by J C Ryan
Mackenzie laughed as she saw him lift Liu in a perfect imitation of all the romance movies she’d ever seen. He was turning around and around with her, kissing her in complete disregard for the catcalls of his teammates of “Get a room.”
When he finally put her down, Dylan turned to the others and winked. “Some of us have a gorgeous lady waiting for us and some don’t. Get over it.”
The fun over, they piled into a couple of SUVs and accompanied Carter and Mackenzie to a safe house they’d never seen before. Mackenzie sighed. Back into hiding, but at least the end was in sight. They had five days to prepare for the hearing, but that was going to have to wait until she’d showered and had a rest. Transatlantic flights were no joke, even in their luxurious jet. Mankind wasn’t meant for thirty-hour days.
***
They began their preparations with Carter asking a second time if he and Mackenzie could avoid the hearings. They missed their children, Mackenzie’s family, and their home. They just wanted it to end so they could rest for a while before digging into the Nabatean library.
“I’m afraid not. Davis is bound and determined to bring the CIA to its knees and the President with it. It’s part of our strategy to spring a surprise on her in your turning up at the hearing.” Sean said.
“What do you expect her to do?” Mackenzie asked. They’d been in hiding to avoid arrest. What would happen now, if they strolled into the Senate hearing chamber unannounced?
“She’ll probably order your immediate arrest, but don’t worry. The President has the Executive Privilege Order signed and ready. All we have to do is hand it to the Senator, and they can't touch you.”
“Okay. What do we need to do to get ready?”
For the next few days, everyone involved studied like they were cramming for the bar exam. Bill, James, Irene, the Director of National Intelligence, Sebastian Birch, in their respective offices. Carter, Mackenzie, Sean, and Dylan at their safe house. They all had copies of every bit of information about A-Echelon that was in the public arena—every opinion, speculation, theory both reasoned and from conspiracy nuts—they could dig up.
Computer analysis sliced, diced, and tracked down common origins to help them prepare truthful answers that didn’t give away national security information.
The latter condition turned out not to be an easy task. In fact, it was going to be impossible to answer truthfully to every question they anticipated. About eighty percent of the truthful answers would tread on national security. For those questions, they’d have to refuse to answer, but doing so without proper grounds would land them in jail for contempt of Congress. The only proper grounds were the Fifth Amendment, which they knew would only delay things.
At least, they hoped it would delay things long enough to get another run against the Nabateans. Maybe investigations would reveal the true conspirators. In truth, that could take years, but the discovery of the Nabatean library could help, if only they had time to get their hands on it and find some hints.
As far as Carter and Mackenzie were concerned, they’d done nothing wrong. Not even in making the illegal copy of the Sirralnnudam and removing the library of the Giants from the City of Lights. In hindsight, those actions had been wrong at the time, but extenuating circumstances made both actions excusable as well as lifesaving in more than one sense.
The slight damage Carter’s actions had done to relations with Egypt had been cured by the President more than a year ago with the promise to return the plates immediately. They’d done so. In addition, the President had made a small donation to the Egyptology Department of the Cairo University. But Carter and Mackenzie didn’t know about the donation and therefore couldn’t testify about it.
The same went for the copying of the Sirralnnudam. The Armenian government had pardoned Mackenzie and thanked her for the copy she sent them. If not for her doing that, it would have been lost entirely. The original had gone missing shortly after she’d handled it for the last time, so they had only the copy she'd sent them, and its illegality was no longer of concern.
Those things they could testify about, justify, and not have a care about. The A-Codex was a different matter, even though its retrieval had been completely legal. The worry was about the damage to the US and to the world if the information they’d already gleaned from it became public knowledge.
Carter and his translation team hadn’t gone through even ten percent of the information contained in it. That was damaging enough in the wrong hands. What might be lurking in the other ninety percent could be even more so. Just look at the trouble the ten percent had caused—close to four hundred people dead and another six hundred injured, half of Patch Barracks vaporized.
Fortunately, the committee members didn’t know that the Patch Barracks incident was connected to A-Echelon’s work. In fact, they didn’t know about the A-Codex, thanks to the media not having discovered it. They knew nothing about the ancient nukes, the dolphins, or the attacks on Freydís. And with any luck, they never would. Certainly, none of the players had any intention of opening those lines of inquiry. Unless they were asked. At which point, they’d have to fall back on the sanctuary of the Fifth Amendment, even though they had no personal incrimination to worry about, just worldwide panic.
The trouble was, quite a few other people did know about it, Kelly White and Russell McCormick among them. Far too many for comfort. And what if the committee or any of its members had been fed information in the same manner it was fed to the late Howard Crane and Kelly?
They were happy McCormick was out of the way and Kelly wouldn't cause trouble. It was the unknown that bugged them. In fact, if the Nabateans could set up one McCormick, what’s to say they hadn’t set up two, four, or many more? With their unlimited resources, they could easily have done so.
