Edge of Battle (14 page)

“What in hell…!”
Lombard cried out, immediately reaching for his sidearm.

“No!” Jason said, still smiling. “No guns! It will detect guns and…”

But it was far too late. No sooner had Director Lombard’s
gun cleared his holster than the CID unit walked quickly through the nylon side of the TEMPER module and swung the captured marshals at Lombard, knocking him off his feet. The CID unit kept moving forward until Lombard was pinned against the other side of the module, unable to move his hands or arms, with the two U.S. marshals dangling painfully in midair above him.

Falcone found Lombard’s sidearm on the deck, unloaded it, and stuck it into a flight-suit pocket, while Jason and Ari retrieved their sidearms and the FBI agent’s submachine guns, unloaded them, and tossed them aside. “CID One, drop your captives,” he ordered. The CID unit’s armored fingers opened, and the marshals clambered to the floor of the ruined TEMPER module beside Lombard, holding dislocated and bruised arms and shoulders. “Ari, go get a doctor and a couple security guys to help these clowns. CID One, back up ten meters and assume weapon guard position.”

“Major Richter, are you insane?”
Annette Cass shouted. “You just attacked
three federal agents!
”

Jason moved forward quickly and snatched Cass’s weapon from her holster—she was plainly too shocked to even notice her weapon was gone. He unloaded it and tossed it aside. “And you walked on to a TALON firebase and had the balls to draw down on us? You’re the insane one, Miss Cass. We’re in an area already known for heavy terrorist activity, possibly including the Consortium—the CID units are programmed to respond to all armed threats with maximum force. You’re lucky CID One used their
whole
bodies as bludgeons and not just their limbs.”

“J, more company,” Ari radioed. “Two choppers inbound, about a mile out.”

“Any identification?”

“Nope.”

“Where’s the Condor?”

“I ordered them to launch the Condor immediately,” she replied. “They’ll maintain surveillance on the base and send im
agery to Cannon.” Cannon Air Force Base, near Clovis, New Mexico, was the home base of Task Force TALON.

“Good.” To Falcone, he said, “Falcon, mount up. Get behind those choppers and take them down if they attack.”

“I don’t have any weapons, boss—how am I supposed to take them down?”

“Think of something—jump on them, toss a cactus at them, distract them—just do it, Falcon.” Falcone immediately ordered CID One to assume the pilot-up stance, and he was inside the robot and moving in less than thirty seconds, racing across the desert out of sight. “Captain Gray, you expecting anyone?” Jason asked the Rampart One commander.

“Negative,” Gray replied. He was still breathless and bug-eyed from the sudden and incredibly lightning-quick flurry of activity that had just occurred right in front of his eyes. “Any inbounds are supposed to get clearance from me or Top first through your headquarters or the White House.”

“That’s the FBI, Richter!” Cass exploded. “They’re here to start the investigation on the death of that migrant last night! Are you hallucinating or are you on some kind of power trip?”

Jason ignored her. “Gray, take the injured to the infirmary and the rest to the dog-pens and lock them up…”

“That consulate officer too?”

“The consulate officer too—until he can be positively ID’d, as far as I’m concerned, he’s Consortium,” Jason said. “Have the rest of your men on full alert until we figure out what’s going on.” Gray issued orders to the physician, medics, and security forces that arrived moments later, and Cass and the others that were with her were hustled out. Jason keyed the mike button on his radio: “Ari…”

“They’re coming in pretty slow, J,” she radioed from her command Humvee near the Condor airship’s landing pad. “Staying in formation…about a half-mile out…slowing even more. Looks like they’re starting to circle the perimeter. Wait…I see crests on the sides of both choppers. One looks like an FBI patch…con
firmed, and I can see the letters FBI on the tail. The other says U.S. BORDER PATROL on the side. They look like the real deal, J.”

“TALON One, Rampart One,” Ben Gray radioed a moment later. “Top just got a call from one of those choppers. The caller on board says she’s FBI Director DeLaine. She apologized for not calling in first and is requesting permission to land. They gave the proper authentication.”

