The Collective Protocol (20 page)

TWENTY-FIVE

“You think that you can use that voice of yours to turn us invisible?” Greg asked as they drove slowly by the 25-story skyscraper along 6th Street Southeast. The only marking on the entire building was a simple sign painted on the glass doors that said, “
CORPORATE OFFICES, THE COLLECTIVE PROTOCOL.
”

“It’s not my voice. It’s my mind,” Reagan answered the driver.

“Sorry, I don’t have time to explain,” she told Jimmie with a quick sidelong glance. “I can do things with my mind. I don’t know what’s happening, but I can feel my powers getting stronger, like they finally woke up and now they’re ready to flex their muscles.”

“I wondered why Juan decided to bring you along,” Jimmie responded.

“Okay, enough background info. Can you do it or not?” Greg demanded from the driver’s seat.

She searched her feelings and dissected her thoughts to lay open the truth about her broadening powers until she found her answer. The truth hit her like a punch in the gut, hard and fast. She didn’t know how she knew the answers, but she did. “Yes, I can hide us from the eyes of the guards. If there are security cameras, I can’t do anything about those.”

“Fair enough,” Greg replied. “That’s the same as your sister—and that’s how we found her.”

“So, what is this ‘Collective Protocol’?” Janice asked.

“What you see right there is all we can find,” Greg answered. “If I was to guess, I’d say that they needed a name to keep the public mollified and they made something up.”

“I don’t think so,” Reagan answered.

“Surprise, surprise. You disagree with me yet again,” the agent snapped.

“Think about it. They’ve chosen the words carefully. We believe that Paige is using her powers to control the minds of American citizens. The word ‘collective’ means a group that is working for a common goal. ‘Protocol’ is a procedure or a set way of doing things. I think that this group is following a pre-established set of rules or a timeline to systematically collapse the American society.”

“I’m with Reagan,” Jimmie added. “If they’d tried to do all of these things at once, the international community would likely have stepped in to help; but this has been a series of problems that have built upon one another until we don’t trust anyone anymore because they could flip out and begin killing those around them at any moment. This has been carefully planned and thought through.”

Greg scratched his neck where his beard comingled with the hair sprouting from his chest. “Hmpf. Maybe you’re on to something,” he admitted. “Do you think they started the war between Russia and China?”

“I don’t know that she has that kind of reach, but—”

“That’s where the transmitter pod comes in I bet. It extends her range somehow,” Agent Quintana cut in.

“I think you’re right, Juan,” Reagan nodded. “It has to be some type of signal booster or a repeater, like a cell phone tower or something.”

“That’s what we think; we just can’t figure it out. The technology is similar to things that we have, but different enough that we can’t really discern its use,” Juan stated. Then he turned towards the driver and asked, “Do we have blueprints for the building?”

“Nope. We searched everything; public, private and secure networks. There’s no mention of this building at all. The only thing we can say for sure is that the Canadian government has owned the land since the mid-1800s. Before this building popped up last year there was a bus station on this block, but they tore it down and moved it further south.”

“What about satellite imagery of the site throughout construction?” Dave asked. Reagan nodded her head; that was a good question.

“We don’t usually spy on our neighbors to the north, Dave,” he replied curtly.

“Bullshit. I know we do,” Dave countered. “My field site is a perfect example of an undercover response team right near the border. The Agency missed it, didn’t they?”

“Okay, we missed it,” Greg admitted once again. “The imagery that we have shows giant construction sheeting over the top of the structure after the frame was erected. Analysts didn’t think anything of it because construction sites routinely use the sheeting like a giant umbrella so they can work through in all types of weather. And, it’s the Canadians… Until all of this, we thought they were probably our closest or second-closest allies immediately behind the Brits.”

“We still don’t know if the Canadian government is behind this,” Juan cautioned once more. “They could be pawns for Reagan’s sister, just like everyone else has been. Our main goal is to neutralize Paige Greene and put a stop to the events happening in the U.S. We’ll let the diplomats and the president decide if their government is at fault.”

The group rode in silence towards a parking lot a few blocks away. They pulled up beside a van and four rough-looking men got out. It didn’t look like any of them had any weapons, but Reagan suspected that each of them could do enough damage with their bare hands to not need one.

“Ladies and gentlemen, these men are our support team,” Greg said and indicated each man as he named them off. “This is Scott, Joe, Ryan and the team’s intelligence agent, Thom. Are we set to go?”

“Yessir,” Thom answered. “Hold on one second while I set up the sound distortion shield.” The agent reached inside the van and pressed a small button beside the door. A low humming noise emanated from the van, indicating that the contraption was working.

“There,” Thom said. “All of this conversation will be unintelligible beyond ten feet from the van.”

Reagan placed her hand hesitantly against the vehicle’s body, expecting the entire thing to be shaking, but besides the humming noise, there was no indication that anything was out of the ordinary.

She refocused on the conversation. Thom was speaking, “Besides internal security that has never left the facility and that we’ve never seen, we believe there are only fifteen people that work in the building.”

“Wait. What?” Juan asked incredulously. “That building is massive, it’s gotta be over twenty floors.”

“Twenty-five,” Thom stated. “Plus, we know that they built at least one level below ground because of all the covered dump-trucks that went in and out of the parking structure after the building was covered from satellite view.”

Juan looked over to Greg who stared towards the river. “We don’t spy on our allies, huh?”

“Eh…” Greg replied as he wobbled his outstretched hand, palm down and fingers splayed. “The covered facility on government land without any paperwork piqued our interest.”

“You’ve got to be honest with us,” Juan fumed. “What else do we know about this facility or the people inside?”

