindset. He didn't sneer at me or give me any male superiority attitude."

  Tucker put his hands on his hips. “I can appreciate the boy’s need to sleep, but we need to know if something is about to happen and he’s the only one who can point us in the right direction.”

  Without missing a beat, Dana countered Tucker’s argument. “Mr. Tucker, this kid has literally been through a level of hell few people can relate to, let alone understand. We need to let him sleep. He’ll be awake soon.”

  Tucker thought to himself, reflecting on his experience. He looked to Reid and Edge.

  “She’s right: if we go in there now we’re not getting anything,” Reid agreed. Edge simply nodded.

  Tucker had to admit that even though time was an issue, Arslan was traumatized and waiting for him to wake up would give them a better chance of getting vital intel out of him. He sat back down and picked up his folders. “Alright, Reid. We will wait. In the meantime let’s talk more about what you have discovered since the last time we spoke.”

  “Ok. Well, where do you want to start?” Reid asked as he sat down at the table. Tucker let his eyes once again take in the stacks of papers and then stared at Reid confused. “Do you need to get organized?” The piles of paper must have triggered some suppressed form of OCD. He swore the time it would take him to organize and file all those papers would still be faster than searching through them the way they were. To his surprise, Reid just chuckled.

  “Don’t worry Mr. Tucker. It’s a bit of organized chaos. Plus, Dana helped organize all the stacks last night.”


  “I don’t do well with disorganized workspaces,” she stated as she pulled up next to Reid.

  “I would say you have OCD, but I just can’t see it.” Edge joked.

  “Oh, it’s there, but more selectively than the full-fledged disorder.” “Ok, well, what do you have?” Tucker asked not wanting to waste any more time. Edge and Dana smiled as they settled in while Reid leaned back to one of the stacks. He grabbed a file in the middle and, like a magician, pulled it without the piles crumbing. “We had agents all over the eastern seaboard sending videos to us from airports. Using facial recognition software and in every agency’s computer lab we checked every video for the last two days. Like before we came up with nothing. And truthfully I think we are wasting time looking there.”

  “Agreed. A high profile figure like that would not travel in such an open venue. Have you looked at shipping yards? Asking workers if they saw anything suspicious or out of the ordinary?” Edge asked.

  “We’re in the process, but there are a lot of places to cover,” replied Dana.

  “We have enough sources in places already that would have made it very difficult for him to get to come by boat,” Tucker stated.

  “If I can get sent to anywhere in the world in a matter of hours. I think he can get to a boat,” Edge replied.

  “You have to understand Gamze. He is a smart, brave, and confident man. He‘s practically royalty where he’s from. He would find sneaking into the country by a shipping boat beneath him. He would have to be guaranteed that he could get in without being caught and without having to hide. Otherwise, he would not trust the organization he was meeting with,” explained Tucker.

  “Ok, then why were we able to find his son in an airport?” Reid’s question hit a key point. It was not like Gamze to resort to that blatant of a move. It did not make sense. “Well, this leaves us one very real possibility. Someone with government connections let him in,” offered Edge. Tucker and Reid’s reaction showed they did not follow his idea.

  “You mean like a senator?” asked Reid.

  “No, I’m talking Federal Agency, the alphabet boys. Has anyone contacted NSA to see if they brought him in as an informant?”

  Tucker shook his head. “No, Gamze would never have worked with the NSA. And if he did, do you think that they would have killed him on US soil in the manner that he was?”

  Edge simply returned a look that told Tucker, “You’d be surprised.”

  “Wait, you think that our government brought him here to assassinate him?” Dana asked.

  “Consider the idea that some rogue faction in the government brought him in here and is - well, was - working with him.” Edge answered matter-of-factly. “He came here because they needed something from him and, once they got it, he was a loose end and, therefore, a liability. I don't know of many organizations in the US or the world that are big enough to treat someone like Gamze as expendable and remain under the radar, except a government one.”

  “I think you’ve been reading too many fiction novels. I would think if one of our agencies took him out, with all the chatter we have going on, one of them would have told us.” Reid replied with a chuckle.

  “And they haven’t. That's why I'm thinking some kind of splinter and not a properly authorized op,” Edge replied flatly. “Trust me; this is a possibility. I have done some missions...," he said, stopped, and began again. "I don't understand the whole business of valuing human assets and deciding whether to preserve or terminate. I just go on the missions and hope that whoever calls the shots is someone with more insight and wisdom than I have at my angle, but sometimes I have my doubts.”

  Tucker remembered a mission when Edge had just joined Delta Squad. An American biologist doing research had been kidnapped by Kenyan rebels. His research party and guards were all killed while he was held ransom. Edge’s team had been dispatched to rescue him, which they did successfully. However, on their return, the scientist pleaded not to be brought back because he was wanted for selling German state secrets when he worked in Hamburg. No sooner had the helicopter landed at the base than the scientist was swept up by men Edge did not recognize and dragged into a car. Edge noted that he heard one of the men speaking in a German accent. Later, when Tucker's clearance was upgraded, he had learned the full story of that op. The German government had brokered a deal with NSA and CIA to trade the biologist for a prisoner of theirs who was connected to Al Qaeda.

  “I understand where you're going, Edge, but I'm not seeing any of the signs, messages or other things that ordinarily go on around an activity like that,” Tucker said. Edge did not seem mad or upset by the dismissal of his idea. “They have an uncanny ability to move where we don't ordinarily look or where we are distracted from looking. I know what I'm saying is an outlier, but it does fit the available facts. Anything is possible, and with all the blanks we have, it might be a bit soon to try and separate likely from unlikely.”

