Albatross (28 page)

“No. The objective was to disable the operations center and force them to relocate to a place called the auxiliary control center as they shifted all programs, operations, and missions to the bunker for complete security lockdown,” David answered. Even though David was blind, he could tell by the silence that there had to be a puzzled look on Andersen’s face, so he continued, “Burns said that he believed that if the operations center was compromised, there would be a seasoned field agent or manager immediately dispatched to a secure area in the community no more than ten minutes away to carry on critical operations, communications, and investigations for the three hours needed to get the bunker to full speed. The backup auxiliary control center had to be up and running in sixty minutes or less,”

David stopped. He took a breath and shrugged his shoulders and then went on, “Of course while finding this operations center took years, I thought finding the people or person and location of this smaller control center was going to be harder. But then I underestimated the skills and resolve of both Burns and Samantha. They were constantly out and working incredible hours. Becky got involve for more than a month. And then I guess it was Samantha who noticed a pattern of two people who fit the criteria Burns laid out for what to look for, including the entourage security around some guy. There was a woman who was with him and who was clearly not a date or girlfriend or peer but a subordinate. She was a very seasoned professional Samantha described as ‘scary,’ and she did not scare easily. Once the field of possible people was narrowed, it meant routines, following and locating where they went during the day. That woman we thought might be the person—we called her Cougar—was the right call.”

Andersen had to stop him. “You called her Cougar?” he asked.

David’s hands immediately flew up in frustration as if he had been questioned about the name and the double meaning before and was simply sick of it. This was the only time he saw David flustered. “Look. I don’t know what she looks like, but they told me she looked like a cat ready to pounce. I said the first image I had, which was ‘she paces like a caged cougar or a lioness about to leap.’ Apparently, I missed the double meaning of the ‘cougar’ statement, and so she was forever referred to as Cougar.”

David still sounded embarrassed and apologetic. As if not to dwell on the embarrassment, David went on, “Once we had the possible locations of the operation center and this control room, we had to come up with a plan to compromise this place and to create as much collateral damage so as to confuse the situation and provide cover. While Burns was positive the operations center thought he was no threat and alone, he also thought he needed to have a simple plan to create a crisis.”

Andersen saw it clearly now. “So Burns set the building to explode and created a crisis at the hospital and the parking lot and the school? How could he be in all of the places at the same time?” Andersen asked.

“Burns had us set up everything in dry runs, so staging it and timing it was easy to do. All you need is five or six able-bodied people. He had two women, a blind guy, and a baby. Not exactly an elite strike force. But the problem of getting hired guns, I guess, would be pretty easy. Money talks, and we had that for small jobs like ‘set this up’ and ‘park here’ and ‘watch this.’ One thing that worried me, Becky, and Samantha was why Burns did not want us to know the location of his ultimate target. Becky had to convince Samantha that finding out this location was important for our safety.”

David stopped. It was apparent he was pained by something. Andersen had to be careful here.

“So what happened?” Andersen asked gently.

It took David a few seconds, and then he went on, “Samantha, Becky, and I had our own code words. Code words just between us. Because Becky and Samantha were sisters, they had their own shorthand and communication between them. I didn’t mind because I needed them and I was not a threat. I always got the impression that Burns let Samantha into his life as a way of gaining access and control. Because Samantha was hungry for this affection, she really wanted to believe. I think Becky never trusted Burns and reminded Samantha that her first loyalty was to her and Emma and that I was second. Burns was a distant third.”

David slowed down again, but he kept going. It was hard to say, but Andersen thought David’s eyes had welled up. “Samantha and Becky had to get their hands on a federal laptop to make an easy connection to the operation center. The FBI was the easiest federal agency to find. Finding out where the agents would eat, drink coffee, or just drink was also very easy. Samantha was the one who lifted the laptop while it was still open and on as one of the agents was in the bathroom and the other was assisting Becky and Emma out of the door with a carriage, bags, and coffee. So getting the laptop was really easy. But when Samantha went to give Burns the laptop, she texted Becky an important code word, ‘marathon.’ If any of us used the word, that meant anyone hearing it was to take everything they could and run. ‘Marathon’ meant Burns was done with all of us and that he planned to get rid of us.”

