Chapter 6
“Okay, my sister is going to do some searching tomorrow, but she’s not going to press hard,” Brian Steele told his team after hanging up.
“That’s good, Agent Steele. We don’t want to threaten her or she’ll go to ground,” Angela Chen said. “She seems remarkable.”
“She impressed Sondra and Michael, who deals with teens for a living. Based on that, I am not willing to treat her like the original Cassandra. So, Red, Kessler, Carmine, and Rao, work on her warning. Track down the guy working for Cramer with the tattoo, reach out to Homeland and alert everyone, and Red, dig into this AI business. Chen, you and I will dig into Cassandra Blake’s backstory.
We need to understand who this girl is, what she’s capable of, and what motivates her. ”
“Where would you like to start?” Chen asked as the others turned away to their own tasks.
“First, tell me what your observations are at this moment.”
“If she is telling the truth, then she has a remarkable intellect. A problem solver and pattern recognition savant with extreme recall.”
“You questioned her credibility. How likely is she to trust us?”
“I did it to get a rise out of her. She saw through it. But we know that her father gave his service to the country, so she is likely a patriot; in fact, she said as much. She also is perhaps a little taken by your sister. You could hear it in her voice when Sondra asked about her plan. Your sister might be a tough cop, but to a girl raised by a Ranger master sergeant, she might seem soft and warm. Cassandra’s only mother figure, her grandmother, is dead.
Her father is dead. She keeps calling your sister even though her training tells her not to.
She was worried for your sister and her town when she thought Sondra queried NCIC. ”
“My little sister is a surrogate mother figure?”
“A potential surrogate. But that is powerful. I, for one, am curious about the girl in the casino video, the boss’s daughter,” Chen said.
“Why?”
“I feel their relationship is an anomaly. Just a guess. I need to know more about this Amber Ahmeek. She should hold high status in Rifle Springs. Wealthy, dressed in high fashion, beautiful, daughter of the head of the town’s biggest employer.
Cassandra, on the other hand, is dressed unisex and is very proud of her skill at waiting tables.
Cassie has an incredible memory and was a top student who may analyze situations at a glance, yet she and Amber are clearly comfortable with each other. Why?”
“Hmm. Good point. Alright, you see what you can find out. I’m going to see if I can reach this grandfather in Phoenix; it’s nine fifteen here and Michigan but only seven fifteen in Arizona. Let’s compare notes in an hour.”
Seventy-two minutes later, he walked into Dr. Chen’s space to see her on the phone. She nodded at him but kept talking. “Thank you, Amber. I can’t tell you how helpful you’ve been. Yes, I promise to help her every way I can. You take care yourself.”
Chen hung up and turned a bemused smile on her boss. “Cassandra warned Amber that we would be reaching out.”
“She called her?” Steele asked.
“No. They have some kind of communication method, probably using some kind of message board or something. She knew the FBI might reach out and was ready. She hung up when I called, then called me back on a burner phone—or, as she called it, something like her grandfather’s first phone.”
“What did you learn?”
“A fascinating story and equally fascinating relationship. Amber describes herself as the Regina George of Rifle Springs High School. Brian, this girl has an emotional intelligence off the charts. Extremely skilled at manipulation. Undoubtedly the queen of her school. Met Cassie when they were both quite young, on a playground. Amber’s balloon got stuck in a tree.
Cassie came along and gave her three methods for getting it down.
Amber chose one and with Cassie’s guidance got her balloon back.
When she asked her why, Cassie said it seemed useful.
Flash forward to middle school. Cassie is a boyish nerd.
Top grades but no social life because she’s always been off with her father in the woods or working for her grandmother.
Dad is being redeployed, and Amber is at the diner with her pod of cheerleader friends, one of whom picks on the nerdy waitress girl.
Amber shoots her own friend down, says Cassie is a useful person. How useful is she?
“First day of ninth grade, and the cheer squad is facing a new math teacher who, in Amber’s words, couldn’t teach a mean dog to bite.
Cassie whips off a summarized note page that explains the first day’s lesson plan in easy-to-understand bites.
Turns out Cassie is not only smart but capable of repackaging information for optimum assimilation by her peers.
Next thing you know, she’s bringing up the entire cheer squad’s GPA and helping a few of the football players too.
“Nerdy boyish girl is now protected socially by the most powerful clique in school. They aren’t best friends, and they don’t hang out, but they respect each other.
Amber teaches the brainy Cassie about people, their agendas, fashion, and makeup, and Cassie streamlines American education for an entire group of her classmates.
Might have raised the overall school GPA.
The respect is real and likely stronger for Amber than the shallow relationships she has with some of her followers.
Amber is plugged into the Casino and when the daughter of a former blackjack dealer pops into the casino and destroys the house’s odds, she realizes Cassie will be in trouble, hence the tableside chat. ”
“Wow, you did do a lot better than I did. Allen Blake was a rock. I’m pretty sure he pretended dementia to stonewall me.”
“And that took over an hour?”
“A critique, Doctor?” the senior agent asked.
“No, I’m anticipating more.”
“As you should. I dug into Rayer Floyd. He graduated college with a degree in Psych, then went to work for the CIA in their Special Activities Center, which handles psyops. Served three years and was then recruited by one Willam Cramer at American Vigilance Tech, left after three years and went to work for the casino, just before Ryan Blake came back from his first years as a Ranger. Rumor has it that he was involved in all kinds of human potential trials during his years with the Agency. Stuff that included human lie detectors, savants, pattern recognition experts, as well as some really fringe stuff like remote viewing and psychic experimentation.”
“That all seems… coincidental, in a disturbing way.”
“Doesn’t it?” Brian asked. “I also reached out to a friend of mine to find out more about Ryan Blake’s relationship with his old regiment, but it will take some time, as Darby is currently unreachable.”
“As in deployed?” Chen asked.
Before he could answer, they were interrupted.
“Hey boss, we got something you need to see,” Agent Rao said, nodding at the big monitors that Red was running.
“An alert technician at the NSA took our warnings to heart and picked up some covert cell chatter,” Rao explained.
“A small group discussing a big event for tomorrow at the Capitol. Language usage seemed like a code. Red tracked the numbers and located the phones. CCTV footage found our ex-Ranger, one Oscar Wymer, and four friends. We have the whole group under watch, but it looks like our guys.”
“Sounds like a tough bastard,” Agent Steele noted. At his team’s questioning looks, he cracked a smile. “Grew up with a name very close to Oscar Meyer Wiener.”
The good doctor smiled but the others didn’t get it.
“Never mind you, young punks. Alert HRT,” he said.
“Already on it, boss,” Kessler said with a cheeky grin.
“Awesome,” he said brightly.
“Ah, boss, Assistant Director Shire is on line one for you and she’s insistent,” Red said from her computer nest.
“Awesome,” he said with a whole different tone.