Dominant Deception [Black Ops Brotherhood 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (26 page)

“She’s running a fever. It could be from the pain of the trauma. It’s pretty normal. Hopefully she’s not getting an infection. I’ll have the nurses call her doctor so he can order some lab work,” Alex said.

Jack stood to leave. “I need to go see Mac and Whiskey.”

Randolph Air Force Base, Texas

US Naval Special Warfare Group Five

Office of the Commander

August 22, 2008/1351 Zulu

Jack’s staff who had been summoned was waiting when he walked into his office. He was tired and now had a nagging feeling that his whole world was about to take a turn for the worse. Rafe stood and met him at the door.

“How is she, Rock?” Rafe asked.

“Alive,” Jack said shortly.

Rafe sat down again. The look on Jack’s face left no doubt this would be a bad day. He took a look at his key men.

“Status,” Jack said sharply.

“There were fifteen non-Special Warfare Group personnel in the hangar at the time of the incident, Captain. All the detainees were interviewed and let go, sir. We had no reason to hold them because they all came back clean. We are, however, keeping them under surveillance. Mac and I had the civilians and other personnel who aren’t ours moved from the building and have restricted this area. The base commander is a little pissed, Rock. But he didn’t give me any grief. I told him we would be running readiness exercises that were classified. Base IT Support is the only real problem right now. They had to be relocated to Brooks,” Rafe said.

“NCIS is here, Captain. They have what seems to be the weapon involved in this incident in their possession. They were able to lift one print from the weapon and are running it as we speak. They’re still evaluating the crime scene,” Mac said.

Jack recalled walking past three SEALs when he entered the building a short time ago. He glowered at Mac and turned to Lieutenant Gamez, his communications security officer. The young lieutenant sat upright and swallowed hard.

“We’ve got a problem, Captain,” Lieutenant Gamez said. Jack closed his eyes and threw his head back, saying nothing as he waited for Lieutenant Gamez to continue. “The surveillance video has been hacked and erased for the time of the incident.”

Lieutenant Gamez shifted uneasily in his chair.

“Captain, we’re working on trying to recover what was lost, sir. We’re checking all the backups. Whoever hacked the system knew where to look. NCIS is flying in a communications forensic expert from DC, sir,” Lieutenant Gamez said.

“Fuck! Lieutenant, get me an ID. I don’t need to tell you this is critical, do I?” Jack swore as he got up from the table.

“No, sir,” Lieutenant Gamez said.

Jack leaned on the back of the chair he’d been sitting in. “Guys, what the fuck happened here? How in the hell did someone with a
weapon
walk in here and shoot the computer chick? And how in the hell did they walk back out?” he asked, looking around the table.

Jack remembered the message Anna was supposed to send to Chief Brooks.

“Montgomery! Get in here!” Jack roared.

Steve hobbled hurriedly into the captain’s office.

“Yes, sir,” Petty Officer Montgomery snapped.

“There was a message yesterday. Anna left it for you. Did you send it out?” Jack asked sharply. He watched as Steve’s face drained of its color.

“Yes, sir. She did leave a message for Chief Brooks. I haven’t seen it since, sir,” Steve said.

“Oh my God. All right, Steve. That’s all,” Jack said, resuming his seat.

Steve slowly left the unnaturally quiet office. Jack looked around the table. He was done, and he had to get them out of his office so he could think.

“You’re all dismissed,” Jack said.

One by one they left the office, Gamez being the last one. Jack was sitting staring at the wall. The young lieutenant was taking his time leaving and kept looking at Jack.

“What is it, Lieutenant?” Jack snapped.

“Sir, I didn’t want to say anything in front of the others, and I am by no means accusing anyone of anything, but…” Lieutenant Gamez said, slowly closing the door.

“What are you trying to tell me?” Jack asked, sitting up.

“One of the backups was recovered. We were at it all night, recovering data from the surveillance servers. After this Sunday, Anna and I started to do some more layering in the systems, different servers and stuff. I started doing a lot more redundancies in the systems. I asked for the forensic expert to enhance the video. It was from a bad angle. But the shot did catch someone with something, sir.” Dan looked away.

“Go on, Lieutenant.”

“I didn’t want to say anything because the way the systems were hacked, as well as the cyberattack this past weekend, it’s like an inside job, Captain. I don’t want to believe it, sir.”

“I don’t want to either, Dan. But I think you’re right. Don’t tell anyone else about this, understood? Let everyone believe you got nothing right now, got that?”

“Yes, sir. And I’m sorry about holding out until now.”

“You did the right thing,” Jack reassured him

The young lieutenant turned to leave and Jack called out before he could open the door.

“As soon as you have an ID, if I’m not around, tell Mac. You call me, and you and Mac take a small team, no more than four, and go after the asshole that did this. I want them alive and able to talk,” Jack said.

“Yes, sir.” Lieutenant Gamez turned to leave the office.

Jack walked to the door and called in Petty Officer Montgomery. Steve walked into his office and stood at attention.

“Relax, Friday. Sit down,” Jack said, taking a seat. Steve remained standing. “Steve, sit.”

Petty Officer Montgomery sat down stiffly in the chair across from his boss.

“What happened, Steve?” Jack asked.

“My lack of attention to detail, sir.”

Jack had used those same words to Dixie when his mission in Bosnia had failed.

“Why didn’t you follow procedure and lock up the message?” Jack asked.

“I heard the gunshot and didn’t think about securing my work space. It was dereliction on my part, sir.”

“We’re fighting something that’s very different than what we’re trained for. This is an enemy we can’t see because of the way they operate. They were able to sneak up on us this time. We can’t let this happen again,” Jack said quietly.

