Sudden Deception (A Jill Oliver Thriller) (25 page)

Four Weeks Later

15:27 Zulu Time—TUCSON, ARIZONA

This would be one of the last times for a long time that Jill would be in Arizona, or America for that matter. She tried not to dwell on the sad beauty of Tucson as she headed towards the airport. The glass house in the Catalinas sold in less than one day. The trunk of the taxi was filled with only insignificant attire that held no memories. It was almost 10:30 p.m. Beside her sat a briefcase and inside were two files. One on Stan Brown, the other on David Brown. She glanced at her pouch of clay numbers and a plane ticket to Istanbul, Turkey.

A week after she was back in Tucson, Jill had received a call from Eric. Interpol had called him regarding a reference. “They want your skills, Jill, and I think you should take their offer seriously,” he counseled. “You could help so many more people globally.” Jill accepted the job through Interpol in New York City knowing her first assignment was in the field. Two months working with Europol in Istanbul—the new hub of Al Qaeda. Jill needed to get as far away from her past as she could. And Turkey was just the place.

Inside the file on David was a translated copy of the schematic. The original words in Chechen were names of people and their position and what each individual's role was in the plan. According to the pages in Stan's file, David was working with Stan. His name was in bold letters below the words “Communication Tower.” In her copy she had read David's name over and over again. The only reason Jill had a translated copy was because she had a copy of the scan in a hidden file on her computer when she first sent it to Karine. No one knew she had it. Not even Eric.

Jill had explained to the colonel what she thought was in the file that night at the prison after she regained some sort of coherency. But he just snatched up the files and the box and demanded Jill leave the prison immediately. Later she was told by Eric that the colonel needed to save face. It was an Arab thing, he said. And he was certain Stan was no longer receiving any VIP treatment. You wouldn't want to attempt to pull the wool over an Arab police colonel, definitely not in a country with no freedoms. Jill wouldn’t wish their interrogation techniques on anyone, and as for Stan, well, she didn’t care anymore.

David a traitor, how could this be?, she asked herself every moment of every day since. Jill felt a nagging about what Zayed had said just before they left the hospital. Leila and Jill talked about what he must have meant. How well do you know David? Jill sighed at this thought. How could she have been so wrong? So off? How could she have loved a man that would work with such an evil person? David hated his father. None of it made any sense, well that was until Leila told her what she had discovered.

Sure, there were things that didn't make sense in the past year. But Jill excused David's absences and closed-door conversations as just part of his job. With the confirmation at GSG that David was a NOC almost made it all add up. It was Jill's plan, when she found David, to confront him about it all. But now that was too late. And right now she didn't feel anything.

Leila didn't believe David was a traitor either and the more she snooped around in the CIA for information, the more she uncovered intel about the plan. After Jill's prison visit, they spent the next week searching in the UAE for any information on what had happened to David. The hospital told them that Zayed had checked out the night before Jill's viewing in the desert. But the desert was a big place and they were searching on their own. She'd tried viewing several times more and got nowhere. Not so much as a scribble surfaced. Jill didn't know if she would ever be able to remote view again.

Jill and Leila pushed hard to see Stan before leaving for Brussels. They were told it was in the two governments’ hands to sort out. Dribbles of information were sent from the UAE to the US regarding Stan and what was in the file. But that was classified. Eric had urged them to leave before anything negative happened to them.

They spent round-the-clock time in Brussels searching and reviewing anything they could get their hands on to try and determine what had changed the course of Jill’s life. They found nothing.

No one knew any more details of the Star of David, or they wouldn't talk. When they went back to the old church where the star once laid, it was gone. “Burnt down in a fire,” the old man next door said.

Based on Jill's viewings, these social network demonstrations called Operation Silhouette were set up as a ploy to distract the Chechen Mafia, US, and Russia for what Jill believed to be the Ochrana group. Stan's group. Well, at least that was what Jill thought.