Another thing that worried them was that witnesses called before Senate committee hearings were typically sent a list of questions in advance, along with a list of documents to bring to the hearings. However, that wasn’t the case this time. As far as they knew, the inquiry was all about the illegal existence of A-Echelon and the flagrant waste of taxpayer money on frivolous investigations. But the lack of advance questions meant they could be thrown a curveball at any moment while testifying.
Michelle Davis had them right where she wanted them—off balance, with a wide-open field of investigation and squirming public. No private hearings for the good Senator. She wanted the galleries packed with both the public and the Fourth Estate. She had some serious grandstanding to do.
***
In the meantime, Senator Davis had been doing her own preparations. Unaware that the missing Devereuxs would crash her party, she didn’t factor them into her plans. Although she would have loved to.
Her intention was to start with those she considered the little fish, James and Irene. Her beef wasn’t with them, though she did honestly believe their operation was a reprehensible waste of taxpayer money, not to mention the questionable legality of it. Her beef was with none other than the CIA itself, and Bill Griffin specifically. Lately, she’d also been insulted by the National Intelligence Director as well, so it would be a bonus if she could take him down, too.
She counted on the fishing expedition. Hopefully, by the time she got to Bill and Sebastian, the lower ranks would have given away so much condemning information to cover their own asses they would have completely compromised their bosses. And then there was the ultimate prize. If she could damage Samuel Houston Grant enough, her own party would have to turn to her to rehabilitate its image before the election.
What a pity I couldn’t start with Professor Carter and Doctor Mackenzie Devereux. Rich, spoiled elitists who would probably do anything to keep their faces clean, their reputations untarnished, and the extent of their obscene wealth hidden from an envious public. The media wouldn’t hesitate to shred them over that alone.
Davis knew a little about Carter Devereux from reputation. He was the hotshot professor who’d made all those earthshatter
ing discoveries a few years ago and was big in the news at the time. Some people thought very highly of him and praised him as one of the leading archaeologists of our time. Others made him out as the biggest hoaxer and pseudoscientist of all times. Because there were a number of leading scientists among the latter, she was inclined to rather believe that version.
She just wished she could have them in front of her committee. This was her turf—not a classroom at a university or a dig out in the sticks. She would put them through a few classes of her own.
She flipped nonchalantly through the Devereuxs' file, and her attention was arrested by a picture of Mackenzie Devereux. Hmm, our Professor’s lovely wife. Wonder how she caught him—what the prospects of money and status won’t do to a girl’s principles? She occupied herself with a few minutes’ fantasy of skewering Dr. Devereux with pointed interrogation, calling her integrity into question.
“Ah well, it’s not to be,” she whispered as she shoved the file out of the way to the side of her desk.
Chapter 75 - QIT Project update
May 12
Bill took time out from his preparations to give everyone an update about the Quantum IT project, dubbed QIT and pronounced like “quit”. Liu gave an update on how the translations for it were coming.
The QIT team had been at it for only fifteen days, but working at breakneck speed, twenty-four seven in shifts. A few, the top one percent of the brilliant scientists and engineers who were involved in the project, pushed themselves around the clock, sometimes resting only a couple hours before getting up to attack the problems again.
Early on, Bill had given the team leadership permission to reach out to the private sector in return for promising them access to the new technology as long as it wouldn’t jeopardize national security. IBM, D-Wave, Samsung, Intel, and a few universities sent anyone they had who could contribute meaningfully to the project.
With so many involved, it became difficult to properly vet new participants or even to know where they came from. Security was on the minds of very few of the operations team. They relied on the admins to take care of all that.
The project team had developed an effective routine to keep everyone up to date on the progress of the project. Each morning at eight a.m., everyone gathered for a brainstorming session, where new ideas were welcome, no matter how outlandish or weird they may be. Everyone discussed them, and then it was decided by consensus which of them they’d try.
At these sessions, the outcomes of previous ideas would be reported, along with an overview of the progress vis-à-vis the timeline the President had given them. That hadn’t changed and would not.
One morning, shortly after the project started, a couple of new consultants turned up at the brainstorming meeting, and after that they appeared every day. No one knew where they’d come from and knew even if they asked they wouldn’t get an answer, but they stood out in the crowd of sloppily dressed geeks. They wore suits and ties, appeared to have gotten plenty of sleep, and always had fresh, exciting, out-of-the-box ideas.
It got to be a game, betting among themselves which of the crazy ideas would work and which wouldn’t. But the game soon became boring when someone pointed out that all the ideas did work. Every single weird idea paid off. And that was the strangest thing of all.
Soon everyone who attended the brainstorming sessions trusted the outsiders, and they were eager to test the new suggestions presented by these mysterious visitors.
They would’ve been stumped if they were to learn the ideas and suggestions from these well-dressed consultants came from a seventy thousand-year-old library.
So, when they brought a black box in one morning and suggested it might help with the communications part of the project deliverables, the scientists tasked with the invention of an unbreakable, encrypted communications device seized it with enthusiasm and studied it carefully. Their trust in the outsiders proved well-founded.
