Blood Line (12 page)

I saw Valerie extend a second finger on her thigh as I answered. “I was an operator, but that other stuff was all part of a legend created by the agency, that’s all. Come on, Tom; you know the first rule of the CIA is ‘nothing is as it seems.’”

“So when did you become my dad’s handler?” Leecy asked Wakefield.

“After your father became the NOC, I requested a change of post. I asked to be his handler. I was doing that job for another agent before coming to the Farm as trainer. I was better at being a handler than being a trainer.”

Tammy shifted gears again. “But let’s get back to the reason we’re here and the task at hand. We have three things we need to address. First, who’s the mole? Second, who’s the mystery partner Ranger Smith and Porter are working with? Third, what is it they are after?”

“If I may,” Agent Moore offered, “I’d like to address the mystery partner now so I can return to my computer.”

“I asked Agent Moore to join us to share his findings and thoughts on this mystery partner,” Wakefield said. “Please go ahead, Tom.”

“We learned of this mystery partner only last night, because Ron . . . may I call you Ron?” Moore asked and I nodded yes. “Ron told Wakefield about him when they spoke to each other on the phone. What we can’t do is confirm it. We can speculate that the partner was one of the two men that broke into your home, but I discount that notion only because Ranger Smith revealed the existence of the partner after the break-in, in which one man was killed and the other hospitalized,” Moore said.

He stared at Valerie and then at me. He was clearly suspicious about Val’s role in all of this.

“This leads me to believe the mystery man is still out there somewhere. I believe the mole and this mystery partner are one and the same. The mole would possess the intelligence needed to obtain a high-level job at INESCO, a job that would find him in a position of access to classified information. His level of intelligence would also make him uniquely qualified to organize and implement a plan to gain control of said product or information or research – whatever it is. He could hire Porter and the Smith boys using the Internet to access the thousands of paramilitary sites and chat rooms.”

Moore was churning through his theories so fast that he had to stop for a sip of water before starting up again.

“Julia has had the team searching those very sites for days. Obviously, this mystery partner possesses the computer skills needed to clean his virtual trail, or we would have him in custody by now. Anyway, everything he would need he could find online or make himself: the fake FBI badges, diagram of your house, and the alarm device. A simple keyword search reveals the Internet site of the architect firm you employed to design your home. From there, he hacked their system and found your design plans. The alarm device is something he probably made, given his obvious skill set. So I say again, the mole and the mystery guy are one and the same.”

“Let’s assume you’re correct. How do we find him?” Valerie asked.

“That would require a search of INESCO’s personnel files. The search would have to be done at INESCO, as your company’s system is not online. Rather antiquated, isn’t it?” he asked, with a smirk that made me want to punch him in the face. “Anyway, you’ll have to search the files and find a connection somewhere to something. The problem is, that kind of search could take days. We don’t have days.” Looking at his watch, he said, “No, we have less than twenty hours.”

“Well, what do you think?” Wakefield asked.

I was about to offer my opinion when Leecy said, “I’m not buying it. There has to be another guy, and he has to be in law enforcement. Maybe he’s with the CIA or the FBI, or how about the NSA? For all we know, he could be you, Agent Moore. The reason I believe he is part of one of these agencies is: how else do you explain the APB?”

Moore looked embarrassed. “We considered that, and came to the conclusion that the report had been planted by the man posing as FBI Agent Porter.”

“Maybe, I guess, but how did he do that? Doesn’t a department of the FBI, like a PR department or something, handle that sort of announcement? And wouldn’t the news stations that ran the APB verify the request before airing it?” Leecy challenged.

“Right, and we determined that the newscast ran only in the Park City market, transmitting from Columbus, Georgia. No one outside of that broadcast area heard it. Secondly, our team of investigators discovered that the local station ran the APB solely on the fake Agent Porter’s authority. After all, he did fool you three and the Park City Police Department,” Moore said.

“But, how do you explain…” Leecy started to challenge Agent Moore again, but was cut off by Wakefield.

“Thank you, Tom,” Wakefield said, “that’ll be all.”

Moore closed the connecting door behind him and the room was silent for a moment. Then Wakefield took charge.

