Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology (31 page)

“
I'm sure
she's got her reasons. He is a senator; she probably
likes
the power around him.”

“
Wonder
if she knows he's a pedo.”

“
Probably.
I'd think she'd have to.”

“
Oh well;
her problem, not ours.”

“
You got
it, JB. Uh-oh. Oh, Christ! The kid they're bringing in doesn't
look to be more than five years old.”

“
Fuckin'
bastard. I'll definitely cut his balls off.”

- 80 -

January
8, 2013
11:23
a.m. local time

Aboard
Defiance

In the Gulf of Aden

“
How's it
going, Greg?”

“
Fairly
well, sir. We're in the final stages of calibration, should
have
it ready to rock 'n roll in another day or two.”

“
Any
problems with the rocking and rolling of the boat?”

“
Sometimes
yes, sometimes no. We only do our tests when it's calm. When it
gets really choppy, we have to shut down the reactor.”

“
Any way
to hook into the boat's reactor? They both use thorium, right?”

“
Yes,
sir, but we haven't been able to reduce the output to what the gizmo
can handle.”

“
Too bad.
How about the ranges?”

“
Nearly
twenty kilometers and an hour and a half, but I wouldn't
want
to try pushing this prototype any further than that.”

“
Right.
You can do that when we get the R&D building done. You
and
Julie, of course, will head up that project, if you're willing.”

“
Oh,
positively, sir; this is fascinating for both of us.”

“
Are you
happy with your stateroom and the service?”

“
It's
fabulous, sir; we really thank you for that. Julie's a gourmet cook
herself, but Jean-Claude's skill is positively blowing her away.”

“
He is
phenomenal, isn't he?”

“
Positively,
especially his sauces.”

“
Well,
isn't that supposed to be the mark of a superior chef?”

“
I guess
so, sir; Julie's the expert there.”

“
Well,
Greg, just keep on as you are, and keep me posted, okay?”

“
Yes,
sir, Mr. Burnett; will do.”

- 81 -

January
9, 2013
3:08
p.m. local time

Bonita Beach, Florida

“
Geez,
Jill, the FBI is still saying they don't have him, never even
picked
him up.”

“
But they
did it right in front of all of us, Rosemary.”

“
I know,
I know. But they've denied that every time I've called, and I've
called every day.”

“
Have you
talked to the top guy or gal there?”

“
Yes; at
least, he told me he was – um – the Special Agent in
Charge.”

“
And he
also denied both the pickup and holding him?”

“
Right.
But his voice was off somehow when he said that.”

“
Might be
a coverup of some kind, huh?”

“
I think
so, but I just don't have any idea why the FBI would do something
like that. It's just all a big stone wall, nothing to go on except
that Gordy's not here.”

“
Well,
we've got Carie's video.”

“
What?
Carie has a video?”

“
Yeah.
She was shooting you and Gordy dancing, 'cause you looked so happy
together.”

“
Nobody
told me.”

“
Oh,
geez, I thought you knew.”

“
No. Oh,
Jill, that's great,” she said, hugging Jill. “Can I see
it?”

“
Sure; I
think she's got it with her.

“
Hey,
Carie?” Jill shouted to her sister.

“
Yeah?”
Carie replied.

“
Can you
bring that video down here, let Rosemary see it?”

“
Sure.”

A few minutes
later, Rosemary said, “Look, that's them, right
there.
And see, there's their badges. Oh, Carie, this is such good
news.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She hugged both of the
sisters. “Can you send that to me?”

“
Sure.
What's your number?”

Rosemary gave
it to her and a few moments later, Rosemary
pulled
the video up on her phone. “Got it. Oh, Carie, Jill, thank
you!“

Jill said, “You
know, we probably ought to send copies of that to a lot of other
people, too, just to be on the safe side.”

“
You
think” – Rosemary started to say.

“
Yeah, I
do. This could be more than just a coverup.”

“
Oh,
geez. Carie, what do you think?”

“
She may
be right. I can send it to a bunch of friends, ask them to save it
somewhere safe, and I can upload it to the internet, too, and get it
to some news people. And I'll copy it to some DVDs and spread them
around, too.”

“
Great.
Let's get that rolling. This is the first piece of good news I've
had. Thank you both again.”

- 82 -

January
10, 2013
12:33
a.m. local time

Aboard
Defiance

In the Gulf of Aden

“
June
1985 was the first time any operatives in our group had been
compromised. We'd been warned to be alert for any signs of a
Soviet
mole, ever since our initial training, of course, had to take a
polygraph every year, but when we lost two of our
honey trappers in a single op, we knew we had one somewhere on the
inside. So we had to find him and do it quickly.”

“
But you
never did?”

“
Nope; he
covered all his tracks too well. We never dug him out.”

“
But you
had your suspicions?”

“
Yeah,
but not until much later, and now I'm pretty sure I was set
up
to suspect Zach.”

“
By your
guy, my classmate?”

“
Yeah.”

“
And when
did your suspicions get targeted at Zach?”

“
Oh, not
long after we got married. He became my case officer in 1987, and we
got married in May of 1989. I think the first time I suspected him
was about two months later.”

“
Okay;
that gives us that timeline. Now, have you found anything in the
latest batch of info from Phil and Nadia, anything useful at all?”

“
A couple
of things. First, he often has dinner at this restaurant
in
Georgetown.” She pointed to a highlighted name in the report.

“
Ah, one
of the best and most discreet. Any particular schedule?”

“
Not from
what's in this report, just that it's a couple times a month, but
random dates and random dinner partners.”

“
Okay.
What else?”

“
Just an
anomaly. Once a month, always on a Sunday morning, he gets in his
personal car and drives off, leaving all his bodyguards behind. He's
gone for a little over two hours, gets back just before noon and goes
back into his house, alarm set and bodyguards back on duty. But
nowhere in the reports does it show where he goes.”

“
Nobody
ever followed him?”

“
Not from
the reports Phil and Nadia were able to dig up.”

“
Okay.
We'll put some surveillance on him for that.”

“
Other
than that, so far he comes off as squeaky clean.”

“
And
that's suspicious in and of itself.”

“
Got that
right, Jake.”

“
I'll
keep all the teams looking. We'll get to the truth, Pam; I promise
you that.”

“
I know,
Jake, I know. But now come to bed; you're exhausted.”

“
Yeah, it
has been a long day.”

“
And I
won't keep you up much longer.”

“
Oh,
I have a feeling you will.”

“
Now
that you mention it, you're right.”

- 83 -

January
10, 2013
10:08
a.m. local time

Fort Myers, Florida

“
No,
definitely not ours,” the Special Agent in Charge said. “But
those badges do look real. I'll have the techs run 'em through our
facial recognition program, see if we can get some IDs.”

“
Thank
you,” Rosemary said, sighing with relief and squeezing
Jill
and Carie's hands.

“
And
then what?” Dallas asked.

“
Well,
once we find 'em, we'll charge 'em with impersonating a federal
officer, kidnapping and whatever else we can come up with.”

“
And
you'll get Gordy back?” Rosemary asked.

“
We'll
do everything we can. But it's going to be tougher because you
waited till now to bring this to my attention.”

“
I
called every day since he was taken. Your receptionist always said
you didn't take him or have him. And you said the same thing when I
got through to you that one time.”