The Templar Reprisals (The Best Thrillers Book 3) Page 15

  “Moxie? That’s a bit dated, chief. Wouldn’t want people to think you’re getting over the hill. The mayor might start looking for a youthful replacement.”

  Standish grinned at the expression on his face. She knew she had won this joust. Although standard cop banter, she had hit close to home by reminding him that a woman mayor might prefer a woman heading the city’s most important department. Walsh hadn’t publicly declared her candidacy for Lieutenant Governor, but the news would certainly disappoint Standish. Evarts now had mixed feelings about the mayor, but mayors were a mixed breed, and the next occupant of the office might very well make him long for the good ol’ days of Megan Walsh.

  After climbing to the second floor, they found Margret pouring herself a freshly brewed cup of coffee. As always, the leadership breakroom looked spic and span.

  “Good morning, Chief, Commander,” Margret said.

  “Good morning,” they both responded.

  “You’re here early, Margret?” Evarts said.

  “Never left. The commander authorized a double shift to get the task force room readied up. Took longer than I expected. Don’t worry, I clocked out at one thirty this morning. With your permission, I’d like to go home for a nap.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Return after lunch?”

  “Okay,” Evarts said, “but we’d like to talk to you before you go. By the time we’re done, you can clock in for day shift to make up those uncompensated hours.”

  “Sure, thanks. What about?”

  “Just a moment,” Standish said as she made for the coffee pot. She poured herself and Evarts a mug and the three of them sat around a tiny, laminate table.

  “What gives?” Margret asked.

  “First,” Evarts started, “if you say no, I’ll be thrilled. Would you be interested in an assistant position with Commander Queeg, here?”

  “Not fair,” Standish protested. “You’re unduly influencing her decision.”

  “Excuse me, I meant Commander Standish.”

  Margret gazed out the windows which provided a grand view of Santa Barbara. “Damn, I’m gonna miss this view.”

  “Ha!” Standish bellowed. “Nice try, Chief, but I have an assistant for the Joint Organizing Group Task Force.”

  “Are you sure, Margret. I hear there’re rats in that dank basement.”

  “Then I suppose it will be my job to kill them.” She stood. “If that’s all, I’m exhausted.”

  “Go,” Evarts said. “By the way, the posting comes with a four percent raise.”

  “Thank you.”

  She was gone.

  “Nicely played,” Standish said with a smile. “I should have thought of that. Now she’ll retain a warm, cozy feeling for you.”

  Evarts was done with small talk. “Let’s go to my office. I need to give you a full briefing in private.”

  “Sounds ominous.”

  “It is.”

  Chapter 38

  It took two hours to go over the combined notes about the prior evening and answer her questions. Since he needed evidence confirming that the Templar Knights existed, he had revealed their role in the overall picture. Instead of appearing perplexed, Standish acted excited. The task force had a real purpose, and it was, as she said, something right out of a novel.

  Her biggest disappointment was that after acquiring new computers, they couldn’t use them to do basic research. The department could disguise IP addresses, but not the fact that the queries took place. An increase in activity would alert the Ikhwan that someone was curious about them. Besides, they only had the skill to camouflage IP addresses, not hide them from unrelenting hunters.

  Standish said she would send one of her detectives to various stores and libraries to get books on the Templars, the Ikhwan, Middle East history, Qutb, Muhammad, Freemasonry, Islamic terrorism, Muslim organizations, the formation of Israel, and clandestine banking. Some of that would overlap with Baldwin’s research, but the more eyes, the better.

  In the meantime, Standish and her detectives could do interviews and background checks on the arrestees from the prior evening.

  Evarts got up from his conference table and returned to his desk. He picked up the phone to call O’Brian.

  The general answered immediately. “I expected your call earlier.”

  “I had other business. I presume you know about last night.”

  “I do not. I only know arrests were made.”

  “Mr. Lewis paid another visit. We arrested his getaway team. Some of his team avoided arrest by putting bullets in their heads.”

  Evarts automatically avoided using the Templar name on an open line.

  “Yes, we’ve had that experience before. What did he want?”

  “You know damn well what he wanted.”

  “I don’t ask frivolous questions.”

  “He wanted us to do sensitive internet searches that would draw attention. In other words, move to the next level in using us as bait.”

  “Is that why you’re pissed? Because I didn’t warn you? I gave you enough information for you to be cautious. It was as much as I could do.”

  “What’s restraining you?”

  “Protocols, superiors, interagency accords, the White House, foreign intelligence agencies, and what I thought was best for your own well-being.”

  “With all those anchors holding you in place, I guess you’re useless to me. I need a partner, not a ward.”

  “I’m Army, not Navy; we break through lines. But first I need an objective and a battle plan.”

  “Let’s discuss both … in person.”

  Long pause. “I don’t mean to belittle your police force, but you can hardly be proposing an equal partnership.”

  “I am. We thwarted three attacks, we have a contact in Mr. Lewis, and we know more about what’s going on than anyone in Army Intelligence … except for you possibly.”

  “I said I wasn’t belittling your police force. No need to disparage the Army.”

