The Leaves in Winter (31 page)

“We don’t need to. The French supplied us with complete forensics.”

“Precisely my point,” snapped Gains.

“Computer hardware is not in question here. All pertinent data is in record.”

“Have you properly vetted the French team that conducted the forensics?”

“Are you inferring the French are part of a conspiracy to deny us proper data?”

Gains sat square, prepared for battle. “Senator, I merely point out reasonable doubt. Given the seriousness of the crimes charged against Ms. Insworth, I suspect a jury might be persuaded to have similar doubts.”

Delane reacted casually. “Such a jury will be quite busy no matter what was found on the laptop. Acting on intent to acquire secrets then trying to barter them to a terrorist group is more than enough to prosecute. And that’s before we get to Title 18, interstate flight, and obstruction of justice.”

The Chairman interrupted. “Let’s try to stay with substance here. Mr. Gains, you’ve entered a request to challenge an entry in the record. This might be a good time for that.”

“Thank you Mr. Chairman.” Out of a coat pocket came talking points.

Turning to Gains, Janis shielded the microphone with a hand.

“What are you doing?”

“My job.” For a few telling moments, Gains came out of character. Pressing closer to her, he whispered orders – both hers and his, “Now sit back. You’ve said enough. I need to get this into the record.”

Gain’s demeanor lay bare a sudden and disturbing impression. Janis sat back and absorbed what now seemed like a pageant play going on around her. The more she became aware of it, the more the situation felt strange. Certain things no longer were taken for granted. The proceedings abruptly felt staged.

Why was Senator Delane the only one engaging her? Who was Richard Gains? Why did their give-and-take seem forced? Weeks from now, when someone read back the printed testimony, exchanges between the two of them would appear combative, no doubt. But that wasn’t the feeling in the room. She’d swear they knew each other. She’d bet somehow others on the panel knew they were expected to ease back and let Delane do the talking.

And then there was the memo – how could they have missed it? Even if it was accidentally deleted off the laptop, surely they had followed up by investigating the computer storage at GeLixCo. They could have found it there.

Nothing made sense. All of them knew too much about things that didn’t matter – too little about things that did. Surrounded by unknown motivations, she sensed Gains was right about one thing – she had said enough. If nothing else was certain, the fact that her life was on the line came into focus.

Gains ignored Senator Delane and redirected his remarks to everyone else on the panel. “Mr. Chairman…Senators, the government can’t have it both ways. On one hand, my client has been portrayed as nothing more than a distraction, an attention seeker needing help. On the other hand, she’s being pursued with a litany of criminal charges as if she’s public enemy number one. The inconsistency boggles the mind. The only thing Janis Insworth is guilty of is being a desperate, caring mother – and being gullible.”

Janis felt her heart race. At no other moment since entering the room had she felt it so keenly – her fate was out of her hands. What was happening around her would play out as scripted. Her part now was to wait for the final act – to see if she appeared in it at all. If some kind of governmental collusion with Mass was going on, no way would they want the truth getting out. They needed her marginalized.

Gains continued to talk. Ears ringing with fear, Janis felt faint but heard enough to wish she was someplace else.

“…there’s been a lot of talk about secrets. We’re in closed-door hearings and I haven’t seen evidence of any secrets yet. Anyone can claim there’s something behind the curtain if they don’t have to prove it. You expect a jury to take your word that somewhere there are secrets in jeopardy because of this woman. So far today, all you’ve established is the variety of things she
wasn’t
aware of. Where are the redacted pages? What department of government takes claim to these secrets? Does this all-important project even have a name? Have we gotten to the point where accepting such things on faith passes as evidence of a capital crime?”

Senator Delane interrupted, “You know your suggestion is ludicrous.”

“Why, because it suits you? Tell me, this secret storage that was broken into – where was it? At the NSA, the CIA, maybe the FBI? No, it was at a private biotech company in
Puerto Rico
. Let’s stretch what’s credible for the jury again; let’s ask them to believe the
United States
keeps its most closely guarded secrets at one of GeLixCo’s older research facilities offshore. Unless you’re prepared to establish a reasonable explanation for this, I’d advise you to take it off the table.”

Senator Delane sat back, making a show of frustrated fuming.

