John Krygelski - The Aegis Solution

Leaning forward in his chair, Faulk stared at the two men who had entered Aegis behind Kreitzmann.

“I don’t know. I would guess they are just two more new entrants. Why?”

“Pause it.”

Faulk froze the motion on the screen.

“Look at Kreitzmann. Look at the body language. It looks as though he’s waiting for them, as though they’re together.”

Faulk noticed that Kreitzmann was still in the frame. After entering, he had turned to wait for the others.

“Do we have any video of them farther in?”

“No. No interior cameras. Only the entry.”

“Don’t snow me, Richard. This camera was there while I ran this agency, and I didn’t know about it. What else do we have?”

Sighing, Faulk said, “Elias, I didn’t know about the camera until Ft. Detrick was ordered by the White House to bring this to me. If there are any other cameras, they haven’t told me about them, either.”

“Play it again.”

With a few clicks on the keyboard, Faulk re-cued the video and started it. This time both of them stared silently. As it finished, Elias inquired, “Did facial-recognition come up with anything on either of them?”

Faulk shrugged. “It wasn’t in my briefing. I’ll check. But as far as those two guys, they could have merely arrived at the same time as Kreitzmann and, you know, struck up a conversation on the outside. It could be nothing.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why not? Simply because Kreitzmann turned to wait for them?”

“No. There’s something else. Something in the way those two move.”

“What do you mean?”

“Not sure. But it doesn’t look right.”

“I’ll double-check with Detrick to find out if they ran any recognition on their faces. But, in the meantime, there’s one more thing I want to show you.”

“What’s that?”

Rather than immediately starting another video, Faulk explained, “Kreitzmann checked in three months ago.”

“Three months ago! And you’re just now asking me to go in? That’s a slow response, even for you. Why did you sit on it so long?”

Without a touch of defensiveness in his voice, Faulk answered, “We didn’t.”

Understanding instantly, Elias snorted. “Who have you already sent in?”

“Stone. He went in two weeks after Kreitzmann.”

“You sent Eric in? What happened?”

Faulk’s voice was subdued. “We don’t know.”

It was obvious that Faulk expected a string of questions. Instead, Elias sat back in his chair and stared at him, waiting.

Stammering slightly, he continued, “We had two elements in place, communication and extraction. The first was a method the tech department came up with so that we could communicate with Stone once he was inside. Every twenty-four hours at a prearranged time, the black-out shield, which prevents anything electronic from entering or leaving Aegis, would blink off for a moment, allowing him to send a flash transmission.”

“Like the subs.”

“Exactly. We didn’t want to take down the curtain for a period long enough to allow anyone else access. Eric was supposed to record his report each day. He carried a device, no bigger than a smartphone, which would encrypt and compress the report. It was synchronized with the blink-off to automatically upload whatever was in his queue and download any information we might want him to have, all in less than a second. No others could use the interruption unless they were perfectly synched, also.”

“What did he report?”

At that point, Faulk hesitated for a moment. “We never got a single report.”

Faulk watched as Elias’ jaw muscles tightened. He expected an outburst. None came. Slowly, Elias clamped down his emotions until he was able to say, “I repeat, why the time lag? Especially since you now had a missing agent.”

Speaking quickly, Faulk explained, “We still had our extraction date. That was two weeks ago.”

Faulk let his breath out slowly and finished, “Stone was a no-show.”

Elias turned away from Faulk and stared at the image on the screen of the two men and Rudy Kreitzmann. Faulk did not interrupt his thoughts. After a full minute, Elias turned back and said, “I’ll leave today.”

Not surprised by his decision, Faulk added, “As I said, there’s one more thing I want to show you.”

“There’s more?”

“Yes.”

His fingers again touched the keyboard, and the image on the screen changed. Whatever Faulk wanted Elias to see was from the same camera inside Aegis, because it seemed as if the three men suddenly disappeared.

“What is this?”

“Watch.”

Elias stared impatiently at the flat-screen — when, suddenly, something black and completely opaque rose from beneath the camera lens, fully obscuring the view.

“What happened?”

“Not any sort of a malfunction. According to the technicians, someone covered the lense with a black object.”

“Who could do that? Did anyone inside know about the camera?”

“Supposedly not. Micro-lens integrated into the mechanical systems at the entrance. Essentially impossible to spot.”

“When did this happen?”

“Two days ago.”

“So it could have been Eric. He knew about the camera, didn’t he?”

“Yes. At the time I briefed him, he saw the same video of Kreitzmann that you just saw. But I don’t think it was Stone.”

“Why not?”

“Keep watching.”

Minutes passed with no change to the picture. Abruptly, whatever was blocking the camera was removed. Directly lined up with the camera angle, affixed with duct tape to the inside of the turnstile, was a large cardboard square.

Someone with a heavy felt-tip marker had created a sign. Scrawled on the cardboard in large, jagged lettering were two words:

Elias sipped his vodka tonic and watched the lush countryside slide gracefully past the window of the Crescent, a wry grin on his face as he recalled the tail end of the conversation between himself and Faulk. After Faulk showed him the cardboard sign, the briefing continued for another hour, as they discussed the details of what was expected of him and the logistics of the operation. He had, of course, accepted the assignment, and Faulk obtained the approvals, if any were actually necessary, within minutes. Predictably, Faulk asked Elias which agent he wanted as a partner. The conversation descended quickly into an argument when Elias told him he was going in alone. Elias had prevailed.

The tech arrived with the communication device, gave Elias a quick lesson, and hastily departed, clearly uncomfortable with the tension level in the room. The final disagreement arose, as it inevitably did, over the subject of transportation to Arizona. Faulk was in a hurry, as he always was, and told Elias that a jet was already standing by at Andrews Air Force Base. As Elias demurred, telling Faulk that a perfectly good train traveled the route, Faulk exploded, his ranting interrupted by Marilyn, who tapped twice on Faulk’s door and entered.

Acting as though she were oblivious to her boss’s suspended tantrum, she handed an envelope to Elias and said, “You’re all set. You leave on the Crescent tonight at six-thirty.”

Hearing this, Faulk sputtered before saying, “Elias, it’s going to take you three days to get there. I can have you on the ground at Davis-Monthan in three hours!”

Elias thanked Marilyn and turned to Faulk, a hint of a smile on his face. “So?”

Marilyn winked at him and left.

“This assignment was requested from the very top. I’m supposed to go tell him you hopped on a slow-moving train to Arizona?”

“Honestly, Richard, I don’t give a damn what you tell him. You picked me. You know how I travel. If you want someone there in three hours, send someone else.”