'I don't think that we're going to get anything useful from here,' Jackson pondered as they skirted a mobile scaffolding tower used to gain access to the ceiling high above them in one of the large rooms on the second floor, the area littered with building debris and the dormant tools of the workmen. 'I just hope that it wasn't too traumatic for the Verker girl.'
Jolene had a stern expression and appeared preoccupied.
'I'm sure she was safe enough,' she replied curtly, 'although I'd like to hear you opinions on why she was taken in the first place.'
Jackson's face screwed up quizzically and he shook his head.
'I have no idea Jolene, I guess we'll have to speak with Miss Verker to find that out.'
A sudden rasp of exasperation sighed from Dale.
'So what do we do now? There is nothing for us to do here!'
'We wait!' Jolene barked as she jerked her head around to look at him, pausing slightly as she realised how harsh her tone had been. 'We wait to hear from our operations team in London and how the raid on the farmhouse in Scotland has gone. We have some other business to take care of anyway.'
'Oh?' queried Jackson. 'Do you know something we don't?'
'You might say that,' nodded Jolene slowly.
Apart from a single officer posted at the foot of the entry ramp providing access to the castle across the moat, the German police had vacated the premises. The crime scene investigation units had been and gone, performing their collection of forensic material and the capture of evidence from primary locations about the castle; Gertrude's bedroom suite, the security station where the terrorists had sat outside of her room and the kitchens where meals and drinks had obviously been prepared. The areas had been left cordoned off and it was fully expected that all of the physical evidence would be checked against Gertrude's statement, the key objective being to identify the people that had held her there.
Jolene had directed Stanley and Oliver to keep watch over the inner courtyard and the main entrance doors to the castle buildings, advising them that she fully expected some visitors to arrive within the hour but without explaining their identity or purpose. Along with Jackson and Dale, she had decamped to a small anteroom on the first floor that was normally used as a rest room for museum staff, a large oak table and a set of old dining chairs complemented by a comfortable sofa where guides and other castle workers could take a break, employing the facilities of a small kitchenette to make hot drinks and prepare microwave meals.
'So what exactly are we waiting for?' asked Dale, his previous conversation with Jolene concerning the incriminating text messages recurring in his thoughts.
'News,' was all she offered in reply, 'and the arrival of some US personnel.'
'Personnel?' asked Jackson. 'Who have you called in?'
Before she could answer, her phone began to trill and she quickly reached into her jacket to retrieve it, moving off out of earshot even as she answered it.
'Looks like we're in the exclusion zone again!' grumbled Dale.
Jackson chuckled and smiled widely.
'I shouldn't worry about it, what say we get ourselves some coffee and relax a little until we know what is happening?'
It was a full ten minutes before Jolene wandered back into the room, pocketing her cellular phone and looking slightly flushed.
'That was our operations liaison in London, they've just completed the raid on the farmhouse in Oban.'
Ambling back into the staff room from the kitchenette, Jackson clunked three coffee mugs onto the table, sliding them apart to offer drinks to Dale and Jolene.
'Well, what happened?'
Dale stood up from the sofa he had relaxed into and also stood by the table, resting his knuckles against the polished oak surface.
'Did it all work out?'
Jolene took a moment to think about what she would say and then snorted shortly through her nose.
'The British Special Forces team destroyed what appears to have been a large weapon, although it was so completely devastated we'll probably never be able to fully identify what it was.'
'The vortex cannon?' asked Jackson, earnestly searching Jolene's face for a clue.
'Yes, most probably,' she shrugged. 'Four terrorists were killed during the attack but nine of them apparently managed to escape, although they think that one of them was probably fatally wounded. They are hunting for them now.'
'Escaped?' queried Dale. 'How did they get away?'
'Well,' Jolene snorted again, 'it appears that they managed to get away through a cave system that lead from an inland entrance to the shore, from there they probably linked up with a boat that was able to dock further down the coast before a full scale search could be organised.'
