snakebyte: book 5.0 in the Byte Series (The _byte series) Read online

“He’s a witness to the shooting of a Federal Agent.” Or he shot Lee. Could go either way.

  “Chad is no longer with the agency.”

  “But you know where he is, Jonathon. You always know where everyone is.”

  “Not always.” He took a sharp breath. “Not in this case.”

  Whoa.

  “Why?”

  “I can’t talk about this over the phone. Usual place. Half an hour.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  I hung up and drove to the office. Wandering around in hospital scrubs was not a good look. I needed clothes. Sandra was waiting when I arrived.

  “What happened?”

  “Lee’s been shot. He’s in surgery. Sam and Tara are at the hospital. You can go wait with them, you don’t have to be here.”

  “I wanted to see you first. I put the name and number for the cop I spoke to earlier on your desk. The bird is in quarantine because that was the closest thing to isolation they have at animal control. Mr. Latham is sitting in an interview room downstairs and his sister is still in the ER.”

  “Thanks, Sandra. Go. I need to change, see a man and then I’ll be back.”

  Fifteen minutes later, I was sipping a takeout coffee leaning on a giant sculpture of a rose in Woodrow Wilson Plaza.

  I saw Jonathon Tierney enter the plaza alone. He joined me by the rose.

  “So what happened?” I asked. Time was ticking.

  “He was working a long-running case. His job was to gather intelligence on a terror cell setting up drug labs and supply chains within the US and a few other borders. He was inside the drug operation and working his way up the ranks. Two months ago he was close to identifying the Americans working within the upper ranks of the cell.”

  “I knew that he was working a drug operation, yes?”

  He nodded in the dim light.

  “That’s what we were telling everyone. It wasn’t a drug operation. That was the cover. They were manufacturing explosives and building nuclear bombs within the borders of target countries.”

  “Jeez. So what happened with Chad?”

  “We lost him.”

  That was why he couldn’t talk over the phone.

  “You said he wasn’t with the agency anymore. Not that you’d lost him.” I sipped more hot coffee. “You’re actively looking for him?”

  “Yes.”

  “He’s compromised the operation?”

  “That’s the fear.”

  “Is he a double agent?”

  “That we don’t know.”

  “Hypothetically … is there any reason you know of for a rogue agent to shoot someone from my team?”

  Tierney shook his head.

  Something hit the end of the rose with a metallic clunk. I grabbed Jonathon by the arm and pulled him toward me then behind the rose and to the ground.

  “Stay down,” I whispered. “How many ways are there to get you out from behind a desk?”

  “Not many.”

  I adjusted my grip on my Glock. Another shot rang out. A bullet tore into the metal beside us.

  There was no target for me to shoot at.

  “We need to move,” I said. “Stay close.”

  I moved slowly, remaining as low as possible and headed for an exit. A few more shots rang out. I left my car where it was and took Tierney on foot back to the Hoover Building. I don’t think I took a real breath until we were standing in the foyer of my building. I signed Jonathon in and clipped a visitor’s badge to his lapel.

  “I have a feeling that was Chad,” I said, motioning to the elevators. “You’re coming with me.”

  I pressed the button more times than necessary.

  Tierney never said a word. He didn’t speak at all until we were in my office with the door shut. Not that we needed the door shut, there was no one on the floor this late at night.

  “That could have been someone shooting at you?” Tierney said, making himself comfortable on my office couch.

  “It wasn’t. Just like he didn’t shoot at me earlier. If he’d shot me you wouldn’t be out from behind your desk.”

  “He wants me?”

  “Yeah, I’d say so. Now you want to try to figure this out or would you like to stick your head in the sand?”

  “It doesn’t make sense. If he takes me out someone else will take over.”

  Ironic. We’ve always likened terror cells to The Hydra. For every head we cut off, two more grow.

  “There is a lot at stake. Taking you out will buy the cell time. Not much time, but maybe enough to get a bomb or two into position?”

