Noble Beginnings (8 page)

Bear was the
first to speak. “What’s your read on this?”

I thought for a
moment. “Abbot’s not going to BS us.”

“You still
trust him?”

“He got us out
of the brig.” I glanced over at Bear. He rubbed at his beard. “If he wanted us
out of the way, what better place than in there?”

I kept my eyes
on the line of cars, SUVs and minivans in front of me. A mental inventory of
license plates piled up and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I held my
breath as we passed a parked state trooper and let my foot off the gas. I kept
my eyes fixed on him in the rear-view mirror. He didn’t move. I felt a release
of tension for the first time that morning.

“What about
this Delaney guy?” Bear asked.

“We’ll have to
get a read on him quick,” I said.

That much was
true. We’d know within a few minutes of Delaney was friend or foe. A public
meeting would be necessary.

“Make sure we
meet him somewhere with a lot of witnesses,” Bear said.

“Reading my
mind again?”

He laughed.
“Guess I’ve known you too long.” The big man yawned, leaned back. “Think it’s
time I get a new partner. You’re getting too boring.”

I smiled and
looked up at the rear-view mirror. “Yeah, well you think this mess we’re in is
boring?” I nodded toward the back of the car at the set of blue lights that
closed the distance in a few seconds. The state trooper pulled his cruiser
within a few feet of our rear bumper. The lane to the right was open, but he
wasn’t passing. He must have clocked me going twenty over the speed limit. Or
worse, Abbot could have reported the car stolen. Would he do that so quickly?

I cursed under
my breath and moved into the right lane. The cruiser pulled over the same time
I did. I hit the brakes and dropped the speed to fifty-five. Then I pulled onto
the shoulder, prepared to stop. My mind raced thinking of the next set of
actions I’d need to take.

Instead of
following us onto the shoulder, the cruiser passed by.

Bear let out a
loud sigh. “Thought we were goners.”

The drive to
D.C. took just under six hours. We took I-95 past the outer loop to I-395.
Crossed the Potomac and drove into downtown. I found a parking garage near the
National Mall on 11th Street. We left the car there and exited the garage onto
11th Street, turning left toward Pennsylvania Avenue.

I pointed at a
store across the road. “We stand out. Let’s get some clothes.”

I found a brown
leather jacket, t-shirt, and a pair of jeans. Bear donned a sweatshirt and
cargo pants. We paid for the clothes and left the store.

“Grab some
lunch?” Bear pointed at a pizza place across the street.

I pulled out
the paper Abbot gave me with Neil Delaney’s number written on it.

“Yeah, let’s
eat, and then I’ll call our contact.”

We sat at a
table on the front patio. A black gate stretched out and separated the open air
dining area from the sidewalk. Pedestrians walked by with their heads tilted
back, noses in the air, taking in the smell of fresh baked pizza. A waitress
with straight brown hair and very little makeup came to our table. We ordered a
large cheese pizza and two beers. The air was cool and the smell of melted
cheese, rising crust, and tomato sauce overwhelmed my senses. It felt like a
perfect day. It would be a perfect day if it weren’t for the fact we were
trying to save our lives.

Tourists,
business people, and even politicians passed by. “Look,” Bear said. “Robert
Marlowe. Seen him on the news a lot over the last year. Deputy Secretary of
Defense.”

I watched the
group of men approach. Marlowe walked in between two other men. He wore a blue
suit, red striped tie, and a tan London Fog overcoat. His hair was a mix of
silver and black, thin on top. He was clean shaven and wore thin glasses. He
was tall and looked to be in good shape for a man his age. The men on either
side were approximately the same age. I figured them to be politicians as well.
Two Department of Defense agents followed close behind. They were younger than the
three politicians and wore dark suits, dark glasses, and earpieces, just like
you see in the movies. They scanned the street and sidewalk. I figured time
moved in slow motion for them. They were trained to notice everything and take
out a threat at a moment’s notice.

“Wonder if he
knows about us?” I said.

Bear smiled. “I
could go ask.”

“Find out if
he’d never heard about our program. Can you imagine what that investigation
would uncover if he hadn’t?”

“Don’t want
to,” Bear said shaking his head. He took a bite of thick crust, chewed on it
for a moment, and then swallowed. “From what I gather,” he wiped his face with
a napkin, “this guy is big on Iraq, us getting involved over there. So who
knows, maybe he does know about us. Maybe he’s the reason we’re there.”

I watched the
Deputy Secretary walk past us without batting an eye in our direction. One of
the agents assigned to Marlowe appeared to take notice of me watching him. The
agents gaze lingered on me longer than anyone or anything else he’d looked at.
I glanced away, reaching into my inside coat pocket in an effort to give him
something to think about. A moment later I looked up. They had kept walking and
were fifty feet past our position. It looked like the agent had forgotten all
about me. I knew looks could be deceiving, though.

