Chapter 41
While we waited for the big show, I caught Knuckles’ eye and nodded, letting him know that this was all going to work out—even
as I wasn’t so sure. I saw movement on the wall monitor, and Wolffe turned to our camera, saying, “You got anything else to
say before I put you on mute?”
Like he had the last time, Wolffe was sneaking us into the Oversight Council meeting. Instead of being dialed into the call
where the Council would see our login, we were dialed into the camera in the conference room, watching the meeting unfold
without them knowing. Well, that, and it allowed Wolffe to prevent me from saying anything stupid. Like that would ever happen.
I said, “Nope. You got it all, sir.”
He shook his head, clicked mute on the remote, and said, “Yeah, you can say that again.”
President Hannister was the last to arrive, and after he was seated, he simply asked Wolffe to give the update on the mission.
Wolffe did so, and even though he’d shaved down the sharp edges as much as he could, predictably, the Oversight Council began
to lose their minds.
He didn’t lie outright, claiming something like the IRGC guy had assaulted Knuckles with a machete while Knuckles was walking
by, but he’d come pretty close. Even so, the fact that we’d conducted a lethal operation without Omega authority against a
target that wasn’t the Ghost was bad enough.
From the screen, I thought Alexander Palmer was having an aneurysm, his face blotted red and his eyes bulging out. He interrupted the briefing with, “Are you saying a Taskforce team killed an unarmed, unnamed target in a foreign country while they were supposed to simply be locating the Ghost?”
“He wasn’t unarmed,” said Wolffe. “He chose to use lethal force, which led to the outcome, and he’s not unnamed. He’s an IRGC
logistics officer whose specialty is advanced force operations for Unit 840, meaning there’s more to this than just the Ghost.
There’s an operation in play right now. We don’t know what it is, but we know, with this level of infrastructure and planning,
it’s something big. Don’t forget, they broke out the Ghost to begin with.”
“Wait, wait, so now you’re saying this is all a giant Iranian plot? That’s your excuse? Sounds to me like you’re trying to cover your ass by making linkages that don’t exist. Where is this intelligence?”
Palmer looked at Kerry Bostwick, the director of the CIA and said, “Have you seen anything like this in our systems?”
Before Kerry could answer, Wolffe said, “Sir, we don’t have it in our system. We came up blank, but the Israelis have a much
deeper bench when it comes to these things. It’s from them.”
Palmer’s face split into a smug, slimy grin. He said, “Well, that’s convenient. This supposed intelligence just appears after
the guy’s dead, thrown out by two Israelis who we don’t even know, and who have their own agenda.”
I saw Shoshana lean forward, a molten look of anger on her face. I wondered if her little ESP skill worked through the internet.
Or maybe it was just because Palmer was a raging prick.
I said, “Hold on there, Carrie. They can’t hear you so there’s no need to start yelling.”
She said, “Who is that little worm?”
I said, “No one of consequence. The only one who matters is President Hannister, and he knows both of you.”
She had really become livid, angrier than I’d ever seen her.
She said, “That bastard wasn’t there when Hamas came across the wall.
Didn’t see the rapes. Didn’t bury the murdered children.
Didn’t have to suffer the pain.” She turned to me and spat out, “He didn’t have any of his family yanked bleeding into a tunnel to die, and I won’t sit here and let them do it again. ”
I was taken aback, and Aaron put a hand on her shoulder, whispering something in her ear. I glanced at Jennifer, and she simply
nodded, understanding. Like most everyone in the Taskforce, I’d heard about the atrocities committed by Hamas, but it had
always been abstract. Something terrible that had happened to someone else, but now I was in the room with those who had suffered.
In all the work of planning and executing my missions, sometimes it was easy to forget exactly why I was doing it. I was a little ashamed that Shoshana had to remind me. The men we were after were stone-cold murderers, and
she was right, Palmer didn’t understand.
I said, “Shoshana, don’t worry about Palmer. Watch.”
I knew what was coming next.
Wolffe said, “Mr. President, the information is from Aaron and Shoshana.”
At that, President Hannister leaned forward and said, “The same two Israelis from President Warren’s assassination?”
Unbeknownst to Palmer, Aaron and Shoshana had helped defuse a major conflict involving the United States and Russia after
the previous president had been blown out of the sky over Ukraine, with Russia wrongly being blamed. President Hannister had
been vice president then, and the Israelis’ actions had been key to preventing a global catastrophe. I knew he wouldn’t forget
it.
Wolffe knew it too. He said, “Yes, sir. While we were chasing the Ghost, they were working this from the other angle. The
Israelis were chasing a threat stream from Iran, and we met in the middle.” He glared at Palmer and said, “I didn’t conveniently make that happen.”
President Hannister said, “What else do you have to go on? Do you have any actionable intelligence?”
Palmer said, “Sir, you can’t be buying this—”
President Hannister simply held up his hand, and that turned the meeting from a blame game to what it should have been: exploring options.
