Saturday's child works hard for a living -
Jackson and Dale had chatted idly at the coffee machine for a good ten minutes, waiting for Jolene Lovell to appear from the conference room. Expecting her to be a matter of minutes, they had passed the time discussing frequent flyer miles, the currency exchange rate and eventually settling on an amateur comparison of the weather, both declaring that it was getting decidedly colder on both sides of the Atlantic.
It was by mutual agreement that they had decamped to Dale's small office and they now sat relaxing at facing desks. Sitting down at his own desk, Dale had settled into a monotonous rocking motion, bouncing his reclining chair back and forth and almost dozing off. Jackson sipped at his coffee and contemplated the relatively strange occurrences of the early morning, running through the sequence of events.
Noting the older man's quizzical expression of thoughtfulness, Dale made to break the silence.
'So what do you think this is all about then? They weren't giving much away in there!'
Jackson opened his eyes wide and raised his head, his train of thought broken.
'Actually Dale, I really don't know, but clearly, the book is the key to our own involvement.'
Furtively glancing toward the door of the office, Dale did not reply until he was satisfied that the corridor outside was clear; he rocked the chair forward and rested his forearms on the desk, clasping his fingers together.
'Did you see the portrait photos behind Kappel's head?'
Jackson thought for a moment.
'George W. and Clinton I think. What of it?'
'Yeah,' Dale nodded conspiratorially, 'but did you see the way that the pictures were leaning slightly out from the wall? The glass reflected the faces of some other people in the room, sitting behind the camera so we couldn't see them.'
'- and?'
Dale looked at the door again.
'Well, either The President was sitting in on that meeting or he has a double!'
He raised his eyebrows and tilted his head forward suggestively.
'Are you serious?' Jackson asked, an incredulous frown crinkling his forehead. 'It could have been anybody! What, so now you're thinking like a conspiracy theorist because the Deputy Director calls you in for an early morning video conference at the weekend?'
He let his head sag and chuckled to himself, grinning widely.
'Are you kidding?' Dale gasped. 'After what you said in there? Nazis, aliens and psychics? Not to mention that this is all down to a book that hasn't seen the light of day for almost three hundred years!'
Jackson's lower lip curled out in a pout.
'Well, you're not wrong there, but I think that The President has better things to do than to listen to me jaw on about ancient occult groups in the middle of the night. You must be mistaken.'
Tapping a fingertip against the desk, Dale shrugged.
'Alright, so what is this all about then? You're telling me that Kappel is sitting down to do his crossword at midnight when he comes across a tough clue, so, he drags you in to tell him about the Sunless Sleep?'
'Sun of the Sleepless,' Jackson corrected.
'Whatever.'
Dale sat back and interlocked his hands behind his head.
'There is no way that this is just about a book. Sure, that book is the connection but it is this cult group that is important and the fact you know all about it.'
'- but that is just it,' Jackson frowned, shaking his head slowly, 'I don't know anything about it.'
'Gentlemen!'
Jolene Lovell swished into the room, smiling and seemingly completely amiable. Seeing her standing up for the first time, she was an even more imposing figure than when she had challenged Jackson's interpretation of history in the conference room. She was quite tall, almost six feet in her practical but fashionably heeled court shoes and her long legs carried her to stand before the two men in only a couple of strides.
It was Jackson that responded first, standing up and returning her intermittent gaze as it flickered from him to Dale and back again.
'Captain Lovell!'
Her mouth drew a curt smile.
'Jolene, please, we're all officers here.'
She glanced at the coffee cups sitting empty on the desks.
'Good to see that you heeded the Deputy Director's request to get right on to things. So what is your next plan of action?'
Her direct gaze contrasted sharply with her now expressionless face, an illustration that she really was not pleased with even a few minutes of idle time.
Jackson started to lightly rub the back of his head and he let out a small exasperated chuckle.
'Well Jolene, to be honest, I have no idea -'
She made to speak but Jackson held out his palms to stop her, he was not about to be intimidated regardless of whether she was working directly under the authority of the Deputy Director.
'Obviously we need to start with the book and confirm the references to the Sun of the Sleepless organisation, but beyond that I don't know what route to take. Can you give me an idea of what connections I should be looking out for?'
Jolene pursed her lips.
'The Director asked for anything and everything. Surely you can collate as much information as possible in the twenty-four hours you have available?'
'Alright, but can I call in other researchers?'
'No, this remains between the three of us. You report to me, I report to the Deputy Director.'
'Well, what about Dale? Can he be given extended access to the library system to run some searches for me?'
'He will be busy with other things. He has some field experience so he will be accompanying me to follow up on the trail of the book.'
Jackson's hands dropped to his sides and he raised his palms outward in a show of aggravated irritation.
'Well can you at least tell us what the urgency is all about? It will help in my decision whether to eat a croissant at my desk or go and get a fully cooked breakfast.'
Jolene had dropped her head and her eyes flicked up to stare at Jackson. She blinked a couple of times in thought and then relaxed slightly, moving in slow steps as she started to respond.
'Gentlemen, we have received a threat of a terrorist nature at the highest level of government, the specific nature of that threat remains within a close circle of the President's top advisers, including the Director of National Intelligence, our own Director and Deputy Director and through him, down to me.'
'What kind of threat?' Dale asked quickly, eager to be part of the solution.
'I am not at liberty to discuss the details; however, it would seem that there is a tenuous connection between the purported group involved and Jackson's research.'
