A Triple Thriller Fest (13 page)

Several shots rang out, and the rear window of Dan’s Blazer collapsed in a shower of glass shards. Dan slid across to the passenger seat, exiting his vehicle and taking cover beside the right front fender between the Blazer and the van. The two attackers closed to the back of Dan’s car, one of them shouting a warning.

“Come out with your hands high, and we won’t shoot. We don’t want to hurt you.”

Dan remained silent.

One of the men crept around the front end of Dan’s car, exposing his upper body and pointing his weapon at Dan. “I said stand up and put your hands on your head.”

From a kneeling position behind his vehicle, Dan fired one round, which struck the man in the center of his chest. He dropped his weapon, remained upright for several seconds, and then fell to the pavement. The second man fired several shots, which struck the Blazer, and then he jumped over the ditch, running toward the airport runway, firing back toward Dan as he ran.

Dan stood behind his vehicle and took aim, but decided to hold fire as the man ran away. Suddenly, the door on the Cessna opened up, and an automatic weapon appeared, a volley of shots striking the Blazer and the van. Dan ducked down again behind his vehicle. The shots ceased, and Dan carefully looked over the hood of the car. The fleeing man had climbed the fence and nearly reached the airplane when a quick burst from the automatic weapon dropped him instantly. He fell on the pavement, close to the end of the main runway.

Dan remained behind his car as the Cessna revved up its engine, quickly pulled onto the runway, and began the takeoff run, lifting into the air and banking west into the darkened sky. It had been too dark to observe the tail number of the aircraft, but within seconds everything was quiet. Dan checked the pulse of the man he had shot and took a quick look inside the van. The driver was dead, and the van was empty. It appeared that only the two men, plus those in the aircraft, had been present. He stepped back toward the driver’s side of his car and retrieved his cell phone, dialed 911, and reported the shooting, calling for an ambulance.

In less than fifteen minutes, Sheriff Tony Sanchez arrived, followed by three of his deputies, and the Fire Department ambulance that had already arrived on the scene. Just over an hour later, Special Agents Samuels and Bentley arrived at the Yolo County Sheriff’s office to join in the questioning. The man who attacked Dan was dead, the other critically wounded. Absent the balaclava, the wounded attacker, who had been shot by his own people, was immediately identified as Kenny Bailey, Dan’s brother-in-law. He had been transported to Woodland Memorial, but was in critical condition and unable to speak.

At the end of three days in a coma, Kenny Bailey died in the hospital. Investigators determined that both the van and the aircraft had been stolen. The Cessna was located at a small, rural airport near Santa Rosa, cleaned of all fingerprints and identifying evidence. In a subsequent interview with both the FBI and Sheriff Sanchez, Dan was advised that the attack gave all the appearances of an attempted kidnapping, as the van contained a body bag and a vial of anesthesia, plus a syringe. Agent Albert Samuels told Dan he’d had a lucky escape, while Sheriff Sanchez told him that he had done well, that his quick reaction had clearly saved his life.

All Dan knew for certain was that he had shot and killed a man, that his brother-in-law was involved in the attack, and that he, too, was now dead.

Chapter 9

CIA Headquarters
Langley, Virginia

Nearly three thousand miles east, Marine Corps Colonel Pug Connor picked up his notepad and headed down the hall toward an impromptu staff briefing called by the director of Central Intelligence.

Five years earlier, U.S. President William Eastman had appointed a former federal judge, Clarence Wentworth, as director of Central Intelligence, known internally as the DCI. The current rumor in the agency was that with his health failing, the judge had finally decided to hang it up. The office pool favored an outside appointee, but most of the old-time management level staff favored Wentworth’s DDO, Grant Sully, to replace the director. Organizationally, the CIA had a director, a deputy director of intelligence (DDI), a position held by retired Air Force Lieutenant General William Austin, and deputy director of operations (DDO), the post held by Sully, a career CIA employee. Sully’s impressive field record, commencing immediately after his hire in the late seventies, included service in the East German and Russian Cold War campaigns, where he had been trained by the old-boy network of former OSS agents, some of whom had been Jedburghs through the close of WWII. Stories abounded regarding Sully’s early “wet work” operations, but only a few operatives from those ruthless hit teams remained to confirm the stories. In light of current political expediencies, those who could confirm preferred to keep their prior involvement quiet.

