Chapter 17
Rico Lopez walked through the halls of the headquarters building, he’d just landed back stateside a few hours earlier but there was no time yet for sleep. Honestly, he’d slept on the flight, about as much as could be expected at any rate.
Colonel Burke had standing orders for him to come in as soon as he landed, but they’d come in at a Naval field, so he’d had to grab a lift up from Charleston.
“Ah, Sergeant, the Colonel is waiting for you.”
Lopez nodded to the secretary as he was waved through into the Colonel’s office.
Burke was at his desk as Lopez entered, working on a large sheaf of paper. He didn’t look up, just waved to a chair.
“Have a seat, Sergeant, I’ll be right with you.”
“Yes Sir.”
Lopez sat down and shut up, waiting for the Colonel to finish whatever it was he was doing. It took several minutes, after which Burke leaned back and stretched a bit.
“My apologies, I’ve been intercepting several attempts to redirect your catch to other facilities,” Burke said sourly. “Which is weird, since most of the people making the attempts don’t seem to know what the hell they’re trying to grab.”
“Sir?”
Burke waved idly, “Over your paygrade, Sergeant, it’s my headache to worry about. Now, let’s have a chat.”
“Yes sir.” Lopez said, leaning slightly forward, “As you hoped, Bastion made contact again.”
Burke nodded, “Yes, we tracked his transmission to Pearson Airport in Toronto. He was gone before anyone got there to look, assuming he was ever there in the first place.”
“You think he used a relay, Sir?”
“I don’t know, but he’s good at what he does,” Burke said. “So I’m not assuming anything. The most I’m willing to say right now is that Bastion is most likely a Canadian or American citizen, or legal resident.”
Lopez snorted, “Cut it down to, what? Two hundred and seventy million people?”
“About that,” Burke sighed wearily. “Male, military experience, likely in his thirties or so, if not older. All considered, leaving out active duty members… it’s probably ten to fifteen million suspects.”
“Only that, huh?” Lopez asked dryly. “What’s taking you so long to find him then?”
Burke lifted an eyebrow, but just chuffed in amusement, “Only, right. Never mind that for the moment, you reported that he spoke with you, Sergeant?”
“Yes sir, and he had the location under real-time surveillance,” Lopez said, “He was observing the fight, Sir.”
Burke leaned forward sharply, eyes glinting, “Are you certain?”
“Yes Sir, mid-fight he warned me to dodge… to the left.” Lopez said with steely certainty. “If I’d stayed put, I’d have been fried where I stood. To the right was an embankment drop, good chance of minor injury if I’d gone over that.”
“And in a fight, that could be the end,” Burke nodded. “That changes things. Bastion has resources, things no one person should be able to gather. We’re looking at an organization then.”
Lopez nodded silently, letting the Colonel work through his thoughts.
“But it’s one no one will admit to even knowing about, let alone claim as their own,” Burke muttered, shaking his head.
“I really want to start cursing up a storm, because this isn’t supposed to happen in real life, secret spy agencies are fictional bullshit.
You can’t hide that kind of money being moved around, I don’t care how many thousand dollar toilet seats you pretend to buy. ”
The Colonel took a breath and stilled, expression etched in leather it seemed, “And yet, that appears to be exactly what’s happened.”
Burke shook his head, leaning back, “None of this situation feels real. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was a psyop… but that doesn’t check either.”
He rose to his feet, “Sergeant, let’s go for a drive.”
Lopez was on his feet instantly, “Yes Sir. Where too?”
“Charleston,” Burke said genially, walking around the desk and grabbing his jacket, “I want to have a look at your catch.”
Lopez nodded numbly as he followed the Colonel out of the office and down the halls he’d just walked through to get there.
But I just came from there.
Rico sighed.
Sometimes, I just don’t get the military.
*****
Naval Weapons Station South, Charleston
At least Colonels rate a better ride than an old Deuce and Half who’s better years were behind it during Nam.
He and Colonel Burke had rode back to Charleston largely in silence, neither having much to talk about or to add to their previous conversation. Burke had, in fact, advised him to grab some sleep while he could and Lopez, not being a fool, did just that.
He woke as they slowed and turned into the gated section of the Naval Weapons Station, blearily fishing out his own identification to pass forward along with the Colonel’s and the Driver’s so they could be cleared on through.
They drove right over to the hangar their plane had parked in, coming to a stop in front of the large open door.
“That’s… odd,” Rico said as he climbed out and looked around.
“What is it?”
“The Hangar was closed up when I left, we had guards posted. I don’t see anyone.”
Burke scowled, walking around to look inside. “It’s empty. Do we have the right hangar?”
Rico turned around, getting his bearings, “No, this is the right place I’m pretty certain.”
“How certain is pretty, Sergeant?”
“I wasn’t asleep, Sir. I might be wrong, but I’m usually pretty good with landmarks and directions. This is where we left the plane.”
“Damn it,” Burke swore.
He immediately moved back to the car and pulled out a Motorola DynaTAC and quickly punched in a number.
“Security? This is Delta O-6, I have a sensitive security query. I had a plane waiting in Hangar…” Burke leaned over, checking the numbers, “Bravo Sigma Zero One Bravo. The aircraft and cargo are not in place, do you have papers on the move, son?”
Rico watched and listened to a one-sided conversation that got more and more tense until the Colonel thanked security and shut the phone off, his expression vacant as he seemed deep in thought.
