Viper Team Seven (The Viper Team Seven Series Book 1) (44 page)

Tuesday, April 15
^th
– 0615 hours

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building

Parks grabbed
the papers on his desk that Solomon had thrown down and scanned them. “This may
help a lot. Thanks,” he said.

Solomon jammed
his hands in his pockets. “It’ll help you with something, I’m sure. But all I
can say is one thing, two heads are better than one. It would really help if
you let me in on what you’re undermining.”

Parks stared up
at Solomon. “Undermining? I’m not undermining anything. What makes you say
that?”

“Well maybe I
chose the wrong word. What I meant was, I can definitely help you with your
espionage efforts. Whatever they may be.”

Parks thought
about that. “You know, I just don’t want to start anything if my idea is going
to be wrong. I don’t want to rouse suspicion over something that may be nothing.”

Solomon was
disappointed and Parks could plainly see that.

“Tell you what
Solomon, after I look over your report, I’ll contact you if I still think my
suspicion is correct,” Parks concluded. “That’s all I can say for now.”

“Yes sir. I’ll
be waiting for your call.”

Solomon exited the office and Parks leaned back in his chair as he read
over the first report.

Mike Cummins

Director of the
Central Intelligence Agency

1/20/13
– present

-
-
Joined
CIA in 1989 after a four-year term in the U.S. Army.

-
-
Specialist
in counterterrorism; served as senior CT officer for three years before filling
D/CIA position.

-
-
Career
highlights include the successful finding of five terror training camps
sprinkled throughout Afghanistan, the beefing up of the CIA station in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China, and most recently the finding and execution of Hamas terrorist Alim
Qutuz.

-
-
Downfalls
in career as D/CIA only include the events of 1/16, and the unidentified
terrorist sleeper cells inside the U.S.

-
-
Family relations include wife, and two daughters,
all of which are U.S. Citizens and live in the U.S.

Parks flipped
the page and continued reading the reports. They all were filled with even more
vague information.

Parks threw the
papers on his desk and picked up his desk phone. He knew he was getting nowhere
with this. He needed to pinpoint things, and Solomon could help. Time was very
important but secrecy was more vital, and Parks was determined to keep his
investigation only between the two of them.

“Solomon, go.”

“Solomon, this
is KP,” Parks began. “You have a minute?”

“Yup. Be right
over. I’m only halfway down the hall.”

The line went dead.

*          *          *

Parks got
straight to business. “Solomon, do you remember what you said to me before we
went to the President’s party?”

Solomon sat on
the edge of Parks’ desk and thought that over. “I said a lot of things, KP.
Narrow it down a little will you?”

“Maybe it wasn’t
of significance to you and maybe it isn’t of significance at all, but what you
said was that you’d like to know how the terrorists knew we were waiting for
them and that someone was at work. But what really got me thinking was when you
said you’d like to figure out their office number.”

“It was just a
figure of speech, KP. I didn’t mean anything by that. Why?”

Parks rested his
elbows on his desk. “It all makes sense now, Solomon. When you said that,
everything clicked. You weren’t there, but when I checked in, the National
Security Advisor told me that after the two times we were dodged, he and
everyone else stayed in the Situation Room until the operation was completed.”

“That was nice
of them.”

“Yeah, and maybe
nicer than what was expected. You see, it was uncanny that the terrorists knew
exactly where we were; you and I agree on that. But did you notice that things
started looking up after those two dodges?”

“No. Remember
the gas station incident? That didn’t turn out so well.”

“That was just a
bad mishap. The terrorists wouldn’t have gone to that gas station if they knew
we were planning on taking them out there. So it would be obvious that they
didn’t know we were there.”

Solomon agreed.
“And what you’re saying is that when the President, VP, NSA, and Directors
stayed in the Situation Room nonstop so they could plan, then the operation
started going well because the terrorists didn’t dodge us. I’m with you on
that. I’m not following why that’s such a big deal. That’s their job; it’s not
uncommon for them to do that.”

