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Text copyright © by Samantha Elias

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Elias, Samantha

ISBN-13: 978-1481139922

ISBN-10: 1481139924

First Edition

   Samantha Elias

P S E U D O

Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare the truth thou hast, that all may share; be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.

Voltaire

CHAPTER ONE

Elizabeth Duarte was sound asleep with her husband, Juan, when her phone rang in the middle of the night. “Liz, your phone is ringing,” said Juan pushing Elizabeth to wake her. Elizabeth was 5’9”, had gorgeous long brown hair, ocean blue eyes and an elegant hourglass figure. She was a very intelligent woman and had gotten where she had in life by keeping her integrity in. She had accomplished feats her associates had not been able to.

“Agent Duarte,” said Elizabeth as she answered her phone.

“Yes, Agent Duarte, this is James Madison. You are needed at Langley right away for a level five project. Meet me at JFK airport in one hour at terminal fifty-five,” said Mr. James Madison, Director for the Department of Level 5 Security Projects for the Central Intelligence Agency, as he sipped on his latte aboard one of the CIA’s private planes.

“Sir, I used to be a flight attendant out of JFK - there is no terminal fifty-five,” said Elizabeth as she was realizing what Mr. Madison had just told her.

“In reality, there is no terminal fifty-five. For the CIA there is a terminal 55. Just show your badge at airport security and ask to be taken to terminal fifty-five. They will call out a CIA rep who will escort you to the terminal where I am waiting for you. When you get here we will get right to work. We have a big project ahead of us - it affects more than just the United States,” replied Mr. Madison as he continued to sip his latte.

“Sir I will be there in about forty-five minutes to an hour depending on traffic.”

“That long! Its 3:00am, how can there be traffic? I want you here within the hour. We have a LOT to do,” said Mr. Madison.

“Mr. Madison, this is New York City, not Langley where people probably go to sleep at 8:00pm - I will be there as soon as I can,” said Elizabeth as she was rushing around packing.

“All right Duarte, I will see you soon,” replied Mr. Madison.

Elizabeth was known for being quite self-determined and not willing to listen to what other people told her.

“Juan, I have to go to Langley for a project and I will be gone for the weekend. We were supposed to have dinner at my mother’s on Sunday. You need to go and tell her that I had to go to DC on work. I am sure she’ll understand but you do need to go. Bring her something nice like some brownies or something from the bakery down the street,” said Elizabeth to Juan as she was still rushing around packing her bags and getting dressed.

“Why do you always leave in the middle of the night when I am not expecting it?” said Juan as he grabbed Elizabeth and held her tight in his arms.

“Juan, you know that if it were my choice I would not do this but it is my job - to be honest, I do love the excitement of being woken up and rushed out of town for some special operation. I don’t know why you make an issue of it every time,” said Elizabeth as she grabbed her bag and walked out the door, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Elizabeth sometimes felt she and Juan were living separate lives. That maybe she did not have the full satisfaction of complete love and support she wanted. 

Elizabeth then drove her black BMW 550i speedily out of the driveway and down the street. She hit the freeway within ten minutes, driving seventy MPH. “Thank god there is no traffic right now,” thought Elizabeth, as she pushed the speed up to 85 MPH. She pulled up to JFK airport within thirty minutes, dropped her car off with valet parking, walked up to airport security, flashed her badge, asked to be taken to terminal fifty-five.

She had officially begun the operation that would change her life completely.

CHAPTER TWO

Elizabeth arrived at terminal fifty-five to find a large private plane. She boarded the plane and met Mr. Madison who was comfortably nodding off to sleep. Elizabeth had never been on the aircraft prior to this. She looked around to find that all of the seats on the plane were first class arrangements; there was even a dining room, a small pool table, a cocktail bar and a lounge.

She walked over and took a seat near Mr. Madison and began to make herself comfortable when all of a sudden Mr. Madison jumped and yelled: “Stop! Don’t move an inch or I’ll kill you!” Elizabeth looked at him in surprise and realized he was having a nightmare and had woken up.

“Oh, I am sorry Duarte. Sometimes I have pretty dramatic dreams. My wife almost can’t stand me sometimes, which is why I guess she is glad that I have the job I do since I am not there most of the time. In fact out of the 365 days of the year, I probably sleep at home in my own bed only about fifty of them,” said Mr. Madison as he was waking up.

“No problem Mr. Madison, most people have little quirks like that,” said Elizabeth. She continued getting settled in her chair.

Fifteen minutes later the plane took flight headed for DC airport.

