The Nephilim (9 page)

And above all else the Choir would be unhappy if the news of their existence got out. Having the existence of genuine offspring of angels made known would remove a lot of the need for people to have faith. The angels it seemed were determined that people believed in God based on faith rather than certain knowledge. They wanted people to be able to doubt and choose.

What the Choir would do to prevent that knowledge getting out Garrick didn't know. But he was sure that he didn't want to find out.

It seemed that they had a true problem child on their hands. Or rather – and Garrick was infinitely grateful for the sudden understanding – the headmistress did.

Chapter Five

“Room 723. This must be it.”

The agents however, remained hovering outside the open door for a bit as no one seemed to be there yet. The room was dark, the lights not having yet been switched on. Nor were there any computers running and the display system wasn't on. None of the things that were normally done for a meeting had been done. Odd. They were in the head office. They had arrived at the right room at the right time for their urgent meeting. So where was Special Agent in Charge Thomison?

Deciding that hovering in the hallway outside an empty room just looked dumb, the agents eventually walked in and turned on the lights.  Better to wait in the room than outside in the hallway like students waiting to see the principal.

It was a fairly typical meeting room for a Federal building. A bunch of old Formica covered tables had been pulled together in the middle of the room to create one large table. No doubt someone in accounting was saving money as ever. On it sat the usual sort of equipment you expected to see. An overhead projector that looked like it had come out of a junior school classroom. A laptop connected up to a computer projector. And a speaker phone. Everything was there even if it wasn't switched on. Also sitting on the table were three unmarked boxes which Barnes assumed related to the meeting they were about to have.

One by one the agents took their seats and waited for SAIC Thomison to arrive and tell them what was going on. Why they had been pulled off the Benedict detail and reassigned to whatever this new case was. None of them were happy about it of course. Armando Benedict was a big deal and being a part of the team that finally captured him was the sort of thing that would look good on a CV. But orders were orders. And from what they'd been told those orders had come from very high up. They didn't know who SAIC Thomison was, but he had approval for what he demanded at the highest level. Their own supervisor had been called up in the middle of the night and simply told about their reassignment, and reading between the lines he was unhappy about it. But he'd had no choice and he'd given them their orders.

Suddenly the speaker phone in the middle of the table rang and they jumped. Apparently they  weren't to be joined by SAIC Thomison after all. Not in person. Instead, it was to be a teleconference. Agent Barnes reached across to the centre of the table and pressed the speaker-phone button.

“Hello?”

“Gentlemen, please confirm that all three of you are seated in the room and that the door to the room is shut. Nothing of what is to be spoken of today is to leave this room.” A man's voice rang out, from the tiny little speaker, and all of them knew from the instant they heard him speak that this was the guy in charge.

There were none of the usual pleasantries, not even a welcome and that seemed odd. But none of the agents said anything. The man's tone suggested that he wasn't someone who would tolerate insubordination of any sort, and the fact that he hadn't even bothered with the usual formalities suggested that this – whatever this was – had to be important. So they did as asked, giving the SAIC their names before one of them went to shut the door. Then they waited hoping that whatever task they were being assigned would be something they could do well and get credit for. After all the more successful assignments an agent completed, the closer his next promotion was.

“Thank you gentlemen. Now you three men are being presented with an opportunity that doesn't come around often. But you've also inadvertently placed yourselves in the middle of an active investigation. As part of your duties in following up with the girl Katarinka Nelos you came into contact with Special Agent Garrick Hamilton of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I've read your reports of course, but I want you to tell me now what your impressions of the man were. Not just what was said and done, but what you thought of him.”

Agent Barnes looked blankly at his colleagues and they in turn looked blankly back at him. None of them had expected the question and all of them were wondering what this was about. But they all liked his use of the word “opportunity”.

“Well Sir, he might have been an agent of the Bureau but he definitely wasn’t helpful.  He told the girl that she didn’t have to answer our questions. And he ended the interview before it began. Of course,” Agent Barnes continued, feeling duty bound to point out that he had reasons for his actions,  “it seemed that he was acting in a personal capacity rather than as an agent.  On behalf of the girl’s Aunt.”

The other agents agreed with him though were less inclined to think charitably of his actions. In their view the agent shouldn't have been there. He had stuffed up a legitimate interrogation and had poked his nose in where it didn't belong. And then he had delivered the suspect to a school where the headmistress was even more annoying and had repeatedly sent them away without even letting them see the girl. They couldn't bring the girl in as a suspect without a warrant, and they couldn't get that unless they had evidence indicating that she was more than just a casual associate of Armando Benedict. Evidence they had hoped to get by interrogating her. Unfortunately she'd got smart. Or the people around her were.

As it was, just to run a track and trace on her phone had required a very friendly judge and some judicious use of the word “terrorism”. She was only fifteen after all. To add to their woes they'd managed to get a set of fingerprints of hers off a drinking bottle thrown in the school trash, but it hadn't matched any others found at Benedict's recent crime scenes. They hadn't expected that.

