Don Pendleton - Full Blast

GARDENER’S TRAIN of thought was disturbed during the flight back to the U.S. He received a call from Ralph Justin. The senator sounded nervous.

“Ralph, just take a breath and tell me slowly.”

“McAdam told me to watch my back until he resolves this problem. I asked him if he’d spoken to you. He said there was no need to worry you, but I think it warrants enough to be on our guard.”

“Fine, Ralph. Just tell me what the problem is. I can’t comment until I know that.”

“There have been some people snooping around. Talking to my staff. Your name came into the conversation. They identified themselves as Justice Department operatives. McAdam checked them out but can’t come up with any information. It’s like they don’t exist. Chase, they showed up at my town house, too.”

“Did you say anything?”

“What do you take me for, Chase? Of course I didn’t say anything.”

“Strikes me these men are just fishing. If they had anything solid, they’d have done more than just talk.”

“Who are they? Why is there no record of them on file anywhere?”

“Ralph, you know as well as I do there are discreet agencies in existence. But they can’t do a damn thing without proof. As long as we stand firm, they can only guess.”

“Aren’t you concerned?”

“My only worry is these people wasting our time. Ralph, just carry on as normal. Leave these people to me. I’ll look into it. Just remember who you are. If they bother you again, be yourself.”

“Myself?”

“Yes. An arrogant son of a bitch. An important man who has better things to do than to have his life invaded by these minor officials. You should be working on what you’re going to do with all that oil money coming your way.”

Something close to normality returned to Justin’s voice. “Thank you, Chase, I’ll take your advice. I may see you when you return.” He added dryly, “That’s if I have time to spare, of course.”

“Listen, I’m calling a meeting at the ranch. I need you there.”

“There’s a Senate meeting tomorrow, early. It’ll break quickly because it’s Friday and the weekend is coming up. I can fly out as soon as it’s over.”

“Good. It’ll give us time to clear the air. And while you’re at the ranch no one can bother you.”

Gardener finished the call.

“Trouble, General?” Renelli asked from his seat on the other side of the plane.

“More of an irritant. Justin has been visited by agents who say they were from the Justice Department. McAdam tried to get a line on them but couldn’t find anything.”

“Could be a cover for some covert agency. I’ll look into it when we get back.”

“Good. I probably don’t even have to say this, Renelli, but if you locate these people and have them in your sights long enough…take them down. I don’t give a damn who they work for. If they’re checking us out, they’re not with us. They’re against us. The enemy. So we deal with them. Understood?”

“Taken as read, General, sir.”

“Renelli.”

“Sir?”

“Change of plan. Tell the pilot we’re going straight to the ranch. I’ll stay there. You can take the plane and get back to what we talked about. Look into this Justice Department shit and find Jacobi.”

“Yes, sir.” Renelli half turned, then looked back. “We going to have problems, General?”

“It’s how you define the word ‘problem.’ Things are happening. Whether they become problems as such depends on how we handle them in the short term. It’s all to do with strategy, Renelli. Work that out and execute it, the problems become achieved objectives.”

“Sounds like a military operation to me, sir.”

Gardener smiled. “Exactly, son, because when it comes down to it, we are in a war. And that’s how we deal with it. You know the situation with Jacobi. We can’t afford to have anyone out there who might make a connection with someone prepared to listen. There’s too much riding on this. High stakes. Find Jacobi. Bring him down. Bury him and anything he knows with him.” Gardener paused. “Understand?”

Renelli nodded

“Clear, General, sir.”

“Damn nuisance this coming now. I need to concentrate on Khalli. McAdam has Khariza to deal with. So it looks like you’re going to have to handle Jacobi and the Justice agents, Renelli. Take whoever you need from the unit. Track that son of a bitch and remove him.”

“No sweat, General. We’ll find him and deal with it.”

“This needs swift action. Time’s not on our side.”

“I’m on it, sir.”

Renelli picked up the phone and called the base. He spoke at length to his team and told them to be standing by once he reached them, then went up front to give the pilot his new instructions.

When he returned, he sat across from Gardener and gave him an update on his call to his team.

“We have those two Justice agents under observation, General. I’ve had a standby team watching the senator. Purely as a security precaution. When those men appeared at his office and then his house, the team put a tail on them, so we might not know who they are, but we sure as hell know where they are. Hope I haven’t overstepped my authority, General.”

“Renelli, when something like this happens I realize I couldn’t have made a better choice. We have to watch for any moves from people like these Justice people. If you hadn’t seen fit to cover the senator, who by the way doesn’t need to know about our surveillance, then we would not have these people under our watch. Good work, son. Keep it up.”

Gardener nodded, satisfied that he had the situation under control. He knew, come the day, that he could always depend on his own people.

They were his people and they would die proving it. What more could a commander ask?

Rick Renelli had been in Gardener’s command for more than eight years. He had been a good soldier. But Renelli’s problem had been his overenthusiasm and that eagerness to please had proved his undoing. During a covert operation, Renelli had allowed his forceful attitude to kick the rule book out the window. The end result had been the death of three men in his squad and his superior officer badly wounded. On their return stateside Renelli had been accused, tried and discharged from the service.

Two weeks after that he had been contacted and advised that someone had a job for him. A night flight had delivered Renelli to the Gardener ranch in New Mexico and a meeting with his former commander. Gardener had bawled out Renelli big-time, angry at the way he had wasted his military career over a moment of laxity. The dressing down hadn’t been so much for the actual misdemeanor, more for the fact that Renelli hadn’t managed to extricate himself from the charges. The moment the shouting was over, Gardener sat Renelli down for a meal and offered him a position in the clandestine group he was forming to spearhead his planned coup against the U.S. government and the planting of a Gardener man within the Iraqi government, one who while steering the country toward a new democracy would also smooth the way for Gardener and his global enterprise. As far as Gardener was concerned, the U.S. had to maintain a strong grip on the Iraqi oil deposits. They were vitally important given the way the world was moving. America’s strength depended on its military machine and the industrial power base that served it. Allowing that to slide would leave America open to both internal and external threats.

The current administration, with its low-key polices and too much appeasement, was betraying the U.S., opening the gates to allow America’s detractors to gain ground, and showing a weaker face to the world in general. Chase Gardener had the vision to push America back to the top, his policy one of standing hard against the people trying to hold it back. Renelli, a man who had previously seen the way Gardener performed, had no argument with the man. He was a soldier, eager to serve under his old commander, and he’d accepted Gardener’s offer the moment it was laid in front of him.