Intel¹

Source

It was a brisk day in October, windy but clear. Beth Chapman was at the Washington Monument, one of her favorite places in DC. Looking out at the Mall, the Capitol in the distance, she could almost forget all of the confusion and outright terror she had experienced over the past few months.

Things were turning "interesting" again. The new FBI Director, Juan Ramirez, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Maryland State Police, was in the news and in a very big way. He had proposed dismantling the FBI and folding its functions into the Department of Homeland Security. There were a number of Congressmen and women vehemently opposed to that, there were an almost equal number very much in favor of such a thing.

Both organizations had been brought into being by presidents, indirectly Teddy Roosevelt for the FBI and the DHS directly by George W. Bush. The latter organization had absorbed a number of existing agencies after its foundation as the Office of Homeland Security. It began not long after the attacks on 9/11.

Chapman had her doubts as to the wisdom of the move. Obviously the Justice Department was completely against the idea, they would lose much of their power. Which is why many supported the idea. That department had disgraced itself during the recent troubles, the FBI Director going so far as to support insurrection against the established government.

He had paid for that with his life.

Insiders knew that there were many in the DOJ who had opposed Juan Ramirez's appointment to be Director of the FBI, yet the Senate had confirmed him by 97 to 3. One of the naysayers had since resigned in disgrace when discovered to have unreported contacts with a Middle Eastern intelligence service. He was still awaiting trial, having been taken into custody shortly after his resignation.

Chapman was beginning to wonder if she shouldn't just move back home and start a new career. She was still current in helicopters, and there was a growing need for helicopter services around the country. She felt herself too old to go back on active duty, she also knew that her body couldn't withstand the rigors of life as a Navy helo driver.

As she turned to head back to where she was parked, she heard her name. She turned and a wide smile crossed her face, it was Alex Choe.

"Admiral! I haven't seen you in a while, how have you been, how ..." she couldn't help but notice that his uniform now had the broad stripe of an admiral, but now he sported the thin gold stripe above that denoting that he was no longer a Rear Admiral (Lower Half) but was now a two star, Rear Admiral.

"When did that happen?" she asked, nodding at his sleeve.

"Oh, a week ago, the President pushed it through. Said it was needed in order for me to take over the position of Director, National Maritime Intelligence-Integration Office and Commander, Office of Naval Intelligence. He said he likes my instincts, wants me in DC. So ..."

"What happened to Rear Admiral Crutchfield?"

"Uh, shot himself when he was discovered providing intel to the insurrectionists over at the FBI."

"Damn, I didn't know that. Anyway, congratulations. What brings you out here?"

"Uh, couple of things, I heard you were thinking of leaving Homeland."

"Yeah, things are confused at the moment. Heck, I'm confused at the moment. I might go home and start a helicopter business. Flying tourists around, ferrying hunters out to the backcountry, that sort of thing."

"What if I could offer you a job?"

"Where? Doing what?"

"Deputy commander of ONI, I'd be your boss. We worked well together over the past few months, at least I thought so. What do you think, if you need some time ..."

"I'm retired. Medically retired."

"The President wants you, you know what they say, anything can be waived. A return to active duty ..."

"Sorry, Sir, but no, do you realize the pay cut I'd be taking ..."

"Pay cut as an agent of Homeland, or pay cut as a helicopter ferry pilot?"

That made her think, the admiral was right, it would be a pay cut to leave Homeland to go back on active duty, but she was leaving Homeland one way or the other. So, she had no idea how much a helo driver could make in Idaho, maybe this was a good idea.

"If you need time to think about it ..." Choe's phone chimed, "excuse me, I need to take this."

Choe walked some distance away, where no one was nearby. She could tell that the conversation was very animated, then she saw his shoulders slump, as if someone had just dumped something heavy on him. He walked back to her, his face showing determination but with a hint of sadness around the eyes.

"Sorry, Beth, I need to go back to ..."

"When do you want me to start?" she said, without really thinking.

"How's about today? Right now. We can do all the paperwork later, you have the clearance and as I get to decide who has a need to know, you're in."

She nodded, suddenly sure of herself. "So what's going on?"

"The Italian Coast Guard stopped a suspicious vessel leaving Naples, bound for Le Havre. They claim to have found a nuclear weapon aboard. The Energy Department has got their experts heading out there to confirm."

"What's our interest?"

"The Italians claim that the captain of the vessel laughed when the weapon was discovered."

"Laughed?"

"Yeah, an arrogant pirate if there ever was, he told the Italians, 'You think that's the only one?' So, now we're interested."

"Damn."

"Yeah. Let's go, do you have your car here?"

"Yes."

"Okay, follow me to the White House."

Kargin turned off his cellphone, then broke it in half, he'd grab another burner from his desk. Things were going completely off the rails. Damned Obrecht had made his own deal for a nuke with a contact in Tashkent some weeks ago. Now the weapon he was attempting to smuggle into France had been intercepted by the Italians.

The idiot captain he'd hired had actually had to pull into port when his engines began to fail. After the repairs had been made, the man had stiffed the company who had done the work. They reported him to the Coast Guard and ...

Kargin slammed the broken cellphone to the floor then stomped on it. He was furious, time to show those effete fools in Switzerland who the real boss was.

On the bright side, he could go back to Paris when he felt like it, it would still be there.

Unless that Nazi idiot had managed to acquire more than one bomb!

He picked up his office phone and made a call.

He still knew people in the organs of state security, he needed wet work, and he knew just the man to make it happen.

"Slava! How are you? I need a favor, I trust your passport is up to date?" he heard the man on the other end of the line laughing and saying, 'of course, it is'.

"I'm going to send you something, could you look into it? Sure, you're away from the office? Okay, can you access a computer somewhere? Alright, I'll send it there. Thank you, Slava, the job will pay very well I should add. Let me know."

Svyatoslav (Slava) Petrovich Loshchilov logged off the computer at the Russian State Library. He then went to a public phone and called a number, no one answered, but when the line opened, he simply said, "Yes." He assumed that would be passed to Kargin by some modern miracle of technology.

He needed to book a flight to Zurich, there was a chalet not far from there that he needed to visit. He was to pass a "message" to whoever he found there. He understood what Kargin meant, one did not call Slava to pass normal messages, no, this message would be written in blood.

¹ No juvat, not the computer chip manufacturer.