“What really annoyed me Sir though was that we all knew she was guilty,” Agent Barnes added. “I mean, maybe we don’t know quite what she's done, but if she was innocent she would have talked. The fact that she clammed up so tightly could only mean that she was hiding something. And if that damned agent hadn't been there she would have run and we would have had her.”

“Thank you gentlemen.” The voice was at least polite, though he didn't sound too impressed with what they'd told him.

“What you've said simply adds to what we were already certain of. That Special Agent Hamilton is in fact one of Armando Benedict's confederates.”

The statement raised a few eyebrows around the table. But thinking it through Agent Barnes thought that it made sense.  Hamilton hadn't been with the girl by chance, and he had had the right answer ready for every suggestion they'd raised. Certainly he had stopped them from doing their job.

“Unfortunately you've blundered into the situation by chance and exposed yourself to him. And I do mean blundered.” The voice suddenly sounded angry.

“Let's be honest here agents. None of you were high flyers. None of you were on the fast track for promotion. And absolutely none of you have the requisite experience or skills needed to deal with a suspect of Special Agent Hamilton's capability. Had you simply observed that Ms. Nelos was with a man and done a background check on him by – say – checking his plates before beginning the interview, we would not be here now. You would have been told to back off and above all else to not have made yourselves known to him. And above all else you should never have shown him your ID's.”

Now that wasn't fair, Agent Barnes thought. How could they possibly have known that she was with an FBI agent? Until he'd pulled out his own ID they'd assumed he was just a male relative. And now this man on the phone was suggesting that they shouldn’t have followed standard procedure when asked for ID? It was the law after all!

But what hurt more than the injustice of the man’s charge was his casual dismissal of their abilities. They were all trained agents. They had done everything they were supposed to do, just as they were supposed to do it. They had made no mistakes. But now they were being accused of being blundering fools who had made a huge blunder!

Of course there was nothing any of them could say. Not to someone who could simply have them pulled off their detail with a snap of his fingers. Nothing any of them could do except sit there and listen.

“Still, what's done is done. Now we simply have to pick up the pieces and hope we can reassemble our case. You will now have to play a role in that. And mostly that role will consist of background checks and remaining out of sight. Very much out of sight.”

“With his connections it's highly likely that Special Agent Hamilton will already know everything about you. Your names, details, assignments and so on. He may be monitoring you – reading your emails, bugging your phones. Even here. And because of that I cannot allow you to continue to be involved in the Armando Benedict task force. The chances are that whatever you’ve learnt has already gotten back to him.”

“We know that Special Agent Hamilton has contacts in Treasury. That he can access records and even system messages. We know that he has used that information resource to remain several steps ahead of us for many years. And to keep Benedict ahead of us as well. We believe that the two are partners. Some even suspect that Benedict himself may only be a front for Hamilton. At least for the past decade anyway. An ageing thief thrown a few scraps and a good burglary plan every so often to divert attention from what Hamilton has been doing. Hamilton may actually be the one pulling the strings.”

“For that reason there will be no reports written of this meeting. There will be no discussion of it with anyone other than yourselves. Not with your families or your colleagues. Your supervisors are not in the loop. There will be no emails sent and no phone calls made on anything other than the secure phones you will be assigned. Is that completely clear?”

“Yes.”

The agents all spoke as one. After all, there was nothing else they could say. It had not been a question. But again it wasn't procedure.

“You are also being assigned to my task force. The Hamilton task force. But you will at no point acknowledge that with anyone. Instead you will be given assignments as if you were on general duties, and they will all be general duties just like those that would be assigned to a junior agent. This work will be assigned by me. And since we can assume that Hamilton will be watching, I will also dictate exactly what you will put in your reports. You will become counter agents providing misinformation for our suspect to spy on.”

“Is that clear?”

“Yes Sir!”

Again it wasn't a question, and they all answered exactly as they were supposed to. But none of them were happy. General duties! That was another term for grunt work. The sort of work that was given to probationary officers. And they had done nothing wrong!

“Good. Now I should warn you that this is a dangerous assignment. Special Agent Hamilton is a very dangerous man, and very resourceful. Because of that I would prefer to use more skilled agents but it seems I no longer have that choice. I must use you and at the same time take steps to protect you from the consequences of your mistake. If I am to investigate Garrick Hamilton thoroughly, I have to allow for the probability that at some point he will become aware of the investigation. And at that point he will naturally assume that it is you three who are investigating him. He will come after you.”

Come after them? Barnes looked at the others and they stared back at him, none of them quite believing what they were being told. They were agents, no one came after them. They were the ones who came after others.

“That limits me.” The special agent in charge carried on, unable of course to see the looks of surprise and alarm on their faces. “This man must be investigated, arrested, indicted and prosecuted for his crimes, something that will be very difficult and very dangerous. And that places you three in danger. Which leaves me with only three options for you. First I can have you placed in witness protection. As you know under that programme you would be given new names and identities along with your families and sent far away. Second I can have you transferred to our Alaskan offices for a few years. Or finally, I can involve you in the investigation and hope that you are or can become sufficiently capable to protect yourselves.”