The waitress
dropped the bill on our table. I finished my beer and set the empty bottle on
top of two twenty dollar bills so the breeze wouldn’t blow them away. We exited
the patio, and joined the stream of people walking toward the National Mall. We
turned right on Pennsylvania Avenue and crossed the road at 15th Street, near
the White House. I cut through the grassy area between 15th Street and the
Presidential Park to get away from the crowds. Groups of trees were spaced out along
the lawn, offering shade from the bright sun above.

I stopped near
a fountain, looking around to make sure no one was within ear shot. Once I was
sure the area was reasonably secure, I reached into my pocket, pulled out my
cell phone and the paper with Delaney’s number. My fingers punched the numbers
on the keypad. I brought the phone to my head and heard the call connect.

A man answered
on the third ring. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, is this
Neil Delaney?”

“Who’s this?”

“You don’t know
me, but we have a friend in common.”

I looked over
my shoulder and saw a couple walking hand in hand in my direction. I turned to
the right and walked toward a tree.

“Who? Who’s the
friend?”

“Colonel
Abbot,” I said.

Delaney said
nothing.

I looked around
again, as if he were standing nearby. “You there?”

“How do you
know Abbot?”

“He’s my CO.”

Delaney cleared
his throat and continued in a hushed voice. “This isn’t a safe conversation to
have on the phone.” He paused. “People are — uh, you know where the Lincoln
Memorial is?”

“Yeah,” I said.
“I can find it.”

“OK, you do
that. Meet me there in forty-five minutes. Got it? Can you get there by then?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Stand on Abe’s
right side, fifth step from the top. Got it?”

“Right side
facing him or his right side?”

Delaney sighed.
“Facing. I got to go. Forty-five minutes. Be there. You got one shot.”

“What do you
mean one—” The call disconnected before I could finish. I shook my head, and
tried not to read too much into Delaney’s behavior. It was possible I caught
him off guard and that’s why he acted the way he did. I pushed away from the
tree and started walking toward the park, on the lookout for Bear.

He found me
first.

“How’d it go?”

I put the phone
back in my pocket and turned to face him. “He knew something, that much was
obvious.” I looked past Bear, trying to figure out where he had been during the
call. “The moment I said Abbot was my CO, Delaney freaked.”

Bear leaned his
head back, looked up at the tree in bloom. “What do you mean, freaked?”

“Went silent.
Started whispering.”

“Guess this
won’t be a wasted trip then, will it.”

“We have to be
at the Lincoln Memorial, forty-five minutes. Right side, fifth step from the
top. He’ll find us.”

Bear pointed
toward the Washington National Monument. “That’s at the far end, past the
monument there.”

“Guess we
should head over then.”

*
* *

It took twenty
minutes to reach the Lincoln Memorial, which meant we had twenty some odd
minutes to hang back. This was a great place for people watching. Didn’t matter
who they were, the Lincoln Memorial, of all places, had the ability to have a
profound effect on its visitors.

I checked my
watch and saw it was about time. “Let’s go.” We walked up three sets of stairs,
staying to the right and stopped on the fifth step to the top. I leaned back
against the handrail. An older woman gave me a look for blocking the railing,
so I stepped to the side and let her pass.

“Wonder what
this guy looks like,” Bear said.

“Look for a
suit.”

“That’s about
twenty percent of the crowd.”

“He’ll find us.
Relax.”

“Like hell I
will. You don’t know who he might bring with him.”

“Not by his
tone, Bear.”

Bear said
nothing.

I scanned the
incoming crowd looking for the mental image I had of the man I had spoken with
on the phone forty minutes ago. A few people had the look, but weren’t quite
right. Then I spotted him.

“There,” I
said, my arm outstretched pointing to the base of the stairs. He stuck out like
a sore thumb among all the tourists. And being that it was past lunchtime, a
Fed this close to the memorial just didn’t make sense.

“Who?”

“Silver and
brown hair, a little thin on top, glasses. Kind of mousy looking, but in pretty
good shape for his age.”

“Got him,” Bear
said. “Tell you what,” he looked back at me, “I’m going to hang back a bit.
OK?”

“Good idea.”

I kept my eyes
focused on the middle aged man ascending the steps. He reached the middle of
the longer stretch of sand colored stairs and looked up in my direction. He
scanned the area and fixed his stare on me. He gave me a slight nod as he came
to a stop.

I nodded back
and checked the area around him, looking for any sign of a threat. I assumed he
did the same.

He started in
my direction again. He stopped two steps below me. He looked past me, said,
“Neil Delaney.”

