Authors: Mitchel Grace
* * * * *
Back in New York, Markus was getting
onto his private jet to leave the country when he received a phone call.
“Hello,” he said.
“I found at least one of them. He’s at
the local hospital in Tampa,” a woman said.
“Excellent, Chloe. I want him, and
anyone else who may be with him, dead. No one crosses us without paying a
price.”
“He’s as good as dead, sir,” Chloe said
and hung up the phone.
Markus sat down in his chair and
smiled. He took comfort in knowing that at least one of the people responsible
for his little secret getting out would soon be dead.
Chapter 2
Nathan and the others arrived at the CIA
office in Washington and were walking inside as Mr. Campbell was finishing his
speech. Jason was particularly surprised by the passion that Campbell spoke
with. Just a few days before, John Campbell had refused to lift a finger to help
them, and today he seemed to be the most motivated person in the room. Good for
him, but we really could have used some of this enthusiasm before, Jason
thought.
“Jason, I’m glad that everyone is okay.
I’m sorry that it took so long for me to get you guys some help. Things were
much more complicated than you may ever know,” Campbell said.
“It’s okay. We’re doing something about
this now,” Jason said.
“Great! I recognize almost all of you,
but who is this?” Campbell asked while looking at Nathan.
“This is Nathan Grey. He’s helped me
out a lot over the last few days,” Sam said.
“He isn’t CIA, though? And you brought
him here?”
“I want to offer my services to help in
whatever way I can, and considering what happened today, I would think that you
guys could use all the help you can get,” Nathan said.
“Let me talk to you four over here,” Campbell
said while motioning to everyone but Nathan.
The four of them and Campbell walked a
few steps to the right and began discussing the potential problem that was
Nathan.
“Look, I cannot have anyone who isn’t a
CIA agent seeing classified documents,” Campbell said.
“Well, it’s a little too late for that.
He helped me find and unlock the flash drive. It had a ton of what I can only
assume is classified information on it.”
“Okay. I’m not saying that we just kick
him to the curb, but doesn’t this seem more like a case where he should be put
into protective custody, considering the fact that he’s only a civilian and has
no special skills?”
“He does have skills. He has
participated in several firefights and has also helped me plan different ops.”
“I can vouch for him, too,” Zane said
after seeing the desperation in Sam’s eyes.
“Me, too,” Dan said.
“Hey, he helped everyone rescue me, so
I’m not going to disagree,” Jason said.
“All right, maybe we can get him into a
training program, and in a year or so you’ll have a new trainee,” Campbell said
to Sam.
Nathan had much better hearing than
most people, and he had been listening to their conversation, which had been
growing increasingly louder. With Campbell’s statement, he finally decided to
speak.
“I don’t think that you or I have time
for training. I’ve been able to observe two agents, a handler, and the best supply
man in the business who, I am convinced, would be a pretty good agent himself.
I also have connections to a crazy former sniper who would do anything for me,
a hacker, and a woman who has actually worked for our enemy. I think that given
our desperate situation and the fact that I’m surrounded by such great people,
a little hands-on training would be better than going to some boot camp. Give
me a chance, and you won’t regret it.”
Campbell looked a little disgusted.
Everyone was against him on this issue, and quite frankly, he had other things
to worry about that were ten times more important than this.
“Fine, but you’re responsible for him.
Anything that he does wrong, you’ve done wrong,” Campbell said while looking at
Sam.
Nathan looked relieved. He got to stay
with Sam, and that was truly all he wanted. Sam was also relieved, but at the
same time, she was a little bit worried. She wanted Nathan with her, but on the
flip side, she was worried about being held responsible for him. This was the
same guy that she had been able to deck in one punch. He would have to improve,
and he would have to do it fast.
“Okay, so what’s the first thing that
we need to do? We all came back here to help,” Dan said.
“All right. First of all, you said that
you have a friend who used to work for our enemies,” Campbell said while
looking at Nathan.
“Yes, we left her back in Tampa.”
“You need to call her and anyone else who
was involved in the operation, and get them here as soon as possible. Afterward,
I want you two to do whatever you can to find out where a man named Markus Boyd
is located. Here is his file,” Campbell said while handing it to Sam.
“What about me?” Dan asked.
“Considering how desperate the situation
is, you and Mr. Green will form a team and launch a strike on one of their
largest facilities, which we now know thanks to this device, is located in
Atlanta. We can’t afford to be slow, so I want the team picked and the strike
done within the next seventy-two hours.”
“And what about me, sir?” Jason asked.
“You will do what you do best, which is
coordinating all of this. You’ll act as a handler for all these people. As
usual, you’ll give them new orders and advise them while they’re in the field.”
“In other words, I’ll actually be doing
nothing at all.”
He had hoped for a larger role in all
of this, but here he was, stuck in the background. Sam put her hand on his back
and gave him a gentle squeeze to show her support for how he must feel.
“It isn’t
nothing
. You’re going to help Dan and me choose our team, and from
there, make all of the major decisions. You may actually have the most
important job here,” Zane said.
“Well, you have your assignments, so
get to it,” Campbell said and walked back to his office.
* * * * *
Back in Tampa, the hospital room phone
rang and Jess picked up.
“Hello,” she said.
“Hey, Jess! How is Lee doing?” Nathan
asked.
“He’s feeling a little better. We’re
all just in shock by what we’re seeing on television.”
“I know. We’re still in shock about it
here, too. Is Trish there by any chance?”
