Perspectives, An Intriguing Tale of an American Born Terrorist (34 page)

“He said that I could pay you,” said Jonathan slapping an American Express card on the counter. “Five hundred dollars a week, and I’ve got it for a month. It looks like they’re going to have to repaint the Gulfstream……Mrs. Green says it’s the wrong color blue. “

John Kucel rolled his eyes and laughed. “Talk about a high maintenance broad.”

Jonathan smiled, “So, I’d like to pay in advance if that’s okay. Charlie said that you had a remote for the hangar doors and could let me in.” “No problem,” answered John. After completing the credit card transaction, John said, “I’ll meet you over there” and then John exited the FBO toward the runway, hopped into a green golf cart and scurried down the taxiway, stopped and then raced across the main runway. Jonathan climbed back into the Lear and when the attendant was out of sight, handed Mary the Suburban keys, pointed out the hangar and told her to take Carly and drive around the airport and meet him at the front of the hangar.

From about 50 yards away John hit the remote control and the monstrous hangar door began opening revealing a cavernous hangar that, except for a few pieces of ground support equipment, was completely empty. As Jonathan approached, John pulled a set of headphones from the back of the golf cart and put them on to save his ears from the whine of the big General Electric engines. He directed Jonathan into the hangar like a pro. Once inside, Jonathan shut down the Lear and climbed out of the cockpit.

“Anything else you need?” asked the attendant.

“No thank you. I’m just going to button things up and I’ll be on my way.”

“Do you need a ride back across?”

“No, my colleague drove the Suburban around.” “The front door locks itself, so I’ll close the main hangar doors. If you need to get it out, give me a call, otherwise it will just sit.”

“Thanks, and it was nice meeting you, oh I’m sorry,” Jonathan reached in his pocket and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. “Here you go.”

John gave him a big smile that was missing a few teeth. “Much obliged, sir.”

“What are we going to do with those two?” asked Mary nervously looking at the two pilots that Jonathan was cutting free from the seats. The Suburban was running outside the front door with Carly sitting in the back seat playing some make believe game with her shadow on the back of the front seat.

“They’re going with us. Help me load them into the back of the Suburban.”

“They’ll talk,” answered Mary.

“We only have a couple of days before they realize there’s no plane at the crash site anyways, so we’ll keep them a couple of days and let them go.”

“What then?”

Jonathan began to lose it, “I don’t know Mary! Who the hell knows! Do you think I know everything! Whatever we do just keeps making the hole deeper. We just keep adding felonies to our resumes. Mary, do you realize we are the equivalent to a modern day Bonnie and Clyde, only times 100. And you remember how that ended.”

“What the hell difference does it make?” snapped Mary. “So, they kill us. I’ve been living a death sentence ever since July 15th when they took away Matthew.” She started to cry. Jonathan reached over and grabbed her and gave her a warm hug. “I’m sorry sweetie, sometimes the pressure’s more than I can take.”

“Maybe we need to find a safe place for Carly.”

“You’re probably right.

“Jonathan I’m afraid, really afraid.”

“Me too, but right now we’re all each other has and we’ve got to hold it together.”

Jonathan and Mary carried the pilots like sacks of potatoes and laid them in the cargo compartment of the vehicle. Both were conscious and stared at them with terrified eyes as if they were being taken to their graves. Jonathan increased their horror by taking duct tape and wrapping it around their heads so that it covered their eyes and ears. “This will keep them from eavesdropping.”

As they traveled north toward Elizabethton, Carly lay lengthwise on the back seat snuggling Bruiser and twitching restlessly.

Mary started pounding the door with her fist, first with mild taps and then with medium blows and then with all her might. The blood from her knuckles began to stain the gray interior trim on the door.

Jonathan looked over in horror, “Stop it, Mary stop! You’re hurting yourself. What’s wrong with you?”

“They did it, they did it,” she cried. “The bastards contrived this whole thing; it’s the only thing that makes sense. They killed my baby. Jonathan, they killed my baby!”

“What are you talking about? Who did? Mary, you have to get it together.”

“He’s alive, they’re all in it together.”

