Balance of Power Shifted (52 page)

The
y have placed two embarrassing requirements on us as a condition for not releasing these details to the world, which includes the immediate release of Mister Michael Carter, uninjured and not interrogated.  In addition, they are demanding the immediate halt to our industrial espionage efforts at all levels.  Unfortunately, we feel if we do not comply, there will be such public outcry around the globe that countries will stop doing business with us thereby depriving us of a large amount of revenue that we need to build our armed forces to a world class level. 

In light of this damaging situation, you will return Michael Carter back to the US immediately and shut down all
industrial espionage operations.  For the time being, consider yourself under house arrest until notified otherwise. 

After
the excoriation by council member Xi, General Hu bowed without argument or showing any type of emotion, but internally, he was seething at those week pompous council members.  Thinking he would still like to keep on breathing, he turned and headed for the door.  Recognizing the absurdity of his next thought, he wondered if the twins would still be able to visit while he was under house arrest…

Back on home soil, things were beginning to fall into place.  A couple of days previously, agents Rae and Tomas had tailed the mystery man to the Hertz rental car drop at Dulles airport, from the meeting the driver had with the Pinnacle lawyer.  As soon as the rental car pulled up and the suspect entered the counter area, agent Tomas had casually pulled the attendant aside, showed her his badge, and asked that the car stay the way it was.  Although the attendant got nervous regarding the request, she complied and moved onto the next car.  Agent Rae had taken the same shuttle to the airport terminal as the suspect, but had lost him at security and did not want to draw attention by getting the TSA involved.

Presently while s
itting in their office, they had just received confirmation from the finger prints pulled from the rental car.  At first, the prints came up empty, but when they searched the military database, they hit pay dirt.  They already knew that the identification documents used to rent the car and airline tickets were excellent forgeries.  A quick check of Jasper Millens identity showed the current employer to be Peak Oil based out of Houston Texas, which just happened to be the final destination for their mystery man.  Jasper, it appeared was 50 years old, honorably discharged from the Marines after 20 years of service and in charge of security for Peak Oil whose primary shareholder was Tyree Grant.  This corresponded with the case file in regards to the Pinnacle connection to unidentified oil companies.  Now a direct link existed between Pinnacle and Peak.  After typing up their analysis, Agent Rae phoned the lead agent on the case, Matt Morgan, with the information.

By
5 PM, the following day, the agents staking out Jasper’s expensive townhome in an exclusive area of Houston, approached him as he was exiting his car and brought him in for questioning without resistance.  The agents were thankful for this since Mr. Millens was a formidable physical presence at six foot two and heavily muscled with arms that looked like thick, corded cables.  They were holding him on the use of false identification and waited for Agent Morgan to perform the interrogation. 

Within an hour of landing in Houston’s airport from Newark, Matt was sitting across from Mr. Millens.  At first Millens refused to answer any questions, but when Matt started to lay out
surveillance photos of him meeting with the Pinnacle lawyer and pictures of him using false credentials for the car rental and airline ticket, he started to sit up straighter and pay more attention.  Seeing he had caught his attention, Matt started to link actions from Pinnacle with Peak Oil.  Throwing pictures of the dead assailants from the Fish Island attack and Efficio headquarters attack, he then added the pictures of the dead Efficio employee and Clavis guards, explaining who they were at each level.  To shock him, he threw the picture of the dead Pinnacle employee Jason on the table and said, “Now this guy couldn’t get the job done for Pinnacle.  He became injured and attracted attention to himself. Look at what happened to him after that?  The last picture thrown on the pile was Titus Aaron, the helicopter pilot in the Fish Island attack.  Mr. Millens, I am sure you are aware that the first person that talks usually gets the best deal.  Do you want to take advantage of that?”

An hour and half later, Agent Morgan read back Mr. Millens statements to him.  Even agent Morgan was stunned to know that these things still occurred in the
big business and big money world of oil.  It turned out that Jasper was going to have to pay for his part in everything, but he was not as hardcore as he came across.  Initially blackmailed into organizing these things for his boss Tyree Grant, he could never escape Tyree’s hold on him. 

After
Electricus became a reality and determined to be legitimate, individuals representing an organization called Crossed Swords, contacted Mr. Grant while on a business trip to Bahrain.  He had agreed to help support activities by an OPEC splinter group to take out Efficio executives and facilities in an effort to eliminate them from being competition to the current world energy market.  Jasper’s role was to be the intermediary between Pinnacle and Peak oil and make sure the transportation and weapons ended up in their hands. 

Tyree Grant had found out through his previous head of security that Jasper, who was working as a supervisor, had gotten himself into deep shit due to not being able to pay back
loan sharks 250 thousand dollars.  Jasper’s wife had gotten sick and he needed a ton of money to get her the treatments she needed and take care of their little girl.  To try to make money Jasper had looked to sell pot and cocaine.  He got caught with stuff in his work locker by his own security group. 

When
informed of the incident with Jasper, Tyree, instead of firing him, paid off the loan sharks, held their notes instead, and kept an internal report documented by his security team to hold over Jasper’s head.  From that point on Jasper had been his pawn even after Jasper’s wife died since he still had to support his daughter, his pride and joy, at 15 years old.  Now that the truth was out, Jasper dumped everything he had on Tyree Grant and agreed to testify however needed.

Twenty-two thousand feet in the air,
Mike felt like a huge weight was lying across his body and his eyelids felt like they were a hundred pounds each.  He sensed sunlight and felt the vibration of an engine.  It seemed to take forever, but he got stronger with every passing minute and forced his eyelids partway open.  He realized that the engine noise was from a prop plane and that he was sitting in a front passenger seat of it.  Moving his arms, he realized that he was tie wrapped to the armrest of the chair.  There were two Asian looking soldiers in the passenger area of the plane and no one else.  One of them noticed that my eyes were open and that I was trying to move around, he stood above me for a brief moment, and sat back down. 

