Viper Team Seven (The Viper Team Seven Series Book 1) (45 page)

“How? How could
he have known?”

“The Mossad was
monitoring vun Buvka and one day they found that he wasn’t in his apartment as
usual. They went hunting for him and found him in the Tehran airport. They
tried to follow but lost him.”

“And the day he
left home was close to the time we captured him,” the President guessed. “Aziza
made the assumption that vun Buvka had headed for the U.S. and that he was the terrorist I was referring to.”

The D/CIA
smirked. “Correct sir. One could assume that vun Buvka flew from Tehran, and if that were the case, then I seriously doubt that he would have landed in the
U.S. He wouldn’t have risked being identified at the airport. So he would
have had to land somewhere either in Canada or Mexico. And if you remember, Mr.
President, we first spotted him southwest of Centreville, Virginia – in Arkansas. That would suggest that he flew to Mexico and came up from our southern border.”

“So the
terrorists are using Mexico as a kind of midpoint between the Middle East and
the U.S.?” the President wondered.

“It would seem
that way, Mr. President.”

A wave of
remembrance flooded the President’s mind and he was launched back to the night
of January 16
^th
. He relived the time when he came out of his office to
the security section of
Air Force One
and saw the massacred agents and
flight personnel. He remembered how Tandy had shoved him into a chair and said,
“Sit down your royalty. It’s a long way to Mexico.”

Tuesday, April 15
^th
– 2200 hours

Washington D.C.

Parks stared at
the notepad in front of him and read over the options he had jotted down. He
was at his home but he was not off work, not by any stretch of the imagination.
He had to plan ahead if he wanted to catch the mole, and that was most
certainly his intention. He hadn’t come up with a good plan yet but he was
sticking with it and wasn’t going to give up until he was successful.

Parks flipped to
a new sheet of paper and went to get a drink of water. He was somewhat
disappointed that he hadn’t seen Renee today. He had been hoping to at least
get a glimpse of her in passing but unfortunately he hadn’t.

Parks shook his
head and tried to clear his thoughts. He had to stay focused on his job and Renee
Winnfield had nothing to do with his job.

Parks walked
back to the couch. Just as he was sitting down, his work cell phone rang. He
looked at the caller ID and saw it was Solomon.

“Hi Solomon,
what’s up?” he answered sleepily.

“Look I’ll make
this as short as I can, KP, but there are two issues I must address,” Solomon began
urgently.

“Yeah sure, go
ahead.”

“The first thing
is that the interrogation guys are set up. They didn’t ask questions and they
are sworn to secrecy. They’ll report to us the minute they get any information.
Secondly, I just talked to one of my buddies, a counterintelligence officer,
and he had some interesting news.”

“Why’d you talk
to him so late?” Parks wondered.

“Like I said,
he’s my friend, and he gives me some intel hints when he gets some interesting
news. He also heads up part of our intelligence emails, but he thought this
couldn’t wait for the morning. Anyway, he told me that the CIA figured out how
vun Buvka got into the U.S. – well we don’t know exactly how but we know from where.
He took a plane from Iran into Mexico, and from there, he entered the U.S.”

Parks was
confused. “How do they know that?”

“You can read
the entire intel report in the morning,” Solomon urged. “But the CIA is
figuring that the terrorists are using Mexico as a midpoint between the Middle
East and the U.S. If you think of it, Siraj came up from Mexico and now this whole deal. It fits perfectly.”

“How’s this relate
to what we’re trying to figure out though?”

“It would be
nice to see which of our suspects has been making contact with Mexico. That’s if your assumption that there’s a middleman between the terrorists and the
mole is correct. It may not be.”

“Yeah but how
are we going to figure out if one of the Directors or NSA is making contact
with Mexico or anywhere else for that matter? We’re not an intelligence agency,
we’re counterterrorism personnel,” Parks stressed. “Oh, was the D/CIA informed of
this yet?”

“Yup, he was the
first to find out. I’m assuming he briefed the President.”

“I’d like to
know if he really did.”

“If he hasn’t he
will. There’s no way he wouldn’t brief the President on a matter like that,
even if he is the mole. He’d be flushing himself out.”

Parks put his
feet up on the couch. “This means everyone will know about this, the mole
included. He’ll know that the puzzle’s getting pieced together. Which also
means he won’t be contacting Mexico anymore – that’s still assuming he has
been.”

“Well at least
if he has been he won’t anymore. That means he’ll have to find another way of
doing business. A way which might give us a better lead.”

