Withholding Evidence (21 page)

Vole’s eyes widened as he tucked himself into a ball. Then he seemed to remember himself and straightened. Defiant. “You can’t kill me like you did Gopher. If you don’t let me go, my story about the US Navy’s assassination of a UN force commander in Somalia will run on the website. Major General Kassa was killed so a US general could take his place, securing UN power firmly with the United States. The assassination was covered up by the Pentagon and made to look like a local warlord did the killing, but it was a SEAL team op. The US military’s actions need to be exposed. The people have a right to know when tax dollars are used to assassinate foreign military leaders. They have a right to know when there has been a coup within the UN.”

“Don’t waste my time with stupid threats. Our computer forensics team has already broken through your security. It doesn’t matter that the site is hosted outside the US. All we needed was your and Ruby’s access codes to get the site pulled. I employ the best in the business, and once we had your computers, cracking your codes was a snap. RATinformant is down. For good.”

The light in Derrick’s eyes shifted. He looked strangely gleeful for someone backed into a corner and facing a host of federal charges, including espionage and murder.

“If you’re feeling smug because of your hydra program, rest assured, my hacker found and destroyed that before taking the site off-line. RATinformant can no longer replicate and upload. It’s gone. For good.”

The hope in Derrick’s eyes faded.

“Why did you go after Dr. Sorensen?” Curt asked.

“She knew what happened in Somalia. We got the junkie out of rehab. He still wouldn’t tell us, but we knew he’d tell her. He was burning to tell someone. She had clearance and authorization. She was the opportunity he’d been waiting for to spill his guts and release his guilt over murdering a major general.”

Keith’s gaze dropped, and she knew it must hurt to hear Owen’s condition spoken of in such callous terms. This morning, Keith had talked to Owen’s aunt, who was distraught to learn she’d been manipulated into calling the rehab center. Knowing Owen’s treatment had been ruined so Trina could interview him was an especially bitter pill. She’d played right into their hands.

“I’d been following Bishop and knew he had met with her. I called Gopher to tell him Bishop had just left the DOJ. Dr. Sorensen had the information, and I’d intercept her when she left the building. But while we were on the phone, he bit it.”

“So you’re claiming you didn’t kill your partner?” The FBI agent asked.

Vole bristled. “Hell no! That was you murdering government thugs!”

“Sorry. But it wasn’t us,” Curt said. “We wanted him alive so we could question him and were gathering data for a warrant.”

Vole jumped to his feet, and Trina realized he’d been shackled to the floor. He couldn’t pace; he could only stand. He jolted back into his chair. “Bullshit. Since when does the government wait for a warrant? Ever since the Patriot Act—”

“Mr. Vole, you can save your speeches for your fellow cell-mates. I don’t have time.” Curt leaned forward and fixed the man with a piercing stare. “We found evidence in Brian Ruby’s apartment that connects him to the bomb in Dr. Sorensen’s laptop. Can you explain that?”

Surprise hit Trina in the gut. Curt hadn’t told her that. She’d figured Ruby had to be the one, but there was some relief in knowing.

Vole flopped backward in his seat. “I want a lawyer.”

The FBI agent grinned. “Why? If it was Ruby who planted the bomb, you have nothing to lose by talking to us. He’ll take the fall, and conveniently for you, he’s dead.”

Vole wasn’t really going to fall for that was he? But he surprised Trina and leaned forward, his mouth open, as if he intended to keep talking. Then his jaw snapped shut.

Silence stretched out. Finally, the Secretary of Homeland Security said, “That was my cue,” and left the observation room. A moment later, he stepped into the interrogation room. He introduced himself to the nervous suspect and flashed a cunning smile. “We have evidence, Mr. Vole, that you published stories which seriously jeopardized national security. Furthermore, the fabrication about Somalia you intended to make public on your website could undermine US standing in the United Nations and even bring down NATO.”

The secretary’s words hung in the air, and Trina caught her breath at the enormity of the situation. If any version of what happened got out, the only way for the US to salvage their role in the UN would be for Keith to take the fall, to claim he acted on his own and the cover-up was his own. The members of his SEAL team would have to do the same. They’d all face charges of treason. Even execution.

So, yeah. When Keith said he couldn’t talk about Somalia, he’d meant it.

“Furthermore, the US could face retaliation from African nations if such a story were to come to light. For these reasons, Homeland Security and the FBI have deemed you an enemy combatant. The regular rules regarding the Fifth Amendment and Miranda rights are suspended. We can hold you indefinitely.”

Vole glared at the secretary. “This is a sham, and labeling me an enemy combatant is only going to make my fellow daylight-law activists more eager to uncover your lies. We still have freedom of the press in this country.”

“Freedom of the press?” the secretary said. “You’re going to try that angle? That won’t fly when word gets out that you actively passed classified information to a foreign spy. That’s not reporting, Mr. Vole, that’s espionage. And that’s exactly what you’ll be charged with.

“And I have good news for you. You’re about to have front-row center seats in a secret court—the very type of trial you’ve been so eager to expose to the world on your website. Perhaps after going through the process, you will finally understand the need to keep some things within the government a secret.”

“Spy? What the hell are you talking about?”

Curt slapped the surveillance camera photo on the table. “If you want to avoid Guantanamo Bay, you’d better tell me everything you know about this man right now, starting with why he made Ruby plant a bomb in Dr. Sorensen’s laptop.”