  “That would be why I brought you,” replied Tucker as he turned to Reid. “Were your men able to find anything about who built the cabin, who bought it before Gamze, or was it rented?”

  “It was owned by a lawyer, who had to sell it when the economy crashed, it was bought by a man, Kevin Allers, three years ago. Oh, and Mr. Allers does not exist. Fake social security number, the whole nine yards.”

  "Fairly deep backstopping. Kinda sounds like a government agency job," said Edge to no one, in a thinking-out-loud voice.

  Tucker just let out a sigh. Everything was leading to a dead end. For the better part of the next hour, the four of them discussed other information about Gamze and his son. Reid put in a call to have agents canvas local town showing Gamze, Arslan, or his bodyguard's picture to people to see if they find any clue as to when he might have arrived, or establish a routine. Gamze was able to elude the government, but maybe he was not as careful when buying the groceries.

  The office phone went off. Tucker and Edge searched around to find the location of the ring. Reid then went right to a box and moved it out of the way to reveal the hidden phone. He turned to Tucker and Edge with a smile. “See. Organized Chaos.”

  While he spoke on the phone, Edge leaned over to Tucker. “What do you think is the ratio of the organization to chaos?”

  Tucker simply looked at a box of files that had an opened Chinese food box sitting on it with chopsticks sticking out. “Or sanitation.”

  “Good news. He’s awake.” Reid said as he walked to the door.

  “We’re running out of Intel, and I hope he has something to offer. Let’s talk to him.” Tucker said as he slid his folders into his bag and made for the door before Edge was even out of his seat.

  “Tucker wait.” Edge called out to the analyst. Tucker turned around a tinge of annoyance on his face. “When we get there, how do you plan on talking to this kid?”

  Tucker looked at the Delta operative like he had a few screws loose. “I was told he could speak English, so I’m going to ask him a series of questions in that language. See how far I get.” Edge looked backed with a blank stare. “Why?” Tucker asked.

  “It’s just that you seem a bit uptight...”

  “Well, we’re wasting time…”

  “…and impatient…”

  “What is the point of this?” Tucker asked throwing his hands in the air.

  “This kid is fragile right now. You can’t come at him like you're interrogating a prisoner.” Edge pointed out.

  Tucker sighed for a second. “I’m not going to do that.”

  “Well, how much experience do you have working with kids, let alone ones who have been through that?” Tucker’s face told him everything. “Look at the way you’re dressed, your size, and the aforementioned list of your current state of mind.”

  “What’s wrong with my attire?” Tucker asked adjusting his tie.

  “You look intimidating. Even if you ask him nicely, your imposing figure is going to cause him to clam up. You can’t be direct.”

  Tucker could
not argue with Edge’s point. He knew someone else had to handle it. “So are we going to send in Dana again?”

  Dana jumped in. “Not if you want some answers. At this point he sees me as safe, when I start asking the questions that you need he is going to feel betrayed, for a lack of better words. We need to send in someone else.”

  “I’ll do it,” Edge offered. “I’ve got experience working with kids from these types of situations.”

  “You sure Edge? Don’t mind me asking, but…you said it yourself, this kid is in a bad place mentally,” Tucker pointed out.

  “Tucker, you’ve read my profile cover to cover. What did my father do?”

  Tucker shook his head and laughed when his mind jumped to Edge’s file. “Your dad was a county school psychologist.”

  “That’s right, and I would go in and help him run some sports sessions for those kids when I was growing up and on leave. I learned a lot about approaching kids,” Edge said with a confident smile.

  Reid got a pessimistic look on his face. “I think this kid’s issues are a little bit deeper than what you dealt with when you were younger.”

  “True, but those experiences played a key role when I was stationed in the Middle East. Sometimes the best sources of information are kids. Over there, you interact with a ton of them, and you’ve gotta learn how to read them, because you never know their agenda. There’ve been a few occasions where that understanding has saved me from being sent into a trap.”

  Reid looked to Tucker, who in turn looked at Dana. Edge just stood there with his eyebrows raised waiting. “All right. Let’s give it a whirl,” Tucker agreed.

  "First," said Edge, "let's talk about where we are. Arslan has grown up in wealth and privilege. Tucker, you even said Gamze amounted to royalty. So Gamze is a man who has moved in some of the most elite circles, making sure that Arslan has a correspondingly broad world view. Dana you said Arslan seemed educated and "cosmopolitan" was the word you used, I think. He is probably a lot more mature and worldly-wise than the average pre-teen from the burbs. Gamze was not afraid to be ruthless but he preferred the soft approach. He was smart and crafty but always showed impeccable manners. He no doubt was guiding Arslan along the same path. Now all of these manners and learned behaviors are layered on top of a flesh-and-blood 12-year old who's just been through a horrifying experience. Arslan is totally out of his element right now, and I think he'll try to behave the way he thinks his father would have behaved. However, all he has to go on is what he's seen Gamze do; he may not have a lot of insight into why. Put that stress on top of the emotional wreckage and you have a very unstable situation. When I go in there, I expect he will be polite but reserved, putting up the façade of being Gamze junior. I think my best approach is to be OK with that persona if that's what makes him comfortable. As we go on, if he decides to trust me - and he may not - I can try to get him out from behind the mask."