Russell Brooks - Pandora's Succession

Fox noticed her stare again. She was really starting to freak him out.

General Downing turned to Fox. “Despite the loss of our informant, and some very crucial intelligence about Ares, we’ve been able to proceed with what you were able to get about other possible Pandora laboratories. I’ve put Tom in charge of handling the task force units to conduct simultaneous raids on them.”

Fox turned to him, a bit tense out of excitement. “So that’s it. We’re done.”

“Not quite,” began Walsh. “Less than three hours ago, teams were dispatched to two other laboratories, one in the northern part of the Republic of Komi, in Russia, and also in Belarus, north of the city of Polatsk. Both teams reported that nothing was left of them when they arrived. However, the lab north of Polatsk was on lockdown. The blast door wouldn’t open once we entered the codes.”

“Something happened inside,” said Dr. Marx.

Downing looked at her. “What makes you think so?”

“It’s obvious why Ares would use bunker-like blast doors at the entrance of their underground labs,” Marx replied. “It’s not to keep certain people from getting in, but in order to keep Pandora from getting out in the event of an accident.”

“An accident? I doubt that. That’s rather unlikely,” said Fox.

Marx turned to him. “And why’s that?”

“Their lab in Groznyy is destroyed. They’ve lost Pandora over there. I’d think they’d be more cautious, especially since it might be their last sample of Pandora. It just seems too good to be true that they’d be that careless as to lose such a valuable commodity by accident.”

Walsh turned to Marx. “Fox may have a point. With the timing of those raids, whether Ares was setting up shop in either of those labs, we should’ve nailed them.”

Marx leaned back, away from the table. “Another explanation is that Ares could’ve set off the accident deliberately in order to send us off course. Meaning that there’s possibly more sleeper labs.”

Fox put an elbow on the table, and he let his head drop into his hand, massaging his forehead. “I doubt it. My contact was very accurate in the intel she shared with me. She never mentioned the possibility of her intel being faulty.”

“Then how else do you explain the lab being on internal lockdown?” asked Marx.

Fox paused for a moment. He looked up at her. “I can’t be sure. Maybe…I don’t know…another disgruntled agent in Ares, like Stechina. The person or persons could’ve deliberately caused the accident.”

“That may be true, Ridley,” said General Downing. “But the intel your contact would’ve given us, had she survived the escape, would’ve helped us identify the person, or persons, who could be potential defectors.” He pushed his chair back from the table and grabbed his cane. “Are there any more questions?” No one answered. “Then this meeting’s adjourned. I believe you must go report to the CDC’s compound, Dr. Marx?”

“I told them to start without me,” Marx replied. “They should know what to do without my help.” She got up and addressed everyone before she left. Walsh, Fox, Colonel Bell, and General Downing returned the address as they also got up.

As Fox and Walsh walked to the door, Walsh whispered to Fox, “So what do you think about her? I’ll bet you haven’t had a catch like her yet, have you?”

“She’s not my type, Walsh, so lay off,” Fox angrily whispered back to him.

“Tom,” said Downing. “Could you excuse Fox and me for a minute?”

Fox looked back at his superior. Intel your contact would’ve given us, had she survived the escape, would’ve helped us identify the person, or persons, who could be potential defectors. That was what Downing just said. Fox knew that comment was directed towards him. And now he was going to get it.

Walsh agreed and closed the door behind him, as Fox walked back towards his boss.

Downing rested both elbows on the table and cupped his hands. “I’ve known you for about five years, ever since I first recruited you from the Canadian Special Ops. I’ve watched you make mistakes until you learned how fatal they could be. But I still can’t get around how you could’ve been so careless, to allow yourself to get caught, when you were in Chechnya.”

“I can-”

“You know I hate it when you interrupt me.”

Fox cleared his throat. “I’m sorry.”

“You were able to accomplish the mission because you got lucky. A civilian rescued you-a civilian. Your blunder could’ve caused a serious threat to national security, and possibly an international crisis, if Ares had succeeded in selling Pandora to our enemies.” Downing leaned back and took a breath. “I turned fifty-six ten days ago, I’m walking with a prosthetic leg, and I put three children through college. Over the years, I’ve dealt with all types of threats to our country while you were doing the Moonwalk in elementary school. I’ve also dealt with all kinds of people, and you’re unique, Ridley. You’re tough and you can be sadistic. But you also have a soft side that allows your emotions to get the best of you. That’s what happened in Groznyy, didn’t it?”

Fox shook his head slowly. “Not so much, sir.”

“Oh really? Then how do you explain what happened?”

“They were expecting me. Stechina confirmed it, just as I had mentioned in my report. It all points to someone setting me up.”

“I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the fact that Ms. Stechina is not here with us. My God, the intel she could’ve provided us with is invaluable. It may be months, if not years, before an opportunity like that happens again.”

Fuck. Didn’t you just hear me? We may have a mole in the agency and all you want to do is blame me for what we lost. “Then we find out who’s the mole and get the info out of him.”

“What mole?”

“As I said earlier, I was set up. The details of my mission were tightly sealed. No one was supposed to know about it-which means that there was a leak somewhere in the ranks.”

“You assume there was a leak,” Downing shot back.

“I know there was a goddamned leak because Stechina confirmed it,” said Fox, losing control of his tone of voice.

“Really? What were her exact words?”

Fox thought back to what she said. Somehow they knew that you were coming.

“Well?” asked Downing. “What were her exact words?”

Fox looked away and sighed. “She mentioned that Ares has already infiltrated other foreign intelligence agencies.” He’s not going to buy that.

“ Foreign intelligence agencies? Yet she’d contacted you specifically. If she knew for sure that there’s a double agent within the CIA, why didn’t she warn you then?”

Fox shook his head. I knew he wouldn’t buy it. “I don’t know.”

Downing slammed the table with his hand. “This is pathetic. You’ve gotten yourself so wrapped up in your personal vendetta against Ares, after what they did to your fiancee, you can’t even concentrate. I don’t know why I thought that you’d be fit enough for this assignment. I’m going to recommend a full psychiatric evaluation be done on you.”

Maybe Stechina got it wrong and there is no mole. Maybe I’m just fishing for any damn excuse after all. “That won’t be necessary.”

“And why’s that?”

Fox reached into his pocket. Just as his fingers touched the envelope there was a knock at the door, followed by Walsh bursting through, breathing heavily and covered in sweat.

“I’m sorry to barge in like this, sir. But we’ve just gotten word that something’s happened at the CDC facility. And I’m afraid it’s not good.”

CDC Facility, northwest of Entebbe International Airport, 30 minutes earlier