the screen. “They’ve been planning this for years?”
“I don’t think they parked them up there to study freaking polar bears or the ice shelf, like they claimed!”
“What else?”
“They clogged our ports with hundreds of cargo ships. They were loaded with thousands of soldiers and hundreds of drones. They launched hundreds of helos and thousands of rockets from the same platforms. They gassed the port cities and used the rockets and helos to gas a number of strategic bases along their front line right up the middle of the US. They freaking gutted us like raw fish, Ian!”
“Sir.”
“Hang on, there’s more,” Director Hilton cut him off and did not wait for a response. “When that son-of-a-bitch, Payne, the asshole former senator made his first announcement, he sent it with an exclamation point.” Hilton let his voice drop, which was probably the only visual sign of a chink in the man’s outer shell.
Ian sensed it. It gets worse , he thought to himself.
“What is it, Al,” Ian had known the Director long before he was the Director. He might be one of the few people left alive that could get away with calling the burly man by his first name.
“Ian, he killed the Vice-President.”
“What?” Ian whispered.
“He had him killed, Ian. It was one of the men on the VP’s service; he was a spy.”
The word, spy, had a different meaning to Ian than the way Al Hilton had just used it. To Ian, the man that killed the Vice-President was an assassin, not a spy. Ian was a spy, he had been one for twenty years, and he had yet to assassinate anyone.
“How was Payne a part of it?” Ian knew these two men; the senator and the vice-president. One he remembered fondly, the other, he wanted to rip his head off. The VP had been a Colonel in the National Guard when Ian was on one of his tours. They had crossed paths a few times…the brass always wanted to have the special ops guys on speed dial. The Senator was a different story altogether.
“We’ve since learned,” the Director continued. He was back to business mode. “That Payne was the one that got the shooter on the Secret Service duty through his SASC position. The shooter killed Weber’s entire staff and almost everyone in the VP’s bunker before one of the Marines took him out.”
Ian listened, his mind chewing through the data he was learning and contrasting it with what he knew about Washington and the players involved. The SASC was officially known as the Senate Committee on Armed Service and was one of the most powerful committees on the Hill, if not the world.
“Payne was on which committees?”
“Emerging Threats and Capabilities,” Hilton responded. “Ian, we’re way ahead of you. The man had his hands on cyber security, intelligence, counter-terrorism, and homeland security. They all rolled up under his committee. He was perfectly positioned to open the door and let these assholes smoke us!”
“What about the intelligence angle? We roll up to them…”
Hilton cut him off. “Only from a military intelligence angle and Homeland. The Agency is pretty insulated from them.”
“Yeah,” Ian said. “So was the VP.”
“Right, so they did it Burrows, now we have to make it right. When you activated your homing beacon, I think that might have been the first freaking time I have smiled since this thing went down.”
“I am assuming then, that I am being deployed on a mission?”
“Damn right you are, you’re going to find and kill Senator Payne.”
Just then, the short-wave radio crackled to life. It was Grace.
“Base, this is Tardis Blue,” her voice was strained. “We have three enemy choppers that just flew over the ridge and headed your way!”
Bob looked up from the radio equipment and out of the partially opened window. The noise of the three choppers was immediate. Their rotors thumped the air and rattling the farmhouse. He could
“I don’t think they parked them up there to study freaking polar bears or the ice shelf, like they claimed!”
“What else?”
“They clogged our ports with hundreds of cargo ships. They were loaded with thousands of soldiers and hundreds of drones. They launched hundreds of helos and thousands of rockets from the same platforms. They gassed the port cities and used the rockets and helos to gas a number of strategic bases along their front line right up the middle of the US. They freaking gutted us like raw fish, Ian!”
“Sir.”
“Hang on, there’s more,” Director Hilton cut him off and did not wait for a response. “When that son-of-a-bitch, Payne, the asshole former senator made his first announcement, he sent it with an exclamation point.” Hilton let his voice drop, which was probably the only visual sign of a chink in the man’s outer shell.
Ian sensed it. It gets worse , he thought to himself.
“What is it, Al,” Ian had known the Director long before he was the Director. He might be one of the few people left alive that could get away with calling the burly man by his first name.
“Ian, he killed the Vice-President.”
“What?” Ian whispered.
“He had him killed, Ian. It was one of the men on the VP’s service; he was a spy.”
The word, spy, had a different meaning to Ian than the way Al Hilton had just used it. To Ian, the man that killed the Vice-President was an assassin, not a spy. Ian was a spy, he had been one for twenty years, and he had yet to assassinate anyone.
“How was Payne a part of it?” Ian knew these two men; the senator and the vice-president. One he remembered fondly, the other, he wanted to rip his head off. The VP had been a Colonel in the National Guard when Ian was on one of his tours. They had crossed paths a few times…the brass always wanted to have the special ops guys on speed dial. The Senator was a different story altogether.
“We’ve since learned,” the Director continued. He was back to business mode. “That Payne was the one that got the shooter on the Secret Service duty through his SASC position. The shooter killed Weber’s entire staff and almost everyone in the VP’s bunker before one of the Marines took him out.”
Ian listened, his mind chewing through the data he was learning and contrasting it with what he knew about Washington and the players involved. The SASC was officially known as the Senate Committee on Armed Service and was one of the most powerful committees on the Hill, if not the world.
“Payne was on which committees?”
“Emerging Threats and Capabilities,” Hilton responded. “Ian, we’re way ahead of you. The man had his hands on cyber security, intelligence, counter-terrorism, and homeland security. They all rolled up under his committee. He was perfectly positioned to open the door and let these assholes smoke us!”
“What about the intelligence angle? We roll up to them…”
Hilton cut him off. “Only from a military intelligence angle and Homeland. The Agency is pretty insulated from them.”
“Yeah,” Ian said. “So was the VP.”
“Right, so they did it Burrows, now we have to make it right. When you activated your homing beacon, I think that might have been the first freaking time I have smiled since this thing went down.”
“I am assuming then, that I am being deployed on a mission?”
“Damn right you are, you’re going to find and kill Senator Payne.”
Just then, the short-wave radio crackled to life. It was Grace.
“Base, this is Tardis Blue,” her voice was strained. “We have three enemy choppers that just flew over the ridge and headed your way!”
Bob looked up from the radio equipment and out of the partially opened window. The noise of the three choppers was immediate. Their rotors thumped the air and rattling the farmhouse. He could
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