“Yeah, she’s right here. Hold on a
second.”
She then handed the phone over to
Trish.
“Hello,” Trish said.
“Hey, it might be a lot to ask, but is
there any way that you could come to Washington right now? Some of the people
here want to speak with you. I think that they know you would be able to help them,
considering your knowledge of the enemy we’re facing,” Nathan said.
“Yes, I can come. I planned to come right
after Lee got better anyway.”
“Great, I’ll see you soon then. Can you
also tell everyone else that they need to come as soon as Lee is better?”
“Yeah, I will.”
They continued to talk for a moment,
and after he got off the phone, he turned to see Sam studying the file on
Markus very thoroughly.
“So Markus Boyd, huh? I thought that he
was just a billionaire who owned all sorts of corporations,” Nathan said.
“That’s who he wanted the world to
believe he was. Almost all of those corporations were nothing but dummy
businesses.”
“Do you have any idea where we might
find him?”
“Not yet. He has a place in New York,
but I feel certain that he would have left there after today. We just need some
type of lead right now,” Sam said while thinking.
“Here, let me take a look at that file.
Two heads are better than one, you know,” Nathan said while going to sit down
beside Sam.
* * * * *
“Well, I guess that I’m going to
Washington now, after all,” Trish said.
“What’s going on?” Jess asked.
Trish explained what Nathan had called
to talk to her about.
“I hate to see you go,” Jess said.
“Me, too, but don’t worry. You’ll all
be joining me soon, and besides, I’ll be calling you as soon as I get there. I
have to keep a check on Lee.”
“Have a good flight, and be safe,”
Michael said as Trish stood to exit the room.
“Thanks, and I’ll see you two later,” Trish
said as she left.
She hated to leave her new friends, but
she didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. She had always hated to be the
center of attention, and God knows that she had made herself a big enough deal
earlier about the attack in Dallas. As she made her way outside the hospital, she
passed a woman who was walking as if she were on a mission. The woman was in
her mid to late twenties, and she was about 5’8. She had long brown hair, and
although she was small, the determination that burned in her eyes made her seem
like she would be a more than worthy fighter to Trish. What am I doing? Why am
I diagnosing civilians as if they were potential agency candidates? She’s
probably just in a hurry to see a family member or something like that, Trish
thought while shaking off the killing look that she seemed to read in the girl.
If she had known how wrong she was right then, she would have turned and ran
after the stranger who had just passed her, but unfortunately, she didn’t, and
if this stranger had her way, someone was about to pay the price for her lack
of ability to pay attention to her God-given instincts.
* * * * *
“How about this guy?” Dan asked while
holding up a soldier’s profile.
“No, he’s gigantic,”
Zane
answered.
“But isn’t that a good thing?”
“He’s just going to be a bigger target,”
Jason answered in a dejected tone before Zane could.
“What’s wrong with you?” Zane asked.
“I can do a lot more than this.”
“I know you can, and I have a feeling
that by the end of this you will, but for now, try to stay patient.”
“Fine. Pass me some of those files.”
“How about this one, then?” Dan asked.
Zane took the file from him and had a
look.
“I said that the last one was too big,
not that I was looking to recruit an army of midgets!” Zane said in surprise by
how small the man in the picture was. They all shared a laugh and continued
working.
Something was troubling Campbell as he
sat in his office. Markus said that he had people in the CIA who worked for
him. I need to have someone that I trust look into this, he thought. He exited
his office and walked to Burt Jones’s office. I have something that I need you
and someone you can trust to work on,” Campbell said to him.
“All right. Let me get my guy, and
we’ll meet you in your office,” Burt said.
“Okay, but try not to take too long.
This is very urgent.”
Burt got up from his desk and found his
way into Jason’s office where Jason and two other men were laughing.
“Can I borrow you for a little while?”
Burt asked Jason.
“I’m kind of in the middle of helping
these guys out right now.”
“Oh, okay. I just thought that you
would want in on a super-secret project that I’m working on for Mr. Campbell,
but if it’s of no interest to you, I’ll just move on. Maybe I’ll get Dave to
work with me on this.”
“No, wait! I mean, what’s going on?”
“That’s what I’m going to find out
now.”
“I told you that you would be doing
much more soon, although I didn’t anticipate it would be this soon,” Zane said
with a smile.
Jason nodded to Zane.
“All right, I’m coming with you then,”
Jason said as he stood up and began to exit the room.
He and Burt made their way to Campbell’s
office and took their seats.
“Now, what is this all about?” Burt
asked.
“I have reason to believe that there
are multiple people within our agency who are in league with Markus Boyd, the
man responsible for the attack today. I need you two to study all the employee
profiles in this office, and come up with a hypothesis on which people we need
to investigate. Then conduct an investigation. Keep all of this quiet, though.
I don’t want to make anyone feel as if they’re a suspect. We need to be together
right now more than ever.”
“Do you have any leads on what type of
person we’re looking for?” Jason asked.
“Unfortunately, I don’t.”
“All right, we’ll do things the hard
way then,” Burt said as he stood.
Jason followed him, and they exited the
room.
“So what’s the plan?” Burt asked while looking
over at Jason.
“A lot of profiles and even more coffee,
I suppose.”
“I’m glad that we get to work together
on this one. Maybe this will be even more memorable than my mission in Iran
last year,” Burt said.
Jason looked at Burt strangely. Burt
had never been to Iran. He had never understood why Burt felt the need to make
up such stories around him.
“You’ve never been to Iran, have you?”