Greg sighed and said, “They’ve got some heavy-hitters in the Canadian government that come and go about every two weeks, plus the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is here often—like once a week. He’s either got a mistress or he’s working on something very important inside that building. Maybe both.”

“His wife is dead. Three years ago, June. The only family that he has left is his adopted daughter…” Thom paused for dramatic effect. “Paige Watkins.”

Dave let out a low whistle and said, “This goes deeper than we thought.”

“Yeah, we just worked out that info while you were in transit to our location. Almost all records of her have been expunged. We were able to get a hard copy of her high school enrollment form that indicated that she lived with him and his wife.

“Guess what else we discovered after we pulled that string?” Thom continued. “Gavin Dartmouth was a mid-level superintendent in Ottawa around the time that Paige Greene ran away from foster care. He’d had a pretty decent career, but all indicators pointed to him not getting promoted any higher, likely set to retire in a couple of years. Then he had a change of fortune and experienced a meteoric rise in the service.”

“Sounds like your sister has been doing her thing for a long time,” Greg said to Reagan.

She gritted her teeth and didn’t say anything. Everyone seemed to think that she had some type of influence over Paige’s actions. She’d never even met her before!

After Reagan didn’t take the bait, Greg said, “The other thing that we know is that Paige actually lives in the building. Since Christmas when she stopped keeping such a close watch of her immediate surroundings we’ve been able to use thermal imaging on the building to determine exact personnel inside.”

“Dammit, Greg!” Juan cursed. “What the hell? Not even five minutes ago—before I asked you to cut the crap—you guys said that you believed there were fifteen people, plus security. How many are in there?”

Greg glanced at Thom and nodded. “There are fifteen people who work in the facility who leave daily at six o’clock,” Thom stated. “We’ve assessed them to be cooks, janitors and lower level admin-types.”

“We have a secondary team set to go and round them up once we make our move for the building tonight,” Greg interjected.

Thom continued, “There is a full-time staff of six people, four of whom have never moved above the 10th floor. The other two routinely visit a solitary figure on the 12th floor. We believe that person is a prisoner, she’s never moved beyond a ten-foot square area.”

“How do you know it’s a
she
?” Reagan asked.

“
She
sits on the toilet to pee,” Thom replied. “Anyways, only Paige and the two who also work in the lower levels ever visit the 12th floor. The floors between 13 and 22 have never had anyone on them that we’ve seen—not even a security check.”

“That’s where we’ll insert,” Greg added.

“The 23rd floor is a gym. The 24th is Paige’s apartment, which she seems to share with one of the people who also has access to the prisoner. Her apartment will be our primary target as we try to catch her unaware, with her lover. Finally, the 25th floor appears to be a meeting room. When the three Canadian government representatives come in, that’s where they go… for the most part.”

Reagan’s ears perked up at that last part. “What do you mean ‘for the most part’?” she asked.

Greg shrugged and said, “We really have no clue what happens belowground. Like Thom said, there’s at least one level below the twenty-five that you can see. They’ve put down a layer of shielding of some type that we can’t see through with our imaging gear. We can see people coming and going from a separate stairwell than the main one, but that’s it.”

“The only thing that we haven’t talked about is the building’s security detachment. From what we can tell, there are six two-man teams that constantly rove the 1st through 10th floors, including the parking area. They work shifts of three teams on at any given time. Then there are ten men whose job is to secure the lobby entrance, again, two shifts of five each. The security barracks is on the second floor.

“That covers everything we know,” Thom finished.

Agent Quintana thought for a moment and then said, “Wait, you said that there were
three
heavy-hitters, but you only talked about the Mountie Commissioner. Who are the others?”

“There’s Antoine Leclerc,” Thom answered. “He masquerades as a normal Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent, but in reality, he’s number two man in the CSIS. Only a few people know the truth about him. He’s actually a very powerful guy in Canadian circles.

“The next man is someone that we’ve had our eyes on for a long time. Brigadier General Mark Patel was in the first class when the Canadians stood up their Special Operations Regiment in 2006. He’s spent his entire career since then in the unit and commanded the regiment before getting promoted to the prime minister’s personal staff.” Thom jutted his chin towards his team leader, “Greg knows him personally.”

“He’s an egomaniac. The guy is absolutely focused on himself and I’ve heard rumors that he’s done a lot of questionable things in the field, especially when he was in Afghanistan. We’re talking war-crimes types of events, if they were ever proven.”

“Wait, so doesn’t the presence of these three guys clearly indicate official involvement of the Canadian government?” Reagan asked.

“We can’t say that these guys aren’t operating on their own, Reagan,” Juan said.

“He’s right,” Greg agreed. “Even though we know that this is sponsored by the Canadian government, we don’t have anything to say the prime minister is involved… Yet.”

“One more thing on that, boss,” Thom said.

“Let’s hear it.”

“Patel and Dartmouth are on site. Both of them got here this morning.”

“We can potentially put an end to this whole damn thing right here then. Okay, anything else?”

“That’s everything that we’ve gotten since you left, man,” Thom stated.

“Alright, everyone,” Greg announced. “There’s a café on the corner. I suggest everyone get some food and go to the restroom or whatever you need to do. I want to infiltrate the building right after 6 p.m.”

Juan placed a restraining hand on Greg’s arm and then quickly thought better of it. “Wait.
You
want to infiltrate the building? I’m in charge here,” he said.

“Not anymore, bro” the bearded man replied. “Presidential directive came in by text when we were driving up here, about ten minutes after he hung up the phone with you. This is an international incident and as such, it’s a CIA mission. The Man has authorized you and your team to stay on the operation to help protect Reagan, but Jimmie is to remain unarmed and if something happens to you, then you’re on your own.”