Mike felt himself drift in and out of consciousness for
a while without ever becoming fully conscious.  Each time he opened his eyes he was more aware, and realized drugs were involved in his condition and the effects were wearing off.  He felt the plane start a descent and ten minutes later a soft landing.  The cabin door opened and a Caucasian man and woman entered the plane and approached Mike.  “Mr. Carter, we are here to escort you back to the United States.”  Mike, not knowing what happened, tried to ask questions, but his words just came out garbled. 

The taller of the two men nodded his head towards the
flexi cuffs Mike was wearing and one of the guards produced a small knife and quickly sliced through the plastic straps freeing Mike’s arms.  As the Americans lifted Mike up, he tried to get his legs under him, but failed miserably as his legs felt as if they lacked bones.  “Careful Mr. Carter, we will support you.”  They eased Mike out of the plane and down to the tarmac and literally carried him about 50 feet to a sleek passenger jet.  Just before entering the plane, Mike caught sight of a large sign on the terminal building and was shocked to realize he was in Taiwan.

FBI agents Rae and Titus had dealt with all types of people, but the steadfastness and
calmness that Michael Carter asked his questions and processed the answers with was amazing.  His main concern was for his team in Gulfport and was ecstatic to learn that there were no serious injuries involved.  Rae wondered to himself, how could this kid be in charge of one of the most important discoveries in human history, be attacked over-and-over and yet remain calm and in control?

Mike had no memory of the kidnapping and back
tracked the timeline to realize that he had been drugged for 32 hours.  No wonder he was dehydrated and starving.  He ate prepared sandwiches and drank three bottles of water in the first hour of flight to Hawaii where they would refuel and then head to Los Angeles.  From there they would switch planes and fly to Newark airport.  Tomas informed him that more details would be forthcoming from agent Morgan when we land at Newark airport.

  During the half hour wait in Hawaii, Agent Tomas dialed Fiona’s number for Mike and handed it to him and both agents
then moved out of earshot.  Mike was a macho guy and Fiona was as tough as they come, but there were a lot of tears on both sides of the phone and ‘love you’s’ going back and forth.  They did have one humorous moment when Fiona told him that Bill had ‘come out’ and when Mike deadpanned “but isn’t he married to Charlene”, they both laughed at the pitiful joke.  Hanging up with Fiona, Mike was beginning to feel like himself and could not wait to get back to New Jersey and with Bill back in the game things would be a lot easier to deal with.

Titus Aaron was enjoying Alta Mira Mexico.  The area had every major US iconic store there and it felt just like home. 
He thought to himself, as he sat under a beach umbrella sipping down a cold Corona that they really needed to get their shit together down here.  It seemed that all the local drinking water suffered from contamination to the point they would not even let their pets drink it.  There were water kiosks all over the place and you had to get your dinking and cooking water from them. 

He had enough money from his last job to live down here for at least a year if he had to.  As he reached into his mini cooler for a fresh beer
, two shadows crossed his body.  Looking up to see where the intrusions to the sun were coming from, he realized he was screwed royally.  “Titus Aaron,” one of the two suited men asked.  “No habla English,” Titus replied in a lame try. “Titus Aaron, we need you to come with us,” the same agent said and showed his FBI credentials.  Looking behind him and seeing a couple Mexican Federales, Titus realized he had no recourse but to comply and drained his just opened beer then stood up to be cuffed.

Agent Morgan was excited about how the case was coming together.  With the confessions from Jasper and Titus, they had enough evidence to arrest Tyree Grant
and Maurice Armstrong as well as a few other Pinnacle employees and obtain broad search warrants. A joint raid, scheduled tomorrow at 10 Eastern Time on the headquarters of Pinnacle and Peak Oil, created excitement in the FBI office. He had already informed the CIA about the developments and received confirmation of the hard link between the
Crossed Swords
group and their operations in the United States with Tyree Grant and Pinnacle.

Carl had just called his contact in the Mossad to update them on the proven connection of
Crossed Swords,
Pinnacle and Peak Oil.  He was concerned about the Mossad report, from just an hour earlier, detailing increased activity of the terrorist cell possibly directed at the now public William Bates.  With no public announcement about Mike Carter’s release, they believed
Crossed Swords
had now turned their attention back Mr. Bates.  The Mossad contact thanked Carl and added, “Our Efficio friend’s health is of primary importance to us.  We will be ensuring their health.”  Carl knew this to mean that the members of
Crossed Swords
were in for a major hurt, which brought a rare smile to Carl’s face.

Upon arrival at Newark airport,
Matt met Mike and whisked him away through a special security entrance to avoid any public notice.  Matt informed Mike that he was taking him, hopefully for the last time, to his quarters at Picatinny Arsenal base where Fiona and the rest of the senior executives were waiting to meet him.  “Mike, I am going to provide you with some information that I need you to keep very close to you for now, but it is information you will be happy to hear.”  For the next 15 minutes, Agent Morgan filled Mike in on the details of his kidnapping and how his release was negotiated and included details on the imminent arrests of the CEOs of Pinnacle and Peak Oil and how they supported the
Crossed Swords
terrorist cell in an effort to stop Electricus from gaining ground. 

He stressed that the information regarding the Chinese deal can never be divulged
, and is considered a critical part of national security.  “Holy shit,” Mike said aloud.  No wonder we felt people coming at us from all sides, because it was true.  What are we going to do about those
Crossed Sword
dudes?”  Matt responded. “Our CIA contacts are working on it as we speak.  They have some help over in that part of the world and I cannot give you any details, but they are aware of the enemy.  Hopefully the problem will be dealt with soon.”