  “We’re looking for him.”

  “Yeah, you said. So for two months you’ve committed resources to locating a rogue agent. Anyone still working the actual case?”

  “Of course.”

  “So why did he find me tonight?” I leaned back in my chair and spun my cell phone in circles on my desk. “Why, Jonathon?”

  “We pulled back and started working the intelligence hard again a week ago.”

  “You must be close to a breakthrough. He’s come after you to disrupt the investigation. He knew I’d call you when I saw him and that you wouldn’t talk on the phone. All he had to do was follow the ambulance and wait.”

  I picked up the phone on my desk and made a call to Caine.

  “Conway?”

  “We have a national security situation.”

  “Where are you?”

  “In the office with an old friend.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  I hung up and made another call, this time to Deputy Director Thomas.

  “Sir, sorry to call so late, it’s Agent Conway here. We have a national security situation. SAC Grafton is on his way back to the office.”

  “Thank you, Agent Conway. I’ll be in within the hour and expect a full briefing.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I hung up. My last call was to the Director.

  I didn’t have to announce myself.

  “You’re calling late, Agent Conway …”

  “Yes, ma’am. We have national security issue.”

  “Prepare a brief agent. You know the drill.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Deputy Director Thomas is on his way in.”

  “How’s Lee?”

  Of course she’d know. Caine would’ve called her. Typically, Thomas didn’t ask, he would’ve been told but he wasn’t as close to Delta A as the Director.

  “I don’t know. He was in surgery when I left, might take all night.”

  “He’s tough. Fingers crossed, Ellie. I’ll see you soon.”

  I spun around in my chair and placed the phone receiver back on to the cradle. Jonathon Tierney’s beady black eyes followed me as I spun in the chair again.

  “Do you need anything?” I asked him.

  “Access to my office.”

  I gave that due consideration. I could get him to Langley, Virginia. Well, not me. I was a giant red flag. But someone could. The thing was, this was important and the people I trusted most were Delta A. But Chad knew the members of Delta A. I needed someone outside the FBI, outside the CIA, someone I trusted. A smile wandered over my face.

  “I can get you to Langley,” I said. “You won’t like how, but I can get you there safely.”

  “Intriguing,” he replied. “How?”

  “You’ll see, but first you need to put together a brief for us. We’re law enforcement. You’re not. You need us.”

  His lips stretched over his teeth. It could’ve been a smile.

  “Can I borrow your phone, Agent Conway?”

  “Help yourself.”

  Tierney stood up, smoothed his jacket, and crossed the floor to my desk. He hooked the phone up and made a call. I took my cell phone and left him to it.

  Out in the bullpen I paced the floor, until I heard the elevator ding. The doors opened and Caine stepped out. I waved him over.

  “How’s Lee?”

  “Don’t know yet, he’s still in theater.” Caine’s craggy face seeme
d to have extra lines tonight. “What’s happening here?”

  “I think the shooter was Mac’s brother.”

  “Eddie?”

  “No, sorry, I wasn’t clear. Chad, the secret brother – the one in the CIA.”

  “That’s a helluva thing to say.”

  “He’s gone rogue. I think he wanted to flush Tierney out from behind his desk. Not many people can get him out but I can and Chad knows that.” I’m on Tierney’s safe list. He was the first person to tell me that once upon a time.

  My office door swung open. Tierney stood in the doorway. The man never looked happy but at that moment, he looked devastated.

  “What?” I asked. Something was wrong.

  “I’ve got two people missing and my wife isn’t answering her phone.”

  Married? Who knew? Guess I figured he was married to his job.

  My cell phone buzzed in my pocket. I fished it out.

  A text message from an unknown person. I opened the text to find a video. A dark-haired woman, she looked about forty-five. She was handcuffed to something and yelling angrily. I’d put money on the unknown number belonging to a burn phone in the possession of Chad. When I glanced at Jonathon’s face, it said it all. I showed him the video.