Colonel Connor’s immediate boss was Bill Austin, the deputy director of intelligence. Austin’s staff was large and mostly located within the complex in Langley. There, they analyzed information gathered from all sectors of the world, providing “best-guess” scenarios for any given international situation. Austin often equated his work to that of the world’s economists, who rarely agreed on monetary policy and who, in retrospect, were generally way off-base.

Sully and Austin, although nearly the same age, had distinctly different management styles. About two-thirds of the headquarters staff seemed to prefer Austin. But many still admired Sully, who commanded a great deal of respect, especially among the old time CIA managers, as someone who had gone from a slick-haired Yale preppie to DDO in an impressive, action-packed thirty-two years.

As director of strategic analysis, reporting directly to Austin, Pug Connor usually attended staff meetings, and along with several other department heads had been specifically invited to attend this impromptu briefing. Connor had recently returned from Europe, where he had spent most of his time in Ireland. The IRA, despite the peaceful accords that had been in place for several years, continued to play a low-key role behind the scenes.

General Austin met Pug in the hall
en route
to the conference room.

“Welcome home, Pug. Is Ireland still green?”

Pug smiled at his boss. “The parts I visited certainly are,” he replied.

Connor had worked with William Austin for over ten years, first coming to the National Security Agency as a young major when Austin had been NSA’s director of intelligence. Austin had seen Pug through an emotionally devastating divorce and assumed a father-like role in the process.

Pug Connor had married late, following his time at college, a two-year LDS mission to Ireland, then return to and graduation from the United States Naval Academy where he was commissioned as a Marine Corps officer. He was thirty by the time he married, and was immediately deployed to a Marine expeditionary unit at sea, absent for nearly a year. Several years of similar assignments had taken their toll on his marriage, and finally his wife had divorced him, fortunately before children entered the picture. At forty-two, divorced for nearly four years, his life had taken on a sameness of routine, the job consuming all his time and attention.

When Austin retired from the Air Force and President Eastman appointed him to the CIA, Austin had invited Connor, a newly promoted lieutenant colonel, to join him. Trained as a Marine combat officer, Pug Connor had been involved in several covert field actions during his military career, serving as company commander in a seaborne marine expeditionary unit, then, following completion of his master’s degree in international economics, spending most of his time in military intelligence.

His participation in one
“we-were-never-there”
action in Iraq, prior to the second Gulf War, had earned him a Silver Star and the respect of the New Zealand Special Air Service task force he had commanded. Finding out that Pug had family ties in New Zealand, the Kiwi SAS regiment had awarded Pug an honorary beret, which he displayed proudly on the bookcase in his office.

Upon joining the CIA, the retired general had made a telling request.

“Colonel Connor,” Austin had said, “General Austin is no more. He’s retired. I hope you can find it in yourself to address me as Bill. After ten years together, I’ve earned that.”

This had surprised Pug, as he had always used formal military address for the general, but this loosening of protocol pleased him nonetheless. Since that time, except in meetings, Pug dealt with his boss on a first-name basis. They had grown close, both professionally and personally.

As they entered the conference room and took their seats at one end of the table, Austin leaned toward Pug.

“Meet the right people in Dublin?” he queried.

“I’ve been meeting with Donahue and his crowd for over five years, and no real answers have appeared. But I know one thing for certain: the Provos still suffer from internal dissent, and not everyone is onboard with the diplomatic posture currently in vogue. They’re still angry over British support of Australia’s republican movement, and now they’re angry that California’s trying the same thing and seeming to get away with it. My contacts in the IRA told me that if America can’t support
their
war for independence as well, then maybe the United States isn’t such a valuable ally. I’ll put my findings in a report.”

