Dale Brown - Act of War

“One or two harbors?” Kelsey asked incredulously. “It would take hundreds of men to search an area that size, and another hundred to secure it. There’s no way we can…”

“Two CID units along with the Goose drones can do it alone,” Jason said.

“In that short a time span? Impossible.” But as soon as she said that, she knew that it was certainly doable—they had spotted several small targets inside that oil refinery complex during their training exercise without any trouble.

“It’s possible, and we’ve got no time to waste,” Jason urged. “I’ve drawn up a plan. I’d like to take the team and both CID units and go down to South America to…”

“South America! You can’t just blast off to another country with a task force just like that.”

“We can, and we have to. It can’t wait.”

“No way, Jason,” Kelsey said. “If you have actionable information, you need to present it to Chamberlain, Jefferson, and the rest of the task force. We’ll verify the information and draw up a plan.”

“It can’t wait,” Jason said. “In twelve hours it’ll be too late—we need to head down there now. I’ve got a plane standing by that can take us to Brazil tonight.”

“Brazil?” She paused. Then she said, “Where are you now, Richter? Where’s Dr. Vega? You’re not…?”

“I’m sure Jefferson can get us clearance,” Jason said. “C’mon, Kelsey, we need to move on this. Trust me.”

“Who’s your source, Major?”

“I can’t reveal it just yet…”

“So you can’t trust me either, huh?” Kelsey asked accusingly.

Jason hesitated for a few moments, then he continued. “A wellknown international TV correspondent got me the information, and has a high degree of confidence in its accuracy,” he said. “She’s laid the groundwork for us to…”

“She?” Kelsey interrupted. “A well-known female international TV correspondent…?”

“You’d recognize her immediately,” Jason said. “I’ve spoken to her on condition of complete anonymity…”

“You’ve spoken to her? About the task force? About CID…?”

“Yes.”

“Have you ever heard of the concept of keeping a secret, Major?” Kelsey asked hotly. “Obviously not, because you seem to violate it every chance you get. What did you tell her about us?”

“She made contact with me and gave me information on this terror group,” Jason said. “She thought we could act on the information. All she wanted in exchange was to get exclusive access to our activities and…”

“She made contact with you, huh…wait a minute, wait a minute…that TV reporter you rescued in Kingman City…Skyy, Kristen Skyy, SATCOM One News. Jesus, Richter, she’ll blow our organization wide open in no time! We’ll have an army of reporters camped outside the front gate and flying overhead from now until doomsday! We won’t be able to go to the latrine without a camera crew taking pictures of it…”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“Richter, you’ve blown it big time, and you are in a world of shit,” Kelsey said. “I suggest you get your butts back here immediately and report everything you’ve been up to with this reporter.”

“What about the information on GAMMA?”

“If her information pans out, then we’ll use that source again in the future.”

“But we may miss our opportunity to…”

“That’s the way it goes, Major,” Kelsey said. “Sources are verified by receiving a certain quantity of validated information, and most times their information is validated by something bad happening. Once we take the task force off the base, we expose ourselves to counterespionage forces and a lot of official and unofficial scrutiny. We can’t take that risk until we’re fully operational. We need to…hey, why am I bothering explaining all this to you? You’re a lab rat. You go off and do whatever you feel like doing anyway…”

“I’m a what?” Jason asked angrily. “What did you call me?”

“I meant you’re an engineer, not an operations guy, and you obviously don’t care about operational procedures or protocols,” Kelsey said. “What do you care about security, coordination, or teamwork? Apparently not much. I suggest…no, I order you to report back here immediately!”

“Maybe I should go to Jefferson directly.”

“You just can’t learn to be a team player, can you, Richter?” Kelsey asked acidly. She shrugged. “Go ahead. You’ll look like an ass. He’ll tell you the same thing I’m telling you. Now discontinue all contact with anyone outside the task force and get back here on the double!”

“We’re missing an important opportunity here, Kelsey…”

“I strongly advise you to cut off this contact with Kristen Skyy or whoever you’ve been talking to,” Kelsey said sternly. “The information may be useful and even accurate, but you’re risking the safety and security of everyone on the team. Cut it off.” And she terminated the connection.

Back at the conference room at the training base, Carl Bolton stepped up to Kelsey, scanning her surprised expression. “What in hell did he want? What was all that about Kristen Skyy?”

“He said he had information on a GAMMA leader hiding out in Brazil,” Kelsey said breathlessly, her mind racing.

“GAMMA! Did he say anything about…?”

“He mentioned a connection between GAMMA and Kingman City.”

“Shit! That bastard!” The other task force members looked at Bolton curiously, wondering what he was so riled up about. They didn’t trust either Richter or DeLaine very much yet—Sergeant Major Jefferson was their leader, no matter what the organizational chart said—but they trusted Bolton even less, if at all.

“Carl, you have got to get updates from all our researchers and investigators and get an update on the whereabouts of all the known GAMMA leaders,” Kelsey said. “Richter’s source claims to have one localized.”

“How localized?”

“Pretty damn close. He wants to take the entire team down there to grab him, including both CID units.”

“He’s smoking something,” Bolton said dismissively.

“He might be on his way down there right now with the CID unit he was riding in this morning.”

“Is he crazy?” Bolton exclaimed. “Who authorized that?”

“I don’t think anyone did.”

“Richter has lost his mind,” Bolton said. “Jefferson will strangle him.” He fell silent for a moment; then: “Who in hell could he be talking to? Our sources haven’t come up with squat yet.”

“Call Washington and have Rudy get us an update, fast,” Kelsey said. “If Richter got his hands on something, we need to find out right away. Hit up our sources in SATCOM One in New York and Washington. If they won’t talk, threaten to arrest them.” Bolton pulled out his secure cell phone and made the call. “And one more thing: have someone keep an eye on Richter. If he tries to leave the base, notify Sergeant Major Jefferson and us right away.”

“It’ll be my pleasure,” Bolton said.

“What did she say?” Ariadna asked Jason when he hung up the phone.

“She said get our butts back to the training area.”

“Did you tell her you’re working with Kristen Skyy and SATCOM One News?”

“Not by name, but she guessed who it was.”

“What about Jefferson?”

“He said ‘stay put.’ ”

“We’re in deep, deep dog doo, J,” Ari said seriously. “We’ll be thrown off this task force so fast it’ll make your head spin. We need to head back to the base right now and forget all this.”

“Maybe that’s what we should be doing, Ari, but I still feel we need to be moving on Kristen’s information,” Jason said. They noticed a blue Air Force sedan with flashing yellow lights roaring up the street toward the general aviation terminal—followed by a Security Forces Humvee. “We’ll find out soon enough.”