Dale Brown - Act of War

“Ido, senhor,” Judge Amaral said.

“Gone?” Kristen’s producer Bonnie exploded. “He can’t go! He’s the whole reason why we’re here! He’s Kristen’s story! Without him, she has nothing! Jason, can you…?”

“I see him,” Jason said, “but I also detect more radio chatter on the PME command channel. There may be other troops coming.”

“Everyone, load up,” Jefferson said.

“Sergeant Major, wait. I can…”

“Major…Jason, no more arguing,” Jefferson said. Jason was about to argue again, but the approaching troops and the CID unit’s status told him that Jefferson was right and he had no choice. They piled into the van and headed off to the airport.

The jet was already at the end of the runway, its right engine idling, the entry door opened. The copilot, carrying a pistol, waved them in. Kristen and her crewmen helped Ariadna into the plane, while Jason dismounted from the CID unit, folded it, and stowed it into the baggage compartment with Jefferson’s help. Once everyone was on board, the copilot closed and dogged the entry hatch, the pilot started the left engine…

…and it wasn’t until then that they realized Pereira was gone. “Where did he go?” Kristen shouted. It was obvious he wasn’t on board. “That was our last hope! The story is ruined!” She turned to her cameraman. “Rich, please tell me…”

“We got some tape,” Rich murmured. “I haven’t checked it yet, but I got the camera, and it was running.”

“Thank God…”

“And I’ll be sure that the film is confiscated by the Defense Intelligence Agency, CIA, and Justice Department upon our arrival,” Sergeant Major Jefferson said. “It’s evidence we’ll need to indict Zakharov, Khalimov, and the rest of his gang.” Bonnie looked at him with a stunned expression, but the jet started its takeoff roll and she took a seat, mentally and physically drained, and chose not to argue.

After they were safely established in the climb, Jefferson got up and checked Ariadna. “How is she?” he asked Jason.

“Bruised and sore, but I don’t think she has a broken skull or a concussion…”

“I’m fine,” she responded weakly, half-opening her eyes to look at them. “Thank you for saving me, Sergeant Major.”

“It was pure dumb luck that we’re not all dead,” Jefferson said. He looked carefully at Richter. “Or maybe not. You told me the CID unit was broken, Major.” Richter nodded. “Why the bogus story? We could’ve been killed out there. The CID unit could’ve detected all those killers long before they attacked us. Two innocent people were needlessly killed. Your own engineer was beaten and could have been killed too.”

“I took a chance, sir,” Jason replied. He turned to Ariadna. “I’m sorry, Ari, but I had to do it.”

“A chance? What are you talking about?”

“A chance to give out some false information so we’d draw out the bad guys,” Jason said. “Everybody but myself and Ari thought that the CID unit was down. That means…”

“That means that someone we told about our plan to go to Abaete to hunt for Ruiz without the CID unit ratted us out to Zakharov,” Jefferson said. “I only told the National Security Adviser, and it was on a secure circuit.” He turned to Kristen. “Who did you talk to?” he demanded.

“Our executive producer…the chief of the news division…the president of SATCOM One…”

“Jesus…!”

“Even I can’t just go traipsing all over South America without getting permission,” Kristen retorted. “The news was sent all the way up to the president’s office before we knew it. What did you expect…we were just going to whip out our credit cards and pay for this trip ourselves?”

“And how many persons could they have told?”

“They don’t blab about our movements, Sergeant Major…”

“Who? How many could have known?”

Kristen glowered at Jefferson and shook her head, but lowered her eyes and shrugged a few moments later. “Any number of people,” she said finally. “At least three associate producers and one or two editors just in the television news division; they could have sent funding requests to Finance; they would have gotten in contact with officials in Washington; fact-checkers, researchers, legal guys…who the heck knows, Sergeant Major? It’s a big organization…”

“And over an unsecured telephone,” Jefferson added. “Half of New York and Washington could have been listening in. I’m surprised there wasn’t a news crew out there in Abaete covering the battle live.” He swore silently, then impaled Jason with an angry glare. “Dammit, Richter, you never should have gotten a reporter involved in this. Task Force TALON has been blown wide open. The whole damned world will know what we’ve done by the time we get back to Cannon.”

“I don’t think it was Kristen or SATCOM One that leaked our whereabouts,” Jason said. “I think it was someone in Washington—maybe even someone in the White House.”

“How do you figure that, Major?”

“Sir, I didn’t trust this whole setup right from the beginning—something smelled from day one,” Jason said. “This whole thing was doomed to fail right from the start. I’m positive of it now.”

“This task force was formed by the National Security Adviser himself,” Jefferson said. “Chamberlain has been our strongest and probably our only supporter.”

“Then someone in his office, sir…or someone right here in this plane, has sold us out,” Jason said. “Someone involved with the project right from the start…”

“The only other ones involved early on have been…Special Agents DeLaine and Bolton,” Jefferson said.

“And you, Sergeant Major,” Kristen pointed out. Jefferson glared at her but said nothing.

“DeLaine and Bolton were working on the GAMMA angle when we first had the demonstration at Andrews Air Force Base,” Jason said. “Ari and I intercepted Kelsey’s cell phone conversations with her office, before and after the demo, and they talked about Brazilian terror groups then. She never liked me from day one, and she and Bolton have done everything possible to exclude us from their activities. I threw a monkey wrench into her entire GAMMA investigation, something she and her office had been working on for months.”

“Chamberlain certainly would’ve informed Kelsey of what we were up to in Brazil,” Jefferson said. “There could be a leak in her office…”

“If she hurriedly tried to pick up the pieces of her investigation into GAMMA and gotten operationally sloppy, she could have tipped off sources in the Brazilian government or PME…accidentally, I mean,” Kristen said. “How well do you know this person? Could she be a snitch or on Zakharov’s payroll?”

“No way,” Jefferson said. “She’s a well-known and respected FBI agent. She’s the deputy special agent in charge of counterterrorism in Washington, for Christ’s sake…!”

“Doesn’t mean she can’t be dirty, Sergeant Major,” Ariadna said.

“I don’t think it’s Kelsey,” Jason said. “It has to be someone higher up…”

“All right, that’s enough,” Jefferson said. “We’re not getting anywhere arguing about this. Once we get back to the States, I’ll have a full investigation launched. We’ll find the leak and shut it down, I guarantee it.” He picked up the satellite telephone. “I’m going to notify Chamberlain’s office of our arrival and what happened…”

Jason shook his head. “Sir, what if…?”

“Major, I heard what you said, but I don’t have the authority to launch an investigation of this magnitude,” Jefferson said. “We need the FBI, CIA, Defense Intelligence, Homeland Security, andU.S. Northern Command in on this—Chamberlain will have every investigating agency possible working on this. They’re going to work separately, independently, to get answers. No one office or individual can influence every one of them.” No one had enough energy to argue.