“I happened to be nearby when this whole horrible situation as you call it occurred. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to offer any useful assistance to Agent Martin after he was shot. His injuries simply were not survivable.”
The Director threw open the door to his office and looked anxiously down the hallway towards the elevators. Dammit! Tom Coleman was already gone. He turned to Julie his assistant and irritably motioned for something to write with. She pushed a notepad across her desk and handed him a pen.
“I’m… I’m very sorry to hear that,” Preston replied as he scribbled down a single underlined word and held it out to her.
Trace!
Julie nodded her head and immediately picked up the phone to initiate a trace of the call as the Director paced back into his office and quietly shut the door. “I’m sure you did everything you could. I apologize, but I didn’t catch your name.”
“I didn’t provide it,” the man replied matter-of-factly. “My employer has a rather strict policy against the use of real names while on assignment. Of course, I might be persuaded to bend the rules a little if you were to tell me your name.”
Preston stood by the window in his office and considered his reply. The voice on the other end of the line almost certainly belonged to the man – the terrorist – they were after, and yet nothing about this call made any sense. Agent Martin dead? It didn’t seem likely, and yet this man had just described his injuries in grisly detail. Even more perplexing was the call itself. If this man truly was their terrorist – the man who’d murdered four Petronus Energy employees and miraculously evaded the CIA – why had he answered the call? Preston knew the only chance of finding the answer and maintaining a traceable thread to this man hinged upon keeping him on the phone long enough to gain some information. But he had to play it smart. Under no circumstances could he provide any useful information in return.
“I wish I could,” he responded. “Unfortunately my employer follows the same policy.”
“That’s too bad,” the man replied. “I was hoping we could speak under a greater sense of mutual trust, Director.”
A cold chill ran up Preston’s spine. How in the hell did he know this? Christ, what other information had Agent Martin given him? He ran his hand through his receding crop of red hair and started pacing the floor. “I was hoping for the same, but it seems you already know a lot more about me than I know about you.”
Preston heard a brief click on the line. The signal trace had started. If his surveillance team in Phoenix was doing its job, they’d also started recording the conversation and initiating a voice analysis on his unidentified caller.
“On the contrary, I know almost nothing about you, Director,” the man replied. “My knowledge is limited to two simple facts – you sent a U.S. Homeland Security Agent named Martin to China on an assignment, and Agent Martin is now dead.”
The remark sent a bolt of anger through the Director. “You forgot one important fact,” he replied slowly, any trace of politeness now stripped from his voice. “You killed Agent Martin.”
“No, Director, that’s not a fact. That’s an assumption… and an incorrect one as well. But this must be your lucky day, because the man that did kill Agent Martin is here next to me, and I would be delighted to introduce you. Please hold for just a moment.”
“What?” Preston replied. “I don’t understand. Who–” He paused at the muffled sound of someone speaking in the background. A moment later, another male voice spoke languidly into the phone.
“Hello?”
“Who is this?” Preston demanded.
“This is Sergeant Andrew Kearney. United States Army… 2nd Division.”
The Director stopped pacing and stood rigidly next to his desk. Did he just hear this man correctly? “Sergeant, what’s your involvement in this situation?”
The sergeant hesitated for a moment before speaking. When he did, his baritone voice came across the phone line in a soft, faintly slurred whisper.
“At twenty-one-hundred hours last night I received eyes-only orders to neutralize two terrorist targets believed to be operating at this location. I arrived on-site at zero-four-hundred hours this morning and set up my primary position on the roof of the building directly south of this location. Shortly after zero-seven-hundred hours, I observed a tall Caucasian male with brown hair who I believed to be the first of my two targets walking into the apartment number I was provided. Upon exiting the apartment, the target proceeded to enter another apartment with a weapon drawn, and it was at that time that I decided to engage. I then neutralized the target with two shots from my rifle.”