Authors: Sigmund Brouwer
Dead Man's Switch (25 page)
King felt his heart bump. In a good way. Brennan's frown was a selfish frown. Brennan's first concern had been politics. Could it be that King's guess about Jerome had been correct?
“Look,” Mack said. “Right now would be a good time for you to talk to us about Ella, not about whatever you're trying to do to cover your collective hind ends.”
That got through.
Brennan looked directly at Mack, bowed her head, and then lifted it again.
She shook her head and gave them a wry grin, and then she blew out a breath. “You know, sometimes I need a sharp reminder like that. I apologize. And I have good news.”
King felt his heart bump again. If Jerome had been working for Murdoch, and if Murdoch had been using Ella's coma as leverage against Mack until Murdoch could make an escape to South America...
“Mr. King,” Brennan said. “The blood tests show that yes, your wife has been artificially maintained in a coma. What I'd like to know is how you came to this conclusion.”
No way were Mack and King permitted to divulge this. Not by the confidentiality agreement signed for the CIA.
“Desperation,” Mack said. “How long?”
“Till the drugs in her system wear off?” Brennan said. She smiled again, and it took years off her face. “I'd suggest both of you sit by the bed and wait. It could be any minute now. Do me a favor and send a nurse for me when it happens. We'll need to run some tests, but once she wakes up, your wife can be released from the hospital.”
That's when King heard two words that brought tears to his eyes.
“Mack?” Ella said. “King?”
They were family again.
Yes. There is a game called Dead Man's Switch. Yes, it does involve prisoners hunting government operatives as a real-life training exercise. Go to
www.deadmans-switch.com
to learn more.
Yes. McNeil Island is real. So is the location, in Puget Sound, just west of Seattle-Tacoma. So is the prison on the island. The original prison was opened in 1875 and closed in 2011, and the abandoned prison remains. The houses on the island exist as described. As does the reservoir in the center of the island.
The only families there are families of prison employees. The island has no ferry service, no police force, no stores. Three-quarters of the island is wildlife refuge. It is the only prison island still in existence in the United States.
Although some fictional changes have been made in this novel, as of the writing of
Dead Man's Switch
, some prisoners deemed unfit to be returned to society are still living on the island.
Yes. Joint Base Lewis-McChord sits just south of Tacoma, a location that gives it easy access to deep water ports, and it has its own airfield. JBLM is also the location for the 201st Battlefield Surveillance Brigade. According to Wikipedia, this BfSBâ¦
rapidly provides deployable all-source predictive intelligence, electronic warfare intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance, target acquisition, battle damage assessment, command and control warfare, and broad bandwidth communications support to I Corps. It trains for and prepares to operate in both Joint and Combined environments in support of worldwide contingencies. The brigade concentrates on providing a shared battlefield situational awareness, and ensures the direct downlink of national and theater level intelligence through full spectrum operations assets as part of a multi-disciplined intelligence collection, surveillance and reconnaissance unit to an Army Corps or a designated Joint Task Force.
1
Yes. The drug metyrapone exists. It does function to erase short-term traumatic memories. It is still in the experimental stage.
Yes. There are many websites devoted to the dead man's switch concept, including
www.deadmansswitch.net
.
And yes, of course, the Central Intelligence Agency exists. As does the Special Operations Group.
The CIA is openly acknowledged as one of the United States' intelligence-gathering organizations.
Within the CIA exists the National Clandestine Service (NCS), which is one of the four main components of the CIA and “serves as
the clandestine arm of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the national authority for the coordination, de-confliction, and evaluation of clandestine operations across the Intelligence Community of the United States.”
2
NCS is responsible for the Special Activities Division (SAD), which is responsible for covert operations, and within SAD is the more secretive special operations force of the United States, the Special Operations Group.
The SOG selects operatives from the elite of the eliteâfrom Delta Force, DEVGRU (SEAL Team Six), the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, and other special operations forces from within the US military.
SOG Paramilitary Operations Officers account for a healthy majority of Distinguished Intelligence Cross and Intelligence Star recipients during any given conflict or incident which elicits CIA involvementâ¦SAD/SOG operatives also account for the majority of the names displayed on the Memorial Wall at CIA headquarters indicating that the agent died while on active duty, most likely during the execution of a covert operation or other high-risk assignment in accordance with the founding principles of Special Activities Division.
3
A 1976 presidential edict makes it illegal for the CIA to engage in political assassinations, but following the directives after 9/11, there is debate on the legality of using special forces to hunt terrorists.
As for the reality of a base where SOG operatives' skills are honed for real-world operations by the exercise of hunting and being hunted by dangerous humans, some would declare this to be nothing but speculative fiction.
1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/201st_Battlefield_Surveillance_Brigade
2
https://www.cia.gov/offices-of-cia/clandestine-service/
3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Activities_Division
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