Corps Justice Boxed Set: Books 1-3: Back to War, Council of Patriots, Prime Asset (67 page)

Ponder almost drooled at the thought. He was
so close to wrapping up the deal. Now he could focus on tying up
some loose ends. With barely concealed glee he placed another
call.

“Are you there yet?” he asked his right hand
man.

“Almost,” Trapper said breathlessly. Ponder
could hear the man being jostled as he rode.

“Good. We just passed our test so the buy is
a go.”

“Congrats, Boss. How about I take care of
our friends and then you buy the first round in Bora Bora?”

“You got it,” Ponder responded, almost
cheerfully.

He replaced the phone in his pocket and
allowed himself a second to take in the moment. In a matter of
hours he would be a very rich man.

+++

The buyer’s agent answered the silent
ringing.

“Yes?”

“You have authorization to proceed.”

“Understood.” The man ended the call and
scanned the surrounding area. His men were ready for a fight. They
moved silently through the mountainous terrain, ever vigilant
through years of hard training. He wondered if the seller even
suspected what would soon happen. Doubtful. The arrogant Americans
never suspected treachery when a payday was close at hand. They
were greedy and short-sighted. It was all the more reason to crush
them. The foreign emissary relished the thought and plodded along
with his assassins.

Chapter 25

Camp Spartan, Arrington, TN

11:20am CST, September 28th

True to Jack Malone’s word, the
investigation progressed swiftly. SSI employees were accommodating
and the FBI agents were courteous in their questioning. Marjorie
Haines was hopeful that it would all end soon. She had more
important things to do than monitor their visitors.

Her phone rang and she answered.
“Haines.”

“Marge, it’s Dunn. I’ve got something you
need to see right now.”

“Where are you?”

“In the Batcave.”

Haines looked at her watch then over at the
FBI teams going through paperwork. Jack Malone had left earlier to
take a tour of the campus.

“Give me a minute to excuse myself and I’ll
be right down, Todd.”

Marge checked to make sure that the
investigators didn’t need her for a few minutes, and then headed to
meet up with SSI security chief.

+++

Dunn was staring at a computer screen when
Marge entered the Batcave. He had two of Neil’s computer techs
assisting. They were watching a video. As she got closer, she
realized the recording was of Agent Malone.

“What’s going on, Todd?”

Dunn turned around, surprised by the
interruption. “Oh hey, that was fast.”

“It sounded important so I got over here as
quickly as I could.”

“It is. Come take a look.”

The two techs made room as Haines squeezed
in to get a better view.

“Tell me what I’m looking at.”

The tech with a head full of unruly red hair
spoke up first. “Well, Ms. Haines, Mr. Dunn told us to keep tabs on
all the FBI guys. It was pretty easy until this guy…”

“Agent Malone,” Haines furnished.

“Yeah, until Agent Malone went on a tour of
the campus with Kendall from operations.”

Haines was confused. “What
do you mean
until
?”

The tech scratched his scraggly beard,
unfazed by Marge’s tone. “Well, as long as he was in one of our
buildings it was easy to jump from one camera to the next and
follow him. It was when he went outside that we had a problem.”

“How so?” Haines asked impatiently.

“We have a limited number of cameras in the
outdoor areas. They’re mostly at the front gate and around the
perimeter. There’s usually no need to have them. So that posed a
slight problem. How could we watch and listen in on what he was
doing?”

“I’m sorry…”

“Bowser.”

“Your name is Bowser?”

“Actually my name’s Patrick but everybody
calls me Bowser.”

“Okay, Bowser, tell me what you did to fix
the problem.”

“You know that Neil built his Baby Birds a
while back…”

Baby Bird was the nickname the SSI operators
had given to Neil’s tiny surveillance drone. The thing looked like
a helicopter, fit in the palm of your hand and could be controlled
hands-free with a special pair of sunglasses similar to the eye
control systems used by Apache pilots.

“…
and we’ve outfitted a
couple of them with long range microphones. We launched two of them
to follow Agent Malone while he was outside.”

“Bowser, this is all very fascinating, but
would you please mind getting to the point?” Haines requested as
politely as she could muster.