Gains didn’t let up. “And what about all of the material you
did
manage to get into the record? What exactly is it? If someone not too clever extracts passages here and there, it sounds horrendous. There’s talk of pandemics, billions of people dying, a fractured society in the aftermath. Who would think such things? Worse yet, who would formalize them in such great detail? If you’ve done your research, you know very well. Those documents on the laptop, the ones Malcolm showed Janis Insworth to prove that Eugene Mass was about to kill six billion people – those are actually from think tanks. They were hypothetical studies done years ago and only privately circulated. They’re all about what-if scenarios, exercises to consider the full range of possibilities. The Pentagon does the same thing when they war game. There are no great secrets there, either.”

Gains took a moment to refer to his notes. “Janis Insworth was taken in and used by Malcolm Stowe. You’ve established last week that he was a grieving, angry, and paranoid man. He got it in his head that Eugene Mass was responsible for the death of his lover, Riya Basu. The paranoia started when he saw the way NovoSenectus excluded him from sensitive operations. The truth was, they excluded him because they had just discovered his connection to British intelligence. He was right, they were watching him, but not for the reason he thought. So, what did he do? To get back at Mass, he fabricated 3rd Protocol out of old think tank documents. He wanted to cause trouble for Mass, as much as possible. What better place to plant his phony evidence than GeLixCo, the largest competition to NovoSenectus. Once they found it, they’d be sure to use it. But when the plot started to unravel, he scrambled to remove himself. He tried shifting everything onto Janis. He lied to her, made her believe population collapse would happen any day, suggested the
U.S.
government might even be helping Mass concoct the plan, even led her to believe NCO had her daughter. He went after anyone who opposed Mass, hoping to get them involved – all to give himself an escape and alibi.”

Gains glanced over at Janis. “Janis Insworth is a victim. She was duped by Malcolm Stowe at a time when he found her vulnerable. Malcolm Stowe was driven to seek revenge on an innocent man. Both Janis and Malcolm acted from raw emotion – they both had watched a lover shot and killed. Janis had the added shock of seeing her daughter kidnapped. After two weeks of testimony, no other explanation makes sense. The Senator just admitted that the most damning memo in fact does not exist. Janis only breached GeLixCo’s network because she was duped by Malcolm into believing the files she would find there belonged to Riya. If anything, my client was only attempting to retrieve files that properly belonged to her employer, NovoSenectus.

Gains was suddenly overdramatic. “Janis Insworth has been through enough. She had nothing to do with Oliver Ross. The real culprit behind her alleged crimes is dead. There’s nothing to be gained by using her as a scapegoat. If anything, I would think the government would help her find her daughter. The facts suggest one thing – all charges against my client should be dropped. Janis Insworth should be released.”

It didn’t end there. For the next half hour, Senator Delane and Richard Gains had it out rhetorically. The Chairman interrupted at times, but only after each party in turn had a chance to make their points. Nothing was decided, but then nothing could be decided until the committee issued their report and said they were done.

By the time the special agents returned to the room to lead Janis away, she was numb to all of it. After being forced to sit through what felt like theater of the surreal, what came next was no longer on her mind. Whatever it was, it was sure to surprise.

Down a restricted hallway to a private elevator, Janis followed orders. The agents were wooden, said little, barely considered her at all. They led her to a private parking area where a dark, unmarked car waited. It was the same car that had brought her there. Only now, next to it was parked another car.

Janis was so intent upon processing what had just happened, she barely lifted her gaze from the ground. When she did, her anticipation of surprise wasn’t disappointed. She halted and forced the agents to halt with her. Staring ahead, Janis looked upon the one person she never expected to see.

The one person she had never forgotten.

Faye Gardner.

Chapter 30

Private Capitol Parking

Washington
,
D.C.

A pale winter’s sun broke through icy clouds. The added light was distant, without warmth. Janis couldn’t move, her descent into surrealism complete. Shadows of a simulated truth appeared. This couldn’t be the place she remembered from an hour before. She must be somewhere else, living someone else’s dream.

Impaled behind a blank expression, she found herself unable to look away. Why Faye Gardner? Why now? Masqueraded emergencies must be at play just out of sight. All of them in the service of bad purposes with good reasons to stay hidden.

A familiar face in this setting was out of place.

In reflex, searing doubt and resistance ignited. Just then Janis looked at Faye and caught a flash of something else burning between them. In one terrible instant, all that was strange crystallized around an improbable certainty.

Faye Gardner was also a captive.

But of what? She wore no ankle bracelet, yet something in her demeanor hinted of being tracked. There were no special agents escorting her, yet the very air around her somehow was accounted for and approved.

