An Unlikely Hero (1) (22 page)

What would become of him after all of this planning and scheming for so many years? Would the one who had blind sighted the United States draw praise from fellow Jihadists? It wasn’t that he really cared that much about Islam. Too many frightened people followed the ways of the prophet for his liking. All this was for much more.

The thought of snatching a few hours’ sleep toyed with his exhausted brain. He loved those times when his brain had been pushed to the limit and forced his body to shut down to reboot itself. The dreams would come during those deep dark times. Lions, once free and numerous across his land, returned to hunt and stalk its prey. Always the climax of his dreams came when the infidels meandered in the darkness, not feeling the lion’s breath until the deadly moment when life became eternal darkness. Essid smiled. Yes. A few hours of dreams offered him clarity and assurance.

Chapter 15

The steel doors swished opened to reveal Benjamin Clark’s team: dirty, tired and anxiously exchanging information about their daily operations that had separated them. Dragging in last walked a quiet and pale, Tessa Scott. Her eyes darted back and forth between the team as they verbalized the various aspects of the challenges presented to them throughout the day. Clearly, Mrs. Scott stood on the perimeter of exhaustion and confusion considering the graphic events that had engulfed her over the last two days. Although the team members spoke calmly, even chuckled from time to time, about the details of the day, Tessa Scott looked on anxiously as if experiencing the information for the first time. Ben guessed reiterating what had actually transpired would give a normal civilian pause. Even so, Ben thought it remarkable that the unassuming housewife of Grass Valley hadn’t been reduced into a blithering idiot.

“Prisoners?” Ben approached the Enigma team, folding his arms across his chest. All eyes went to Chase.

“FBI took ours at Oak Ridge. That’s why we’re late. Had to catch them up to speed. They were none too happy that we were on site without their help. Wanted to know who we were.” Chase smirked just as Ben unfolded his arms and gave his team leader a hard stare. “Don’t worry. I assured him he’d have to go to Homeland and discuss it with them. Let Tobias Stewart squirm out of it.”

Ben cut his eyes to Carter Johnson who flopped down in a leather desk chair, propping his feet up on the desk. “Same here. FBI was there most of the day. I think some spooks from Langley were too. The feds kept arguing with some other guys who the DOE sent out. I stayed out of it. While they were screwin’ round, we took care of the problem.” He smiled over at Vernon and winked at Sam.

“And you, Mrs. Scott?” Ben leveled a laser like glare at her innocent expression. “How did you do?”

Tessa straightened up and looked around at Zoric and Chase who said nothing on her behalf. Clearing her throat not once but twice made the others grin in tolerance. “Okay,” she whispered.

“Okay?” Ben growled a little rougher than he’d intended as she took a step back. “I understand you spoke at length to Dr. Haskins and his wife. Anything we should know about?”

Tessa looked over at the captain who offered nothing but an attentive gaze. “No. Nothing.” She nodded to Chase and Zoric. “They heard…”

“Very well then,” he said cutting her off. “The Haskin boys haven’t been located yet. We have a recovery team on the way to Tahoe to…”

“Tahoe?” Tessa seemed to come alive. “That’s where my family is staying. Are they in danger?” Tessa’s heart began to beat faster. Her face became flushed.

Benjamin arched an eyebrow in restrained anger at her interruption. “Mrs. Scott…”

“Answer me!” she demanded with more backbone than Tessa realized she possessed.

All the others seemed to find something else to focus their eyes on, except Captain Chase Hunter. He looked unemotionally at his new addition to Enigma. Moments before he’d thought her to be finished for the day, maybe for the week, but with one mention of Tahoe she’d come alive. His eyes slid down to her chest which was rising and falling with anxiousness. The flushed face meant her heart beat at a terrified rate. A smile within fought to break loose knowing that Benjamin Clark had no idea what he was toying with in Mrs. Tessa Scott.

“There is no need to be alarmed, Mrs. Scott, unless you think the Haskin boys would try and contact your family. Will they?” Ben had straightened his thick frame to its full six foot and looked down his narrow eagle-like nose at her. His voice had been stern and accusing but remained calm.

“No. They have no idea that we would be there.” Her eyes narrowed and landed on Chase with contempt, “or I should say,
they
would be there! I haven’t seen the boys since they started Stanford. You know how kids are; anyone over twenty is boring and out of touch.”