David took another breath and went on, “Becky, Emma, and I already had a go bag packed and cash so it would be easy to just leave. Becky had a method of e-mails and texts to contact Samantha, but there was never a word from her again.”

“Burns killed her?” Andersen asked.

David looked off into the distance and then shrugged and shook his head. He thought about it then went on, “I would like to think she got away, but if she did, she would have contacted Becky. She never did. After one month of hiding, it made sense for Becky and Emma to get farther away from me as I was simply slowing them down. It took a while, but I convinced them to leave me.”

David was now dark, Andersen noticed. The words “sad” or “melancholic” did not do justice to how David looked. “I lost another family, David continued. “But I couldn’t let anything happen to Emma and Becky. I did not want to be responsible for their deaths too. I was able to stay low for a while, but finding the limited number of assisted living housing in Massachusetts is not very difficult. Even though I was now working and needed an assistant, I probably made it easier in the end to be found. I am guessing he left me alone for a while until he needed me for something like a fall guy or something. Burns might have been waiting for Becky and Emma to visit or come back and then take us all out.”

“So how did you end up in North Reading at a shoot-out?” Andersen pushed gently.
Finally, the whole thing is making sense
, Andersen thought. He had to have had a full notebook of comments so far. This was going to be one hell of a long report.

“I was heading home last night when I was grabbed. Three men. One was Burns, and the other two were some pretty strong guys. They had brought me somewhere, and I ended up going down a flight of stairs into a basement, I think. I sat there for a while and tried to figure a way to get out. At some point, there was a bunch of footsteps coming my way. I figured I might as well go out fighting, but I was whacked from behind, and the lights simply went out. I was kind of in and out, but there was clearly some shouting, and I swear I heard someone yelling, ‘FBI,’ and then lots of shooting. But then I must have passed out again. Next thing I knew, I was found by police and just thrilled to be alive.”

David fell quiet again.

“So what was the laptop for?” Andersen asked.

“I heard Burns talk about the need to test some kind of virus or worm to simulate an attack. Something small just to see if it would work. Once he was convinced that it worked, he would wait two weeks to set up a bigger one with a lot of other events to confuse things.”

“What do you mean other events to confuse things?” Andersen asked.

David looked puzzled and thought about it. “I never really knew what he meant by that. But if I know the guy’s thinking, he would not hesitate to use explosives, chemicals, or other weapons of mass destruction,” David speculated.

“What did you want your assistant to bring you?” Andersen asked suddenly.

Confused, David answered, “I wanted her to access my e-mail about files and data on Burns. Why?”

“I don’t know,” Andersen said and then suddenly shot out the question. “Are you aware that in addition to the shoot-out in my town, there was a bomb threat in a hospital and a parking lot of an athletic center in a residential community and a cyber attack launched near a school?”

Andersen thought David went pale and seemed stricken with fear.

David was about to say something when it suddenly seemed to Andersen that the fluorescent lights overhead brightened, surged, and then went out. The emergency power came up a moment later, but the smell of burnt circuitry and melting wires was obvious. David was the first to respond. It was evident he had heard something, and he definitely smelled the wires. “What happened?”

“I’m not sure,” Andersen answered.

Instead of a knock, the door opened quietly behind David. Andersen reached for his holster and realized that his gun was locked in his desk. Guns were not allowed in the interview room. Andersen was greatly relieved when he saw it was the recording technician on the other side of the glass. Something wasn’t right with the technician though. He really seemed confused and distraught.

“Sorry, Lieutenant, but there was a massive surge, and all the electronics are fried,” the technician started.

“What does that mean?” Andersen asked.