I grabbed his
hand and shook it. “Noble.”

He nodded.
“I’ve heard of you.”

“I can’t
imagine that’s a good thing.”

He pursed his
lips and shook his head.

“Big man back
there is Bear. Riley Logan.”

Delaney looked
over my shoulder and acknowledged Bear. Then he held out his arm and said,
“Let’s move to the back.”

We walked up
the remaining stairs, turned right and took a path that led us behind four huge
columns, stopping behind the fourth. There, we huddled close together.

“Any place less
public we can go?” I asked.

Delaney shook
his head. “This is the best place. For now.” He looked over his shoulder. “Less
chance something will go down here. Got it?”

“Yeah,” I said.
Paused and then added, “I got it.”

“So you two are
part of the operation, huh?”

I leaned back
against the thick column, crossed my arms over my chest and nodded. “What do
you know about it?”

Delaney hiked
his shoulders, cocked his head. “A bit. CIA sponsored. They take Marines out of
basic—”

“Recruit
training,” Bear interrupted.

“Yeah,” Delaney
said. “Whatever. Take fresh
recruits
,” he looked at Bear and paused a
second, “and then put them through their spec ops training. Turns you into well
rounded operators that they can blame crap on when someone else screws up.
You’re crazy enough for the job, ‘cause let’s face it, you wouldn’t have
enlisted in the Marines unless you were crazy to begin with.” He smiled and
batted his eyes between us.

We didn’t smile
back.

“Yeah, well,
anyway, so they get you before you’re done. Before you’ve been completely
brainwashed into that bullshit
oorah
culture. That was one of their
initial design flaws. The first group to come through had been through basic,
uh, recruit training and A school. They were Marines and it caused problems
when you had a dick of a spec ops team leader. They scrapped the first wave.
You guys were part of the next bunch. They hit the jackpot with you two and the
others that came through around the same time. From 95 through early 2001 you
pretty much handled domestic stuff that the CIA couldn’t legally touch,” he
waved his hand in a semi-circle for emphasis, “and occasionally a friendly
nation. You always traveled two by four, two of you, four of them. You spent
some time in South America. Columbia, if I’m not mistaken?”

I nodded. He
had done his research, or was more involved in this than Abbot let on.

He continued.
“Then the attacks happened and you were re-prioritized. Almost all of you were
shifted from here and friendlies to the Middle East. I’d say eighty percent of
you guys went to Afghanistan chasing Bin Laden and the Taliban. But not you,
though. You’re in Iraq, right?”

I nodded again.

“So over there
you’re—”

“Look,” I said.
“I appreciate the history lesson, but we got a situation going on here. Someone
is setting us up and we don’t know who. We go through Abbot and Keller in the
Marines and then to the CIA. It’s not Abbot. It’s not Keller. So it must be
someone in the CIA. Can you help?”

He took a deep
breath, held it a moment and then exhaled loudly, letting his lips flapped as
his puffed out cheeks decompressed. “I can’t say much more than I have. Not
here.”

“Who are you
with?” I said.

Delaney flashed
a crooked smile as he held out his arms and shrugged.

“You’re not
CIA, not the way you referred to the program being sponsored. Definitely not
FBI. We wouldn’t be talking to you if you were.”

Delaney chuckled
and shook his head vigorously.

I continued.
“NSA?”

He continued
shaking his head. “No, Jack. Not CIA, FBI, or NSA. Look, who I’m with isn’t
important. The information I have is what’s important.”

“Then let’s
have it.”

“Not here,
Jack. I guarantee you they are out there, watching us right now. They’ve
probably been watching every move you’ve made since leaving Camp Lejeune.”

I fought the
urge to look around. It appeared Bear was doing the same. I saw him cast his
stare toward the ground.

“Give me an idea
of what it is then,” I said.

“I’m not quite
sure what it is. Well, I wasn’t sure. I think I know now. What I can tell you
is there is some shady stuff going on, guys. Very shady. I have some documents
for you.” He paused. “I didn’t know what I was looking at until today. Not till
your call. You mentioned Abbot and everything came to me. I uncovered this
stuff not too long ago. But it didn’t make sense. Got it?”

“No,” I said.
“I don’t got it.”

“It’s going to
make sense tonight.” He took a few steps backward. “Wait for my call. Tonight,
Jack. I’ll bring the documents you need.”

I watched him
go down the stairs, then cut diagonally across the mall and disappear out of
sight.

“Ready to go?”
Bear asked.

“Nah,” I said.
“Let’s wait a few. Find a good tourist group to assimilate into.”

Bear laughed
loudly. “I’m six-six, you’re six-two. We don’t assimilate anywhere we go,
Jack.”