Chapter 7

Those at the headquarters of the CIA had gotten little rest and no sleep since the meeting the previous afternoon. A new action team had been formed by pulling people from other teams, and their task was to locate Saint Cirq and the woman in addition to learning where they went and what they did. The problem, of course, was that they had no idea of where they had gone, or if they had changed their appearance. They did know the approximate time that they had left the compound, and that they were in the K-9 unit’s vehicle.

A search of highway cameras was started as soon as they had been organized. Their first problem was the huge number of roads and highways around and through the DC area, and looking for one small vehicle on all of them was like looking for a needle in a hay stack ... a very large and complicated hay stack.

Consequently, it was after 2:00 that afternoon before a young woman monitoring the George Washington Parkway picked up the image of the K-9 vehicle that had been captured by the camera much earlier.

“They were on the George Washington near the DC line at 12:15,” she sang out to alert the others.

“Follow them on the cameras, we need to know where they are going,” Assistant Director Hill demanded, and several others took up the search following them from the various cameras along the parkway. Everything was going fine until they neared the Arlington area, where a number of different highways and roads converged, and they lost them due to several cameras malfunctioning.

“We lost them near Arlington,” several of those monitoring the highway cameras told Hill a short time later.

“What about the street cameras in the area?” Hill demanded.

“Most of the streets aren’t monitored, as there are just too many of them. Only some of the major roads have cameras,” he was told.

“All right, keep monitoring the major roads out of Arlington. They have to be going somewhere,” Hill told them, and they continued to monitor the major roads leaving Arlington for the next two and a-half hours using the time when they had lost sight of the vehicle, which was at about 12:30.

They kept monitoring everything possible from the 12:30 to the 3:00 PM time frame on all of the major and some minor roads through and out of Arlington, but found nothing. With no sightings and no new ideas, they gave up and stopped monitoring the Arlington area shortly after 3:00 PM.

“They have disappeared. There is no sign of them leaving Arlington. They must have gone to ground in there somewhere,” the senior monitor eventually told Hill who was extremely upset.

They never monitored the roads out of Arlington during the 3:30 to 4:30 time period, and thus missed the vehicles that Saint Cirq and Gwen were driving out to her home in the country. Later, the DO was more than a little unhappy when Hill reported that they had lost them near Arlington.

“God almighty, we’ll never locate them in that warren of streets, and we don’t have enough operatives to canvas the entire area or even half of it. And that’s not to mention that we don’t even know if they are still in Arlington. They could have ditched the K-9 vehicle in some parking structure or street lot, and it’s too damn late now to start on an aerial survey of Arlington. Schedule that for in the morning. We need to come up with something,” the DO told him.

“He did say that he would call me with his decision,” Hill reminded him.

“We’ll need to have a unit standing by to track the call. Maybe we can get a lead there,” the DO said but didn’t sound hopeful.

Later that evening, Trent was at his favorite watering hole in McLean. He was already three sheets in the wind when he arrived, and soon started muttering and then screaming about wolves killing all of the dogs and the men in the K-9 unit. Since it was a favorite CIA hangout, there were others from the agency there, including the pair that the DO had detailed to keep an eye on him. They quickly quieted him down and hustled him outside to be taken to CIA headquarters and left in a cell there to sober up.

Breakfast was very good, as Grace is an excellent cook, having had plenty of time to perfect her talent. Once we had finished eating and cleaned up the dishes and pans, it was time to discuss whether or not to accept this assignment from the CIA.

“What do you think of this assignment that they want us to undertake?” I asked her.

“After the way I was treated, I don’t think much of the CIA and their methods. You may feel the same way from what you told me yesterday. What are you thinking?” she asked.

“Their methods are crude, and their people are less then forthcoming, plus many of them are only interested in advancing their own financial well-being. Additionally, their mania for secrecy actually gets in the way of the work they try to do. Lastly, you can’t trust them to keep their word, or to do whatever they promise,” I told her, presenting my own opinion of them.

“But that is aside from the mission. Those who run California and the large cities there are all dedicated to socialism or liberalism, whatever you want to call it. The name makes no difference, as it’s all the same idea. It’s a wonderful thing as long as you have someone else’s money to pay for it. But when the outside money runs out, or they can’t borrow any more, things get very nasty very fast.

“There’s that plus the fact that the politicians make a lot of money from it either illegally, or through government contracts. The knowledge of their wealth is seldom made public or brought to the attention of those who voted for them. The same holds true for the environmentalists, who in their zeal or mania to protect everything and to prevent natural change, cause more harm than good.

