Inside Lucifer's War (19 page)

I grab her arms and try to quiet her. “Okay! Okay! Calm down,” I tell her.

Just then, I see Leslie through the glass in the door frame. I shake my head “no” to her, but she waves her hand to me to step outside. I open the door slightly and squeeze through, shutting it quickly behind me and asking in an irritated tone, “What is it?”

“There’s a man here to see you. His name is Kinsley McKee. Actually, he came with two other men, and they’re waiting outside the department door,” she says with a hint of annoyance. “He says he has an appointment with you. But I didn’t see anything on your calendar.”

“Oh no,” I blurt out. “He’s early. Leslie, I need you to stall him. Let me come meet him out there. Don’t let him come back here. Please.”

“Fine,” she says, turning back.

Her body language suggests she doesn’t mind a little scrap with Kinsley. He must have been rude, as Leslie is rarely feisty with strangers. I really need to get her a great present, I think to myself as I return to my office.

“Ashley, you’ve got to get out of here. They’re here right now!” I say, pulling her up.

“Here? Now? I watched you, though. You weren’t followed,” she says.

“They didn’t need to follow me. I have a nine o’clock appointment with them. There are some restrooms down the hall. Stay there.”

“Restrooms? How long am I going to have to stay in there? That might cause some chatter among the women,” she retorts.

“They won’t be here long, and they have two men outside the department. You can’t leave. Just go. I’ll make it short with them. Trust me,” I say, pulling her along.

I push her down the hall and try to straighten up myself before heading toward the departmental office. I greet Kinsley with a warm handshake.

“Good morning, Kinsley. It’s good to see you,” I lie. I look at the two men with him, but I don’t recognize them.

“Doing a little running this morning, are you?” he asks.

He must have seen me with Ashley, I think. I scramble to think of something to say.

“Your forehead,” Kinsley says. “You’re sweating.”

I wipe my brow with a sigh of relief. “Let’s just say that whatever I ate last night didn’t settle well overnight.”

He laughs. “One of those mornings. That must be why your secretary wouldn’t allow me to go to your office. I can appreciate someone who protects her boss’s reputation.”

I escort him to my office and shut the door behind us. “Please have a seat,” I say, pointing toward the chairs across from my desk. Then I notice Ashley’s purse under one of the chairs. It’s not zipped. It would be easy for him to see whose it is if he even glances inside it. I feel my face turning red and the sweat building up even more.

“How are you holding up, Thomas?” he asks as he sits down with his feet not more than a couple of inches from the purse.

I need to let out some of my anxiety or he will know that I’m trying to hide something. “I have to be honest, Kinsley. Dallas shook me up. My mind has been scattered ever since Sunday morning, and I can’t get that weekend out of my head. I’m still trying to understand what all happened.”

“Listen, Thomas. You need to put Dallas behind you. Andrew was a big boy with a big mouth and a big appetite. He made his bed and, unfortunately, he had to lie in it. Bishop told me everything. All of that’s over. No one is blaming you, and no one can place you there. You have nothing to worry about. Everything is fine. Everything has been sanitized. The only thing you have to do now is send an e-mail and a text to Andrew today. Then you need to move forward. It’s time to put everything and everyone behind you as you take on this new assignment. Look, I’m sure you appreciate how Leslie protects you. In our organization, everyone protects everyone else.”

“I know. You’re right,” I tell him.

“Good. Does that mean we have a deal? Are you onboard? First Orchard needs you,” he says.

“I’m onboard,” I tell him with a big smile. “I just have one request. I need two weeks to get things in order and transition my class. It’s important to me that I do this right for them. I know it seems strange, but I’m very protective of my students.”

Kinsley stares at me for a second, as if playing a hand of poker. He measures my expression and says nothing for a while, but in fact it’s only a few seconds. I try not to look down, but his foot is sliding closer to the purse.

Finally, he says, “Two weeks is fine. We’re thrilled to have you with us. I’ll be sending some more information to you by courier and setting up a time for you to meet with some of your future colleagues. Congratulations, Dr. Fields.”

“Thanks,” I say in relief as we both stand and shake hands. I look down to see his left foot on the purse strap as he turns to walk out. It catches his attention. He stops, looks down, and sees the purse. He starts to pick it up, but I reach for it first.

“Let me get this. One of my students must have left it here.”

He stares at me for a moment and then smiles.

I walk him to the front office and tell him good-bye. I watch the three men enter the elevator before I head for Ashley’s hiding place. I barely open the door to the women’s restroom.

“Ashley?” I softly call out.

Moments later I hear a woman crying. “It’s clear,” I say.

I hand her the purse, and we go back to my office, shutting the door behind us.

“Tell me what happened. I need to know,” I say.

She stares at me cautiously. “Why did you have a meeting with those men? I thought I could trust you. Am I wrong?” She begins to stand up.

“Please wait,” I say, holding my hands out toward her. “You can trust me. You asked me to help you. Tell me how.”

“How do I know you aren’t setting me up?” she asks.

“You don’t,” I say. “All I can tell you is that I’m trapped too, but I have something they want. Let’s just say it’s my bargaining chip. Please, I need to know about that night.”

“I need your help first,” she says.

“What can I do?” I ask.

“I need to hide. If they find me, they’ll kill me. I know it. I need to get out of the country.” She looks at me with beautiful tear-filled blue eyes.

“Where do I come in?” I ask.

“I need money. Twenty-five thousand should do it,” she implores.

“That’s a lot of money,” I say. I know I can get that amount out of my bank account, but it’s a lot of money to hand over to a stranger. It’s certainly not small change. And such a withdrawal will draw a lot of attention. And not just from Homeland Security.