Steve said nothing. He returned his stare at the desk in front of him. Jack opened his desk drawer and looked for the copy that Anna had left him to review. It was still in the folder where he’d left it the day before.
Thank God.

“Here, this is a copy. Get it out before you do anything else and see if you can recover the original. Do you understand?” Jack asked.

There was no need to chew on this one. Petty Officer Montgomery knew he’d made a huge mistake. And just as Dixie had done with him, Jack knew he didn’t need to drive the point home any further. He let go. Petty Officer Montgomery did not move right away.

“Sir, I would like to request that you relieve me of my post. I couldn’t even follow my first general order. This is serious, Captain. A fucking seaman recruit could’ve done better. Sir.” Steve choked.

“If that’s the case, Friday, I should be kicked out of the Navy for all the general orders I didn’t follow. No, I’m not relieving you of anything. You will move on and you will not make this mistake again. It’s done. Let’s just fix it as best we can.”

“Sir, I would like to be re—”

“That’ll be all, Petty Officer, get back to work. You can make up for all of this by
following my orders.
I need that message gone before anything else happens.”

“Yes, sir,” Steve said, taking the folder, slowly hobbling out of the office.

Jack leaned back into his large leather chair. What he needed was a long workout and some sleep. He heard the phone ring in the outside office, and Steve answered. He paid no attention as he thought about all the mistakes
he’d
made since this whole thing started. Friday walked into Jack’s office and he acknowledged him silently.

“Sir, a Colonel Jackson just called from the 1427
^th
Comm Group, out at Lackland. He said he needed to talk to you ASAP about Anna. Under the circumstances, Skipper, I told him you would return the call,” Steve said.

“Say what?”

“Colonel Jackson, sir.”

“What exactly did you tell him?”

“Nothing, sir, I told him you would return his call.”

“What the hell is going on? How in the hell did Jackson find out about this?” Jack whispered. Steve said nothing as he awaited further instructions. “Okay, Friday. If he calls back tell him you gave me the message and I’ll call back as soon as I can.”

“Aye, Captain.” Steve left the office.

Jack felt as if the walls were closing in on him. Everything seemed to be happening at once. He had to think and think fast. Rafe decided he needed the next conference.

“Rock, I just got a call from Colonel Jackson, Anna’s boss. He’s really pissed. He says he got a call about seven thirty last night from base ops. They received a call from BAMC, informing him that Anna was in the hospital and they needed to reach her next of kin.” Jack said nothing as he stared at the wall. Rafe stood waiting.

“What’s going on with her, Rock?” Rafe asked.

Jack turned his head slightly, giving Rafe the first indication that he’d even heard him.

“What did you tell him?” Jack asked.

“I told him I was on leave yesterday and knew nothing. He said he tried to call you. I told him you were on leave today and would be back on Monday. He gave me his personal cell number. He wants to talk to you in a bad way, Rock.” Jack leaned back into his chair and returned his stare to the wall. “Do you want me to call him back? What do you want me to say?”

“No, I’ll call him. I’m just not doing it right now. There’s no avoiding telling him what happened. He obviously knows,” Jack said.

“Do
we
even know what happened?”

“No, we don’t. But Anna’s not safe yet and the less people know the better.”

“Someone’s identified her as a threat. And you and I know they’re probably not done with her yet.”

Randolph Air Force Base, Texas

US Naval Special Warfare Group Five

Office of the Commander

August 22, 2008/1417 Zulu

Jack sat patiently as he listened to Colonel Jackson explain his concerns upon receiving the call from base ops. Jack was tired and becoming more and more frustrated. This was shaping up to be the longest twenty-four hours he’d endured in quite some time.

“Naturally you can understand why I’m so concerned,” Jackson concluded.

“Absolutely, Colonel, I’m concerned myself. But I’m surprised you feel like you need to intercede on Anna’s behalf,” Jack said.

“I beg your pardon, Captain? She’s a civilian employee of mine. Who’s working on a classified project with you. Wouldn’t you be concerned? Who am I supposed to talk to?”

“No, sir, she’s not an employee of yours. She’s a civilian employee for Headquarters, Special Operations Command out of MacDill Air Force Base.”

“What!” Jackson exclaimed.

“Yes, sir. A week after she was put on loan here, the project she was working on became more complicated and much more urgent. Because of her knowledge of the situation and the aid she was able to give, Naval Special Warfare Command, Admiral Campbell made a request to SOCOM’s cyber-warfare branch for a civilian position, they picked her up and she was transferred to SOCOM. Admiral Campbell further requested the position be placed on loan to Headquarters Navy Special Warfare Command. SOCOM had a position available. Ms. Santiago was asked if she would consider the offer. Ms. Santiago was interviewed and accepted the reassignment. She’s still on loan but not from you. I am sorry that your personnel people did not notify you,” Jack stated matter-of-factly.

“What the hell is going on here? Why couldn’t you tell me?” Colonel Jackson demanded.

“Actually, sir, everything I’m telling you now is classified. At the time you didn’t have a need to know. She wasn’t moved from Randolph because we had reason to be concerned for her safety. Admiral Campbell felt it was in her best interest that things seemed to remain as they always had been. Now you can see our concern was justified.”

“This goes beyond the computer virus?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What’s going on O’Malley, and why in the hell are civilian employees being used for target practice in this hangar? This is crap that I wasn’t notified that my civilian employee was moving. It sounds like you guys are covering your asses right now!” Jackson almost shouted.

Jack took a deep breath. This was clearly the third-worst day of his life.

“Colonel Jackson, I’ll be glad to contact my admiral and let you talk to him. I can’t tell you a lot right now, mainly because it’s a highly classified operation involving terrorists. And because of the current situation involving Ms. Santiago, I’m not telling you anything until I feel that no one else is in danger and she’s safe,” Jack explained.