Rigged

by James Rosone

  When the video was over, Riku indignantly asked, “How do we know this guy wasn’t tortured to say all of this? He looks pretty drugged to me.”

  Jill, the NSA rep, shook her head at the comment. “Whose side are you on?” she asked. “We’ve been shown a video interrogation of an admitted Chinese state security spy, an audio recording of him talking with the terrorist leader of the October 24th attack, and a confession of a postal worker involved in this plot to interfere with our election…and you still have the audacity to say this is all somehow being fabricated and made up? Where did you find this grossly incompetent idiot?” She shot Director Hogan a look of contempt.

  Riku sat there silent for a moment. His face turned a darker shade. He was clearly fuming with anger, but he seemed to know enough to hold his tongue.

  Thank God, thought Patty. He’s already said way more than he should have at this point.

  “Joe, what’s the Director doing about this?” Patty asked. “Has he spoken with the AG or the President about it yet?”

  Joe checked his watch, then responded, “He should be meeting with the AG now. When he’s done, I suspect the AG will probably want to talk with you about what to do with the information. I think we need to inform the President, but frankly, I’m not sure what can be done. The damage has already been done. More than 180,000 absentee ballots in five states have already been stolen. There’s no way to know which person’s ballot was stolen and which one was not. Short of voiding all absentee ballots and requiring everyone to cast a ballot in person, I don’t know how you would fix this. And even if you did that, you’d disenfranchise the tens of millions of people who already voted absentee for one reason or another.”

  Patty shook her head in disgust. Something needed to be done, and the President would ultimately have to make that call. Right now, she needed to give him some options to consider, but she didn’t have the foggiest idea of what the best course of action would be.

  *******

  Washington, D.C.

  US Supreme Court

  Anna Cho finished preparing a fresh pot of coffee and a separate kettle of hot water for tea. Then she arranged a couple of tea bags on the pushcart. She made sure to grab the small container of half-and-half and some flavored creamers as well. She looked around cautiously—she was still alone.

  She quickly pulled out the small tube of red L’Oréal lipstick and smiled.

  Such a clever way to disguise its contents, she mused.

  She gently twisted the lower portion of the lipstick tube, which revealed a small compartment filled with a metallic gray powder. She poured half of the powder in the coffee and the other half in the pot of hot water for the tea. In the blink of an eye, the powder dissolved and disappeared. Anna quickly put the container back together and then breathed a sigh of relief.

  God, I hope I didn’t just breathe any of that in, she thought nervously. I guess I’ll know in a week…

  With her primary mission now complete, she finished putting together the pushcart with the few remaining items: a sandwich cut into smaller squares for one justice, some macadamia nuts for another, some fresh fruit for a third. Each justice had their own favorite snack they liked, and people like Anna Cho and others who worked in the dining facility of the Supreme Court made sure the justices were well fed and hydrated throughout the day.

  Her coworker, Maja Stankovic, walked back into the kitchen. “Do you need any help with that?” she asked.

  Smiling, Anna replied, “No, I think I have everything ready. Would you like to bring it up for them?”

  “Really? You’ll let me do that?” asked Maja. “Are you sure?”

  Maja was a relatively new employee. She’d only been working here for about a year, so she typically did the more menial jobs in the kitchen.

  Anna, however, was more than happy to let the junior employee have the glory that day. After all, she needed to make sure she had an alibi for when the justices got sick. After today, Anna would be on a preapproved vacation for five days, so by the time the justices started to show symptoms, she wouldn’t even be at work to be considered a suspect. Especially when she’d be able to point to Maja having brought the justices their afternoon tea and coffee and not her.

  She smiled warmly at her coworker. “Yeah, you can bring the cart to them. Besides, you’ll be doing this job for me while I’m on vacation, so it’ll be good practice. Just remember, Chief Justice Mark Lighthouse is a prolific coffee drinker, and Justice Amy Keaton recently switched over to tea after her doctor recommended she change her diet. I’ve written out a small note on what each of them likes to drink and their favorite afternoon snack to help you out.”

  Maja beamed. “That’s so nice of you, Anna. Thank you for the help. I really appreciate it.” She looked around to make sure no one else heard her. “Some of the other ladies here are really catty, aren’t they?” she asked.

  Anna snickered at the comment. “They sure can be. We immigrants have to stick together,” she said with a wink.

  Anna was a first-generation American from China, and Maja was a Bosnian-Serb refugee. Her family had fled the war-torn nation back in the late 1990s to come to America. In all reality, America was the only home Maja had ever known, though she had visited Bosnia on a number of occasions to see family that still lived there.

  As Maja collected the pushcart and headed off to the justices’ deliberation chambers, Anna smiled a mischievous smile, knowing that she was about to forever change the fabric of America. No other person from the Ministry of State Security would have the level of impact in the world that she would, and that fact alone warmed her deep within.

  *******

  Kosovo

  Camp Bondsteel

  Brigadier General William Lancaster stared at the video screen in frustration. The sixty-inch monitor was split into four separate squares: one showed the Pentagon’s situation room, one had the SOCOM ops center, another had a briefing room at Langley, and the final square was the White House Situation Room. All the groups on the SVTCs were bickering about what to do about the evolving situation in the Balkans.

