Dale Brown - Edge of Battle

“Wilco,” Falcone responded.

“Ari, better get on the horn and tell Jefferson what’s been going on,” Jason said.

“I’m already on the line with him, J,” Ariadna said. “He doesn’t sound too pissed. He’s calling the Justice Department and Homeland Security now.”

“Swell,” Jason muttered.

“TALON One, Rampart One, do you want me to release Cass and the others?” Ben Gray radioed.

“Negative,” Jason responded.

“But we’ve got them in the dog-pens…”

“Let them cool their heels in your holding cells for a few more minutes,” Jason said as he headed out to the landing pad. “I’ll meet you over there in a few.”

“Whatever you say, sir.”

The two helicopters’ rotors were winding down and all of the passengers were standing on the landing pad mats when Jason stepped over to them. FBI Director Kelsey DeLaine went over to greet him. “Hiya, Jason,” she said cheerfully, giving him a firm, friendly handshake and a hug. She was dressed for action with a black nylon FBI jacket over a black T-shirt and bulletproof vest, black boots, BDU pants, an FBI ball cap, and a Beretta pistol in a holster. Jason saw a lot of energy in her step and in her smile and was pleased that Washington hadn’t erased her genuine love for her profession. “Nice to see you again.” She looked around. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Were you expecting someone else?”

“Some folks from the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Diego, maybe someone from Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Kelsey said. She noticed him looking questioningly at her. “They haven’t arrived yet?”

“They’re here.”

“They didn’t tell you we were coming? The security guy on the radio said we needed clearance to land first.”

“They didn’t mention you were coming. They didn’t mention they were coming.” He turned to look at the people coming off the second helicopter. “Who are they?”

“Investigators from Customs and Border Protection and some Spanish interpreters,” Kelsey said. “We’re participating in the preliminary investigation on Frank’s incident last night.” Kelsey was the cocommander of Task Force TALON when it was first organized less than a year earlier, and she was very familiar with its personnel, weapons, and tactics. “This visit should have been cleared last night or early this morning through the Justice Department. You received no word of our arrival?”

“I heard you were on your way to the West Coast to look into the incident here, but we received no requests for clearances and had no idea who was coming, or when.”

“Well, it was pretty short notice—there must’ve been some snafu in communications along the line,” Kelsey said, now sounding a little perplexed. “An assistant from the U.S. Attorney’s Office assured me that all of the notifications had been made, through the White House as well as directly with the CO here; we didn’t want to run into one of your monster blimps or get shot down by a ray gun or something. I should’ve checked myself.” She looked at Jason carefully. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, Jason, but I still recognize that ‘cat with the canary in its mouth’ look of yours. What happened?”

“Follow me.”

Kelsey muttered something that Jason couldn’t quite catch in the subsiding whine of the helicopters’ turbine engines. She scanned the little base as she followed him toward the detention area.

“Jason, I’m not going to like whatever you’ve got to show me, am I?” Kelsey asked.

“Probably not.”

“Uh, Miss Director…?” one of Kelsey’s bodyguards stammered. “Those persons in the small prisoner cells over there…is that who I think it is…?”

“Jee… sus, ” Kelsey exclaimed when she saw Annette Cass kneeling on the plywood floor in the middle of one of the dog-pen detention cells, her hands secured behind her with plastic handcuffs. “Jason, what in hell is going on here? Do you know who that is? ”

“Do you? ”

“Of course I do! That’s Annette Cass, the U.S. Attorney for the southern district of California! What is she doing in that…that cage? Get her out of there immediately!”

Jason motioned to Gray, who unlocked the door to the chain-link cell and bent to help Cass up, but she pushed his hand away. “She and the others entered my base without permission and took away our weapons at gunpoint,” Jason said.

“Jason, are you crazy? Did they show ID?” Kelsey didn’t wait for a response, but hurried over to the detention cells, retrieving her ID and badge, showing it to Gray and his security guards, and then looping it atop her bulletproof vest so anyone could see it. “Open these cells immediately!” Gray looked over at Richter. “Don’t look at him, Captain! I gave you a direct order— open those cells! ”

“I want him arrested! ” Cass shouted as soon as she joined the others. “I want Richter and all of his personnel arrested right now, I want my people released, and I want this base shut down immediately! I am going to put you away for twenty years for unlawful detention, false imprisonment, and abuse of power, Richter! Director DeLaine, you saw what he did to us!” She pointed at one of the other cells. “He even locked up an official from the Mexican consulate! This is going to create an international incident! This is a complete violation of international law and treaties…”

“Annette, calm down…” Kelsey tried.

“‘Calm down’? This Army officer attacked and nearly killed three federal agents with one of his robots, then handcuffed us and locked us in those pens! He’s out of control, and I’m ordering you to arrest him!”

Kelsey’s mouth hardened into a line. “That’s enough, Annette,” she said testily. “You can’t order me to arrest anyone, let alone an Army officer on an Army installation, and you know it. I didn’t observe any laws being broken…”

“He put me and my agents in those cells for no reason…!”

“The commander of an Army installation is allowed to put anyone on his base in his brig for any reason he deems necessary”—she looked over at Jason suspiciously, then added—“as long as it was absolutely necessary. He’ll have to answer for his actions to his superior officer, which right now happens to be the President of the United States.” She looked over at the detention cells. “And you say that’s someone from the Mexican consulate? What’s he doing here? You never said anything about bringing someone from the consulate!”

“He heard that Mexican citizens were being detained out here, and he demanded to see them,” Cass said. “I agreed to allow him to accompany me.”

“You never told me this,” Kelsey said. “And what happened to getting us all clearances to come here? My two helicopters didn’t have clearance to land!”

“Is that what Richter said? I wouldn’t believe a word he says!”

“Annette, I didn’t ask the major for confirmation—I asked my office in San Diego to verify our clearances from Homeland Security and the Army, the people who should have received your request to visit the base,” Kelsey said. “They said the request was just received this morning and hadn’t been processed because it was incomplete. I only landed here because I contacted the Attorney General directly myself when I learned we didn’t have proper clearance. What’s going on here?”

“Homeland Security delayed my clearance and told me to resubmit my application to visit this base,” Cass argued. “I found that unacceptable. Any delay in getting here would’ve compromised evidence in our investigation and given Major Richter here time to coach or coerce witnesses…”