“Good, but don’t copy Sully until I’ve had a chance to read the draft,” Austin warned. “He’s still looking for reasons to tag the Provo leadership. It doesn’t matter to him if they’ve disavowed terrorist actions or not—he just needs more ammunition to discredit them. Will you have time to complete the report before you leave for New Zealand?”

Pug nodded. “I don’t leave until next Monday. I’m going out for a crash refresher course in sailing on George Granata’s new yacht this Saturday, in the hope of not looking like a total fool in the water in front of my Kiwi relatives.”

“Think the Kiwis will take the America’s Cup back from the San Francisco Yacht Club?” Austin grinned.

“They’ve got about as much chance of that as Sully inviting me to a backyard barbecue.” Pug laughed softly. “Besides, New Zealand already owns the Cup. It’s just
housed
in San Francisco. All the American sailors are Kiwis. But in truth, New Zealand probably hasn’t got the money to mount a credible campaign. It’s all about dollars now. National pride takes a back seat.”

Even though Al Qaeda was the ‘terrorist
de jour
,’ Pug knew that the DDO and several of the operations staff were still focused on monitoring the old-line, long-recognized terrorist organizations, even though it appeared more and more that recent attacks were the work of splinter groups. The pattern had long been recognized by intelligence agencies: Unable to go to war against stronger powers, smaller nations had resorted to supporting state-sponsored terrorism using surrogate armies. Everyone accepted that.

But Grant Sully’s theory, not unacceptable by any means, was that once the historical terrorist organizations such as the IRA and the PLO had achieved a certain level of recognition and a quasi-political status, they were rendered less able to perpetrate the heinous acts they had traditionally used to achieve their ends. And so the notorious organizations had begun sponsoring splinter groups from within their own ranks, disavowing any responsibility for their actions, but in fact, fully supporting them under the table.

Connor had to admit it made sense. Only time or a major intelligence breakthrough would tell. Al Qaeda’s individual cells worldwide made such disavowal even easier. In the meantime, he would heed Austin’s warning and go easy with any information that might give Sully and his allies more ammunition.

Once everyone was present, Judge Wentworth entered the conference room from the side door in his office and commenced the meeting.

“Thank you all for coming. I’ve asked you here to participate in a briefing by a representative of the FBI and the Army CID. A
domestic
briefing.” He smiled.

“They’re gonna let us in on family secrets?” Grant Sully said, eliciting a ripple of laughter around the room.

“Maybe so, Grant,” the judge smiled. “But while we’re waiting …” He looked at Pug. “Colonel Connor, give us a quick update on your trip to Ireland.”

Pug glanced at General Austin, then responded to Wentworth.

“Director, the word is that a major split has occurred in the IRA as a result of the British and American support of the growing Australian republican movement and the hands-off attitude regarding California’s burgeoning secessionist movement. One group, those in Kevin Donahue’s camp, disavow any responsibility for the recent violence, and the other group, claiming to represent the IRA, have assumed responsibility, vowing further action if Northern Ireland is not afforded the same rights as Australia. Not surprisingly, each group is calling itself the true IRA.”

“Garbage,” Sully snorted. “They’re one group with one purpose, and they’re covering it up. It’s the ‘good guy, bad guy’ stuff. One group can do whatever it wants, while the other remains in a position to talk. I don’t buy it—not for one minute. And if you can’t see it, you’re in way over your head, Connor. I’ve told you before—stay out of my ballpark.”

The director interjected. “Let’s not get into that again, Grant. Pug, please continue. What are the British doing about it?”

“Sir, the government is still reeling over the change in leadership. Prime Minister Thornton has tried to hold down the scuffle, at least until they consolidate their position regarding the Commonwealth and the Queen’s legal position,
vis-à-vis
Australia. It’s the old story, sir. If they give in now, it will appear that pressure worked, and they will be expected to cave in every time a dissident group pushes hard enough.”

Sully growled. “I’ve been hearing that same crap since I scraped horseshit off my musket. There will
always
be pressure, either politically or by violent action. That’s what I meant, Director, when I said Connor doesn’t know what he’s doing. And he’s gonna foul this up, sending this Provo splinter group the wrong message.”