Chapter 36
“First, thank you for coming,” FBI Director John Howard Brown said into the mic.
“Second, I am here today to confirm the rumors. The Bureau and this nation have been the beneficiaries of a unique individual with exceptional talents.” He turned and pointed at the young woman standing between Special Agents Steele and Frayer, along with Sherman in the row behind him.
“Cassandra Blake has helped us identify the New York domestic terrorist cell, prevent an attack on the Capitol, captured Oscar Wymer by herself, recognized the pharmacist serial murders and the most likely suspects, recover Abby Rocksbury-Baltin within hours of her kidnapping, kick-started a stale serial murder investigation, and several other actions, all in a three-week time period. I’m not going to go into her background, as you’ve all spent hours digging into that.
Instead, rather than listening to me, why don’t we have a polite question-and-answer session with Cassie herself? Sound good? Cassie?”
The teen stepped forward. She wore well-fitted jeans, a dark blue t-shirt with Gram’s Diner emblazoned on the chest, and hiking boots. She looked just slightly self-conscious as she stepped up alongside the director, her expression a mix of nervous and wary.
The director pointed a finger at a woman in the front row with her arm up.
“Cassie, I’m…”
“Ronnie Shaw, NBC Washington. Sure, go ahead,” Cassie said, her body language relaxing a bit.
“Ah, you claim to have an eidetic memory, but those are typically seen in children and disappear by adulthood.”
“I’ve never publicly claimed anything, Ronnie. This is my first public appearance. You’re correct about the historical evidence regarding what’s known as eidetic memory. I don’t have an answer for why I’m different.”
“You in the back with hat,” the director said.
“Miguel Torres, with the Post, right?” Cassie said before the man could speak. “Nice article on education funding, by the way.”
“Ah thanks. Um, Cassie you mention the name Cramer in your online chat with your friend. Is that billionaire William Cramer you refer to?”
“I never referred to anyone by name. My friend did,” Cassie replied, frowning. “There is a Cramer who is invested in the Rifle Springs Casino.”
“He’s the billionaire,” Miguel said.
Cassie smiled brightly. “You’ve answered your own question it seems.” Then she pointed at another woman on the middle right side of the reporters. “Shanelle, CBS, I liked your economic report two nights ago. Whatcha got?”
“Ah, thank you, Cassie,” the woman said with a smile and head tilt that showed her surprise. “I was going to ask about how you recall information so clearly, but you seem to be demonstrating now. Can you identify every reporter in this room?”
“Thirty-one of you. There are seventeen I’ve never seen before. I watch and read a lot of news, though.”
“Is that how you put together these crimes?” Shanelle asked.
“It’s how I identify patterns that lead to either the realization that an event of some kind has occurred or is about to occur.
It could be criminal, international, financial, political—although I don’t love to focus on that topic—military or societal.
” The teen kept her focus on Shanelle, who quickly asked a third question.
“You said military… is that because of your father?”
“My dad and my grandpa, who might be watching. Hi, Gramps,” she said, waving at the camera. “Both army vets, both Rangers. Okay, Dennis Kelley in the back there from the Journal.”
“You captured a dangerous mercenary by yourself. Can you speak about that?”
“I had already identified his signature tattoo two days prior, so I knew who he was when he sat down. He showed me his gun, then indicated we would be leaving or he would shoot the family in front of us. With a clear self-defense issue for myself and the family, I sedated him, pulled the cord, and left the train. Then I waited for Agent Steele to show up,” Cassie said, turning to point out Steele in the line behind her.
“That seems premeditated?” Dennis asked.
“If by premeditated you are referring to his boarding my train halfway through its journey, sitting next to me, and threatening the public, then yes. If you refer to me having the means to sedate him, I’d argue that I’m an eighteen-year-old female facing a trained, experienced mercenary who outweighed me by a hundred pounds in tight quarters.
In other words, Dennis, be prepared is not just for Boy Scouts.
Choi Ji-woo from the KBS 1, what can I answer for you? ”
“Are you destined for intelligence work?” the pretty South Korean reporter asked.
“Absolutely, but I don’t know what kind. Criminal and counterterrorism for the Bureau, or maybe intelligence for the military. Everything is kind of intelligence work in this world.”
“What about the CIA?”
“Um, I don’t know,” Cassie said, frowning. “Not sure foreign work is for me.”
“Are you good with languages?”
“Yes. It helps when you can memorize the vocabulary at a glance. You, sir. I don’t know you,” she said, pointing at a man a little over halfway back.
“Carson Reed, Reuters,” the man said.
“Oh, you wrote an article on April nineteenth of this year about the US debt and probable insolvency of the government. I like how you related the numbers to a regular household. Clever.”
“Yes, well, thank you. There has been a considerable amount of speculation online about your relationship with Amber Ahmeek.”
“I don’t hear a question,” Cassie said.
“Could you clarify your relationship with Ms. Ahmeek?”
“You’re still not being clear, Carson. What is it you want to ask?”
He paused for a moment, an odd, awkward smile on his face. “Are you and Ms. Ahmeek a couple?”
“Ah. There it is. Interesting. Everything we’ve talked about, all the crimes, the killings, the kidnappings, serial killers, terrorists, and you want to know my sexual preferences.
Carson, I’m thinking you must have used AI to write that debt article because this is so not clever.
And you haven’t even done your homework.
Everything you need to know about Amber’s personal orientation is right there in her social media content.
She likes men. Me too. Wow. Director Brown, it looks like the press pool has dried up for questions. ”
“Okay, Cassie, let’s go,” he said and an absolute swarm of heavily armed agents surrounded her, including Rose Carmine, who led her out the back of the room.
Candace was waiting for them as they moved through the building. “Excellent, Cassie. Pretty tough at the end there,” she said.
“I thought I was being nice, referencing all their work. Now they’ll get people relooking at those articles. But Gram told me years ago to never suffer idiots.”
“Okay, true, true. You weren’t kidding,” Candace said to Agent Carmine.
“Me, I thought she was pretty polite to that moron. What are the odds he really did use AI?” she asked Cassie.
“Better than seventy percent, I’d guess.”
“Okay, Candace, here is where we leave you,” Steele told the PR expert. A block of the agents were still heading to the back of the building, but Steele opened a door and ten peeled off, including Cassie and Carmine.
The door shut in Candace’s face and Steele led them to a bank of elevators. At the top of the building, they disembarked the elevator and headed up a last set of stairs to the rooftop, where a Blackhawk helicopter waited on the rooftop helipad, rotor spinning.
Forty seconds later, the aircraft lifted off while a decoy line of SUVs left the back of the building.
It was a ten-minute flight to the Tiki facility. Five minutes into it, they got hit by weapons fire.