The Tenth Cycle: A Thriller (A Rossler Foundation Mystery Book 1) (34 page)

Immediately after meeting with Daniel and Sarah in Providence, Luke had that very afternoon flown to Washington, where he had made previous arrangements to meet at short notice with his former supervising officer. He'd been extra discreet the last time he was here, but it was now time to tell the story to someone he could trust to keep it under wraps, while carefully looking into David's activities.

Samuel Lewis, no relation to the dozen or so famous men who shared his name, was that person. A brilliant strategist, he'd risen through the ranks of the Agency rapidly and was widely thought to be the next Director. Even the current Director expected it, and in a surprising twist from the usual rivalry and suspicion, instead gave Sam every opportunity to learn and to shine. Lewis was waiting in his office when Luke arrived and was shown in. He rose, hand extended, and came around his desk to give Luke a familiar hug.

"Good to see you, Luke. How's retirement treating you?" The last was said with a wink, as Lewis knew very well that Luke was still in the game as a consultant. He'd even tapped him for an operation himself once or twice.

"Not too shabby," Luke replied. "But I'm afraid an old friend has gone rogue on me, and I'd like to ask your help in flushing him out."

"One of our active agents?" Lewis asked, with a frown.

"Afraid so. David Johnson."

With that, Luke began to explain the story, beginning with David surprising him in the car a few months before, his strange actions during Sarah's kidnapping, and now Daniel’s gut instinct that something was wrong with the man coupled with Luke’s own misgivings. As much as possible, he kept the pyramid code out of it. There was no use spreading that any further if he could help it. Lewis was shrewd, though, as well as smart and capable.

"Does this mysterious code threaten national security?" he asked, sternly.

"I don't know what all is in it, Sam, and that's the truth. I'm fairly confident that there are secrets the government is going to want to know. And I'm absolutely sure that my niece and her fiancé are going to do what's right with the information. They're loyal Americans, I'm certain they won't allow it to be used to harm our nation."

"What would you like me to do?" Lewis asked, apparently accepting Luke's assurances.

"Two things. See what you can find out about David's assignment to the case, and arrange for protection for my family."

"I can do that. Tell me who we're going to protect."

Luke listed his family and Daniel's and also Martha Simms, to a low whistle from Sam. "Wow, that's a handful. Okay, I'll contact the FBI for your family, hang on."

An immediate phone call set the arrangements in motion. "Your family will have security at their homes within the hour. Do you need to warn them?"

"No, already did. You know I like to be proactive." Luke grinned, a feral expression that would have been frightening if Sam hadn't known him well.

"Well, so do I. Let's see what we can find out about David's doings." Going back around behind his desk, Luke pulled up David's personnel jacket and read. Then he made another phone call without comment to Luke.

"Sadler, can I see you in my office immediately?"

In a moment a man in his mid-thirties knocked once on the closed door and entered, drawing up short when he saw Luke. His eyes went questioningly to his superior officer.

"Sadler, what do you know about Agent David Johnson and his recent activities?" Sam asked.

"Why, nothing!" said Sadler, surprised. "He's been on medical leave for the last six months or more. Why?"

"I think you'd better look more closely. Tell him, Luke."

The story repeated, a very red-faced Sadler rushed out of the room to issue an order for David to be picked up for questioning as soon as possible.

There was nothing for Luke to do now but wait until he was apprehended.

By early Tuesday morning in Rhode Island, CIA agent David Johnson had been arrested when he tried to meet with the agents he’d been using to trail Daniel and Sarah. None of them were happy to discover they’d been participating in an unauthorized operation, so they weren’t particularly careful in their handling of him. It was a very indignant David who faced Sam and Luke in a CIA safe-house interrogation room that afternoon.

“What is this, Sam? And Luke? I’m surprised at you. I’ve done everything I can for that niece of yours, and this is my reward?”

Sam employed the ‘we know what you did, we just don’t know why you did it’ method of interrogation, methodically telling David what they knew of his activities.

“We know you weren’t authorized to run this operation. Who are you working for?”