“Well, it means that anything with a transistor or CPU and computer components are either burnt out or fried,” the technician explained. “I need to get upstairs to see if the computer terminals are all right.”

“If the computers were on, does that mean they are damaged too?” Andersen asked.

The technician gave Andersen a “what do you think?” look but still answered the question civilly. “Sure does. Weird thing, though, was that everything started to freak out before the lights burned out. Like for thirty seconds or more. I would have thought that it was just a power surge like a transformer blowing out, but all the stuff would have happened at the same time. It didn’t though.”

Andersen had more questions, but the technician was gone. There was a whole lot of noise outside because the door was ajar now, but the sounds were more muffled than clear.

“I hate to say this,” David started, “but I’ve really got a bad feeling about this.”

Undeterred, Andersen sat back down and started with another bout of questions. “Do you think Burns may have already implemented his plan?” Andersen continued.

David seemed thoughtful for a moment and then seemed to draw some conclusions. “Burns is many things, but his strong suits are details, timing, and logistics in general. If all of these events are occurring at the same time near the same location and there was a cyber-attack, I am guessing this is a practice run. I am guessing he is timing everything, watching response times, seeing how things fall out. I would guess that he would more likely minimize casualties so that all of this would not draw a huge manhunt.”

Andersen had another epiphany, but first, he needed to know the answer to one more question. “What do you mean ‘minimize casualties?’”

David looked puzzled at first but then answered the question as well as he could. “It’s one thing to have all of these events occur and have little to no lives lost but quite another to start taking lives and leaving a large body count. If Burns is successful in this practice run he has embarrassed law enforcement at the very worst and tied up resources while determining strengths. He really doesn’t want to drive the operations center back underground. If there are bodies strewn all about, then the United States of America goes to war, and everyone wants justice. Now we are talking 9/11 again.”

“What?” Something was wrong with his witness’s logic. Andersen knew enough to know something was wrong, but he needed time to figure it out. At the surface, the reasoning made sense, but somehow, this did not fit the person David had described as a mastermind.

David looked somewhat confused but then attempted to explain. “When the Twin Towers fell, the United States went to war on multiple fronts with the backing of the US citizens and much of the world’s willingness to go along. If Burns leaves a shitload of bodies around, he will have everyone in the world after him, and no one will rest until he is dead. Just like Oman Sharif Sudani was hunted and eventually killed in 2011. Burns doesn’t want the world after him. He just wants to see how all of this works before he is able to get back at his old bosses for what they did to him.”

Andersen had to think for a moment.
Was this all true? Could one guy do all of this? If Burns is that smart, a “test run” would tip his hand. He doesn’t seem to be the type of guy to make a mistake like this. Still, even Sudani had a team of people who field-tested strategies before they actually tried them
, Andersen thought. As Andersen thought more, he remembered that some of Sudani’s most effective people were civilians converted to his cause.

What a minute— That name!
Andersen knew the name as did every American.
Hadn’t Sudani been killed on May 2?
How the fuck could I have missed that?
Andersen thought.

Andersen was about to ask the next question when all of a sudden, there was a muffled explosion. It must have been a powerful one because it had made it through the soundproofing in the basement. Then the emergency lights went out, and Andersen and his witness were in total darkness.

“Fuck—” was the only word Andersen could muster now that he was in the darkness.

“Other than the explosion, did something else happen?” David asked.

“The emergency lights are gone now,” Andersen said. He also heard steps and saw two beams of lights outside the door and someone calling out for him. It was a female voice. “Lieutenant Andersen? Lieutenant?” the woman called out.

Andersen was now up from his chair, and he placed David behind him so that whoever was at the door would not see his prisoner first.

“Sir! Cadet Smith reporting to you, sir!” The body of the voice seemed to stand at attention but continued, “The watch commander told me to report here to watch the prisoner. He wants you upstairs and armed. The station is under attack, and the prisoners’ doors are no longer secured, sir!”