Most disturbingly, Janis sensed something else in Faye – a
willing
captivity.

Was she in league with the masquerade or merely being forced onstage? Intervening years since their last meeting didn’t matter. They’d known each other too long, too well to hide something so deep. With them as always before, the superficial was easily disguised; the truly personal transparent.

First impressions were strong. Faye stood in her own surreal space, captive of a raging dichotomy. Tellingly, Faye was not trying to mask it. In an unspoken instant, both knew their dilemmas were shared yet equally undefined.

Everything happening was too directed, too contrived. Willing or not, Faye Gardner was now part of it. Janis had to assume she’d been brought there to play her part, no less than Senator Delane and Richard Gains had fulfilled theirs. By a calculated but twisted necessity, Faye’s dichotomy would be borne out in differences between how she felt and what she was expected to say.

Adding to the unexpected, both special agents flanking Janis left her standing alone. They walked forward to their car, got in, and sat waiting with the engine off. Janis was left rooted in place, positioned with only one thing to do but unwilling to do it. Too upset and uncertain to say anything, she made Faye come to her.

Faye was cautious, unsure how she’d be received. Intent to connect, she paced away the gap between them. When close enough, she forgot her prepared speech and said the only thing she could.

“I can’t imagine what you’re thinking.”

“That’s amazing; I’m agreeing with you already.” The sarcasm was apparent.

“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

Janis was matter-of-fact. “What are you doing here, Faye?”

“There’s a lot going on you should know about.”

“I don’t need you to tell me that.”

“Why don’t we go someplace and talk.”

Janis glanced over at the agents waiting in the car. “Just like that?”

“Yeah, just like that. They’re giving you a choice. Go with them or me.”

“That’s sweet.” Janis stood pat. “Either way, I don’t know where I’m going.”

“No, you don’t. But one way has a future; the other doesn’t.”

“Is that an opportunity or a threat?”

“Listen, Janis – I know I’m the last person you expect to see. Confidence is
not high
– I get it. But you’ve got to trust me – as crazy as that sounds.”

Janis couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, please…”

“You above all should realize not everything is as it seems. You just went through the funhouse. You know it, I know it – believe me,
they
know it. I’m offering you a chance to get off the ride. It doesn’t end well if we don’t work together.”

“What guarantee do I have it’ll end well if we do?”

“I’m not here to offer you guarantees. Would you believe them if I did?”

“Why you? What twisted psychology are they using? You don’t want to be here any more than I do. You can’t hide that. What are they holding over you?”

Startled by Janis’ keen perception, Faye struggled to maintain composure.

“The future.”

“What?”

“Get in the car and I’ll tell you.”

“I can’t do that.” Janis pointed to the agents. “At least I know what happens if I go with them.”

“They want you to go with me! They want you to join The Project.”

“You say that like it should mean something. To me it’s clear what they want to do – shut down the truth. Co-opting me might help them do that. They’re already adapting the facts so they can spin a rewritten history of what’s going on.”

“Sometimes, telling the public everything is not in the public interest.”

“Oh, my – no chance for abuse there.”

“It wouldn’t be worth the panic.”

“Same old story; give us the keys to everything and we’ll save you from yourselves. Don’t bother asking why we say one thing and do another.”

“Damn it! This isn’t about dual-use. After 14 years, don’t get into that.”

Janis tensed. “So what’s it about? 8-Ball?”

“What?” The reference had no meaning for Faye.

“Or maybe BIOPONORE? Is that what they call the project?”

“How do you know about that?”

“I’ve heard all I need to hear. You said they want me to go with you…” Janis strutted towards the agent’s car. “It was nice seeing you.”

With rising helplessness Faye turned, flustered and frantic, and watched Janis walk away. The harshest truth was hard to say but only the truth might convince Janis to go with her. Desperate and out of time, Faye blurted it out.

“I have news about Alyssa!”

Janis was stopped cold. She was well aware Faye might say anything to get her to go with her. Janis spun around and glared back at her. If this was a trick, it was the cruelest device she could use.

Faye could stand no more. She started to shake. With determined strides she aimed back for her car. On the way, she had the strength for one more attempt.

“Come with me and I’ll tell you everything! There’s no other way to find out!”

Faye hurried behind the wheel and sat there blinking away tears.

Janis plopped down in the passenger seat next to her and slammed the door.

“What about Alyssa?”

