Rise of the Pheonix: Act 2 Read online

  Edge took a deep sigh. “With the window we have, we won’t be able to find the mole, if there is one before we head to Global Trust.”

  “You wanna head out before Reid gets us the information?”

  “Hell no. Before we go, I’m looking over the blueprints for that building.”

  “What are you hoping to get out of that?” Tucker asked.

  “The Order hasn’t hit Global Trust yet but I’m sure they’re going to hit it soon, and we’ll need to be there when they do. But I’m not walking into another trap. I want to know all our available paths and possible choke points. It’s harder to adapt in a building than in the woods.”

  “What do you mean by we?”

  “This little investigation is changing fast. It’s clear you won’t be able to sit on the sidelines.” Edge’s tone made Tucker feel like he was getting one hell of a pep talk.

  “I don’t do this shit, Edge. I barely escaped yesterday. Without your help, I…”

  Edge cut him off. “They know who you are. They’ll kill you as soon as they can get you alone and believe it or not, coming with me to stop these assholes is safer than staying here with the mole.”

  Tucker blinked a few times. That is the craziest thing I have ever heard. And yet, it makes a lot of sense. IF there is a mole. “I’m guessing I don’t have a lot of say in this matter?”

  “Not in the slightest,” Edge responded with a hint of a smile.

  “Figures,” Tucker responded. “Well, if we can’t find the mole, can we, at least, establish who we can trust?”

  “Reid and Webster are solid. I’ve looked into them and trust their body language. Now, we need to get some layout info on that bank, and I need soda,” Edge announced as he exited the room.

  Tucker stood there feeling blindsided by the idea that this case had put him in a situation where people were looking to kill him.

  I’m not in Kansas anymore; he thought as he followed Edge to get a soda, wanting something much stronger.

  ۞۞۞۞

  It was after three o’clock that afternoon when the group met in Reid’s office. Edge sat looking over the blueprints of Global Trust that he had sent to his tablet. Tucker had given up looking at them after a half hour, having gone crossed eyed trying to read the small print and follow the pathways. Edge, on the other hand, had been looking at them for about two hours straight.

  Reid finished organizing his notes as he read a text from Webster. “Okay, Webster and Crawford have found some more information and she’s on her way up. Crawford is staying with the tech people to do some more searching.”

  “I take it the bank wouldn’t give you their client list?” Edge asked.

  “No matter how nice we asked,” Reid confirmed. “Even Webster tried the whole ‘cute phone voice’; they wouldn’t budge.” Reid shrugged.

  For a brief moment, Edge caught himself wondering what Webster’s ‘phone voice” would be like.

  “However,” Reid continued, “while they may keep their list behind closed doors, thanks to the world of public records and the Internet, those doors are a mere annoyance.”

  “You’re saying you hacked the bank?” Tucker asked, incredulous. At this point, I would have sent down a court order and a few heavily armed agents.

  “Didn’t need to. The public footprint of a bank like Global Trust is impossible to keep entirely secret. We just searched the web for anything that came up with Global Trust and other companies through projects and deals, and hundreds of hits came up. It’s all about looking at the right search results,” Reid said with a smile. “It may not be everything, but I believe we can get the general idea of what they’re involved in from the information we gathered.”

  Tucker nodded in approval. “I like it. Now the million dollar question: did you find anything?”

  “Ah, yes,” Reid informed him. “They’re heavily involved with international mining, drilling, and oil companies, as well as monitoring other international banks, acting as a parent company. Many smaller operations were acquired through hostile takeovers; extremely hostile, in fact. They were under investigation for their “strong-arming” of other banks not long ago. But the most interesting tidbit was a recent deal between Global Trust and an oil company based out of Turkey,” Reid finished.

  “Turkish Petroleum; Nezaket’s company,” Tucker guessed with a smile. Reid just winked in approval. “Okay, we’re heading over. I want court orders; these guys can’t have an ounce of wiggle room. Reid who can we call?”

  “I know a few judges that I’ve dealt with in the past that is light on needing substantial evidence.”

  Reid went to his desk and began flipping through old cases to look for the judges’ contact information. Tucker started jotting down what he was going to present to the judges. Getting court orders was new to him; usually, his missions did not require it.

  Webster burst into the room in what was practically a full sprint. “You guys have got to see this!” she exclaimed, wearing an alarmed expression as she turned on Reid’s TV. Reid and Edge turned their attention, but Tucker remained focused.

  Edge’s mouth dropped when he saw what was on the screen. He had never seen anything like this, and he had been to some of the worst war-torn parts of the world. Reid was dumbfounded and Webster looked at the both of them with the same shock as probably everyone else watching television.

  “What is it?” Tucker asked in between thoughts. It was not that he didn’t care but that his thoughts had to get down on paper before they were forgotten.

  “Remember that event Arslan was talking about?” Edge asked.

  Tucker responded with an absent, “Yeah.”

  “Well, I think it just happened.”

  Tucker jumped out of the chair and focused his attention on the TV. Shocked by what he saw, “Turn the volume up,” he asked.

