men introduce themselves and get your equipment issued.”
Once Peter was acquainted and had his equipment, he joined O’Connor and some others in a conference room inside the hanger. Two special agents from the local FBI field office joined them, and Lutz was bringing them and O’Connor up to speed on the information they had. When he was finished, The Colonel introduced one of his subordinates, LCOL Joyce Mitchel who had a packet of materials including site photographs, maps and terrain data pertaining to the house they were surrounding. Peter looked at everything along with Lutz and they agreed on a staging plan and communications protocol between the military component and the FBI. The FBI would follow the military assault with arrest and detention authority, once the terrorists were cornered.
While they were reviewing data, Captain John Stokes joined them. Stokes was a tall young soldier with a muscular physique. Peter walked up to him, extended his hand then embraced him. They had stopped an attack by terrorists in Chicago together, where Peter was severely wounded. Stokes had saved his life. They prevented the city from total destruction, creating a brothers-in-arms camaraderie that would bond them forever. It also increased today’s mission success probability, since these two knew what to expect from each other.
Stokes saluted Colonel O’Connor and extended a large envelope saying, “Sir, these are my orders, issued by the Guard Bureau, placing me under your command temporarily.”
O’Connor welcomed him aboard and officially appointed Peter as the Strike team leader. Peter then assembled the men in the conference room for mission plan development. After the meeting, everyone was excused to eat and spend a few hours of personal time with orders to assemble in the hanger at ten o’clock that night. Peter, Stokes and O’Connor went over the equipment list.
Venezuela
The Venezuelan government was an OPEC ally. The country’s President had recently honored the Iranian President at a state dinner in Caracas and declared that if the U.S. attacked Iran, Venezuela would consider itself attacked. Cooperation of the state-owned Banco Federal was tenuous at best. U.S. State department pressure, exerted through the ambassador, was needed to gain cooperation in tracking the movement of the extortion money. Promises and threats had been used.
Coincidnetally, the morning following the U.S. funds wire transfer, articles appeared in the El Nacional and El Mundo de Caracas newspapers, proclaiming that the U.S. was planning to seize the Venezuelan-owned CITCO oil refineries and auction the assets to U.S. companies. There was no truth to the story, but a shockwave of resentment shot through the country, hardening resentment against the U.S., and cooperation of the government dissolved in an instance.
Hale Warner was on the phone to the State department and his own contacts in the embassy in Caracas trying to find out where the story came from. By midday, sources indicated that the stories had developed around leaks made through some unidentified “official” channels. This was spy-speak. Someone with influence had created the story with enough creditability that both news services were convinced it was true. The information could have originated from anywhere in the world. Although false, it would take months or years to recover. In the meantime, the money trail ended as quickly as it began.
Hale left the office in the afternoon for some personal errands and called Rachael using his cellphone. When she answered, he said he wanted to meet with her again privately. They agreed to meet at Pentagon City, one metro stop away from the Pentagon. Located in a large mall, Pentagon City has many places to meet out of earshot.
They both arrived at the station about twenty minutes later and walked together to the food court. On the way, Hale began musing about things not adding up. They each got drinks and sat at a table distant from other shoppers.
Hale said, “You know Rachael, I’m worried that we have a mole inside the government. We’re still working on the phone intercepts in Boston, but now someone blocked us from tracking funds flowing through Venezuelan banks. We haven’t had many political dealings in Caracas, but only one day after State got their banks to cooperate, we had a political blowup caused by false news stories that had to come from the U.S. Timing can’t be coincidental, especially after the Boston mission was also compromised. I’ve been in the intel business a long time and this stinks.”
“Hale, I didn’t know about the money. Do you suspect anyone?”
“There’re a lot of people involved and I’m not sure, but I’m developing a list. One problem is that I can’t trust very many people.”
Rachael realized that the reason she was okay to Hale was because someone tried to kill her. She responded. “Well, at least there are two of us. That’s a start, and we can both do some investigating.”
“Look, you know you need to be careful about asking questions.”
Touching his hand, “I’ll be more careful this time.”
He stood up and they started walking back to the metro station and he closed the conversation by saying, “Look, Rachael, we don’t know who to trust, so let’s keep contact to a minimum. We both have secure email and phone lines, so let’s use them.”
Rachael agreed and they walked back separately to the station, then back to work.
Subterfuge
She got back to her office a little after four o’clock. Everything that happened in Boston, the attack on her, and the misinformation in Venezuela could be unrelated or deliberate subterfuge. If deliberate, it had to involve someone with access to highly restricted information.
It was hard to know where to begin, since so many agencies were involved. When she looked at her computer, a new email message appeared from INSCOM.
Dear Ms. Aston:
Have forwarded your request earlier for cellular phone tracks to CIA Director, Will Lawrence. They are most likely to have access to the intelligence requested. Although INSCOM was supporting the subject operations, our role was primarily to ensure our warfighters had the intelligence resources necessary for a successful operation. Primarily this involved acting as a liaison with the national agencies, eg NSA and CIA. In our opinion, the information you requested most likely resides in these two agencies. Since you copied NSA on your original message, I have only forwarded the action to CIA. I would encourage you to contact Mr. Lawrence directly, and will keep you informed if anything more develops at INSCOM.
Respectfully,
Bridgette LeMasters, BGEN, USA, INSCOM, Deputy Commanding General
Rachael had met Will Lawrence at an intelligence briefing in Washington after she joined the government. As a career spy, Lawrence had joined the CIA out of college after an aggressive recruiting process on campus. The work suited him from the beginning. Since she was relatively new to the profession and young, Lawrence would not regard her as a peer. Another obstacle to cooperation was the traditional disdain the CIA has for all other intelligence agencies, with the exception of NSA. CIA personnel didn’t regard military intelligence agencies seriously. The role of Army intelligence was to assemble information for specific missions. Such information was often developed at other agencies then “packaged” for the theater commanders.
Rachael had sensed his arrogance at their introduction. She was impressed when he took her call immediately, addressing her like an old friend.
“Rachael! what a delightful surprise!”
“Hi, Will. It’s nice to speak with you again.”
He replied, “Look, after your success in Chicago, I’ve become a real fan of yours. How are you? Are you fully recovered?”
“Thanks for asking, Will. I’m in great shape.”
“I’m so glad. Now, what can I do for you?”
She reiterated the request she had made to General LeMasters at INSCOM, understanding that the message had been forwarded to Will. He acknowledged the request and said they didn’t have anything to report, suggesting that NSA might be a better source of information. Rachael confirmed that she was working with Hale Warner, which he endorsed.
Before ending the call, she said, “You know, Will. T
here is another angle Hale suggested, that might be related.”
He sounded a little surly about continuing dialogue, “Yes, and what would that be, Rachael?”
She explained the newspaper articles in Venezuela that had the effect of undermining the trace of transfers in their national bank. His response was, “Rachael, it would be a real stretch for anyone in the U.S. to influence the newspapers down there.”
“Will, it’s not my idea. Hale and I are both trying to run it to the ground. I just thought the CIA has the best international sources, and you might be able to help us get some answers.”
He responded, “If any agency can find answers, it would be us. I’ll make some inquiries, but don’t get your hopes up.”
She hung up the phone, skeptical that he would do anything, and prepared to leave the office. She locked the files and logged off her computer. As she stood to leave, her cellphone began ringing in her purse, “Hello.”
“Hi, darling!”
“Peter! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you. This is wonderful!”
“Look, hon. I have a little time before working tonight and just wanted to hear your voice one more time.”
“Peter, I love you with all my heart.” She knew what “work” meant in his vernacular and wanted to hang on to the connection as long as possible. He wasn’t in any danger while they