No one believed her, not even Eric. But Leila did, she witnessed Jill's viewing and she was determined to find out the truth. Determined to clear David's name and what she discovered made even Leila think twice about her employer.

Jill sat in disbelief as Leila told her the story. “You were right Jill, your viewings were correct.” Some how this did not give Jill any relief. “Stan cracked once he got to Guantanamo Bay. Cracked like a fat baby. He sounded pathetic actually, from what I understand. I think he was worn down by the questioning of the UAE authorities before he was extradited. He'll be locked up for many years; he'll die there, Jill.”

Leila then began to tell Jill that there was definitely a plan to execute a nuclear device and make it look like it was the Russians who did it. “But here's the kicker,” Leila chimed. “When Stan was questioned about David and his whereabouts, he said he didn't know and that David had given him his ring so no one could positively identify him during the operation. He fanatically denied killing him. Apparently David wanted you to have it if anything happened to him. Sounds so sweet, doesn't it? Not! Enter Petrovich. It was his knowledge of nuclear weaponry that kept the uranium enriched. He despised the Chechen Mafia and it was his way of payback, and earning a few big bucks too.”

Leila discovered that several years ago the Chechen Mafia set up a demonstration that was planned for the media. It was designed to prove how powerful the mafia was to the rest of the world and boast of its nuclear power. Because the then CIA director had played it down, the Chechen Mafia lost its clout. That left the mafia desperate to make a deal. The pipeline was the collateral they needed to prove to the world that they were serious players. A report in a Saudi newspaper speculated that both the US and Russia were in a race to make a deal with the mafia. To control the oil.

Two of the men that Stan worked with were mercenaries and part of a rogue group that had broken away from the Chechen Mafia. They met with David in Afghanistan. Apparently there was some sort of ambush and they fled. They lost contact with David until Dubai. It was the Chechen Mafia that had been tracking Jill. But the mercenaries were also tracking her, tracking David.

“Something's not adding up though, Jill. I called a few higher-ups in the CIA, but no one is talking about this operation. And what’s even more odd is that David's name is still in our NOC database. It's almost as if David was a double agent, under cover so deep that even Stan didn't realize it.”

Jill didn't know what to believe. The CIA was clearly working to suppress the details. Frank Wells from CIA in Dubai was a good indication of that. The hush from them was a telltale sign that perhaps the Saudi paper was right.

She was numb with pain. Her heart no longer ached, for it was broken. She couldn't get into the tunnels. If Jill's viewings were accurate, then Zayed was now dead and so was David. She didn't believe that Stan would be gracious enough to hand her David's ring. She would never believe him. Not now, not ever.

There was no memorial service for David, for his body was never found. His colleagues had stopped calling now. Jill’s phone was disconnected after she said good-bye to Leila. She left nothing behind.

As she pulled up to the airport there was only one thing left to do. As the driver dropped her bags on the curb, Jill stood and dialed Karine. She looked towards the lights in the airport and saw people moving around inside. Even this late at night airports were always busy. Then something caught her attention. Something in the shadows. She could make out a figure standing there watching her. As she tried to focus her eyes on the dark figure, a large truck pulled up behind Jill. Its headlights flashed the shadow. Jill's phone fell onto the concrete, cracking, when she saw David.

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Find out what really happened to Jill when Matthew McGregor kidnapped and tortured her. How he had tortured and savagely bludgeoned the other three women, with an ice pick,. Watch for this companion called MATTHEW MCGREGOR.

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Judith’s second novel is under construction. INDECENT DECEPTION: A Jill Oliver Thriller is a fast-paced suspense thriller about Jill Oliver, a terrorist profiler for Interpol. When on assignment with Europol in Turkey Jill uncovers a document transfer of an authentic cash note worth $100 million, the largest ever produced in the world. Clearly authorized by one of the pro-government’s highest bankers Jill breaks open a money laundering scheme that is connected to one of the largest terrorist groups in the world. Along the way to uncover its intended use, Jill stumbles across a horrific kidnapping sex slave ring.

www.judithprice.com