“Leecy,” Wakefield said, “you were about to say something, please continue.”

Leecy didn’t hesitate. She jumped right in with, “Okay, what I was going to suppose was there’s a mystery partner. We know about Porter and the Smiths. Let’s assume there’s a mole, and let’s also assume there’s this other person.”

I interrupted my daughter, saying, “and just for the sake of giving this mystery person a name, let’s call him ‘Moore.’”

“Yes,” Valerie agreed, “let’s pretend the mystery man is Agent Moore, because a guy like Agent Moore would have access to the data, and the skill set to manipulate it.”

“Okay, for the sake of the story, let’s use Moore as the mystery guy. You three lay it out for me,” Wakefield said.

“First, I need a little background on Agent Moore to make the story as plausible as possible. Tell me what you can,” I said.

Wakefield thought about it and then said, “Okay, I’ll play along. Agent Moore is listening,” she gestured to her right ear, “he’ll get a kick out of this. Now, I don’t have my agents’ files memorized,” she said as she considered Moore’s past, “but I believe he was recruited from the military, and if I’m not mistaken, he was a member of a Special Forces-type group, but I don’t recall which one.”

“That’s good enough,” Valerie said. “For our purposes, let’s just say he served in the Army and was a member of their elite Ranger group.”

Walking toward the whiteboard, Leecy said, “Agent Moore is connected to Briggs Smith, because they were both Rangers. Let’s also assume that Travis and Porter are also part of that elite group. So, they all know each other directly or indirectly, but they share a common background. Porter, Travis, Briggs and Agent Moore are now connected.”

“Now,” Valerie offered, “let’s assume Porter, because he had the demeanor of middle management, worked somewhere that put him in contact with ex-cons. Maybe he was a parole officer, prison warden or guard, or maybe he was at one time an actual FBI agent.”

“We would know about that, all of that. That would’ve turned up in our search,” Wakefield said.

“Not if the guy doing the searching was also part of the team trying to steal whatever it is they’re after,” I said.

“I see,” Wakefield said, “so what Leecy was suggesting was there are actually two moles, then.”

“Yes, because as my dad said yesterday, there’s nowhere to hide anymore, and I believe that. So, how did those three guys, Porter, Travis and Briggs, just disappear? Someone had to make them ghosts, and who better to do that than the guy in charge of looking for them?

“There’s another thing. When Porter interrogated us, how is it he came to have files on all of us? If he was an actual FBI agent, that might explain it, but he isn’t, at least not now. He got that information somewhere, and oddly enough, his file read almost exactly like the story you told,” Leecy said.

Wakefield stood and said, “This isn’t a game or supposition. You three really believe my agent is behind all of this. Why?”

“For all the reasons we’ve stated, and the fact that his reaction to Granger’s CIA history wasn’t shock or surprise, but confirmation,” Valerie said.

“How the hell can you read that on a person?”

“The same way I can tell that you believe everything we’ve laid out for you, and you’re only pretending to be indignant,” Valerie answered.

“I only believe that what you’re saying makes sense. It’s logical to a point, but what you haven’t explained is the connection to INESCO.”

She was right. We hadn’t tied that together, and I wasn’t sure how we could. But leave it to my daughter to do just that: make a connection even if it was a stretch.

“Look at the board,” Leecy said, “INESCO has an ex-con in Pickett on the payroll. What if that’s the connection?”

“Explain,” Wakefield said.

“I don’t know,” Leecy said with her eyes closed. I could see her searching her memory like a Rolodex. “Umm, I seem to recall an article about a state-run program that incentivized Georgia’s businesses to hire ex-cons. I want to say that the state paid the business part of the new hires’ wages for six months.” Her eyes opened and she pointed at the board. “So, INESCO hires the ex-con Pickett through this program. If there’s one hire through the program, maybe there’s another, and maybe Porter heads the program. That connects Porter to the break-in, and to the mole at INESCO. That is, if the mole turns out to be part of the program. That would connect it all, right?”