  General Lancaster rubbed his temples. He needed to get everyone back on track and provide some guidance on what to do next. “Hey! Excuse me, everyone,” he said in a rather loud voice. The talking heads on the other end of the SVTC stopped talking.

  “I understand there are a lot of political decisions that need to be made, but I’ve got some serious problems here in Kosovo that need an immediate decision,” Lancaster insisted. “The Kosovo government says my forces don’t have permission to operate inside their country, and for the time being, they’re trying to keep my guys bottled up here on Bondsteel.

  “In northern Kosovo, where we captured Rexhepi, the Kosovo police have been fighting a near daylong gun battle with remnants of the ISK and desperately need help. At the NATO Kosovo Forces headquarters in Pristina, the German commander won’t release his forces to go help them, and he further tells me that my forces have no authority to operate inside Kosovo. So, on the one hand, I have the police and security service begging me for help. On the other hand, I have the government and the KFOR commander telling me I have no authority or permission to operate in Kosovo. I need someone to make a decision as to what I’m supposed to do,” Lancaster said in a frustrated tone.

  The President’s National Security Advisor, Robert Grey, responded, “We’re working on figuring that out, General. Hypothetically, are there any military or government forces in the nearby area that could prevent you from intervening on behalf of the Kosovo police, should they opt to unilaterally request military help from the President in contradiction of their own government’s guidance?”

  Ugh…talk about putting my guys in a bad position, thought Lancaster, controlling his urge to groan.

  He took a deep breath. “Not really,” he responded. “There’s Multinational Battle Group–West stationed in Camp Villaggio, Italia, near Pec. It consists of a small Italian and Austrian force, but they don�
�t have anything that could really be considered a threat to my force. Likewise, there’s a military police unit in Pristina that’s composed entirely of Italian Carabinieri. None of those two groups really have any sort of combat power that could stop my force, but I’d rather not have our guys square off if I can avoid it.”

  “What about Serbia and Bosnia?” asked another person, who was in the Situation Room with the President. “If you had to take unilateral action in either of those countries and go after the safe houses the CIA’s sources provided, could you?”

  General Lancaster thought about that question a bit more before he responded. “That’s a trickier question, sir. I’ll address Serbia first. The Serbs do have an actual military. I have no idea what kind of military force they have in the area or if they would try to intervene. I’d like to think they’d sit on the sidelines and let us do what we needed to do. They don’t like Albanians any more than we like Al Qaeda.

  “The bigger challenge in Serbia is the Gendarmery, which falls under control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or MUP. This paramilitary force reports directly to the president. If he’s under pressure from the Chinese to protect this Albanian terrorist group, then you can bet he’ll have the Gendarmery do it. I doubt the military would obey such an order, but the MUP certainly would.

  “As to Bosnia, they also have a military, but it’s relatively small. If they opted to protect the ISB, then they could prove to be a problem, but I doubt they’d get involved. Our bigger problem in Bosnia would be an actual fight with the ISB itself. From the most recent CIA report we have on them, their numbers hover around five to eight hundred fighters, largely concentrated in the mountainous area around Tjentiste, near the Montenegro-Serbian border region. It’s a relatively isolated part of the country with no military presence, but you can bet it’s an ISB stronghold.”

  There was silence on the other end as people on that side of the call muted their lines and talked about the options. General Lancaster realized that none of them were good.

  General Royal at SOCOM finally came on. “Mr. President, we have a reasonably good idea of where Sefer Kubura, the leader of the ISB, is held up—it’s his group that’s slated to carry out a terrorist attack against our country in less than forty-eight hours. We also only have five days to find out who the election day attackers are and when and where they’re going to attack. Right now, he’s our best bet. We just don’t have time to deal with the politics of the situation, Mr. President. If you want us to find out who these attackers are and where they’re located, we need to capture the cell leaders and interrogate them as quickly as possible.”

  The President let out a stream of obscenities. “There’s no good answer, is there, gentlemen?” he finally asked. “Well, I’m not about to let another terrorist attack happen on my watch.”

  He leaned in so his face would be visible on the teleconference screen. “General Royal, Lancaster, you guys are cleared hot to take these guys down. Do whatever you have to, but capture these men and find out who these attackers are.”

  The President then addressed the directors of the FBI and Homeland Security. “As the military and the CIA uncover names, I want your agents to be carrying out raids and apprehending the suspects. Work your sources here in the states and leave no rock unturned. We have to find these terrorists before they can carry out their next attack. I also want those postal workers charged with interfering with an election, bribery, and any other charges you guys can come up with. We need to build a solid case of how a foreign actor has actively interfered in our election so we can bring it to the American people once we have all the details. In the meantime, this needs to stay airtight until we have everything ready to go public.”

  The President then shifted in his chair to face his Secretary of State. “I want you to confront the Chinese with the information we have from Wen Zhenyu. Tell them we know about the election fraud they’re attempting and their scheme with the postal workers. You tell them we have proof they’re behind the terrorist attacks and that if any further attacks happen against our country, we are going to consider it an act of war.”