“Just hang on,
Solomon,” Parks pleaded. “What I’m saying is that if someone on the inside had
been telling the terrorists where we were staked out, they would have had to
quit when the President kept everyone inside the Situation Room.” Parks let his
point sink in. “It fits too perfectly to be coincidence.”

Solomon squinted
his eyes as if trying to process all of the information. “You’re saying that
one of the men in that Situation Room is a mole who is giving information to
terrorists?”

“Yup. It can’t
be anyone else because no one else knew where we would be staked out.”

Solomon’s face turned
ashen. “Oh my, you’re right. One of those seven men is working for – or heading
up – the terrorists.”

“I’d say one of
those
five
men. I doubt it’s the President or Vice President.”

Solomon nodded
slowly. “Their Secret Service details would have picked up on anything, and
besides that, it’s a sure bet they both were in the White House during it all.”
Solomon lowered his voice. “At least we can also be sure it isn’t one of our
men. The intellience officials would have picked up on any communications with
the terrorists from our team. But they wouldn’t – and didn’t – have anything
that would let them know what the Directors and NSA were doing during our
operation.”

Parks slouched
back in his chair. “Solomon, you know something, this has to stay between you
and me. We can’t let anyone else in on this. Not the President, not anyone; not
even our team. The fewer people who know about this the better. That means you
and me only.”

“Yeah I know.
The question is, how on earth are we going to narrow down who it is that’s
working with the terrorists?”

“Run background
checks I guess. That’s all we can do. Or possibly we could set a trap of some
sort.”

“What kind of a
trap?”

“We could have
our suspects be monitored during our next operation. Then we’d know for sure
who it was.”

“Who are we
going to get to monitor them though?”

Parks shrugged.

“One concern,”
Solomon admitted. “If there is a mole, he must be pretty smart because as far
as we know no one else is on to him. How are
we
of all people going to rat
him out?”

Parks took a
while to answer. “I don’t know. But like I said, I’d sure like to talk to Siraj
and get some information.”

Solomon sighed
with frustration. “We need someone who has authority to be in on this. We just
can’t do enough on our own. But how are we going to talk to the President
without telling the National Security Advisor what we’re doing?”

“We can’t. If the
mole is indeed the NSA then he will make a run for it. No, we have to do this on
our own. We need to work slowly and let him catch himself.” Parks swiveled
around and stared out the window. “Then again, it’s only a matter of time
before another terrorist needs to be taken out. Then what?”

“I don’t know.
But KP, we’ve got to do something soon. I just don’t know what we can do
without tipping our hand.”

Parks swiveled
around and faced Solomon. “If the opportunity presents itself while I am
talking with the President alone about some other matter, I’ll tell him about
this. I doubt I’ll get that opportunity, but all we can do is hope.”

“Go for it,” Solomon advised. “If all gets wrecked, at least we can say
we’ve tried.”

*          *          *

Parks knew it
was already 1300. He had been brainstorming ideas all day and he had come up
with absolutely nothing. Every plan required authorization from one of the
Directors, President, VP, or NSA, to some extent. It seemed like every time
Parks tried to devise a plan, he’d run into a brick wall. Nothing was working.

I can’t talk
to my boss, I can’t talk to Siraj without the NSA knowing about it, I can’t get
anywhere with this,
he thought.
Somehow I’ve got to talk to Siraj though.
But how? Even still, wouldn’t Siraj have told the interrogators about the mole
already if there was one? Surely he would have known about it.

After several
more minutes of contemplation he remembered what the D/CIA had said to him. The
day after the operation, he had said that the CIA was heading up the
interrogation and that Parks would be briefed in the intel reports. But Parks
had never been informed about Siraj saying anything about a mole inside the
government.