Faye caught her breath. “I’ll tell you but you have to hear me out.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s safe.”

“And how in the hell would you know that?”

“Because the people who have her told me so!”

“Who are they? You trust them? Why would they tell you but not me?”

“Secrets! To protect the truth!”

“I don’t believe you! Why does the truth need protection?”

As Faye started to cry, Janis’ rage tempered back. She could see the tears were real. She could feel Faye’s upwelling grief was overpowering.

Janis demanded, “What is it! Tell me!

Faye fought against the urge to withdraw. To hide her feelings would mean hiding the facts. Admitting them would leave her with no place to hide. Until that moment, she never expected telling Janis would be so difficult. There was no way to let Janis know everything she needed without exposing extreme and personal spaces.

Overwhelmed with thoughts of Alyssa, Janis couldn’t hold back.

She grabbed Faye by the arm and cried out, “Who has Alyssa?”

Faye matched her in intensity. “The Project!”

“What Project?
Why
do they have her?”

“Because she’s special!” Faye’s shout emptied out from deep down.

Janis was taken aback.
Special
was the last thing expected; the incongruent way Faye had said it even more so. Waves of envy mixed with anguish washed over her.

Faye gripped the steering wheel, white-knuckling it with both hands.

Janis wouldn’t let go of her arm. “Why are you crying?”

The words escaped on a whisper. “I’m pregnant.”

The mind raced. Janis collected the pieces but didn’t trust the way they fit. Faye, her pregnancy, a project named BIOPONORE, a lab in
Kansas
studying delayed fertility – Alyssa being special. So many pieces were left out; so much of the total picture still beyond her frame of reference. All she had was a picture without a frame. A puzzle without a border. Nothing left to go on but instinct and emotion.

Faye started the car.

Janis pulled on Faye’s arm. “Hold on…where are we going?”

“Does it matter?”

The wrenching finality in Faye’s words struck Janis sharply and gave her pause. A fleeting glimpse of Faye’s hopelessness ran cold through her. Janis let go of Faye’s arm and settled back, stunned by an intense impression of how serious matters truly were. If nothing else, the moment made her willing to go along for the ride. Whatever could it be, pent up behind such despair? She had to know.

Faye drove away from the Capitol heading northeast. As unlikely as it seemed, nothing was said between them. A winter’s afternoon passed by outside. They hadn’t gone far but in the tense and quiet time, left alone to share the same emotional space, they began to find a sense of all they had been to each other so many years before.

On impulse, Faye parked across from
Stanton
Park
. A layer of snow from the night before blanketed the ground. Faye got out and walked off regretful energy, leaving Janis with no other choice but to follow.

The chill of the air both numbed and invigorated. A tangle of branches from bare trees stretched skyward. Like bones of massive carrion picked clean, the empty trees silhouetted over them a shroud of dread for all that must be said.

The drive had only marginally calmed them down. The vacant park only reinforced the isolation they shared. Each in her own way, they’d have to come to an understanding. Both sensed the best hope of salvation might rest in each other.

The thought of it was not comforting.

Side by side, they paced around the statue of Nathanael Greene. Permanently astride his battle horse with outstretched arm, the general of bygone struggles might as well have been pointing to their unknown fate. Faye realized she wouldn’t have the inner strength for much more of this. Her goal in the moment was to get Janis to join The Project. The quicker she got there, the sooner the current ordeal would end.

Across the park, Faye caught sight of abandoned playground equipment. The image was unexpected and piercing. Where children should be playing, now there was only snow. Where laughter and young dreams should delight, an icy breeze blew silently to the west. Looking up, Faye caught sight of the general’s outstretched arm. A ghostly premonition took hold. The general pointed toward the playground.

Taking it as a sign, Faye turned her steps. Maybe something beyond herself had meant them to be here. It was certainly the one place she never would have thought of going to willingly. She had stopped the car to take a walk, not to visit a playground. Of all places, why put herself through such a thing?

Now that she was here, the stark and definite necessity of it was clear.

A playground might be the only place that made sense.

Maybe there she’d have the force of will to bring Janis to an understanding.

Faye started with the most basic of observations. “They’ve put you in a difficult position. But they’ve put me in an impossible one.”

Janis followed along, as yet barely willing to see where it all led.

“I’m limited by time and what I can say.” Faye stopped and turn to Janis. “You have to decide now, today, what you’re going to do. Unfortunately, so much within The Project is going on. I hope what I have time to say will convince you.”