“It would be a very tenuous connection at best, and it’s all supposition at this point,” Wakefield answered. Then she said as she stared at the board, “but if Porter is in a position to track his newly employed ex-cons, then he knows one of them is working at a company that supplies the DOD and NASA. Porter keeps a close eye on the man. Maybe Porter threatens to have the man sent back to prison by framing him for something. I don’t know how, but Porter has leverage over the guy. The guy is either directly involved with or has knowledge of an INESCO product that may pay off on the black market. Desperate to get out from under Porter’s control, he tells Porter all about it. Porter enlists the help of his old Army buddies. He’s smart enough to know that he needs help if he’s going to try for whatever the hell it is. A person in a position like Agent Moore’s is a perfect accomplice,” Wakefield said, looking toward the connecting doors Agent Moore had pulled closed earlier. She turned back toward the board, saying, “Yes, I can see how all of that would fit together very nicely. The only problem is: we looked under all of those rocks and found nothing.”

“I’m not surprised. The first rule of espionage is ‘nothing is as it seems to be,’” I said, and then offered, “I think this situation is much simpler. I think Porter purposely placed ex-cons with INESCO. I think this has been in the works for a long time. Porter, Moore, and the rest have just been either waiting for the mole to reach a position with INESCO that afforded him access to the right technologies, or they were just waiting for the right project to come through the INESCO pipeline.”

“Conspiracy, now, is it?” Wakefield asked.

“No. Well, maybe. Or it’s just real smart people figuring out a way to make a huge pile of money on someone else’s work. The one thing I know for certain is the motives never change. This was to be a good old-fashioned theft with a hostage kicker. Why do they need leverage? Why try and kidnap Leecy? Answer: They can’t get to what they want at INESCO. The mole knows it’s there, but needs someone else to get it for him.”

Valerie jumped in, saying, “We’ve got to get back to the office and search the personnel files. If Leecy is correct, then all we have to do is find the employees that are part of this state program. Once we have the names, we question all of them until we find the one that’s involved. We make him tell us what they’re after and then we keep it safe. Game over.”

“Or we call Lester,” Leecy said, “and have him question Mr. Pickett. Daniel is probably still in the hospital. I’ll bet for a lighter prison sentence, he will spill the beans on the guys at INESCO that are part of the program. He might even know the one we’re after.”

Wakefield was walking toward the connecting doors and pulling them open as Leecy finished her thought. I was following Wakefield at a distance when she started barking orders to the operatives on the other side of the suite through her earpiece.

“Ryan, be advised we have hostile on site. I have two Agents unconscious. I need you and your team in tech-ops.”

I reached the open doors to the room and looked over Agent Wakefield’s shoulder. Julia and Zachary were both unconscious in their seats, probably knocked out by one of the invisible gases I knew the CIA used to incapacitate their enemies without killing them, or maybe tazered. The odor of burnt plastic also filled the air, and I noticed the computers were smoking. Agent Moore was nowhere to be found.

I was moved out of the way by the other three members of Wakefield’s unit as they rushed into the room. Hodges and Franks bent over Julia and Zachary, assessing the situation and reporting the two victims had been tazed, while Ryan conferred with Wakefield.

“We can use our laptops to access the hotel cameras and search for Moore,” Ryan said. “He couldn’t have gone far. Maybe we can locate him with his cell or earpiece transmission signal.”

Wakefield ordered, “Get to work on the cameras in and around the hotel. Go back thirty minutes, and search forward. Forget tracking him. He’s too smart to have his cellphone or earpiece on him anymore. Our best hope is to search the cameras.”

I walked away from the room toward Leecy and Valerie.

“Moore is the third man. He is our mystery man. He’s gone. Better make that call to Lester now,” I said.

Valerie removed the prepaid cellphone from her Go bag and dialed 411. I heard her ask for the Park City, Georgia police department before I turned my attention back to Wakefield.

“How can we get in touch with you if we need you later?” I asked her. I was thinking it was time for my family and me to go.

She looked around the room at all the destroyed equipment and said, “He poured acid on everything we were using, but,” she reached for a small black case on the floor next to Julia, “he missed the backup earpieces we keep for emergencies. Do you remember how these things work?”

“No, I’ve never used one.”

