38. Angel
Chapter thirty-eight
Angel
“Jolly Roger, this is Overwatch,” I say into my comms.
“Go for Jolly Roger,” Roger replies. I can hear the eye roll in his voice as he repeats the name Owen gave him as our team lead. Note to self: never let Owen pick my code name.
“Daisy and Eva appear to be unharmed. They’ve entered the premises.”
“Copy. Prepare to engage once we have eyes inside and audio confirmation,” he says. “Gatekeeper One, what’s your status?”
Owen replies, “Gatekeeper One is linked with Mercury. Once the device is active, we’ll have audio.” Mercury refers to the E-6B Mercury flying overhead ready to receive the VLF transmission and redirect it to us over an encrypted VHF frequency. “Looping external and stairwell cameras now.”
“All teams report,” Roger says in a commanding tone.
“Vanguard, ready,” Vinny replies. Since he’s still officially on the CIA payroll, Ludlow put him in charge of the CIA team of special operators who will enter first.
The next four teams that Ludlow called in for this mission sound off. “Sentinel One, ready. Sentinel Two, ready. Sentinels Three and Four, ready.”
Then Scott confirms, “Knights, ready.”
Ludlow’s booming voice comes across the line.
“We’re operating on limited intel, but here’s what we do know.
This is a science facility and likely has few armed combatants.
Use non-lethal tactics to secure the area, and sidearms only if in immediate danger.
This is a capture, not kill, mission. Two hostages are known.
Daisy Zurkowski and Eva Vidal. We have an asset on the inside. ”
“Do we know how many girls are being detained against their will?”
“Negative. Based on the schematics and the number of sleeping quarters, we estimate no more than ten. Could be less. Could be more.”
There’s a crackle of noise coming in my other earpiece that allows us to hear inside. “Gatekeeper One has audio.”
Bennett’s voice is the first one we hear. “Chelsea, what are you doing here?”
“I assume for the same reason you’re here, Bennett.
I was recalled because the FBI has begun investigating Dominion.
It won’t be long before they connect the dots and know that the CIA was funding the CIPHER program.
We’re going to need our deaths faked, new identities, and a few surgical procedures to alter our appearances again.
My husband is going to take the fall, but I’m not going down with the sinking ship. ”
Director Ludlow grunts. “To all teams. My wife is the asset, a former officer, and a former resident at Dominion. She is on our side and playing her part. Do not let what she says distract you. Everything you hear is a subtle relay of information to provide intelligence for our teams.”
“Copy,” Vinny says.
“There’s nothing linking you to the CIPHER program,” Bennett tells her.
“When you made your choice to work for us, Dominion altered your DNA with a stem cell transplant and gene splicing, then used acid and skin grafts to change your fingerprints. It was enough that you can’t be identified as Abigail Calvert with certainty.
That lesson was learned with Eva here. You know this, so why are you really here? ”
“I follow orders, Bennett. I don’t question them.
When I passed on the intel that the FBI was launching its investigation into Dominion’s operations stateside, I was given the directive to come here.
I expect this place to be flooded with agents in the very near future.
Covers are about to get burned if this gets out, and every CIA officer or asset is going to be scrutinized down to the finest detail. ”
“That’s why I’m getting out while I can. You should do the same,” Bennett says.
Chelsea shifts her conversation from Bennett to Daisy. “Eva Vidal is well-known to just about every officer stationed in Europe, but who are you?”
“Daisy Zurkowski,” she replies.
Bennett interrupts by adding, “She’s being modest. This is Sadie Alekseev; a potential recruit who managed to escape her captors.”
“Then what is she doing here?” Chelsea asks. “This is a training facility, not a recruitment center.”
“A training facility?” Daisy asks. “This isn’t where Dominion conducts its experiments?”
Playing dumb, Chelsea responds with, “What are you talking about? Dominion rescues kidnapping victims who have suffered severe trauma and know they can’t return to the lives they had before. This is a place that provides a person with purpose, direction, and a fresh start.”
“It’s Dr. Frankenstein’s lab,” Eva interjects.
“And we’re nothing but the monsters they create.
Dominion didn’t rescue us, Chelsea. Bennett is the one who kidnapped Daisy and me, and whoever kidnapped you was likely a CIA agent just like Bennett.
