Friday afternoon
November 5 – 3:47 p.m. MDT
Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora, Colorado
“One more,” Alex said to Leena.
They were in the martial-arts gym working out. About a year ago, Steve Pershing had encouraged Alex to share her knowledge of mixed martial arts and get her team members to share theirs. Every day at three-thirty, the team met to work out. Over the course of the year, they had each had at least a month of training in each other’s specialty.
Raz was boxing with Royce on the other side of the gym. In the middle, Colin was teaching Zack and his co-pilot, Sergeant Clifford Mauer, Krav Maga. Troy and Trece were locked in a sweaty battle of Vacón, a Peruvian hybrid-martial art. White Boy was schooling MJ in Eskrima, a martial art from the Philippines, which White Boy had learned from his step-father. Near the mirrored wall, Dusty was working through a complicated stretching program he’d learned from Leena. Matthew and Margaret were locked in a Brazilian jujitsu hold next to where Vince and Joseph were working through wushu forms. They were hot, sweaty, and having a good time.
Alex was helping Leena with her kickboxing form.
“Hop, spin, knee up, that’s right, kick, kick. Harder,” Alex said. “Good. You’ve been practicing.”
“But?” Leena’s head was wet with sweat.
“I’d like you to practice your kicks in three separate motions,” Alex said. “Rather than one fluid motion. They teach one fluid motion in a lot of classes, but real power comes when you learn to control all three movements.”
She lifted her right knee to the side and then straightened her leg.
“The knee raise gives you power, and your calf gives you speed. If you can control your foot, you control your strength,” Alex said.
She spun in place and did a fast three-movement kick at the person coming up behind her. Patrick blocked her kick with his forearm. He took a quick side step which diffused the energy of her kick.
“Sorry, Dad,” Alex said.
“Nice kick,” Patrick nodded a greeting to Leena. “Try it in pieces.”
Much to Alex’s amusement, Patrick lifted his knee and threw a perfect kick. Alex clapped.
“You have to practice in three pieces before you learn to do it as a fluid movement,” Patrick said. “It seems like a pain in the rear, but it’s worth the trouble when you need it. Alex?”
Alex spun in place, lifted her leg with it folded at the knee, and then kicked her foot forward. Her pointed foot stopped less than a half inch in front of him.
“You need that kind of precision,” Patrick said.
“You never know what someone’s going to throw at you,” Alex said while she held the kick. “I’ve thrown a kick and had my opponent pull a knife or a bayonet. The momentum of my leg would have cut off my foot. I have to be able to stop mid-motion.”
“Go ahead,” Patrick said.
Alex slapped him with her foot. The force of the shot knocked him to the side.
“That’s why this kick is so powerful,” Patrick smiled. “Why don’t you try it while I talk to your LC?”
“Yes, sir,” Leena said.
“Dusty?” Alex waved for Dusty to come over and practice with Leena. Dusty jogged over.
Patrick took her arm and led her to the side of the room.
“Any news on Steve?” Alex asked.
“Nothing,” Patrick said. “If we hadn’t set up those automatic emails we’d never have known.”
“But you’ve got guys tracing his last actions?” Alex asked.
“He’s not stateside,” Patrick said. “Or wasn’t as of a week or so ago.”
“Put Tom Drayson on it,” Alex said. “He’s the British Ben.”
“Already done,” Patrick said. “Great minds.”
Patrick’s eyes reviewed the action in the room. He nodded toward Trece and Troy.
“Vacón?”
“Troy took formal training when he was stationed in Peru,” Alex said. “Trece learned it in prison as a kid. It’s interesting to see the differences between what’s taught in a dojo and what happens on the street.”
Patrick nodded. Alex glanced at him and then into the room.
“I have a duty to my team to share my knowledge and skill, sir,” Alex said. “You’re welcome to stay and watch, assist, or even train, but if you’re to observe, I should get back.”
“You were going to come up with ‘better questions,’” Patrick’s eyes reviewed Alex’s face. “You’ll remember you didn’t like the questions we were asking. They were too . . .”
“Cold War,” Alex said. “I don’t really give a shit about the who’s and why’s of some random historic program. They use what they learned from those programs in S.E.R.E. now.”
“And in ‘advanced interrogation methods’,” Patrick said. “Yes, I’m aware of that.”
“I know you are,” Alex said.
“Did you come up with better questions?”
Alex glanced at him to see if he was angry. He seemed amused. Patrick raised his eyebrows in challenge.
“Well?” he asked.
“We had ten questions before we started our workout,” Alex said. “Our protocol is to wait to see if anything comes up during workout.”
Patrick nodded.
“The General would like to know your questions,” Alex said to the team. “Just shout them out.”
“Why does this action seem to happen in the fall?” Raz yelled and punched at Royce. “We’ve thought it was the Fey’s birthday or intended to trigger her PTSD. As the years pass, and we continue to have an action in the fall, we’re wondering if there’s another reason for that.”
“You’re right,” Patrick nodded. “That’s a better question.”
“Why take Steve Pershing?” Matthew asked. “Sure, he’s the head of a black ops unit, but with the mind controls activated, it seems more personal.”
“If it’s personal, why not take one of us?” Margaret asked. She grunted and flipped Matthew onto his back. “Or you, sir?”
“You think Steve was taken because of something he was working on or involved with,” Patrick said.
“We don’t know,” Alex said. “We’re just asking questions.”
“Most obvious question: Does he expect any of the mind control subjects to fulfill their mission?” Joseph asked.
“From those we’ve talked to so far, it seems unlikely,” Patrick said. “As you noted, it’s been too long since induction.”