“Well, Duarte, are you ready to get to work?” asked Mr. Madison as he motioned toward the dining table where Elizabeth noted several folders were placed.

“Yes sir, I am always ready for the job. However, it is usual protocol to receive an initial verbal briefing from the operation officer prior to commencing study of the project files,” replied Duarte.

“Okay, I will give you the outline here. There is a group of professional criminals who are stealing money from several governments of the world – from National Banks. They have been in operation for ten years more or less. Up to now, their main targets have been European such as Germany, France and Italy. Now, they are targeting the United States and Mexico. So far nothing has been done. However, we have been tracking these guys for months and from all the data we could gather, it seems that they are planning to make a big move on both countries sometime next month. We have indications but no solid evidence that they are linked to a terrorist group in the Middle East as there are banks accounts which increase in number very fast relatively soon after the National Banks have funds transferred by these guys.” 

“Our job...well, your job, is to find them and arrange for them to be apprehended before they have a chance to get their sticky fingers in the purses of these countries and worse, use their loot to fund war crimes against the US and other countries currently being perpetrated in the Middle East. We have reason to believe that the link to the Middle East is that they lend the funds to terrorist groups or rather, wealthy vested interest groups who arm the terrorists, from a private bank located somewhere in Europe and charge high interest and make even more off the whole deal.”

“The official name of the group is not known. However, they occasionally refer to themselves as ‘El Diablo’ - we presume they must have some sort of Hispanic connections or heritage.”

“Well, I do know that ‘El Diablo’ is a Spanish term meaning ‘devil’. My husband is a US Naturalized citizen originally from Colombia,” stated Duarte.

“Yes, I am aware who your husband is and where he is from. You could surely imagine that raised a question in your qualifications for this operation.”

“Mr. Madison, with all due respect, what exactly are you inferring?”

“Duarte, let’s face the facts here: you work for the CIA and have top secret clearance. Your husband is not a full US citizen - he is Colombian. This operation seems to have some Hispanic connections within its top dogs and so it raised questions in choosing you as the lead agent. However, you have nothing to worry about. You are good and have done too many successful operations to let that affect whether or not you were chosen,” replied Mr. Madison as he patted Duarte on the back.

“I see...well, I don’t quite know what to say to that other than I know that my husband considers himself just as American as you or I...” Duarte began to state firmly but was interrupted by Mr. Madison.

“Listen, Elizabeth Duarte, you work for ME and FOR your country. You do not work to support those people who feel the nerve enough to call themselves American when they do not even know what this country stands for or what it represents. You are out of line to the extreme to tell me that any naturalized citizen is just as American as you or I. I want to make sure this is very, very clear to you and I NEVER want to hear you say something like that to me again. Are we clear?” stated Mr. Madison as he firmly grabbed Duarte’s arm and only released his grip at the end of his statement.

“Well, sir, you do not leave me any other option than to be ‘clear’...”

“Duarte, I cannot afford to have someone working for me and our country who is going to make wise cracks as you’ve just done...you are either on the American side or you are not. I am quite surprised to find you with this attitude. I was informed otherwise about you,” stated Mr. Madison.

Duarte quickly came to understand that Mr. Madison meant business in this conversation and in order to not jeopardize her job, the only correct response was for her to say: “Sir, let me apologize. I was out of line there, you are right...I am one to keep family and business separate and that is part of why I have always been successful on my operations. In fact, it’s suicide if one doesn’t.”

“Good, Duarte, apology accepted. Let’s think twice before speaking like that next time, shall we?” said Madison.

“We shall, sir.”

About one and a half hours later their plane landed at a government airfield in DC. They were met on the field by a black sedan along with two SUV’s to make a complete convoy.

“Wow, what brings such an arrival? It makes me feel as though I’m traveling with the President himself,” exclaimed Duarte when she saw the parade of cars.

“Duarte, those are not for me. They are for your protection,” replied Mr. Madison.

“What do you mean?”

“Duarte, there is more to this...I will brief you once we get to headquarters...oh, we’ll need to make all this fast so when I am talking make sure you listen and make any notes - you’re off to Mexico in about 3 hours.”

“What? I don’t get it, my protection? Since when have I ever been sent on an operation which required particular protection for me? I am a nobody; no one that would be in this gang of criminals would have anything out for me! I’ve never even heard of them before!” exclaimed Duarte as she was rushing across the airfield trying to keep up with Mr. Madison as he went straight to the sedan.

“Duarte! Headquarters...what did I say about headquarters?”

“You said you would brief me there.”

“That is right, I will brief you there - are we there? No! We are in the middle of an airfield where anyone could be spying or who knows what. If you care, you will start shutting your mouth and listening and letting me know you duplicated what I said.”