'So the Sun of the Sleepless disappeared into the night, even if they did manage to destroy their weaponry before they went?'
'It is funny,' Jolene mused, raising one eyebrow in an accusatory arc, 'I had a suspicion that you already knew that. I mean, the fact that the terrorists destroyed the cannon before Special Forces had a chance to seize it.'
Jackson grunted humorously but a frown had appeared to crease his brow.
'It was just an assumption, a figure of speech. What do you mean by that though?'
'The raid, you knew it was happening but I guess that it didn't bother you because you knew what the deal with the cannon was. You knew it would never fall into our hands didn't you? The Sun of the Sleepless must have let you know what the plan was.'
She crossed her arms defensively and stared at him.
'Jolene,' Jackson said unsurely, 'I'm not sure what you're driving at. What do you mean by 'letting me know what the plan was'? Am I missing something here?'
He gave an easy but deprecating laugh.
'A pre-paid cellular phone in the US sent a message to a phone registered to Rey Faber on Friday. That initial message didn't get through to him because as we know, Faber was in The Hague at the time and he was in fact using a different phone, but, the mistake was immediately corrected and the same message was sent through to another number, presumably the one that Faber did have access to. The text said 'DL Collection @ GV' which I am pretty sure referred to Dale's visit to purchase Dirigo Lux from Gertrude Verker.'
Jackson exhaled heavily through his nose and looked at Dale quizzically.
'Early on Saturday morning,' Jolene continued, 'a pre-paid phone was purchased in Amsterdam from a retailer at the airport and it was operational by 03:34 in the morning. Later the same day, a message was sent from it to Faber's number saying 'GV Visitors'. The timing coincides with our visit to question Gertrude Verker about the book, the visit where Dale was attacked when Stanley and I went to follow up on her supplier if you remember?'
'Yes, of course I remember!' Jackson rasped with a rising hint of irritation in his voice.
'Another message was sent on Saturday evening stating 'Now Leaving', the timing coinciding exactly with the moment you left the embassy to drive to the airport. The journey you couldn't complete because your car was rammed, if you recall?'
Jackson started to shake his head.
'Jolene, I'm not sure where this is -'
'Stop!' Jolene shouted, cutting him off. 'Only a few people knew that Dale had been seconded to collect the book from Gertrude. Only the five of us knew exactly when we went to interview her. Only you and Oliver knew exactly when you were leaving the embassy.'
'Jolene?' Jackson implored questioningly, shaking his head.
'You are the only person who had the relevant information on all three occasions, not forgetting that the first message was sent from the US when the rest of us were already in The Netherlands.'
Jackson paused as he took in the full ramifications of the evidence, he looked at Jolene but could see that her conviction was absolute and so turned to Dale instead.
'You don't believe this do you? There must be a mistake. Alright, I may have been in the US when the first message was sent and of course I was here in The Netherlands when the o
ther messages were sent, but I didn't send them. I know nothing about this. Come on, it's me you're accusing. Think about it for a moment.'
Dale's forehead creased as he considered what was being said.
'You could be wrong Jolene, I admit, the timing fits but it is circumstantial, somebody could have been tailing Jackson from the start.'
'Are you kidding?' Jolene gasped loudly. 'Only Jackson, his department head Dean Manson and Richard Clayton of the OSC were aware of his trip.'
Her gaze bore into Jackson.
'I checked!' she spat out.
She looked at Dale menacingly.
'Only Jackson and Manson knew the full details of your secondment, so it has to be one of those two. That first message was sent before Jackson even left Langley!'
Jackson looked bewildered.
'This can't be right; there is a mistake I am telling you.'
'Yes,' nodded Jolene, 'and you made it when you dialled the wrong number to contact Faber.'
Dale raised his hands and waved his palms to try to halt the accusations.
'Hang on, hang on, Jackson's movements could have been tracked by somebody within the Agency.'
'Damn right!' exclaimed Jackson to Jolene. 'You remember what Kappel said about forces within the military? They could have been tracking me all along. They would have known that I would be alerted if anything came up on Dirigo Lux, it was my department after all. Who else would the trawl vector alerts go to?'