“Then your family is not likely to even know about the extraction process.” Ben took his eyes off of the housewife and commanded the attention of his team. “Now for Mr. Crawley.”

Zoric brought Tessa a black leather desk chair and pulled up another one next to her and smiled. This time she returned the smile and quickly darted her eyes away from his appreciative gaze. She had seen what this East European was capable of for two days. He was probably ten years older than her, but his hollow eyes and sunken cheekbones made him appear older. Something heavy weighed in those bloodshot eyes as well a cold and calculating element Tessa didn’t wish to know about first hand. The man clearly did not hesitate to take a life. Putting the moves on her, even though she was a married woman clearly didn’t affect him. Forcing herself to listen to Benjamin Clark made the close proximity of his darkly clad body seem less menacing. Besides, she caught a warning glance exchanged between Chase and Zoric that added a layer of safety to her raw feelings of helplessness.

“We know for sure that Essid has our former nuclear physicist, Jericho Crawley, hiding somewhere here in Sacramento. He sent several men on a private plane in order to distract us last evening. We caught up with them when they were forced to land in Boise. In the meantime our little songbird, Jamaal got rid of his tracker by going through a carwash. We managed to follow him until a car slammed into our tail, sending both our guys to the hospital.”

“The causalities are adding up,” Chase interjected as he ran his fingers back through his black hair. “Was the accident intentional?”

“We think so. Some college kid was given two hundred dollars to run a red light about the time we were going through. Unlikely the kid knew anything about the operation. He’s been treated and released with a hefty fine awaiting him in court. He’ll need more than two hundred dollars, I’m afraid.” Benjamin rested his left hip on the edge of the desk where Carter had his feet propped. “We’re still not sure why all of this has occurred now; the mini nuke never would have exploded, according to the lab rats anyway, too many elements missing for it to do any damage. The Oak Ridge scenario would make sense by itself had they been successful at retrieving the isotopes and access to other work going on there. But why Los Alamos at the same time?”

“You’ll have to admit it had all of us, FBI, CIA, NSA and every other acronym you can think of scurrying around like it was the second coming of Christ,” Carter said nonchalantly. “I think the isotope angle is what we’re after. Global Navigation is located on a ridge about an hour away from Auburn.”

“I’m sorry. Global Navigation? I’ve never seen anything about it. I come through Auburn all the time.” Tessa knew her ignorance showed like a glowing orb.

“Global Navigation has the potential to become a major provider of isotopes for North America. It’s located off the beaten path; nondescript place considering the important work they do there.” Carter removed his feet from the desk and leaned in toward Tessa, realizing he just might have a captive audience to impress. “Currently we depend heavily on the Chalk River reactor in Canada to supply us with isotopes used to diagnosis cancer and heart disease. The problem is the reactor is 53 years old and tends to have problems. In 2009 there was a heavy water leak which ended up shutting the whole thing down for 15 months. So the world suddenly faced a loss of about one third of all the isotopes available. The Department of Energy had already begun its own reactor project in 2002 unbeknownst to California tree huggers who would have done everything in their power to keep it from completion. People hear ‘nuclear reactor’ and think you’re making bombs or energy. The Global Navigation website indicates they’re on the cutting edge of medical research and disease resistant crops for third world countries.”

“A lie?” Tessa questioned innocently.

Benjamin took his hand held computer and punched in a few commands casually. “Not a lie exactly. It’s just not the whole truth,” he said, turning his body slightly to view the pictures that appeared on the flat screen behind him. “I think you’re right, Carter, but why here? Why now? What’s the point?” He nodded toward the screen. “These are the players so far. All seem to be taking orders from Essid. Having people at Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and here takes a chunk of change to orchestrate. Essid’s financials show he’s comfortable but not wealthy by any means.”

Vernon moved to his own computer and began searching. “It will take a while to look around. If the FBI guys didn’t find it…”

“The FBI didn’t know enough to keep him from working for the Secretary of the DOE so I doubt they looked to see if he had a sugar daddy someplace!” Ben said hotly.

