The Nabatean Secret
Page 13
“Yes, sir. You’ll fill me in when I get back?”
“It’s need-to-know. If I can, I will.”
Chapter 28 - A standup argument
By nine a.m., Sean had taken Dylan back to the airport and dropped him off already when he received a call from Bill Griffin’s office. He was to report immediately to Bill.
Uh oh. This could get dicey. Sean confirmed and said he’d be there as soon as possible.
Twenty minutes later, he arrived and found Bill in a foul mood.
“Sit down.” Bill’s order echoed the President’s to James and Irene an hour and a half before. Since then, he’d been working at top speed to contain the disaster he could see overtaking the country in the wake of the Devereuxs’ presumed leak, and his demeanor as well as his desk showed it.
Sean took in the disarray in the office and Bill’s obvious distress. This wouldn’t be a good time to give the man any flak. He sat down, wary.
“I assume you’ve seen the headlines yesterday and this morning. You need to know it’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s no way to soften this, Sean. Carter and Mackenzie have betrayed us.” Seeing Sean was about to respond, he held up his hand.
“Wait. I’m not finished. There’s more trouble brewing, I’m afraid. So far, Executive Advantage hasn’t been mentioned, but we can’t assume anything from that. Maybe they don’t know yet, and maybe they’re just holding back to feed the story out over time, to keep it in the public eye. You know these media types—they’re like sharks drawn to blood.
“Anyway, it’s just a matter of time before you and EA get drawn into this whole mess. I don’t need to tell you what would happen to the part of your funding and resources that come from foreign countries if they lose confidence in the US government.”
Once again, Sean tried to respond, but Bill overrode him.
“What we’re going to do is get Executive Advantage just as far removed from A-Echelon as possible. You’ve got three days to get your people off Devereux’s property and back home. You need to call them immediately, because I’m sending a mop-up team to retrieve the Codices. Your people are not to interfere with them in any way. Got it?”
Sean waited a beat, first to be sure Bill was done, and second to control his own temper. He hesitated until he saw Bill visibly calm down. Maybe Bill had expected an argument from him. Well, he wasn’t going to disappoint.
In a conversational tone, Sean started slowly. “You know, Bill, I’m surprised at how little it took for you and the President to turn against two of the most patriotic people I’ve ever had the privilege to know.” Seeing Bill’s temper rise again, Sean held his hand up.
“No. You’ve had your say. Now you’re going to listen to me. There is no way on God’s green earth that Carter and Mackenzie would or could ever turn against this country. I’m prepared to stake my life on that. I’ve worked closely with them, closer than any of the rest of you, for the past several years now. I know them. They wouldn’t do it. End of story.”
Bill had risen to his feet when Sean challenged him, and by the time Sean paused, both were standing, nose to nose like fighters trying to intimidate their opponent.
If it became physical, Bill wouldn’t last more than ten seconds. He knew it but stood his ground; he had a point to make—he was not going to allow Sean to intimidate him into sitting down again.
Sean saw the realization in Bill’s eyes and seized the advantage.
“I know what’s going on, despite your elaborate effort to withhold the details. I’ve seen the information Kelly White has probably used to poison your mind and probably the President’s. Did she rub your noses in it? What’s more, are you sure she told you everything?
“I know everything about the allegations against Carter and Mackenzie, and everything about the allegations against A-Echelon. I’ve seen the evidence, and let me tell you, it’s the biggest pile of hogwash I’ve seen in my life.”
Sean’s fists were clenched, his face red, and the tendons in his neck stood out.
Equally furious, Bill shouted, “How the hell? Have you been in contact with them? When? Where are they? I want them in custody immediately! You’d better not be harboring fugitives, Walker.”
Sean ignored his questions and the implied threat.
“Bill,” Sean’s voice turned soft and measured, “please sit down in your chair, before I knock you into it. And then shut your yap and listen to me.”
Bill’s eyes shot wide. He had never seen Sean like that—but he had heard about it. Slowly he took a step back and sank into his chair. This was not the time to try and pull rank.
Sean continued in the same tone, “I know you’re all under a lot of pressure from this media leak, and I guess your heads are on the chopping block. But you’re acting as if you’ve already lost your head and your brain with it. I don’t believe you’d throw two innocent people to the dogs if you didn’t believe the evidence, so I’m not going to insult you by accusing you of pointing the finger at Carter and Mackenzie to save yourself.
“But haven’t you considered this could all be a fabrication? It’s a frame-up by the Nabateans, or someone like them. Have you given that any thought at all?”
Bill deflated a bit but was still angry. “I don’t want to believe it of them. But how can there be any doubt? You’ve seen the video, you said. Have you heard the audio files?”
“Have you had them forensically analyzed?” Sean shot back. “Good Lord, Bill, you of all people should know not to believe everything you see and hear. And where did Kelly White get the information? Did you verify with the Swiss bank that they gave it to her? How’d she get the NSA sound files? Did you even stop to ask her those questions, or is your head so far up your ass your brain is numb?”