  “Your wife?”

  He nodded.

  “I need to download this video and have a better look at it,” I said, moving past Tierney and into my office. I took a USB phone cord from my drawer and plugged the phone into my laptop. Seconds later we were all watching the video on the big screen on my office wall and I knew I needed to call Sandra and get her techy expertise working on the images and soundtrack.

  “Where do you live?” I asked Tierney.

  “Georgetown.”

  That explained how Chad got to the wife so quickly. That was the point I realized I never once doubted it was Chad behind this. Never questioned how or why a CIA agent had turned traitor.

  “This is about nuclear weapons?” I leaned on my desk. “We’re not talking weapons of mass disruption like a dirty bomb, we’re talking actual nukes?”

  Tierney’s thin lips stretched over his teeth again. Frightening.

  “Weapons of mass disruption. Very clever,” he muttered still watching the screen. “No, these are not panic-causing dirty bombs. We think this cell has access to plutonium-239. Even if they accessed reactor-grade plutonium, not fuel- or weapons-grade, they could still make an effective nuclear weapon.”

  “And that’s happening within our borders?” Caine asked.

  “Yes,” Tierney replied. “Here, Canada, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany.”

  “We were going to be read in at some point?” Caine queried.

  “Of course. When we were ready to move on the supposed drug labs. When our intelligence paid off.”

  “And?”

  “It all went pear-shaped.” Tierney pointed to the screen. “That’s my wife.”

  “I know,” I replied. “We need some Intel. We need to know where she is and what she’s handcuffed to.”

  “You need to find her …”

  “I know. I will. But, I need more Intel. She could be anywhere.”

  “Find my wife, Conway.”

  Yeah, well, that’s my plan. That and a few prayers to the Big Guy to help Lee survive. Be nice if He’d listen for once.

  Sandra flew through my door.

  “What do you need?” she asked in mid flap.

  “Everything you can pull from this video,” I replied, pointing at the screen.

  “Have you emailed it to me?” Sandra pulled a notebook from her bag and flicked to a clean page. She waited, pen poised, to write any further instructions.

  “Of course. Also, call in Delta B and notify Metro. I need people on the ground talking to neighbors surrounding Tierney’s home. I want to know who they saw, where, and when. I want to know what car was used to transport our victim and I want it found. A-sap.”

  Sandra wrote fast, then turned around and hustled to the door, over her shoulder she said,

  “You’ll hear from me when I find you something.”

  I was counting on it.

  While she worked her magic, I prepared a brief for the Directors and all the Delta teams with Tierney’s help.

  Chapter Ten

  We Rule The Night.

  Alice Cooper belted out the opening lines to ‘Can’t Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me’. I expected to see Pennywise walk through my office door. He didn’t. But Alice Cooper carried on with my own private terrifying concert. He didn’t look much like a Happy Meal to me. I waited until he repeated the line about their funny hair. A light bulb blew and Alice disappeared.

  “Why was Chad by the theater?” I wasn’t expecting an answer.

  Tierney looked at me. His expression quizzical.

  “He followed you,” he replied.

  “That’s what I thought.”

  “And you don’t now?”

  “I think he’s been shadowing us since we were called into the Rock Creek case.”

  “Evidence?”

  “None.”

  An Alice Cooper song isn’t evidence.

  Tierney nodded. “Your instincts have always amazed me.”

  “How are they moving the plutonium or uranium or whatever the fuck they’re using to make the bombs?”

  “Why?”

  “It’s important.”

  “If Chad knows, he never included it in his files.” Tierney leaned forward. “What are you thinking?”

  “Circuses. Traveling performers.” I’m thinking we need to get back to that theater and look closer. Alice Cooper started up again, the track was stuck, the same lines repeated over and over. This was definitely something to do with the ventriloquist and that hair-ripping raven. I was about to make a decision that involved a lot of people based on an Alice Cooper song. It’s not like I haven’t made decisions before because of songs, but backing up this decision if it all fell apart, would be tricky.