David sat with a neutral expression on his face, his hands folded and lips firmly pressed together.

Sam continued, “Remember that all those agents you have been using without authorization are also being picked up. We have a few of them already, and they’re all upset that you were using them for illegal purposes. They’ll cooperate, no question. There’s very little we can’t find out, even if we don’t know the whole story right now. It’ll go better for you if you come clean, David.” Sam said the last sentence with compassion. David could be facing charges of treason.

Shaking his head in mute denial, David still refused to speak. Softly, Sam began to apply the psychological keys that would eventually unlock the lips of even the most stubborn operative. He was good at it, which partly explained his rapid rise in the Agency. Pulling up the record of David’s activities over the years, he casually asked how David would like to roommate with a Mafia assassin that he’d been responsible for putting away. Other cases came up, and over the hours, David realized that he was literally stuck between a rock and a hard place. Finally, he was ready to bargain.

“You know that as soon as they hear I’ve been turned, my life will be worth shit, right?” he said bitterly.

“I’m afraid that’s not our problem, David,” Sam said gently. “But if it will help you do the right thing, here, I’ll see about witness protection.”

“Bah, they’ll find me anyway. I’m as good as dead, no matter what. I might as well take them down with me,” Luke spat.

Always careful not to give away his own role in anything that would get him in even worse trouble, assuming there was even worse trouble, David began to talk about his employment within a secret society called Orion, where he was code-named Sidus. He readily gave up the four code names of the leaders, Septentrio, Occidens, Auster and Oriens, but claimed not to know their real names or locations.  He also said that though he wasn’t sure, he had reason to believe Septentrio was living somewhere in Germany..

“I’ve never seen any of them in person. I had dealings mostly with Septentrio, over secure satellite link. Any time there was video, they wore masks and hoods, like monks. I got the feeling they were in a place that was really old; all I could see behind them was stone walls. But I don’t know where,” he repeated.

“Why did you do it?” Luke inquired.

David sneered. “Why else? You know we get paid shit, working for the government, we have no family life, my wife and children left me because of this fucking job. I’m an outcast and a lonely man. If I don’t look after myself, I’ll die alone as a pauper. I think this country owes me for what I’ve sacrificed... I had bigger dreams. They’ve paid me quite a bit over the years, but this was supposed to be the biggest pay-off of all. I could have retired to some remote island, spent the rest of my life in luxury somewhere warm. That would have been a bit of compensation for what I have done for this country my entire life without so much as a “thank you”. This was supposed to be my last assignment.”

Sam took up the questioning again. “Tell us more about them, everything you know.”

David rambled a bit, but the picture that emerged was of an ultra-powerful, ultra-rich organization with connections in virtually every government, every large international corporation and even global financial powerhouses. In fact, it could be said that the Orion Society
was
the global financial powerhouse, as its considerable assets, carefully disguised, were spread throughout every major banking institution in the world. David had garnered much of this information through his position within the CIA, and the Orion’s leaders were unaware of the extent of his knowledge. But not for long, he reflected bitterly, as he knew there were others like him, backups if you will, in the CIA. It wouldn’t take long for Septentrio to become aware of his arrest.

Throughout the hours of talking, David grew careless, and mentioned the way Orion Society victims were made to disappear. Sam didn’t follow up with any questions; he didn’t want David to stop talking. But there were unsolved cases going years back where the victims had been mutilated as David described. Sam wondered how many of them David had been personally responsible for killing.

The most bizarre part of the narrative was when David described what he’d learned of the ritual of ‘retirement’ of an Orion Society director. He had mentioned in passing that the current Septentrio, his contact, would be beyond the justice of the outside world within twenty-four or at most thirty-six hours of the others learning of his, David’s arrest.

“And why is that?” Sam inquired.

“When they fail in a project of this magnitude, they are expected to retire honorably. To them, that means suicide. There is a choice only in the manner of it. If the leader fails to honorably retire, not only he is murdered, but his successor as well. They always do it, not because they care about their successor, but because they can’t stand the idea of their family being forever shut out of the society. I’m telling you, these guys have been doing this for centuries.”