Sean was too worked up to think about protocol. When he’d think about it later, he’d reflect that probably no one had talked to Bill like that since his first teenage indiscretion. Maybe his dad had.
Bill had no trouble remembering protocol. He turned red in the face, ready to go ballistic, but he was man enough to admit they were valid questions. And he didn’t have good answers. In the heat of the moment, and with the President as angry as he’d been, Bill just hadn’t been thinking straight. He hadn’t asked those questions—just blindly trusted that INSCOM and the FBI would have done their jobs properly. Why he’d think that, when the age-old rivalry between his department and the Feebs meant that each assumed the other were idiots, he couldn’t say.
“Let’s assume for a moment that you’re right. That Kelly and the FBI bought a bunch of bull crap they can’t verify. If that were the case, why would Carter and Mackenzie have assaulted and tied up Kelly and her team? Why run if they were innocent? They had to have known that would make them look guilty. Why didn’t they call in James and Irene? Shit, why didn’t they call me? Or ask Kelly to call the President?”
Sean smiled. He’d been through this before, with James and Irene. “Bill, do me a favor. Tell me exactly what Kelly told you and the President. Don’t leave anything out, because I suspect she left out a few vital pieces of information.”
For the next half-hour, Bill went through Kelly’s presentation. He started by telling Sean the Director of the FBI and Russell McCormick, Assistant Director Counterintelligence Division FBI, and the head of INSCOM were at the meeting the night before at the White House. He then went through the allegations one by one in the order Kelly had presented them and the supporting evidence she had.
When Bill got to the end, Sean asked, “Did Kelly ever mention that Carter and Mackenzie repeatedly asked for James and Irene to be brought in? Did she say at some stage they even mentioned you and the President?”
Bill dropped his jaw a fraction of an inch and then tightened his features. “No, she did not.”
Sean pulled out the pen recorder and held it up for Bill to see. At Bill’s nod of agreement, he turned on the recorder and fast-forwarded it a bit at a time until he came to the first of the places where Carter ref
used to answer Kelly without James and Irene present. Then he let it run. As Bill heard the Devereuxs repeatedly ask for their directors, he slumped further into his chair.
When Sean turned off the recording, Bill said, “Oh, my God. We played right into their hands! This Kelly White has misled us. Why? Who did this, and how?”
“That’s not important right now. First, let’s mitigate any damage already caused and prevent any more.”
After some discussion, Bill agreed to change the orders of the mop-up team he was sending to Freydís. He would give the team leader amended instructions to leave the E-Codex there and allow the translation to continue normally. For now, he and Sean agreed, it was best to remove and secure the A-Codex along with any related information, at least until Carter and Mackenzie were proved innocent.
Next, Bill would send a couple of computer forensic experts to Freydís with the mop-up team. They’d be tasked with doing a complete audit on the servers and any networked devices to determine if someone could have been copying information.
Because Sean had already given Dylan instructions to prevent any interference from outsiders, he would send one of his own men, David Longley, with the mop-up team. He’d take Dylan a written message updating him on the new orders. Those would include David taking over command of Camp Tala, which they obviously wouldn’t shut down now. EA would remain on Freydís for protection and to continue their training missions.
Dylan, in turn, would return to DC to help Sean sort out the mess.
The most important, and most challenging, thing would be to keep everyone, including Kelly White, Russell McCormick, and their agencies, in the dark about what was going on.
Even the President couldn’t know.
Bill was sticking his neck out a mile by keeping it from the Commander in Chief, but they needed to play the game now. The culprits could very well be among them, and it could expose the President to danger if he let on.
It couldn’t be hidden for long. Bill could hold off for no more than seventy-two hours, and that’s how long Sean had to get a forensic analysis of the videos, sound files, and everything else Carter and Mackenzie had snatched from Kelly and company when they escaped.
It was a monumental task for such a short time. Bill agreed to make CIA forensic experts available to Sean, but even with their talent, it would be uncertain they could complete it before the deadline.
It went without saying that Sean wouldn’t give Bill any information about the whereabouts of the Devereuxs or their plans while they worked to clear themselves from suspicion. In fact, they tacitly avoided the subject so Bill wouldn’t have to arrest Sean for obstruction of justice. He only hoped he wouldn’t be the one under arrest when the seventy-two hours were up.
Chapter 29 - We’ve got him this time
March 16
As the media storm intensified throughout the day, with political commentators now joining to report on the melee in both houses of Congress, the Council of the Covenant of Nabatea held their own virtual meeting to celebrate. Each in their separate eyrie, they toasted their impending victory with the finest champagne. Everyone except Graziella.
They all believed it was only a matter of days before they’d see arch-enemy Carter Devereux arrested, the President overwhelmed by scandal, rendered powerless or impeached, and the hated CIA devoid of power, under threat of elimination.
Congress was already in utter chaos as well, which left a void. As the old saying went, while the cat’s away, the mice will play. The Nabateans could now rapidly advance their agenda without fear of interference.