“It’s not much for a life—my life. I also need a ticket to Rome, but you can’t book it. Someone you know needs to book it for me.”

“Italy?” I ask. I know that I’m short on time, and the only way I can piece together what happened in Dallas is through Ashley. I need for her to confide in me, so I have no choice but to help her. “I can get the money to you by Saturday.” I write down the name of a café in East Austin, far away from the tourist area. “Meet me here at ten o’clock. I’ll have the money and the airline ticket. I’m not sure how I’m going to get someone to book it, but I will. Now, I need some answers. Please.”

“I’m putting my life in your hands, Dr. Fields,” she says. “You understand that?”

“I understand,” I say, feeling a little perturbed. “Please, tell me about that night. I can’t remember anything after we left Megan and Andrew.”

She finally relents. “Megan and Andrew started to get physical at the table, making us both uncomfortable, so we took a walk through the crowd. We talked about books. Andrew and Megan corralled us at another table. Then the waitstaff brought champagne for everyone. A man stopped by our table. A sharp dresser, he was Scottish or Irish. Somebody hushed the crowd and talked about the organization’s achievements and said they had hit a landmark contribution figure. Everybody toasted the organization. Everyone but me. I’ve never cared much for champagne, so I dumped it into my water glass. A couple of men came by and talked with the Scottish guy. Then he shook your hand and left. Shortly after you had emptied your champagne glass, you were different. You started to grow more distant. You seemed detached. Andrew, however, only got louder and ordered more drinks. The two men stayed near our table and occasionally asked if everything was all right. You looked like you were going to pass out. The men said they would take care of you, but they wanted me to come along. This scared me, so I pretended to be drunk and said I needed to go to the restroom. One of them started to follow me. I didn’t know what to do. Then you started to slump, and Andrew yelled at the two guys. The one following me went back to the table, and I ran out of there as fast as I could, never looking back. That was the last time I saw you.”

“They drugged our drinks. That’s why I can’t remember anything.” I stare blankly. “How did you find out about Andrew and Megan?”

“The news,” she says. “There was a story about two people in a car wreck. I recognized Megan’s hair. The police report said that both had drugs in their systems. She was supposed to get in touch with me on Sunday, but I never heard from her. I tried to call, but it only went to voice mail. I put it all together.”

“And your sister?” I ask sheepishly.

“I noticed some men watching my apartment. I snuck out late Sunday night and went to my older sister’s house in Plano. No one could have followed me. They must have found out about my other sister. They must have had someone watching her place. I never told her why I was there. If I had, she might be alive today. Instead, I told her I’d been having some anxiety and I needed to be with my big sister. She took me in. Yesterday afternoon I was driving back to her house and saw the police and an ambulance were there. I tried to get into the house, but the police held me back. They told me there had been a burglary, and my sister must have surprised the robber. She was shot at close range. I knew better, though. They killed her. And it’s my fault. It’s all my fault.”

I try to comfort Ashley, but she pushes me away. About that time, two students approach my door and pause for a moment. It’s almost time for my next class to start.

“I’m so sorry,” I say. “Thank you for telling me what happened. You don’t know what it means to me. I’ll get you out of the country. Somewhere that you can start a new life, away from them. I’ll see you Saturday at the café. Okay? Oh, wait. I’m going to need your last name for the ticket.”

“Hammonds.”

My classes bring back some cherished normalcy for me. I enjoy the setting and the discussions. I’m actually sad when my last class is over.

Sitting in my office at the end of the day, I open my briefcase to put away my class notes and head out the door. I see Andrew’s files in the briefcase, calling to me. I take out the folder and set it on my desk, looking at it for a few minutes before I open it. Inside is the flash drive. Suddenly a voice causes me to jump and slam the folder shut.

“Dr. Fields?” Leslie asks.

“Yes. What is it, Leslie?”

“I just wanted to check with you about the Thursday evening meeting. Dr. Gould will be expecting you and Josephine.”

“Okay. Thursday evening. Got it,” I say.

“This is important,” she emphasizes.

“I know. I want to help. I want Josephine to get better,” I reassure her. I ask her to shut my door on her way out, and my attention returns to the folder. I open it again and scan a few pages. Most contain names and titles of people and Andrew’s interpretations of what he saw in the data. The flash drive probably contains the actual data.

I insert the flash drive into my laptop. The decryption team that Andrew mentioned must have done their work well. All the files open easily.

The Principal is not labeled as the Principal in the files. It’s simply referred to as P, or at least I believe P means the Principal. In addition to the names and organizations listed in the files, there is information that looks like tactics or strategies of the organization. I can hardly believe this information was on a single tablet, trying to imagine the tight security of the Principal. No wonder they wanted this information back. No wonder they needed Andrew dead.

One heading reads “Destabilization of United States.” Although the language is cryptic, certain phrases stand out. Mentioned several times is the NSA and key people of various service carriers who are monitoring and passing along the information. Reading between the lines, I think the Principal’s aim is to capture whatever the NSA is seeing and then leak the information in order to jeopardize the NSA task. The goal seems to be a trust gap between the public and the government. Specific language within the Patriot Act and the Affordable Care Act is referenced. It looks like money is being funneled into various left- and right-wing protests whose aim is to question the government’s authority. The IRS is mentioned throughout, although the details don’t immediately make sense to me. It looks like they want to fan the flames of every conspiracy theory about the government being touted by fringe extremists. But the Principal will be the ultimate conspiracy hiding in the wings.

Another title reads “Creating Hatred for Evangelicals.” This section highlights how the Principal plans to advance the notion that humanists are the true lovers and protectors of the people. On the other hand, evangelicals are hate-filled warmongers and need to be stopped. The emphasis on love versus intolerance is spread throughout the document.