“Slow down, honey. Breathe. Now take it slow, who’s alive, who killed Matthew?”

“Can’t you see it? Runyan’s alive, the agency’s a part of it. They’re all in it together.”

“Wow!” answered Jonathan. “What happened to the terrorists?”

“Jonathan, it’s crystal clear. There aren’t any terrorists; the only terror is what they’re creating.”

“Mary you’re losing it; you’re jumping to conclusions without any evidence. Why would Bob and the agency blow up a Federal building and kill over 2000 people. What would be their motive?”

“So they can implement a single solidified police state. Look at it, it’s all crystal clear: your termination, the emails, the notes from the President to the Director. It’s all right before our eyes. Those fuckers killed my baby! Ask Carly, she knows, she knows that Bob is alive!”

Jonathan was terrified by Mary’s words, mostly because he felt that she had gone over the edge and he was witnessing a full fledged nervous breakdown. He had seen this before in interrogations and once in a covert operation, when an agent went in too deep and his dual lives caused him to forget who he really was. After Afghanistan, he himself had had an emotional collapse and knew that when the human emotional balance shatters, the pieces explode in a million different directions and putting them back together again takes time, lots of time. The agency procedure was that during a meltdown, you should placate the person, and keep them calm until they received medical attention. “No Mary,” he answered softly. “It could never be. Please relax, we’ll talk about this later, okay?” He gave her a patronizing pat on the knee.

She picked up his hand and threw it back at him, pulled her leg away and snapped, “You think I’m nuts don’t you! Go ahead and close your eyes, but it’s not going away and Matthew’s not coming back. You give me another explanation? Have they found any terrorists? Are there any tracks? Where is all the evidence? Who else could have brought 2 tons of explosives past video cameras and security guards? I’ll tell you who. Jonathan, it was Bob and this God Damned administration! All the people we trusted, people you gave your life to.”

“Stop it!” yelled Jonathan. “You’re incoherent.” He knew he was handling it wrong, but he couldn’t stand anymore. Carly awoke in the back seat and started to cry.

Jonathan reached a hand and rubbed her shoulder, “It’s okay sweetie. Mommy and Daddy are just having an argument.”

“Ask Carly,” said Mary. “She’ll tell you. Carly, is Uncle Bob dead?”

Carly was still sniffling, “I want to go home. I want my own room. I don’t like moving all around. Daddy, I’m afraid. Can you take me and Bruiser home?”

“You’re getting her more upset,” said Jonathan.

“It’s alright sweetie, in a little while we’ll be home again, now you need to try to go to sleep.”

She let out a big yawn and said, “Uncle Bob’s in Washington.”

“What’s he doing in Washington?” asked Mary.

“I’ve already told you that, Daddy. He’s with the elephants and the horses.”

Mary looked at Jonathan inquisitively, “Do you have something you want to tell me?”

“Okay, there’s more,” whispered Jonathan. “She’s seen more.” Jonathan told Mary about Carly’s remarks in the cockpit.

Mary stared coldly forward as Jonathan told her Carly’s comments.

“You really don’t think there’s anything to what she’s saying?” asked Jonathan.

“What do you think?”

“It’s scaring me.”

“But do you believe it or not?”

“I don’t know what there is to believe Mary. What the hell does it mean, it’s weird.”

“I believe her,” answered Mary. “At first I thought she was just emotionally tormented. Jonathan, she sees things, I’m telling you that she sees.”

“Then, what does it mean?”

“I don’t know, elephants and horses could mean democrats and republicans. The President is there, so it could be Congress. The most important piece is Bob. She’s right, he’s alive!”

Rain began to fall on highway 11E and the squeaky sound of the wipers was all they could hear. Jonathan stared at the coal black road with a sense of shock. What if Mary wasn’t crazy? The implications of what she was saying were more than he could digest. Bob alive? The administration destroying federal buildings?

Thirty minutes passed before he finally spoke, “I’m talking out loud and I’m not agreeing with you, but are you saying that you believe that they staged Bob’s death?”