  “I wasn’t. I’m only saying that protocol requires you to compartmentalized intelligence gathering. No one under your command has the complete picture. We do. Plus, I’ll put my best researcher against your entire staff. In a month, we’ll be further ahead of you.”

  “Bullshit, your four-man task force can’t compete with our researchers, sources, and technology.”

  “I was referring to Trish, but thanks for the heads-up that your source is reporting to you daily.”

  “No news there. What are we arguing about?”

  “Our partnership arrangement,” Evarts said.

  “Good. We’re on the same page. I’ll fly out and see you tonight for dinner. We can talk face to face.”

  “No. We’re coming to D.C. Trish and me. We’re staying together from now on.”

  “Breakfast?”

  “Dinner. After we’re rested from a red eye flight. I’m not giving you that kind of advantage.”

  “Dinner. My treat. Same place and time?”

  “Trish will be with me, so this time we eat.”

  “You were the one who ran off, but yeah, okay, we’ll keep it civil. Watchers at a distance.”

  “Sounds good. By the way, you get an ID on our friend?”

  Long pause. “Yes.”

  “Excellent. That’s your price of admission to our little confab.”

  Evarts hung up to call Ronny Baker, his head of vice. This would be touchy. Baker probably thought he would inherit Standish’s position, but that would never happen. She would return, hopefully soon, and if not, Baker was already properly positioned. He didn’t have the leadership ability to head the most important department under his command. When Baker answered, Evarts asked him to come to his office.

  Baker arrived quickly trying to hide a smile. Evarts suppressed a groan. This would not go well if Baker expected the meeting to be about a promotion that would put him in charge of detectives. Baker’s unit worked with the county sheriffs on drugs, prostitution, gambling, and human trafficking. To facilitate th
eir work, one of Baker’s staff was adept at providing false identifications for undercover operatives. His department did the work for both the police force and the sheriff’s Department.

  “Captain, I don’t have much time, so I’ll make this quick. There have been three attacks against me and my wife. This has to do with a terrorist attack that my wife and I thwarted in Paris. I’m not allowed to go into any details, but they want retribution. In Santa Barbara, I have the force to watch my back, but my wife and I need to travel. In fact, we need to fly to D.C. tonight. The feds are interested in this group and want to keep them out of the USA. So, Trish and I need false IDs. Passports, credit cards, and driver’s licenses.”

  “I can’t get anything today. I’ll need at least three.”

  “You’ve got eight hours. Forget the passports for now but get us driver’s licenses and at least one credit card each. Use your undercover blind for an address, and I’ll reimburse the city for all non-business-related credit card charges.” He handed over a piece of paper. “Use these names. My wife’s safety depends on this. I’m counting on you.”

  “Sir, this will be dicey. Not the doing of it, the timing.”

  “Then get to it because the timing’s non-negotiable. We’re taking the red eye to D.C. and I don’t want to fly under our own names. Got it?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He left Evarts office, sans the smile.

  Last night, Evarts and Baldwin picked new names. They had been drinking and had fun at first, picking silly, lewd, or unpronounceable names. Finally, they had to settle down and get serious. Evarts picked David James Johansen and Baldwin picked Susan Naomi Johansen. Baldwin would use these names to open accounts in the Caymans, except that finalization and funds transfers would be delayed until they received new passports. In the meantime, she could liquidate financial assets to stockpile cash balances for future electronic transfer.

  Evarts private line rang. It was Mayor Walsh. He didn’t want to talk to her, so he decided to ignore it. Then he thought better of it. His rule was to do first the thing he least wanted to do. That way, once the ugliest task was out of the way, the rest of the day had to go better.

  “Good morning, Mayor,” Evarts said as he picked up the handset.

  “Good morning, Chief. Are you done terrorizing my city?”

  Her voice did not convey playfulness.

  “The situation last night posed no threat to citizens or the officers containing it.”

  “Three men dead, four arrested, and you’re saying no threat?”

  “The dead committed suicide. Nothing we could do about it.”

  “Greg, something’s seriously wrong, and it has spilled over to endanger my city. We’ve worked well together but you’re jeopardizing my constituents … and my career. I’m sorry, but several members of the town council want to call an emergency session. They want a vote on putting you on administrative leave … indefinitely.”

  “That would take the police force away from me. My department has kept me and my wife from being killed in these attacks? That doesn’t sound like you.”

  “I’m sorry, it’s the council.”

  “Mayor, listen closely. No one in the city has been injured because I could direct police resources. I was leaving for Washington tonight to get federal help, but if you allow this vote to go forward, I’ll stay in Santa Barbara and let it be known that Trish and I are staying at the Biltmore. If they come after us again, it won’t be up in the foothills where most of our residents seldom venture. It will be in one of the city’s top tax generators. Our lives would be at risk, so we’d be forced to use whatever force necessary to survive.”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “Trish and I risked our lives to thwart a terrorist attack. In retribution, these terrorists have attacked us three times. I didn’t bring this to your city. The terrorists did. Putting me on leave will not make them go away because I won’t be chased away from my home. It will embolden them … and put your city in greater jeopardy.”

  “You are threatening me … and our top resort.” She paused. “Or are you bluffing?”

  “I don’t bluff.”