Jason finally let out a nervous sigh of relief and holstered his own sidearm. “Let them in, Captain,” he said wearily. On his command radio, he said, “CID One, stay out of sight until we verify everyone’s ID out here.”

“Wilco,” Falcone responded.

“Ari, better get on the horn and tell Jefferson what’s been going on,” Jason said.

“I’m already on the line with him, J,” Ariadna said. “He doesn’t sound
too
pissed. He’s calling the Justice Department and Homeland Security now.”

“Swell,” Jason muttered.

“TALON One, Rampart One, do you want me to release Cass and the others?” Ben Gray radioed.

“Negative,” Jason responded.

“But we’ve got them in the dog-pens…”

“Let them cool their heels in your holding cells for a few more minutes,” Jason said as he headed out to the landing pad. “I’ll meet you over there in a few.”

“Whatever you say, sir.”

The two helicopters’ rotors were winding down and all of the passengers were standing on the landing pad mats when Jason stepped over to them. FBI Director Kelsey DeLaine went over to greet him. “Hiya, Jason,” she said cheerfully, giving him a firm, friendly handshake and a hug. She was dressed for action with a black nylon FBI jacket over a black T-shirt and bulletproof vest, black boots, BDU pants, an FBI ball cap, and a Beretta pistol in a holster. Jason saw a lot of energy in her step and in her smile and was pleased that Washington hadn’t erased her genuine love for
her profession. “Nice to see you again.” She looked around. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Were you expecting someone else?”

“Some folks from the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Diego, maybe someone from Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Kelsey said. She noticed him looking questioningly at her. “They haven’t arrived yet?”

“They’re here.”

“They didn’t tell you we were coming? The security guy on the radio said we needed clearance to land first.”

“They didn’t mention you were coming. They didn’t mention
they
were coming.” He turned to look at the people coming off the second helicopter. “Who are they?”

“Investigators from Customs and Border Protection and some Spanish interpreters,” Kelsey said. “We’re participating in the preliminary investigation on Frank’s incident last night.” Kelsey was the cocommander of Task Force TALON when it was first organized less than a year earlier, and she was very familiar with its personnel, weapons, and tactics. “This visit should have been cleared last night or early this morning through the Justice Department. You received no word of our arrival?”

“I heard you were on your way to the West Coast to look into the incident here, but we received no requests for clearances and had no idea who was coming, or when.”

“Well, it was pretty short notice—there must’ve been some snafu in communications along the line,” Kelsey said, now sounding a little perplexed. “An assistant from the U.S. Attorney’s Office assured me that all of the notifications
had
been made, through the White House as well as directly with the CO here; we didn’t want to run into one of your monster blimps or get shot down by a ray gun or something. I should’ve checked myself.” She looked at Jason carefully. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, Jason, but I still recognize that ‘cat with the canary in its mouth’ look of yours. What happened?”

“Follow me.”

Kelsey muttered something that Jason couldn’t quite catch in the subsiding whine of the helicopters’ turbine engines. She scanned the little base as she followed him toward the detention area.

“Jason, I’m not going to like whatever you’ve got to show me, am I?” Kelsey asked.

“Probably not.”

“Uh, Miss Director…?” one of Kelsey’s bodyguards stammered. “Those persons in the small prisoner cells over there…is that who I
think
it is…?”

“Jee…
sus,
” Kelsey exclaimed when she saw Annette Cass kneeling on the plywood floor in the middle of one of the dog-pen detention cells, her hands secured behind her with plastic handcuffs. “Jason, what in hell is going on here?
Do you know who that is?
”

“Do
you?
”

“Of course I do! That’s Annette Cass, the U.S. Attorney for the southern district of California! What is she doing in that…that
cage?
Get her out of there immediately!”

Jason motioned to Gray, who unlocked the door to the chain-link cell and bent to help Cass up, but she pushed his hand away. “She and the others entered my base without permission and took away our weapons at gunpoint,” Jason said.

