Angel of the Night (9 page)

“Lt. Shafer, I just want you to know, and this comes from the very top, that everything is being done to keep you clear from any personal harm through the fallout. There are diplomatic strings being pulled and favors being cashed in to keep you safe. But you know the impact that it could have if all of the truth came out.”

Wendy had been in undercover work for the CIA long enough to know what that meant. From the time that she had been recruited while she was in college, to this very moment, she knew the bottom line. She would be kept safe, and well compensated, for doing what she did for the United States of America and her foreign interests. But if her safety compromised the mission then she was considered expendable. She would be listed as just another war casualty. A few lines in the local paper in Racine, a flag delivered to her mother and that would be it for her.

Already Sue Shafer, widowed by Wendy’s father’s death in the Pan Am Flight 103 crash over Lockerbie, Scotland while she was expecting Wendy, believed that she had won a large prize in a Canadian lottery. The money had actually been provided as compensation for her husband’s death when he had been working undercover, as well as Wendy’s service for Central Intelligence. Wendy was sworn to secrecy over the double life that her father had led as a chiropractor by day and a spy by night. But it was his service, which she had been briefed on during her recruitment that caused her to want to carry on the work of the father that she had never had a chance to meet.

Now, in just her second mission and the first in which she was a full-on field operative, Wendy was in danger of being found out…and much worse.

Believing that as much knowledge as possible could only be to her benefit, she asked, “So what should I expect next? The security is really tight, but I’ve already been questioned about what happened. I thought that I was in the clear.”

“So did we. You passed your interrogation with flying colors. We listened to the recording of your questioning, and monitored your physical reactions through the wire that you wore that day. You handled it all like a pro. You could have passed a polygraph if need be. We’re sure of that. You aren’t to blame for the predicament you find yourself in at this point.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter, but if I’m not to blame, who is to blame?”

“No one, really. We have infiltrated the investigation and planted evidence that the person that they are looking for is really someone out of a terror cell in Pakistan. They aren’t buying it yet, at least to this point. “Wendy felt like she needed to know more than what Hudspeth was telling her.
“What do I have to lose at this point?”
she thought.

“Major Hudspeth, I know that it would be, let’s say uncomfortable, for anyone to find out my role in all of this, but General McKillop was into some really bad stuff. He was going to compromise the entire war effort with the information that he had, and was willing to pass to the enemy.”

“We know that, Lt. Shafer. But if it got out that a high ranking member of the United States military, a brigadier general at that, was passing along sensitive information to terror groups at war with the United States our standing in this part of the world would be compromised for a generation to come. The allies beside whom we fight would turn tail, and get out of Dodge as fast as they could go. That’s why what we are doing can never come to light. And I think you know that.”

Wendy looked down at the leather upholstery of the Continental. In the back of her mind, a thought about American automotive opulence in contrast to the conditions in this part of the world crossed her mind, but she pushed it away.

“I know, Major Hudspeth. When I fired the shot that killed General McKillop, I knew the import of my act.”

“Indeed you did, Lt. Shafer. And once all of this blows over….”

“He doesn’t need to add, ‘if it blows over’
Wendy thought.

“…then the people who know what you did for our country will want to thank you in person. No one knows what causes someone to turn traitor. Maybe McKillop wanted to become more than a brigadier general and knew that he had reached the top rung that he was going to be able to attain. Maybe he was being blackmailed by debtors…or sex. That happens you know. At any rate something made him turn on his country and offer to sell nuclear secrets to the Pakistani government. My only wish is that we could out him for whom and what he was. But we can’t, and for all of the reasons that we have gone over today.”

Throughout her briefing about General McKillop, Wendy had been troubled by one question. “How did a brigadier general, the lowest ranking general of all, get to be privy to nuclear secrets anyway?” she asked.

“Cole McKillop was an atomic engineer from M.I.T. before he ever joined the military. In short, his education taught him where to look to find the answers to questions that other don’t even know to ask. Over the course of his long career he amassed the knowledge that, if it got out, could change the balance of power in the world. There are many countries that have nuclear capability. Not very many know how to refine the plutonium in a safe and effective enough manner to migrate from domestic power production to full scale nuclear war footing. America does, and if Cole McKillop had gotten his way, Pakistan would have known how to as well.”

For just a moment Major Hudspeth dropped his military bearing and became Will talking to Wendy. His eyes misted over as he said, “Make no mistake. You are a hero in the eyes of many, and we aren’t giving up the goal of keeping you safe.”

Major Hudspeth looked away from Wendy, and out of the car window. He had regained his military bearing by the time he looked back at her. “We need to take you back to the base. We’ll be in touch.”

“I understand, sir...and thank you for your candor”

And she did understand. This was a day that she had feared would come, and now it appeared that it had. This meeting was a briefing, but it was more than that. It was a warning, as well. In minutes, the Lincoln was at the drop point a quarter mile from the main gate. Wendy’s covert handlers couldn’t risk taking her to the gate in the light of day. The driver, whose ears had been shielded from all that had gone on in the back seat by a special soundproofing component in the construction of the interior, pulled over on a side street in downtown Kabul. Wendy got out of the car after shaking hands with Major Hudspeth.