'The Sun of the Sleepless?' Jackson mooted.
Jolene nodded.
'The Brothers
and
Sisters of the Sun of the Sleepless to be precise'.
She walked away from them and perched against a small table, her arms clasping the edge and making her shoulders shrug.
'As I say, this link is tenuous; the name was given a top priority trawl vector when the threat was received a couple of months back. Jackson's research was flagged when the reference cropped up. The rest is history, as they say.'
'So,' Jackson pondered, rubbing his chin, '
Dirigo Lux
may not have anything to do with this group or the threat?'
Jolene blinked and nodded her head.
'Absolutely nothing, and personally, I don't think that it does. Unfortunately, due to the restrictions in place in promulgating the threat, we're stuck with very few leads and even fewer 'need to know' human resources, which is why I am talking to a librarian - no offence - and a junior operations manager on secondment to the DEA.'
'- but that is crazy!' Dale objected disbelievingly.
'Unless you're worried about disclosure?' Jackson queried earnestly. 'Is that the problem?'
Jolene paused for a moment before she answered.
'The fact is our government leaks like a sieve and for reasons classified beyond my pay grade we have been instructed to control access to this using extreme measures which means that very few people actually know about it. You have, quite by accident it seems, bought yourself a ticket at the high table.'
'So we're not keen on letting the world know that a group of Neo-Nazis is holding the government to ransom, is that it?'
Dale sounded a little irked although his tone seemed to calm Jolene rather than annoy her. She obviously knew how to relax the aggressive streak in men - useful in a female Marine Captain.
'Dale, I know this is all very sudden and I agree, it does seem a little strange, but the point is that we have a threat that needs to be kept under wraps for the time being. Until we have a handle on who we're dealing with, we don't know whether this threat is even real. A small task force was put together for the preliminary investigation and I have been assigned to follow up on the lead that you guys have uncovered.
'It may not go anywhere,
Dirigo Lux
may just be a dusty old book, however, it could be significant and point us to a terrorist group that has based itself on an historical organisation. So let's just do our jobs, stick to the deadline and submit our reports. The sooner that we find out that this is a dead end, the sooner that we can all get back to what we should be doing.'
Dale grunted and nodded.
'Well, I guess that we're in black-ops now! Geeks and nerds will be arguing about this case in years to come.'
Ignoring the comment, Jolene stood and brightened her demeanour, changing her tactics to spur her team on.
'Alright guys, let's get moving. Jackson, you start cross-referencing the book, Dale, you come with me, we need to go and see the Verker girl.'
Jackson smiled acceptingly and turned to look out of the window.
'There is just one thing,' he said slowly, glancing back and watching Jolene's eyebrows rise unevenly, fully aware that he was testing her patience, 'I could be much more productive if I were to actually see the book.'
After retrieving
Dirigo Lux
from the cupboard where it had been deposited and locked into the previous evening, Jackson was immediately enraptured by the heavy tome. He had deferentially taken possession of the book from Dale, holding it reverently and lightly running his fingers over the leather covering which he could only compare to the silky skin of a furry peach; a soft light pile that traced the path of his touch.
Focussing intently, he had absent-mindedly asked for acid free cotton gloves and a plastic page turner, although he had to make do with some latex gloves and a tongue depressor that Dale had rustled up from a medical kit. Flicking the arms of his spectacles open with a twitch of one wrist and deftly sliding them on so that he could examine the binding further, he had loomed into the book with his face almost touching the boards, minutely surveying the golden inlaid image of the sun on the front cover.
He was entirely distracted from the events about him and he seemed to even forget that Jolene and Dale were still standing there. When Jolene coughed and announced that she and Dale had to leave, Jackson had barely grunted as they made to depart and it was clear that he was entirely absorbed in his own little world.
Dale wandered after Jolene, following just a step behind but keeping silent, keen to let her reach a point whereby she had to ask him about his previous meeting with Gertrude Verker, possibly even having to request the address. He did not feel that he was being churlish, he just wanted her to realise that she did not necessarily already know all the answers and that he could be of real use in this investigation.
They reached the small courtyard that acted as a secure entry zone for the embassy and Dale saw a shiny black Audi A8 parked with its engine idling. Standing by the car were two of the Marine guards that had only relatively recently been stationed at the embassy, replacing a couple of the previous crew that he had come to know quite well. Although he knew their faces, he could not recall ever having had a conversation with these new guys, not even to pass the time in idle banter as he passed them in the corridors.
'Dale, you probably already know Staff Sergeant Stanley and PFC Oliver? They've been seconded to aid us in our field work and although it may be unusual for the MSC to undertake work outside of our embassies, these guys come highly recommended from the Deputy Director himself. They both know their way around field ops from previous lives so we're lucky to have them along.'
'Yeah,' Dale nodded slowly as he glanced between them, 'that is lucky.'
Sergeant Stanley nodded to Jolene and exclaimed a short but respectful
Ma'am
, opening up the rear passenger door for her and standing by like a chauffeur cum bodyguard. Jolene turned back to Dale and raised her eyebrows, she waved her hand in a manner of invitation and it was clear that she wanted him to enter first.
Dale bobbed into the car and slid across the rear seats to sit behind the driver; Jolene quickly followed, scooting in and forcefully pulling the door shut. Stanley was already jumping into the front passenger side as PFC Oliver took the wheel.