Dominion is the devil in sheep’s clothing and nothing more than a contracted organization to conduct the experiments.
It’s the CIA who is the shepherd that purposely opened the gate and allowed us to be devoured by the wolf.
We fell prey to the lies. Open your eyes. ”
“I don’t believe you,” Chelsea says. “Bennett, why don’t you let me give our guest a tour so she can see what really happens here. As for Eva, she can tag along if she wants to.”
“I was planning on giving them a tour myself,” Bennett says.
“I’ll do it,” Chelsea tells him. “You’re a mess and need to be checked out by a doctor. Go to room 11 on the west side and get some medical attention.”
Bennett must be gone because a minute later, Chelsea begins talking to Daisy and Eva. “Follow my lead and you might just get out of here alive. I’m on your side, and there are six teams waiting to breach the facility. But before they can, I need to determine how many girls are here.”
Daisy whispers, “How long have you known that Dominion is the organization that brainwashed you and not the savior you thought them to be?”
“About 15 hours,” Chelsea says. “I spent many years in this facility, learning hand-to-hand combat, being subjected to interrogation techniques to find my breaking point, as well as receiving lessons on weapons handling, subterfuge, and everything else that an officer would learn at Camp Peary. I had no idea that Dominion was no longer operating under oversight by the CIA until FBI Director Finnegan and my husband showed up to question me.”
“Did Dominion arrange your meeting with Director Ludlow?”
“I was never asked to spy on my husband, just to do my job as a CIA officer. His integrity, ambition, and dedication are the reasons he was appointed the Director.”
Eva puts the pieces together faster than anyone else.
“No, Chelsea, you were groomed to be the type of woman that William Ludlow would fall for so that if the CIPHER program was ever discovered, you would be outed and there would be no way for the Director to claim ignorance. You were primed to be the strings that the puppet master would pull, using blackmail when the time comes to bring the Director in line. I’m curious, Chelsea, what interrogation technique did the FBI use on you to get you to spill your secrets? ”
“They didn’t have to. William is not a liar and one of the few officers in the CIA who still believes in the mission to protect our national interests and safeguard our citizens.
I also know that FBI Director Finnegan is an upstanding and honest individual.
If my husband believes what he told me to be true, then it’s true.
His goal when he was appointed was to turn the CIA into an organization that people could believe in again. ”
“When this hits the news, you’ll likely go to prison,” Eva tells her.
“So will you, Eva, but that isn’t stopping you from exposing Dominion. I may have been ‘brainwashed’ like my husband informed me, but that doesn’t mean that everything we’ve done for the CIA has been for naught.”
Daisy remains quiet as Chelsea gives the tour of the facility, listening as Chelsea points out the different rooms. “The medical sector is in the southwest corner of the building. That’s where the plastic surgery, DNA altering, and other physical enhancements take place.
The people working in that area are doctors and scientists.
We just passed the southeast section, and as you saw, the rooms are set up for various methods of interrogation.
Everything from the standard law-enforcement room where they question a person of interest to the soundproof room where screams can’t be heard and blood drains into a hole in the floor. ”
I can’t see the rooms from my prone position in the grass, but I still shiver as memories from my personal experience come flooding back.
With a position on the special operations team, I went through the torture scenarios at The Farm because the risk of capture is significant in my line of work.
To know that teenage girls and young women were going through that after already having been broken in spirit disgusts me.
I had a choice, but they didn’t. Not really.
Chelsea continues to verbalize the description of every room so that we know where they are and what we’ll be encountering when we’re given the order to breach. At this time, neither Daisy nor Eva appears to be in immediate danger.
“It looks as though it’s not a training day for interrogation.
If it were, you would see upwards of 12 retired operators roaming the halls.
I only see two. Up ahead are the sleeping quarters.
When I was here, there were only three of us.
An instructor would occasionally roam these halls, but it’s mostly housekeeping staff who are unarmed. ”
“The rooms are empty,” Daisy says. “Does that mean there aren’t any girls here?”
“It’s possible. If Dominion is aware of the investigation, the girls could have been moved. I wouldn’t know where,” Chelsea answers. “That information is stored on an isolated system on the lower floor that I don’t have access to.”
Owen pipes up. “Gatekeeper One to Jolly Roger.”
“Go for Jolly Roger.”