Graziella, however, was more temperate than the rest of them. She cautioned, “It is true our enemies are under fire, and even better, they are shooting at each other. However, I needn’t remind you they have slipped through our traps before. We haven’t won until Carter Devereux and his wife are in jail, President Grant and his administration ousted, and the heads of the CIA and especially A-Echelon dismissed and charged with crimes.”
“But what could go wrong, Graziella?” one of them asked as he lowered his champagne glass.
“That is what we are here to discuss,” she answered in her cool, measured way. “To identify and analyze the risks. What can go wrong, and what can we do to mitigate or avoid it?”
Mathieu, remembering—with apprehension—previous failures, spoke first. “One or more of our agents could be caught and made to talk. I’m speaking of our plants within the US government and elsewhere, as well as operatives charged with retrieving the Codices and other projects. I believe this is a low risk in most cases, because we’ve structured our dealings with them in such a way they don’t know who we are, or that we are behind them.”
Graziella responded, “Yes, that’s a risk. Depending on who gets caught, it is as you say, probably with little to no chance of exposing the Council but with high chances of derailing our plans to destroy our enemies.”
“Who are the most vulnerable of our operatives?”
“Right now, it’s Russell McCormick, Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI,” Mathieu responded.
He smiled smugly as several of the councilors gasped. “Yes, my friends. It is a coup, no? I have put one of their watchdogs to work for us. And he has done an impressive job—almost singlehandedly causing the current pandemonium in the media and political arenas.
“He has also managed to become the lover of the chief investigator of the Patch Barracks explosion, Kelly White. With his romantic influence over her and the information we have carefully fed him, he was able to subtly influence her to go after Carter Devereux and his wife as the main suspects of her investigation.”
The Councilors applauded Mathieu’s canniness.
“That’s all well and good,” said the new councilor who had replaced Peter Nikolaev, the Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia after his fatal accident eighteen months ago. “But it sounds like McCormick knows a lot. Maybe too much for our good, no?”
The new councilor, Igor Ustinov, was a publicity-shy former security agent, held no political office, yet he was the Russian President’s closest lieutenant, secretly known as the “de facto deputy”, more influential than the Prime Minister. Western media often speculated that he was Russia's second-most powerful person. Forbes magazine regularly had him on their list of the top 100 richest people in the world, but no one knew the extent of this oil tycoon’s real wealth and influence.
Mathieu responded, “McCormick has a lot of information, but we gave it to him through many go-betweens, so he does not know the source. He knows he is of Nabatean origin, and supposedly he doesn’t know of the existence of this Council. But make no mistake, McCormick is not stupid. He must know by now that he was serving some powerful secret organization or other—”
“How did you persuade him to work for us?” the member from China asked.
“Well, as you know, we keep track of the members of the bloodline, and when we see someone with potential, we promote them and help them reach their full potential.
“McCormick came to our attention soon after he was recruited by the FBI. Since then, we have been instrumental in his rise to the top—opening doors at the right time, whispering in the right ears at the right time…
“As we do with everyone in whom we are interested, we also kept a very thorough record on him—his private life included.
“So, to secure his cooperation, we used a combination of tactics, admittedly some of them were to remind him of a few detrimental indiscretions in his past.”
Ustinov spoke again. “If his cover is blown and it’s discovered that he is Shadow, he will lose his job and, in all likelihood, be arrested. No doubt he’ll then become useless to us. I suggest we keep a vigilant watch on him and prevent his arrest.”
He didn’t have to explain what that meant. Every councilor knew all too well that the Council’s secrecy ranked higher than the life of anyone.
The Councilors all nodded in silence.
“However, although I have to concede that I judge the risk of his discovery to be somewhat higher than I’d like, he doesn’t know enough about us to jeopardize this council. Also, his mission has already been carried out. The damage to our enemies cannot be undone now, even if he is discovered as the source of the information.”
“Are there any other operatives posing risk to us?” the member from London asked, knowing full well there was a compelling reason why Jason Sullivan was not invited to the meeting.
“I’m surprised you don’t remember, especially since he is not present for this meeting. I’m referring, of course, to Jason Sullivan,” Mathieu replied.
“But… He is one of us!” Several members of the council blurted similar protests at once, causing Graziella to raise her hands for quiet.
“There are two issues. The first is I have had conversations with him wherein he requested to resign his post as Secretary of the Treasury. I reminded him that was not possible, but I fear his commitment to his duty is wavering. That alone would be grounds for considering replacing him on the council.”
She paused as she let her statement sink in. She didn’t have to explain what she meant by “replacing him on the council”—members were replaced upon death only. When Graziella was satisfied they understood, she went on.
“The second issue is he is the source of much of the information we’ve gleaned about Carter Devereux and his discoveries. His seat on the National Security Council has given us a virtual seat on the same. It’s only a matter of time before one of the Devereuxs or their handlers realize the leak of their secrets has come from there. And from that realization, it will not take much longer before they investigate each member of that body.