The last question Sam asked was, “Do you know why they’ve been so interested in Luke’s niece and her research?” David’s eyes flicked to Luke, who had tensed at the question.

“It’s because of the pyramid code,” he said, his eyes steadily on Luke’s. “They want the secrets that Daniel and Sarah are about to discover. They have known or suspected for centuries that the Great Pyramid was built with the sole purpose to convey a message to future generations. No one has ever been able to even come close to opening that message; that is, until those two came along and are now on the verge of cracking it. ”

When they left David, Sam asked Luke if he were satisfied that his family was now safe. Luke had realized that they never would be safe until the pyramid code was translated and disseminated, as the family had determined weeks ago.

“Sam, I need you to keep those Fibbies in place,” he said now.

“Not so fast, Clarke. You owe me more of an explanation if you want me to go out on that limb for you.”

“All right, Sam. We’d better get some coffee and take a drive. I’ll tell you what I know.”

As soon as he had a chance, Luke wrote up the whole incident in the shared email, to let Daniel and Sarah know that one of the heads of the Hydra had been cut off with David’s arrest. Unfortunately, everyone knew instinctively that he hadn’t been working alone. They must all remain vigilant against another venomous head of the serpent arising. But, at least Luke had convinced Sam that continuing protection was called for, along with giving the man a headache and indigestion that he thought only a stiff shot of vodka was going to fix.

As David had explained to Sam and Luke, it took less than twenty-four hours for word of his arrest to make its way back to the highest leadership of the Orion Society. It was Auster who grimly called for a face-to-face meeting in Wurzburg. Septentrio knew what this meant, and prepared himself. He insisted his son accompany him to the meeting, without telling him that he would be initiated as the new Septentrio when he, Septentrio the senior, had announced his retirement. The boy was weak, he’d always known. Even now, when the ‘boy’ was in his mid-fifties, he resisted his father’s attempts to marry him to a suitable woman in order to provide an heir. If Septentrio had fathered another child, even a female, this sorry state of affairs would not have come about. It was too late to worry about it now, though. The others would have to see to it that, sexual preference or no sexual preference, his effete son would produce an heir.

Septentrio dressed carefully in his ceremonial robes, and saw to it that his son dressed in the robes that had been prepared for him. Some of the choices he would face would not have ruined the robes in which he carried out his honorable retirement, but he had in mind a choice that would not fail to leave an indelible impression on those he left behind. At the appointed hour, he presented himself to the group, his son by his side.

“What is your decision, Septentrio? Is it to be gunshot, poison, or perhaps you’ll open your veins?” Auster’s question was a little too glib, Septentrio felt. He regarded her with disfavor, ignoring the horrified expression his son turned upon him.

“Father, what does she mean?”

“This is our way, my son. Carry on the Septentrio role with honor.” To the others, he said, imperiously, “Follow me.”

Only the local newspapers would report the death of a prominent local banker, who, in a bizarre turn of events, had fallen from the highest tower of the old castle ruins. No one, not even the man's family, could explain why a man of his years would be climbing and exploring in the ruins. A funeral was duly held and attended by many of the townspeople.

On the same evening of his father’s funeral, a short but formal ceremony invested the middle-aged son of the deceased into the office of Septentrio XXXIII. He would be the 33
rd
person to use the name in the position that spanned more than eight hundred years. An explanation was demanded. The man, long knowing that this moment would come, but not temperamentally suited to the office, struggled to answer.

"My father informed you that something continually jammed the CIA's listening devices, I believe. Before he took his life, Father became convinced that the Rosslers and their colleagues had some sort of advanced electronic device to accomplish this. In any case, they were able to elude our attempts to learn of their activities. In doing so, they made a thorough fool out of our CIA mole. We are making arrangements to terminate the man as soon as possible, but he has disappeared. Another has been dispatched to learn of his whereabouts and make sure he's unable to talk."