“That’s right. You refused to wear the old ones with the wire and the battery pack. You’ll like these new ones a lot better. No wires. The battery is built in, and they are rechargeable. The earpiece sends and receives communications between all those wearing one. These are all tuned to the same frequency. You talk, and I hear what you say, and vice versa. I guess Tom didn’t get a kick out of the conversation after all. He has the upper hand for now.” She moved to place the earpiece in my ear, but I took the device from her hand. “Just slip it inside your ear and give the outer edge a light tap with your finger to activate it. No one will know you’re wearing it, and after a while, you’ll forget it’s there yourself. There is one drawback.”

“What’s that?” I asked slipping the tiny thing inside my left ear canal.

“The range is less than twenty miles.”

I was starting to remove it when Wakefield placed her hand on my hand, stopping me. “No, leave it. I’ll get this place cleaned up, and we’ll head to Park City. If you need us, we’ll be ready.” She let her hand fall to her side, continuing. “You three need to get to work on those files. Maybe together we can still salvage something out of the mess Moore made of this case. Find out what they’re after. Let’s use it to catch those bastards,” she said. She looked from me to the men busy cleaning up the communications room and reviving the injured agents.

I realized how close we were standing to each other and moved back a step before saying, “I owe you something for asking for your help. Let us take care of Moore and his gang for you. We can minimize your exposure that way. Keep the CIA and your team out of it, if possible.”

“But that’s not what I want. That’s never been what I wanted, and you’ve known that since we met.”

I felt my face blush and shook it off. I’d been very close with Wakefield during my years at the CIA, and I was always aware of her as a woman with powerful feelings that leaked out whenever we worked together, either close-up or at a distance. There had always been an unspoken chemistry that nearly, but never explicitly, overwhelmed our professional relationship. We’d both worked hard to keep it at bay. That wasn’t always easy to do. Seeing Tammy again reminded me just how difficult it had been.

Wakefield changed directions, saying, “No, this time I want to recruit your daughter. I can tell she’s as sharp, if not more so, as you. Add to that her mother’s influence and bloodline; that kid is a can’t-miss prospect.”

I looked over my shoulder at Valerie and Leecy. Val was still using the phone. I wondered what she could be talking to Lester about for this long. Leecy was busy checking her Go bag contents. Something was off with those two.

“I think Valerie has other plans, but Leecy is going to make her own decisions about her future. She has a mind of her own, Tammy. We all know that,” I said softly. “So, you can try to recruit her, but there’s no predicting what direction she might choose at this point. So let me clean this up for you. I owe you from long ago. It’ll make us even.”

“Okay…okay for now…but I’ll be listening if you need me. All you have to do is ask for help, and we’ll come running.”

I saw Ryan, Franks and Hodges give me a quick glance and nod. I realized they were listening to everything Wakefield and I had said.

“Earpieces,” Wakefield reminded me.

Valerie came over with Leecy, looking grim.

“Bad news. Talked to Lester. Daniel Pickett died less than forty-five minutes ago,” Valerie informed the group. “Lester says there’s an investigation into the death, but I’m sure that Porter and Moore found a way to get into the hospital and tie up their loose ends.”

“They won’t kill the man they have in place at INESCO, will they?” Leecy asked.

“Moore would’ve heard everything you three said even if he wasn’t in the building at the time,” Wakefield said. “I’ve offered an earpiece to Granger. Would you two like one?”

“Absolutely!” Leecy said.

“Agent Wakefield,” Ryan said, “the computers are completely fried. The acid ate through the motherboards. But we spotted Moore on the surveillance cameras exiting the building twenty minutes ago and entering a black SUV. We were able to track both his cellphone and earpiece signals south out of the city, then lost them both. We extended our camera search and located the SUV again south of the airport, but we need to go mobile.”

“All right, that squares it. Wrap up this HQ and be prepared to evacuate in fifteen minutes,” Wakefield said. Then facing me and my family, she asked, “Do you need a lift? Or do you want to use the stolen truck you arrived here in?”

How did she know about the truck? I didn’t really care at this point. Nothing fazed me anymore. I was beginning to accept this new world of high-tech surveillance.