“Yes, sir, again, I apologize. It’s just...I’m quite surprised, that is all.”

“I understand, that can happen to us all but learn to get over it, will you please?”

“Yes sir.”

Elizabeth and Mr. Madison entered the sedan at which point the convoy proceeded away from the airfield towards the guarded exit gate. Following a barrage of checks they exited the airfield headed towards Langley.

They soon pulled up to the first security checkpoint at CIA headquarters. “Well, here we are.  You have about two hours until your flight is scheduled to depart for Mexico City.”

“Okay, sir, I presume this will be a fast briefing then?”

“Yes, you will also be provided with project files which you will be able to study en route to Mexico. As you know, that leg of the trip is longer. Hopefully you will also be able to get a bit of shut-eye as well - something tells me this project is going to have you hit the ground running.”

After about five minutes they were given clearance from the guards at the first checkpoint. They then drove four minutes to the second security checkpoint. This required they exit the sedan and be checked for any items that were not authorized as well as fingerprints. As all was in order, the guard said: “All is clear Mr. Madison, you may proceed.” Elizabeth and Mr. Madison got back in the sedan which speeded ahead with the rest of the convoy.

Another five minutes passed and Mr. Madison and Elizabeth were dropped off in front of the main entrance to the building while the convoy proceeded to park nearby. Three bodyguards followed them to the entrance at which point they were passed over to internal security.

Both went through the usual metal detectors, eye scans, etc. This took another five minutes and it was clear that Mr. Madison did not have those five minutes to spare as he said: “Gentlemen, I am aware you are doing your jobs but you are dealing with two long term agents and superiors and I expect a speeded up process here - we have an operation to get going here in about one and a half hours.”

“Yes, sir, we will get this done fast but regulations are regulations - even the Commander in Chief follows them and would expect no less.”

“You are correct, but MAKE IT FAST!”

“Yes sir!” Mr. Madison was a man who meant business and all those who had worked with him knew that and knew not to mess around with him.

Once getting through all the security scans, Mr. Madison and Elizabeth continued down a long corridor and up one flight of stairs to the special operations of foreign affairs briefing room. This was a fully equipped conference room with added soundproof walls and two security guards standing outside. Elizabeth had been there many times and Mr. Madison had lost count of how many times he had been briefed and briefed others in that room.

“Okay, Duarte, have a seat. We will get started on the briefing right now as you’ve got to be on your way in very short order.”

“Okay, let’s get started then,” replied Elizabeth as she sat down in one of the large conference table chairs.

“All right, make sure you are ready for this one. Remember I said that it involves you, correct?”

“Yes, I do recall your statement...pretty hard to forget that.”

“Okay then, this group ‘El Diablo’ is a secret group of high class thieves.”

“The only thing we know is that there are currently three leaders - all foreign but perhaps living in the US. Their intelligence is pretty good and we’ve found that they’ve been able to tap into police or government phone calls, e-mails, etc. On that same note, as our intelligence facilities are far greater than theirs, we have been able to track and tap them numerous times but never enough to grab them. This is where you come into it. There was one phone conversation placed from New Jersey to Mexico City. The conversation was in German. We had it translated and whoever it was in New Jersey was speaking about you. We tapped in too late to get what it was all about but what we did catch is that this one knows you are ‘lethal’ to their operation and probably the only agent capable of bringing them down and that you must be ‘removed’. They did a good job scrambling it so that’s all we were able to get.”

“But...what does that mean? How am I ‘lethal’ and what does ‘removed’ mean?” replied Elizabeth startled by this information.

“Well lethal probably means they consider you capable of ‘killing’ their operation. ‘Removed’, based on all previous experience I have in intelligence can only mean to kill you so you are no longer a problem for them. Hence the added security on this operation. Duarte, you are an excellent agent and I cannot afford to lose you unnecessarily though you are clearly needed for this operation,” replied Mr. Madison in an ineffective effort to reassure Elizabeth that it was okay.

“You will be accompanied by two other agents to watch your back and work with you along with an intelligence team of three and two extra agents as guards - the last two will have no interaction with you other than meeting on the airplane. They will track with you on every move and be there in case they are needed. We can’t have this be a very high profile operation. It has to draw as little attention as possible. Additionally, the fact that El Diablo somehow knows of you, means you will need to do some work to be under disguise. The first thing you will do when you get to the hotel you are staying at is go to the salon and dye your hair a color you’ve not had for the last ten years. Then you will wear these,” said Madison handling over a package of brown colored non-prescription contact lenses.