C
HAPTER
N
INETEEN

V
OLE FELL APART
when Dominick threatened him with Gitmo, and the bastard started talking. Keith watched with rapt attention as Vole claimed he’d never met Ling face-to-face, but Ruby had a few times. Vole communicated with Ling via different e-mail accounts and physical drops of documents in various locations inside the Beltway.

According to Vole, the idea of planting the Somalia assignment in an NHHC historian’s computer came about after he started working on the campaign event with Dr. Hill’s assistant and the joint project between NHHC and the MacLeod-Hill Institute was mentioned several times. Vole researched the various historians and selected Walt Fryer because his clearance level was high and his pay grade even higher than that of the interim director. Because of his seniority, he had several projects that came directly from the Pentagon, bypassing Mara Garrett’s approval.

Ruby contacted Fryer ostensibly to discuss the UN coalition post-Desert Storm and used the opportunity to upload the assignment directly into Fryer’s computer. The e-mail had all the right codes; it had just never followed the expected trail from Pentagon to NHHC.

When Fryer didn’t jump on the assignment, Ruby contacted him to set up another appointment, intending to plant another e-mail to nudge him along. But he brushed off Ruby, saying Trina would handle the assignment from that point forward, that she handled all of his assignments that weren’t related to World War II.

A tap on Keith’s shoulder startled him, and he looked away from the interrogation happening on the other side of the two-way mirror and recognized the FBI analyst who had initially been assigned to work on Keith’s background check, but who was now combing through his dad’s e-mails, which they’d managed to rescue from Keith’s hard drive, searching for a connection to RATinformant.

The look on the analyst’s face caused yet another wave of dread. Just when Keith thought his father couldn’t hurt him anymore, the son of a bitch found a way.

He left the observation room, following the analyst into the hall. Keith didn’t bother to waste time with pleasantries. “What did you find?”

“I’m sorry, Hatcher, but it looks like your dad is Muskrat. There was language he used in several e-mails he sent you six weeks ago that is nearly verbatim what Muskrat posted on RATinformant two weeks ago. There are too many similarities in word choices and syntax—even when the topic is different—to be a fluke. Plus the posts on the site don’t appear to be Muskrat quoting someone else. It’s the same man.”

Christ, the same method that had identified the Unabomber had caught his dad. And if Keith had bothered to read his father’s crazy e-mails or search the Internet for his ranting posts, he would have known. Maybe he even could have prevented everything that had happened. His dad had to be the one who told Vole that Owen was in rehab, and his dad knew just enough about Keith’s SEAL team to have convinced Owen’s trusting aunt to talk to Vole.

“Is he going to be arrested today?” Keith asked.

“The San Francisco special agent in charge is working on a warrant right now.”

“Let the agents who serve the warrant know he’s armed to the teeth, and he’s a crack shot. He was my first firearms instructor. I’m afraid he won’t be taken peacefully.”

The analyst nodded. “We figured that from his Muskrat posts. And with the site down, he might have guessed we’ve identified him.”

A knot clenched Keith’s gut. “Tell the SAC they need to grab him when he’s away from his stockpile of weapons. I might be able to get one of my brothers to draw him out.”

Trina stepped out of the interrogation observation room and took Keith’s hand. The analyst said he’d pass on the information and left them alone.

She gazed up at him, concern in her beautiful hazel eyes. He didn’t say a word, just pulled her to his chest and held her tight.

T
RINA RETURNED TO
the interrogation observation room in time to witness Vole’s account of how Ruby planted the explosive in her laptop.

They planned carefully, knowing Dr. Hill’s party had the potential to give Trina an opportunity to talk to Keith, if she hadn’t been able to chase him down already. Vole was there to orchestrate a meeting if need be. More important, once the assignment fell to Trina, Ling had been concerned her research on Somalia would be questioned—in a way it wouldn’t be if Walt had kept the assignment. The e-mails that appeared to be from the Pentagon would never hold up under deep scrutiny. Ling insisted Ruby needed to plant a virus in Trina’s computer that would destroy the NHHC e-mail server, along with a flash bomb that would destroy her computer after the virus uploaded, thus destroying the trail completely.

They determined the best time to place the explosive would be while Trina attended the party at Hill’s. Vole’s job was to call Ruby if she left early, so she wouldn’t walk in on him while he hacked her computer. From Vole’s account, it sounded as if both he and Ruby had become afraid of Ling and had come to suspect he was a spy. He knew their names and addresses, and the names and addresses of their extended family members. If they didn’t do what he wanted, he could out them as RATs at any time.

Knowing they faced charges for posting classified documents online that included the names of Syrian informants who’d provided information to the UN during their ongoing civil war, and the Syrian government had then rounded up those informants and executed them, Ruby and Vole did what Ling wanted. Ruby planted the explosive.

All had gone according to plan, except Keith’s apartment blew up instead of just Trina’s computer, and the blast had told Ruby and Vole that the explosive Ling had provided was far more powerful than simple thermite. Ruby had freaked.

Ling told Ruby the reason for the stronger explosive was to take out Walt’s computer, one cubicle over, which held the initial e-mails about Somalia, but both Ruby and Vole knew from that point forward that Ling had an objective that went a far step beyond RATinformant’s daylight-law philosophy.