“But what if there’s one or two?” Joseph asked. Vince pointed, and Joseph stepped into the next form.
“In the middle of the thousands, one or two of these guys fulfill the mission objective?” Patrick nodded.
“Look at the damage and chaos Kaczynski caused. If his brother hadn’t turned him in, he’d still be out there,” Alex said. “A man with a plan, and the wherewithal to pull it off, can inflict a lot of pain.”
“What’s your assessment?” Patrick asked.
“Just questions, sir,” Alex said.
“Any others?”
“If the MK-Ultra and MK-Search documents are phony, who in the agency is involved in the cover-up?” Leena asked.
“How so?” Patrick asked.
“The documents were redacted in 2001,” Alex said. “Who released them? Who redacted them? Who certified them as MK-Ultra files? Who told everyone the files were stored in the wrong place? A lot of this happened a long time ago, but some of this puzzle unfolded recently.”
Patrick nodded.
“Any ideas?” Alex asked.
“You?” Patrick asked.
“You’re hilarious,” Alex said. “I wasn’t involved nor was Ben. Carlos was too stupid and Raz wasn’t in intelligence at that time. But someone was involved. Who?”
“I have some ideas,” Patrick said.
“Good,” Alex said.
“Anything else?” Patrick asked.
“We have a few questions related to Robert Ludlum and his characters,” Alex said. “White Boy?”
“Robert Ludlum was burned alive in his recliner in March, 2001,” White Boy said. “The MK-Ultra files were declassified in July, 2001. Was he killed because he’d know the documents were fakes?”
“Was there ever anything like Treadstone71?” Trece asked.
“Yes,” Patrick said.
“Those guys would be at the center of this whole thing,” Trece said. “Where are they?”
“Dead,” Patrick gave Trece a grim look. “And before you ask, they were killed by the agency.”
Trece stopped moving, and Troy gave him an open hand to the face. Trece stumbled and fell. When Troy leaned over to help him up, Trece pulled him down. They grappled on the floor.
“What about the movies?” Vince asked. “There’s such an interest in the Bourne movies. Is it a coincidence that the men were activated now? Do the movies relate to the program?”
“How so?” Patrick asked.
“Is there a large action coming that they want to be able to explain via MK-Ultra or whatever?” Alex said. “Are they using the movies to get to make their case before the action starts?”
“A kind of pre-action jury tampering?” Patrick asked.
“Sure,” Alex said. “After seeing the movies, who would convict Jason Bourne of anything?”
“Or are they just movies?” MJ asked.
“I don’t like coincidences,” Patrick said.
“Right, but maybe the movies gave him the idea,” Alex said.
“We don’t know,” Patrick said.
“Exactly.”
“Why use the same kind of action as last time?” Colin asked.
“What do you mean, son?” Patrick asked.
“Last year, we ran around the world rescuing hostages while he was planting a virus in the most secure computers in the nation. This action should keep us super busy and distracted.”
“Like last year,” Alex added.
“If we do the work ourselves, we’ll be running from place to place for at least a year,” Colin said.
“He does know how to keep us busy,” Patrick said.
“What if we missed something last time?” Colin asked. “What if he’s using the same kind of action because it hid what he was doing, and we didn’t catch last time? And, what’s his endgame?”
“Do you think you missed something?” Patrick asked. “In the last year, we’ve been over and over this stuff.”
“Anything’s possible,” Alex said.
“We have a lot of ideas about what his endgame is,” Patrick said.
“But we don’t really know,” Alex said.
“Especially since it now looks like he orchestrated, through the Boy Scout, the Fey Special Forces Team chaos the last year we were in service,” Joseph said.
Patrick frowned at the thought.
“What about the girls?” Matthew asked.
“What about the girls?” Patrick asked.
“I think our question is vague,” Alex said. “The current thought is that the CIA trained a number of children – boys and girls, mostly based in Los Angeles – to serve as child prostitutes to important men. The interactions were photographed.”
“With the intent of manipulating those men,” Patrick said. “That’s correct.”
“Where are the photos?” Zack asked. “I know a girl whose dad did that to her, and the photos and videos are still around. She’s tried to destroy them, Alex has even tried, but they’re in the world. They keep coming back to haunt her. If there were photos or videos, where are they?”
“Did they ever use the photos to control the participants?” Leena asked. “Are any of those men in office now?”
“They’d be too old,” Patrick said.
“There are eleven federal judges over the age of ninety, sir,” Troy said.
“Some of the men would have been in their twenties or thirties when the program was active,” Alex said. “And there’s always senior status federal judges and a few elderly senators and representatives.”
“Never thought of it,” Patrick said.
“Anyone come up with anything else?” Alex asked.
The team fell silent.
“I guess I have one,” Sergeant Dusty said.
“Go,” Alex said.
“Why us?” Sergeant Dusty asked. “Sure, we’ve been working on Eniac’s case, but there are thousands of intelligence teams. The CIA has its own paramilitary branch now. Why call up Joseph? Wyatt? Why are we involved in this shit?”
“Again,” Joseph said. “It’s not our mission. Not even close.”
“You know how this is going to end, sir,” Raz said.
“How?” Patrick asked.
The team stopped working out to look at Patrick. Used to scrutiny, he didn’t flinch.
“I’m serious,” Patrick said. “How do you think this will end?”
“With me in a box,” Alex said.
Unsure of what to say, Patrick cleared his throat.
“If there are no more questions, I’m sure the General would like to report to his team,” Alex said.
“Yes, sir,” her team called.
“Thank you,” Patrick said.
He gave Alex an odd kind of nod, almost a bow, and left the room. Alex shrugged and went back to working with Leena.
F