  “We’ve been informed that around 3:45 pm Eastern Standard Time, a plane flew over the city of Miami and released six missiles,” a reporter on the TV informed the nation. “The plane has been described as being a C-130 Hercules cargo. The attack devastated the Miami International Airport; all air traffic has been diverted to nearby airports. The downtown Financial District also was attacked. We have no footage at this time but from the reports sent to us, dust and smoke have blanketed the area, with fires spreading rapidly throughout the city.

  “We’ve gotten reports that a giant section of the street has collapsed into a crater where one of the missiles is believed to have impacted. Many of the once tall skyscrapers that lined the city’s skyline are now lying in the streets below.

  For a few seconds, the reporter held a finger to his ear.

  “We’ve just received confirmation that the Turkey Point nuclear power plant, has been hit, cutting off power to the city. Initial reports claim there are no confirmed radiation leaks at this time. Civilians are being evacuated until an official report comes in regarding the possibility of leaks.”

  The reporter paused to let the information sink in, and then continued, “The President has declared a State of Emergency. With the city in utter chaos and with no other words to describe what has happened, the National Guard has been dispatched to the locations of the explosions and surrounding areas with plans for evacuation, rescue, and quarantine...”

  Once more the reporter put his finger to his earpiece. Removing his hand, he added, “This just in, we just received word that a Terrorist Group out of Turkey, called the ‘Kilij,’ are claiming responsibility for the attack. Nothing more is known at this time.”

  Reid broke the silence, “What do we do now?”

  Tucker had no idea. For the first time, he was totally lost. “I… I don’t know.”

  Edge turned off the television to focus the group. “We know from the video that the Kilij are just scapegoats. Our first objective is, we find out who this ‘Order’ is and kill ’em. This devastation is horrible beyond words, but we’re paid to find out who’s behind this, so we don’t have time to react to the horr
or of the event now. We mourn after the Order is brought in.”

  “You’re damn right,” replied Webster. With that, the group started to collect data about the attack as it came in from every possible news source.

  After hours of reading devastating and depressing accounts, the group had discovered that thousands were estimated to be dead, that the power plant would be down for at least two years, and that power would be spotty and unreliable for weeks. Only a few buildings remained standing at ground zero. One of them was the suddenly popular Global Trust.

  “Son of a bitch! All this was a setup so they can go after the bank. Tucker, we need to get in there. And I mean now!” Edge exclaimed.

  Tucker put his hands up, “We can’t just stroll in there; we’re going to need permission. You’ve read the reports: the President has that place locked down tighter than Fort Knox.” Edge looked at him impatiently. Tucker continued, “Only my boss would have the authority to get us in there.”

  Edge continued to stare at Tucker before he said, “Then you better call him. Let’s go to another room and use a phone they won’t have tapped.”

  Tucker smiled. “Smart man,” he said aloud, following after Edge.

  Miami was close enough that a lot of the agents at the Department of Homeland Security had family and friends near the bombings. That fact was illustrated by having all the abandoned offices. Reid’s team left to console some coworkers who had suffered confirmed losses.

  Edge found one of the abandoned offices, that of a low-level office assistant; one who wouldn’t have any need for a phone tap, as no confidential information passed by her desk. Tucker called Director Winford’s office and left a message with his secretary, giving her the office number to return the call at and stating the importance of his call. If there is anyone who can get a hold of him during a crisis, it’s her.

  Sure enough, not even two minutes later the phone rang and Director Winford was on the line. “Hello, Director. This is Tucker.”

  “I know it’s you, Tucker. What is it as time is a luxury right now? For President’s got his hand so far up my ass that he can practically remove my tonsils,” The man responded flatly.

  “Sir, I apologize for the inconvenience, but we’ve come to believe that…..”

  “Time equals lives son. Give me the facts. Save the pleasantries,” the director interrupted.

  Tucker had heard this side of him before as it was being directed to others. “I will get straight to the point,” Tucker assured him. “Nezaket had his hand in the attack on Miami, but I’m afraid he wasn’t working alone.”

  “I’m not sure I follow. You’re saying that Gamze Nezaket helped orchestrate all this? Are you sure?”

  “If not all of it, then, at least, the largest part, especially the logistics. Apparently the Kilij were providing resources to some group who call themselves the ‘Order.’ When Nezaket had given them enough resources to execute to attack, they killed him.”

  Winford took a brief pause on the phone to think. “How can you be so positive? And how in the hell did Nezaket get assassinated in the remote wilderness of the Everglades, by someone other than us? Especially when we were supposed to know his movements so well that we could tell when he needed to take a shit before he did? And didn’t I tell you to keep this under wraps? This case is now being broadcast on every channel if you haven’t also noticed!”

  “Yes you did, but what’s being reported is misinformed information. The Kilij are being set up as the scapegoats. The Order fed the information to the news to distract attention from themselves while they took their next steps.” Tucker swore he could hear the director grinding his teeth on the other end of the line. “I can crack this case if you can get me into ground zero, sir. Tonight.”

  “Ground Zero? That’s impossible,” he responded in an uncertain tone. “With all that’s happened today, there’s no way I can get that approved.”