  I picked up my desk phone and called the head of the forensic team.

  “Pull your people out of the theater. Now.”

  “Conway?”

  “Humor me. Pull them out. I’m sending NEST to you.”

  “NEST? We have a nuclear situation?”

  “Potentially. Stay on the line.” I picked up another phone and handed it to Tierney. “Call in the Nuclear Incident Response Team at the National Nuclear Security Administration.” Department of Energy. They were the nuclear specialists.

  “It’ll be in a shielded container,” Tierney said.

  Great, but better to be safe than sorry.

  “Do it.”

  “Because I know that phone number by heart …”

  “Do you?”

  He grimaced and nodded.

  While he made the call, I turned my attention back to my call.

  “Conway, everyone’s out. You seriously think there’s radioactive material?”

  “I think so. I was told it will be in a shielded container.”

  “Then we’ll be fine.”

  I glanced at Tierney who held up the fingers on one hand. Five minutes. I nodded.

  “NEST is on the way.” I sighed and thought for a moment. “I’m sending the bomb squad just in case it isn’t a nuke.”

  You better be right, Alice.

  I hung up called the bomb techs. “Tony, I need you. Sending the address now.”

  “Conway, I live for those words.”

  “You’re a shit. You’re meeting NEST.”

  “Jesus. I got the address. You coming?”

  “Yes.”

  My next call was to SWAT. “Andrews, I need your team to head to the address I just sent you. Secure the perimeter and protect our CSIs, NEST, and the bomb techs.”

  “NEST? Fuckadoodledo. On it. Will you be there?”

  “Yep.”

  I hung up and looked at Tierney. “You stay.”

  “You need to find my wife,” he said.

  “I will. I also need to secure a po
tential nuclear incident. Sandra will call me when we have something to work with.” My eyes met Jonathon’s. “You have to brief the Directors.”

  I walked out of my office as Thomas walked down the hall, looking at his phone and not at me. He paused to answer his phone. I spun on my heels and took an alternate route through the bullpen and down the back corridor. I wanted to get to the theater and not spend the next hour briefing Thomas. I’d miss all the fun.

  Tierney could handle the brief after all it was his mess.

  I pulled into a car park behind the SWAT truck. Bomb disposal, across the road, were getting out their gear. The forensic team had gathered on the sidewalk. A big truck parked close to the entrance of the theatre. I saw the Department of Energy emblem on the side. NEST.

  “Hey!” I called, walking toward a man on a phone.

  He held up his index finger indicating I should wait one and grinned. Moments later, he pocketed the phone and spoke to me. “Low level radiation readings coming from back stage.”

  I spun around to find Andrews standing behind me. The NEST guy’s phone rang again before we could go through the introductions.

  I spoke to Andrews. “Lock it down. I want snipers on rooftops. If the product is still inside, then someone is going to come for it, especially now.” Now I have people in custody, Lee in surgery, and Tierney safely in the Hoover Building. His wife wasn’t much use now we had him.

  Andrews turned then walked away a little. I saw him press a push-to-talk button on his vest and heard him give very quiet orders. I guessed he had a microphone on him somewhere but I couldn’t see it.

  I waved to a bomb tech. He waved back and ran over to join me. The NEST guy was still on the phone. He ended the call.

  He stretched out his hand and shook mine. “Agent Conway?”

  “Yes, and you are?”

  “Rick Stanwall, DOE.” He turned to Tony and extended his hand. “Rick.”

  They shook briefly as Tony said, “Tony, bomb squad.”

  I smiled.

  “You guys can duke it out for scene control depending on what you find. We may have nuclear bomb components inside, not necessarily an assembled device,” I said.

  Rick nodded sagely.

  Tony said, “What exactly are we looking for?”

  “Whatever people store fissile material in and however much someone would need to make a bomb?” I said.