Mark Greaney - Full Force and Effect

Sam said, “John, you know Sharps, don’t you?”

“I did.”

“You guys are old buddies?”

Clark gave Driscoll a sideways glance. “I wouldn’t piss on Duke Sharps if he was on fire.”

“You and Mary Pat seem to feel the same about the guy. What did he do?”

“Duke Sharps was working for FBI’s Counterintelligence Division right after Nine-Eleven. He was based here, in Manhattan, and he was promoted to the top of the Manhattan Bureau. It was a time where we needed a lot of leadership in that job, but while everybody else saw it as their duty to stick around and work, Duke Sharps saw Nine-Eleven as an opportunity for personal enrichment. He quit FBI, then started his own consulting company. FBI needed his expertise, so they ended up paying him several times what they had been paying him.”

With a shrug Sam said, “Sounds like capitalism.”

“It gets worse. Sharps Partners was set up to work exclusively with the federal government, but slowly, over the next few years, he started branching out into the private sector, creating new divisions and offices to assist corporations on intelligence and counterintelligence matters. His work here in New York was still first-rate, from what I’ve been told, so the government kept their hands off. But after a while it became clear his private-sector work wasn’t as private-sector as everyone thought it was. He got caught working for the Saudis to identify Israeli Mossad officers in New York.”

Sam said, “Holy shit. Why the hell is he not in prison for that?”

“Sharps claimed he thought he was doing work on behalf of a Gulf oil company, corporate intel against a rival company. He also pled ignorance that the men he was tailing were Mossad. He was hauled into hearings, but they were kept quiet for a lot of reasons.”

“I’ll bet,” said Driscoll. “A guy with Sharps’s knowledge and clearances could raise a lot of issues in an open hearing.”

“Right. In the end, the government couldn’t prove he was knowingly working for a foreign power. He lost all his federal contracts, President Ryan saw to that, and everyone thought Sharps Partners would dissolve without all those contracts coming in. But a funny thing happened . . .”

Sam shook his head in disbelief. “He didn’t need the U.S. money anymore.”

“Nope. He had parlayed his high-profile FBI gig and U.S. contracts into God knows how many foreign deals. He basically became the guy in the U.S. the bad guys call when they want agents who talk and walk just like Americans, doing operations either on American soil or under the cover of the USA.”

“And no one has been able to prove anything?”

Clark shook his head. “Not a goddamned thing. Sharps has foreign entities and they work with other foreign entities that are set up by whatever shady government or criminal group wants to hire him. It’s a foolproof system, or at least it always has been.” Clark sneered. “If I can find any proof that treasonous bastard is taking one single dime from some other state actor for the purpose of conducting intelligence, then I will nail his balls to the steps of the FBI building as a gift to all the hardworking men and women in government who didn’t parlay their access and experience into a criminal career.”

Clark was ready to go. “We’ll need today to prep, to assemble equipment, to acquire transport and a safe house in theater. I’ll go down and talk to IT about getting us some access to cameras outside of Sharps’s office.”

Gerry said, “Okay. I agree to both operations. Good luck, guys. Your work is cut out for you. Sharps and his people are good at what they do, and New York City is their turf. You do not tail them into subways, or through any choke points, because they will spot you.”

Clark said, “You’re right about that.”

Ryan understood why he got the foreign duty. With his beard and other things he had done to alter his appearance in the past few years, he was almost never recognized, even on the streets of the U.S. But in Prague he would garner even less attention. He hated that his semi-fame had to enter into the threat matrix for each operation, but he had no one to blame but himself. Not for his fame—the fact his dad was a household name around the world was at fault there—but Jack Junior himself had sought out a life of clandestine work, and celebrity and anonymity were polar opposites.

Ryan recognized his was an unusual life. It annoyed him sometimes, but he realized he wouldn’t trade it for the world. He said, “Thanks, Gerry. Maybe I shouldn’t press my luck, but I’d like to request that Gavin comes with us on this.”

Gerry was surprised. “To Prague? Why?”

“Whatever Skála’s involvement in this matter, I’m thinking it likely he was doing it through back channels, and not in his official capacity in the government. It stands to reason. Sharps Global Intelligence Partners wasn’t contracted with the Czech government, so I figure he was moonlighting if he was working with them. That might mean he used his personal phone or computer as a means of contact with someone else involved. I’m assuming we’ll have to skim all the intel off of his electronic devices in order to figure out who he’s been talking to. If we are to do this without him knowing we’re there, then our infiltration might be time sensitive.”

“What if he’s erased the data?”

Ryan didn’t hesitate. “Oh, I’m sure he has. But I’ve watched Gavin work. He’s a bloodhound. If there is a trace of anything, even if it’s something erased, Gavin will retrieve it.”

Gerry thought it over. He wasn’t crazy about Biery running out into the field every time The Campus had a time-sensitive operation. Virtually all of their operations were time sensitive, and there was only one IT director.

Jack saw his employer’s hesitancy, so he said, “Of course, I guess I could just whack Karel Skála on the head and kidnap him.”

It was a joke, but Gerry just raised an annoyed eyebrow.

Ryan smiled. “Sorry. Just kidding around. It’s okay. We can go without Gavin. We’ll make do.”

Gerry looked to Clark. He was the director of operations of The Campus, after all. “If I send Gavin to Prague, is that going to negatively affect your operation in New York?”

Clark shook his head. “We’ll need schematics on Sharps’s offices, employee lists, things of that sort. Might need some security measures disabled in his building if we decide to try a sneak-and-peek. Biery’s staff is more than competent to handle all that.”

“Okay.” Gerry turned to Ryan and Caruso. “You can take Gavin, but only if you promise to return him the way you found him.”

Jack and Dom laughed.

—

Gavin Biery was virtually the only employee of Hendley Associates who wasn’t happy with the new building. Although his job title had not changed since the old place, here he had control of less than half the square footage as compared to the West Odenton campus, and to Gavin that felt like a kick in the pants.

Yes, The Campus was a leaner outfit now, he didn’t need as much space, and Gerry had put in the money to ensure that the technology here was better than much of the equipment Gavin had used at their old address, but Gavin liked the feeling of control he had over the bigger operation. West Odenton had more computers and more personnel, and Gavin Biery had been master of it all.

Since the inception of The Campus many years earlier, the organization derived much of its raw intelligence by intercepting the satellite feeds beamed between the NSA building up in Fort Meade, Maryland, and the CIA building down in McLean, Virginia. To do this a huge array of dishes were necessary on the roof of the five-story West Odenton building.