“Or he’ll hole
up and lay low,” Parks stated. “That wouldn’t be good.”

Solomon yawned.
“He’ll either try and cover his tracks, make a run for it, or keep on doing
what he’s been doing. The only reason he’d do the last option is if he didn’t
know anyone was on to him. Once he knows though, our job will be even harder.”

“Well maybe
tomorrow we’ll get some useful news from the interrogators,” Parks optimized. “I
sure hope so. I don’t know Solomon, even after we do find out who it is, how
and who will I break the news to? I really can’t make points like that to my
boss because intelligence is not my line of work and he might not tell the
President about my concern, and I can’t set up a briefing with the President
whenever I want.”

“Especially
since his daughter’s here. He’ll be spending all of his free time with her.”

Parks knew he
couldn’t blame him for that. “You think we’ll have this figured out in a week?”
he asked.

“We had better. If we don’t, the mole will probably find
us
out.”

*          *          *

CIA agents Glen
Colbert and Blake Connors stepped into the terrorist detainee unit located in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Almost instantly, an unpleasant feeling welcomed them. Both men knew
what kind of men were in this unit and neither of them wanted to be here. They
were doing this job because their longtime friend and former boss, Solomon, had
requested them to do so. They knew their job but that was all they knew. They
didn’t have a clue why this information was needed or why they had to secretly
report to Solomon, not the D/CIA. But like good agents they didn’t question
authority.

The two agents walked
up to the cold, concrete interrogation room and dismissed the two guards that
were outside. Connors made sure his sidearm was where it should be as he entered
and approached the chair in the center of the room where a handcuffed terrorist
sat.

“You’re Ghazi
Siraj?” Connors asked the man.

Siraj raised his
head wearily. “Yes that’s me. Have you come to question me again?”

“We’re new
here,” Colbert explained. “You’ve never seen us and we’ve never seen you. We
understand you’ve been cooperating quite nicely.”

Siraj lowered
his head. “I do not wish to protect the men that helped me get here. I wish
only to die or be set free.”

Connors pulled
out his pistol and shoved it back in its holster just so the terrorist would
know it was there if necessary. “That’s what we’ve been told,” he informed him.
“We appreciate your honesty and your cooperation. We just need a few more
answers from you.”

The agents were
having a hard time even lying that they appreciated anything about this
terrorist. They wanted him dead. They wanted to give him what he’d tried to
give innocent Americans. But they knew he was important and they understood
that they had to put up with him in order to get the information they needed.

“How’d you get
tangled up with vun Buvka?” Connors wondered. “I mean, when did he start taking
things over and when was he deemed your boss?”

Siraj looked up
at the agents. “He was honored because he performed a valiant bombing on one of
your cities. He was thrown into a leadership position and he took over
everything. He is the lead terrorist of our organization.”

“What
organization?” Colbert prodded.

“I am not a
terrorist, but I still will not betray my country.” Siraj lowered his eyes. “I
will not betray my country,” he repeated quietly.

The agents
exchanged glances and then Connors took over again.

“Who was your
boss before vun Buvka came?”

Siraj shook his
head. “I wasn’t ready for an operation before vun Buvka came to a leadership
position so I didn’t really have a boss. I trained, and that was all.”

“All right
great. But who’s vun Buvka’s boss?” Connors pressed. “He’s got to take orders
from somebody, doesn’t he?”

“He does.”

“Well who?”

“I don’t know
what his name is but I know he’s...” Siraj didn’t finish.

“He’s what?”
Connors demanded more firmly. “You don’t need to protect anyone anymore, you
can tell us.”

Siraj let out a
deep breath and stared directly at Connors. “He’s in the United States. That’s all I know. During vun Buvka’s operation everything was working well at first.
The boss would tell vun Buvka where the enemy was and where to go, and we’d
follow his orders. It all worked well until we lost contact with him.”

“When did you
lose contact with him?” Colbert asked.

“After the
second time we changed course. He wouldn’t answer our calls anymore.”

“Do you happen
to know his phone number?” Connors questioned. “If you made contact with him
during your operation then you must know.”

“No, I don’t. And
during my operation I was told to contact vun Buvka and he was in contact with
his boss. I never actually talked to the man in the U.S. But only once when I
contacted vun Buvka did he have information from his boss. That was when we
were at the sleeper agent’s house. After that, no one knew anything.”

Connors and
Colbert again looked at each other. “Do you know anything else about this man?”
Connors continued.