Mary answered softly, “Jonathan, somebody did. Look at the emails between the Director and the President. And where’s Bob in all of this? He’s the action man. They needed someone to execute their plan. You don’t think the President and the Director are going to get their hands dirty. And where’s the body? There are no autopsy files, no pictures, a substitute in the casket, a new identity, with all of Bob’s credentials.”

“Mary, slow down. It doesn’t make any sense. Let’s just take it one step at a time and go over the facts. I talked to Bob just before the explosion and he was in his office, his secretary said that he was in there.”

“Did you see him?”

“No, I was in my office with Carly.” “How can you be sure he was in there if you didn’t see him? She could have transferred the call. Don’t you have your secretary forward all your important calls to your cell when you’re not there? I can’t tell the difference when she does that.”

“Nancy said that he had gone to the bathroom.”

“Maybe that’s a standard line. Or maybe she thought that he was still in the building, but he had left. What does your assistant say when you’ve stepped out?”

“Okay, agreed she could have. But we don’t know that she did, so I’m going to need more proof. What I can’t figure out is why you’re so sure he’s alive.”

“You don’t know much about a woman’s instincts, do you? I know that he’s alive,” answered Mary. “And I know that he’s wrapped up right in the middle of this.”

“Mary, you are the one who told me he was dead. Six months ago you were convinced. I just don’t see the evidence that would so clearly change your mind. You went to his wake and his funeral, remember. The President’s eulogy, is he in on it too?”

“I think he is.”

Jonathan began to get frustrated with her, “Mary, they don’t have funerals for people who are alive. There are certain things like funeral homes and embalming, and death certificates. They would have had to have had a lot of people involved in this and that’s not like the agency. The more people who know, the more likely a leak.”

“But we didn’t find any of those things on the agency’s computer.”

“I told you that they don’t upload everything. You were convinced at the time. You cried at the hospital, told me every detail. People were crying, if what you are saying is true, this would have to be one helluva conspiracy!”

“The biggest in the history of mankind and there are probably not as many people as you think who know anything about it,” snapped back Mary.

Jonathan blurted out, “Impossible! It would be impossible to pull something like this off.”

“The terrorists do it every day and without any inside help. Imagine how easy it would be if you knew all the schedules, had control of security and could use America’s most powerful computers to do whatever the hell you wanted.”

“Not as easy as you think.”

“But Jonathan, there was nothing in the agency database. You said it yourself; they would have had autopsy photos, a coroner’s report, DNA samples. Look at the emails? We can use the operation to solidify support from the American people…..everything is set for a July execution….. We are all set, the operation will be complete today. There will be no one left to testify and all tracks will be erased. Jonathan they planned this for at least six months!”

“Those emails could mean a lot of different things. We didn’t have time to see if there was another operation, which there probably was and what about his wife Sarah? If she grieved as much as you say, she deserves an academy award for “Best Actress” for her performance at the funeral. You told me that she was completely devastated. There isn’t anyone who can act like that.”

“That’s because she’s not in on it; she believes he’s really dead.”

“Not even the CIA is that inhumane. They wouldn’t do that to his wife and kids.”

“You know as well as I do that they would, and without hesitation. Look at what they did to you! These people are animals. They will do anything if they thought that they were on a mission of national importance.”

Jonathan pounded the steering wheel with the side of his fist. “Mary, you’re off base! Here’s the reality. Bob’s dead, the agency doesn’t know what in the hell is going on and is off on a wild goose chase thinking that one of their best agents and his wife and seven year old daughter had something to do with killing 2000 people. For crying out loud Mary, wake up to the music. This God Damn government has its head up its ass!”

“Or is a helluva lot smarter than you’re giving them credit. Don’t you think it strange that Bob’s kids were out of the building?”

“That could be purely coincidental.”

“There’s an awful lot of coincidences.”

“It would never stand up in court.”

“That’s what they’re counting on. I think when there are enough circumstances that all lead to the same conclusion, you call that evidence.”

“Circumstantial evidence. But what about the computer and software and memory? Who sent that to us?”

“I think they did,” answered Mary. “It’s the perfect decoy. It keeps us busy and they know exactly what we’re doing, Jonathan; they’ve set you up again and now they have the focus of the entire nation on you, while they plan another attack. We fell right into their traps.”