  “Yes, Mr. President,” Secretary Kagel replied. “I’ll relay the information and the threat. What do you want me to say should they disregard it?”

  Leaning forward, the President exclaimed, “You tell that conniving SOB Chen I still command the most powerful military in the world. If he wants to escalate our trade war to a full-blown military conflict, then let one more terrorist attack happen in our country. They had better call them off or I’ll destroy their economy!” Sachs slammed his fist on the table to emphasize his point.

  Chapter 13

  Raider-One, Raider-Two

  Kosovo

  Camp Bondsteel

  As he placed the last thirty-round magazine in his front pouch, Seth made sure he had everything arranged just the way he wanted it before he put on his individual body armor and began to tighten all the straps in place to fit snugly against his body. He looked around at the other men in the hangar near the helipad. They all had looks of determination written on their faces as they too got their individual equipment ready.

  “I can’t thank you guys enough for helping my men out,” a colonel in the Kosovo police said. He had come to Camp Bondsteel to personally request their help up in Srbica. His police officers were battling an all-out insurrection in the city following the capture of Rexhepi.

  Turning to look at the police colonel who was coming with them, Seth replied, “I’m glad we’re able to help, Colonel. Just make sure your officers know when we’re coming and tell them to stay clear until we call them for their help. We’re going to move quickly through the village, and we don’t want to accidentally end up shooting at each other, OK?”

  The colonel nodded and held up his cell phone. “I’m in constant contact with the police commander up there. His officers are hunkered down in the police station, waiting for us. They’ve locked themselves in the building for the time being.”

  Placing a hand on the man’s shoulder, Seth added, “We’ll sort this out and rescue your men, Colonel. These terrorists aren’t going to win.”

  Captain Justin Nicholson walked up and pulled Seth to the side. “You sure you want to come with us?” he asked. “This is going to be a fast, hot and heavy hit. We have to get ready to make a quick turn for the next mission.”

  Seth smiled at Nicholson. “I know, Captain. But you guys are going to need the added help. Besides, I’ll help coordinate things with the colonel here and his men, so your team can focus on rooting out these insurgents. If we can take some prisoners, all the better. The DEVGRU guys are arriving shortly, and they’ve got another interrogation team coming along with them.”

  Nicholson nodded. “Do you know who’s doing the hit in Bosnia and Serbia?”

  “From my understanding, it’ll be the JSOC boys doing both hits,” Seth explained. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a Ranger company here yet, so your ODA team will be acting as the QRF should either group get into trouble.”

  General Lancaster joined them. “OK, you all, enough chitchat. Get in the choppers and go clean up our mess,” he ordered.

  “Ha ha. You just wish you were coming along,” Seth replied good-naturedly.

  “Hell no. I’m too old for this crap anymore,” Lancaster said with a laugh. “But I sure do like watching you guys on my Reaper drones.”

  After a few minutes of final instruction, the twelve-man ODA team, along with Seth and the Kosovo police colonel, boarded the two Blackhawk helicopters that would fly them twenty minutes away to Srbica, the small city where they had captured Rexhepi. His supporters there had surrounded the local police station and killed five officers so far.

  As their helicopters lifted off, so did two Apache gunships. They only had a total of four of them on Bondsteel, specially flown in from Romania using drop tanks on their wing pylons to get them the extra range needed to fly to Kosovo.

  *******

  The two Blac
khawks made a quick pass over the city and the Bajram Aliu stadium, which was two blocks away from the beleaguered police station. As they flew over the area, Seth spotted dozens of individuals surrounding the police station, shooting into it.

  Captain Nicholson told the pilots, “Set my team down in the stadium. We’ll move in on foot from there.”

  The Blackhawks circled back around and landed quickly in the center of the field. In seconds, both groups dismounted the helicopters quickly and began to move forward to advance on the insurgents.

  Seth tapped the police colonel on the shoulder. “Call ahead to your guys now and let them know we’re on the ground and moving to relieve them,” he ordered.

  While they advanced, the colonel made the call.

  When the group rounded one of the corners onto the main street, they came face-to-face with a group of five insurgents who were standing near a pickup truck, reloading magazines. Without hesitating, the Special Forces soldiers gunned the five hostiles down before they even knew what had happened.

  “Bravo team, take the far side of the street and advance. Alpha team, on me!” shouted Captain Nicholson as he moved forward, his rifle at the ready.

  Turning to the police colonel, Nicholson said, “Stay low and follow me.”

  Seth raised his own M4 to his shoulder and advanced quickly behind Alpha team. They moved maybe halfway down the block before the attackers realized they were under attack.

  Zip, zip, crack.

  Bullets slammed into the cars and nearby walls of the buildings as Alpha team advanced. Seth spotted an insurgent manning one of the heavy machine guns and drew a bead on him, pulling the trigger before the man had a chance to get the heavy weapon turned around to shoot at them. Seth’s bullet hit the man in the head, dropping him right where he stood.

  “Cover to the right!” shouted one of the soldiers as they shifted fire to a building on the far side of the street. Several soldiers shot at a figure that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.