“I’ve seen all of this on not only my home planet, but on other planets as a visiting Immortal. All of this however, doesn’t deal with the fact that a group of drug dealers want to set off a nuclear device somewhere in Greater Los Angeles. If set off in the right area, it could trigger earthquakes on a number of faults in the area. Additionally the winds coming off the Pacific would blow the radioactive material further inland in addition to up or down the coast depending on the time of year and the winds.

“A lot of people, hardworking people, would die and not just in the explosion, but from radiation exposure, and the unrest created by the explosion. I’ve seen that on my home planet and others also. These humans are not the first or the last race of sentient people to have dealt with these problems,” I told her. Grace was staring at me in shock again.

“You’ve seen all of that? I was only thinking about what would happen to all of the people there who make things work. They aren’t usually the ones in charge of anything, and always wind up paying the bills the politicians create,” she told me.

“Yes, I’ve seen it happen before, and yes, you mean ‘the little people’ as the politicians call them. They are the only reason that I would accept the assignment. However, if we, and it will need to be both of us, accept this, we must insist that we be allowed to work on it alone with the least involvement of those from the CIA as possible,” I told her.

“Yes, I can agree to that. Too many cooks spoil the soup,” she told me with a smile.

“All right, I will contact Agent Hill at 10:30 and advise him of our decision. We will arrange for when and where they will give us the information that they have. If they are less than truthful with us, I will use my special talent to draw the information out of them,” I told her.

“Aren’t you worried that they will be able to trace your call and identify where we are?” she asked.

“Not with my control of the electromagnetic spectrum. I can make the call appear to originate from any number of places, even from a room in their building, say from the office of the Director of the CIA,” I told her.

“You could do that?” she asked in a surprised voice.

“Certainly, and the more that I think about it, the more it appeals to my sense of humor to use the electronics in the Director’s office to complete the call,” I told her with a grin.

As 10:30 approached, I turned my attention to the electromagnetic spectrum. Around the DC area, it was very dense, and I searched the spectrum for a line going to the Office of the Director. It was easy to narrow it down and to follow it into the office and then to connect to all of the equipment there. Once in control of the equipment in the office it was simple to follow the signal of the security cameras there to the monitoring station, where I easily found the line to Assistant Director of Operations Hill’s office cameras. I also followed the connection in his office to the incoming television signal and tapped into it.

Having completed my preparations in a minute or two, I selected the tablet that I had purchased in Bangkok to use to generate the necessary signals, as it has a built-in camera plus a screen to watch what was happening in Hill’s office. I then sent out a signal on the electronic spectrum that rang Mr. Hill’s smart phone.

“Good morning, Mr. Hill,” I said as my picture appeared on his smart phone when he answered it.

“You!” he said in shock, while I watched on the screen of the tablet, as he frantically signaled those in his office with the equipment to trace the signal.

“How did you get this number?” he demanded next in an angry voice.

“It was right there when I read your mind yesterday. I didn’t even have to search for it,” I replied with a smile, much to his consternation.

“You ... you got that?” he asked in an alarmed voice.

“Oh, I got a lot more than that,” I told him, “but we don’t need to discuss that now. I called to inform you that WE will accept the mission that you have spent so much unnecessary activity to encourage us to take. When will you be available to give us a briefing on the information that you have?” I asked.

“We ... what we?” he demanded, and I could see the technicians signaling him that they had traced the location of the source of the signal, plus their shock on realizing where it was coming from.

“He’s in the Director’s Office,” they shouted at Hill.

“How did you get back into our complex?” he demanded angrily, as the others sent people to search the Director’s Office. That was also when I switched from his smart phone to his television, having achieved my objective of misdirecting their call tracing efforts, as well as aggravating the Director.

“Do you really think that I would be so careless as to allow you to trace where I was calling from?” I demanded from his forty-eight inch television screen. Hill was so shocked that he dropped his smart phone while staring at the television which had turned on by itself.

“Even you should know by now that there are many ways to communicate electronically,” I reminded him, before returning to the reason for the call.

“If you expect us to undertake this mission, we will need ALL of the information that you have. Now where and when do you propose to hold the necessary briefing,” I demanded.

“Who is this other person or persons that you keep referring to?” he asked in a much subdued voice.

“Why, it’s the person that you know as Gweneth. She is still very unhappy with the way she was treated by your people, but she recognizes the importance of the mission. She also has a very long memory and a lot of sharp toys, so it wouldn’t be good to upset her again.

“Also, if you are planning anything funny, remember that there is an entire planet full of the Grroz. Think about what it would be like to have an unlimited number of them invade your complex for a number of hours,” I reminded him to a stark look of terror from him, and a look of confusion from the remaining technicians.

“When can you be available?” Hill asked quietly.