“Sorry, Ms. Haines. Anyway, long story
short, once they got near the chow hall Agent Malone asks if he can
use one of the Porta-Johns the construction crews are using. He
said he had too much coffee and really had to take a leak.”

Haines rolled her eyes and motioned for the
young tech to hurry up with his explanation.

“So he walks over to the Porta-John and,
once he’s out of earshot from Kendall, he pulls out his cell
phone.”

Dunn interrupted, “So that’s where we’ll
start the video for you.”

Bowser took the cue and started the video.
It showed Agent Malone walking to the blue porta-potty. He paused
just as someone would do if their phone rang in their pocket.
Malone extracted his cell phone, pressed a button, then held it to
his ear.

“Hey, I’m in.” The recording was scratchy,
but Haines could make out every word.

Malone listened to the person on the other
end of the call.

“Yeah. After I take this little tour and let
them soften up a bit I’ll ask for your little buddy Zheng. Once I
get my hands on him, I’ll order him to start opening up all the
locked doors in this place.”

He listened again and nodded.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get him out of here, but
it’s gonna cost you extra.”

Malone paused to listen and then chuckled.
“Sure, I’m ready for a little vacation too. Let’s wrap this up and
then I’ll use some of my accrued leave. At least the Bureau gives
me that much. I’ll call you in a couple hours.”

Haines’s normally calm face raged red. “Do
we know who he talked to?”

“Bowser tracked it to a tower in the Jackson
Hole area,” Dunn answered, dead serious. “You want me to take care
of this?”

Haines thought for a moment. What they
should do is turn the piece-of-shit-Malone in to his superiors. But
Haines came from a warrior background. Her father was a former
Special Forces soldier who’d fought in Vietnam. She probably would
have tried to become an infantry officer if the military allowed
it.

“
I’ll take care of Agent
Malone. Bowser, can you email that video to me?” Bowser nodded.
“Todd, would you mind setting up one of your interrogation
rooms?”

The two techs looked at Haines in awe.
They’d heard rumors of her physical prowess, and she was
undoubtedly beautiful, but seeing the lioness come out right before
their eyes was astonishing.

Dunn and Haines went to leave, but Bowser
had one more question.

“Hey, Ms. Haines, what’s Z…uh, I mean what’s
Terrence Zheng got to do with all this?”

Haines stopped and turned around. “Loose
lips sink ships, gentlemen. You won’t be seeing Mr. Zheng any time
soon.”

Without another word, she turned away and
left the room, Dunn in tow.

Bowser looked at his companion in wide-eyed
wonder. “I call dibs on Zheng’s Xbox profile!”

+++

Dunn split off as Haines walked swiftly to
the security desk. “Can you please ask Agent Malone to join me in
the lower level observation deck?” she asked the large sentry.

“Yes, Ms. Haines. I’ll escort him down
personally.”

“Thank you.”

Haines headed back toward the Batcave. As an
afterthought, she pulled out her phone as she walked.

“Travis, I think we’ve found the
connection.”

+++

Fifteen minutes later, Malone, escorted by
the guard, entered the gallery overlooking the interrogation rooms.
With a nod from Dunn, the guard left and Malone joined him and
Haines.

“So what’s up?” Malone asked
conspiratorially. “Is this where you do your secret
interrogations?”

Haines answered with a dry laugh. “I just
thought you might like to see this and get a quick tour. It’s state
of the art and where we do all our training for new SSI personnel
going into the field.”

“Nice,” Malone admired as he gazed down at
the brightly lit rooms. “Lead on, Ms. Haines!”

Dunn made no move to follow. “You’re not
coming with us, Dunn?” Agent Malone asked.

“I’ve got some things to take care of
upstairs. We’ll have lunch waiting for you when you’re finished
here.” Dunn headed to the stairwell and disappeared.

Haines led Malone to the control room first.
He gave it a cursory examination and, once satisfied, indicated
they should move on to the lower rooms.

They stepped down the side staircase and
entered the first room they encountered.