A flash of indecision crossed Jolene's face, but she quickly recovered her composure.
'No, everything is wrong, think about why an academic like Jackson would cut up a three hundred year old book? You saw how reverently he was handling it when he first saw it. Maybe he didn't mind cutting it up because he had to get to the RFID inside it before we found it!'
Jackson's reaction seemed slightly triumphant.
'I may have found the RFID, but I gave it to you. Remember? Besides, I did what was necessary to get to the chip, a chip that implicated Open-EZ and confirmed the involvement of Faber and Akosua. Why would I do that if I was working for them?'
'Because you wanted us to waste our time looking for them,' Jolene scowled, 'you assumed that they would never be found. They were ideal targets, they were exactly who we would be interested in. We were baited with ideal suspects, knowing that it wouldn't do us any good. We were wasting our time looking for them!'
'What do you mean?' Dale suddenly questioned. 'We did find them and it eventually led us to the farm in Oban, the cannon was destroyed wasn't it? That seems like a good result to me.'
'No!' Jolene shouted, suddenly aware that she was fumbling her words. 'If Jackson's plan had of worked out, we'd never have found them. I took the RFID before he had a chance to destroy it. He couldn't exactly lie about using the X-Ray machine in the embassy could he? After that he couldn't do much else, he must have known that the book somehow led us directly to the Sun of the Sleepless and so needed to destroy it without implicating himself, so he organised the theft for when he was leaving for the airport.'
'Awww, come on!' Jackson chortled with an incredulous tone. 'Really? You believe that? The book told us nothing of importance, it just corroborated the historical evidence. Also, don't forget that I took a punch to my head after we were rammed.'
'Yes!' Jolene blazed. 'A punch rather than the same knuckle duster that put Oliver in hospital for the night. Rather strange don't you think? It is also a bit of a coincidence that the message saying that you were leaving was sent at exactly the same time that you left the embassy.'
Dale started to look a little perplexed as he tried to comprehend the chain of evidence and suggestion.
'If we're talking about coincidences,' Jackson started to say to Dale, 'how about the fact that it was also a coincidence that as soon as Jolene left you at Gertrude's apartment, you were attacked? I couldn't have known that she had gone with Stanley and Oliver to the bookshop. Perhaps we should consider that she may have tipped-off Faber that you were alone with Gertrude? She would hardly like to explain why she couldn't fend off two attackers even though she had backup from two embassy guards. Besides, we only have her word for when she arrived on Saturday morning.'
'Don't be ridiculous!' Jolene retorted.
'No more ridiculous than accusing me based on the circumstantial evidence of a couple of text messages!' barked Jackson.
'You were also in The Netherlands early on Saturday morning and the first time we saw you was at the embassy. Your timings are just as coincidental and it seems to me that this could be about deflecting suspicion from yourself.'
Jolene realised that she had to get hold of the surreal debate that was developing, she was expressing suspicions in a disjointed way and she had to admit that it did not make sense without the gut feeling to back it up and join the dots.
'Dale, listen to me, think about this right from the start, before you even became involved. We have a terrorist organisation threatening the US - the Sun of the Sleepless - Kappel inferred that the book was a kind of signal, maybe from a faction within the Order that didn't want to take action against us, I don't know, but he indicated that the book was released deliberately to grab our attention.'
Dale shook his head.
'So what does that mean?'
'A signal,' she emphasised, 'a signal that needed to be quashed before it could be used against them. Jackson was in the perfect position to intercept the book, to get to it before it came out into the open. He couldn't get hold of Faber immediately and so had you seconded to pick it up and flew over as quickly as he could to retrieve it and destroy it. He didn't know that I was already here, brought in independently by Kappel to follow up on it. He had to improvise, he couldn't just lose the book as soon as he laid his hands on it but he needed to destroy any evidence that could have led us to the Sun of the Sleepless directly, such as the RFID.'