It didn’t take them long to figure it out, reverse engineer it, and hand it over to the CIA. The CIA technicians added a few modifications, including miniaturizing it, and were delighted with the end result. It was now the size of a packet of cigarettes and would give their field agents an enormous advantage in covert data collection efforts.
The spooks would be able to carry one of those devices on their person, hidden from sight, walk past any modern-day computing device, and copy all data off it in just a few seconds, the owner of the computing device none the wiser.
They called it a Blackjack.
Bill’s estimate was that the project was on target or perhaps a little ahead of schedule.
Chapter 76 - Saved by the bell
May 15
The media, including newspaper journalists, bloggers, TV journalists, and their cameramen, were out in full force on the morning of the opening session of the Intelligence Committee hearing. Sebastian, Bill, James, and Irene squeezed their way through the packed hallways and into the hearing chamber, ignoring shouted questions from the media.
They took their seats in the front row directly backing the witness tables nearly half an hour early. None of the committee members had arrived yet, but their administrative assistants, aides, and a bevy of interns bustled around the committee’s elevated desks. The noise level was lower inside the chamber than out in the hall, but only by a little.
Spotting the witnesses, Senator Davis’s senior aide went to inform her.
“I’ll be right there,” Davis replied. She’d use the extra time to get a feel for the audience.
As she entered the chamber, Davis nodded to her committee members, who were drifting in as well. She took her seat and looked around. The ushers had opened the doors a few minutes before, and now the public gallery was packed, the outer walls lined with TV crew and cameras. Everything was just as she wanted it.
It was almost time to begin when Davis noticed a bit of commotion at one of the entrance doors. An aide hurried to her side and whispered, “The Devereuxs are here.”
“What did you say?” she asked.
Her aide repeated his statement, and a triumphant grin broke out on Davis’s face. “Let’s not keep our honored guests waiting then. Do we have a quorum?”
The aide looked up, quickly counted the one or two empty chairs and nodded. Davis rapped her gavel and called the hearing to order.
Carter and Mackenzie hurried to gain their seats before the noise died down. “Are we late?” he asked James.
“No. I suspect she started a few minutes early. She must be excited to have all of us here.”
Davis was making a show of ignoring the Devereuxs as she wasted the next fifteen minutes on administrative detail and red tape. Finally, unable to wait for the next phase to begin and hoping she’d put the entire witness list on the defensive, she looked at Carter and Mackenzie and spoke into her microphone.
“Mr. and Mrs. Devereux. We are honored that you could join us.” She watched closely to see if they blinked at her deliberate omission of their academic titles but could see nothing but cool, neutral expressions.
“In fact, in order to secure your future attendance at these hearings, I’m going to issue an immediate warrant of arrest for the two of you.”
Sebastian was on his feet before she’d finished the sentence, and he held his arm out in a protective barrier as the sergeant-at-arms stepped forward to carry out the arrest.
“Not so quick! I have an Executive Privilege Order signed by the President here.”
Davis’s temper flared, and she raised her eyebrows. If she had stopped to think, she’d have realized she’d been outflanked. She’d have assumed the Devereuxs had made an immunity deal with the President in return for their testimony. But to have these two slip out of her grasp and receive a figurative slap in the face at the same time was enough to make her see red and think only of revenge.
“I take it then,” she snarled, “that the President is making himself responsible to assure the attendance of these two… alleged traitors... at fut
ure hearings.”
Sebastian bristled at the unwarranted description but decided to pick his battles. “I will pass the message on to him, Senator.”
Davis believed she’d scored a point. To her, that Executive Privilege Order was as good as an admission of guilt, and she didn't even stop to consider any other possibilities.
Next, she looked to score another point by calling what she thought to be the weakest link to the witness table first. “Mackenzie Devereux, take the witness stand.”
No one else expected that. Indeed, Davis hadn’t had the opportunity to prepare for it, but her motto for the moment was carpe diem. She rapped her gavel once to quiet the buzz that had started among the gallery, the other witnesses, and even her own committee.
At the witness table, everyone was concerned except Carter. The others, concerned about Davis pushing Mackenzie too far, had to stop whispering about it, but they were still worried. Mackenzie could be the loveliest, soft-spoken, self-effacing person anyone could imagine. But they’d all had occasion to witness what happened when someone pushed her too far. She personified the reputation of redheads, especially if that someone was targeting her loved ones.
Carter, on the other hand, grinned, crossed his arms, and settled himself more comfortably in his chair—to watch the show. The Senator probably thought she had a pushover in Mackenzie. He couldn’t wait to see how the senator was going to get her ass handed to her.
Mackenzie took the oath and sat down, waiting calmly for the first question.
Sen. Davis began. “Mrs. Devereux, I take it you are aware of the gravity of the matter brought before this committee.”
Mackenzie replied, “Yes, Miss Davis, I am.”
Davis let it go that Mackenzie didn’t address her correctly, never thinking she was the one who started it.