Wendy went back to her CHU to try to get a couple of hours of sleep before her shift in the operating theater. When she discovered that trying to get even a nap would be a fruitless endeavor, she got up and went to work early. It was a rare light day in the operating theater, with just one bowel resection scheduled for the morning and a kidney stone surgery slated for the afternoon. Wendy was scheduled to assist with the kidney stone procedure.

Even though there wasn’t much patient traffic there was still a lot of activity. The medical center was abuzz with news of a breakthrough in the investigation of the shooting death of General McKillop. Sophia Nolan-Hart grabbed Wendy’s arm as soon as the older nurse arrived.

“They think they have an idea who killed the general. Everybody is talking about it!”

“That was quick,”
Wendy thought. “Really? Who do they think did it?”

Sophia leaned in as if to be conspiratorial, but there was little need for secrecy. Everyone in the place was talking about the same thing.

“They are being really hush-hush about it so far, but we heard via satellite to expect an announcement sometime today. The air traffic guys haven’t been alerted that anyone important is flying in, so I guess that no one is going to get arrested. But this is going to be big news! Isn’t it exciting?”

Sophia looked like someone who had just been offered a three scoop hot fudge sundae. Wendy, on the other hand, felt like she had just been punched in the stomach. Certainly the news in the car had shaken her, but this was the situation getting real! How much time did she have? Were her handlers going to provide any cover for her at all? Did they know what was coming down and coming down this soon? She didn’t know the answer to these, or frankly many other questions. But since Sophia seemed to know so much Wendy decided to use her as a resource. Wendy put an excited look on her own face.

“Keep me posted, Sophia! Yes, this is really exciting!”

Sophia looked over Wendy’s shoulder. More of the medical staff was coming in to work. As the official gossip monger of the medical center, Sophia had work to do. She walked away from Wendy to tell the newcomers the big news. Wendy walked slowly to the coffee center and poured herself a cup.

“If there was anything for me to do that would help I would do it. But the best thing for me to do is to just do my job and listen to the Sophia Report as well as what anyone else has to say. Hudspeth will let me know if I need to do anything specific.”

Wendy finished her coffee and went into the medical center’s gowning room. She would be on call during the morning. Just because there were only two surgeries scheduled for the day, didn’t mean that emergencies wouldn’t arise. There was a war going on after all.

One wouldn’t have guessed that there was a war anywhere around by the lack of activity in the medical center. A monsoon had rolled into Afghanistan over the western border. Ground operations from both sides had been halted by the change in weather. The storm, in weakened form, was supposed to hit Kabul late that evening. For now, all eyes were glued to Al-Jazeera television. An announcement from Kabul Air Base was expected any minute. Just after 11:00 a.m. local programming was interrupted by the face and voice of Claymore Jalalta, anchor and bureau chief for Al-Jazeera TV-Afghanistan.

“Good day. Word has reached our desk that an announcement is going to be made having to do with the status of the investigation into the death of American Brigadier General Cole McKillop. Back in August General McKillop was found shot to death in a storage hut on the grounds of the air base. The investigation has been wide-ranging, and the outcome of the investigation is being watched carefully by the world community as international tensions have escalated. We take you now to Henderson Auditorium on the grounds of Kabul Air Base.”

The picture on the screen changed to show a podium in a building that was well-known on base. Known as Henderson Center to the troops, the building housed a theater, and swimming facility on the first floor, with a full gym, and a basketball court on the second floor. Today’s announcement was to be made from the theater. Wendy watched the screen remembering that the last time that she had been in that room was to watch “Ironman 2.”

“I wonder if Tony Stark could be of any help to me?” she thought. “Probably not. I need more than Ironman. I need a miracle!”

Suddenly the empty stage area of the theater on the screen was filled with four members of the investigative team. The faces of the investigators were grim and serious, none more so than Colonel Terry Bishop, who was going to be the spokesperson for the team. They had been on base and hard at work seven days a week since a day and a half after General McKillop’s body had been found. The long days and long hours was showing on the faces of the team. But their determination was showing even more. Colonel Bishop took his place at the microphone.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the press, thank you for coming out on such short notice. My name is Colonel Terry Bishop. I work for the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command. I have a brief statement, and then I will take a limited number of questions. As you know, we have been investigating the untimely demise of United States Army Brigadier General Cole McKillop. The course of the investigation has taken many twists and turns, but we believe that it is coming to an end. We expect an arrest, or arrests, to be made in the next 24 to 72 hours. That is all the detail that we are prepared to release at this point. If you have any clarification questions that I am at liberty to answer I will entertain them at this time.

“A man in the front row jumped up and made himself heard over the sudden din of reporter’s voices. “Colonel Bishop, Brant Jacobs from the Associated Press. You said arrest or arrests. Are you telling us that this was a planned killing by multiple assailants from a terrorist network?”

“I can say yes to half of your question. The shooting death of General McKillop was neither random nor unplanned. As to the rest of your question, I can’t say at this time.”

A female reporter in the second row barked out the investigator’s name and was acknowledged. “Colonel, I’m Kristin Lewis from Sky News, can you at least tell us whether the investigation has led you in surprising directions? We have all been under the assumption that the general was killed by terror forces. Are we at least on the right track?”