  She sighed. “No, you don’t. But I’m disappointed that you would stoop to this. I thought we were friends.”

  “So did I … until I learned you were feeding information to General O’Brian.”

  The phone went silent.

  “I only told him news. Nothing more. I gave him a few hours heads-up. That’s it.”

  “And he got you party endorsements and support for your run at lieutenant governor.”

  “You know a lot.”

  “I know more.”

  “Greg, you might feel you have a right to be pissed, but it had nothing to do with you.”

  “It had everything to do with me. He asked you to report regional news as camouflage. O’Brian was only interested in an ex-Army intelligence officer who owed him big time for his help on alleviating a flood. Everything else you reported was beside the point.”

  “Are you implying that I was played for a fool?”

  Suddenly, Evarts had a flash of insight.

  “We both were,” he muttered almost to himself. “We both were,” he repeated in a stronger voice.

  Chapter 39

  Evarts and Baldwin had used a car service to make the early morning trek from Dulles International Airport to the Watergate Hotel. Evarts had made his own travel arrangements and picking a hotel had not been easy. He certainly didn’t want to return to the Ritz-Carlton where he had first met Jim Lewis. Other hotels had mixed features from a security perspective. General O’Brian had previously picked the Watergate of Nixon fame, so he must have felt the unfashionable icon possessed the right attributes for clandestine meetings. His previous visit had been short, so the odds were slight that someone would recognize him as a previous guest, especially with an attractive woman beside him. If anything, they would assume an affair. Something not unusual in Washington, D.C.

  Captain Baker had come through with driver’s licenses and an array of credit cards. The passports would take more time because they needed to be coordinated with the Los Angeles FBI field office. Baker’s cover story had been that the passports were needed for an undercover couple who had infiltrated a cartel and needed to pass freely between Mexico and the United States.

  His light-handed blackmail of the mayor had worked. Walsh had cancelled the special council meeting and assured Evarts that she would protect his position as chief. He didn’t feel remorseful about his ploy, although when this was over, he would have fences to mend. As would she, he thought, still irritated.

  Hotel check-in had been uneventful. He stayed away from the desk clerk as Baldwin registered. No one appeared to recognize him or give him any notice. Still, he decided not to tempt fate, so they ordered breakfast from room service. Neither had slept well on the airplane and the king bed looked inviting. Evarts was thankful that he had put off O’Brian until evening.

  After a solid six hours of sleep, they had showered and dressed. Evarts assumed an extended stay in the nation’s capital and wondered how long he would need to adjust to the new time zone. He had found that red eye flights elongated his adjustment period. At least he felt fresh at the moment. He would need a sharp mind when he met O’Brian.

  They took the elevator down to the lobby and as the door slid open, Evarts spotted an unwelcome sight in a lounge chair with a view of the elevator bank. He walked directly up to the person.

  “Sergeant, I won’t say it’s a pleasure to see you.”

  “Nor am I pleased to act as your chauffeur again.”

  “Trish, this is Sergeant First Class Diane Wilson. Sergeant, my wife, Patricia Baldwin. The Sergeant is General O’Brian’s daughter-in-law.”

  Baldwin shook the sergeant’s hand. “Pleased to meet you. If you’re here to fetch us, you can tell the general we’ll find our own transportation.”

  “Ms. Baldwin, ma’am, the general believes it’s in your best
interest for me to escort you to the meeting. Un-vetted conveyances can be dangerous.”

  “We’ll take our chances,” Baldwin said. “How did you find us?”

  Wilson was not in uniform but had dressed more formally than their previous encounter. She pulled a pair of photographs from a blue blazer and displayed them briefly before returning them to her pocket. They were close-up photos of them.

  “Surely you didn’t drive around showing them to every reception clerk,” Baldwin said.

  “I came here first and hit a bullseye,” she smiled and pointed to a computer tablet sitting beside an empty coffee cup. “Allowed me to relax and catch up on the news.”

  “Why here first?” Evarts asked, afraid he had been careless.

  “The general said you wouldn’t return to the Ritz-Carlton but might come here because he had chosen it for your first rendezvous. He thought you would presume it was relatively safe.”

  He had been careless.

  “If you found us so easily, then I presumed wrong,” Evarts said.

  “Sir, I found you because I brought you here. This is a relatively secure site. We have a direct feed on cameras throughout this hotel, indoors and out, and we have access to the hotel computer systems. We also have a dedicated rooms that we can staff with intelligence people if the need arises.”

  “Did you see us register on the security cam?” Evarts asked.

  “You mean, did we see your wife while you remained turned away from the cameras? Nicely done by the way. As for your wife, we didn’t recognize her at first. She has done a good job of altering her appearance.”

  “Very well,” Baldwin said. “Take us to your leader.”

  Wilson laughed, then whirled around and marched out of the lobby. Again, she didn’t look back to see if they followed. She was a woman used to being obeyed.

  Another surprise awaited at the curb. Wilson had left her Korean hatchback at the Pentagon and checked out a four-door sedan from the carpool. And she was not alone. A capable looking man sat behind the wheel. Wilson signaled Baldwin to sit in front and Evarts got in the rear with the Sergeant.