Siraj shifted
nervously. “In Afghanistan I promised never to tell anyone what I have already
told you. However, if I knew more I would tell you, but that is all I know.”

“Well thank you,”
Colbert declared after a second. “Come on Blake, let’s go. Oh, one more thing,
don’t mention this to anyone else. Understand?”

Siraj seemed
shocked but he gave his promise that he’d keep silent.

The CIA agents exited the cell and called back the guards. They had
gotten the information they were after. Once they reported it to Solomon, they
would forget about the information and act like the request had never come.

*          *          *

Solomon slipped
into Parks’ office and locked the door behind him.

“So you did get
something useful,” Parks stated as he rose from his swivel chair.

“Yup, and I
don’t want any surprise visitors while I tell you about this,” Solomon
confirmed. “Looks like my friends didn’t fail me. They interrogated Siraj and
got the information we’re after.”

“Did they have a
chance with vun Buvka?”

“No, I told them
not to. If you think about it, they might have gotten vun Buvka to talk but
he’s still fighting and who knows how many other interrogators he’d tell just
so this thing could get exposed and the mole could run for it.”

Parks was
impressed at his friend’s thinking. “Good thinking, Solomon.”

“Forget it. Well
to continue what I was saying, the agents got Siraj to talk. He didn’t know too
much but he knew enough,” Solomon explained in an excited whisper. “He said
that vun Buvka takes orders from a man inside the U.S. Siraj doesn’t know his
name or where he’s located. During his operation, Siraj was supposed to keep in
contact with vun Buvka, who was in contact with the mole who’d tell him where
we were and when we were going to strike.”

“Siraj knows who
we are?”

“No, he just
referred to us as ‘the enemy.’ The interrogators didn’t press the topic because
they don’t even know who we are.”

Parks let out a
sigh of relief and listened as Solomon went on.

“So apparently,
when Siraj was doing his deal, he only received information about us once from
vun Buvka. Can you guess which time that was?”

“The first time
we went in at the sleeper’s house,” Parks blurted out.

“Correct. After
that, Siraj said no one knew anything.”

“That makes
sense because the Directors and NSA only knew what we were going to do on the
first strike. The mole could have told vun Buvka we were going to hit the house
but after that he wouldn’t have known anything.”

“There’s more
proof,” Solomon began. “Siraj also said that during vun Buvka’s operation he kept
direct contact with the mole. The man would tell vun Buvka where we were and
where to go to skirt around us. It worked great until contact was lost with the
mole. You know when the contact was lost?”

“After the
second attempted roadside strike,” Parks answered immediately.

“Yes sir. After
the second time, the mole wouldn’t answer vun Buvka’s calls. Hmmm, that’s
interesting. I wonder why,” Solomon mocked.

“The mole
couldn’t keep contact with them because he was sitting in the Situation Room,”
Parks voiced.

“That’s my
guess.” Solomon hesitated before making his last point. “And here’s the most
disturbing thing. Siraj said that vun Buvka was honored for a valiant attack on
the U.S. and he was thrown into a leadership position. Siraj claims he’s the
lead terrorist of the organization.”

“What
organization?” Parks wondered.

“That’s what the
agents asked. The terrorist made a frightening point. He said that he is not a
terrorist but he will not betray his country. He repeated that to himself
quietly.”

The lights went
on for Parks. “So this isn’t just a terrorist group at work but an entire
country. Did he say what country? Was it Lebanon, Iran, Afghanistan?”

“He didn’t make
a peep about the topic after that,” Solomon informed him. “But something big
must be going on, because he didn’t mind telling us all he knew about vun Buvka
and the mole, which means that isn’t very significant.”

“Good point. But
that doesn’t answer the question of which country is at work.”

“I know it. We
can worry about that later, for now let’s find the mole,” Solomon suggested. “Let’s
go over what we know already.”

“We know that
it’s either the Director of the FBI, CIA, National Intelligence, Secret
Service, or the National Security Advisor. We confirm that assumption since we
know that no other people knew about when and where we deployed. To back that
further, those guys didn’t have any information on where we were at after the
sleeper’s house incident, and neither did the terrorists. Also with vun Buvka’s
operation, everything went downhill after the Directors and NSA stayed in the
Situation Room, because his contact with the mole was hampered.” Parks patted
the desk. “I’d say we have enough evidence to conclude that there
is
a
mole and that it’s either our boss or one of the Directors.”

“We sure do,”
Solomon agreed. “Now comes the hard part. How are we going to prove who it is?
What leads do we have?”