'I gave that to you.' Jackson intoned with a surly air.
'Yes, because I walked in when you were cutting up the damn book. I checked with the embassy, the X-Ray images you took were not stored on the system, we have no documentary evidence and even if we did, it went missing with the book itself. If I hadn't have walked in when I did, you could have destroyed the RFID and we'd be none the wiser.'
The room was silent for a moment before Dale spoke somewhat unsurely.
'So if he couldn't destroy the evidence, what then?'
'He had to clean up as best he could,' Jolene growled, 'there was something about the book that he didn't want us to know and he believed that Gertrude may have found out the truth, which is why she was abducted, the same as the bookshop owner Janssens. He always planned to lose the book and the journey to the airport provided the best opportunity. In the mean time, he makes up some fantastical but plausible story about the origins of the Sun of the Sleepless to put us off.'
Dale glanced to Jackson and shook his head with confusion.
'What didn't he want us to know?'
'It was a fake!'
Jackson responded with a vehemently malicious look.
'Now this is just crazy. It is nonsense. My area of expertise is primarily concerned with the history of fraternal societies and I'll be the first to admit that I'm not an antiquarian document expert, but it looked right enough to me. Why would the book be fake?'
'A signal, remember?' smirked Jolene. 'I believe that as well as the RFID, it contained a coded message that we would have soon deciphered if we'd put the NSA onto it. They may have been trying to tell us where the weapon was located. Jackson was working with the Sun of the Sleepless to prevent a faction within their own Order from ruining their plans.'
Jackson was shaking his head again and appeared exasperated.
'This is nonsense, I've given over thirty years to the Agency, I'm retiring in a few months. This is just crazy.'
He thought for a moment and turned to Dale.
'I will just point out that Jolene has been controlling this investigation the whole time. She deci
ded where we would look, not me. I only came into this because of the book. I should be back home having lunch in the Langley canteen not being accused as a traitor by a Machiavellian CIA operative who specialises in black ops. Come on Dale, think about it!'
'Dale!' Jolene exclaimed plaintively. 'This is a set-up! Jackson is one of them; he's working for the Sun of the Sleepless! I may have been in charge of our investigation but Jackson was the one guiding us through all the detail. This whole thing has been an illusion right from the very start. It was all misdirection. The book was released deliberately by a renegade faction to trigger our investigation; to help us track them down. Jackson has been doing everything he could to guide us into looking one way while he helped the Sun of the Sleepless cover their tracks and stamp on this. Thankfully, he has failed. You must believe me?'
'Have you lost the plot entirely?' Jackson exhaled. 'What kind of a nut job comes up with a plan like that? It wouldn't work, it would never work!'
He turned to Dale.
'She's bluffing you, trying to make you think one thing while doing another. It is more likely that she has been working for the terrorists all along. She will probably shoot me and then shoot you, blaming it on the cross fire.'
Dale jerked his head back at the accusation and the suggestion created a doubt in his mind that was not easy to reconcile. He was faced with the prospect that either of Jolene or Jackson could be a traitor and he had no way of knowing who he could trust.
Jackson saw the disconcerted look of anxiety on Dale's face and sighed heavily. He turned to Jolene and placed his palms flat on the oak table separating the trio, leaning heavily onto it and wearily shaking his head.
Glancing back over his shoulder at Dale before looking imploringly across the polished wooden surface to Jolene, his expression became earnest and he almost started to plead.
'Look, Jolene - Dale - I uncovered a link to the Sun of the Sleepless. I provided an historical outline of the development of their WMD during the Second World War, an outline that both Kappel and Igor Farley fleshed out without ever contradicting my assumptions. I've told the truth all along. Now, I'm not saying that we don't have a double-agent at work here, but it could just as easily be you, Jolene, or even Stanley or Oliver for that matter, but more likely somebody we don't know about working for the agency just like Kappel indicated. We cannot start to take out our paranoia on each other.'
Sun of the Sleepless Page 52