“Which one is Essid?” Tessa cleared her throat nervously, not wanting to stand out as an imbecile among these brilliant Enigma agents with supersized egos. She stood slowly as if by doing so would increase her attention to detail. Everyone looked at her incredulously as if she were kidding. “I mean, I know he was on my computer yesterday, but to be honest things were happening so fast I didn’t really get a look at him.” She was stammering like a sixteen old year school girl who’d just been ask to prom by the star quarterback. Tessa tried to retreat back into her chair, but felt Zoric’s hand pat her hand that clutched the armrest.

“It’s okay, Tessa Scott.” Although his voice sounded gravelly, Tessa noted a tone of kindness.

Chase moved toward the screen and pointed to the picture of a man standing in front of a mosque, dressed in traditional clothing. The CIA had managed to find an old file photo which showed Essid when his beard had not been shaven or his hair cut in a western style, but the resemblance could not be mistaken in the photo. He noticed a recognition spring to Tessa’s eyes mixed with a little fear. If Chase had not arrived as a plumber when he did, it would have been only a matter of minutes before Essid issued an order to kill her, if not worse. This was a man without a conscience.

“Is he from Russia or an old Soviet republic?” Tessa said joining Chase at the screen.

Ben joined the two. “No. Why do you ask?”

“Because he’s standing in front of the Juma mosque in Baku, Azerbaijan.” Finally, something Tessa knew about. All eyes fell on her like a ball ping hammer. Their expressions were a mixture of anger and disbelief at the absurd interjection concerning things beyond her comprehension. Noting the skepticism, Tessa quickly explained. “Last year I took a class at Nevada County Campus of Sierra College in Grass Valley. It was called Journeys to Religious Shrines of the World. I chose the countries in Central Asia that touched the Caspian Sea for my final project paper. One of those countries was Azerbaijan. According to Soviet history, the Russians liked to use Azerbaijan as an example of how they demonstrated religious tolerance. But the fact was that out of the hundreds and hundreds of mosques that once dotted the countryside by the 1980s, only twenty one large mosques were allowed to hold services in Baku. There were maybe eleven to fifteen others that remained in the country of any consequence. Out of that there were thousands of officially private houses of prayer and unfortunately, many secret Islamic sects as well.” Tessa took a deep breath. Now that she’d rambled on with excitement about her project, she realized with disappointment that it really did sound a little self-serving.

“And how’d you do?” Captain Chase Hunter folded his muscled arms across his chest and smiled as he arched his eyebrows.

“Excuse me?” Tessa said, feeling that wave of shyness wash over her under his steady gaze.

“The project. How’d you do?”

Tessa raised her chin in pride and tried to stand tall. “I made an A.”

Chase chuckled and used the back of his hand to slap Benjamin lightly across the chest who now stared with new eyes at the picture of Essid. “And why haven’t any of you noticed that!” Ben barked as he cut his eyes to the others. “A civilian had to see something none of our government agencies noticed!” He turned his sharp eyes back at Tessa. For a second he felt swallowed up in their tranquil beauty. This woman had no idea what she’d done. “How do you explain all of this, Mrs. Scott?”

“All of what, Mr. Clark?” Tessa took a step back and tried to lean against the desk where Carter still sat.

“This! These men invade your house, take your neighbor that just so happens to be a nuclear scientist, and then you just happen to know Dr. Haskin who does the leading isotope research in the U.S. Then,” Ben took a step toward her, keeping his voice low and calm, but losing none of the intimidation factor, “you save one of Captain Hunter’s men from a terrorist, put yourself in danger for a pregnant woman and now you tell us you took a class that caused you to study Azerbaijan which has made you give us what is possibly the key to this whole mess.” By now Ben towered over Tessa who had inched herself onto the desk, leaning back away from his physical presence. “How in the name of Heaven do you explain that, Mrs. Scott?”

“Divine intervention?” Tessa said with the sudden realization that everything she’d ever done and experienced had led up to this moment. Could God have set before her opportunities, gifts and encounters to arrive at this one place in time so that she could help save her country from those that would do it harm. An avalanche of warm courage began surging through her body as she looked around the room at the other Enigma team members. They looked skeptical but impressed with her retort to Benjamin Clark. “Divine intervention,” she said again with confidence this time. “How else would you explain it?” A smile began to break lazily across her face.