  Edge had been listening to Tucker and had a rough idea of how the conversation was going. Tucker gave thumbs down.

  Edge whispered forcefully, “No! We need to get in there!”

  Tucker nodded and attempted again. “Sir, we believe the Order’s next step is to enter Global Trust International Bank tonight, likely for the purpose of breaching the system security and moving funds into offshore accounts that we can’t easily interdict. They mentioned it on the video we found. Sir, the bank has dealings with practically every international oil company, including Nezaket’s. They could have an infinite supply of money, funding their operation indefinitely, if we allow them to get in there. Our best bet is that they will try to enter tonight while local law enforcement officers are focused on rescue and maintaining public peace.”

  “So you’re implying that the bombing was a decoy?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  Silence fell on the other end, then the director spoke. “Do you have any evidence to support this claim?”

  Evidence!? Seriously? After what happened, you want evidence? Tucker’s mind raced, but he remained calm. “Sir, under these conditions, the courtroom-grade evidence is going to be hard to come by. The best we can do at this point is probable cause, and I think what we heard on the videotape meets that standard.”

  “So you have a video of a dead terrorist, referring to a bank. For all, I know the bombing that took place today was a failed attempt by him to bomb that very bank.”

  “Sir, I don’t believe there were any mistakes regarding what was hit. The missiles at the airport and the nuclear plant struck exactly where they needed to disable the facility. There was no miscalculation. I don’t think the other missiles were just lobbed randomly into the financial district to see what they could destroy. The fact that Global Trust, certainly not the biggest fish in that particular pond, is one of the few buildings left standing, I believe, by design. Given what we have heard on the videotape, the coincidence is too strong to ignore!”

  Edge had to applaud Tucker’s ferocity. Most people would have caved at having to force their point onto a direct superior, mostly out of a desire to preserve their career.

  A sigh came through the phone, then more silence. “All right,” the director finally conceded. “You’ve proved your point. But there’s still no way I can get you into Ground Zero or give you any additional support by tonight. All my resources are being commandeered by the White House. The President has declared Miami a disaster area and, given the terrorist aspect and is imposing martial law.”

  “If this weren't crucial to the investigation I wouldn’t ask,” Tucker insisted. “If you or the President don’t want to bring in these bastards then deny me access to Ground Zero. But if you do want to bring them in… then get me into that building!”

  “The earliest I can get you in is tomorrow morning,” Winford asserted.

  Tucker’s fist slammed onto the desk, causing the picture frames of the desk’s owner to fall over. “Tomorrow morning?”

  “Listen, it’s the best I can do. Either take or leave it. No exceptions,” Winford said, becoming irritated at Tucker’s persistence.

  “It will have to do,” Tucker answered, clearly not understanding Winford’s lack of support.

  “Well, then I will make the proper arrangements and have you in there first thing in the morning. Until then, get some rest and mention your entering Global Trust to no one, understood?”

  “Understood, sir,” Tucker threw the handset onto the cradle sending the phone, and a few desk items, to the floor. “Fuck!” he snapped, still not understanding why he was being denied access to the area. He pushed his frustration aside and trusted that Winford had a legitimate reason for not pushing it to tonight.

  Edge waited for Tucker to calm down, “So he’s not letting us in until tomorrow morning? That’s not going to work.”

  “According to the director, all his resources are busy hunting down the terrorists so he can’t give us any help and doesn’t seem to think that time is of the essence in getting us there.”

  “H
e does seem a little myopic about the urgency,” Edge agreed.

  Tucker, tried to defend his boss’s decision even though he didn’t agree with it. “Maybe he lacks the foresight, but who knows what political currents are swirling just now? I don’t think I’d want to be in his chair at the moment. He’s proven before that he does know what he’s doing and he’s given me support countless other times.”

  “But there’s no rational thinking to his decision. Someone, please tell me why can’t the Director of the CIA, who only answers directly to the President, get clearance?” Edge asked, frustrated. There was no higher option to appeal to.

  Tucker crossed his arms and shrugged his shoulders, defeated.

  “Those bastards are going to be in Global Trust tonight!” Edge insisted.

  “I couldn’t agree more, but I have orders to stand down ‘till morning. So, what do you propose we do until then?” Tucker asked.

  “Tucker, he ordered that you wait until tomorrow; not me or anyone else. I have vowed to protect this country from enemies foreign and domestic at all costs, and these guys are the enemy. I can’t sit still for this. You remember Operation Nightwolf, right?”

  “Sure I do.”

  “I had to go against command to accomplish the mission then. You also know it’s what we have to do now,” Edge declared standing up.

  Tucker wiped his hands across his face, amazed at how much he was sweating. “So you’re asking me to go against the director?”

  “I’m just pointing out what I know I have to do,” Edge responded.

  For the first time in his career, Tucker had to decide whether he was going to follow Winford’s orders or do what he thought was best. He looked at Edge, who was about to go, with or without him. At the end of the short struggle, the safety of the country meant more to him than his career. “I’m in. But, we’re going to need more people.”

  Edge smiled. “I don’t think Reid’s team will need much persuasion.”

  “Alright, let’s get them and get rolling,” Tucker said.