“That could mean
a few things,” Parks said aloud. “The CIA is not reporting what Siraj has said
– that would mean that the interrogators are in on this too – or there really
isn’t a mole that Siraj knows about. But someone on that terror team has to
know because one of them was communicating with him. Or maybe the mole was
communicating with someone not on the team. Someone who could coordinate the
entire operation and relay the information to the terrorists.”

Parks closed his
eyes and buried his head in his hands. He knew that if the last option was the
real one then Siraj would be of no use because he most likely wouldn’t know
about the mole since all his information would be secondhand.

“We have to talk
to the guy who would know if there was a mole,” Parks conceded. “Our best bet
would be vun Buvka. He would be high enough on the totem pole to know from where
the information was coming. That would explain why he’s not talking, because the
CIA interrogators wouldn’t make him because they’re in on this.” That made
things even more complicated. “Who is going to make him talk?”

Then Parks had
an idea. If Solomon pulled some strings maybe he could try and switch the
interrogators to people who he knew were good. Then they could pry for
information from both Siraj and vun Buvka.

Parks grabbed
the phone and dialed Solomon’s number.

“Solomon, go.”

“Solomon, meet
me in my office, please.”

Parks slammed
down the phone and grabbed the briefing papers Solomon had given him earlier
that day. This information would spark interest if it landed in the wrong
hands.
I need to burn these,
Parks decided.

Solomon entered
Parks’ office and closed the door behind him. “You got it?”

Parks handed him
the papers. “Please burn those the first chance you get,” he ordered. “Anyway,
I haven’t made a plan yet but I figured some things out.”

“What?” Solomon
demanded impatiently.

Parks went
through the details blow by blow and Solomon was fascinated. When Parks was done
with the explanation Solomon asked, “So you think the D/CIA is the mole? He’d
actually be the last one I’d suspect.”

“I’m not saying
that, but he’s a good place to start. Leastwise we still need to try to find
out from the terrorists if there even is a mole,” Parks pointed out.

“That’s if they
know and if they talk. That could be a chore.”

Parks had to agree.
“Solomon, do you know a few guys that could serve as interrogators?” he asked
hopefully.

Solomon looked
to the floor. “Yes, but that’s not my concern. What I’m wondering is if I can
get them to do the job without rousing suspicion. I couldn’t tell them why I
want the information, I probably couldn’t tell them anything.”

“Yeah that’s
fine. Just try it and if they say no then we’ll go to something else.”

Solomon cleared
his throat noisily. “I’ll do my best but I can’t guarantee this won’t backfire
in our faces. You know if one of the terrorists does talk it’ll be hard to keep
it just between us and our interrogators.”

“I know, I know. All we can do is try our best.”

*          *          *

The D/CIA
knocked on the door of the Oval Office before opening it and entering.

“Mr. President,
may I have a word with you please?” Cummins asked as he shut the door.

Winnfield
glanced up from his desk. “Sure what is it, Mike?”

The Director
planted a TOP SECRET – PRESIDENT’S EYES ONLY file on the desk and said, “Check
that out, Mr. President.”

Winnfield opened
the file and read it. When he was finished he stared blankly at Cummins,
waiting for a further explanation.

“In not so many
words, Mr. President, my counterintelligence officers just told me that a call
was intercepted between Ghazi Siraj and Alka vun Buvka back on the 18
^th
of March by the Israeli Mossad. Apparently the Mossad traced the call and found
vun Buvka’s hideout. It was in Tehran, Iran, in a corporate apartment.”

“Why didn’t the
Mossad tell us this earlier? The 18
^th
of March was a long time ago,”
the President pointed out. “Why did they wait so long?”

“Mr. President,
the Mossad didn’t know that we were after vun Buvka and they weren’t about to
start a war with what’s left of Iran trying to take him out themselves. So they
held on to the information and let it sit.”

“What made them
give it over now?” Winnfield questioned.

“When you called
the Israeli prime minister last week you mentioned that we were holding a
high-ranking terrorist that we had captured in late March and that he was under
interrogation. Well Aziza figured that must have been vun Buvka.”