"Don’t try and make stupid excuses for your father. He made a complete mess of this, Septentrio, and his failure has put all of us in danger. You’d better clean this up and quickly. Have you made arrangements to activate Sidus’s replacement? We expect you to travel to the US and take care of this matter personally." Auster's harsh tones suggested that if Septentrio were unable to fulfill these obligations, she would be happy to take over.

Behind his mask, Septentrio paled. In a quaking voice, he answered, "My father made those arrangements as his last act as Septentrio prior to his ‘retirement’. I will do my best to follow through on this assignment."

The others privately thought that there would be yet another new Septentrio before the year was out, but did not voice it. Each was considering his or her nominee, one of the younger sons of their own houses. Clearly, the current Septentrio was unsuitable, and he had no heir.

The next order of business was to discuss which of their operations should be suspended until Johnson was eliminated. He knew too much, including, they suspected, the real identity of Septentrio's father. They were too exposed, and that was a state of affairs that couldn't continue. Each had a prepared new identity to assume in the case of utter disaster, the others not knowing what it was. Certain contingencies had been arranged for them to communicate again when the danger had passed. Everything was in readiness to elude whatever pursuit might be sent after them.

As the meeting adjourned, Septentrio spared a glance at the spot where his father's lifeless body had been found. What terrible thing had he done in a past life to be saddled with this obligation now? In passing, he spat on the rubble that had only recently been cleaned of his father's blood.

~~~

It didn’t take long for David to frighten himself to death regarding his fate, and become convinced that if he told the CIA all he knew, he might somehow escape it despite his claim to Sam Lewis. Accordingly, less than twenty-four hours after he’d told Sam that he had no more to say, David sent for him.

“Okay, I’ve got more. If you’ll arrange for witness protection, I’ll give it all to you.”

Sam spoke slowly, making sure David understood every word. “I said I’d try, David. I’m not sure the offer is on the table anymore.”

A broken and desperate David begged, “Please. Otherwise, it’s a death sentence.”

Sam repeated. “All I can do is try. And your information will have to pan out before I’ll even do that, David. Take it or leave it.”
It’s a terrible thing to see
, Sam thought to himself,
when a bully and criminal like David gets a taste of his own medicine
. But he secretly relished it. A taste of his own medicine was exactly what David needed, Luke remarked, with Sam’s agreement.

It quickly became apparent that no witness protection was in David’s future as he confessed everything, beginning with the spying on Daniel and Sarah, bugging their homes, following them and hacking into their computers, even deploying listening devices from concealed places while the couple were out in public. If that had been all, perhaps David could have escaped punishment for his crimes, but there was more.

He explained that it was Impes who was behind the murder of Simms and Barry, revealing the code name of the retired NYPD chief who’d botched his assignments early. He revealed that Sarah’s kidnapping was a mistake, but that she and Daniel had both come very close to dying on the day the exchange was made. And that he’d deliberately shot down the kidnappers to keep them from talking.

When Sam asked where to find Impes, David only smiled grimly, and said, “I put him in the Potomac, minus his head and fingers.” That sealed his fate. He would never leave prison alive, and according to his own estimation, if he survived a week it would be a miracle.

“One thing that always puzzled us,” David asked, now that he’d given away all his bargaining chips.

“What’s that?” Sam asked.

“We could never hear what they were saying indoors, and sometimes not when they were out of doors, either. I’ve never come across anything like it. Do you know what they were using to jam our equipment?”

Sam smiled. He immediately put two and two together. Somehow, and in all likelihood through Luke, they must have got hold of one of those ZeroS devices that top field agents had been using with such good effect for the past few years. He decided that it would be best not to ask Luke about it as he did not want him to have to lie about it. At least it had served the good purpose of keeping Daniel and Sarah and others alive.

David looked at Luke as he said, “I think they’ve acquired some pretty sophisticated equipment. We never knew everything they were talking about, which is why our moves went so wrong.”

Luke kept his face impassive. No one need ever know what Daniel and Sarah had, if he kept his mouth shut.