American Mutant (22 page)

“I want it all,” Luke said fiercely. “I have a high school diploma, and I can barely add and subtract. The only reason I know how to read is because I worked the computer to match up stolen parts with customers. I am never going back into that hole again.”

“We will get any programs it takes to keep your progress going Luke,” Connor put in. “All Nate and I ask is that you guys supply the ambition and enthusiasm. Well, that’s enough lecture for tonight. We have a lot to do tomorrow so get some rest too.”

Nate, Connor, and Barf watched them all pile into the vehicle with Sammy at the wheel. They waved as the car drove away. Connor and Nate walked into the room housing Attila and switched on the cameras in Sammy’s car. Connor switched on the sound. They could see and hear the crew perfectly.

“You have your ears on Sammy.”

“Loud and clear Mr. Connor. How are we coming through?”

“Perfectly,” Connor said. “We’ll leave you on. If you have anything, just let us know, otherwise we’ll talk to you in the morning.”

“Yes Sir,” Sammy replied. “It feels good knowing you have us on camera. We have been a little nervous. Goodnight then.”

“Goodnight Sammy. Connor out.” Connor turned the sound way down.

“Thomas,” Nate said looking up at the screens. “This damn setup is just plain awesome. I guess I will leave you to it. Do you want me to help you with our friend in the CIA? You can find out where he lives, and I will smoke him.”

“No need Nate,” Connor laughed. “I know right where to find him. I will ghost him like I did to Greg this morning. Quenton may be a little put out when I do it though, and then present it to him after the fact. I am hoping he will see the necessity and the pluses of working to get Greg in.”

“He sees things in a pragmatic way Thomas. I do not see any other way the situation can be handled. The man tried to have us assassinated. Quenton took care of old Gordie for us. He will just have to accept the fact you needed to be a bit more drastic in this case.”

“We’ll be okay,” Connor agreed. “I’ll call him, and go in to see him tomorrow. You come on in here, and get Luke and Sammy started. I will be in shortly after. If I can get hold of any, I will leave their pickups right here.” Connor led the way to the outer office, and pulled up the schedule on the reception desk computer. He showed Nate where the entry would be, and how to access the notes on the customer.

“Got it,” Nate said as he turned to leave. “You call me if you need anything.”

“I will Nate. Say hello to Claire and your son for me. We will get together soon.”

Nate waved, and bent down to give Barf a stroke on the head before walking out to his car. He turned for a moment, and looked back at Connor, pointing his finger. “You be careful out there Mutie.”

Connor saluted, “I will Nate.”

Connor chose a customer from the phone log who wanted service to the airport for an eleven o’clock flight, and another who wanted service from their hotel to various sights for a three-hour period. Connor called them up, made their arrangements, and took their payments over the phone on credit. Using his scheduling program, Connor fed the pickup and delivery information from Attila out to the front desk for Nate to see in the morning.

He took Barf out for a long, uneventful run around their area. Barf took to running with Connor immediately. He stayed at Connor’s side as if he had been trained to do it. Cats and other dogs held no interest for him, and he ignored any barking dogs or loose cats in his path. Connor, for his part, loved every minute of the mundane exercise. His cell phone rang, and he answered it on the run.

“Did you forget about our dinner date?” Karen asked.

“Nope. I was going to call you and ask if you wanted to come over to my place. Barf and I are running right now, but we will be back in shortly. I will order something brought in and you can see my new furnishings. I also plan on doing something you might want to see. You can then report it to Quenton tomorrow and save me a trip to the Center. I have video conferencing capabilities here, but I would rather not trust anything but a hello. How are you on something like that?”

“How about I just pick up some Chinese food on the way over. I can be there at about 6:30, if that’s okay? I can hardly wait to see your place.”

“You will definitely love it.” Connor gave her directions. “I will see you then. Barf and I will be waiting.”

On his way back, Connor felt a familiar tingle. He slowed until he could pinpoint where Greg was waiting for him. As he came closer, Connor saw a figure waiting in front of his entranceway. Greg gave a little wave as Connor jogged up with Barf. Barf went right for him. He pushed himself into the man’s legs and then sat with his paw in the air. Connor noticed the real display of emotion in the assassin’s face as he bent down to pet the dog and shake with him. He looked up at Connor.

“I see you knew better than to touch the building,” Connor said.

“Yea, I felt it, whatever it is. Great dog you have here Connor.”

“He seems to like you too. I found out who ordered the hit.”

“It was the CIA, right?”

Connor nodded appreciatively. “How did you know?”

“Deduction really,” Haynes shrugged. “I could not think of any other way for all of the pieces to come together. What do you plan on doing, and more to the point, what do you plan for me?”

“Let’s go inside. I have a proposition for you,” Connor told him, as he led the way inside.

Haynes followed Connor into the recreation room. Connor made sure Barf had fresh water and another helping of dog food. He gestured for Haynes to take a seat on the couch. Laying out the general parts of his plan, Connor explained what he had in mind for Haynes’ part. Haynes sat in complete puzzlement and disbelief.

“You want me to be the CIA Director and work with this Quenton? You must be joking.”

“I do not joke Greg. Are you interested?”

“Hell yeah,” he replied without hesitation. “Do I get to run the organization the way I want?”

“Within certain parameters,” Connor acknowledged, “and make no mistake about who gets final say in any important development. You will have to play around with the politics, but the big stuff will get a final look from Quenton. You can trust him, and if you need any help, either he or his assistant will help sort it out with you.”

“I can live with that,” Haynes replied. “I always had ideas about running the place when I worked there. They long ago forgot the main idea for the CIA: accumulate intelligence overseas for the defense of this Country. The political climate since back in Clinton’s time has been to use the CIA as some kind of political whip. They ignored the warnings they did get.”