He let the Colonel think, in the absence of any time sensitive threat, it wasn’t his place to jog Officers back to life.
Finally Burke looked over at him slowly.
“Did you see anything odd when you landed?”
Rico shook his head, “No Sir, I mean… it’s a Navy Base, sir, so odd is relative, but nothing that raised any flags.”
Burke nodded slowly.
“What happened to the plane, Sir?”
“Over your paygrade, Sergeant,” Burke said firmly. “Don’t pry.”
“Yes sir.”
*****
Private Airfield, Kentucky
She watched the Naval plane taxi in before it slowly eased into the hangar waiting for it. The pilot waved idly from the cockpit as the engines idled down and the aircraft settled in place, becoming still as the whine and roar faded, leaving only echoes and memories.
“Mission accomplished, Ma’am.”
“Very good. Take the debris to holding, then return the aircraft to the Navy,” She ordered. “Be certain to reactivate the transponder before you leave it with them.”
“Of course, Ma’am.”
A crew was already unloading the shattered remains of the armored drone unit, most of it was stored on pallets being carried off by the forklift they had available. She just watched as it progressed, turning only once to another observer.
“Find out how they destroyed it,” She ordered. “Small arms fire shouldn’t have been effective.”
“Yes Ma’am, but I can probably already tell you.”
“Oh?”
“For mobility purposes there are breaks in the armor coverage,” He said with a shrug.
“Even with the latest in armor materials, mobility is the trade off. In this case, there is a point in the rear, visibly only from relatively close while aiming up, where small arms fire can penetrate. It’s really the only way they could have downed the unit with infantry arms, Ma’am. ”
She huffed, but nodded, “Understood. So, bad luck then?”
“Most likely. Either a lucky shot, or someone just got real sharp eyed. It has been known to happen.”
“Very well, confirm it, but that will do for now.” She said, frowning. “We’ll have to speak with development and see if there’s a good way to seal that particular gap in the armor… proverbially or literally, I care not which.”
“Yes Ma’am, I’ll bring it up with some people.”
“Good, I’ll leave it to you. I do not wish to do this sort of thing very often,” She said with a stony expression. “It’s best to keep the locals from asking questions.”
“I agree entirely, Ma’am. We’ll see what can be worked out.”
*****
1st Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg
Evelyn looked up as Colonel Burke strode in, letting the door bang a little louder and with less care than he normally took.
“Problem?” She asked dryly, noting that his expression looked like he was ready to kill someone, thankfully she was reasonably certain it wasn’t her.
“Someone intercepted and took possession of the thing my men took down in Afghanistan.” He stated, “I need to ask, very seriously, did you know it was going to happen?”
Evelyn stiffened, “What do you mean someone? You don’t know who?”
“Redacted on the official orders.”
She shook her head, “No I had no idea that anyone even knew about it, let alone had cut orders to take possession. Who’s authority?”
“High as it goes, CIC countersigned it,” Burke said, slumping into a chair across the desk from her.
“The President?” She stared. “I’m not even certain how he’d have found out about it yet.”
“DOD, CIA… take your pick,” Burke sighed. “Someone doesn’t want us looking too close.”
“Or they want to tear it apart and figure out how it ticks and don’t want any competition in the meanwhile.”
“Six of one, half dozen of the other at this point.” Burke growled. “Someone screwed with my op, and I don’t even know who to get pissed off with.”
Evelyn nodded, “I’ll make some inquiries. No promises, but maybe I can turn something up.”
He nodded, “Thanks.”
*****
Rico sighed as he slumped into his own bed for the first time in far too long. It was just base housing and all, but working for Delta kept him on the move enough that he hadn’t opted to put money into a house or apartment.
Base housing wasn’t so bad, not for someone as busy as he was at least.
The beds kinda suck, though.
Rico didn’t spend enough time in his own to care, honestly, and when he did… well, he was usually tired enough to ignore the problems the old mattress had.
Like right now.
He didn’t know what the hell was going on, but it was clear that he’d stepped into someone's pissing match and he was just happy to keep his boots clean in the process.
He’d be back in Delta when his leave was up, but in the meantime he just intended to get some well deserved rest.
*****
Colonel Burke glared at his phone where he’d just slammed the receiver back down on the cradle.
Who the hell are these people? Some DOD group I’ve never heard of or what?
At least, he assumed it was some group of that nature. Nothing else made any sense, though he supposed it could be a completely government funded agency… but none of those were owning up to it no matter how hard he asked.
Who has this kind of pull?
He’d come to terms with the fact that they had moles in the upper levels of government. Honestly it wasn’t even that big a stretch for him to get there, he’d half assumed as much for most of his career.
The threat of sleeper agents, turncoats, or just traitors for cash had long been part of his operating mandate. Every now and then, they’d even find one. People selling a little intelligence, or a lot, or it being taken from them in some way… those things happened.
This, though… Burke didn’t know what the hell was going on.
Only so many people even had access to the information that we had the damn thing. One or more of them had to have leaked it to someone with the power to act, because I didn’t even tell my superiors about the operation’s classified goals.
It struck him right then, like a maul between the eyes.
Whoever took it had to have found out we even had it from the moles. There wasn’t an official chain for them to follow if they wanted to do it by the books.
He stared at his phone, quietly thinking dark thoughts.
*****