Wolffe said, “The identification was through biometrics from the body. He had a Qatari passport, but neither we nor Israel
got anything more from it than what’s printed on the pages. The team found an early model flip-phone, but the sim card has
never touched a cell network. In addition, he had a wallet with credit cards, but, like the phone, none of the cards have
ever been used, so that was another dead end, except that both of those facts indicate he was attempting to hide something.”
Kerry said, “What bank are the cards associated with?”
“That’s where it gets strange again. It’s a legitimate Argentinian bank, but the number on the account goes from there to
an offshore exchange that utilizes Tether. From there, the originator could be anywhere.”
President Hannister said, “What’s Tether?”
Kerry said, “It’s crypto. Basically, it allows the transfer of monetary assets worldwide without any banking tail associated.”
“Crypto? Like Bitcoin?”
“Yes, and no. Yes, it’s basically digital currency utilizing blockchain technology, but no, it’s not like a Bitcoin that swings
wildly in price. It’s called a stablecoin because it’s tied one-for-one with select fiat currency around the world, like the
US dollar. It only fluctuates when the dollar fluctuates, so it’s like transferring real money, only without any banking ties
associated with the US dollar. For a simple example, you can’t transfer more than ten-thousand dollars in the US banking system
without an alert, but you could transfer whatever you wanted with Tether, then convert it to dollars on the other end.”
President Hannister rubbed his forehead and said, “So it’s basically a money launderer’s dream.”
Kerry said, “Or a terrorist financing one. I agree with Wolffe. Even without the Israeli identification, this is looking like
an intelligence operation.”
Ever the asshole, Palmer said, “Or maybe just a criminal enterprise.”
Wolffe said, “Sir, there’s a way to find out. We did recover a maté drinking kit with a receipt.”
“Maté? What’s that?”
“It’s a traditional herbal tea that’s served in Argentina. It’s a social thing they do involving special drinking gourds,
mixing up the recipe, and passing around the drink with a straw. It has a whole production behind it, not unlike what fancy
espresso snobs do here in the US. They sell tourists kits to take home, and the target bought one. It was in his hotel room.”
Secretary of State Amanda Croft said, “What’s that matter? He bought a souvenir so he’s definitely an Iranian assassin?”
“No. He bought it with a credit card. The receipt only shows the last four of the number, and that last four doesn’t match
any from his wallet. We think he was sent here to conduct advanced force operations with a specific credit card, not mingling
them with the other ones he had. We think his mission was done, and he was going to use the other cards and clean cell phone
to get home, breaking any connection with his previous digital and monetary assets.”
Kerry said, “But you don’t know the full card number?”
“No, but we know where the maté kit was purchased. It’s a store in Buenos Aires. What I want to do is let Pike go explore
that. If he can find the actual number, we can then use that to conduct tracking or further target exploitation.”
Palmer said, “Can’t you do that remotely? Just hack the store. You guys do that all the time.”
Wolffe smiled and said, “Yes, that would be easiest, but he didn’t buy it at a Walmart or Target. He purchased it through
a mom-and-pop store, and we’ve had no luck finding a way to penetrate their credit system. We’ve already tried. They do have
a website, but it doesn’t allow transactions. It’s pretty basic.”
President Hannister said, “So you want to go analog here to get the credit card information?”
“Yes, sir, but not just to locate the Ghost. I want Alpha authority to expand the mission beyond him. Both the Israelis and
my team feel that the Iranians are behind this. It’s bigger than the Ghost.”
At that, I held my breath, along with the rest of the team.
President Hannister said, “Amanda, you’re leaving for Buenos Aires in a couple of days for that event with the Israeli prime minister, right?”
She said “Yes, sir, I am.”
“What do you think?”
And at that, I knew we’d won. He was going to let her say the words, and she did.
“Sir, I’d say exploring the credit card information is low risk and with what Kerry’s said, it’s worth checking out. It’s
looking like this is bigger than just a rendition of the Ghost, and I think they should continue. Give them Alpha for the
new mission set.”
“I agree. Anybody else have a comment?”
Palmer looked like he’d just upchucked in his mouth and swallowed it back down, but said nothing. President Hannister returned
to Wolffe and said, “Okay, tell Pike he’s got Alpha to figure out where this credit card leads.”
I watched Shoshana’s wolf grin split her face and leaned forward, slapping Knuckles on the back and whispering, “It was a
good hit.”
He nodded, and Wolffe said, “Yes sir, will do,” not letting on that we were listening.
President Hannister ended by throwing a little bit of cold water on the celebration, saying, “When I say Alpha, I mean Alpha.
I don’t want him killing the clerk to get the intel, is that clear?”
Wolffe assured him of our steadfast abilities, but I didn’t even mind the rebuke. Last night had been a near-miss of a colossal
failure, and I’d take the lessons learned to heart, but for now we were back in business.