“Exactly my point Greg, you come to Quenton with hard intel on problems, and Quenton will get something done if your reports get ignored through regular channels. You can make a difference if you want.”

“My other options do not look so good anyway,” Haynes noted.”

“I was going to offer you your old way out,” Connor told him, “if you don’t want to play this other part for us. You can still walk away.”

“I want in. Can Quenton really get an appointment for me?”

“You have no idea the things we have found out,” Connor explained. “It makes Clinton’s FBI database of political enemies look like a Boy Scout contributor’s list.”

“I get it, but what makes us different from any other blackmailers?”

“Our goals, and me,” Connor said. “I know all about absolute power, and no one but me will actually have it. I am final arbitration.”

“And you can’t be corrupted, huh?” Haynes saw the darkness descend over Connor’s face.

“Never doubt this Greg, you will pray for death if you ever again cross me or do anything to sell this Country short. I will never threaten you again, and you will never call me into question again, you got it?”

“I got it,” Haynes answered quickly. “What about the present CIA Director?”

“He ordered the hit personally,” Connor replied, “and he will be meeting with an accident tonight. You and I have a connection Greg. I will know if you do anything out of sync with our goals. You let me worry about getting you into place. Do you have a place to lay low until we get this taken care of?”

“Yes, do you want me to keep in touch?”

“No,” Connor replied. “I will contact you when the time comes.”

“How will you…oh okay. You’ll find me.”

Connor nodded, and Haynes stood up to go. He stuck out his hand hesitantly, and Connor shook it. “I won’t let you down Connor.”

“For your sake Greg, I hope you don’t.”

Haynes nodded and petted Barf for a few seconds before leaving. Connor showered quickly, and then waited for Karen to arrive. He felt her arrive a few minutes later, and met her at the door. She walked in with a bag of food. The aroma wafted familiarly to Connor. He took the bag from her and kissed her softly.

“I want you right now,” Karen whispered to him.

“Before dinner?”

“Before anything,” she replied.

“I guess I will show you the bedroom first then,” Connor said.

“You better.” She knelt down and made a fuss over Barf, who for the first time since Connor had him, rolled over on his back with all four paws in the air. Karen laughed and started rubbing his belly.

Two hours later, the two of them were sitting on the couch in front of the entertainment system, watching a movie off of Connor’s digital service. They ate the reheated Chinese food Karen had brought with gusto. Barf sat waiting for handouts in front of Karen. She fed him a couple of the sweet and sour pork pieces as he took them delicately from her. Connor leaned back contentedly. They watched the rest of the movie entwined in each other’s arms.

“You were going to show me something you did not want to talk about on the phone?” Karen reminded him finally.

Connor explained what had happened in the morning, and what he and Nate had subsequently found out about who had ordered it. Karen listened intently. She interrupted him a couple of times to have him explain his technique in getting through to the source. Connor took her into the office, which housed Attila, and showed her his worm program. She gaped at the potential he had in this station. He showed her the surveillance capabilities for shadowing his limousines, and the intelligence gathering, which could be done with it.

“You are amazing Thomas.”

“What do you think about my solution to the CIA problem?” Connor asked curiously.

“You have already decided anyway,” Karen said. “Just let me know how you want me to handle it.”

Connor chuckled. “I would like you to explain my reasoning to Quenton tomorrow, see what his thoughts are about getting Greg in, and find out if he needs anything to accomplish it.”

“He will not be happy about being used by Cummings. He would probably prefer to question him, but I imagine you have that in mind anyway. As to Haynes as CIA Director, I believe with the information and people in the files you gave Derek, he could get anything done you want behind the scenes.”

“You don’t have a problem with this?”

Karen put her arms around his neck and looked right into his eyes. Connor could feel the heat from her body where she pressed up against him. “Cummings ordered you and Nate killed. Do you think I care if you put him in the roach motel, or kill him, or whatever?”

“Beetles,” Connor pointed out again.

“Huh?”

Connor sighed. “They were beetles, Scarab Beetles.”

“Sorry,” Karen laughed. “I forgot to identify the things you had ready to devour me slowly.”

“If our conversation is over, I’d like to take up where the beetles left off.”

“Oooooooooooh.now you’re talking,” Karen said as she jumped up into his arms. “How are you going to do Cummings Thomas?”

“I will show you later,” Connor said, carrying her.

Karen sat cross-legged on Connor’s bed petting Barf s head, which lay in her lap. She watched Connor intently as he lay with his eyes closed and his hands at his sides. He had explained what he had been able to accomplish over the past day and a half in physically interacting, while in an out of body state. She could detect no movement at all. Even Connor’s breathing had slowed to an almost imperceptible level.

Connor floated above Cummings. Knowing Karen would be observing his body’s movements while he did this mission made Connor want to end this as soon as possible. Cummings sat at a bar in his living room, drinking alone, with a martini glass in his hand. Connor entered Cummings’ mind. Cummings dropped the drink glass from his hand, and grabbed his head with both hands as he fell from the bar stool to the floor. Through the searing pain he received a message.

“You will tell me everything which caused you to issue a hit on me. I am Thomas Connor. I work for Derek Quenton at NSA. I want all of your contacts, all of your account numbers, all of your passwords on your accounts and at CIA, and I want you to put all of it on your computer right now and save it. Do it now.”

Cummings stumbled to his feet as Connor eased some of his pain. He lurched into a room where it had been furnished decoratively into an office setting. The computer was already on at the desk in his office. He hurriedly sat down and opened his password protected scheduling software. Going directly to his personal file, Cummings put up a page containing all of his notes on his accounts, passwords, and contacts. Connor read them as Cummings began to type in more data. Connor watched the names of three Senators appear on Cummings notes, which also were on the tapes he had confiscated from the Russian Mafioso.