“As you can see, we have cameras installed
there and there,” Haines pointed to the locations of the
observation equipment. “And anyone in the gallery can watch through
the one-way window.”

Agent Malone traced his hand along the edge
of the metal table in the center of the room. He stared at Haines
lasciviously. “You want to tell me why you really wanted to get me
down here…alone?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,
Jack,” Haines answered in feigned surprise.

“You could’ve gotten anyone to show me this
place. Why did you want to bring me down here?”

Haines looked back at Malone with an
embarrassed shrug. “Am I that obvious?” she asked innocently.

Agent Malone’s eyes lit up as he moved
closer to the attractive attorney. “Well, I can’t say that I’m
surprised.”

“Oh?”

“You’re surrounded by these meatheads all
day long. I’m not surprised you’re more attracted to the polished
type.”

“And you’re saying you’re the polished
type?” Haines purred.

“I am.”

“So what should we do now?”

Malone glanced up to the invisible cameras.
“What about witnesses?” he asked.

“I turned those off when we were in the
control room.”

“And what about someone seeing us from the
gallery?”

Haines smiled mischievously. “I told Dunn to
give us some time alone. We should have plenty of time.” She
slinked up to Malone and placed a hand on his chest. Suddenly, he
seemed nervous and uncertain.

“Would you feel more comfortable if I turned
off the lights?” Haines asked.

Malone could only nod
through parched lips and slowed brain function.
Is this really happening?

Haines walked to the door and turned off the
lights. The room was thrust into darkness except for the small
amount of light seeping in through the one-way mirror.

“Where are you, Jack?”

“Over here,” Malone responded hoarsely. He
started to loosen his tie so he could breathe.

Seconds later, Haines’s hands were back on
his chest and he could feel her hot breath on his neck.

“So how do you want to do this?” he
asked.

“I thought we’d get to know each other a
little bit first,” she teased, yanking down playfully on his
tie.

“Uh, sure. What would you like to know?”

“Oh, I just have one question for you,
Jack.” She grazed her nose along his jaw line, and he shuddered in
anticipation.

“Okay. What’s your question, Ms.
Haines?”

She took his head in her hands and brought
his ear down to her mouth. “I just want to know one thing. How long
did it take before you turned traitor?”

Before Malone had time to respond, Haines
blasted her knee into his groin. As he doubled over in pain, she
bent down and whispered in his ear one last time. “Now you know why
they call me The Hammer, you piece of shit.”

Grabbing his head again, she slammed her
knee into his temple and let him drop unconscious onto the floor.
Marge checked to see that he had a pulse, then grabbed the
handcuffs from Malone’s belt and strapped his two hands behind his
back. After relieving the crooked agent of his sidearm, Haines left
the room to fetch Dr. Higgins.

+++

Agent Jack Malone kicked and screamed as Dr.
Higgins wheeled in his tools. The guards had strapped him to a
gurney as he lay unconscious.

“
I don’t know what that
bitch told you, but you guys are in some deep shit. I am an FBI
agent!”

Higgins ignored the man and continued to set
up his supplies.

“Talk to me!” yelled Malone.

The expert interrogator continued to pay him
no heed. Higgins liked to get a first impression of his subjects.
It allowed him to assess the person’s demeanor in order to
administer the correct dosage of his truth serum. Agent Malone
might be a challenge, but the wizened doctor relished the test.

Higgins finally turned to face Malone. “Mr.
Malone, I am here to ask you some very specific questions. I will
tell you that it’s pointless trying to resist. Either tell me the
truth or we’ll extract it in other ways.”

Malone’s eyes bulged in anger. “You fucking
quack! I’m gonna have your ass for this! You know how
illegal…!”

Instead of listening further, Dr. Higgins
adjusted the mechanical gurney to give him better access to the
apparatus. Malone silenced as soon as he saw the needles.
“What…what’s that for?”

“I told you, Mr. Malone, if you don’t want
to cooperate, we’ll coax you into cooperating.”

“What are you talking about? I’m here to
investigate YOU!”

“I guess you could say the shoe is on the
other foot now, wouldn’t you?” Higgins asked.