“Jason, are you
crazy?
Did they show ID?” Kelsey didn’t wait for a response, but hurried over to the detention cells, retrieving her ID and badge, showing it to Gray and his security guards, and then looping it atop her bulletproof vest so anyone could see it. “Open these cells immediately!” Gray looked over at Richter. “Don’t look at him, Captain! I gave you a direct order—
open those cells!
”

“I want him
arrested!
” Cass shouted as soon as she joined the others. “I want Richter and all of his personnel arrested
right now,
I want my people released, and I want this base shut down
immediately!
I am going to put you away for twenty years for unlawful detention, false imprisonment, and abuse of power, Richter! Di
rector DeLaine, you saw what he did to us!” She pointed at one of the other cells. “He even locked up an official from the Mexican consulate! This is going to create an international incident! This is a complete violation of international law and treaties…”

“Annette, calm down…” Kelsey tried.

“‘Calm down’? This Army officer attacked and nearly killed three federal agents with one of his robots, then handcuffed us and locked us in those pens! He’s out of control, and I’m ordering you to arrest him!”

Kelsey’s mouth hardened into a line. “That’s enough, Annette,” she said testily. “You can’t order me to arrest anyone, let alone an Army officer on an Army installation, and you know it. I didn’t observe any laws being broken…”

“He put me and my agents in those cells for no reason…!”

“The commander of an Army installation is allowed to put anyone on his base in his brig for any reason he deems necessary”—she looked over at Jason suspiciously, then added—“as long as it
was
absolutely necessary. He’ll have to answer for his actions to his superior officer, which right now happens to be the President of the United States.” She looked over at the detention cells. “And you say that’s someone from the Mexican consulate? What’s
he
doing here? You never said anything about bringing someone from the consulate!”

“He heard that Mexican citizens were being detained out here, and he demanded to see them,” Cass said. “I agreed to allow him to accompany me.”

“You never told me this,” Kelsey said. “And what happened to getting us all clearances to come here? My two helicopters didn’t have clearance to land!”

“Is that what Richter said? I wouldn’t believe a word
he
says!”

“Annette, I didn’t ask the major for confirmation—I asked my office in San Diego to verify our clearances from Homeland Security and the Army, the people who should have received your request to visit the base,” Kelsey said. “They said the request was just received this morning and hadn’t been processed because it
was incomplete. I only landed here because I contacted the Attorney General directly myself when I learned we didn’t have proper clearance. What’s going on here?”

“Homeland Security delayed my clearance and told me to resubmit my application to visit this base,” Cass argued. “I found that unacceptable. Any delay in getting here would’ve compromised evidence in our investigation and given Major Richter here time to coach or coerce witnesses…”

“‘Coerce witnesses?’” Jason retorted. “I’m not coercing anyone…”

“Now order Richter to release the consulate official and my men before there’s hell to pay, Director DeLaine,” Cass insisted, “or the next call I make will be to the Attorney General himself.”

Jason could see Kelsey’s jaw tighten. “Miss Cass, that’s the second time you’ve ordered me to do something,” Kelsey said, pulling out her cell phone. “I don’t know how you do things in your district, but in the FBI we have procedures, and I’m not going to violate them just because you
order
it.” Into her phone, she said, “John, this is Kelsey. I’m here at Rampart One…yes, the Army migrant reconnaissance base, in California…you’ve already received a call from the AG and from Homeland Security? I see. What’s the word?” She listened for a few moments, then said, “Understood. Later.”

“Well?”

“Major Richter, release all of Miss Cass’s personnel immediately…” Kelsey said stonily.

“About time!” Cass remarked.

“…and then escort her and her entourage off the base,” Kelsey added, impaling Cass with an angry glare. “Turns out Miss Cass did not receive proper clearance to enter the base unannounced, although the Army should have done more to verify her identity and official business and reasonably accommodate her requests. Turns out the holdup was
your
demand to bring someone from the Mexican consulate with you. That request was forwarded to the State Department, and…”

“Miss Director, a Mexican citizen was
killed
last night by one of Richter’s robots—the same one, I believe, operated by the officer, that attacked my marshals,” Cass said. “Someone from the consulate deserves to be present during this investigation…”

“The incident happened on U.S. soil, Annette,” Kelsey said. “The Mexican government does have a right to get involved—
after
our investigation has concluded, or at least after our investigation has
begun
. Whoever does the investigation has the duty to keep the Mexican government informed to the fullest extent of the law.”